"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."
POITOU, FRANCE – "We check the financial news… Both the $1 trillion “infrastructure bill” and the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” budget moved along in Congress… And stocks hit new record highs on Friday… after what was reported as a “blowout” jobs report. That is to say, we are making progress. The delusions grow more extreme. The bubble gets bigger. And the day that it will all blow up comes closer.
When will that day come? We don’t know. But next month comes the “benefits cliff.” Soon after, the moratorium on evictions expires. So do the feds’ unemployment boosters… And U.S. debt now stands at $28.43 trillion. That leaves just $0.07 trillion of spending before it bumps into the new debt ceiling – $28.5 trillion – put in place on August 2. From Business Insider: "Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned congressional leaders that a failure to raise the federal debt ceiling will cause “irreparable harm” to the economy as Congress barrels towards the deadline to fund the government and a potential spending battle."
The easiest way to ruin a man is to give him money. And with so much money headed their way from the feds, millions (perhaps the majority) of Americans now depend on it just to make ends meet. Where this leads is the subject of today’s commentary.
How to Be Anti-Fragile: Yes, we are still looking at the Brave New World ahead… and trying to find the connection between owning nothing… and just-in-time transactions…and the old home place.
Owning something outright gives you a margin of safety. You don’t get “put out” of your own house when you can’t pay the rent. When you lose your job, a romance goes sour, the economy goes into recession, inflation gets out of control, the president goes nuts, Congress goes AWOL, and your business goes bust – a mortgage-free home gives you a place to lick your wounds before starting again. You can spend long hours sitting in front of an open fire… raking the coals… and puzzling it out…“What went wrong?”
Savings make you anti-fragile, too. They give you the most precious thing of all – time. Time to think. Time to recover. Time to wait out a crisis… and figure out what to do next. When you have savings and a roof over your head, you are not desperate. You don’t need to sell your time, hour by hour, as unemployment climbs. You don’t need to refinance your mortgage at higher rates. You don’t need a bailout from the government when a crisis hits. In other words, “just-in-time” financing may be fine when everything is going well. But it’s a good idea to have some assets of your own, just in case.
Who Needs Wealth? As for wealth… Who needs it? “People come to think what they need to think when they need to think it,” is one of our old dicta here at the Diary. So we assume that people whose real incomes are falling need to believe that they didn’t really need to own anything anyway. They can get a job… and depend on the feds to maintain full employment. And if they need a house… a car… or a vacation, they can borrow… rent… lease… or share it. The geniuses at the Federal Reserve will always keep interest rates low, won’t they?
It’s the new “subscription economy,” where everything becomes a “service” and only the elites have real assets. You don’t really want a home, do you, Dear Reader? You just want someone to provide you with a place to live. A service, not an asset.
You don’t really want to own a car either, do you, Dear Reader? You just want a service that will take you where you want to go. And, of course, you don’t want to own a share in a company; you can gamble on “stonks” at Robinhood. Watch baseball games on your barn-size TV screen… vote in national elections – what else do you need?
Poverty Is the New Wealth: Besides, poverty is becoming the new wealth. A man who eats a Beyond Meat burger feels superior to one who eats a real steak. A fellow who rides a bicycle looks down his nose at the guy in his big, fossil-fuel-burning automobile. And everybody with a double-wide can now feel he’s got one up on Elon Musk’s tiny new house. Having a small carbon footprint will be more important than a big bank account.
Pucker Up: And socially, a vaccination may be a better point-scorer than a wine cellar. In the news recently was this gem: "Actor Jennifer Aniston is defending her decision to drop friends and acquaintances who won’t say if they are vaccinated against COVID-19 after questions on social media about the move. The “Friends” and “The Morning Show” star said in an InStyle magazine interview published this week that there was still a “large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts.”
We don’t know what facts Ms. Aniston is talking about. There are scientists who think everyone should be vaccinated. Others think it is a mistake. Both are reasonable opinions. Neither is a fact. But if we want to stay on Ms. Aniston’s good side, we will take the jab.
And if we want to sign on to the “new normal,” we will have to go along with the whole poverty-is-good, just-do-what-they-tell-you program. We will select our personal pronoun… take the knee… park our old gas guzzler… get vaccinated every six months… sell the house… strip down…and pucker up whenever the elite bends over."
"Life is fragile. Hard times are inevitable. At one time or another, we will all go through a difficult time, whether we deal with sickness, catastrophe, crisis, or relational breakdown. In those times, we need each other more than ever, but it's not just enough to be surrounded by people. We, as supporters, need to be educated in the best way to love our friends and family through tough times.
1. Silence speaks louder than words misspoken. Don't ignore them. Plain and simple. If you don't know what to say, don't avoid them. Say something. Ninety nine percent of what you could say is better than saying nothing at all. Instead, if you had a relationship with them, even if it was 10 years ago, a simple, "I'm so sorry," or "I'm thinking of you," or "I'm praying for you."
2. Don't make them ask you for help. Do they need help? Absolutely. Do they want to ask? Absolutely not. There is nothing more humbling than having to admit that you don't have your life under control, and for all the people pleasers out there, asking people for something as simple as meals or free babysitting is something we'd rather avoid. We'd rather tough it out than beg. Instead, offer your help, and offer specific ways that you would like to help.
3. Don't rush them through their pain. Saying things like "I know exactly how you feel" or telling me a story of your cousin's boyfriend's aunt's struggle and how she made it through. While we may say things with good intentions, it can also serve to minimize their issues and urge them to stifle their pain. Yes, what they are going through has probably been faced before. Yes, people do survive. Yes, things might get better. Yes, to all the things.
People need to know that the pain they feel is real and they need to move through it. They need to get a little messy and be a little more honest and feel a little more, because if they move through it too quickly or try to avoid their feelings, they might not heal just the right way. A doctor doesn't just give a sling with no cast to someone who has severely broken their arm. The doctor gives a cast. The doctor prescribes time for healing, because they know that if the healing is rushed, the bone may also not heal properly. In the same way, we need to give time for others to move through their pain rather than rush them. Instead, sit with them. Listen. Let them be honest when life is hard. Let them be angry. Let them be whatever they need to be, and resist the urge to fix them, heal them, or placate them. Just be with them.
4. Don't give unsolicited advice. Even if you have been in the situation before, support, but don't preach. This includes all cliche and trite phrases and platitudes. You may have heard them said before, but that doesn't mean they are helpful. Instead, listen, love, give. Give time, energy, resources... give yourself. Just don't give advice when they haven't asked.
5. Don't give them magic formulas. If they stand on their head, count to 30, twice and backwards, confess everything they have ever done, change their past mistakes, then this tough situation would no longer be happening to them. There is no magic formula. Life is hard and messy and it doesn't negate the goodness in this world, but it does assign blame and guilt to the situation, one of the last things that someone who is suffering needs is to be shamed. Instead, let them know you are thinking of them, praying for them, loving them, and cheering them on.
6. Don't make it about yourself. Essentially, don't complain about how your friend's tough time makes you feel. If you are close, you will be affected, but if they are closer to the problem than you, then they are not the person to whom you should vent. Instead, you should offer them support. Check on them. Love them. Let someone else support you. Instead, focus on supporting them. For more on this, do yourself a favor and read this article by Susan Silk and Barry Goldman for the LA Times.
7. Don't forget the person. With all of the above tips, don't just follow them like a black-and-white guide. The beauty in each of us is that we are unique individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, experiences, and circumstances. Instead, consider the recipient. Some people want hugs. Some people aren't touchy-feely. Some people want company. Some people prefer to sit alone. Some people want you to do things without asking, some people want you to run it past them first. Some people want someone to cry with and talk to, some people reserve that trust for a select few. Consider who they are before you act, and support them accordingly.
The bottom line? Love them selflessly and support them unconditionally, or as I remind myself... Say a little less. Love a little more. Life can be messy, but with love, we can help each other survive even the toughest times.”
"It’s just two weeks. It’s just staying three feet apart. It’s just staying six feet apart. It’s just not going outside. It’s just not giving handshakes. It’s just working from home. It is just non-essential businesses that are closed.
It’s just bars. It’s just restaurants. It’s just theaters. It’s just concerts. It’s just dancing. It’s just intramural sports. It’s just choir.
It’s just non-essential medical services that you have to give up. It is just non-essential items that you are not allowed to buy. It’s just not being able to exercise. It’s just gyms. It is just the closure of your business for a while. It is just not making money for a while. It is just not being able to pay your bills for a little while.
It’s just a minor inconvenience. It’s just not being allowed to carpool. It’s just not socializing for a while. It’s just a mask. It’s just not traveling for a while. It’s just not hugging people for a while. It’s just missionary sex that is risky.
It is just not seeing your family and friends for a while. It’s just not visiting your grandparents temporarily. It’s just your grandparents not having visitors for their safety. It’s just one birthday you have to sacrifice. It’s just one Thanksgiving alone. It’s just one Christmas without your family. It’s just two birthdays you had to sacrifice. It is just not celebrating any milestones for a year and a half.
It’s just temporary. It’s just a safety measure. It is just your ability to pay cash. It is just contact tracing. It is just a health screening. It is just a temperature check. It is just a scan of your face. It’s just a minor loss of privacy.
It is just one semester. It is just two semesters. It is just one year out of your child’s life. It is just one more semester. It is just a high school graduation.
It’s just the birth of your grandchild that you missed. It is just not being able to be there for your relatives when they are ill or dying. It is just not having a funeral. It is just in person that you cannot grieve with your loved ones. It is just not getting to attend religious service. It is just not getting to practice some parts of your religion.
It is just misinformation that is being censored. It is just conservatives that are being censored. It is just some of the science that is being censored. It is just the people who have the opposing opinions that are banned online. It is just the opposition that the White House is targeting for censorship. It is just bad opinions that are being censored.
It’s just the economy. It is just small business owners who are suffering financially. It is just poor people who are suffering financially. It is just people of color who are suffering financially. It is just financial suffering. It is just a few small businesses that had to close permanently. It is just a few big businesses that closed.
It is just not going farther than a few kilometers from your house. It is just a curfew. It is just a permission slip. It is just being alone for two weeks. It is just being socially isolated for one year.
It is just one vaccine. It is just one set of booster shots. It is just regular booster shots every six months. It is just another two weeks. It is just one more lock-down. It is just once a week - twice tops - that you will have to prove that you are fit to participate in society. It is just the unvaccinated that will be segregated from society. It is just a medical test.
Pretty simple, no?
Just f***ing do it.
But when you add up all the “justs,” it amounts to our entire lives. For over a year and a half and counting, we have been robbed of the ability to live our lives fully, to make meaningful choices for ourselves, and to express our values the way we see fit.
It is “just” the inability to express our humanity and the total negation of our very selves. All of these measures have served as a prohibition of expressing outwardly one’s valid and complex internal reality. This kind of suppression of self does violence to one’s very soul.
All of these supposedly little and supposedly short-lived “justs” have transformed us into totalitarian states from which there appears to be no endpoint. In New York City, California, Australia, etc., the people have permitted government such control over our daily lives that we have to ask it for permission to control our bodies, to move freely, to practice religion, to educate our children ourselves, to protest, etc.
Soon Biden, Trudeau, and other world leaders are going to clamp down on our ability to express ourselves and to associate with each other online so that we can no longer question, object to, or organize against government action. It is the destruction of democracy.
It astounds me that my Progressive friends - the same ones who claim to support “social justice” - are welcoming a fascist society in which government crushes any opposition and individuals cannot make choices about their own lives.
I will not comply because I do not want to live in the society that is being created by extraordinary submissiveness to government. I do not want to be complicit in this era’s atrocities.
What is the point of living if one merely exists to obey the elite to one’s own detriment? Is it even living if one lacks the agency to direct one’s life? I’ve already submitted in contradiction of my values to a shameful extent. One might say, “Well, what’s one more compromise,” but it won’t be just one more compromise. It will be just the next cut in a slow death by a thousand cuts.
Submitting only validates tyrannical displays of power and ensures that there will be more such displays in the future. And what does one get for compromising? Merely your continued membership in a society that will only have you if you immolate yourself and become nothing more than a reflection of the desires of the ruling class.
If you cannot be truly yourself in a society, is that society worth clinging to? I think not. As much as leaving the stability of my comfort zone terrifies me, staying in it means continuing to silence and shrink myself for a disingenuous feeling of acceptance. In that way, it is more of a discomfort zone.
Each time I expressed my fears about the future direction of society, my friends said “it won’t happen.” Each time it did happen, they shrugged their shoulders and reminded me that compliance was an option.
At this point, if the government were to cart me away to an internment camp (which is not a completely far-fetched notion and which has happened in the past) for being a dangerous dissident I am certain that my friends and family would watch it happen and say it was my fault for not complying. They are no longer capable of recognizing the humanity of the opposition or of questioning government.
I will not submit because I don’t want to live in a world in which my supposed allies would happily see me persecuted by the government.
I will not comply because the political climate has become so censorial, authoritarian, and generally toxic that my viewpoints will never be represented in the political process here. Without representation, my values and beliefs will be violated again and again by a polity that sees any deviation from itself as invalid. Thus, my compliance will provide zero assurance of any better treatment in the future.
I will not bend because I am not a conformist.
I will not give in because I do not want to reward government manipulation and coercion.
I will not surrender because I could die at any moment, and I do not want my final memories to be ones of craven submission to tyranny and the resultant misery and self-loathing.
I will not comply because it is not the government’s first intrusion on my body, mind, and spirit; and if we comply, it will definitely not be the last. All I will accomplish by my compliance is validating the government’s claim on my body and life.
I am not submitting because this is war, and I am not handing the enemy its victories.
I will not comply because the reward for compliance will still be being treated as a second class-citizen by society.
I won’t acquiesce because I am a conscientious objector.
I will not cede because the measures are unnecessary and the only practical effect will be to increase government power.
I don’t comply because I do not want to be a mere slave in the future version of the world they are creating, doing only what I am told to do and having to beg for access to the necessities of life that I am entitled to as a living being on this earth.
I will not yield because their religion is not my religion, and I refuse to worship a false idol.
I will not capitulate because I do not want to betray my ancestors and predecessors who fought for me to be free.
I will not surrender because freedom is more important than convenience and ease.
I will not comply because if I did I would be filled with rage against society, resentment towards my friends and family, and self-loathing that would eat me alive. I would become bitter and closed-hearted, and I don’t want that for myself.
"2021 Is 1984 – Our Liberties And Freedoms Are Being
Ripped Away From Us And America Is Almost Gone"
by Michael Snyder
"If only George Orwell could see what we have become. Today I am writing this article in the midst of a deep state of sadness. I have to admit, I haven’t been this sad in a very long time. In fact, I don’t even know if I am going to be able to complete this article. What they are doing to this country that I love is really starting to get to me emotionally. America is supposed to be a beacon of liberty and freedom for the entire world, but now we are on the cutting edge of the global trend toward authoritarianism. I know that a lot of people have been leaving the United States in recent years in an attempt to escape the madness, but at this point we see authoritarianism on the rise just about everywhere. Just look at New Zealand. Just look at Australia. Just look at the Philippines. At one time people were fleeing to those countries, but now they have become some of the most authoritarian regimes of all.
I feel so frustrated because I feel like I have been banging my head against a brick wall. Over the past decade, I have written countless articles warning that we were losing our liberties and our freedoms, and very large numbers of people all over the globe read those articles. But did they do any good? Here are just a few examples of what I am talking about…
I warned that this day was coming, and now it is here. For a while, they were content to whittle away our liberties and freedoms on the periphery, but now we are facing a full-fledged frontal assault on our most basic liberties and freedoms. And what makes it even more frightening is the fact that millions of completely brain-washed Americans are cheering them on as they do it. If our founders could see us today, they would be absolutely horrified at what we have become.
Because I am often so critical of what has happened to us, a lot of people out there assume that I must hate this country. But of course that is not true at all. I deeply love America. I deeply love our history, I deeply love our traditions, and I deeply love the values that this nation is supposed to represent. That is why it deeply grieves me that these things are now being ripped away from us.
We are the generation that is witnessing the end of America. For whatever period of time the political entity known as “the United States” is allowed to continue, it won’t be “America” anymore. Sure, the U.S. Constitution will still be on public display somewhere, and the politicians will still pay lip service to it. But for all practical purposes, the dream of what “America” was supposed to be will be dead.
Sometimes people say that we have too many complainers and not enough people taking action, but I am one of those people that did try to take action. I spent nearly an entire year of my life running for office, and me and my campaign manager traveled thousands upon thousands of miles so that we could personally talk to as many voters as possible. Everywhere I went I warned that unless emergency action was taken there wasn’t going to be a future for America. I begged, I pleaded, I delivered passionate speech after passionate speech, but in the end it wasn’t good enough. Ultimately, I was beat by the very definition of a “seat filler”. The guy who beat me couldn’t be more inactive even if he suddenly turned into a door handle.
Why can’t we have extremely passionate politicians that have fire in their bellies? Just look at what happened today. My father was in the U.S. Navy, and so to see this happen literally made me sick. So why aren’t liberty-loving members of Congress speaking up about this? Rand Paul has chosen to make a bold stand. Where in the world is everyone else?
I am so sick and tired of these “do nothing” politicians. They are standing aside as our Republic is literally being destroyed.A lot of people out there still think that the changes that we are witnessing are just temporary. They think that eventually this pandemic will fade away and everything will return to “normal” somehow. But what they don’t realize is that the elite will always find another excuse to move even further down the road toward authoritarianism.
Two decades ago, it was 9/11. Then it was “the war on terror”, which has now evolved into “the war on domestic extremism”. For the past couple of years, the pandemic has given them the cover that they needed to greatly accelerate their program.
In 2021, the federal government is working hand in hand with big corporations and the mainstream media to advance the “Big Brother” agenda. At this point things have gotten so bad that we can’t even criticize certain specific points of their agenda anymore because if we do we will immediately get censored.
For a long time, the Internet allowed ordinary citizens like you and me to communicate on a mass scale outside of their control. But now those days are over, because they are clamping down really hard. Just like in George Orwell’s novel, they want to control what we say, what we think, what we believe and what we feel. Having an independent opinion is “dangerous”, and thinking for yourself is “dangerous”.
We have literally become a “1984 society”, and most Americans are just standing by and watching it happen.And as I have been saying for years, if we stay on our current course there is no future for America. Even Joe Rogan is using the word “dictatorship” to describe the direction that our country is headed. Many are putting their heads in the sand and are assuming that our system will correct itself eventually. But every single day, things are getting even worse. If you love liberty, now is the time to stand up and say something. Time is rapidly running out, and authoritarianism is on the march."
"Is Our Monetary System Broken? It's An International Crisis"
"Everything points to our Monetary System being completely broken. It’s not really a problem just here, but a problem internationally as well. Other countries are having the same problems with their money that we’re having here. I am in Monterey CA."
“This tall telescopic field of view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan. Popularly called the Tulip Nebula, the brightest glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust above center is also found in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless as Sh2-101. Nearly 70 light-years across the complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula blossoms about 8,000 light-years away, shown in a Hubble palette image that maps the glow of the nebula's sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen ions into red, green, and blue colors.
Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association, including O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula. Also in the field of view is microquasar Cygnus X-1, one of the strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. Driven by powerful jets from a black hole accretion disk, its fainter bluish curved shock front is only just visible though, directly above the cosmic Tulip's petals near the top of the frame.”
"Fears of a sooner-than-expected housing market crash continue to grow on Wall Street, as investors closely watch the dangerous rise in inflation. Despite having assured the latest inflation spike will be proven temporary, the Federal Reserve is being increasingly pressured to initiate tampering plans as the cost of home and rents spiral out of control. With home prices nearly 24 percent higher than a year ago, and rents surging at almost triple their normal rate in just the first six months of 2021, concerns that housing costs could push inflation even higher are mounting. Given that shelter makes up about one-third of a key inflation measure, that could undermine the Fed’s statements that recent price increases, which have shown up in everything from food to appliances to cars, will slow.
The price of a home has skyrocketed over the last year, with some local markets registering a 37 percent increase year-over-year. That has triggered an enormous pent-up demand, as millennials started to reach home-buying age. On the other hand, the Fed's easy-money policies have suppressed mortgage rates to rock-bottom lows at the same time a massive population of young adults left urban centers seeking safer, spacier homes in the suburbs. However, with such inflated prices, would-be homebuyers are becoming unable to afford a new house, which in turn is leading to an even more dramatic increase in rents. In essence, the younger generations are being left behind as they cannot compete with boomers, who past years adding to their savings, and wealthy investors, who have been buying entire neighborhoods to turn into rental units.
Meanwhile, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 34 living with their parents has doubled, so demand is also high for rental units. “This disconnect between supply and demand has been underway for a long time,” said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae. “We’re finally seeing it flow into some of the inflation numbers.” Many housing experts have been warning of threatening parallels between the Great Recession and today’s housing market. Recently, the developer of the Case-Shiller index, Robert Shiller, said that another housing market crash seems to be emerging on the horizon. He stated that the market has several “aspects of a bubble". However, as opposed to the stock market, the housing market is less volatile, meaning that it doesn't collapse overnight. Instead, it starts by gradually losing steam, and then, the bubble finally bursts. "You can see that we’re seeing price increases now that haven’t quite been realized since those years just before the financial crisis,” Shiller said.
Even though the fundamentals are different this time around, the same factors are at play. In 2007, a housing bubble fueled by shaky mortgages burst, sparking a financial crisis that cratered the global economy. The circumstances pushing prices up are different now, but there is still ample debate over whether the soaring prices could lead to another crash or whether the Fed will take aggressive steps to prevent one. In 2008, the foreclosure crisis that followed the housing crash was so severe that tens of millions of strained homeowners had no alternative but foreclosure. Today, the central bank has to make a tough choice: rising interest rates to fight inflation, which would result in a housing crash, or letting inflation run, which will effectively make the population poorer and the economy weaker.
In face of all of these imbalances, even Federal Reserve officials revealed to be concerned that the housing boom might be headed to a burst. Robert Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said he was becoming "nervous" about the conditions of the housing market. With home prices rising at a double-digit pace, some Fed officials feel that the central bank's big purchases of mortgage bonds "could be helping to inflate" the market by keeping mortgages cheap, "inspiring people to borrow more and buy bigger", a situation not that different from what was seen just before the 2008 housing crash. All evidence is signaling that the market is going down that same path. There's only so much the Fed can do to keep delaying the coming crash, but no matter what choice it ultimately makes, whether we gradually fall into another economic recession or we face a brutal financial collapse, a disaster is ahead."
"We all got problems. But there's a great book out called "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart". Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin'about what's wrong, because everybody's had a rough time, in one way or another. "
"There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the government. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."
“We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble.”
- “Meredith Grey”, “Gray’s Anatomy”
If so, we've certainly got all the trouble we want...
POITOU, FRANCE – “Our family lived here for more than 200 years,” the young woman explained. She was a great-niece of the woman from whom we bought the place. Attractive, polite… blond and slight, she just walked in through the front gate and introduced herself. “I never lived here, but my father and grandfather talk about it all the time. It was their home.” We gave her a little tour yesterday.
Downsizing: Word comes this morning that Elon Musk, sometimes the world’s richest man, sold his many lavish mansions and now lives in a tiny, $50,000, pre-fab house. Mr. Musk is, of course, a phenomenon. Founder of several billion-dollar companies (the best known, Tesla)… married three times (twice to the same woman)… already father to five boys from his first marriage and now having children with his current partner… he is probably not a good illustration of anything.That is, he is sui generis – like a man with three buttocks – an example of only one thing: himself.
Last year, Musk vowed to “sell almost all physical possessions.” We spent last week exploring the trend. Transitory. Transactional. The “subscription” economy. In the future, says the World Economic Forum, “we will own nothing… and we will be happy.” Today, we neither propose nor anticipate a countertrend. Instead, we write in elegiac mode, not about what lies ahead, but about what is being left behind…
Beating Heart: This weekend, we tidied up our workshop after years of neglect. A man’s workshop, like a woman’s diary, is where he has most control over his thoughts. In his atelier, if nowhere else, he is boss. He can hammer, screw, bend, cut… all the things he might like to do elsewhere, but civilization and good sense hold him back.
His workshop, too, is where he keeps his whatchamacallits and thingamajigs… ready to plug the leaks, charge the batteries, and restore order to the cabinet doors. It is his command center… the beating heart of the home. It is where he can think most clearly. And more importantly, he doesn’t have to.
Bill’s workshop at his house in France.
A workshop implies not just a house, but a home. It is not just something you live in, but something you take care of… something you share your life with. A house may be transitory, but a home is permanent.
Finding a Home: Our house here in France was a wreck when we found it in 1994. It had little functioning heating, plumbing, or electricity when we moved in. But it had a workshop. And we were young and full of energy. We spent the next 18 years fixing up the house.
We left our home in Maryland to explore the world. We wanted to know how others lived. We wanted to see things… do business… learn languages and foreign customs… go places. As soon as we were able, we went… and this was one of the first places we went to. It was here that we raised our children. Even when we were living and working in Paris and London, we still came here for weekends and holidays…This was home.
Moving On: But we couldn’t stay. There was more to discover. More places to go. More things to do. The children left France for college in America. We had to move, too… but we didn’t entirely move on. We left France, but kept the house. One son, who now lives in Paris, comes down periodically to check on things. But mostly, the house sits and waits. Doors locked. Shutters closed. Furniture covered with sheets to keep the cobwebs off. Like a faithful hound at the gate, it watches the road… looking for our return.
Home Again: And then, when we finally get here, it welcomes us with shutters and windows thrown open and a warm gush of summer air…In a matter of minutes, the old house comes back to life… It is home again. And then, we go to work… just as we did more than a quarter of a century ago. For now, after so many years, it is time to repaint the woodwork… repair the cracks… oil the hinges… and fix the roof.
An ancient relative of ours used to refer to the homeplace as “the family stronghold.” There was a time when houses were fortified against marauders and brigands. Later, the family stronghold became where you started out… and where you retreated to when you were down on your luck or needed a rest. Out in the country, big houses became centers of industry, where teams of people – men, women, and children – worked together to bring in the crops.
Friends of ours in Ireland live in the oldest continually inhabited house on the island. Surrounded by thick, stone walls, it was built for safety. Now, it presides over a large farm… and is used as a venue for music festivals.
Changing Times: Times change. Stone walls don’t offer the protection they once did. And farm life no longer requires so many people. Today, young people leave… and the old farmers spend the days alone in their air-conditioned cabs. The old houses need upkeep. And not everyone enjoys scraping paint on his holidays. The next generations make their lives in distant cities. Instead of coming back to the homeplace for vacations, they go skiing.
There are old homes in America, too. A family friend had a certificate on his wall. It congratulated him for keeping the Maryland farm in the same family since the time of the Revolution. Our friend had lived all over the world; he was an army lawyer, who played a key role in the Nuremberg trials. But when he retired, he came home to run the family farm. He died a few years later. By then, his five daughters had departed for careers in New York, San Francisco, and even Moscow. None of them wanted the farm. It was a burden. They sold it… and the old farmhouse burned down in mysterious circumstances soon after.
More to come… No, not all memories of home are happy ones."
"Yesterday I went to my urologist for one of my regular checkups. I’ll spare you the medical details, but my trip to the doctor gave me a quick lesson in why there are still millions of Americans who are not returning to their jobs.
What normally happens at the urologist’s office is that after I pee in a bottle, a staffer or assistant takes my blood pressure, draws a sample of my blood and does an ultrasound on my bladder. Then the doctor himself comes in, we have a quick conversation, he inspects me, tells me I’m fine and I’m out the door. But yesterday, no one took my blood pressure or gave me an ultrasound. When I asked the doctor why that was, he said, “We don’t have the help anymore. We’re so shorthanded we can’t do all the normal things.” The clinic was understaffed because its workers can “earn” more sitting on their butts opening state and federal unemployment checks than they could if they returned to their jobs.
If you recall, starting at the end of March 2020, the Trump administration’s $2.2 trillion Cares Act included $600 a week for Americans who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Added to existing state unemployment benefits, millions of restaurant workers, retail workers and even part-time Uber drivers found themselves on easy-chair street.
This March Biden’s American Rescue Plan cut the unemployment relief check to $300 a week, but his regime kept the generous federal gravy train running until Sept. 4. Given the way everyone’s talking about lockdowns again because of the delta variant, don’t be surprised if those $300 checks keep coming till Christmas.
What was so sad, my urologist said, is that despite having no patients during the early days of the pandemic, his medical group decided to stay open so its employees would have a paycheck. “Then one day the federal government decided to send checks to them,” he said, “and they went home – and never came back.”
You wonder why those federal employment numbers keep coming in lower than expected while so many restaurants and small businesses are clamoring for workers? To put it simply, people are being paid too well by the feds not to work. It’s not that they can’t find a job. Every storefront in America has a “Help Wanted” or “Hiring for All Positions” sign in its window. They just can’t get their backsides off the couch – if they’re actually at home.
A lot of unemployed Americans apparently are in Vegas, which is so crowded you can’t find a hotel room and the average wait for an Uber is more than half an hour. Restaurants everywhere are really hurting because no one wants to take a pay cut and go back to work.
This week I saw the owner of a restaurant in New York crying on TV that he was so short of help he had to clean the toilets himself. And now in New York City and LA they're saying no one will be allowed to eat indoors unless they can prove they’ve had a COVID shot. The health Nazis in charge want restaurants to start checking people at the door to make sure their vaccination papers are in order.
So who does Mayor De Blasio actually think will fill those new doorman jobs, the chef, the bartender or the restaurant owner? I guarantee whoever thought up that stupid idea never gave a second’s thought to how it would affect the restaurants in New York City that already are understaffed and barely breathing. If I ran a restaurant in LA, I’d go straight to the Southern border and hire a dozen illegal aliens – and I guarantee you they’d be happy to go to work. I’d rather hire someone who walked here from Central America than some lazy American who won't get off their couch."
"Of all the inane ideas shoved down the nation’s craw lo these years of the Covid-19 virus, “stop the spread” was surely the worst. For one thing, it was impossible, as in not going to happen no way, because the gift from Dr. Anthony Fauci & Associates spread anyway, despite all attempts to hide from it via lockdowns, or social distancing, or the wearing of face masks. All that accomplished was to destroy 40 percent of the small businesses in America.
Viruses will spread, especially viruses that are new to a population’s immune systems, because that’s what they do, and eventually they burn out. It’s as simple as that. But our current unsound psychological state of collective techno-narcissism made it easy for the public health authorities to put over the next stupid idea: that a miraculous vaccine could be engineered at “warp speed” to defeat the spread of Covid-19, a virus with a strikingly low death rate. Sunday, August 8, 171 people died of it in the USA, for a seven-day average of 516 deaths (stats from The New York Times), out of 330-plus-million citizens, and Gawd knows how many others here illegally. This has been termed “a surge.”
Speaking of people here illegally, the same government officials who bemoan the new “surge” in virus cases are the very ones deliberately allowing an unchecked surge of border-jumpers from all corners of the world to enter the USA from Mexico, many of them infected with new strains of Covid-19. And, if that wasn’t fiendish enough, the regime is putting them on airplanes and buses to towns all over America like fifty-thousand Typhoid Marys. That is, the federal government is doing all it can to worsen the spread of new strains of Covid-19.
This is the same outfit, under “Joe Biden,” that is making noises about a national vaccine mandate, for vaccines that are not actually vaccines, strictly speaking. We just call them that to reinforce our techno-narcissistic faith in miracle cures. After eight months of experimenting with these biochemical cocktails, there is very good reason to believe that they are unsafe, especially the latent effects of their main active ingredient, the spike protein, which can insidiously induce damage to blood vessels. No, thank you.
This was on top of the proposition that attempting mass “vaccinations” at the height of an epidemic accelerates the evolution of variant viruses via antibody dependent enhancement in those vaccinated, causing the virus to become more infectious and replicate at higher levels - which has happened in every other coronavirus vaccine development program ever attempted - while the efficacy of the vaccines wanes over a few months’ time.
Could you paint a picture of a greater public health policy fiasco? Really, the emerging questions about all this must be: 1) Have they done it on purpose? And 2) Is all the messaging confusion the result of Dr. Anthony Fauci desperately trying to cover his ass for his role in developing Covid-19, as well as the so-called vaccines marshaled to heroically defeat it? Perhaps both.
You could construct a case that it was done on-purpose and, in this age of manufactured narratives, some have proposed the story that the disease was a mere excuse to introduce a slow-working lethal pseudo-vaccine to reduce the global population efficiently and drastically - so that nefarious “elites” could enjoy life (and its immortal transhuman successor state) on a planet uncluttered by billions of human riffraff.
That story has seemed pretty preposterous to me. More likely, the hyper-ambitious and heedless Dr. Fauci just got in too deep with China’s PLA-connected bioweapons lab in his mad scientist quest to be remembered as the man who defeated all coronaviruses with a single silver bullet - enabling a “release” of this virus, with (from China’s point of view) the advantageous weakening of Western economies, and the socio-political destruction of their once-cohesive cultures. If so, well done!
At this point, at least half the country now distrusts and disbelieves the incoherent messages emanating from “Joe Biden’s” government about this Covid-19 problem and any attempt to force vaccinations on the “hesitant” public will pull the pin out of the national grenade that has been waiting to go off. The “insurrection” next time will be the real thing, not Nancy Pelosi’s faked-up soap opera.
It’s also possible that the hyped “delta surge,” and all the threats prompted by it, are just a manufactured distraction from the slow-moving train-wreck of “the most secure election in US history” narrative as actual proof emerges of, yes, widespread fraud in 2020. Who would be surprised, by the way, if our friendly, local Intel Community wasn’t somehow behind all of that, both the election fraud and the distractions - and especially the management of the news about it that people get from TV-land and the remaining major newspapers?
All the pieces in the story are flying apart: the virus, the election, the border debacle, the Woke race hustle, the fiscal lunacy, the contrived sexual derangement, the captive news media… All recent US history is starting to look like one big comprehensive fraud by forces seeking to wreck the country. The tension arising from that startling state-of-affairs is finally primed to begin resolving itself. The release could be dangerous."
