Wednesday, January 27, 2021

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/27/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/27/21"
"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!
Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/27/21:
"Today Is Fed Day And Stocks Are About To Go 'On Sale'"
"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 26th to 27th
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...

"Super Intelligence: Binaural Beats Music to Improve Memory, Concentration, and Focus"

Greenred Productions, "Super Intelligence: 
Binaural Beats Music to Improve Memory, Concentration, and Focus"

Please view this in full screen mode if you prefer, it's beautiful. Or do as I do, wearing headphones, let it play in the background while you go about your online business or read. It works, as simple as that. Highly recommended. - CP

"Resources to Stay Safe and Secure Online"

"Resources to Stay Safe and Secure Online"
by Restore Privacy

"The mission of Restore Privacy is to give you all the information and tools you need to restore your online privacy, secure your electronic devices, and stay safe online. Surveys show a growing number of people are concerned about their online privacy and security. But where do you start? Here at Restore Privacy, we’ve spent the past four years testing, researching, and writing about privacy and security tools.

Our focus is to break these topics down in a way that is digestible to a wide audience, without unnecessary complexity. We publish in-depth guides, test reports, reviews, and comparisons – and nothing is locked behind a paid membership wall or email signup form. Our content is regularly updated to reflect new information, the latest test results, and real user feedback from readers like you.

Our Guides and Resources at the link below highlight our most popular content. You can also use the search tool in the top-right corner of the menu to find what you’re looking for."
Outstanding! Very highest recommendation.
Related:

“Fourth Turning Detonation” (Part 2)

“Fourth Turning Detonation” (Part 2)
by Jim Quinn

"In Part One of this article, I discussed the dramatic events that shaped 2020 and will continue to have a major influence on the direction of this Fourth Turning moving forward. The immense power of Mordor on the Potomac seems to be unassailable, but the little people still have a chance if they utilize their skills and intelligence to the utmost.

Now that Trump has been defeated and cast into oblivion by the forces of Mordor on the Potomac, those who have some knowledge about generational theory and the course of previous Fourth Turnings have lamented Trump is not the Grey Champion and they were misled by believing he was their hero. How could he be the Grey Champion if he lost? I do not profess to be an expert, as I am just trying to understand the underlying forces driving this Fourth Turning towards its climax, but losing a battle in a long war does not disqualify Trump as a Grey Champion. The Grey Champion character was born from the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
“Who is this gray patriarch? His hour is one of darkness, and adversity, and peril. That stately form, combining the leader and the saint…could only belong to some old champion of the righteous cause, whom the oppressor’s drum had summoned from his grave.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

There is not just one Grey Champion during a Fourth Turning, and their participation is generally as a lightning rod for change or the inspiration for younger generations to mobilize and fight the battles which ultimately decide the fate of nations and empires. Samuel Adams and Ben Franklin were Grey Champions during the American Revolution Fourth Turning. Their fiery rhetoric and ability to guide the younger firebrands were their contributions to the cause.

Both Abe Lincoln and Jeff Davis were Grey Champions during the Civil War. One was assassinated before the conclusion of the war and the other was on the losing side, spending a couple years in a Federal prison after the war. FDR, Churchill, and Stalin were all Grey Champions during the World War II Fourth Turning. FDR died before the conclusion of the war and Congress implemented a two-term limit because he had become too powerful. Churchill was on the winning side, but the British empire disintegrated during his reign. Stalin, who had already murdered millions of his own people, presided over a despotic regime and immediately became the enemy of his former allies.

Anyone with a true grasp of history would acknowledge all these men had significant personality faults, huge egos, a determination to win by any means necessary (including breaking the law and flaunting the Constitution), and ability to mobilize forces to accomplish their goals. As we are in the thirteenth year of this Fourth Turning and Grey Champions always arise in the earlier stages, there is no doubt Trump was and still is one of the Grey Champions driving this ongoing Crisis towards its bloody climax.

He still has 75 million or so followers, with many of them motivated to go wherever he leads. Does this mean a new party which would destroy the Uni-party Republican/Democrat control over our government? Does it mean taking to the streets and confronting the BLM and ANTIFA domestic terrorists in armed combat? Or will he be convicted by the Senate, thrown in jail, and financially ruined by his failed attempt to defeat the Deep State – possibly spurring his followers to become radicalized – matching the narrative being pushed by the authoritarian leftist regime now in office?
Those who put their faith in Trump are currently in disarray. Some feel betrayed. Others are depressed. Some are just disappointed he was unable to drain the swamp. They believe he just was not up to the task. Some think he was installed by the Deep State to lure a segment of the country into revealing their allegiances so they can be de-programmed and/or forced to grovel for forgiveness by pledging allegiance to the permanent party run by authoritarian billionaire oligarchs.

The accusations and recriminations within the Republican party will surely tear it apart, especially if GOP Senators join Schumer and McConnell in convicting Trump of creating an insurrection. Of course, there are still diehard believers this is just part of the plan and Trump will emerge victorious over senile Joe and his Deep State handlers. Others hope he will run again in 2024, vanquishing his foes and once again making America great again again. It is unlikely that someone with Trump’s ego and desire for attention will just fade into the sunset. He will continue to be a lightning rod, impacting the future course of this Fourth Turning, as one of the Grey Champions.
As I survey the landscape there are a few other major players who also fit the Grey Champion prophet archetype and will certainly play a key role in the forthcoming climactic scenes of this Fourth Turning. On the domestic front Bill Gates has emerged from the shadows during this scamdemic, using his immense wealth and power to push for global vaccinations with experimental DNA altering formulas never used on human beings before. His agenda coincides with Klaus Schwab’s Great Reset new world order.

The Clintons are both Boomers who have functioned as the Jeff Davis to Trump over the last four years, participating and leading the Deep State coup by pushing the Russiagate fabrications to distract from their traitorous criminal acts. Crooked Hillary is ecstatic over deposing Trump and now is leading the effort to bury him. At this stage of the Fourth Turning, it appears Gates and the Clintons are winning, as they have the complete backing of the Deep State, Silicon Valley billionaire tyrants, and the globalist billionaires like Soros.
The two Grey Champions who will most certainly play a part in the second half of this Fourth Turning, when blood is likely to be shed in vast quantities, are Vlad Putin and Xi Jinping. These ruthless dictators have no fear of losing an election or having to deal with a hostile media. The Deep State has been pushing conflict with Russia for Trump’s entire term and continue to push a nuclear power through NATO and vassals in the Middle East.

The intensifying engagements between China and Taiwan, with the U.S. sailing an aircraft carrier force into the South China Sea, and ongoing tensions over trade and spying, have ratcheted up the chances of armed conflict between these nuclear super-powers. Fourth Turnings always plunge into total war, with an inescapable conclusion as to who won and who lost. Defeat means total surrender. The only question is what Pearl Harbor or Fort Sumter moment kicks off the festivities in the foreseeable future.

Based on the first three weeks of this year and what appears to be on the short-term horizon, I am confident the term “detonation” will apply to this fateful year. The intensity level has already reached 10 but is headed up to 11.
As Fourth Turnings go the 80-year cycle would certainly argue for substantial conflict to erupt in 2021. In 1781, the Battle of Yorktown concluded with Cornwallis surrendering to General Washington and concluding the armed struggle of the American Revolution, insuring the birth of a new nation.

Exactly 80 years later in 1861, Southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Lincoln needed to sneak into Washington DC to avoid an assassination attempt in Baltimore. Fort Sumter was attacked and surrendered to Confederate forces. The First Battle of Bull Run resulted in a resounding Confederate victory and led Lincoln to institute a draft and an income tax. Over 600,000 men died in the next four years.

Exactly 80 years later in 1941, while Hitler was riding roughshod across Europe and turning his attention towards Russia, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor after FDR cut off their oil supply to provoke an attack. Tens of millions died over the next four years. It is now exactly 80 years later. One must ponder what potential tragedy awaits our nation and the world?

With the elevation of a vacuous disorientated Trojan horse to the presidency, controlled by dark forces pulling the strings of their puppet, we are already experiencing many of the things Strauss and Howe warned about in their 1997 prophecy.

“Institutions will be increasingly bossy, limiting personal freedoms, chastising bad manners, and cleansing the culture. Powerful new civic organizations will make judgments about which individual rights deserve respect and which do not. Criminal justice will become swift and rough, trampling on some innocents to protect an endangered and desperate society from those feared to be guilty. Expect a loss of personal privacy. Fourth Turnings can be dark times for the free spirit: Just as one kind of official may have new authority to do something for you, another kind—some hastily deputized magistrate—may have new authority to do something to you.”

They were not predicting specifics but could decipher an outline of our future through the fog, by observing previous Fourth Turnings. The limitations of personal freedoms are being implemented by totalitarian politicians, with the Big-Tech surveillance censorship overlords used to enforce the directives of those running the show, while trampling on the 1st Amendment and the right of citizens to voice dissenting opinions. Those who have seized power are now criminalizing any view not fitting their approved narrative and painting all Trump supporters as white supremacists.

These threats of retribution, while concurrently peddling nonsense about national unity, have the potential to backfire and blow up in their faces. Instead of unity, the impeachment of a president no longer in office and attempts to provoke violence by Trump supporters in order to usher in the pre-written 20,000 page Domestic Terror Patriot Act 2.0 is pushing the country towards civil war. The misuse of justice and criminalizing the acts of those exercising their right to live their lives will ignite a firestorm threatening to spread across the nation, with unknown long-term consequences.

I will not pretend to know what comes next, but I am sure the three key factors driving this crisis since 2008: debt, civic decay, and global disorder will continue to coalesce into a lethal concoction, destined to sweep away the underpinnings of the American Empire, ushering in a new social order. I think the repressive measures being implemented by Pelosi, Schumer, despot Democrat governors, and government apparatchiks are a sign of weakness and fear. Their bluster, threats, fear mongering and denunciation of half the voters in the country, portray a precarious fragility, with a dangerous agenda built on a foundation of deception and delusion.
A madness is gripping the nation, a dismal realization nothing is right. Everything has a chaotic feel, as financial markets surpass bubble territory into uncharted waters; politicians threaten and accuse each other of treasonous acts; government overreach and dysfunction is laid bare for all to see; the Deep State has been exposed as their coup to take down Trump required them to step out of the shadows; a manufactured race war led by BLM and ANTIFA useful idiots at the behest of Soros and his ilk continues to fester; Russia and China continue to undermine U.S. hegemony; and the global debt Ponzi scheme has entered its blow-off road to ruin phase.

The only thing keeping these financial markets at these outrageously elevated levels is an irrational level of misplaced trust in their puppet Powell and his feckless Fed cronies. When, not if, these markets begin to cascade downward and greed turns to fear, an implosion of institutional and societal trust will remove the final underpinnings of this unsustainable financial paradigm.

The Wall Street QE addicts and their captured central banker drug dealers were able to exploit the concocted “Covid Crisis” as cover for an already imploding financial system with the injection of $4 trillion of heroin into their veins and the assurance of trillions more. Anyone using reason and rational thought knows this debt solvency fantasy is destined for a disastrous denouement. If it happens in 2021, this year will surely go down in history.

This combustible amalgamation of unpayable debt, civic anarchy, and global chaos are poised to detonate in 2021, initiating a period of maximum darkness, death, destruction, and momentous choices. We are being propelled towards a climax which will mark the death of the old order and the birth of a new. The question is whether the new order will be better or worse for average Americans.

With the newly installed totalitarian regime in Washington DC, it appears they plan to implement full government control over every aspect of our lives, with the final eradication of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments as the stick and unlimited government checks as the carrot. Their classification and treatment of 75 million Americans as the enemy will accomplish the task of converting them into a real enemy.
There will be lone wolves who use violent means to fight back. Others will go Galt and starve the beast. Others may organize into like minded communities and dare the authorities to trample on their freedoms and liberties. It will be difficult to control 75 million angry, heavily armed, dis-enfranchised deplorables. The new regime is led by arrogant, hubristic, mediocre minded bureaucrats who are incapable of using anything but brutality to get their way.

Their grasp on power is fragile and a determined strategic minded resistance will hit them where they are weakest, sabotaging commerce, communications, the power grid, and their social media propaganda arm. At this point in 2021 it looks bleak for lovers of liberty, but the fight has just begun.

The coming deadly reckoning of this Fourth Turning will require tremendous courage, guile, personal sacrifice, dreadful alternatives, survival skills, intelligence, strategic thinking, and an audacity to win at all costs. Those still caught in the mindset of voting in good guys to change the outcome are delusional, as the outcome of this past election confirmed voting does not matter.

There are wealthy, powerful, sociopath, globalist oligarchs who constitute the real power in this world and unless they are confronted and defeated, the outcome of this Fourth Turning will result in a dark future for humanity and the final obliteration of our Constitution. There is no way to avoid the coming conflict. Sides must be chosen. You will not be able to sit this one out. They will come for you, whether you like it or not.

Based upon history, the ultimate resolution will not be based on compromise, civility, persuasion, or nonviolent means. Our world will be shaken to its very foundation and transformed in unknowable ways over the next decade. Winter has arrived with a ferocity born of the deceptions of powerful men, and we will need to marshal all our strength and fortitude to survive the coming tempests. The fury of the Crisis will eventually exhaust itself and result in a positive or destructive aftermath. History offers no guidance or assurances as to the outcome. That will be entirely up to us. Godspeed and good luck.
“If civic virtue is so frequently lost, it must be just as frequently regained. This is what happens in a Fourth Turning. While a Crisis mood renders societies newly desperate, it also renders them newly capable, which is why a saecular winter is to be welcomed as much as feared. As today’s Americans look ahead, the challenge is to marshal the coming season’s new public energies to achieve positive, not destructive ends. The better we ready ourselves collectively the more likely we will be not just to survive the Crisis but to apply its fury for good and humane purposes.” – Strauss & Howe, "The Fourth Turning"

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

"Stimulus Checks Buy Robinhood and Starbucks; Bank Closures Rampant; Poverty Surges"

Jeremiah Babe,
"Stimulus Checks Buy Robinhood and Starbucks; 
Bank Closures Rampant; Poverty Surges"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal: "The Covid War, Destruction of Humanity"

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal": 
"The Covid War, Destruction of Humanity"
"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."

The inimitable Gerald... lol

Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "Beyond"; "Dance of Life" (Full Album)

Peder B. Helland, "Beyond"
Full screen mode highly recommended,
Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life" (Full Album)
Full screen mode highly recommended,
absolutely beautiful...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

Free Download: Charles Mackay, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"

"Every age has its peculiar folly: Some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the force of imitation. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
- Charles Mackay

"'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" is an early study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841. The book chronicles its subjects in three parts: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions". MacKay was an accomplished teller of stories, though he wrote in a journalistic and somewhat sensational style.

The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetizers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics. Present-day writers on economics, such as Michael Lewis and Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles. Scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan mentioned the book in his own discussion about pseudoscience, popular delusions, and hoaxes.

In later editions, Mackay added a footnote referencing the Railway Mania of the 1840s as another "popular delusion" which was at least as important as the South Sea Bubble. Mathematician Andrew Odlyzko has pointed out, in a published lecture, that Mackay himself played a role in this economic bubble; as leader writer in the Glasgow Argus, Mackay wrote on 2 October 1845: "There is no reason whatever to fear a crash."
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds",
by Charles Mackay, may be downloaded freely here:

"The Heart of Humanity"

"The Heart of Humanity"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and we will come out the other side. The last thing most of us want to hear or think about when we are dealing with profound feelings of sadness is that deep learning can be found in this place. In the midst of our pain, we often feel picked on by life, or overwhelmed by the enormity of some loss, or simply too exhausted to try and examine the situation. We may feel far too disappointed and angry to look for anything resembling a bright side to our suffering. Still, somewhere in our hearts, we know that we will eventually emerge from the depths into the light of greater awareness. Remembering this truth, no matter how elusive it seems, can help.

The other thing we often would rather not hear when we are dealing with intense sadness is that the only way out of it is through it. Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and the faith that we will come out the other side. With courage, we can allow ourselves to cycle through the grieving process with full inner permission to experience it. This is a powerful teaching that sadness has to offer us - the ability to surrender and the acceptance of change go hand in hand.

Another teaching of sadness is compassion for others who are in pain, because it is only in feeling our own pain that we can really understand and allow for someone else’s. Sadness is something we all go through, and we all learn from it and are deepened by its presence in our lives. While our own individual experiences of sadness carry with them unique lessons, the implications of what we learn are universal. The wisdom we gain from going through the process of feeling loss, heartbreak, or deep disappointment gives us access to the heart of humanity."

"What's He To Do Then?"

"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks... Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life... I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.”
- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' 
I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'" 
- Sydney J. Harris

"Too Often..."

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, 
a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, 
all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
- Leo Buscaglia

Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/26/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/26/21"
"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!
Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/26/21:
"It's A FReaKsHOw: 
Bank Of America WARNS 'Take Profits!'"
"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 26th to 27th
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 Daily "Near You?"

Osmond, Nebraska, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Freedom..."

"Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." 
 - P.J. O'Rourke

"Sic Transit Gloria Trumpi"

"Sic Transit Gloria Trumpi"
by Bill Bonner

"He that did ride so high
Doth lie so low..."
– As William Shakespeare should have put it.

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Poor Donald J. Trump. Is he dead? Or alive? Has anyone heard from him? Has anyone checked on him? Heroes and rascals often get a grim reward. The Moabite leader, King Eglon, was murdered on his throne in about 1200 B.C. Julius Caesar, hero of the Gallic wars, was stabbed to death in the Senate in 44 B.C. Marshall Ney, hero of the Napoleonic Wars, was shot by a firing squad. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy – the list of those assassinated is long. And now… Donald J. Trump feels the knife…

Torn Apart: We saw Donald Trump do a lot of very dumb things, but we never saw him in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. And yet, now, he’s being branded a “white supremacist.” Here’s the Huffington Post: "How Biden Is Erasing Trump’s White Supremacist Legacy". And how about this from MSN: "On his way out the door, Trump couldn’t resist one last bit of jaw-dropping racism."

We read both articles. We found no evidence of racism or white supremacy. But the victors write the history books. And The Donald lost. And now… like a stag run to ground, he’ll be torn apart by the media hounds and stabbed in the back by his former friends and allies.

Oh Donald, what will you do? Will you just fade away like an old soldier? Will you shuffle off stage… leaving your millions of fans behind, like Elvis taking his eternal toilet break? Or will you take up arms against a sea of troubles… and start a new political party? Continue spreading discord and resentment? You know the media still needs you. You are the Big Man… the Clown… the Freak it depends on to keep up its ratings. Will you find a way to exploit it… to stay in the limelight until the light itself finally goes out? Maybe…

De-Platformed: But in the meantime, they’ve banned you from Twitter… de-platformed you… cancelled you… disappeared you! And here’s Newsweek, telling us that they never want to see you again: "Nearly 60% of Americans Want Donald Trump Barred From Holding Public Office Again: Poll". "A majority of Americans support preventing former President Donald Trump from holding federal office again, according to polling data released Monday by Monmouth University."

Ingrates! And after all Donald J. Trump did for you… Even die-hard MAGA fans are ratting out Trump in order to save their own skins. Here’s CNBC: "A Texas man charged with invading the Capitol and threatening Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that he was effectively following then-President Donald Trump's orders when he joined a mob that stormed Congress on Jan. 6. He said he would be willing to testify to Congress or a trial about the riot."

Clueless Ignoramus: What a fabulous gift to the anti-Trumpers! Those lunk-headed Trumpistas. What numbskulls! There, in an image seen by millions around the world, was a guy wearing horns… his face painted up… his expression blank, like a man fresh from a lobotomy… his outfit as preposterous as the whole “insurrection.” There was the MAGA man in all his glory – a clueless ignoramus.

Now, the credentialized, malbec-drinking, New Yorker Magazine-reading elites finally had their smoking gun… proof that The Donald’s supporters really were deplorable… and that they were right to look down on them… Backward and stupid – undisciplined… untutored… there they were for all the world to see. Silly people.

They thought the First Amendment gave them the right to assemble and air their grievances – even during the COVID-19 crisis. They thought the Second Amendment gave them the right to carry firearms. They clearly had not kept up with the times. They still worshipped Mary, as the “mother” of Jesus… when everyone in the elite knew she should be referred to as the “parent” of Jesus, whoever s/he was…

And they still referred to Mexicans as “Latinos.” We all know, now, that that’s “patriarchal”… the “o” being a masculine suffix. They’re “Latinx” now, with the “x” as free from sex as a plastic Barbie.

These MAGA creatures – fresh from the hollows of Kentucky and the plains of South Dakota – just didn’t know any better. They think a child born a boy ought to use the boys’ bathroom in school… But if he chose to use the girls’ bathroom, they wouldn’t make a federal case of it.

No Special Treatment: And, yes, these people are mostly white… but they don’t expect any special treatment for being in “communities of non-color”… They still think success in America ought to go to the people who work hard… and get lucky, on their own merits… not because they get special privileges and handouts from Congress. And as for the “communities of color,” they’re smart enough to stay out of them after dark.

And oh yes, they’re sick and tired of those same Latinx folks sneaking across the border to take the low-paying jobs…while engineers, doctors, and scientists come from India and China to take the good ones!

These MAGA people – sad! – came to suspect that the elites weren’t on their side… that they were being disrespected… drowned in the Swamp… that what the elites wanted was not to save the country, but to destroy it…and that they used their expertise not to serve “we, the people,” but to serve themselves.

All Over: But now, those nitwits who rushed the Capitol… one by one, they’re being hunted down. Soon, they will be sent to Guantanamo, where they will be forced to listen to awful Latinx music day and night… Their hero can’t pardon them now. He’s gone off stage… maybe permanently. The revolutionis kaput. The orange hair and makeup… Melania… the early-morning tweets – it’s all in the past.

The Deep State… the Establishment… the elites… the swampcritters – they won. It’s over. Or, is it? Stay tuned."

"Everything Is Broken"

"Everything Is Broken"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"Mr. Bob Dylan was once again prescient: Everything Is Broken. You may think I’m referring to the political system or Big Tech or the Corporate Media, and certainly all those are very broken indeed, but I’m actually referring to everyday life systems that once worked fairly well. I could mention bridges that take decades to build that sport cost-overruns in the billions and the general decline in the quality of goods and services, but let’s just stick to critical digital systems for now.

One shared trait of these broken service systems is that they’re all digital and all online. Wasn’t everything supposed to become faster, better, easier and cheaper when it was digitized and put at our fingertips via websites and mobile phone apps? The opposite is often the case: the digital systems are broken and nobody on either end–staff or customer–can figure out why or how to fix what’s broken.

You’d think the government would make special efforts to make it easy to pay one’s estimated taxes online. You’d be wrong. Like many others who’ve been filing tax returns and paying taxes for 50+ years, I decided to withdraw a few bucks from my 401K “retirement” account (in quotes because who can retire on their 401K?).

The plan manager recommended I pay the estimated taxes due via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), which is presented as the “easy way to pay your taxes.” Wow, the cat’s meow – I completed the online form with great anticipation. As a security measure, the EFTPS snail-mails a code to the physical address that’s on record with the IRS.

Alas, the EFTPS rejected my application – something didn’t align with the information on record at the IRS. My wife’s application went through without a hitch, and so after an hour on hold and a long conversation with an EFTPS staffer – who I sincerely believe was doing his best to assist me – I re-applied, attributing the failure to some detail such as typing “Street” instead of “St”. I carefully entered the name, address, etc. on my 2019 tax return and submitted the application again.

This second application was also rejected for the same reason: a discrepancy between the IRS records and what I entered on the form. Since i’d entered the data exactly as shown on my 2019 return, what was the problem?

After another long wait on hold and another fruitless conversation with an IRS staffer who did her best but could shed no light on the problem, and I took her recommendation and decided to pay the estimated tax on the regular IRS website: Direct Pay.

OK, this should be easy, right? Wrong again. Part of the process is you have to select a tax year, not for payment but for alignment with the IRS records. I kept trying 2019 to no avail. The IRS website kept rejecting my name, address and Social Security number no matter how carefully I entered the data. After numerous rejections and another painfully long wait on hold and useless conversation with a helpful staffer, I tried selecting a tax year before 2019 to match the IRS records. 2018–failure. 2017–failure. 2016–bingo, we have a winner! The IRS ignored the address I’d used in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but kept the PO box address I’d used in 2016. How is a taxpayer supposed to know which tax year is the “correct one”? Was there nothing the staffers could see or do to rectify the guessing game?

Evidently, none of the IRS or EFTPS staff could access this data or suggest trying a previous tax year. I’d like to think I am the only one who’s experienced these kinds of needless travails with the IRS interfaces, but alas, I’ve heard from friends who were trying to sort out their elderly Mom’s tax refund, etc., that after excruciatingly long waits on hold, they got zip, zero, nada in the way of resolution.

It’s not the staff, it’s the digital systems that are broken. I can easily imagine the frustrations of the staffers trying to fix taxpayers’ problems with a kludgy system.

Next up: healthcare. Over the past few decades, as a self-employed worker I’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare premiums to my healthcare provider because I’m my own employer, and I don’t qualify for government subsidies (Medicaid).

The task: switch my coverage from one state to another state. The wait time rivaled that of the IRS, and when I finally spoke with a human, the process took almost an hour–much of it related to compliance with regulations designed to make regulators and Corporate America look like they care (they don’t). “Do you acknowledge that if you drop dead during this phone call that you were treated fairly before you expired?” etc.

I set up my online account without issue, and a few days later received emails prompting me to “view and pay my bill.” Nice, except when I logged in, “no documents found.” I had to wait for my credit card statement to see if the autopay setup worked. I could have tried calling, but I’d expended my patience for long waits and near-zero odds of resolution.

Meanwhile, my wife had made the mistake of contacting the provider for information on their plans, and they assumed they had a “live one,” i.e. a potential customer–so they aggressively robo-called her phone every day even after she spoke with a human and explained that she was already a customer so there would be no sale and commission.

So if you’re looking for aggressive marketing, Corporate America has got you covered. If you want service–hello, developing-world, minus the work-around of a bribe.

It’s worth glancing at your Social Security statement/account every once in a while, because your earnings for 2019 might be listed as zero. OK, so the Social Security Administration (SSA) somehow failed to pick up my 2019 earnings from the IRS. A quick phone call should remedy the problem, right? Wrong. The wait time was short but the call stretched on for an hour as the staffer attempted one thing after another.

How difficult is it to strip out the taxpayers’ name, Social Security number and the earnings they paid Social Security taxes on and send that data to the SSA? Most years it works, this year it didn’t. There is apparently no digital fix, as I was eventually instructed to send paper copies of our 2019 tax returns to the local SSA office.

You might attribute these flubs to government services or quasi-government services, but that overlooks one important point: private-sector Big Tech appears to work because its task is simple: privatize customer data and sell adverts. Try getting Big Tech to resolve real-world problems, and you’ll find it’s extremely difficult to get a human to help, and the odds of the human fixing your issue are near-zero. Big Tech’s expertise is in acknowledging there is a problem and then ignoring it until you give up.

I’d say more about Big Tech but since they’ve privatized totalitarianism, I fear being digitally disappeared if I dare criticize Big Tech. A couple years of being shadow-banned were enough to give me a taste of Big Tech’s privatized totalitarianism, thank you very much. That alone tells you our entire system is broken.

Say it again, Bobby: Everything Is Broken. Just don’t say it too loud unless you have lobbyists and lawyers in excess."
Bob Dylan, "Everything Is Broken"

"How It Really Is"

Well of course!
 We need more workers to fill all the available jobs, right?