Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom,
"Supreme Court Rules on Carrying Guns"
○
Now consider this, and the consequences...
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "How to Not Die of Starvation After SHTF"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/23/22:
"How to Not Die of Starvation After SHTF"
"We do a deep dive into not dying of starvation."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex.
About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous color image combines both narrowband and broadband images recorded using three different telescopes.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100513.html
The Poet: James Baldwin, "Amen"
"Amen"
"No, I don't feel death coming.
I feel death going:
having thrown up his hands,
for the moment.
I feel like I know him
better than I did.
Those arms held me,
for a while,
and, when we meet again,
there will be that secret knowledge
between us. "
- James Baldwin
"Compassion..."
"Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion... is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception."
- Sharon Salzberg
"Demolition of Supply Chains is Pre-Civil War Sabotage to Shape the Battlefield for Domestic Warfare Against We the People" (Excerpt)
"Demolition of Supply Chains is Pre-Civil War Sabotage to
Shape the Battlefield for Domestic Warfare Against We the People"
by Mike Adams
Excerpt: "The United States of America is about to be plunged into a civil war. It will be ignited by the imminent Roe vs. Wade nullification decision by the US Supreme Court, which also just rendered a landmark decision affirming the universal right to carry a personal firearm for self-defense (striking down the New York law that radically restricted the right to bear arms).
That pro-2A decision is already seeing heads explode across the anti-American, anti-liberty Left, with rabid left-wing commentator Keith Olbermann even calling for an open insurrection to demolish the US Supreme Court and seize total control over the country via the executive branch.
Once the Roe decision is rendered, the radical Left will erupt into full-blown domestic terrorism, launching unrestricted warfare against Christians, gun owners and conservatives. What’s coming will make the 2020 BLM and Antifa riots look like child’s play.
The Biden regime knows this is coming, of course, since Barack Obama is the key mastermind behind the whole thing. Obama runs the Biden White House and tells Biden’s handlers what to do. They shaped the 2020 riots using paid mercenaries, media propaganda and “color revolution” tactics routinely used by the CIA to overthrow governments of other nations. Now they plan to use the same tactics to overthrow the US Constitution and attempt to seize permanent dictatorial control over the United States of America."
Please view this complete article and video here:
"The End of the European Colonial Powers, The Tyranny of Physics"
"The End of the European Colonial Powers,
The Tyranny of Physics"
by Tom Luongo
"I sat down last weekend for a long chat with Alexander Mercouris of The Duran and Crypto Rich to discuss the rapidly evolving situation in Europe. Long time readers know that I’ve been handicapping the collapse of the European Union for years. That idea isn’t based on my personal antipathy for Eurotrash commies and eugenicists, though it is quite large. In fact, the deeper we go into 2022 the more that antipathy rises to near unquenchable levels. The sheer arrogance and stupidity of Europe’s leadership is nothing short of breathtaking.
Today we are looking at a situation where an entire continent’s leadership is in the process of committing ritualistic suicide and yet is obsessed with portraying these self-inflicted wounds to the world as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fault. A common trait among all malignant narcissists is the inability to take any responsibility for their own actions, seeking to always shift blame onto someone else. You see this behavior in children. And it only manifests itself in adulthood because the parents refused to put any boundaries on the child or inflict any consequences on them.
Look at Europe’s leaders today and to a person, man or woman, there is not one shred of self-reflection or contrition. The problem is just as endemic here amongst the Davos-affiliated American leadership. Fungal President Joe Biden keep yammering on about the “Putin Price Hike” or blaming oil companies for not being patriotic enough to keep gas and diesel prices affordable for nearly every American. But it was just a few weeks ago where these same people were telling us that we had to endure slightly higher prices at the pump to starve Russia and defend Ukraine.
Biden and his party apparatchiks simply can’t give this idea up as we’re now just over four months to the mid-term elections. Biden to companies that run gas pumps:
"This is a time of war. Global peril. Ukraine. These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product. Do it now. Do it today." pic.twitter.com/1SCACLd8YO
- Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 22, 2022
I already told you what the real cost at the pump is all about, RINs, renewable offset blending credits, which are strangling small refiners. But in Europe the real story is beyond comprehension. It can be summed up in the following meme:
And yet if you listen to Europe’s leadership what are they talking about? Expanding NATO to include Finland and Sweden. Backing Lithuania’s disastrous blockade of overland goods into Kaliningrad, in clear violation of that country’s treaty with Russia. The EU parliament and the leaders of France, Germany, and Italy all backing Ukraine’s invitation into the bloc.
These are all to which Russia will correctly respond with shifting its exports East rather than West and put paid Putin’s words from his speech at SPIEF 2022 last week. “The European Union has lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, doing everything they are told from on high and hurting their own people, economies, and businesses.”
The whole speech is worth your time and the best highlight reel is this Twitter thread, not for what it implies for crypto, as the author implies, but for humanity in general. Debt is a slave’s system. It’s not real wealth, only the pretense of wealth.
The big takeaway is exactly what I’ve been talking about on this blog for years: The end of sovereign debt as the basis for global reserves. The world will move, quickly, towards a commodity-backed monetary standard, where some form of discipline will be enforced on governments, who are torching their credibility by the day, because of reality.
Real wealth is in things which sustain your life. Eventually physics and the limitations of time catch up with every central planner and their grand dreams of global domination. The tyranny they decry isn’t racism, a lack of tolerance or even tribalism, it is simply math and the physics of energy production.
That is Putin’s big crime, reminding everyone of this basic fact. The narcissists who try to blame him for their woes will never admit they were wrong. They would rather continue manipulating events to steer the world towards the unthinkable blaming him and us for not bowing to their wisdom. Listen to them carefully and all you will hear is, “It’s not my fault!” But it is."
○
“The European Union has lost its political sovereignty,
and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune."
Well, sort of a dance I suppose...
Douglas MacGregor, "That Will Bring War To The United States"
Douglas MacGregor, 6/23/22:
"That Will Bring War To The United States"
"Just for understanding of the whole situation: Russian forces right now control more than 20% of whole Ukrainian territory and this 20% is the same as half of England. This is just info for guys who keep posting things like: "Russia stuck in Ukraine without any real success". Also, bear in mind, Russia is not in a war in Ukraine and only part of Russian forces is in action right now and these guys are still able to attack on the 2100 km long battlefront." - AP
Comments here:
○
"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly."
- Jim Quinn
"What If The Recession Started 3 Months Ago? Banks Issue New Warnings"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 6/23/22:
"What If The Recession Started 3 Months Ago?
Banks Issue New Warnings"
"We are getting more banks stepping forward and giving their prediction that a recession is inevitable. Elon Musk says it’s going to be sooner rather than later. But then there’s a bigger question. What if the recession started three months ago? Are we going fast forward to a Great Depression?"
View comments here:
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"A Warning About The Coming Shortages Of Diesel Fuel, Diesel Exhaust Fluid And Diesel Engine Oil"
"A Warning About The Coming Shortages Of Diesel Fuel,
Diesel Exhaust Fluid And Diesel Engine Oil"
by Michael Snyder
"What I am about to share with you is a developing situation, and I hope to share more once the facts become clearer. It appears that a very serious diesel crisis is coming in the months ahead, and that will have a dramatic impact on our economy. As you will see below, we are being warned that there will be shortages of diesel fuel, diesel exhaust fluid and diesel engine oil. Most diesel vehicles require all three in order to run, and so a serious shortage of any of them would be a major disaster. Needless to say, simultaneous shortages of all three could potentially be catastrophic. Most Americans don’t spend much time thinking about diesel, but without it our supply chains collapse and we don’t have a functioning economy. In a recent Time Magazine article discussing the coming diesel fuel shortage, we are told that “the U.S. economy runs on diesel”…
Though most consumers shake their heads at the cost of gasoline and complain about the cost of filling up their car tanks, what they really should be worried about is the price of diesel. The U.S. economy runs on diesel. It’s what powers the container ships that bring goods from Asia and the trucks that collect goods from the ports and bring them to warehouses and then to your home. The farmers who grow the food you eat put diesel in their tractors to plow the fields, and the workers that bring construction equipment to build your home put diesel in their trucks.
Since January, supplies of diesel fuel have been steadily getting tighter. As supplies have gotten tighter, prices have skyrocketed. The average price of a gallon of diesel fuel hit $5.50 a gallon in early May, and it has remained above that level ever since.
One of the biggest reasons for the supply crunch is a serious lack of refining capacity. Back in 1980, the U.S. had twice as many refineries…"There are also fewer refineries, which process crude oil into diesel and other products, in the U.S. than were just a few years ago. There are just 124 now operating, down from twice as many in 1980, and down from 139 in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association. The northeast region is particularly spare, with just seven refineries today, down from 27 in 1982."
There have already been some temporary outages of diesel fuel at a few locations around the country, and we are being warned that disruptions are likely to intensify during the summer months. But the good news is that we aren’t going to run out of diesel fuel. It may become a lot more expensive, and there may be painful temporary shortages, but we won’t run out of it.
Unfortunately, the crisis that we are facing with diesel exhaust fluid is potentially much more serious. If you have just been skimming this article, this is the part where you need to start really paying attention. Newsweek is telling us that the United States “could soon experience a severe shortage of diesel exhaust fluid”…"The U.S. could soon experience a severe shortage of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), impacting U.S. drivers already hit with soaring fuel prices. DEF is a solution made up of urea and de-ionized water that is needed for almost everything that runs on diesel. It reduces harmful gases being released into the atmosphere and works by converting nitrogen oxide produced by diesel engines into nitrogen and steam."
If you have a diesel vehicle that was sold in the United States after 2010, your vehicle could technically run without DEF, but in most cases your vehicle will simply not let you start it if the DEF tank is dry…"Can we call it a DEF jam? Everything is in short supply as supply chains continue to unlink. The latest commodity reportedly hit is DEF, or the blue diesel exhaust fluid that every diesel sold in the U.S. after 2010 needs to cut emissions. This means that every diesel truck, diesel RV, SUV, and car owner will likely have to look harder, and pay more for, DEF. A diesel engine can technically run without DEF, but your diesel vehicle likely won’t let you start it if the DEF tank is empty."
A lack of urea is the biggest reason for the growing shortage of DEF. The United States is one of the largest importers of urea in the world, and Russia and China are two of the largest exporters. In previous years that wasn’t a problem, but now the war in Ukraine has dramatically changed things…"A major portion of our urea comes from Europe, and because of the war in Ukraine we’re seeing a shortage of it, according to Newsweek. Russia is one of the world’s major exporters of it. China, too, is a major exporter of it, and it has suspended exports. Weather, too, has caused supply chain disruptions. Since it’s also a major component in fertilizers, there’s intense competition for urea." Without enough DEF, our economy is going to be in for a world of hurt.
Meanwhile, Mike Adams is reporting on the growing shortages of diesel engine oil that are starting to happen all over the nation…"Retailers, customers and distributors are all reporting shortages in diesel engine oil. This is not an imaginary problem, it is a real problem that is so far entirely ignored by the corporate media."
Apparently there are some diesel engine oil additives that are in extremely short supply, and one industry insider is telling us that this problem isn’t going to be resolved any time soon. So what this means is that people are going to start running out of diesel engine oil. In fact, it is already being reported that the trains in Sri Lanka will soon have to completely shut down because of a lack of diesel engine oil…"Sri Lanka Railways said that it will NOT be possible to operate trains in the future due to the lack of engine oil. A senior official at Sri Lanka Railways said that the current level of engine oil would only last for another two months."
That’s in line with the warning we’re hearing in the states: About 8 weeks of diesel engine oil remaining in the pipeline. Just solving one of the shortages that I have described in this article will not be enough. As I noted in the opening paragraph, a diesel vehicle requires diesel fuel, diesel exhaust fluid and diesel engine oil in order to operate. You need all three.
This is a story that I will be following very closely. Needless to say, there are enormous implications for our supply chains and for our economy as a whole if solutions cannot be found."
○
Related:
"RED ALERT: Entire U.S. supply of diesel engine oil may be
wiped out in 8 weeks. No more oil until 2023
due to “Force Majeure” additive chemical shortages."
by Mike Adams
Excerpt: "According to information you'll see here (and explained in more detail in today's podcast, below), chemical manufacturers of diesel engine oil additives have declared force majeure and have ceased supply operations to the diesel engine oil manufacturers. Without a miraculous solution, the current supply of diesel engine oil will likely be gone in 4-8 weeks. After that, unless a solution is quickly found, there will be no diesel engine oil available until some time in 2023.
All transport trucks, farm tractors, construction machinery and transport trains run on diesel engines. A shut down of diesel engine oil would grind all transportation to a halt. No food for grocery stores, no coal for power plants, no hardware inventory, no crops being harvested, nothing."
Complete article and video here:
○
Now we have a timeline. And what then? God help us...
"Ridiculous Price Increases At Kroger! This Is Not Good!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 6/23/22:
"Ridiculous Price Increases At Kroger! This Is Not Good!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing a ridiculous amount of price increases! This is not good as we are seeing skyrocketing prices everywhere, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Gregory Mannarino, "Hidden In Plain Sight! The FED's Balance Sheet Is Increasing; Economy Continues To Crater"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/23/22:
"Hidden In Plain Sight! The FED's Balance Sheet
Is Increasing; Economy Continues To Crater"
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "WW3: A Dire Message From Lithuania"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/22/22:
"WW3: A Dire Message From Lithuania"
"The fires are being stoked for the next battleground."
"Cancel Your Contract, This Is The Worst Time To Buy A Home; Recession Will Trigger Food Crisis"
Jeremiah Babe, 6/22/22:
"Cancel Your Contract, This Is The Worst Time To
Buy A Home; Recession Will Trigger Food Crisis"
"The Cruelest Joke Of All..."
"The smallest decisions made had such profound repercussions. One ten-minute wait could save a life or end it. One wrong turn down the right street or one seemingly unimportant conversation, and everything was changed. It wasn't right that each lifetime was defined, ruined, ended, and made by such seemingly innocuous details. A major life-threatening event should come with a flashing warning sign that either said ABANDON ALL HOPE or SAFETY AHEAD. It was the cruelest joke of all that no one could see the most vicious curves until they were over the edge, falling into the abyss below."
- Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Panic Sweeps Across Supermarkets As Desperate Hoarding Of Basic Supplies Leave Stores Empty"
Full screen recommended.
"Panic Sweeps Across Supermarkets As Desperate
Hoarding Of Basic Supplies Leave Stores Empty"
by Epic Economist
"Waves of desperation are emerging in every corner of the United States. Americans are now realizing that supply chain issues, delivery delays, and extensive shortages are here to stay. That’s why basic supplies have been flying off the shelves at a shocking speed in recent weeks. People have started hoarding everyday essentials in anticipation of more shipping disruptions and price hikes after industry executives warned about the real chances of widespread grocery shortages and even higher consumer prices hitting U.S. stores this summer. Millions may be left scrambling to find enough supplies at their local supermarkets in the coming weeks and months as ports brace for record congestion ahead of the peak shipping season. A new panic buying frenzy is erupting across the country, and we have a lot to discuss in today’s video.
After contending with two years of empty shelves, Americans are getting fed up with so many shortages of everyday essentials, and they’ve been preparing for the challenges that are coming next. In recent weeks, grocery store shelves have started to be wiped clean by desperate U.S. consumers who are tired of struggling to get the products they want and need. But shelves are staying empty as retailers, big and small, can’t restock their inventories fast enough to meet the growing demand. In several parts of the nation, household staples, such as milk, bread, meat, canned soups, hygiene products, and cleaning supplies are becoming incredibly hard to find.
In a recent interview with FoxNews, some consumers expressed their growing frustration with the seemingly endless supply chain nightmare. "Honestly, it looks like March of 2020, when everybody was panic-buying and the shelves were bare," one man shopping at a Walmart store in Oklahoma city said. “One week, you find the food you’re looking for, the brands you’re looking for, and the next week, they’re nowhere to be found,” said a woman named Cathy shopping at a Giant grocery store. "Everything, meat, egg, dairy, certain breads are out of stock, as well as most vegetables, and fresh items," she added.
“To ensure we don’t have any shortages in our pantry, we’re having to purchase as much as possible and as often as possible,” she revealed. According to Carol Mathews, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida, U.S. consumers’ trust and sense of security have been repeatedly broken over the past two years, that’s why waves of panic-buying are likely to accelerate when shortages start becoming more widespread. “In the face of uncertainty, panic-buying is a natural response,” Mathews argues.
“We have seen lockdowns for weeks and months on end, supply-chain disruptions, price gouging, and the feeling of never having enough, never being truly prepared, which is the unfortunate truth in the matter,” she explains. Right now, the sudden rush to hoard food and other basic supplies continues to intensify and it is leaving store shelves even emptier right as the busiest shipping season begins. At this point, even Joe Biden has publicly admitted that the coming food shortages are “going to be real”, and the head of the UN World Food Program is saying that we could soon see “hell on Earth” because of the lack of food will be so severe. Conditions are going to deteriorate a whole lot more in the months ahead. We’re being told to expect even more chaos in the second half of this year. Some are already getting ready. The important question is: do YOU have a plan?"
○
Related:
Panic? Oh, we haven't seen panic yet, but we will...
"RED ALERT: Entire U.S. supply of diesel engine oil may be
wiped out in 8 weeks. No more oil until 2023
due to “Force Majeure” additive chemical shortages."
Excerpt: "According to information you'll see here (and explained in more detail in today's podcast, below), chemical manufacturers of diesel engine oil additives have declared force majeure and have ceased supply operations to the diesel engine oil manufacturers. Without a miraculous solution, the current supply of diesel engine oil will likely be gone in 4-8 weeks. After that, unless a solution is quickly found, there will be no diesel engine oil available until some time in 2023.
All transport trucks, farm tractors, construction machinery and transport trains run on diesel engines. A shut down of diesel engine oil would grind all transportation to a halt. No food for grocery stores, no coal for power plants, no hardware inventory, no crops being harvested, nothing."
Complete article and video here:
Now we have a timeline. And what then? God help us...
Gregory Mannarino, "The FED Is Still Buying It All! More Propaganda, Lies, Distractions, And Misinformation"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/22/22:
"The FED Is Still Buying It All!
More Propaganda, Lies, Distractions, And Misinformation"
View comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”
"Our Dilemma..."
"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time;
what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. "
- Sydney J. Harris
The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"
"Courage"
"It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out."
~ Anne Sexton
Bill Bonner, "The Courage Not to Act"
"The Courage Not to Act"
Title of a memoir the Feds will never author.
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "It was the longest day of the year. The sun rose here at 5:11 AM. It set at 9:55 PM. It was a glorious, stretched-out midsummer day… the solstice… with flowers in bloom…birds singing in the trees…and a warm breeze off the Atlantic brought the temperature here up to a delightful 68 degrees.
In the morning, before US markets opened, we drove a friend back to the airport in Shannon, admiring the hills, valleys, and towns along the way. We were cutting through Tipperary, with its lush fields, fat cows and antique stones.
“They’re trying to get Irish farmers to stop raising beef,” says a neighbor. “The idea is to reduce greenhouse gasses. But the Germans don’t stop eating beef. They just buy it from South America instead. They chop down the rainforest… and then send the beef 4,000 miles in a refrigerated ship. How does that make sense?”
We stopped to fill up the tank. It’s a large tank. Still, the cost – 197 euros ($206) – was a shock. But we’re getting used to big price increases. We saw them coming years ago. Now they’re here. So are big price decreases – for cryptos, techs, junk bonds, and stocks in general. And today’s cogitation is, broadly, about when all this price commotion will settle down. Not anytime soon, is our guess. And to give you a peak at what lies ahead…
Decision of the Century: Now taking matters into his own hands, Mr. Market is deflating the price of assets, correcting mistakes made by Yellen, Powell et al. As the corrections go deeper, pressure on the Fed to ‘do something about it’ will increase. Then cometh The Decision of the Century, when the Fed will have to either let Mr. Market finish his house cleaning… or burn the house down completely with more money-printing. We think we know which way it will go… but we don’t want to spoil the story. So let’s read on…
And here comes POTUS, doing his part to whip inflation now. According to our sources (Bloomberg), today, the president will announce a suspension of federal taxes on gasoline: "President Joe Biden will call on Congress to enact a gasoline tax holiday, a person familiar with the plans says, as he looks to cool soaring pump prices heading into summer. Biden will make a statement Wednesday calling on Congress to enact the pause, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an announcement.
Gasoline taxes are the best kind of taxes. They tax drivers to get the money to maintain highways. Canceling the tax doesn’t make the expense go away. It just shifts it to other people – including those who don’t drive. And since the feds have no extra tax revenue lying around, the money will have to be borrowed… adding further pressure to interest rates and/or to the Fed to print more money. So, this is just another jackass political move, shifting the cost of highway maintenance from a user tax to an inflation tax.
But yesterday, investors seemed confident; they seemed to think that the Powell-Yellen team would win the battle with inflation… without ever having to draw blood. Big talk. Small rate hikes. Letting their bonds ‘run off’ without renewing them. Piece of cake, right?
Dow 33,000? Then, the Fed could go back to doing what it does best – making Wall Street richer while destroying the Main Street economy. When prices settle down, in other words, it can ‘bring back the punchbowl’ and let the good times roll again. By the close of business, the Dow had gained 641 points.
Does this mark the crest of the inflation wave… and the beginning of a rebound in the stock market? The old-timers say that if a market can bounce back and recover 50% of its loss, it is a sign of a recovery. If the bounce fails to reach the 50% market – which would be Dow 33,000 or so – the bear market will probably continue. You can take that for what it is worth – which is not much.
But remember, Mr. Market is in control now. He’s doing what he always does at the end of a bubble – bringing prices back down to earth. And like a cat, he plays with his food before he devours it. So far, he has whacked asset prices. But just as asset price inflation produces a ‘wealth effect,’ asset price deflation engenders a ‘poverty effect.’ People have less to spend. Sales, profits, wages, tax revenues – everything goes down.
From assets to consumer prices, deflation seeps into everything. And the main source of leakage is housing. The fall in stocks and bonds leaves most people high and dry. But when the housing market takes on water, almost everyone gets drenched. Households drown as mortgage payments rise.
And now, says Bloomberg, the leakage has begun: “We’re already seeing the stock market selloff spin into the housing market.” Yes, dear reader, left alone, inflation will take care of itself. Mr. Market will get the job done. The economy will go into recession. People will have less to spend. Businesses will make less money. Prices will fall. But will the Fed have the courage not to act? We’re as curious as you are."
Judge Napolitano, "Scott Ritter - Ukraine Russia War Update"
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, 6/22/22:
"Scott Ritter - Ukraine Russia War Update"
View comments here:
Gonzalo Lira, "Israel Provokes Russia"
Gonzalo Lira, 6/22/22:
"Israel Provokes Russia"
View comments here:
"Housing or the Airlines - What Will Crash First?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 6/22/22:
"Housing or the Airlines - What Will Crash First?"
"We are now getting the numbers from builders and seeing that more homes are uncompleted than ever. We are also learning that the problems with the airlines are only going to be escalated by the fuel cost, labor cost and high price of the dollar."
View comments here:
"World War 3 for Dummies" (Excerpt)
"World War 3 for Dummies"
by Gaius Baltar
Excerpt: "Some knowledgeable people, apparently including the Pope, are beginning to suspect that there may be more going on in the world than just the war in the Ukraine. They say that World War 3 has already started and things will get worse from now on. This can be difficult to determine while we are participating in the unfolding events and do not have the benefit of the historical perspective. It is doubtful that people back in 1939 realized that they were looking at the start of a major worldwide conflict, although some may have suspected it.
The current global situation is in many ways like a giant jigsaw puzzle where the general public only sees a tiny part of the complete picture. Most don’t even realize that there may be more pieces and don’t even ask these simple questions: Why is all this happening and why is it happening now?
Things are more complicated than most people realize. What they see is the evil wizard Vladimir Saruman Putin invading innocent Ukraine with his orc army – for absolutely no reason. This is a simplistic view, to say the least because nothing happens without a reason. Let’s put things in perspective and see what is really going on – and why the world is going crazy before our eyes. Let’s see what World War 3 is all about.
The pressure cooker: The West (which we can define here as the US and the EU and a few more) has been maintaining pressure on the entire world for decades. This does not only apply to countries outside the West, but also to Western countries which strayed from the diktats of the West’s rulers. This pressure has been discussed widely and attributed to all kinds of motives, including neocolonialism, forced financial hegemony, and so forth. What is interesting, particularly during the last 20 years, is which countries have been pressured and what they do not have in common.
Among the pressured countries we find Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, Serbia, Thailand, and Iran to mention a few. There have also been recent additions, including India and Hungary. In order to understand why they have been pressured, we need to find out what they have in common. That’s not easy since they are extremely different in most ways. There are democracies and non-democracies, conservative and communist governments, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist countries, and so on. Still, many of them are very clearly allied. One must ask why conservative and religious countries such as Russia or Iran would ally themselves with Godless communists in Cuba and Venezuela.
What all these countries have in common is their desire to run their own affairs; to be independent countries. This is unforgivable in the eyes of the West and must be tackled by any means necessary, including economic sanctions, color revolutions, and outright military aggression.
The West and its NATO military arm had surrounded Russia with hostile countries and military bases, armed and manipulated Ukraine to be used as a hammer against it, and employed sanctions and threats. The same thing was and is happening in Asia where China is being surrounded by all means available. The same applies to all the Independents mentioned above to some extent. In the past 10 years or so the pressure has increased massively on the Independents and it reached almost a fever pitch in the year before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
During the year before the Ukraine war, the US sent its diplomats around the world to tune up the pressure. They were like a traveling circus or a rock band on a tour, but instead of entertainment, they delivered threats: buy this from us and do what we tell you or there will be consequences. The urgency was absolute and palpable, but then came the Ukraine war and the pressure went up to 11. During the first month of the war, the entire West’s diplomatic corps was fully engaged in threats against the ‘rest of the world’ to engineer the isolation of Russia. This didn’t work, which resulted in panic in political and diplomatic circles in the US and Europe.
All this pressure through the years, and all the fear and panic when it didn’t work, are clearly related to the events in the Ukraine. They are a part of the same ‘syndrome’ and have the same cause."
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"Explain It to Me, Please"
"Explain It to Me, Please"
If you want a war with Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela
tell me why and how it would benefit Americans.
by Philip Giraldi
"So Honest Joe Biden is now going to give another $1.2 billion to the Ukrainians on top of the sixty or so billion that is already in the pipeline, but who’s counting, particularly as Congress refused to approve having an inspector general to monitor whose pockets will be lined. The money will be printed up without any collateral or “borrowed” and the American taxpayer will somehow have to bear the burden of this latest folly that is ipso facto driving much of the world into recession. And it will no doubt be blamed on Vladimir Putin, a process that is already well under way from president mumbles. But you have to wonder why no one has told Joe that the whole exercise in pushing much of the world towards a catastrophic war is a fool’s errand. But then again, the clowns that the president has surrounded himself with might not be very big on speaking the truth even if they know what that means.
Having followed the Ukraine problem since the United States and its poodles refused to negotiate seriously with Vladimir Putin in the real world, I have had to wonder what is wrong with Washington. We have had the ignorant and impulsive Donald Trump supported by a cast of characters that included the mentally unstable Mike Pompeo and John Bolton followed by Biden with the usual bunch of Democratic Party rejects. By that I mean deep thinkers about social issues who would not be able to run a hot dog stand if that were what they were forced to do to make a living. But they are real good at shouting “freedom” and “democracy” whenever questioned concerning their motives.
Indeed, opinion polls suggest that there is a great deal of unrest among middle and working class Americans who see a reversion to Jimmy Carter era financial instability, at that time caused by the oil embargo. Well, there is a new energy embargo in place brought about by the Biden Administration’s desire to wage proxy war to “weaken” Russia. Analysts predict that the costs for all forms of energy will double in the next several months and surging energy costs will impact the prices of other essentials, including food. Given all that, the fundamental issue plaguing both Democrats and Republicans is their inability to actually explain to the American people why the country’s foreign and national security policy always seems to be on the boil, searching for enemies and also creating them when they do not exist, even when the results are damaging to the interests of actual Americans.
That a serious discussion of why the United States needs to have a military that costs as much as the next nine nations in that ranking combined is long overdue and rarely addressed outside the alternative media. The 2023 military budget has been increased from this year’s, totaling $858 billion, and, if one includes the constantly growing largesse to Ukraine, approaching a hitherto unimaginable trillion dollars. The military budget has become a major driver of the country’s unsustainable deficits. The deaths of millions of people directly and indirectly in the wars started in 9/11 aside, the wars of choice have cost an estimated $8 trillion.
The Constitution of the United States makes it clear that a national army was only acceptable to the Founders when it was dedicated to defending the country from foreign threats. Do Americans really believe that bearing the burden of having something like 1,000 military bases scattered around the world really makes them safer? The recent rapid collapse of the security situation in Afghanistan suggests that having such bases turns soldiers and bureaucrats into potential hostages and is therefore a liability. One might also suggest that the insecurity currently prevailing in the country can in large part be attributed to the government’s depiction of numerous “threats” in order to justify both the commitment and the expense.
So where does all the money go? And what are the threats? Starting with a war that the United States is de facto though not de jure involved in, Ukraine, what was the Russian threat that demanded Washington’s intervention? Well, if one discards the nonsense of a “rules based international order” or a plucky little democracy Ukraine fighting valiantly against the Russian bear, Moscow did not threaten the United States in any way before the missiles starting flying. Putin sought to negotiate a settlement with Ukraine based on a number of perceived existential Russian national security interests, all of which were negotiable, but the US and its friends were uninterested in compromise while also plying the corrupt Zelensky regime with weapons, money and political support. The final result is a conflict that will likely only end when the last Ukrainian is dead and it includes the possibility that a misstep by the United States and Russia could lead to a nuclear holocaust. To put it succinctly, what is going on does not enhance US national security, nor does it benefit Americans economically.
And then there is China. Biden let the cat out of the bag on his recent trip to the Far East. He stated that the United States would defend Taiwan if China were to attempt to annex it. In saying that, Biden demonstrated that he does not understand the strategic ambiguity that the US and the Chinese have preferred over the past fifty years as an alternative to war. The White House for its part quickly issued a correction to the Biden statement, explaining that it was not true that Washington is obligated to defend Taiwan. Some uber hawkish congressmen have apparently found the Biden gaffe appealing and are promoting a firm US commitment to defend Taiwan, coupled with a $4.5 billion military assistance package, of course.
At the same time, some officials in the Pentagon and the usual gaggle of congressmen also keep warning about the over the horizon threat from China as an excuse to boost defense spending. Most recently, there was alarm over Chinese participation in a meeting in May in Fiji to consider a China-Pacific Islands free trade pact! In reality, the only serious current threat from China is as an economic competitor. A trade war with China would be a disaster for the US economy, which is heavily dependent on Chinese manufactured goods, but Beijing, with its relatively small military budget, does not pose a physical threat to the United States.
And let’s not ignore Iran which has been hammered by economic sanctions and also through the covert killing of its officials and scientists. The US/Israeli war on Iran has also spilled over into neighboring Syria, where Washington actually has troops on the ground occupying the country’s oil producing region and stealing the oil. Iran’s possible expansion of its nuclear program to produce a weapon was effectively impeded through monitoring connected to a multilateral 2015 agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) but Donald Trump, unwisely and acting against actual American interests, withdrew from it. Joe Biden has been warned by Israel not to re-enter the agreement, so he will no doubt comply with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s determination to have Washington continue to apply “extreme pressure” on the Islamic Republic. Does either Iran or its ally Syria threaten the United States in any way? No. Their crime is that they are in the same neighborhood as the Jewish state, which finds the US government easy to manipulate into acting against its own interests.
Finally, in America’s own hemisphere there is Venezuela, which has been elevated to the status of Washington’s most hated nation in the region. Venezuelans have been subjected to increasingly punitive US sanctions, including some new ones just last week, which hurt the poorer citizens disproportionately but have not brought about regime change. Why the animosity? Because the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro is still in power in spite of a US assertion that the country’s opposition leader Juan Guaido should rightfully and legitimately be in charge after a possibly fraudulent election in 2018. The latest therapy applied by the United States on Caracas consisted of blocking the country as well as Nicaragua and Cuba from participating in the recent meeting of the Ninth Summit of the Americas which was held in Los Angeles.
A State Department spokesman explained that the move was due to the three countries “lacking democratic governances.” Mexican President Lopez Obrador protested against the move and removed himself from his country’s delegation, saying “There can’t be a Summit of the Americas if not all countries of the American continent are taking part.” The despicable US Senator Robert Menendez of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee then felt compelled to add his two cents, criticizing the Mexican president and warning that his “decision to stand with dictators and despots” would hurt US-Mexico relations. So where was the threat from Venezuela (and Cuba and Nicaragua) and why is the US involved at all? Beats me.
What all of this means is that there is absolutely no standard of genuine national security that motivates the US’s completely illegal aggression in many parts of the world. What occurs may be linked to a desire to dominate or a madness sometimes described as “exceptionalism” and/or “leadership of the free world,” neither of which has anything to do with actual security. And the American people are paying the price both in terms of decline in standards of living due to the upheaval created in Ukraine and elsewhere as well as a completely understandable loss of faith in the US system of government. By all means, let us shrink the US military until it is responsive to actual identifiable threats. Let’s elect a president who will follow the sage advice of President John Quincy Adams, who declared that “Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.” At this point, one can only imagine an America that is at peace with itself and with what it represents while also being considered a friend to the rest of the world."
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