Sunday, August 14, 2022

"Hold Up Your Head!"

“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
- Mark Twain

"Alas..."

“Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come, nor care beyond today.”
- Thomas Gray,
“Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than
sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The Limits of Our Freedom"

"The Limits of Our Freedom"
by Mark Harrison

"Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, wrote in "Man's Search for Meaning", "Between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies all our freedom."In the most extreme conditions of privation imaginable, Frankl discovered that he was, remarkably, free to choose his response to any situation. I love this quote because it sums up the essence of my philosophy. I believe it is the cornerstone of a happy and effective life. A real, experiential understanding of this radical freedom is life changing, liberating and empowering. To suddenly come upon the realization that we have always been free, not in some abstract sense, but in a real, personal and imminent way, is like being let out of prison.

We are not free to control others: The point is that we are free. And so is everyone else. That means we cannot impinge on the freedom of others. This is not some moral statement. I'm not saying we should not interfere with other people's freedom - it is simply impossible to do so. You cannot make another person do anything. Even putting a gun to someone's head cannot make them do anything. If someone is threatened to the extent that they fear for their life, they are likely to comply with whatever is being demanded of them, but this compliance is not a result of the threat, it is still a choice they make. If you doubt it, think about the people who have been threatened and not complied, think about people who have died for what they believe in rather than comply with an external demand.

The belief that we can control and coerce others, bending them to our will, is the cause of a great deal the misery in the world. This belief, springing from the external control psychology that we have overwhelmingly been conditioned to accept, is the cause of much of our pain. To let go of our belief that we can control others is astonishingly liberating. To accept other people as they are, to make no demands on them, simply to dance our own dance, as Anthony de Mello would have put it, and to accept that we cannot but allow everyone else to do the same, is not only the only choice that makes any sense, but is also the only way we can make any difference in the world.

We have a choice: In every situation, there is a choice. Accept that we cannot control other people or try to force, coerce, manipulate and bully to get our own way. The latter course of action damages relationships and, in the end, leads to pain and dysfunction. Or, we can accept people as they are, accept they are utterly free agents, accept that we cannot force them, and concentrate instead on building relationships with them and on building the inner world which echoes back to us as our experience. When we have good relationships, things work. Perhaps not in the way we might have expected, or even in the way we would have preferred, but things will work. The world is not ours to control, so let it go, and let it work in its own miraculous way. This is the effortlessness to which Lao Tzu alluded when he wrote, "The world is a mysterious instrument, not meant to be handled." Those who act on it never, I notice, succeed. 

We are responsible: We are responsible for ourselves. We make our choices and then we must live with them, not blaming others or circumstances, and not cowardly abdicating responsibility to some external forces. We are not victims! We are in control. By the same token, we are not responsible for other people. Their fear, their anger, their pain, their misery - it's all a choice they make, as freely as we make ours, and they need to shoulder the consequences of these choices, they are not our crosses to bear. Their happiness, their success, their joy - it's all their doing, not ours.

Being proactive: So here lies our freedom, it is inside us every moment and we can recognize it and live our lives according to the truth of this freedom, or we can continue to behave in the way we have been conditioned by society and try to force our way through life, pushing and coercing others into doing our will. One way is peace and happiness, the other way is pain and madness. Being proactive is the first of Steven Covey's "Seven Habits" and is the cornerstone of a truly effective life. I believe that living a proactive life, centered in the self, accepting that we can change nothing but ourselves, and choosing to focus on the good in our life and seeking to attract more it to ourselves is the purpose of our existence." 

"Real Estate is Crashing - Buckle Up and Strap In"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/14/22:
"Real Estate is Crashing - Buckle Up and Strap In"
"I have a special guest today. Scott Walters realtor is joining me to talk about the state of the real estate industry. It’s great to get his expertise on all of this. The wave has crested in Real Estate."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

South Pittsburg, Tennessee, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Worst Part..."

"The worst part is wondering how you'll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long, where you'll find the strength for all that stupid running around, those projects that come to nothing, those attempts to escape from crushing necessity, which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable, that every night will find you down and out, crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows. And maybe it's treacherous old age coming on, threatening the worst. Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself."
 - Louis-Ferdinand Celine

"87,000 Agent Smiths"

"87,000 Agent Smiths"
Don't look now, but your tax-collecting 
overlords just got a big, fat raise...
by Joel Bowman

“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization”

~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Civilization is the price we pay for taxation”

~ Joel Bowman (with no apologies to OWH)


"As if to underscore the point of last Sunday’s missive - What’s in a Word? - the fraudulently named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) slithered through the palm-greased halls of Congress during the week. Much ballyhooed by the fawning press, which never saw a check they didn’t want someone else to sign, the act passed the Senate by the barest of purely partisan margins (50-51, with president-in-waiting, Kamala Harris, casting the deciding vote) before sailing through Nancy’s House Friday afternoon.

As for actually doing what it says on the box, the $433 billion dollar extravaganza aims to reduce inflation by doing more of exactly what caused the 40-year high in rising prices in the first place... which is to say, spending more money the government doesn’t have on things the country doesn’t need and its citizens don’t want. Will it work? Depends who you ask. (And what you mean by “work.”)

The Penn Wharton Budget Model predicts the IRA’s impact on inflation to be “statistically indistinguishable from zero.” That’s expensive business school-speak for “bugger all.” The model also predicts lower productivity, as measured by GDP, for the remainder of the decade while “slightly increasing GDP by 2050.”

The Tax Foundation’s General Equilibrium Model, meanwhile, expects the IRA to “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.”

And here’s University of Chicago economist, Casey Mulligan, who reckons the IRA will...
• Reduce employment by 900,000

• Reduce annual GDP by 1.2%

• Reduce Average Household income by roughly $1,200


Mr. Casey also estimates the rate of inflation and the federal budget deficit are both “likely to rise, not fall, as a result of the IRA.”

Now, your humble Weekend Editor harbors no such pretense to knowledge. We have no idea whether the market will go up or down on Monday, much less what the growth rate of a $20 trillion+ economy might be ten... twenty... thirty years from now. And neither, by the way, does anyone else. It’s difficult to make predictions, as they say, especially about the future. So for now, let us return to the present act.

Among the IRA’s bulging, multi-billion dollar line items, working Americans were quick to notice a whopping $80 billion earmark for the Internal Revenue Service. As we mentioned during the week, if that sounds like a lot of money... it’s because it is. (The current annual budget for America’s least favorite “service” is a comparatively modest 12.6 thousand million dollars.)

What’s a government agency to do with all those fresh new Benjamins, you ask? Why, hire 87,000 new Agent Smiths, of course! (You’ll recall Agent Smith as the creepy, G-man AI program plugged into the Matrix, the one charged with eliminating any human simulacra which might bring about instability in the simulated reality. Only now, you’re the “simulacra” and the reality is about to get very real indeed.)

Tax Revolt! Or not… One wonders whether such a turbo-charged tax enforcement mechanism seems antithetical to the values of a country that revolted in full blown revolution over a paltry stamp tax? Recall that it was the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Acts, and Intolerable Acts – passed between 1760-1775 – which finally set the colonists against their British overlords.

As for income taxes, corporate taxes and payroll taxes, the colonists had no truck with the redshirts there... probably because there were no such taxes in effect at the time. In fact, the average tax levied on colonial America - mostly collected through trade tariffs and excise taxes on certain goods at point of sale - is estimated to have been between 1-1.5%, a rate that would have appeared attractive even to the British themselves, who at the time suffered a rate roughly 5 times that (between 5-7%) back home.

But fear not, descendants of mighty patriots, fruit of the founding fathers, it’s not as though the goose-stepping platoons of federal tax agents are going to use the $46 billion of their new kitty apportioned for “enforcement” to... you know... do any hardcore enforcing. It’s not like special agents must “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.” Oh, wait... scratch that.
Shoot to Kill: Ok, ok... so the new special agents will be trained to “shoot to kill.” No biggie. They’re going after the big fish, right? And if you wanna catch the big fish, you gotta use a big line...

According to Forbes Magazine, there were 735 billionaires in the US in 2021. The New York Times puts the figure at 935. In any case, dear reader, they walk among us. And, of course, that’s a problem. Never mind that Elon Musk, to take the most conspicuous example, cut the IRS an $11 billion check last year, the most paid by any single citizen in American history and, in itself, almost enough to fund the entire IRS... and never mind that, like him or not, love or hate his companies, agree or disagree with his politics, Mr. Musk nevertheless employs 110,000 people across his various businesses, each of whom (presumably) pays their own taxes.

Let’s go instead with Elizabeth Warren’s assessment of the situation and assume Musk is a “freeloader” and needs to “pay his fair share.” And let’s go ahead and assume his “fair share” is... 100%. Everything he owns. And let’s say that goes for ALL America’s billionaires. (After all, Bernie Sanders said they “shouldn’t exist.” Who are we to argue with The Bern?) So you confiscate 100% of the billionaire class’s wealth. At $4.7 trillion, you’d have enough money to cover the nation’s bar tab for – carry the seven, divide by hypotenuse, sin cos tan – less than one fiscal year.

Now, having destroyed an entire class of ultra wealthy “moochers,” (and, presumably, their respective industries, responsible for employing millions and millions of Americans, on whom the state also relies for tax revenue) where do we suppose this income starved football stadium of Agent Smiths would turn next? Might they come knocking up and down your street?

Not a chance, says Madam Secretary Janet Yellen. In a public letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, published Wednesday, Ms. Yellen left no doubt as to who would be targeted...“I direct that any additional resources - including any new personnel or auditors that are hired - shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” she wrote.

Hmm... seems like a rather specific dangling qualifier there, no? One wonders, what might these “relative historic levels” look like, exactly? According to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GOA), scintillatingly titled “Tax Compliance Trends of IRS Audit Rates and Results for Individual Taxpayers by Income” (go ahead, knock yourself out here), audit rates for Americans earning between $25,000 to $200,000 are down 76% from their 2010 levels. For those earning less than $25,000, audit rates are 61% lower. And for those earning between $200,000 to $500,000 audit rates are off 92% from 2010, their “relative historic level.”

In other words, 87,000 new IRS agents, armed with $700,000 worth of new ammo (purchased, according to the agency itself, in June and July of this year), could double the rate of audits on those earning under $25,000... quadruple audits on those in the $25,000 - $200,000 bracket... and increase tenfold the audits on those earning between $200,000-$500,000... and still fall within Yellen’s “relative historic levels.”

What does this mean for working and middle class Americans, for small businesses and family start-ups, for the entrepreneurial engine room of a nation that was founded on the idea of freedom from oppressive taxation without fair representation?"

“Knock, knock.”

“True Story Streets of Philadelphia"

Full screen recommended, if you can stomach it.
kimgary, 8/14/22:
“True Story Streets of Philadelphia"
"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.

Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."
Full screen recommended.
Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"

"How It Really Is"

"Mark Strand on Dreams:

"Mark Strand on Dreams:
A Lyrical Love Letter to Where We Go When We Go to Sleep"
“Something nameless hums us into sleep… 
We feel dreamed by someone else, a sleeping counterpart…”
by Maria Popova

"The mystery of dreams has always bewitched humanity, tickling art and science in equal measure. Freud was besotted with it when he laid the foundation for the study of the subject, as was his eccentric niece Tom when she illustrated that gem of a vintage children’s book about dreams. Dostoyevsky found the meaning of life in a dream, and so did Margaret Mead. Leonard Bernstein sought the solution to his sexual identity confusion and the key to the creative process in his dreams.

However detached from the reality of life dreams may seem, they affect our every waking moment and even help us regulate our negative moods. And yet, try as we might to control our dreams, we still know so very little about where we go when we slip into that nocturnal wonderland. For all the advances science has made, it still seems best left to the poets - and the best of poets only.

In one of the many masterpieces in his "Collected Poems" (public library), Pulitzer-winning poet and MacArthur “genius” Mark Strand (April 11, 1934–November 29, 2014) explores the delicate and disorienting world of dreams with unparalleled elegance. The poem is a supreme testament to Strand’s belief that it is the artist’s task to bear witness to the universe, within and without."

"Dreams"

"Trying to recall the plot
And characters we dreamed,
     What life was like
Before the morning came,
We are seldom satisfied,
     And even then
There is no way of knowing
If what we know is true.
     Something nameless
Hums us into sleep,
Withdraws, and leaves us in
     A place that seems
Always vaguely familiar.
Perhaps it is because
     We take the props
And fixtures of our days
With us into the dark,
     Assuring ourselves
We are still alive. And yet
Nothing here is certain;
     Landscapes merge
With one another, houses
Are never where they should be,
     Doors and windows
Sometimes open out
To other doors and windows,
     Even the person
Who seems most like ourselves
Cannot be counted on,
     For there have been
Too many times when he,
Like everything else, has done
     The unexpected.
And as the night wears on,
The dim allegory of ourselves
     Unfolds, and we
Feel dreamed by someone else,
A sleeping counterpart,
     Who gathers in
The darkness of his person
Shades of the real world.
     Nothing is clear;
We are not ever sure
If the life we live there
     Belongs to us.
Each night it is the same;
Just when we’re on the verge
     Of catching on,
A sense of our remoteness
Closes in, and the world
     So lately seen
Gradually fades from sight.
We wake to find the sleeper
     Is ourselves
And the dreamt-of is someone who did
Something we can’t quite put
     Our finger on,
But which involved a life
We are always, we feel,
     About to discover."

"Dreams", by Mark Strand read by Maria Popova:
https://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/mark-strand-dreams-maria-popova

Complement the immeasurably rewarding "Collected Poems" with Strand on the heartbeat of creative work and his lyrical love letter to clouds.”
- https://ww

"Shopping At Findlay Market In Cincinnati, Ohio! This Is A Massive Farmers Market!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 8/14/22:
"Shopping At Findlay Market In Cincinnati, Ohio! 
This Is A Massive Farmers Market!"
"In today's vlog I am visiting Findlay Market in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. This is one of the top 10 food markets in the world. I am excited to take you with me as we tour through one of the biggest farmers markets I have ever seen."
Comments here:

"When I See..."

"When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair." 
- Blaise Pascal

Ahh, but it does...

"It's Game-Over For The Fed - Expect A Monetary "Rug Pull" Soon"

"It's Game-Over For The Fed -
Expect A Monetary "Rug Pull" Soon"
by Nick Giambruno

"You often hear the media, politicians, and financial analysts casually toss around the word “trillion” without appreciating what it means. A trillion is a massive, almost unfathomable number. The human brain has trouble understanding something so huge. So let me try to put it into perspective.

If you earned $1 per second, it would take 11 days to make a million dollars. If you earned $1 per second, it would take 31 and a half years to make a billion dollars. And if you earned $1 per second, it would take 31,688 years to make a trillion dollars. So that’s how enormous a trillion is.

When politicians carelessly spend and print money measured in the trillions, you are in dangerous territory. And that is precisely what the Federal Reserve and the central banking system have enabled the US government to do. From the start of the Covid hysteria until today, the Federal Reserve has printed more money than it has for the entire existence of the US. For example, from the founding of the US, it took over 227 years to print its first $6 trillion. But in just a matter of months recently, the US government printed more than $6 trillion. During that period, the US money supply increased by a whopping 41%. In short, the Fed’s actions amounted to the biggest monetary explosion that has ever occurred in the US.

Initially, the Fed and its apologists in the media assured the American people its actions wouldn’t cause severe price increases. But unfortunately, it didn’t take long to prove that absurd assertion false. As soon as rising prices became apparent, the mainstream media and Fed claimed that the inflation was only “transitory” and that there was nothing to be worried about. Then, when the inflation was obviously not “transitory,” they told us “inflation was actually a good thing.” Of course, they were dead wrong and knew it - they were gaslighting.

The truth is that inflation is out of control, and nothing can stop it. Even according to the government’s own crooked CPI statistics - which understates reality - inflation is breaking through 40-year highs. That means the actual situation is much worse.

No Inflation Without Representation: The US federal government’s deficit spending and debt are the most significant factors driving this money printing, resulting in drastic price increases. The US federal government has the biggest debt in the history of the world. And it’s continuing to grow at a rapid, unstoppable pace. It took until 1981 for the US government to rack up its first trillion in debt. After that, the second trillion only took four years. The next trillions came in increasingly shorter intervals. Today, the US federal debt has gone parabolic and is well over $30 trillion.
Full screen recommended.
US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash

If you earned $1 per second, it would take over 966,484 YEARS to pay off the US federal debt. And that’s with the unrealistic assumption that it would stop growing. The truth is, the debt will keep piling up unless Congress makes some politically impossible decisions to cut spending. But don’t count on that happening. In fact, they’re racing in the opposite direction now that they’ve normalized multitrillion-dollar deficits.

Below is a chart of the Congressional Budget Office’s deficit projections for the next decade. These estimates will almost certainly be too rosy, as they often are.
Even by the CBO’s optimistic projections, the US government will have a cumulative deficit of over $15 trillion for the next ten years.

So, who is going to finance these incomprehensible shortfalls? The only entity capable is the Fed’s printing presses. Allow me to simplify it in three steps.

Step #1: Congress spends trillions more than the federal government takes in from taxes.
Step #2: The Treasury issues debt to cover the difference.
Step #3: The Federal Reserve creates currency out of thin air to buy the debt.

In short, this insidious process is nothing more than legalized counterfeiting. It’s taxation without consent via currency debasement and is the true source of inflation. Mainstream media and economists perform incredible mental gymnastics to conceal and justify this fraud. That’s how government spending, deficits, and the federal debt affect inflation.

As long as the average person doesn’t notice the rising prices, the system works well. However, once the price increases become painful enough, it creates political pressure for the Fed to combat inflation by raising interest rates.

The Fed Has a Serious Problem This Time: The amount of federal debt is so extreme that even a return of interest rates to their historical average would mean paying an interest expense that would consume more than half of tax revenues. Interest expense would eclipse Social Security and defense spending and become the largest item in the federal budget.

Further, with price increases soaring to 40-year highs, a return to the historical average interest rate will not be enough to reign in inflation - not even close. A drastic rise in interest rates is needed - perhaps to 10% or higher. If that happened, it would mean that the US government is paying more for the interest expense than it takes in from taxes. In short, the Federal Reserve is trapped. Raising interest rates high enough to dent inflation would bankrupt the US government.

We can see this dynamic in the below chart of the federal debt and the federal funds rate, the Federal Reserve’s primary benchmark interest rate. The higher the federal debt, the harder and more painful it becomes to raise interest rates.
In short, the US government is fast approaching the financial endgame. It needs to raise interest rates to combat out-of-control inflation… but can’t because it would cause its bankruptcy. In other words, it’s game over. They have no choice but to “reset” the system - that’s what governments do when they are trapped. Think of it like this.

Imagine a spoiled child playing a board game, and rather than admit he is losing, he flips the board. This is what governments will do now that they are financially checkmated. They can’t win, even in their own rigged game, and now are left with the choice of losing power or flipping the board. Since power does not relinquish itself voluntarily, we should presume they’ll choose to flip the board.

Here’s the bottom line. The current monetary system is on its way out. Even the central bankers running the system can see that. So they are preparing for what comes next as they attempt to “reset” the system. I suspect it could all go down soon… and it’s not going to be pretty. It’s going to result in an enormous wealth transfer from you to the parasitical class -politicians, central bankers, and those connected to them."

Stipendium peccati mors est...

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Musical Interlude: 2002, "We Meet Again"

Beautiful, full screen recommended.
2002, "We Meet Again"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in the high and far-off constellation of Cepheus. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.
NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the early 20th century at least nine supernovae, the death explosions of massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This remarkable portrait of NGC 6946 is a composite that includes image data from the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.”

"I'm A Patriot..."

Steppenwolf, "Monster"

"It Is Our Fate..."

"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person, one cannot exist in full consciousness, without having to have a showdown with one's self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one's mind what matters and what does not matter."
- Dorothy Thompson

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "What I Have Learned So Far"

"What I Have Learned So Far"

"Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of - indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone."

~ Mary Oliver

"I See No Reason..."

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

The Daily "Near You?"

Missoula, Montana, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Disturbing Proof They're Quietly Deleting the Internet"

Full screen recommended.
BrightInsight, 8/12/22:
"Disturbing Proof They're Quietly Deleting the Internet"
"Try this 30 second experiment and see 
firsthand just how much trouble we're in."
Comments here:

"Executive Order 14067: Ultimate Doom!"

"Executive Order 14067:
Ultimate Doom! Dec. 13, 2022 "

"Did you know that President Joe Biden signed the “death warrant on American freedom” on Wednesday, March 9, 2022? On that day, in a hushed ceremony, without the support of Congress, the states, or the American people, Biden signed the most treacherous act by a sitting President in the history of our republic and signed into law Executive Order 14067. The signing of the supposed death warrant might imply:

• Legal government surveillance of all Americans.

• Total control over bank accounts and purchases.
• Complete obsolescence of the U.S. dollar, and the welcoming of a programmable digital currency dubbed “Biden Bucks”.
• Punishments for select contributions, purchases or even commentary made on social media

Why is a digital currency problematic? Former Pentagon and CIA advisor Jim Rickards predicts that President Biden doesn’t intend to merely replace cash with digital currency. Particularly, he sees this as an opportunity for the government to gain full control over money, from tracking and recording every conceivable transaction. For people who believe it is all comparable to online banking, Jim says “This is very different from online banking, and it has nothing to do with crypto.”

Long story short, some countries are already looking at pilot programs for their own digital currencies. In the U.S., it’s just a question of “when” and as per Jim, “It’s already happening.” Truthfully, the expert believes that the digital dollar will circulate sometime between 2023 and 2024. What does this mean for existing assets, not to mention freedom?"
"Executive Order 14067:
Ultimate Doom! Dec. 13, 2022 "
by WND

"Buried in the new government spending bill is Executive Order 14067 (called “Bitcoin’s Evil Cousin”). James Rickards and Robert Kiyosaki call this evil move to eliminate our US Currency and replace it with ‘Biden Bucks’ “the most treasonous act in U.S. history.” Some of America's smartest men, including Robert Kiyosaki, investment guru and author of the personal finance book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," have some choice words for Executive Order 14067. It would behoove you to listen to them.

Executive Order 14067, titled "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets," includes developing policy plans and the organization of federal regulators. "Any future dollar payment system should be designed in a way that is consistent with United States priorities and democratic values, including privacy protections, and that ensures the global financial system has appropriate transparency connectivity, and platform and architecture interoperability or transferability, as appropriate."

Kiyosaki called President Joe Biden's signed executive order "the most treasonous act in U.S. history" and the creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDC, as "communism in its purest form," encouraging Americans to "stay awake." He is joined by Jim Rickards, another economist, investor and former CIA official who is calling it a step toward the end of cash, the greenback, in circulation since the founding fathers. The new "digital tokens" can be "turned off" if the government doesn't like what you are doing. Rickards has four decades of experience on Wall Street.

Rickards criticized CBDC and labeled it as "Bitcoin's Evil Cousin." He also exposed the supposed singular event called C-Day, which according to him, will take place on Dec. 13, 2022, and will disrupt the traditional financial systems in the U.S. Please understand the possible implications of this ultimate challenge to our ‘free society’.

1.) Any cash you now have saved outside of the banking system is invalid and will no longer be of any value when this process is complete.
2.) Any digital currency you have in the bank may be turned off by government thugs for not obeying the correct party line.
3.) Those selling precious metals for money will receive ‘Biden Bucks’ rather than cash.
4.) No ‘Biden Bucks’–no food, rent, mortgage, cars, clothes etc. Everything will be denied.

He said when what he calls "C-Day" happens, paper money would be worthless and the U.S. dollar would crash. He further added that consumer spending and access to basic needs would also be restricted, and people holding too much money would be penalized.

The International Monetary Fund said in a blog released last month that CBDCs can be a more effective solution compared to credit and debit cards, particularly in terms of energy efficiency. "Depending on the specific details of how they are configured, CBDCs and some kinds of crypto assets can be more energy-efficient than much of the current payment landscape, including credit and debit cards," the blog read.

“When Biden Bucks are rolled out, many experts – myself included, believe they will begin an era of total government control and surveillance,” Rickards stated. Kiyosaki commented, “This is not hyperbole. This would dramatically expand the power and influence of the federal government, essentially acting as a new type of ‘spyware.’ With Biden Bucks, the government will be able to force you to comply with its agenda. Because if you don’t, they could turn off your money. This won’t be like freezing a bank account, it will be so much easier.”

What else have I forgotten that is going to be destroyed by this digital end game? Oh, yes, they combined this bill with the 87,000 new armed IRS agents, and now we know why. What could possibly go wrong?"

And if this blog suddenly disappears, as it predecessor did, you'll know why...

"Business is Broken, But Inflation is Over?"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/13/22:
"Business is Broken, But Inflation is Over?"
"We are told that the producer price index is dropping and that core inflation is leveling. But we just got news the grocery prices hit the highest level in 43 years. Which is it? I believe that we have not seen the end of inflation."
Comments here:

"The Truth About the US 'Economy'”

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 8/13/22:
"U.S Economy Decline Into A Recession And It's Only 
Going To Get Worse - Peter Schiff Last Warning"
Comments here:
"The Truth About the US 'Economy'”
by Chris Black

"The USA has been in a terminal decline since 1971. The offshoring of the foundation of the US economy began in earnest. Everyone alive during the 1970s knew something was very wrong. The US had a brief respite from 1981 to 1989 thanks to the Boomers hitting their peak age and having children. American patriotism and nationalism made a brief comeback.

The Gulf War and the short early ’90s recession just brought back the feeling that something was wrong. Clinton came along as an anti-Bush candidate and won. The average American didn’t understand that Clinton was really a deep state figurehead and the plans hatched in the 1970s were going to be put in overdrive. After 2000 the USA entered into a depression that has lasted for over two decades.

The only bright spot has been the massive excess in the speculative stock market that has become 100% of the economy. Profitless companies are worth trillions of dollars, corporations that if they were to disappear tomorrow, there would be no consequence other than fictional money being vaporized. We are supposed to believe we have a $22 trillion economy. Out of what? This hollowed out shell of a nation?

The GDP of 1985, the strongest year of real commerce anyone can claim since the 1950s was only $4.3 trillion. That’s less than the US government spends on its budget in 2022. Do you really see five 1985s out there? Think of the number of stores, manufacturing companies, restaurants, and everything else of 1985. Today they are almost all gone, replaced by mega conglomerates.

There is also another thing: the United States record for car sales happened in 1977, back when GDP was just above $2 trillion. But since fraud is now the #1 product produced in America, it is plausible to make $22 trillion of it."