Tuesday, August 9, 2022

"Economic Market Snapshot 8/9/22"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"Economic Market Snapshot 8/9/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Latest Market Analysis, Updated 8/9/22
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
August 8th to 10th 
Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...

"The US Economy is Splitting in Two - The Extreme Have and Have Nots"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/9/22:
"The US Economy is Splitting in Two - 
The Extreme Have and Have Nots"
"The very wealthy are doing just fine. The middle class and poor are getting destroyed before our eyes. The inflation reduction act will tax people to oblivion. Hedge fund and the wealthy will benefit from this."
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, 'A Lollapalooza of Boondoggles"

'A Lollapalooza of Boondoggles"
Another $430 billion to combat the weather...
 plus $80 billion more to help tax you.
by Bill Bonner

Ouzilly, France - "What will it say, in the Wikipedia of 3,000 AD? What will be the Judgment of History? We shudder to think…Will it say about its geriatric politicians… that they were actively trying to stir up conflict with their neighbors, trading partners and rivals? What will it make of its greatest economists and leading financial brains… pretending that people can be made richer by falsifying interest rates… lending money below the level of consumer price inflation… and “printing money” to cover budget deficits? And what about the character of its citizens… who let themselves get ripped off… lied to… and held in contempt by their own elected leaders? We can only guess…

Making America Broke Again: But first, we note that another lollapalooza of boondoggles is about to smash into the US economy. NBCNews: "Senate passes sweeping climate, health and tax package, putting Democrats on cusp of historic win."

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats narrowly passed a sweeping climate and economic package on Sunday, putting President Joe Biden and his party on the cusp of a big legislative victory just three months before the crucial November midterm elections. After a marathon overnight Senate session, the 51-50 vote was strictly along party lines, with all Republicans voting no and all Democrats voting yes. After Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote, Democrats stood and applauded."

What has been won? NBC explains: "The 755-page bill includes $430 billion to combat climate change and extend health care coverage, paid for with savings on prescription drugs and taxes on corporations. It puts hundreds of billions of dollars toward deficit reduction." (We presume Nancy Pelosi’s husband papered up well in advance!)

The legislation is cynical and scammy, both in purpose and application. Will it result in better weather? It seems very unlikely. Will it reduce deficits? Almost certainly not. Will it lower inflation? Not a chance. As is common for boondoggles of this sort, the spending is front-loaded – so the insiders get their money right away. As for the deficit and inflation reduction, they are barely loaded on the truck at all… and will never actually be delivered.

Congressional Free Passes: And the real-world results? It depends on the assumptions you make about the future. Here’s how the Tax Foundation scored it: "Last-week’s Democrat-sponsored Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), successor to the House-passed Build Back Better Act of late 2021, has been touted by President Biden to, among other things, help reduce the country’s crippling inflation. Using the Tax Foundation’s General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that the Inflation Reduction Act would reduce long-run economic output by about 0.1 percent and eliminate about 30,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the United States. It would also reduce average after-tax incomes for taxpayers across every income quintile over the long run." By reducing long-run economic growth, this bill may actually worsen inflation by constraining the productive capacity of the economy.

But ‘climate change’ is a free pass into the public’s bank accounts. It is promoted by the press as much as the ‘War on Terror’ or ‘the attempted coup d’etat of January 6th’ or the ‘brutal Russian invasion of the peace-loving Ukraine.’ Practically every weather report blames ‘climate change’ – for excess heat… floods… drought… cold – everything. Logically, since the earth is a closed system, for every horror caused by ‘climate change’ there should be a delight elsewhere—rain in a dry area… warmth where it is normally cold… sunshine where clouds generally dominate. But no one mentions it.

Instead, for the first time in history, politicians are able to say that they are not only complaining about the weather; now they are doing something about it. Another great crusade, in other words. Free the Holy Land. Drang nach Osten. Whip Inflation Now! And not coincidentally, make the elite richer and more powerful.

Wikipedia 3,000: But what will they think of it later? Not just a few years later… but 1,000 years… into the future. Will they see it in the same light? Will they get the names right? Who will be the heroes then? Herewith, a guess: “In the year 2022, which is to say, during the lifetime of the great economic philosopher Bill Bonner, America’s decline was no longer a subject of speculation; it was undeniable. Aggressive meddling – brought forth from a mixture of conceit and incompetence – had brought the country to the threshold of ruin. Its citizens shot each other in US cities, while its army attempted to maintain the empire’s dominant position in the rest of the world. Most of its people got poorer, with wages rising at only half the rate of consumer prices, while it transferred billions of dollars to the richest families in the country.

America’s economy – once the world’s most dynamic – had been fettered by boondoggles and weakened by the central bank management. And its attempts to rule the entire world… by murdering foreign leaders, sanctions, and active warfare… had driven its rivals together to oppose it. The next chapter was foreseeable by all but the American leadership itself.” Tune in tomorrow for more from the Wikipedia of the Year 3,000."
Joel’s Note: "Nestled in the euphemistically-named Inflation Reduction Act is a not-so trivial $80 billion earmark for the Internal Revenue Service. If this seems like a lot of money… it’s because it is. The figure is more than 6 times the total annual budget of the… ahem… “service” (currently $12.6 billion). So not only does the Inflation Reduction Act actually raise taxes on every class of American worker, it also enables the IRS to engage what The Wall Street Journal described as “beast mode,” by deploying “$45.6 billion to audit the middle class.” That’s enforcement, folks.

The problem, you see, has never been Congressmen (of both parties) wantonly frittering away your tax dollars… or shoveling money into their crony’s pockets… or front-running stocks on companies subject to their own regulatory pens… or smashing through each and every “debt ceiling” ever conceived… or using fear and propaganda to destroy the global economy (so they, and only they, can ride to the “rescue”… again, with your money)…

The problem is small businesses and middle class Americans and their stubborn refusal to simply get with the program. Don’t worry, though… according to “the service” itself, between March and June of this year, the IRS purchased $700,000 worth of ammo, a number that will undoubtedly skyrocket given their freshly fattened purse… so ordinary, working folks will soon have even more incentive to cheer their well-funded, well-armed overlords. Hooray!"
Related:

"War: It's All Falling Apart..."

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 8/8/22:
"War: It's All Falling Apart..."
Comments here:
Related:

Monday, August 8, 2022

"Warning, This May Trigger You; You Are Being Made Poor; California Is Out Of Control"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/8/22:
"Warning, This May Trigger You; You Are Being Made Poor; 
California Is Out Of Control"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, "American Tune"

Full screen recommended.
Simon & Garfunkel, "American Tune" 
(from The Concert in Central Park)

"A Look to the Heavens"

Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

"I'm Quite Aware..."

Oh, I'm quite aware of what a horror this all is, and yes, it's overwhelming, but that's our reality and I have no choice than to present you with the best available version of truth possible, there being no absolute Truth. What you do with it is of course your choice; do your own research and draw your own informed conclusions, and make what changes you feel best to survive what's here now and what's coming. It's really all any of us can do... I, too, don't want to just believe, I want to know. If I'm facing a firing squad, and we all are, I at least want to understand how and why. How about you?
- CP
"There are two ways to be fooled. 
One is to believe what isn't true;
the other is to refuse to believe what is true." 
- Soren Kierkegaard

"The Housing Slowdown Could Become a Global Meltdown"

Full screen recommended.
"The Housing Slowdown Could Become a Global Meltdown"
by Epic Economist

"All around the world, hundreds of millions of prospective home buyers that have been unable to purchase a home because of stratospheric price increases seen over the past couple of years are now getting thrilled about the ongoing housing market correction. But experts are warning that they should be careful about what they wish for: bubbly housing prices, soaring mortgage rates, the imbalance between supply and demand, and affordability problems are a toxic combination that has the potential to turn a global housing slowdown into a global economic meltdown of devastating proportions.

Over the past couple of years, central banks from around the world have artificially suppressed interest rates in response to the health crisis, in an attempt to prevent a global economic collapse. But now industry specialists are arguing that policymakers have only managed to delay that downturn, and as conditions start to shift in the markets, with central bankers now hiking rates at a more aggressive pace, a major economic disaster that will shake the entire globe is looming.

The situation has been particularly dire in U.S. markets, where home prices have climbed over 20% in the past year alone, and the vast majority of local markets remain extremely overvalued at this point. According to Ian Shepherdson, a chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, this means that property values are about to see a double-digit price crash because of slower demand caused by rising mortgage rates.

Unfortunately, even with sellers slashing prices at the fastest pace since 2008, potential home buyers will continue to suffer from affordability issues. That’s because mortgage rates are expected to keep reaching new highs compromising first-time buyers’ ability to purchase a home. According to a recent New York Federal Reserve housing survey, 30-year mortgage rates are expected to rise to 6.7% before the end of the year and reach 8.2% in 2023.

Needless to say, that’s a very concerning outlook. To make things worse, the U.S. is not alone. Similar imbalances are occurring in several markets all over the world at a time the global economy has started to falter. In the last 24 months, central bankers from all around the globe have enabled the formation of a massive real estate bubble, and now they’re having to cope with the consequences of the bubble going bust. In China, a sweeping real estate crash has already begun. Chinese banks are under orders to bail out property developers so they can complete unfinished projects. Mortgage boycotts are on the rise because people are getting increasingly frustrated about paying home loans for properties they are unable to occupy.

The toxic combination for the housing market is rising interest rates, collapsing growth, and higher unemployment. Of those, only the last is missing, but if the economic conditions turn out to be as grim as policymakers expect, then it is only a matter of time before mass lay-offs start happening again. A recent forecast published by the International Monetary Fund noted that all three main growth engines – the US, China, and the eurozone – were stalling, the fund said: “risks were heavily skewed to the downside”.

We’ve been here before, and we’ve seen things getting really ugly really fast. The stakes have never been higher. The ongoing real estate market crash is pushing us closer and closer to a global economic meltdown – and it’s safe to say that’s only a matter of time before things spiral out of control."

Gregory Mannarino,, "Insanity! You Cannot Spend Your Way To Lower Inflation Nor Borrow Your Way To Prosperity!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/8/22:
"Insanity! You Cannot Spend Your Way To Lower 
Inflation Nor Borrow Your Way To Prosperity!"
Comments here:

"American Household Debt Surpasses $16 Trillion"

"American Household Debt Surpasses $16 Trillion"
by Martin Armstrong

"American household has reached a new high, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Total household debt has surpassed $16 trillion for the first time in American history. Americans have taken on $2 trillion in additional debt since the pandemic. Aggregate household debt balances rose by $312 billion in Q2 2022 alone, marking a 2% increase from Q1.

Mortgages were the largest contributing factor to the post-pandemic uptick after rising by $207 billion to $11.39 trillion. Americans have been relying more on credit to make purchases amid inflation, and credit card balances have spiked by $46 billion last quarter. Non-housing balances saw the largest uptick since 2016 after increasing by $103 billion. Auto loans saw a $33 billion rise as the cost of autos remained at a high.

Delinquency on debt “increased modestly” in all categories. Around 95,000 people faced bankruptcy in Q2 2022, which is still near historic lows. Of the $758 billion in new mortgage debt accumulated in the last quarter, 65% is held by people with credit scores over 760. Outstanding student loan debt reached $1.59 trillion last quarter, 5% of which was delinquent.

People may be able to pay off their debt now, but as inflation and interest rates rise, that will become increasingly difficult. While mortgage debt is no cause for concern, the over-reliance on credit purchases will not help Americans lower debt. Inflation must come down for the people to maintain their quality of life."

"The Fed’s Set to Pour Gasoline on a Fire"

"The Fed’s Set to Pour Gasoline on a Fire"
by Jim Rickards

"Forget the happy talk from the White House and the mainstream media; the U.S. is already in a recession. They can try to redefine a recession all they want, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re a regular reader of mine, you knew this was coming because I’ve been forecasting it for months, but now it’s confirmed. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that first-quarter 2022 GDP declined 1.6%, and second-quarter GDP declined 0.9%. That fits the standard definition of a recession as two consecutive quarters of declining GDP.

Believe it or not, there is no official government agency that declares a recession. That task is undertaken by a private group called the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Don’t put any weight on the “national bureau” part of the name; it’s a private body consisting of nine academic economists who meet in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Harvard and MIT campuses.

And don’t hold your breath waiting for an NBER determination. Most recessions last only two or perhaps three quarters. In many cases, the NBER waits so long to declare a recession that it’s over before the start date is even declared. With the NBER members being weighted to Democratic priorities and a midterm election looming, I don’t expect the NBER to declare the recession started last January until perhaps next January, or in all events after the election. That’s just how they roll.

“Who You Gonna Believe, Me or Your Own Eyes?” These formalities and delays are what have enabled Biden administration officials like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to say, “We’re not in a recession.” They’re relying on the fact that no recession has been declared even unofficially by NBER. Meanwhile evidence for a recession is all around us. It’s like the old Marx Brothers line “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

On this issue, don’t listen to Yellen, believe your own eyes. They’ll try to tell you that the economy added a stellar 528,000 jobs last month, but you can’t trust that number. It’s mainly the result of “seasonal adjustments” that artificially inflate actual job creation. It’s a statistical creation that doesn't reflect reality. Besides, 303,000 were part-time jobs, which many regularly employed Americans are taking just to keep up with inflation. It’s true that nominal wages were up 5.8%. But after 9.1% inflation, real wages were down 3.3%. That doesn’t sound like a thriving economy to me.

The Worst Possible Policy: Meanwhile, Democrats have been trying to figure out a policy response to the (non)recession in advance of November’s midterm elections. Not surprisingly, they actually managed to come up with the worst possible policy. The bill that Senate Democrats passed over the weekend (with the help of Vice President Kamala Harris, who broke the 50-50 stalemate) is a warmed-over version of Build Back Better. Remember that loser?

Starting in early 2021 the Build Back Better bill went from $4 trillion to $2 trillion to now something less than $1 trillion, but it still has the Green New Scam elements along with price controls and new handouts. Democrats decided they needed to “pay for” their giveaways so naturally they’re going to increase taxes (unsurprisingly, the bill authorizes the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents). Not only that, but they’re going to tax corporate stock buybacks.

Raising taxes in a recession is a good way to turn a recession into a depression. Maybe that’s why they’re calling the bill “The Inflation Reduction Act.” Tipping the economy into recession is a surefire recipe to stamp out inflation. Meanwhile, penalizing stock buybacks is a good way to sink the stock market. It looks like this harmful legislation may soon do both.

Tight Money on Steroids: In the meantime, the stock market has generally rallied since the Fed’s recent rate hike on July 27. That’s because Wall Street thinks that the worst of the rate hikes are over and that the Fed will begin easing by early next year. But will it?

The Fed is on an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes and further monetary tightening through quantitative tightening, QT. The Fed raised interest rates 0.25% in March, 0.50% in May and 0.75% in June and July. That sequence brought rates from 0.0% to 2.25% in less than five months. That’s the fastest tempo of rate hikes since the early 1980s. The June rate hike was the first 0.75% increase since 1994. The approximately $1 trillion per year reduction in the base money supply (that’s what QT is) is estimated to have the same effect as another 1.0% rate hike. Put together, what we are witnessing is tight money on steroids.

Wall Street Thinks EZ Money Is Coming Back: Wall Street analysts recently concluded that the Fed would soon reduce rate hikes and even begin to cut interest rates early next year. This U-turn by the Fed has been referred to as the “pivot” and is one of the reasons the stock market has been rallying in the aftermath of the most recent rate hike on July 27.

The pivot theory began with the fact that both the Treasury yield curve and the Eurodollar futures curve are inverted. I don’t want to get too technical here, but an inversion means that the curves show rate cuts in the future; such curves are normally upward sloping, meaning longer-term rates are higher than shorter-term rates. The Treasury yield curve goes downward sloping at about the 2-year note. The Eurodollar futures show inversion in overnight rates beginning as early as next March. Jay Powell lent fuel to the pivot fire at his press conference on July 27. While eschewing rate forecasts before September, he said he thought rates could be about where the “dots” (Fed forecasts) put them by year-end. The dots were showing 3.50% on Dec. 31. That means another 1.25% in rate hikes.

There are three remaining Fed meetings this year - Sept. 21, Nov. 2 and Dec. 14. You don’t have to be a math genius to see that Powell was inferring rate hikes of 0.50% in September, 0.50% in November and 0.25% in December. Those are continuing hikes, but the hikes are lower than this past June and July. A simple extension of that trend points to a “pause” early next year followed by rate cuts.

Don’t Expect a “Pivot”: But there’s a serious roadblock in the way of the pivot. The “hot” July jobs numbers I mentioned earlier have since come out. They will give the Fed further justification to continue with aggressive tightening. The Fed figures that if the economy is still adding plenty of jobs even after its recent moves, it can continue to aggressively tighten in order to clamp down on inflation. It gives the Fed hope that it can engineer a “soft landing,” where it can dial down inflation without causing a recession.

This moves my forecast on the September rate hike back to 0.75% level. The Fed (wrongly) thinks it has a green light to keep moving aggressively. And just because Wall Street wants a rate cut early next year doesn’t mean they’ll get one. The Fed is more concerned about inflation than the stock market right now. The reality is that the recession is already here despite the Fed’s opinion, planned rate hikes will make it worse and the Fed will continue to tighten until the recession grows far worse."
"Inflation 'Reduction' Bill To Unleash Tax Terrorism
Upon The American People" (Excerpt)
by Mike Adams

"Excerpt: "Accelerating the total destruction of America - exactly as planned - Democrats gleefully passed the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” that even Bernie Sanders says won’t reduce inflation. Because inflation is the product of an expanded money supply - see Inflation.news to stay informed - this massive government spending bill will only increase inflation while handing out hundreds of billions of dollars to the green energy sector, IRS agents and wealthy corporations.

One of the most alarming aspects of the bill is the $80 billion that’s earmarked to hire 87,000 new IRS agents, unleashing “tax terrorism” against the American working class while the wealthy elite continue to pay almost nothing in taxes. Although these 87,000 new IRS agents will likely spend a few years just opening the backlog of mail currently piling up in IRS offices across the country, at some point they will turn their attention to America’s working class, weaponizing the IRS to target conservatives, small business owners, Trump supporters, Christian churches and pro-2A non-profits. (Note, too, that the math on this comes out to nearly $1 million per IRS worker…)

Under Democrat control, of course, every institution of Big Government becomes a weapon to be wielded against their political opposition. The IRS was already weaponized under Obama (remember Lois Lerner?), and now under the Obiden regime, the IRS is going to be transformed into a domestic terrorism organization much like the FBI, a criminal cartel that plots and carries out terrorism attacks in America in order to heighten its own importance while placing the blame on “extremism” (which the FBI defines as anyone who believes in America)."
Please view this complete article and video here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Brockton, Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

“Life Lessons From a Psychiatrist Who’s Been Listening to People’s Problems For Decades”

“Life Lessons From a Psychiatrist Who’s Been
Listening to People’s Problems For Decades”
by Thomas Oppong

“How you approach life says a lot about who you are. As I get deeper into my late 30s I have learned to focus more on experiences that bring meaning and fulfilment to my life. I try to consistently pursue life goals that will make me and my closest relations happy; a trait that many individuals search for their entire lives. Nothing gives a person inner wholeness and peace like a distinct understanding of where they are going, how they can get there, and a sense of control over their actions.

Seneca once said, “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.” “No people can be truly happy if they do not feel that they are choosing the course of their own life,” stated the World Happiness Report 2012. The report also found that having this freedom of choice is one of the six factors that explain why some people are happier than others.

In his best-selling first book, “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now”, Dr Gordon Livingston, a psychiatrist who’s been listening to people’s problems for decades, revealed thirty bedrock truths about life, and how best to live it. In his capacity as a psychiatrist, Dr Livingston listened to people talk about their lives and the many ways people induced unhappiness on themselves. In his book, he brings his insight and wisdom to the subjects of happiness, fear and courage.

“Life’s two most important questions are “Why?” and “Why not?” The trick is knowing which one to ask.” Acquiring some understanding of why we do things is often a prerequisite to change. This is especially true when talking about repetitive patterns of behavior that do not serve us well. This is what Socrates meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” That more of us do not take his advice is testimony to the hard work and potential embarrassment that self-examination implies.”

Most people operate on autopilot, doing the same things today that didn’t work yesterday. They rarely stop to measure the impact of their actions on themselves and others, and how those actions affect their total well-being. They are caught in a cycle. And once you get caught in the loop, it can be difficult to break free and do something meaningful. Past behavior is the most reliable predictor of future behavior.

If your daily actions and choices are making you unhappy, make a deliberate choice to change direction. No matter how bleak or desperate a situation may appear to look, you always have a choice. “People often come to me asking for medication. They are tired of their sad mood, fatigue, and loss of interest in things that previously gave them pleasure. ”…“Their days are routine: unsatisfying jobs, few friends, lots of boredom. They feel cut off from the pleasures enjoyed by others.

Here is what I tell them: The good news is that we have effective treatments for the symptoms of depression; the bad news is that medication will not make you happy. Happiness is not simply the absence of despair. It is an affirmative state in which our lives have both meaning and pleasure.” “In general we get, not what we deserve, but what we expect,” he says.

Most people know what is good for them, they know what will make them feel better. They don’t avoid meaningful life habits because of ignorance of their value, but because they are no longer “motivated” to do them, Dr Livingston found. They are waiting until they feel better. Frequently, it’s a long wait, he says. Life is too short to wait for a great day to invest in better life experiences.

Most unhappiness is self-induced, Dr Livingston found. “The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Think about it. If we have useful work, sustaining relationships, and the promise of pleasure, it is hard to be unhappy. I use the term “work” to encompass any activity, paid or unpaid, that gives us a feeling of personal significance. If we have a compelling avocation that lends meaning to our lives, that is our work, ” says Dr Livingston.

Many experiences in life that bring happiness are in your control. The more choices you are able to exercise, and control, the happier you are likely to be. “Happiness is an inside job. Don’t assign anyone else that much power over your life,” says Mandy Hale. Many people wait for something to happen or someone to help them live their best lives. They expect others to make them happy. They think they have lost the ability to improve their lives.

The thing that characterizes those who struggle emotionally is that they have lost, or believe they have lost, their ability to choose those behaviors that will make them happy, says Dr Livingston. You are responsible for your own life experiences, whether you are seeking a meaningful life or a happy life. If you expect others to make you happy, you will always be disappointed.

You can consistently choose actions that could become everyday habits. It takes time, but it’s an investment that will be worth your while. “Virtually all the happiness-producing processes in our lives take time, usually a long time: Learning new things, changing old behaviors, building new relationships, raising children. This is why patience and determination are among life’s primary virtues,”

Most people are stuck in life because of fear. Fear of everything outside their safe zones. Your mind has a way of rising to the occasion. Challenge it, and it will reward you. Your determination to overcome fear and discouragement constitutes the only effective antidote to that feeling on unhappiness you don’t want. Dr Livingston explains. “The most secure prisons are those we construct for ourselves. I frequently ask people who are risk-averse, “What is the biggest chance you have ever taken?” People begin to realize what “safe” lives they have chosen to lead.”

“Everything we are afraid to try, all our unfulfilled dreams, constitute a limitation on what we are and could become. Usually it is fear and its close cousin, anxiety, that keep us from doing those things that would make us happy. So much of our lives consists of broken promises to ourselves. The things we long to do — educate ourselves, become successful in our work, fall in love — are goals shared by all. Nor are the means to achieve these things obscure. And yet we often do not do what is necessary to become the people we want to be.”

As you increasingly install experiences of acceptance, gratitude, accomplishment, and feeling that there’s a fullness in your life rather than an emptiness or a scarcity, you will be able to deal with the issues of life better.

Closing thoughts: Dr Livingston’s words feel true and profound. The real secret to a happy life is selective attention, he says. If you choose to focus your awareness and energy on things and people that bring you pleasure and satisfaction, you have a very good chance of being happy in a world full of unhappiness, uncertainty, and fear."

"Someday..."

"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."
- Orson Scott Card

"Cometh the Horsemen: Pandemic, Famine, War"

"Cometh the Horsemen: Pandemic, Famine, War"
Michael Yon and Dr Jordan B Peterson
"We are heading into one of the most epic famines in world history, where the poor will freeze in the dark and burn in the sun while they starve. Michael Yon, one of America’s youngest Green Berets at 19 years old, joins Dr Jordan B Peterson to discuss the current state of affairs across the globe. Michael has traveled and lived over half of his life abroad in more than 80 countries. Author of three books in the United States and three others in Japan, he is America’s most experienced combat correspondent."

Brutal, honest truth...

"The Decline and Fall of the Western Empire"

"The Decline and Fall of the Western Empire"
by Batiushka

"Sometime in the future a learned academic will be writing a weighty tome with the title "The Decline and Fall of the Western Empire." Perhaps the Contents Page will include, among others, twelve chapters with titles something like this: World War One. World War Two. Korea. Vietnam. Palestine. Iran. Nicaragua. Afghanistan. Iraq. Syria. Ukraine. Taiwan.

Indeed, Karin Kneissel, the former Austrian Foreign Minister, is at present writing a book with the working title "A Requiem for Europe." In an interview with Asia Times on 31 July she declared that ‘European countries are growing ever weaker on the international stage and their places are being taken by Asian countries’. She said that the Europe ‘where she was born and grew up and to which she was devoted no longer exists’. ‘European leaders, through ignorance and arrogance, are neglecting the existing geopolitical realities and basic principles of diplomacy and this has created a dangerous situation’.

She added: ‘This is connected with Eurocentrism. We believe that we are so great that nobody can do without us…It seems to me that Europe needs Russia more than Russia needs Europe. If I am right, then is it really in the interests of the Old World to treat Moscow as an enemy, inclining Moscow to Beijing? Today Europeans are more and more disillusioned and desperate and this may cause mass disorder and anti-government violence’.

Kneissel, who is from Central Europe, makes it sound as if Europe is living in the past, before 1914, when it was politically central to the world, instead of being a more or less irrelevant political backwater as it is in 2022. What is certain is that the physical fall of an empire is always preceded by its spiritual fall. What did this spiritual fall consist of?

Firstly, there were two generations of Euro-American (‘World’) Wars with their genocidal and sadistic human sacrifices of tens of millions of young people, especially young Russian and Chinese. This led to the breakdown of nation states and national identities, at least in Western Europe. Secondly, there were two generations of Cultural Wars designed to break down family life. The first began in the 1960s. Then ‘single parents’ became the norm, no longer biological father, biological mother and biological children, the basic building block of all societies and nation-states. After only one generation of this War, with the appearance of stepfathers, stepmothers and stepchildren, with no biological links between them, a revolting and long suppressed disease came to the fore once more. It is called pedophilia.

Thirdly, this breakdown of family life continued over two generations has in the last decade caused a Gender War. There are no longer any father, mother, son or daughter because family breakdown means that children have no father/mother role models, with the result that few know who they are any more or how to behave and relate. And so we see the great confusion, the invention of Parent One and Parent Two, of legalised same-sex ‘marriage’ almost everywhere in Western Europe, promoted by increasing numbers of homosexual politicians, and the adoption of children by same-sex couples.

In the Ukraine, under pressure from its Transatlantic and Western European sponsors, it is proposed to introduce this same-sex ‘marriage’. Here is the price that Ukrainians have to pay for the billions of dollars of suicidal arms it receives for promoting ‘Western values’. Usually if you sell, something, you receive something in return. But if you sell your soul to satan, you not only receive nothing in return, but you even have to pay for the sale. Spiritual fall always precedes the fall of the State. In the Ukraine many have noticed the satanic tattoos and pentagrams on the bodies of the Neo-Nazi thugs who formed the elite of the Kiev regime armed forces and many have seen videos showing their satanic rituals.

All of this is in the name of ‘equality’ and ‘human rights’. This is the end of the Roman Empire, which is today called the Western world. This is ending ignominiously in the US-provoked war in the Ukraine, into whose hellish fires of sulphur and brimstone all Europe is casting itself. As it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, so it is today in the days of Eurosodom and Gomerica.

The extraordinary thing is the self-justification of the Western world for its own suicide and its refusal to admit that anything is wrong with it. On the contrary, only its ‘values’ of ‘freedom, democracy and human rights’ are correct and must therefore be spread throughout the ‘free world’. All who do not accept its ‘values’, which in fact are anti-values because they are destructive, not constructive like real values, must be mocked, slandered and, if necessary, bombed into submission. Today’s Western world is visibly coming to resemble medieval frescoes showing the torments of hell, which are what spiritual death is. The Western world has been demonised, the demons have been called up from the bowels of hell to occupy it and visibly and mockingly inflict its ‘Western values’.

Just over fifty years ago, in 1971, a popular American singer called Don McLean, almost prophetically, sang of these torments, that is, of spiritual death, in a song called ‘American Pie’. Describing how America had lost its faith in the previous decade of the 1960s, he sang that ‘for ten years we’ve been on our own’ and how he saw ‘Satan laughing with delight’, and that ‘the church bells all were broken/And the three men I admire most/The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost/They caught the last train for the coast/Singin’, this’ll be the day that I die’.

The trouble with the Western world is that it does not want to listen. Indeed, in the same year, McLean, who was brought up a Catholic, wrote another song called ‘Vincent’. His words there echo, perhaps even more prophetically in relation to the current refusal of the West, bound by the shackles of its narcissistic self-obsession, to listen. It listens not just to Russia, but to any voices of common sense and universal tradition anywhere in the world, even from within its own midst:"
"They would not listen, they did not know how,…
They would not listen, they’re not listening still,
Perhaps they never will."

"How It Really Is"

Loza Alexander, "Lets Go Brandon"

"Massive Price Increases Everywhere! What's Next? What's Coming?"

Adventures with Danno, 8/8/22
"Massive Price Increases Everywhere! 
What's Next? What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are starting to notice more empty shelves in the grocery stores, and massive price increases! We discuss this situation along with a massive candy shortage that is all over the news stations across the country. It's getting rough out here as stores continue to struggle to get in products!"
Comments here:

"Commercial Real Estate Crash is Happening - Stores Can't Keep Up with Price Increases"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/8/22:
"Commercial Real Estate Crash is Happening - 
Stores Can't Keep Up with Price Increases"
"Commercial real estate is in huge trouble. Grocery stores are spending all their time just raising prices. 75% of families feel that inflation is destroying them and they can’t keep up with it."
Comments here:
Tommy Bites Homestead, 8/8/22:
"Alert! Happening Now - Banks Are Closing! 
Pharmacies Are Closing; Protect Your Money"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Get Your Money Out Of The Banks Now!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/8/22:
"Get Your Money Out Of The Banks Now!"
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Bill Bonner, "Crossing the Channel"

Omaha Beach, Normandy
"Crossing the Channel"
With Irish families, English retirees, Polish truck drivers and young lovers...
by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "We spent the weekend anxious and unsettled. We were worried about the Judgment of History. What will Wikipedia say about us in the year 5,000… about America… about our wars and our economy? Will we even rate a footnote? Not that we know more than anyone else. But it amuses us to imagine it… guessing that History will be a shrewder judge than today’s analysts.

We had time to think about it inasmuch as we were captive on the W.B.Yeats… a ferry making its way from Dublin to Cherbourg over 18 hours… and then spent another 6 hours in solitary reflection, driving down to our house south of Poitiers.

We’re pleased to report that life on the W.B.Yeats has returned to normal. We took it often from Ireland to the continent… and it was always a pleasure. But during the lockdowns, the vessel was almost deserted… plying the North Atlantic like a ghost ship. On Saturday, though, it was back to its old self – jolly and comfortable.

There are four categories of travelers: young families, retired couples, Polish truck drivers, and lovers. It is vacation season; young Irish families head for warmer temperatures in France. Some, with trailers attached to their cars, will drive all the way down to Spain or Italy. On Saturday, children of all ages ran around the decks, scarcely supervised. No doubt, when the heads were counted on arrival in France, a few must have been missing, having fallen overboard somewhere off Land’s End.

There were French retirees, too, coming home from their holidays on the Emerald Isle. You can’t mistake the French; their clothes are much cooler, chic-er than the Irish. The women wear scarves and are so elegantly turned out that they could walk off the boat directly into a garden party. They are thinner too… and look like they have been dressed in at the Bon Marche especially for their trip.

The Polish truck drivers, meanwhile, have taken the trip so often, it must have lost its charm. They gather in the “Truckers Bar”… eat and drink copiously… and then retire to their staterooms to rest.

It was the lovers – perhaps on their honeymoon – who caught our eye. A pair of them is sitting in front of us as we write. He is hefty… and not so young. He eats a dessert or two… drinks a large glass of Guinness, and then another, to flush them down. He has a goatee beard, glasses… and dark hair. She is his opposite. Model-thin… blond… with nothing to eat in front of her. She has passed the first blush of youth, too. But the two act as if they had just found love for the first time in their lives. He holds her tight. They look out at the sea. He strokes her shoulder. He kisses her on her lightly-fleshed cheek. He caresses her narrow neck. He is the ardent lover; she the object of his affection. Oh my… now he is tousling her hair… and whispering in her ear…we are going to have to move… this is too distracting!

The D-Day Route: The voyage begins in the late afternoon. The custom is to assemble in the bar, have tea, and watch the ship pull out of Dublin Harbor. Then, we settle into our cabins and prepare for dinner, a civilized affair in a nice restaurant. After dinner, we rejoin our accommodations and spend the night in maritime serenity… rocked gently to sleep by the swells of the North Atlantic. In the morning we went back to the restaurant for breakfast… and there were the lovebirds again… looking a little tired. Perhaps the moonlit night had not brought them the same quiet repose as it has afforded us!

Soon, it was time to disembark. Our job – and the real purpose of the trip – was to bring our old horse van back to France where it would undergo treatment for old age and malfunction. So, upon hearing the captain’s command, we found our vehicle on a lower deck and made our way out onto dry land… at Cherbourg. Soon after, we were driving down the Cotentin Peninsula on our way to Poitou.

The main road out of Cherbourg is long and straight. It is the same route taken by the US Army in WWII. For this is near where US and allied troops landed on D-Day… and then found themselves bottled up on the peninsula. Nowhere else on earth have dead people been turned into such a tourist attraction. Signposts advertise the American cemetery… the German cemetery… the Canadian cemetery along the way. Billboards offer to help us “Relive the D-Day Experience.”

Our old friend Stanley, a carpenter with whom we worked in the 1960s, had no desire to relive that experience. He had lived it the first time, in 1944. As a young soldier, he landed at Omaha Beach. “Stanley,” we once asked him. “What was it like? What were you thinking?” “I wasn’t thinking a damned thing. I just was running as fast as I could to get across that beach. We were sitting ducks out there.”

US and allied forces landed at beaches all up and down the peninsula – Omaha, Utah, Pointe du Hoc… and built a makeshift harbor at Arromanches. At Ste. Mere Eglise, US paratroopers from the 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment came down right on top of the Germans. Local resistance fighters had set out flares to guide them, but one of the flares set a house on fire and the light from the fire helped the Germans see the parachutes coming down. Many soldiers were riddled with bullets before they got near the ground.

Private John Marvin Steele was one of the lucky ones. His parachute got tangled up on a church spire. Hanging on the side of the church, he played dead. He was soon captured by the Germans… but escaped in the confusion. His story was recalled in the movie “The Longest Day.”

None of the objectives for D-Day were achieved. But Allied troops and materiel kept coming and they were eventually able to fight their way down the peninsula and break out across the open roads of Normandy.

In Search of Lost Time: Today, there are museums all along the way, including a museum dedicated to the civilians caught up in the war. There is also a museum for the Bayeux Tapestry, commemorating another invasion across the same English Channel, but in the opposite direction. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, crossed the channel and conquered England. But we had no time for museums. We were driving south.

After WWII France enjoyed a marvelous period of peace and growth. There was a 30-year boom – known as the “Trente Glorieuses” – when everything in France seemed to work well. Indoor plumbing, central heating and mechanized farming became widespread. French cinema, fashion, and technology were widely admired and copied. France even anticipated the internet by more than 20 years with its “Minitel.” French food, too, was regarded as the best in the world.

Warren, another old friend of ours, had been a WWII photographer and later worked for LOOK magazine. He moved to Paris in the 1950s. “Those were the wonderful years,” he recalled, wistfully, many years later. “France was cheap. It was open and dynamic… and the quality of life was unmatched. Every year, we would motor down to the South for the summer season. We had a Citroen DS… you know, those wedge-shaped cars… one of the wheels could fall off and it would keep running. We would stop at nice restaurants along the way. It would take a few days to get down to Nice, but it was worth it."

“When you ‘motored’ to the South,” Warren continued reminiscing, “you would organize your itinerary so as to arrive in the best restaurants for lunch or dinner. There were a lot to choose from… and bars and brasseries too. You would stop for lunch… spend a couple of hours eating… drink a bottle or two of wine… a white to begin, followed by a rich Burgundy or Bordeaux with the meat course… and, of course, later, a shot of cognac with a cigar... That was really living.”

“Motoring” to the South, was very different from what we were doing on Sunday. We were headed south, but we weren’t motoring. We took the highways… the ‘autoroutes’… and only left them to stop for gas or a cup of coffee. “Everybody is in a hurry today,” Warren explained. “Nobody has the time to ‘motor’ anywhere. And they don’t have the time for a good meal. It’s fast travel and fast food… the faster the better.”

Too Late: In 4 hours, driving our horse van, we crossed much of France, from Cherbourg to Tours… then south of the Loire river. Almost all of it was done at about 70 miles per hour… and almost all on the auto-route, paying tolls in exchange for avoiding traffic lights. It was only after we got off the highway and passed the magnificent Chateau de Touffou, where David Ogilvy lived his final years, that we saw the traces of the “Trente Glorieuses.” Now we were on secondary roads, passing through small towns with their restaurants, bars and gas stations – where people used to gather in the evening – now all closed.

In 1981, Francois Mitterand was elected president. His government nationalized key industries and imposed a system of controls and regulations that have bedeviled the French ever since. The economy slowed down… but the pace of life picked up. People no longer had the time for ‘motoring.’ They took the new freeways, as we did, racing to their next destination. Nor did they feel they had the time… or perhaps the money… or the taste… to appreciate a couple of hours of mid-day dining. Restaurants soon found their traditional customers ‘too busy’ to enjoy a leisurely meal. Fast food replaced fine food. And then, the small, quality restaurants began to go out of business. Now, in many towns in France, as in America, it is hard to find a good restaurant.

In the 1990s, David Ogilvy invited us for dinner. He was perhaps the greatest ‘ad man’ who ever lived. We were flattered… and keen to meet him. But we were busy and had to put it off… and then, finally, when we were ready to get together, it was too late. We came for dinner and found that David was indisposed, his wife explained that he had recently been diagnosed with alzheimer’s disease and no longer socialized. A few months later, he was dead. “Tout casse, tout passe,” say the French. Everything breaks and goes away."

Jim Kunstler, "The Sickening Quickening"

"The Sickening Quickening"
by Jim Kunstler

Do you still doubt that the federal bureaucracy and the elected government parasitically attached to it seek to harm the people they rule (i.e., us) by any means necessary? They’re still pushing Covid “vaccines” in a futile effort to eliminate the control group of their massive eugenics experiment - that is, the unvaccinated, who are not getting the many vaccine-induced diseases behind the rise of all-causes mortality in people under 65.

But the vaxx scam isn’t working anymore. Too many people have already been hurt, or killed, or seen friends and relatives go down mysteriously and they’re taking a pass on any more shots. Parents have evidently seen enough to not bring their little children in for the life-altering mRNA treatments. The CDC, the FDA, and their cohorts hide their information, lie when pressed, and pretend that they are acting scientifically. But really, at this point, many public health officials must be secretly wondering how they will evade prosecution.

They won’t when fraud is proven in a court of law. Even with all the lies and redactions issued by the CDC and the FDA, the evidence is piling miles high that the Pfizer and Moderna drug trials were covered-up botches and the entire administration of the vaccine program has been an unnecessary disaster. Fraud vitiates immunity from liability. The pharma companies will go out of business and their profits will be clawed back in countless lawsuits. The drug company executives will go to prison along with Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and many of their lieutenants.

My personal theory is that the Covid-19 release was wholly and entirely about getting rid of Donald Trump and nothing else, in order to protect the permanent bureaucracy, a.k.a. the deep state, which was faltering in its countless turpitudes against the people, including the FBI and DOJ’s complicity in the criminal frauds and seditions of RussiaGate, and the CIA’s complicity in the “whistleblower” shenanigans behind Trump impeachment No. 1. The “long game” in the Covid-19 scam of 2020 was obviously to set-up the loosest mail-in voting apparatus possible to enable maximum ballot fraud in that year’s elections. The catch is, the Covid-19 play did not protect the deep state; it only further demonstrated its malevolence.

“Joe Biden” - or the gang operating behind the Potemkin President - now seeks to keep some sort of public health emergency declaration in force, this time over the laughable monkeypox, to pave the way for more maximum ballot fraud via mail-in votes in the 2022 midterms. Watch as they attempt to shut down public polling places. Who will stop them? Individual state’s attorney generals could sue on the grounds of the federal government’s abrogating the states’ constitutional duty to manage their own elections. Or perhaps the states will defy the feds and just keep their polling place open, calling their bluff. What will the Federal Election commission and AG Merrick Garland do then? Nullify the votes? (Invite a civil war?)

The regime must know that the next Congress is going to rip the face off the deep state and likely impeach “Joe Biden” for accepting bribes from countries hostile to the USA. Mr. Garland might try a maneuver to convict Hunter Biden on a Mickey Mouse tax crime in order to put all that laptop evidence under seal, but I doubt that will protect the Big Guy in an impeachment proceeding, if he lives until January. For the moment, they’ve got “JB” stuffed in a White House closet somewhere with an unshakable return of his Covid symptoms. They can only keep him out of sight so long. He’s living proof, on two cloven feet, that Covid vaccines don’t work, and that sort of screws their whole pooch.

The Party of Chaos is otherwise basking in the glow of victory from Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, an all-out assault on the American public, which said public is already well onto. It’s yet another demonstration that legislation accomplishes the opposite of what its name declares its intentions to be. Reduce inflation caused by exorbitant government spending with a whole lot more government spending (of money that isn’t there)? Yeah, that’ll work, I’m sure (not). Double the size of the IRS in order to amp up harassment of the party’s political adversaries? I’ll tell you why that won’t work out as planned: The IRS will get 85,000 “diversity, inclusion, and equity” hires, meaning new dimensions in institutional incompetence and torpor.

As for “climate action,” expect only further economic destruction, probably deliberate and certainly idiotic. It’s not feasible financially, even with subsidies, to switch-out all the internal combustion cars and trucks for electric vehicles, which would have to run on power generated at its source mainly by natural gas and coal. Nor, on the other hand, can the federal government make oil more affordable. Rather, Americans will just have to drop-out from mass motoring and long-range trucking, which implies major changes in our living arrangements. That is exactly what’s actually happening now, by the way.

Most of these coming changes are beyond the control of government. They are historically emergent - the zeitgeist is in charge of them, not “Joe Biden” or Pete Buttigieg. The cheap energy age is over, and that salient fact will determine most of what happens going forward, including the inability of overgrown central governments to manage anything competently. The more grandiose their attempted work-arounds look, the more certainly they’ll fail. And, as that happens, government at the gigantic scale will shed legitimacy."

"‘The Average American Is Getting Screwed Harder Than A Monkeypox Spreader At A San Francisco Orgy'"

"‘The Average American Is Getting Screwed Harder 
Than A Monkeypox Spreader At A San Francisco Orgy'"
by Jim Quinn

"Never ending covid infected basement dummy and his lesbian black diversity hire bubble headed bimbo press secretary keep blathering about our great economy and tremendous jobs market, as they desperately try to convince the ignorant masses they aren’t really drowning under the strain of a rampant stagflationary depression.

Everyone knows they are lying and having their left-wing media mouthpieces supporting their lies is useless. The chart below explains our current situation. Real disposable income (after inflation) has been down or flat for 15 months in a row. It’s amazing how stimmies made millions feel rich for about a year. The Fed printing fiat and the government dispensing it as fast as it was printed created the illusion of wealth. Now we sit down to a banquet of consequences.
The raging inflation has wiped out any temporary income gains and will continue to do so as we enjoy Biden’s stagflationary depression. And what do the Democrats do? They pass a $750 billion Inflation Reduction Plan that increases inflation and will require the Fed to keep printing. As a cherry on top, the chart uses the government manipulated inflation rate. In reality, the current 9% inflation rate is actually 18% when measured as it was in 1980 when Volker boosted the Fed Funds rate to 20%.

If the Dems think people will be voting in November on the issues of abortion, gun control and climate change, they are f**king delusional. The average American is getting screwed harder than a monkeypox spreader at a San Francisco orgy. They will vote their pocketbook, as if the limp RINOs will do anything to reverse course."
"Conclusion: you’re screwed either way."