Monday, April 26, 2021

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 4/26/21"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 4/26/21"
“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have
 the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call." 
 April 26, 2021 8:20 AM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 146,819,900 
people, according to official counts, including 32,103,700 Americans.
Globally at least 3,105,100 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/
"The individual comes face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent."
- J. Edgar Hoover
Related:

"MIT Study Suggests Six Foot Social Distancing, Limited Occupancy Rules Are Completely Pointless"

"MIT Study Suggests Six Foot Social Distancing, 
Limited Occupancy Rules Are Completely Pointless"
by Tom Pappert

"A new study conducted by MIT scientists and released this week reveals that the six foot social distancing and limited occupancy guidelines made law in most of the civilized world have done little to slow the spread of COVID-19, and suggests the only way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is to limit exposure to highly populated areas and areas where people are physically exerting themselves, such as gyms, or areas where people are singing or speaking, such as churches.

The study reveals that the social distancing guidelines employed throughout much of the world for over a year have done nothing to limit the spread of COVID-19, suggesting that the adaption of the guidelines did not stop the spread of the of the China-originated virus, and it can only be slowed with the employment of severe lockdowns. Paradoxically, states and cities that have engaged in severe lockdowns have seen the largest spikes of COVID-19.

“We argue there really isn’t much of a benefit to the 6-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks,” MIT professor Martin Z. Bazant said, as reported by NBC. “It really has no physical basis because the air a person is breathing while wearing a mask tends to rise and comes down elsewhere in the room so you’re more exposed to the average background than you are to a person at a distance.” In other words, widespread mask wearing may simply change the physical vectors of transmission within a given room rather than stop it, effectively making six foot distancing rules pointless.

In their study, Bazant and the other researchers declare, “Adherence to the Six-Foot Rule would limit large-drop transmission, and adherence to our guideline, [of limiting time spent in densely populated areas], would limit long-range airborne transmission.”

In the guideline, the researchers write, “To minimize risk of infection, one should avoid spending extended periods in highly populated areas. One is safer in rooms with large volume and high ventilation rates. One is at greater risk in rooms where people are exerting themselves in such a way as to increase their respiration rate and pathogen output, for example, by exercising, singing, or shouting.”

Bazant also told the media, “What our analysis continues to show is that many spaces that have been shut down in fact don’t need to be. Often times the space is large enough, the ventilation is good enough, the amount of time people spend together is such that those spaces can be safely operated even at full capacity and the scientific support for reduced capacity in those spaces is really not very good.” He added, “I think if you run the numbers, even right now for many types of spaces you’d find that there is not a need for occupancy restrictions.”

This comes on the heels of a study that suggests the Pfizer vaccine could cause severe neurodegenerative diseases caused by brain prions created by the mRNA-style vaccine. National File reported, “‘The current RNA based SARSCoV-2 vaccines were approved in the US using an emergency order without extensive long term safety testing,’ the report declares. ‘In this paper the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was evaluated for the potential to induce prion-based disease in vaccine recipients.’ Prion-based diseases are, according to the CDC, a form of neurodegenerative diseases, meaning that the Pfizer vaccine is potentially likely to cause long term damage and negative health effects with regards to the brain.”

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/26/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/26/21"
"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, AM 4/26/21:

"The Economic Meltdown Worsens

"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.
April 23rd to 26th, Updated Daily 
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

“Economy Has Fallen - You’re Next; No One Working But Record Home Sales? Financial Emergency Plan”

Jeremiah Babe,
“Economy Has Fallen - You’re Next; No One Working 
But Record Home Sales? Financial Emergency Plan”

Sunday, April 25, 2021

"Alert! $123 Trillion US Government Debt Is A Looming Disaster: Prepare Your Self For The Worst!"

Full screen recommended.
"Alert! $123 Trillion US Government Debt Is A Looming Disaster: 
Prepare Your Self For The Worst!"
by Epic Economist

"Although the U.S. is still dealing with a steep economic recession, there's another threatening crisis looming on the horizon: our national debt. Most Americans are unaware of how the government debt is compromising their wealth, their economic stability, and their future. Our massive outstanding debt isn't the "good" kind of debt resultant from spending related to economic growth or crisis management. Instead, it was created to fund a series of unrelated projects that do not actually stimulate production, therefore, it does not support solid economic growth. Even worse, it continues to rise without any prospects of repayment, and the largest share of our tax dollars are spent on such reckless mandatory spending. In addition to our staggering debt and our expanding annual budget deficits, at this point, every major trust fund is spiraling toward insolvency. Politicians and policymakers are aware of the consequences this will have on the economy and our lives, yet they have no plan, or real revenue, to fix the mess they have created.

We're only four months into 2021, and the current administration already ran a record $1.7 trillion budget deficit. Last month, the national debt surpassed $28 trillion for the first time. But the problem goes much deeper than that. As the chief economist and global strategist Peter Schiff warned in a recent article, the US debt problem is even worse than advertised. According to the Financial State of the Union 2021 published by Truth in Accounting, when liabilities are included, the actual US debt stands at shocking $123.11 trillion. This means that if we were to pay off all of Uncle Sam’s liabilities, every taxpayer in the country would have to write a check for $796,000. Can you imagine having to pay for that?

In other words, if it were a private company, the US government would be bankrupt. Ironically, the Treasury Department only features $175.30 billion of Social Security and Medicare liabilities on the federal balance sheet. That is to say, politicians have been deliberately hiding the risks such liabilities will be passed on to future generations who will have to unconsciously assume the burden of the government debt before even being born. That's just outrageous and utterly absurd.

In essence, we have become a consumption economy rather than a production economy. Over the past year, as shutdowns halted production across several industries, we have been mostly relying on strong international economies to produce what we consume. Consequently, we have been seeing prices dramatically surge. But Peter Schiff reminds us that the soaring prices are not the inflation. "They’re the consequence of the inflation. The inflation is created by the Fed as it inflates the money supply to buy up all the bonds the government is selling so the stimulus checks don’t bounce,” he explained. Right now, the question that remains is for how long will the rest of the world finance America’s standard of living?

"When the dollar crashes, that’s the end of this game. Because to the extent that we can only spend our dollars on the things that we produce ourselves, that’s where it hits the fan, because we’re not producing things. And then price increases are going to explode in a much more visible manner,” Schiff warned, maintaining that our leaders keep pretending this is a one-time thing, that it will be transitory, saying that price increases are happening because of supply shocks or shortages. But the economist exclaims that isn't true. "It’s a surplus of money. That is the problem. And we’re creating even more," he asserted. The new administration has assumed office less than six months ago, but alongside Congress, it's already fleshing out a new trillion-dollar “infrastructure” spending plan, despite the fact it has just passed a $2 trillion fiscal package.

There will always be an excuse to borrow and spend more. At the moment, the health crisis is being used as the cue they needed to engage in reckless spending. If we were in good times, they would tell us it would be necessary to maintain such inflationary policies to “invest in our future". The time of prioritizing real concerns about the budget deficits and paying down the national debt never comes. "It’s always “kick the can down the road”. That works fine - until you run out of road. That road is looking mighty short.," Schiff says. Right now, the US government is overdosing on debt, and it must stop the borrowing and spending binges - or the U.S. house of cards will fall, with dangerous political, social and global implications."

"The Most Broken People Are Usually the Kindest "

"The Most Broken People Are Usually the Kindest"
by Sherrie Hurd

"It's not the sheltered individual that becomes the nicest person in adulthood. It's the broken people who have the kindest hearts. Trauma, heartache, and pain can hold us back if we let them, but they can make us stronger too. These experiences that create damaged people can also create kind and appreciative people as well. It's because we don't all fold under immense pressure and abuse.

Sometimes, we grow and we actually heal. Yes, it is hard to heal, especially when pain or trauma repeats itself, but we can still evolve into butterflies afterward. We can also share the love and kindness like no other.

Hope for the hopeless: So many children in this world are abused, and so many unexpected deaths and heartaches happen every day. At first, it seems like our lives are ruined. We may suffer for years, decades even, but our story doesn't have to be hopeless. In fact, there are many of us who have learned to love hard because of the damage we've been dealt. As broken people, we develop amazing quantities of empathy and charity. How is this possible? Why the kindest people were once broken people:

1. They know darkness well: Broken-hearted people, whether victims of abuse or survivors of trauma have known true darkness. Most of the victims of any harrowing experience have been to the depths of this darkness, lived there for quite some time, and then came back with something remarkable.

People who are damaged but who have healed bring the brightest light back with them after their previous hell. The deeper the darkness, the brighter the light that they bring as well. They learned to understand how the darkness works, and they also understand how to illuminate this well of hopelessness. These broken individuals become kind and loving due to the light they learned to generate while in the dark.

2. They know where growth comes from: People who've suffered from long periods of pain learn to adapt. Maybe at first, they are pessimistic, but after learning things from their pain, they see something else behind the hurt. They see the potential for growth.

Now, I'm not saying that people should hurt to understand how to grow and mature, but those who have felt this pain seem to learn faster. They also tend to spread this knowledge to others in a sort of way that is patient and comforting. The broken ones help others who are broken by showing that love fuels incredible growth.

3. They love the greatest: Have you ever met someone who seemed to love so hard that it was almost too much? Well, sometimes broken people mature into individuals who love hard and they love true with a sure sense of loyalty and devotion. Why do the broken love so hard?

Well, usually this comes from the lack of love they received as children or the many times of heartache from dysfunctional relationships. They may even love so hard due to being neglected at some point or the other. Those who have suffered from a lack of love may be suffocating you, but it's just that they want to make sure they love with their whole heart.

4. They want to stop the hurt: When you meet a broken and damaged person, they will either be angry because they have yet to heal, or they will be the kindest person you will ever meet. Another reason why they are so kind is that they don't want anyone else to suffer in the way they did.

The pattern of abuse or the pattern of neglect is like a generational curse, and the broken-hearted want to stop the pattern and create a new way of living. It's like a son of an alcoholic has two choices: he can fall into the same pattern of drinking, or he can stop the hurt that comes with this addiction. The one who wants to stop the patterns of hurt is usually a kind, loving and patient survivor.

5. They are resilient, and they are empathetic: Survivors of horrific events are usually quite resilient. They've been through some of the worst experiences and came out the other side as a stronger person. Broken people such as this become resilient and can face things that scare others.

With this resiliency, they tend to have a great deal of empathy which causes them to be kind to others. If someone else is going through something, they serve as both the backbone and the balm to those who need it most. The kindness of some people helps victims of abuse or domestic violence in ways that treatments and therapies cannot touch. It's because they can relate to dealing with huge amounts of pain.

Never judge the broken: Many broken people are judged because they are different, or because they occasionally exhibit a few setbacks due to their traumatic history. Do not be fooled, however, these are some of the strongest people you will ever know.

Remember this, broken people know what it feels like to be hurt, and so they work hard to be as kind as possible to everyone. When someone is mean to them, they often see the hurt behind the insults and anger instead of how much they don't like the hateful person. Many of us cannot do that and tend to just dislike those who are unkind to us. Yes, the broken prefer to be nice and understanding. It's almost as if trauma has endowed them with the superpower of kindness. These are the reasons why the broken are so special."
"You never know how strong you are 
until being strong is your only choice."
- Bob Marley

Musical Interlude: Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak.
From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree. Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.”

"A Real Church Sign"

"Oh yeah, we're doing great. Thanks for asking." 

"Any Other View..."

"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."
- Michael Crichton, "The Lost World"

Chet Raymo, “Into The Pool”

“Into The Pool”
by Chet Raymo

“Let's start with a bit of late-Victorian soft porn, “Hylas and the Nymphs”, painted in 1896 by the Pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouse. Hylas is one of the Argonauts, sailing with Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece. While the ship is stopped at an island, he goes in search of fresh water. As he stoops to fill his jug at a woodland spring he encounters a bevy of naiads, who fall madly in love with the heartbreakingly handsome youth. They invite him into the pool- and he is never heard from again.

Did he find with those immortal beauties every young man's idea of bliss? Or, mortal that he was, did his lungs fill with water and...? I'll come back to the question. But first, it is Hylas in another appearance that I want to consider: as participant in "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous", written in 1713 by George Berkeley, Irish philosopher, later Bishop of Cloyne.

Berkeley, as every philosophy student learns, was an arch anti-materialist. The material world out there is an illusion. The only reality is in our minds. It is an old idea, going back to Plato at least. And, it must be admitted, the question of how ideas of things are related to a presumed external reality is central to philosophy. Berkeley's solution is simple: deny the existence of a physical world out there. Matter does not exist. He had a not-so-hidden agenda. By denying materialism, he meant to clear the way for belief in God and the immortality of the soul.

In the dialogues, Philonous takes Berkeley's role; his name means "lover of mind." Hylas begins the exchange as a materialist, convinced that ideas are reflections of a knowable external reality; his name means "wood" in ancient Greek, or more simply "matter." You can guess who wins the debate.

You will also remember Samuel Johnson's reaction to Boswell's report of Berkeley's anti-materialism. He kicked his foot forcibly against a stone. "I refute it thus!" said the inimitable Johnson. Today's naturalists are more impressed by Johnson's sore toe than by Philonous' long-winded philosophizing. We are the heirs of Hylas, the erstwhile materialist, confident that consensus scientific knowledge of the world reflects in some meaningful way a reality that exists independently of ourselves. We are content to let Berkeley's God and immortal souls remain phantoms of Berkeley's mind.

Which brings us back to the other Hylas, the one in the painting. He is not a philosopher. Merely mortal. Attracted to the importunings of the comely spirits of the pool, ready to plunge or be pulled into the world of nature, hoping perhaps to find there some measure of material bliss, fated for oblivion.”

"Against All Odds..."

"There's a little animal in all of us and maybe that's something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other's keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there's a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve."
- "Grey's Anatomy"

Musical Interlude: The Who, "Overture" from "Tommy"

The Who, "Overture" from "Tommy"

The Daily "Near You?"

Frazee, Minnesota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 4/25/21"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 4/25/21"
“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have
 the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call." 
 April 24, 2021 8:06 PM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 146,084,500 
people, according to official counts, including 32,070,058 Americans.
Globally at least 3,094,600 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/
"The individual comes face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent."
- J. Edgar Hoover
Related:

Greg Hunter, "Election Panic Coming in 2022"

"Election Panic Coming in 2022"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"According to a recent poll, 51% of Americans think Joe Biden cheated to get into the White House. The breakdown is 74% Republicans and an astounding 30% Democrats think cheating played at least a part of the 2020 Election outcome. In Arizona, the 2020 Election ballots are finally being audited as court battles to stop it continue. Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is predicting an election “panic in 2022.” Armstrong explains, “It means extremely high volatility. Despite whatever they want to say, there is a large proportion of the population that do not believe the election. Polls are saying it’s at 51%, but it’s probably close to 60% or 70%. You are also seeing that 60% of Americans want a third party, and you are talking about Democrats and Republicans. I think because we have such a high number of people who do not trust the election results, I don’t think they are going to be able to get away with rigging the elections again. It’s going to turn into violence. There is no question about that.”

Armstrong also sees Biden Administration tax plans on things like capital gains causing problems in the not-too-distant future. Armstrong says, “If they eliminate capital gains, I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat, you are going to have to sell. Your accountant is going to say if you don’t sell, you going to pay twice or three times as much in taxes next year. So, they can create a serious, serious collapse in the world economy. This is in addition to all this Covid nonsense that they have created.”

Armstrong has been saying for months that deflation would be the overarching theme in the economy. Is that going to continue or has there been a change? Armstrong says, “Deflation is now over. People have to understand. It has nothing to do with the supply of money. If you don’t see a bright rosy future, what do you do? You save your money. One of the number one selling objects in Europe is a safe. People are storing cash. Biden was the straw that broke the camel’s back. People are now seeing that things are going to cost more in the future than they do today. They have also created shortages because of these lockdowns. The inflation is just beginning to start now. It’s based on shortages, and it will continue going into about 2024.”

The bottom line on the cause of inflation, according to Armstrong, is “a loss of confidence in government.” Armstrong also predicts, “We are looking at the prospect of a serious war between 2025 and 2027. All this is completely because of this great reset nonsense. They have been using the Corona Virus as an excuse to try and shut down the economy. If you look at rents in New York City, they are in a freefall. Real estate is going crazy outside of the urban centers. In Florida, what was a $500,000 house last year is now more than $1 million.”

On Trump, Armstrong says, “I don’t see him returning to office before 2024.” But, if massive ballot fraud is proven with the Arizona audit going on right now, Armstrong predicts, “The state legislature can recall a Senator” who won by election rigging."

"Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One in this in-depth interview (60 mins. in length) with Martin Armstrong of ArmstrongEconomics.com. (What is written above is a very small sample of the actual interview.)"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/25/21: "Markets, A Look Ahead: Must Know NOW Updates!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/25/21:
"Markets, A Look Ahead: Must Know NOW Updates!"

"The United States Has Declared Defeat In Two More Wars: The Failure of Global Democracy"

"The United States Has Declared Defeat In Two More Wars:
The Failure of Global Democracy"
by Ryan McMaken 

"President Biden announced last week that he planned to remove all combat troops from Afghanistan by September, which he says will mark the end of what is now a twenty-year war in the central Asian country. A week earlier, the US and Iraq reaffirmed a deal to withdraw “any remaining combat forces” from Iraq, and to further wind down the US involvement there, which dates back to the 2003 invasion.

In both cases, of course, the stated plans to end military intervention have been framed in polite language designed to make it look like the US is leaving on its own terms - and also to allow the US regime some level of plausibility when it claims “mission accomplished.” In reality, of course, both Iraq and Afghanistan are just two more wars that the United States has lost in a long list of botched military interventions dating back to Vietnam and Korea. Moreover, these withdrawals signal the US’s continued geopolitical decline in a world that is becoming multipolar and highly motivated to bring to a final end the US’s vanishing “unipolar moment.”

But what exactly do we mean by “lost” in this context? Well, by the standards of the objectives presented by the US regime itself when these wars began, these wars are complete failures. For example, we were told Iraq and Afghanistan would become “democracies” where Western-style human rights are protected and valued. That was the humanitarian justification.

We were also told these countries would become reliable allies of the United States, sort of like Germany or Japan. That was the geopolitical justification. The US has failed on both fronts.

When the United States first invaded Afghanistan, following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US regime claimed the mission was both a punitive and a strategic one. The military intervention was, we were told, designed to punish and disable the Taliban regime, which was fostering terrorist training camps of the sort that supposedly led to 9/11.

But, not surprisingly, Washington then decided it was going to stay in Afghanistan for a long time. The voters were soon told to brace for a generational war, one that could last decades. After twenty or twenty-five years, though, we were told Afghanistan would become a liberal democracy where women could walk around in miniskirts and the youth would spend their days studying poetry and engineering at universities. Afghanistan, we were told, would end up like postwar Germany and Japan - outposts of Western liberal democracy.

Needless to say, the Pentagon never mentions that anymore. Even after twenty years, the political situation in Afghanistan can perhaps be most accurately described as an ongoing series of wars between warlords, with US-supported warlords on the “good” side. The idea that these US-aligned warlords represent the side of human rights, though, is wishful thinking at its most extreme.

Two years after the occupation of Afghanistan began, the promises of “global democracy” became even more grandiose as the regime tried to grow support for the Iraq invasion. The Bush administration pushed a grand vision for the entire region with claims that a new democratic Iraq would serve as the launching point for a total makeover of the Middle East, which would soon become a region of liberal democracies. The US repeatedly claimed that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was something of a reincarnation of Hitler - rather than the run-of-the-mill dictator he was - and suggested that once Hussein was gone freedom and justice would flower throughout the region.

That didn't happen. Indeed, even if life improved for some Iraqis - such as the Kurds - life became far worse for countless other Iraqis. As noted by NPR in 2018, as a result of the Iraq War, Iraq devolved into one of the most dangerous and corrupt countries in the world. With an estimated 500,000 killed in war and violence since 2003, few families have been left untouched. Although security has improved immensely, corruption remains entrenched.

“The majority of people before - Sunni and Shiite - did not like the [Hussein] regime,” says [General Najm al-Jabouri]. “But many people, when they compare between the situation under Saddam Hussein and now, find maybe their life under Saddam Hussein was better.”

Today, Iraq's standard of living remains crippled by the US invasion, and the democratic government amounts to a regime that is little more than a group of competing kleptocracies. Moreover, the US invasion paved the way for the rise of religious extremism in Iraq, which led to the near-total destruction of Iraq’s Christian population - which had enjoyed legal protection under Hussein.

Rather than spread notions of liberal democracy and human rights in the region, the US regime has only doubled down in its support for the most repressive regimes. The US remains an enthusiastic supporter of the Saudi regime, one of the most despotic and blood-soaked regimes on earth today. The US has been propping up the military dictatorship in Egypt. Through its interventions in Libya and Syria, the US has taken the side of terrorists and Islamic zealots who traffic young women for sex slavery and enforce the most draconian sorts of Islamic law - something much more rare under the Hussein regime, or under the secular regime still ruling in Syria.

The US’s regime change in Iraq supercharged al-Qaeda and ISIS, leading to humanitarian crises in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

The Failure of Regime Change: But even if the US failed miserably on installing new human rights–loving regimes across the region, at least the US’s “national interests” are now much safer thanks to regime change. Right?

Well, not quite. Although Washington now claims that it is leaving Iraq and Afghanistan on good terms with the local regimes, the fact is that the US is leaving in power a great many enemies who are more than happy to see the US leave. And in many cases, the US strengthened those with an interest in undermining Washington's interests.

In Afghanistan, for example, the anti-US warlords (i.e., Taliban-aligned groups) aren’t going away, and are likely to even increase in power as the US leaves. This, after all, is the central claim made by those who oppose Biden’s withdrawal plan. The US leaves behind an Afghanistan where anti-US powers are likely to quickly rush in and fill the power vacuum.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the main “accomplishment” of the removal of Sunni-aligned Saddam Hussein was to grow the power of the Shia minority. This now means the growth of Iran-aligned Shia militias, which are avowedly opposed to the US regime.

In other words, the US could maintain a foothold in both countries indefinitely, but it could only do so through old-fashioned - and very costly - military occupation. That’s certainly not what Washington promised twenty years ago. With all its fanciful promises for fundamentally changing the calculus in the Middle East, the US has not come even close to shifting the balance of power toward the US by creating a new block of pro-US “democracies.” Mostly, the US has sown chaos in the region, paved the way for terrorist groups, and reaffirmed support for some of the worst dictators and regimes in the region.

All of this was bought and paid for by thousands of US lives and hundreds of thousands of lives in the invaded countries. And by trillions of US dollars. The last twenty years have been little more than the US regime spinning its wheels, all while condemning millions to a new reality of greater death, disability, and poverty.

It’s not over yet, though. The fact some announcements have been made about ending wars doesn’t mean they’re really over. There’s no time frame for the final removal of combat troops from Iraq. In Afghanistan, the US may not be ending the war at all, but only shifting toward a war fought by US-employed mercenaries.

In any case, the global political situation has become expensive and hostile to the point that it now makes sense to at least ostensibly bring these conflicts to an end. Also, now that the average American voter is barely paying attention - and that the US is facing an economic crisis and weak recovery - it has become politically expedient to forget about those old wars, presumably with an eye to starting a new one with Russia."

"How It Really Is"

D.C. ...
Full screen recommended.
Jethro Tull, "Locomotive Breath"

Too bad the joke, as always, is on us...

"For This Is What We Do..."

“My heart broke on its shame and sorrow. I suddenly knew how much crying there was in me, and how little love. I knew, at last, how lonely I was. But I couldn’t respond. My culture had taught me all the wrong things well. So I lay completely still, and gave no reaction at all. But the soul has no culture. The soul has no nations. The soul has no color or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has its moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can’t be stilled.

I clenched my teeth against the stars. I closed my eyes. I surrendered to sleep. One of the reasons why we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you.”

“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”