Tuesday, February 9, 2021

"Simpler Taxes Long Promised, Never Delivered"

"Simpler Taxes Long Promised, Never Delivered" 
by Tom Purcell

"I love winter. I love snow. I love making a roaring fire in my fireplace on a chilly day. But I hate one thing about this time of year: taxes. February is rough for the self-employed. It's rough because my 1099 forms - official records of how much my clients paid me last year - arrive in the mail. As the 1099s roll in, I hope and pray I made less than I know I did - because my tax "contributions" are always way more than I thought they would be. I'd like to meet the genius who used "contribution" in place of "mandatory tax liability." He's probably the same guy who calls our nearly $28 trillion national debt an "investment."

As a former English major, I've never been fond of math and accounting. But from February through April 15, tax day, I have to do my best at both. That's because our income tax system is complex. It's complex because drunk people (members of Congress) designed it so that a bureaucracy (the IRS) converts the incomprehensible (tax law) into the unfathomable (complex tax regulations) to punish productive Americans (the self-employed), all in the name of good fun.

I hire a certified public accountant to calculate my tax contributions. But my CPA makes me sort and tally all of my expenses first. From Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, I toss every bill, receipt, expense, etc., into a large cardboard box - because these little slips of paper, which are deductions against my tax burden, are like currency to me.

Beginning in February, I spend hours sorting through last year's slips with one goal in mind: to get my earnings from the prior year as low as legally possible, so my income tax bill doesn't give me a heart attack, which I cannot afford anymore because my "self-employed health insurance policy" has a deductible that's soared higher than the value of my 2020 Toyota Tacoma!

About this time every year, I curse Republicans, who have talked about simplifying the tax system throughout my adult life. "Vote us into power and the tax code is the first thing we're going to fix!" they always promise. "You'll be able to complete your tax return on the back of a postcard!" they say with a wink. "We're going to make filing so easy we'll put tax lawyers in the unemployment line!" they say, laughing.

And I laugh and laugh. Because when they're voted into power, Republicans do little to nothing to simplify the ever-more-complicated tax code that causes the self-employed to worry about heart attacks, which I can afford even less because my 2021 premium jumped again and I had to switch to an even higher-deductible plan.

Now the Democrats control the White House, the House and the Senate. They promise to tax only the rich and leave the rest of us alone. And I laugh and laugh - as I brace for new tax complexities that will cause me even more grief.

I'd love to go skiing on gorgeous snow-covered hills and forget about the tax agitations that are already dragging me down. But I'm afraid to spend the money to go skiing - because, like every year, my tax bill is going to be way higher than I thought it would be. Gosh, I hate this time of the year."

"Debt and the Demise of the Middle Class"

"Debt and the Demise of the Middle Class"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"What exactly is the Middle Class and what unique role does it serve in the economy? Given that the Middle Class is constantly invoked by politicos and economists, you'd think the status quo had a solid understanding of the Middle Class. Alas, it isn't that simple.

The conventional view defines the middle class by income, education or type of labor being performed. These are all superficial attributes and ignore what actually differentiates the working class from the middle class. Yes, the middle class tends to earn more, have higher educational credentials and perform white-collar labor rather than blue-collar labor. But getting a higher education credential and increased pay doesn't automatically provide a middle class role in the economy, nor does performing white-collar work. None of these automatically moves the individual up the social mobility ladder from near-zero ownership of capital (working class) to meaningful ownership of productive capital (middle class).

As I explained in "The Top 10% Is Doing Just Fine, The Middle Class Is Dying on the Vine", the middle class is fundamentally a means of transforming labor into capital via savings and investment. The traditional ladder of social mobility from the working class to the middle class is one of capitalizing work: time and savings are invested in higher education, in effect capitalizing future labor by increasing productivity.

In other words, what separates the working class from the middle class is the middle class is able to transform their labor into capital while the labor of the working class only funds consumption. The working class is defined not by credentials, type of labor or credentials but by limited access to the means to transform their labor into capital.

In the classical Marxist view, there is a bright line between labor and capital: the proletariats labor in the factories owned by the capitalist industrialists who depend on monopoly capital controlled by the commercial/investment banks. The class of small business - tradecrafts, commerce, professionals, etc. - is merely a wedge between the dominant classes of labor and capital.

In this view, the exploitation of labor is the dominant force of capitalism. While labor is indeed exploited in many cases, the dynamic that this schema misses is the essential role of middle class credit/debt and consumption in generating profits for the big owners of capital. Low-wage workers benefit their employers but not the banks or those who profit from selling goods and services to higher-wage workers - the middle class.

Debt is immensely profitable, and so low-income workers are a limited pool of profitability. The financial services are expert at ripping off the working class with payday loans, check-cashing services, sky-high used auto loans, rapacious late fees and overdraft charges, but again, there is only so much blood that can be extracted from low-wage workers.

The higher, more secure wages of the middle class offer a bonanza of longer-term profits from debt taken on by the middle class: student loans to gain the credentials deemed necessary for middle class membership; auto loans, the larger the better for the aspirational consumption enabled by fatter paychecks, mortgages to buy homes, and consumer debt for all the consumption the middle class can afford: ski trips, cruises, fine dining, etc. In other words, modern capitalism stagnates without a vibrant, creditworthy middle class that borrows and spends freely, for profits flow from high levels of debt and aspirational consumption that low-wage, insecure precariats cannot afford.

But here's the rub: most of the middle class debt stems from the aspiration to transform labor into capital via higher education (student debt) and home ownership (mortgages). As middle class wages lose purchasing power and incomes become more precarious (as employers offload healthcare and pension costs onto employees and shift workers from employees to gig-contract workers), the ability of the middle class to borrow and consume more falters.

Even worse, these time-honored avenues to ownership of productive capital are no longer reliable. Higher education credentials no longer guarantee stable, ample wages, and home ownership in a housing-bubble-addicted economy is less a means of saving and more a chip in the bubble-economy casino.

Debt serfdom awaits the aspirants to middle class ownership of productive capital. While debt payments are guaranteed, the rewards for taking on the debt are contingent and prone to sudden collapses in demand for credentials and assets purchased with debt. Debt only works for the middle class if incomes and income security rise due to improving productivity and access to productive capital. Both productivity and access to productive capital are eroding, and so what made sense in past generations - borrowing for university educations and homes-are increasingly pathways to debt-serfdom.

The status quo "solution" to the decline of middle class ownership of income-producing capital is an economy that is now totally dependent on speculative bubbles. The idea here is as assets bubble ever higher, those in the middle class who own these assets will reap capital gains that will offset their declining purchasing power and income security.
Unfortunately, this "solution" has only enriched the top 10%, as the bottom 90% collect a near-zero 3% of all income from capital, which indicates that 1) the bottom 90%, which includes the middle class, own near-zero income-producing capital and 2) what capital they do own is either rapidly depreciating "stuff" (vehicles, appliances, etc.) that generates zero income or dead-money assets such as family homes that cost a fortune but produce no income and are no longer reliable investments, as the next bubble burst might evaporate the phantom homeowners equity generated by the serial housing bubbles.
As the middle class stagnates, so do the banks and producers of goods and services, and the lower-wage working class who labors in services and low-productivity producers. As the middle class awakens to the fact that the rungs of social mobility are broken, a systemic breakdown is predictable, a topic Jay Taylor and I discuss in the "Upcoming Revolt of the Middle Class" (22 min)
Unfortunately for those at the top who've benefited immensely from speculative bubbles, speculative bubbles don't create a vibrant middle class - they push what's left of the middle class off a cliff."

"The (New Normal) War On Domestic Terror"

"The (New Normal) War On Domestic Terror"
by CJ Hopkins

"If you enjoyed the Global War on Terror, you’re going to love the new War on Domestic Terror! It’s just like the original Global War on Terror, except that this time the “Terrorists” are all “Domestic Violent Extremists” (“DVEs”), “Homegrown Violent Extremists” (“HVEs”), “Violent Conspiracy-Theorist Extremists” (“VCTEs”), “Violent Reality Denialist Extremists” (VRDEs”), “Insurrectionary Micro-Aggressionist Extremists” (“IMAEs”), “People Who Make Liberals Feel Uncomfortable” (“PWMLFUs”), and anyone else the Department of Homeland Security wants to label an “extremist” and slap a ridiculous acronym on.

According to a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin” issued by the DHS on January 27, these DCEs, HVEs, VCTEs, VRDEs, IMAEs, and PWMLFUs are “ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority” and other “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.” They are believed to be “motivated by a range of issues, including anger over Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, police use of force,” and other dangerous “false narratives” (e.g., the existence of the “deep state,” “herd immunity,” “biological sex,” “God,” and so on).

“Inspired by foreign terrorist groups” and “emboldened by the breach of the US Capitol Building,” this diabolical network of “domestic terrorists” is “plotting attacks against government facilities,” “threatening violence against critical infrastructure” and actively “citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19.” For all we know, they might be huddled in the “Wolf’s Lair” at Mar-a-Lago right now, plotting a devastating terrorist attack with those WMDs we never found in Iraq, or generating population-adjusted death-rate charts going back 20 years, or posting pictures of “extremist frogs” on the Internet.

The Department of Homeland Security is “concerned,” as are its counterparts throughout the global capitalist empire. The (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror isn’t just a war on American “domestic terror.” The “domestic terror” threat is international. France has just passed a “Global Security Law” banning citizens from filming the police beating the living snot out of people (among other “anti-terrorist” provisions). In Germany, the government is preparing to install an anti-terror moat around the Reichstag. In the Netherlands, the police are cracking down on the VCTEs, VRDEs, and other “angry citizens who hate the system,” who have been protesting over nightly curfews. Suddenly, everywhere you look (or at least if you are looking in the corporate media), “global extremism networks are growing.” It’s time for Globocap to take the gloves off again, root the “terrorists” out of their hidey holes, and roll out a new official narrative.

Actually, there’s not much new about it. When you strip away all the silly new acronyms, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror is basically just a combination of the “War on Terror” narrative and the “New Normal” narrative, i.e., a militarization of the so-called “New Normal” and a pathologization of the “War on Terror.” Why would GloboCap want to do that, you ask?

I think you know, but I’ll go ahead and tell you.

See, the problem with the original “Global War on Terror” was that it wasn’t actually all that global. It was basically just a war on Islamic “terrorism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), which was fine as long as GloboCap was just destabilizing and restructuring the Greater Middle East. It was put on hold in 2016, so that GloboCap could focus on defeating “populism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), make an example of Donald Trump, and demonize everyone who voted for him (or just refused to take part in their free and fair elections), which they have just finished doing, in spectacular fashion. So, now it’s back to “War on Terror” business, except with a whole new cast of “terrorists,” or, technically, an expanded cast of “terrorists.” (I rattled off a list in my previous column.)

In short, GloboCap has simply expanded, recontextualized, and pathologized the “War on Terror” (i.e., the war on resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology). This was always inevitable, of course. A globally-hegemonic system (e.g., global capitalism) has no external enemies, as there is no territory “outside” the system. Its only enemies are within the system, and thus, by definition, are insurgents, also known as “terrorists” and “extremists.” These terms are utterly meaningless, obviously. They are purely strategic, deployed against anyone who deviates from GloboCap’s official ideology… which, in case you were wondering, is called “normality” (or, in our case, currently, “New Normality”).

In earlier times, these “terrorists” and “extremists” were known as “heretics,” “apostates,” and “blasphemers.” Today, they are also known as “deniers,” e.g., “science deniers,” “Covid deniers,” and recently, more disturbingly, “reality deniers.” This is an essential part of the pathologization of the “War on Terror” narrative. The new breed of “terrorists” do not just hate us for our freedom… they hate us because they hate “reality.” They are no longer our political or ideological opponents… they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder. They no longer need to be argued with or listened to… they need to be “treated,” “reeducated,” and “deprogrammed,” until they accept “Reality.” If you think I’m exaggerating the totalitarian nature of the “New Normal/War on Terror” narrative, read this op-ed in The New York Times exploring the concept of a “Reality Czar” to deal with our “Reality Crisis.”

And this is just the beginning, of course. The consensus (at least in GloboCap circles) is, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror will probably continue for the next 10 to 20 years, which should provide the global capitalist ruling classes with more than enough time to carry out the “Great Reset,” destroy what’s left of human society, and condition the public to get used to living like cringing, neo-feudal peasants who have to ask permission to leave their houses. We’re still in the initial “shock and awe” phase (which they will have to scale back a bit eventually), but just look at how much they’ve already accomplished.

The economic damage is literally incalculable… millions have been plunged into desperate poverty, countless independent businesses crushed, whole industries crippled, developing countries rendered economically dependent (i.e., compliant) for the foreseeable future, as billionaires amassed over $1 trillion in wealth and supranational corporate behemoths consolidated their dominance across the planet.

And that’s just the economic damage. The attack on society has been even more dramatic. GloboCap, in the space of a year, has transformed the majority of the global masses into an enormous, paranoid totalitarian cult that is no longer capable of even rudimentary reasoning. (I’m not going to go on about it here… at this point, you either recognize it or you’re in it.) They’re actually lining up in parking lots, the double-masked members of this Covidian cult, to be injected with an experimental “vaccine” that they believe will save the human species from a virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms in roughly 95% of those “infected,” and that over 99% of the “infected” survive.

So, it is no big surprise that these same mindless cultists are gung-ho for the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror, and the upcoming globally-televised show trial of Donald Trump for “inciting insurrection,” and the ongoing corporate censorship of the Internet, and can’t wait to be issued their “Freedom Passports,” which will allow them to take part in “New Normal” life - double-masked and socially-distanced, naturally - while having their every movement and transaction, and every word they write on Facebook, or in an email, or say to someone on their smartphones, or in the vicinity of their 5G toasters, recorded by GloboCap’s Intelligence Services and their corporate partners, subsidiaries, and assigns. These people have nothing at all to worry about, as they would never dream of disobeying orders, and could not produce an original thought, much less one displeasing to GloboCap, if you held a fake apocalyptic plague to their heads.

As for the rest of us “extremists,” “domestic terrorists,” “heretics,” and “reality deniers,” (i.e., anyone criticizing global capitalism, or challenging its official narratives, and its increasingly totalitarian ideology, regardless of our specific DHS acronyms), I wish I had something hopeful to tell you, but, the truth is, things aren’t looking so good. I guess I’ll see you in a quarantine camp, or in the psych ward, or an offshore detention facility… or, I don’t know, maybe I’ll see you in the streets."
Related:
"UK Government Considering Knocking On Doors Of Vaccine Refusniks, Report" "To determine why people are refusing the vaccine and then “see what might convince them” to change their minds."

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Dolmen Ridge"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Dolmen Ridge"

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Monday, February 8, 2021

"Be Like The Bird..."

"What matter if this base, unjust life
Cast you naked and disarmed?
If the ground breaks beneath your step,
Have you not your soul?
Your soul! You fly away,
Escape to realms refined,
Beyond all sadness and whimpering.
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,
Knowing he has wings."

– Victor Hugo

The Poet: Stephen Levine, "Half Life"

"Half Life" 

 "We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream,
barely touching the ground,
our eyes half open,
our heart half closed.
Not half knowing who we are,
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room,
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.
Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say,
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.
Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love." 

~ Stephen Levine

"Americans Have Never Been More Dissatisfied With How The Country Functioning Than They Are Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
"Americans Have Never Been More Dissatisfied With 
How The Country Functioning Than They Are Right Now"
by Epic Economist

"Are you satisfied with life in America right now? Consider the overall situation of the country, not just politics, but all the fundamental aspects to the functioning of our country. Are you satisfied with how our society is operating right now? We have just left one of the most turbulent years in all U.S. history and 2021 hasn't really started on a positive note either. The health crisis is still lingering and our economy remains deadlocked. It seems like we're all stuck in the worst economic crisis of the past 70 years, with businesses dying and unemployment continuously soaring. Demonstrations of social discontentment are being taken to the streets on an almost daily basis and our population appears to be more divided than ever. All of these challenges have taken a great toll on our collective perception of the future of our nation, and according to a recent Gallup survey, the overall public satisfaction is currently at extremely low levels. That's what we discuss in this video.

A new survey performed by Gallup found that Americans’ satisfaction with the way the country functions is collectively at its lowest level in almost two decades of the company's measurement. The average amount of respondents who affirmed to be satisfied with these seven areas has dropped to 39% at the start of 2021. As a matter of comparison, a year ago that rate was at 53%, the highest average in over a decade amid a strong economic outlook and before the health crisis struck in the U.S. Now, not only is average public satisfaction with the broad contours of the nation at dramatically low levels, but Americans' satisfaction with each aspect of the index is at or near its lowest since 2001, which reflects declines of seven to 17 percentage points in the past year. 

Almost 70 million Americans, or about 40% of the labor force, have filed for unemployment benefits since the burst of the outbreak. At this stage, nearly 10 million people remain out of work, and as our economy is still struggling to recover from the associated slowing of economic activity, while political tensions keep rising, it's understandable why Americans' views of the country are very different today than a year ago. Sadly, this year has not started on a very positive note either. The outlook for 2021 remains hazy. The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits continues to be at nearly four times the pre-outbreak levels, as the new round of lockdowns is triggering a high number of layoffs. 

Long-term unemployment is approaching a historical peak for roughly 40% of jobless workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Several labor economists have been arguing that this is a particularly dangerous period of unemployment for jobless workers since it means that their household income is significantly compromised for a prolonged period of time. Last month, only 49,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy, in contrast to the 227,000 jobs shed in December 2020. Given that there are about 10 million fewer jobs than before the recession, the director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute, Heidi Shierholz says that it could take approximately 29 years to get back to pre-recession levels at the current pace of job growth.

Although unemployment benefits can offer a safety net for out-of-work employees, not all qualify to collect them. In fact, according to a report published last week just 30% of unemployed individuals are being reached by the unemployment system. That is to say, approximately three out of every four jobless workers aren’t receiving aid - or about 8 million of the 11 million unemployed Americans. 

In short, the trillions created out of thin air to allegedly boost the economy, for the most part, have ended up in the financial markets and only added to our already alarming national debt. The biggest part of that sum never made its way through those who needed the most. Instead, it has put our country on a highway to hyperinflation, which will only deteriorate our living standards in the long run, aggravate debt problems, and debase the value of our currency. 

In view of all this, it's perfectly comprehensible why Americans are feeling so pessimistic about the future of the nation. All of our institutions seem to be crumbling before our eyes, and the foundation of our economy is greatly shaken. The more authorities fail to properly assist our workers, the longer this painful recession will stretch. If you thought we were entering brighter days in 2021, we're sorry to say that everywhere we look there is still gloominess on the horizon." 

"No Job Creation Only Debt Creation; Great Reset Will Not Save You; Evictions Ramp Up; Trade Deficit"

Jeremiah Babe,
"No Job Creation Only Debt Creation; Great Reset Will Not Save You;
Evictions Ramp Up; Trade Deficit"

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

"Liquid Mind" (aka Chuck Wild) originally wrote this music to deal with the anxiety and stress of overwork and the serious illness of friends. The gentle ebb and flow of the music has an immediate "slowing down" effect, providing a serene escape from tension-filled days. Ideal for stress relief, falling asleep at night and to enhance meditative and therapeutic practices. There are few composers with as much love for slowness in their music as Wild. Chuck draws from classical and pop influences as varying as Beethoven and Brian Eno, Bartok and Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin and Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row. A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters, all embedded in an extended patch of gaseous wisps in the greater Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The brightest three stars on the far left are indeed the famous three stars that make up the belt of Orion. Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the three belt stars, is the Flame Nebula, glowing with excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust. 
Below the frame center and just to the right of Alnitak lies the Horsehead Nebula, a dark indentation of dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky. On the upper right lies M42, the Orion Nebula, an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas, visible to the unaided eye, that is giving birth to a new open cluster of stars. Immediately to the left of M42 is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man that houses many bright blue stars. The above image, a digitally stitched composite taken over several nights, covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500 light years away and spans about 75 light years.”

"Sometimes You Do..."

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
~ "Harper Lee", "To Kill a Mockingbird"

“The Individual vs. The Illusion Of Consensus Reality”

“The Individual vs. The Illusion Of Consensus Reality”
by Jon Rappoport

“This is such a supercharged subject, I could start from a dozen places. But let’s begin here: the individual is unique, because he is he. He is unique because he has his own ideas, because he has his own desires, because he has his own power. That power belongs to no one else. In particular, it doesn’t belong to the State. The State will try, will always try to suggest that it is granting power to the individual, but this is a lie. It’s an illusion broadcast with ill-intent. While everyone else is trying to manufacture connections to the group, under the banner of a false sense of community, the individual is going in the opposite direction.

Philip K Dick: “Insanity - to have to construct a picture of one’s life, by making inquiries of others.”

Consensus reality is the reality of sacrifice. It is coagulating energy, form, content, substance that takes on amorphous shapes studded with slots into which people can fit themselves.

The independent individual thinks what he wants to think. Over time, he keeps graduating into new, more nearly unique levels of what he wants to think. He rises above the group. He rises to his own thoughts.

There is no subject and no substance which is not infiltrated by consensus reality. Wherever you look, you will encounter it. The group is the basis of consensus reality, and the group pact extends everywhere. The group fears a sector where only individual thought can tread. That would be dangerous to the illusion. “Well, we’ve got things well in hand in most places, but over there and over here we’re not in charge. A different kind of reality pervades.” No, that doesn’t work for the group. The exceptions would blow a hole in the rule.

“Stay away from the corner of Lexington Avenue and 34th Street. Something too weird is going on there. We come in and try to inject consensus on that spot and it doesn’t work. Our “sharing” energy bounces off that corner. We may have to call in the troops to surround the place and cordon it off.” Alert! Alert! Consensus reality is breaking down in Sector 328-A! Locate the problem! This is an emergency! Bring in the news team to shore up the illusion! Turn on the hypnosis machines! Group consensus is fraying and fragmenting in Area 768-B! Call the professors and pundits! Discredit the individual! Call him a monster! Do something fast!"

Consensus reality is an illusion in the sense that you can see it and I can see it, but we didn’t sign up for it. That’s the catch. Take any area of life, and I mean any, and that’s the case. Wherever there is tight consensus, perception ensues. That’s the whole point. “We, the group, aren’t fooling around. When we sign a pact among ourselves, we intend everybody to see what we decide is there to see.”

So you, the individual, can opt out. That doesn’t necessarily mean the consensus disappears; you can still see it, but you see it without accepting it. You can see the oasis in the desert, which is a mirage, but because you have your own bottle of water, you don’t have to run toward the mirage and fall down on your knees and try to drink from the pool.

Philip K. Dick: “Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… increasingly, we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated electronic mechanisms… And this is an astounding power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

The strong and free individual evolves. He doesn’t stay the same. He doesn’t know everything worth knowing today. He knows enough, but not everything. He continues to emerge with new ideas, new energy, new invention. He becomes larger. He gains more power.

When the illusion of consensus reality attains a level beyond mere slogan, it enters the realm of systems. This is its most convincing format. A system appears to be watertight. Each one of its parts has relations with the whole. This is interesting, because that mirrors what a group is. Each member is a part that connects to the whole. Consensus as a system is like a game of chess that plays the same moves over and over. Game one is the same as game two, three, four… That’s where its illusion of power comes from.

The individual, though, doesn’t proceed according to systems. He isn’t moving from one closed context to another. That’s the group. The individual may retain the same general principles over time, but what he does and thinks strikes out into new territories. Because he creates. There is no individual without creating.

Consensus is the coin of the realm. It is forced from the top, and it is signed up for at the bottom. One hand washes the other. Societies may begin through consensus, but if they have any courage, they shift focus to the job of pulling away coercive restraints on the individual. Regardless, the individual asserts his freedom. It is his to begin with, not the group’s. No one gives it to him.

American society is moving rapidly to an inverse, an upside down structure, in which freedom is looked upon as a privilege grudgingly accorded in the absence of a reason to take it away. The prevalent official attitude is: consensus must be strengthened. It must dominate the landscape.

Through vast experience, the free individual knows that consensus has no theoretical limits. Group-perceptions about the way things are can give birth to the most universally “proven objective truths.” In his explorations, the individual may even find that a demonstrated law of nature is nothing more than a consensus. And, therefore, an illusion.

The group has conception of Normal. Normal is like a message passed around, from hand to hand, and when you look at it closely, for content, it dissolves. There was really nothing there. This is similar to what happens when physicists probe further and further into matter, looking for smaller and smaller particles, and come up with an enormous amount of empty space.

The group consensus is the illusion. Finally, there is mindless hive-action covering a vacuum. This is also what occasionally happens to people who have hidebound political ideologies. The people on the Left move further and further to the Left, and the people on the Right move further and further to the Right. Finally, they are both so distant from government they meet and stare at each other in shock. At that point, they are just individuals.

From my unfinished manuscript, "The Magician Awakes": “You keep saying it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you say it out loud and sometimes it’s just a very strong thought that could cut through a melon. You repeat it over and over—”it doesn’t matter.” You’re sitting there with the most powerful thing in the universe, your imagination, and yet it doesn’t matter. New worlds are waiting for you. But you don’t pull the trigger.

“You go to meetings. What are these meetings? Who’s there? What do you talk about, the end of the world? Your problems? The conversations seem to be endless…”

“But society runs on groups! It must have groups!” And what? The individual must give in and join and belong? That’s the conclusion? I’m afraid not. Consensus reality is a cartoon that is trying to become as real as steel. What deconstructs the steel and exposes the cartoon? There is only one thing that can do that. Nothing and no one else is going to do that. The individual does it."

Gregory Mannarino, "The Fed. Promises Unlimited Asset Purchases Forever! Market Hits New Records"

Gregory Mannarino,
"The Fed. Promises Unlimited Asset Purchases Forever!
 Market Hits New Records"

The Daily "Near You?"

Fairport, New York, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Free Download: Aldous Huxley, "The Doors of Perception"

“There are things known and there are things unknown,
and in between are the doors of perception”
- Aldous Huxley 

Freely download "The Doors of Perception", by Aldous Huxley, here:

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"
by Jeff Thomas

"Just as people go through a lifespan that consists of different stages, so empires tend to follow a pattern of stages. They tend to start off slowly, making progress as a result of industriousness, understanding that progress is dependent upon hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit. This is important to understand, as it’s the one essential in the growth of a nation. No nation becomes an empire through complacency or a lack of productivity. Welfare states do not become empires, although most empires end up as welfare states. So, if that’s the case, what is the progression? And more importantly, what does this mean, considering the dramatic changes that are now unfolding in much of the world?

Prosperity: As stated, prosperity is created through a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit throughout a significant portion of the population. This is what brings about wealth creation – a condition in which people invest their time and money in a business enterprise that reaps profit. The profit is then re-invested to expand upon that success.

In the early stages of prosperity, those who create the wealth are revered, as the goods and services they create benefit all, even those who may be less ambitious or less imaginative and may never become business leaders themselves. But inevitably, there will be those who seek to prosper to the exclusion of others. This trend was seen around 1900 in the US – a time when the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs figured out that, if they banded together, they could buy both political parties. That would mean that, regardless of which party held power, the government could be counted on to pass laws that would protect their monopolies and make success increasingly more difficult for the competition.

Wealth Disparity: Of course, the objective of this would be that there would be a small number of individuals and corporations at the very top, who would be in a position to split up the pie amongst themselves and throw the crumbs to those beneath them. Over time, this would lead to those at the very top becoming inordinately wealthy, well beyond what would be normal for their level of investment. And very few new individuals and corporations would be able to break into this cabal. Only those who could add to the size of the pie would be allowed in.

Resentment: Not surprisingly, this, over time, would lead to resentment amongst those who were left out of the loop. When this became generational, with minimal change, the "greedy rich" would become the most hated segment of the population. Those who come to understand that they will never be able to advance to the top layer would come to regard themselves as "disenfranchised."

This in turn results, eventually, in the awareness that the "little man" represents the majority of voters, which is then capitalized upon by opportunistic political candidates. Increasingly, there are cries by political hopefuls for the one percent to be taxed. With every election these promises are renewed. And each time out, greater demands are made by the politicians.

Of course, the one percent are already running the show on both sides of the aisle and can make sure that they are taxed very little, if at all. But someone must be made to cough up, so politicians go after the middle class, taxing them increasingly until, after decades of increases, they are squeezed to the limit. As Vladimir Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."

At this point the wealth disparity is at a peak and the resentment turns to anger. Those, who for decades have been promised a "fair share," realize that they have instead been sold out. And here’s where it gets interesting. Traditionally, once the population became resentful enough that the system was in jeopardy, those few who comprised the ruling elite were likely to essentially say, "Let them eat cake." This, ultimately, would lead to their downfall. But today, we have the illusion of democracy, which allows for a different paradigm.

Collectivism: From the time of the French Revolution onward, we have had the construct of collectivism to work with. Rather than defy the little man, defeat him by being seen to agree with him. Create political figures who call out for a re-engineering of society: "An equal outcome for all. Take the wealth from the wealthy who stole it and give it back to the little man." Such platitudes sell well when resentment has hit its peak. But the secret benefit for the ruling elite is that the new breed of politician works for the one percent, just as politicians always have.

And collectivism benefits the one percent even more than any free-market system could. Under it, the little man is not raised up, as promised. Instead, the middle class is beaten down to the same level as the little man, creating uniform poverty. As Winston Churchill stated, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Therefore, it should come as no surprise to us that, when an empire such as the US begins to unravel, the ruling elite who actually own the country are ready and eager to create a transition that will appear to benefit the little man but will, instead, enslave him to a greater degree than he ever could have imagined. So, it should come as no surprise to us that in recent months, the US has witnessed a carefully orchestrated drama in which the poster boy for the greedy rich – the US president – goes down in flames. And the heroes of the play appear center stage, providing a litany of collectivist promises that will bring cheers from the populace. And so the trap is sprung. A totalitarian future disguised as a panacea.

As P.T. Barnum said, "There’s a sucker born every minute," and there is no greater sucker than a voter who actually believes that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. His vain hope is that, even though every collectivist government in history has failed to deliver on its promises and has, instead, resulted in uniform misery, this time it will be different, and the new government will deliver on the now-hackneyed empty promises. The new paradigm was as inevitable as it will be long-lived and ultimately destructive."
“All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.”
- George Orwell, "1984"

"How It Really Is"

FEB 08, 2021 - 3:44: "Mob Threatens Arson During 'F*ck The Police' March In DC"  "Anti-police, BLM activists marched through the streets of Washington DC Saturday night, where they yelled at police and harassed outdoor diners while chanting various slogans such as "Black lives, they matter here," and "if we don't get it, burn it down." Members of Antifa were present, joining up with the organizing group, "They/Them Collective," which describes themselves as "An anarcho abolitionist collective house based in occupied Piscataway land here for queer, enby, trans, BBIPOC liberation."

"We Work In The Dark..."

"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, this fight is not a choice but a calling. Yet sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter, breaching the frazzled fortress of our mind, allowing the monsters without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss; into the laughing face of madness."
- "Fox Mulder", "The X-Files"

"Big Brother Is Spying On You In Thousands Of Ways, And All Of That Info Now Goes Into Centralized 'Fusion Systems'”

"Big Brother Is Spying On You In Thousands Of Ways, 
And All Of That Info Now Goes Into Centralized 'Fusion Systems'”
by Michael Snyder

"Big Brother is watching you. Sadly, most people don’t realize how extensive the surveillance grid has now become. As you drive to work or to school, license plate readers are systematically tracking where you travel. In major cities, thousands of highly advanced security cameras (many equipped with facial recognition technology) are monitoring your every move. If authorities detect that you are doing something suspicious, they can quickly pull up your criminal, financial and medical records. Of course if they want to dig deeper, your phone and your computer are constantly producing a treasure trove of surveillance data. Nothing that you do on either one of them is ever private.

In the past, compiling all of that information would take a great deal of time. But now tech giants such as Microsoft, Motorola, Cisco and Palantir are selling “fusion systems” to governments all over the planet. These “fusion systems” can instantly integrate surveillance data from thousands of different sources, and this has totally transformed how law enforcement is conducted in many of our largest cities.

Arthur Holland Michel is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and he was given a tour of a “fusion system” that is used by the city of Chicago called Citigraf: "He clicked “INVESTIGATE,” and Citigraf got to work on the reported assault. The software runs on what Genetec calls a “correlation engine,” a suite of algorithms that trawl through a city’s historical police records and live sensor feeds, looking for patterns and connections. Seconds later, a long list of possible leads appeared onscreen, including a lineup of individuals previously arrested in the neighborhood for violent crimes, the home addresses of parolees living nearby, a catalog of similar recent 911 calls, photographs and license plate numbers of vehicles that had been detected speeding away from the scene, and video feeds from any cameras that might have picked up evidence of the crime itself, including those mounted on passing buses and trains. More than enough information, in other words, for an officer to respond to that original 911 call with a nearly telepathic sense of what has just unfolded."

But these systems are not just used to track down criminals. In fact, they can be used to investigate literally anyone. On another occasion, Arthur Holland Michel got the opportunity to test out the “fusion system” that Microsoft had built for New York City: "The NYPD official showed me how he could pull up any city resident’s rap sheet, lists of their known associates, cases in which they were named as a victim of a crime or as a witness, and, if they had a car, a heatmap of where they tended to drive and a full history of their parking violations. Then he handed me the phone. Go ahead, he said; search a name.

A flurry of people came to mind: Friends. Lovers. Enemies. In the end, I chose the victim of a shooting I’d witnessed in Brooklyn a couple of years earlier. He popped right up, along with what felt like more personal information than I, or even perhaps a curious officer, had any right to know without a court order. Feeling a little dizzy, I gave the phone back." If this is what is going on in major cities such as Chicago and New York, can you imagine the technology that the alphabet agencies of the federal government must now possess?

Of course this isn’t just happening in the United States. On the other side of the Atlantic, a joint European surveillance project known as ROXANNE is causing a great deal of concern: "An acronym for Real time netwOrk, teXt, and speaker ANalytics for combating orgaNized crimE, it was announced in November the Republic’s involvement in the project currently being developed in Switzerland. A biometrics based platform ostensibly to monitor and crack down on organized crime, an additional application of ROXANNE which its creators advertise freely is the ability to monitor those guilty of alleged hate speech and political extremism. Strict new laws against “hate speech” and “political extremism” are being instituted all over Europe, and this new tool will help to track down “thought criminals”.

In particular, this new tool will be heavily monitoring “social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube as well as normal telecommunications platforms”: "A product of the EU funded Horizon 2020 to foster new surveillance technology, ROXANNE works across social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube as well as normal telecommunications platforms to identify, categorize, and track faces and voices enabling authorities to paint a more in depth picture of the network being investigated, whether it be in relation to criminal activity or those deemed politically extreme. Enabling authorities to draw on raw data from a variety of sources and platforms in order to recognize common speech patterns, facial features, and geolocation, the end result is both to identify suspects and paint an intricate picture of the networks being put under the microscope."

So if you live in Europe and you think that you might be guilty of “thought crime” at some point, you might want to get rid of your phone and your computer. Seriously.

Things really have gotten that bad over there, and it is just a matter of time before the madness gets to the same level in the United States, because we are going down the exact same road. Here in the U.S., more political voices are being “deplatformed” with each passing day. Progressive reporter Jordan Chariton originally cheered when conservatives were being deplatformed, but at this point he regrets his calls for censorship now that YouTube has taken down one of his videos:

"However, after YouTube pulled video from his own channel featuring footage of the January 6 riot for violating the platform’s policies against “spam and deceptive practices,” the Chariton reversed his position. “With time to reflect, & seeing Silicon Valley’s censorship onslaught, I regret this tweet made in [the] heat of moment,” the progressive journalist wrote. “Whether certain cable/YouTube outlets mislead audiences w/ dishonest claims lacking real evidence, they shouldn’t be targeted.” It is all fun and games when it is happening to “the other side”, but when it happens to you suddenly it becomes real.

They really do want to control what all of us do, say and think, and the Big Brother surveillance grid is becoming more suffocating with each passing year. If we do not put limits on this technology while we still can, it is just a matter of time before our society becomes a dystopian nightmare far more horrible than anything than George Orwell ever dared to imagine."
Related:
"A New Map Shows the Inescapable Creep of Surveillance"

"The Atlas of Surveillance shows which tech law enforcement agencies across the country have acquired. It's a sobering look at the present-day panopticon. Over 1,300 Partnerships with Ring. Hundreds of facial recognition systems. Dozens of cell-site simulator devices. The surveillance apparatus in the United States takes all kinds of forms in all kinds of places - a huge number of which populate a new map called the Atlas of Surveillance.

A collaboration between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno, Reynolds School of Journalism, the Atlas of Surveillance offers an omnibus look not only at what technologies law enforcement agencies deploy, but where they do it. From automated license plate readers to body cameras to the so-called fusion centers that centrally process scores of surveillance data, the project drives home just how common these sophisticated tools have become. In fact, despite offering 5,300 data points from 3,000 police departments, it’s still only a sample of surveillance’s true sweep."
View the Atlas of Surveillance here:
Alan Parsons Project, "Sirius", "Eye In The Sky"

"Everything, Nothing..."

"Baseless"

"Baseless"
by Jim Kunstler

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels, Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
*
"Debuting this week: America’s first genuine show trial, the second impeachment of Donald Trump, an exercise in pure malice designed by a party in power to teach a lesson to the party out of power. The lesson: we’re gonna getcha, getcha, getcha, as in the old song by Blondie. That’s it, and that’s all.

The exercise is so transparently idiotic and unconstitutional that Chief Justice John Roberts declined to preside over it, as the constitution specifies. Say, what…? Do you mean that in a proceeding this grave, he can just… demur? Because… why? Because he doesn’t feel like it? (Or something like that?) His Supreme Honor declined also to furnish a reason - though, if the Chief Justice views the trial as extraconstitutional, perhaps he should say so, for the record. Anyway, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senate President Pro Tempore (the oldest member of the majority party), will now act as judge. He must take a pledge to act impartially.

Running the prosecution: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who opined last week in a public statement that the jury (his fellow senators) could “infer” Mr. Trump’s guilt if he declined to testify. Apparently, Mr. Raskin, a former constitutional law professor (American University) never read the Fifth Amendment, which states: "…nor shall any person be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." But this is how we roll in these fog-bound days of Woke democracy.

The charge is “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in the January 6 incident at the US Capitol in which a mob breached the doors and invaded the building, one of them wearing buffalo horns and war paint. The prosecuting majority made some noises about calling witnesses, until the defense said, fine, we’ll call witnesses, too, perhaps all the livelong day, day after day, until the cows come home. That prompted the majority to remember that it had a legislative agenda, which it could not pursue if that branch was busy conducting a show trial, so Mr. Raskin nixed the idea. They’ll rely on video to make their case, he said. The FBI and its big brother, the DOJ, have been investigating the riot. The outstanding question: who, exactly, led the breach and induced others to follow. Do we know for sure? If I were one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, I’d seek to know.

But the defense is more likely to seek an immediate dismissal based on the folly of holding a proceeding designed to remove someone from office who is no longer in office. That ought to be enough. Or else they’ll show some choice video of their own, like of Capitol Police opening the barricades on the outdoor terrace and inviting the mob in, or another of persons inside the building before it was breached handing tools for breaking in through a window to the mob outside.
There’s a humdinger video of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) haranguing a mob outside the Supreme Court’s headquarters when the justices were inside hearing an abortion case. “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Schumer yelled to the mob, who went on to bang menacingly on the Court’s front door. And what price would that be? The justices don’t have to run for reelection. As it happened, Chief Justice Roberts promptly admonished Mr. Schumer’s remarks as “inappropriate” and “dangerous.” Even Woke Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe called Mr. Schumer’s language “inexcusable.”

Of course, behind this smokescreen of partisan bullshit is the question of election fraud, which the Democratic Party is seeking desperately to suppress. Their news media henchpersons have settled on the adjective “baseless” whenever the subject comes up in their reporting. They repeat it incessantly, Goebbels-style, to substantiate its truthiness, though it is not true. The truth is indeed the Deep State’s mortal enemy, and eventually it will make itself known."

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 2/8/21"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 2/8/21"
"When you have eliminated the impossible, 
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
- "Sherlock Holmes", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


• "Doctor Admits Masks Don’t Work: “All Viruses Can Get Through”

 Feb 8, 2021 7:45 AM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 106,212,890
people, according to official counts, including 27,044,900 Americans.
Globally at least 2,317,400 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/
Feb. 8, 2021 8:20 AM ET
Where I Live:
- CP