Monday, November 7, 2022

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! US Nuclear Chief: 'The Big One Is Coming'"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/7/22:
"Alert! US Nuclear Chief: 'The Big One Is Coming'"
"In a major development Putins top cleric has given the greenlight to the use of Nuclear weapons, the Commander of US STRATCOM (Strategic command of nuclear forces) said that "Ukraine is just a warm up for whats coming and that we need to prepare for the big one". Worlds largest nuclear submarine makes its way towards the warzone. The conditions are being set for an apocalyptic famine to unfold in Africa and skyrocketing food prices in the rest of the world next year, as the developed world hoards grain. The UN chief says "We're on a highway to hell."
Comments here:

"20 Facts That Food Shortages Will Get A Lot Worse As Fears Of A Dark Winter Rising"

Full screen recommended.
"20 Facts That Food Shortages Will Get A 
Lot Worse As Fears Of A Dark Winter Rising"
by Epic Economist

"The pain never stops. If you think that the empty shelves we're seeing are quite distressing and that food prices are extremely expensive right now, just wait until the winter begins. The food crisis that is unfolding before our eyes is getting worse by the day. Global food supplies were already tight in the past few years, but the food that wasn't produced in 2022 means that we're going to be hit by even harder challenges in the next few months. At this point, worldwide fertilizer prices have quadrupled, several countries started banning exports of essential commodities, tens of millions of chickens and turkeys have disappeared from the system, our domestic beef cattle herd has dramatically shrunk, and crazy weather patterns have resulted in the destruction of millions of acres of crops all over the planet.

While rich countries will continue to face shortages and higher food prices, in more vulnerable countries, people are going to get desperate. "Fields are not being planted," emphasized Theo de Jager, the president of the World Farmers' Organisation. "I"m not so sure it's possible to avoid a food crisis. Farmers need peace," de Jager said.

We haven’t even seen the worst of food shortages and price increases yet, but America’s food banks are already reaching a breaking point. All over the country, food banks are struggling to keep up with the increased demand they’re experiencing. Feeding America, one of the nation’s largest charities, with over 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries, reported 85 percent of their food banks saw increased demand for food assistance. Their President and Chief Operating Officer Katie Fitzgerald says the organization is already dipping into emergency reserves, switching to cheaper products, limiting how often people can visit or how much food they can get, and "stretching their inventory to be able to meet more people's needs.

"Our experience is that this rise in food and fuel costs are creating just as precarious a situation for people who are trying to feed their families as was the case during the pandemic. Inflation is devastating to the budgets of families, seniors, and people just barely getting by, driving more and more of them to food banks and food pantries,” Fitzgerald says. “The problem we’re seeing is that food banks are not immune to these inflationary pressures. So, while they’re dealing with longer lines at distributions, they face soaring costs and other challenges to their operations,” she added. A Feeding America survey found that inflation and supply chain issues are greatly affecting food banks, with 70% of their members reporting donations of food have decreased while operating costs have risen 95%.

This is a confluence of many disasters hitting our food supply chains all at once, and the most worrying part is that experts say we haven't seen the worst of it yet. This winter is going to be exceedingly difficult for all of us. In this video, we compiled signs that show us just how bad things are about to get. "
Related:

"We're On The Brink Of A Financial Apocalypse; Used Car Prices Crashing, Housing Market Next"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 11/7/22:
"We're On The Brink Of A Financial Apocalypse; 
Used Car Prices Crashing, Housing Market Next"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Falling Through Time"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Falling Through Time"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The W-shaped ridge of emission featured in this vivid skyscape is known as the Cygnus Wall. Part of a larger emission nebula with a distinctive outline popularly called The North America Nebula, the cosmic ridge spans about 20 light-years. Constructed using narrowband data to highlight the telltale reddish glow from ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with electrons, the two frame mosaic image follows an ionization front with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette.
Sculpted by energetic radiation from the region's young, hot, massive stars, the dark shapes inhabiting the view are clouds of cool gas and dust with stars likely forming within. The North America Nebula itself, NGC 7000, is about 1,500 light-years away.”

“The Last Night of the World”

“The Last Night of the World”
Originally published in the February 1951 issue of Esquire.
by Ray Bradbury

“What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?”
“What would I do; you mean, seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.”
“I don’t know – I hadn’t thought.” She turned the handle of the silver coffeepot toward him and placed the two cups in their saucers. He poured some coffee. In the background, the two small girls were playing blocks on the parlor rug in the light of the green hurricane lamps. There was an easy, clean aroma of brewed coffee in the evening air.
“Well, better start thinking about it,” he said.
“You don’t mean it?” said his wife.
He nodded.
“A war?”
He shook his head.
“Not the hydrogen or atom bomb?”
“No.”
“Or germ warfare?”
“None of those at all,” he said, stirring his coffee slowly and staring into its black depths. “But just the closing of a book, let’s say.”
“I don’t think I understand.”
“No, nor do I really. It’s jut a feeling; sometimes it frightens me, sometimes I’m not frightened at all – but peaceful.” He glanced in at the girls and their yellow hair shining in the bright lamplight, and lowered his voice. “I didn’t say anything to you. It first happened about four nights ago.”
“What?”
“A dream I had. I dreamt that it was all going to be over and a voice said it was; not any kind of voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth. I didn’t think too much about it when I awoke the next morning, but then I went to work and the feeling as with me all day. I caught Stan Willis looking out the window in the middle of the afternoon and I said, ‘Penny for your thoughts, Stan,’ and he said, ‘I had a dream last night,’ and before he even told me the dream, I knew what it was. I could have told him, but he told me and I listened to him.”
“It was the same dream?”
“Yes. I told Stan I had dreamed it, too. He didn’t seem surprised. He relaxed, in fact. Then we started walking through offices, for the hell of it. It wasn’t planned. We didn’t say, let’s walk around. We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out the windows and not seeing what was in front of their eyes. I talked to a few of them; so did Stan.”
“And all of them had dreamed?”
“All of them. The same dream, with no difference.”
“Do you believe in the dream?”
“Yes. I’ve never been more certain.”
“And when will it stop? The world, I mean.”
“Sometime during the night for us, and then, as the night goes on around the world, those advancing portions will go, too. It’ll take twenty-four hours for it all to go.”
They sat awhile not touching their coffee. Then they lifted it slowly and drank, looking at each other.
“Do we deserve this?” she said.
“It’s not a matter of deserving, it’s just that things didn’t work out. I notice you didn’t even argue about this. Why not?”
“I guess I have a reason,” she said.
“The same reason everyone at the office had?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to say anything. It happened last night. And the women on the block are talking about it, just among themselves.” She picked up the evening paper and held it toward him. “There’s nothing in the news about it.”
“No, everyone knows, so what’s the need?” He took the paper and sat back in his chair, looking at the girls and then at her. “Are you afraid?”
“No. Not even for the children. I always thought I would be frightened to death, but I’m not.”
“Where’s that spirit of self-preservation the scientists talk about so much?”
“I don’t know. You don’t get too excited when you feel things are logical. This is logical. Nothing else but this could have happened from the way we’ve lived.”
“We haven’t been too bad, have we?”
“No, nor enormously good. I suppose that’s the trouble. We haven’t been very much of anything except us, while a big part of the world was busy being lots of quite awful things.”
The girls were laughing in the parlor as they waved their hands and tumbled down their house of blocks.
“I always imagined people would be screaming in the streets at a time like this.”
“I guess not. You don’t scream about the real thing.”
“Do you know, I won’t miss anything but you and the girls. I never liked cities or autos or factories or my work or anything except you three. I won’t miss a thing except my family and perhaps the change in the weather and a glass of cool water when the weather’s hot, or the luxury of sleeping. Just little things, really. How can we sit here and talk this way?”
“Because there’s nothing else to do.”
“That’s it, of course, for if there were, we’d be doing it. I suppose this is the first time in the history of the world that everyone has really known just what they were going to be doing during the last night.”
“I wonder what everyone else will do now, this evening, for the next few hours.”
“Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch the TV, play cards, put the children to bed, get to bed themselves, like always.”
“In a way that’s something to be proud of – like always.”
“We’re not all bad.”
They sat a moment and then he poured more coffee. “Why do you suppose it’s tonight?”
“Because.”
“Why not some night in the past ten years of in the last century, or five centuries ago or ten?”
“Maybe it’s because it was never February 30, 1951, ever before in history, and now it is and that’s it, because this date means more than any other date ever meant and because it’s the year when things are as they are all over the world and that’s why it’s the end.”
“There are bombers on their course both ways across the ocean tonight that’ll never see land again.”
“That’s part of the reason why.”
“Well,” he said. “What shall it be? Wash the dishes?”
They washed the dishes carefully and stacked them away with especial neatness. At eight-thirty the girls were put to bed and kissed good night and the little lights by their beds turned on and the door left a trifle open.
“I wonder,” said the husband, coming out and looking back, standing there with his pipe for a moment.”
“What?”
“If the door should be shut all the way or if it should be left just a little ajar so we can hear them if they call.”
“I wonder if the children know – if anyone mentioned anything to them?”
“No, of course not. They’d have asked us about it.”
They sat and read the papers and talked and listened to some radio music and then sat together by the fireplace looking at the charcoal embers as the clock struck ten-thirty and eleven and eleven-thirty. They thought of all the other people in the world who had spent their evening, each in their own special way.
“Well,” he said at last. He kissed his wife for a long time.
“We’ve been good for each other, anyway.”
“Do you want to cry?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
They went through the house and turned out the lights and locked the doors, and went into the bedroom and stood in the night cool darkness undressing. She took the spread from the bed and folded it carefully over a chair, as always, and pushed back the covers. “The sheets are so cool and clean and nice,” she said.
“I’m tired.”
“We’re both tired.”
They got into bed and lay back.
“Wait a moment,” she said.
He heard her get up and go out into the back of the house, and then he heard the soft shuffling of a swinging door. A moment later she was back. “I left the water running in the kitchen,” she said. “I turned the faucet off.”
Something about this was so funny that he had to laugh. She laughed with him, knowing what it was that she had done that was so funny. They stopped laughing at last and lay in their cool night bed, their hands clasped, their heads together.
“Good night,” he said, after a moment.
“Good night,” she said, adding softly, “dear…”

"Are We Headed Into Another Ice Age?

"Are We Headed Into Another Ice Age?" (Excerpt)
by Martin Armstrong

Excerpt: "Our model has projected we are entering another “grand-minimum,” which will overtake the sun beginning in 2020 and will last through the 2050s, resulting in diminished magnetism, infrequent sunspot production, and less ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching Earth. This all means we are facing a global cooling period in the planet that may span 31 to 43 years. The last grand-minimum event produced the mini-Ice Age in the mid-17th century. Known as the Maunder Minimum, it occurred between 1645 and 1715, during a longer span of time when parts of the world became so cold that the period was called the Little Ice Age, which lasted from about 1300 to 1850."
Please view this complete article here:
Source:

"You Can Never Tell..."

"You can never tell what people have inside them
until you start taking it away, one hope at a time."
- Gregory David Roberts

"The World As I See It: Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”

"The World As I See It:
Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”
by Paul Ratner

“Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.

The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It”* gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.

In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity. “What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.

Was Einstein himself religious? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," said Einstein in his 1954 essay on science and religion.

Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views as pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.

Himself a famous atheist, Richard Dawkins calls Einstein's pantheism a “sexed-up atheism,” but other scholars point to the fact that Einstein did seem to believe in a supernatural intelligence that’s beyond the physical world. He referred to it in his writings as “a superior spirit,” “a superior mind” and a “spirit vastly superior to men”. Einstein was possibly a deist, although he was quite familiar with various religious teachings, including a strong knowledge of Jewish religious texts.

In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”

This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”

In case you are wondering whether Einstein saw value in material pursuits, here’s him talking about accumulating wealth in 1934, as part of the “The World As I See It”: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”
Freely download "The World As I See It", by Albert Einstein, here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Kingman, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"History..."

"History is indeed little more than the register of 
the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind."
- Edward Gibbon
Moody Blues, "Don't You Feel Small"

"Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You..."

"Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You..."
by Jeff Thomas

"In his inaugural address in 1961, President John Kennedy gave a stirring speech in which he famously stated, "And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." He then went on to say, "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."

Nonsense. John Kennedy was by most measures, one of the better US presidents. But he did believe in the concept that the role of the people of a country should be to serve their country and to sacrifice themselves to it. Again… nonsense.

Let’s put this in perspective. In seeking employment, you don’t seek a particular job because your primary concern is that, in that job, you can "make a difference." This is a nice thought, but it’s not why you seek a job. You seek it because it will provide you with what you’re after for yourself – possibly a good salary, possibly interesting work, possibly fringe benefits, etc. You certainly don’t seek a particular job because they need you to sacrifice for them.

For their part, potential employers generally try to provide good working conditions, good salaries and benefits in order to attract the best people to want to work for them.

It’s the same when you seek to buy products. Advertisers appeal to your desires, hoping to convince you to buy their widget, rather than a competitor’s widget. Never do they say, "We want you to buy our product because you have an obligation to provide income for us." You make your choice solely on whether that product appeals to you.

And in seeking a place to live, you might look for a community that’s relatively safe, or has good schools, or has good infrastructure. You don’t choose a community because it needs you more than another town or city. Communities try to put on their best face to attract better residents. They most certainly do not say, "Move here so that you can serve us." That would discourage potential residents, not encourage them.

And yet, for millennia, governments have taken the odd stance that you should serve them – to be "patriotic." The premise is that since, by an accident of birth, you were born in a particular country, you therefore owe dedication and sacrifice to that county. Throughout your life, it’s suggested to you that you should not only willingly sacrifice yourself to your country of birth; you should even take pride in paying whatever tax they burden you with.

The supreme example of this is found in countries that wage war against each other. At such times they go all out to remind you that you should take pride in becoming cannon fodder. As stated by the Roman poet Horace, "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori." (Sweet and fitting it is, to die for one’s country.) Once again… nonsense.

To date, I’ve never met an individual who chose his place of birth. To my mind, that means that since it was beyond his choice, he owes no particular loyalty to that country. If he chooses to swear allegiance to it at some point, that should be his prerogative, not his obligation.

Let’s look at this in another light. When I was an infant, I was baptized into a church. That church, throughout my childhood, reminded me that I was a member and owed my allegiance to, not only its perceptions of a God, but to the institution of the church itself. By the age of thirteen, I had come to the conclusion that I owed them no such dedication, as I had not chosen to be baptised. The church and I parted ways. Whatever spiritual leanings I retained were independent of any loyalty to a particular institution that used religion as its format.

By contrast, the Amish, who admittedly run a pretty strict shop, leave baptism to the individual. A young Amish fellow has no responsibility to the church. He may smoke, drink alcohol, go to parties and pursue other worldly pleasures until he makes the decision to join the church of his own volition. Most young Amish men choose to join the church in early manhood, often because they can marry a woman who’s a member of the church only if they themselves have joined. This is certainly an incentive, but the fact remains: The choice is their own.

Once we have all of the above in perspective, we may ask ourselves what role our government should play in our lives. We know that advertisers do their best to con us into buying their products; employers often offer attractive employment packages; and even towns and religions make an effort to present themselves in a favorable light. The objective is to get us to buy in, to take up their offer.

However, governments make less of an effort in the way of a sales pitch. Certainly, they promote themselves as being good leaders, but the loyalty and dedication tends to be something that’s expected by them. If they don’t receive it, they tend to take it by force.

Most all countries issue passports and each regards passports as a privilege, not a right. You’re allowed a document for travel only if they see fit to let you go beyond their borders. Most countries, however, are very lenient in this regard. As long as you commit no major crime, your international movement is not curtailed. And not many countries insist that you join their armed forces. The larger the country, the more likely that these requirements will be imposed upon you. And the more your country of birth seeks to keep you in, the more you should question whether your unwilling "baptism" is in your own interest.

We’re entering an era in which some of the world’s most prominent countries will be increasing their migration controls. Even countries that are very free when allowing new residents in, are already passing legislation that will prevent born citizens from leaving. We’re seeing this, in particular, in North America and Europe. Increasingly, exit from these countries is not by right, but by permission. And those restrictions are tightening.

One essential principle in the definition of a "free" country is that a free country is one that you can leave at will. The greater the restrictions on leaving, the less free the country is. Regardless of the sales pitch by any government that you should "not ask what your country can do for you," if another country has a better offer, it deserves your consideration. If your government takes its "ownership" of you further by stating that you should sacrifice yourself to it, all the more reason to question whether you should remain there… or look for a better offer elsewhere."

"Here We Go! US Warns Of Nuclear ‘Big One’ Coming As Biden Sends New Heavy Weapons"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted News, 11/7/22:
"Here We Go! US Warns Of Nuclear ‘Big One’ 
Coming As Biden Sends New Heavy Weapons"
"The U.S. is opening a new command in Germany to oversee long term Ukrainian weapons flow into the war. Meanwhile U.S. leaders are gearing up for nuclear war telling the world that "the big one" is coming and sees China as its biggest threat. In Haiti, armored U.S. vehicles break through the fuel blockade under heavy casualties. UFO's are front and center in D.C. security hearings. Are they ignoring the real evidence?"
Comments here:

"We Are at Code Red For The Economy"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 11/7/22:
"We Are at Code Red For The Economy"
"Things are not good right now. We’re at code red for 
the economy. Nothing looks stable for the foreseeable future."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

Jim Kunstler, "Low Down on the Showdown"

"Low Down on the Showdown"
by Jim Kunstler

"Threat to “our democracy?” The effrontery! In a fair and just world, the Democratic Party of Chaos would slouch into the donkey’s graveyard - but since when is the USA part of a fair and just world? Is there a more preposterous notion warbled across this troubled nation than the campaign mantra that “Joe Biden,” and the claque concealed behind him, are defending our democracy? What could be more self-evidently untrue?

Is censorship and abridging the First Amendment democratic? They haven’t been trying to finesse their ongoing assault on free speech. They abhor diversity of opinion, especially when it conflicts with their obvious efforts to wreck the country. Is siccing the dogs of the FBI and jailing their opponents outside due process of law democratic? Is ballot fraud democratic? Forced “vaccination”? I could go on (and often do), but you know exactly what they are doing: lying incessantly about everything, shoving lunatic narratives down your throat, turning reality inside-out and upside-down, and blowing up what’s left of American culture and economic life.

If what they’re doing is obvious, why they’re doing it isn’t. I have only two theories: Either 1) the Party of Chaos is acting in the interests of sinister forces outside our polity; or 2) They’re so far gone ethically and so deep in criminality carried out by so many persons and agencies in their service, that everything you see them do now is some attempt to cover-up their crimes or distract from their discovery.

The correct answer is probably both. One way or another, Davos money and influence worms its way through US institutions and works its wicked will, chewing up the structural supports of daily life. One obvious agent is George Soros, whose many NGOs operate at the fine-grained local level to elect district attorneys who won’t enforce the criminal statutes and state secretaries of state who won’t enforce election laws. Mr. Soros is also deeply implicated, through his Atlantic Council org, in the years-long program to destabilize Ukraine and light the fire for a completely avoidable world war. At least part of the time, George Soros lives in the US. Why his activities are not under investigation by the US Department of Justice probably answers your questions about his hidden influence at the higher levels of government.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft tycoon, circulates at the center of the evil nexus where US public health shakes hands with the drug companies. His money appears to be entangled in the biolab projects around the world engaged in weaponizing disease and then profiting from alleged “vaccines” to defeat it. The Covid-19 project went badly awry, especially the “vaccine” part. He’s been vocal about reducing the world’s population and now appears to have succeeded in helping to prompt a weird medical genocide.

Other supporting outside players range from the barely plausible Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum, which has implanted leaders and managers all over Western Civ inculcated in his Great Reset effort to wreck what’s left of industrial society and its cultural armature; to shadowy figures in European banking chattered about but never identified; to the CCP, which has gotten huge benefits from its relatively penny-ante investments in the Biden Family.

On the domestic scene, where covering-up skeins of manifold crimes sets the political tone, Christopher Wray of the FBI must lead the pack of paper-hangers. Under his leadership, beginning in 2017, the agency carried out most of its RussiaGate crimes against a sitting president and did absolutely nothing to investigate the blatant ballot fraud of 2020 that sealed the deal. Even under the shelter of “Joe Biden,” who Mr. Wray helped elect, and the stooge AG, Merrick Garland, damning information about FBI crimes continues to leak out of the woodwork via whistleblowers, while the agency behaves more and more like an American Gestapo.

All that desperation probably signals the chilling fear that a new Congress will start seriously asking questions about all this misconduct that could eventually lead to the right people going to jail. Special Counsel John Durham failed to gain convictions in this year’s trials of small-timers Sussmann and Danchenko, but he did manage to make public many salient original sins of the RussiaGate op in the process and, though 99.9 percent of observers think he’s done, I’d be willing to bet that more will be heard from Mr. Durham after the election, and not just some jive “report.”

Similarly in US public health, where the central figure in the Covid disaster, Dr. Anthony Fauci, seems to think that retirement will erect an invisible shield from prosecution around him - if he lives long enough. Dr. Fauci’s agile avoidance of giving testimony under oath may be at an end as Federal Judge Terry Doughty has compelled him to be deposed in the joint Missouri-Louisiana lawsuit alleging collusion between the government and tech companies in censoring free speech related to Covid and the “vaccines.”

Rochelle Walensky of the CDC has gone-to-ground for more than a week before the election while reports pile up of soaring all-causes deaths implicating the mRNA shots. Former NIH director Francis Collins lays low, Dr. Ralph Baric is bunkered-in and silent at the University of North Carolina, and scores of other high-up employees present-and-former at CDC, FDA, and other public health agencies must be nervous, if Congress flips, about having to account for what they did to their country. If it does flip….

And so, the midterm election plods to a climax on elephant feet. The shift in sentiment is palpable. Under normal circumstances, the prodigious, naked dishonesty of the Democratic Party of Chaos, and its many gratuitous insults to the voting public - such as the past year’s barrage of drag queen story hours - would lead to an extinction event for the Dems. Their desperation must be such that they will try anything now to stave off an election disaster, including any-and-all forms of ballot fraud. Look to the usual places: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona.

This time, of course, many observers are watching and they’ll know what to look for. The result could easily be an election the outcome of which won’t be accepted by either party, sparking an invitation to broad civil disorder. I’m not much of a praying man, but tomorrow I’ll get down on my knees for a few words with The Manager."

Bill Bonner, "The New Old Normal"

"The New Old Normal"
Are we seeing the end of cheap energy, 
cheap labor and cheap money?
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "An early dawn on the battlefield. Little by little, you make out the shapes in the distance – the sky, the horizon, the trees…then, smaller, less distinct…you see tanks, artillery…and the soldiers who are coming to kill you.

Last week, investors began to see what is headed their way. For most of the year, they have been in denial. Stocks go down; they buy the dip. And then, they go down again. But that only brings the same reflex. Their investment strategy was simple. BTFD, they say – “Buy the F…ing Dip.”

And so it came to pass that, once more, investors thought they heard the bugles blowing behind them. Jay Powell: “..the committee will ‘take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary `policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.” That was all they needed. It was the Fed coming to the rescue! Their blood up…confident that the Fed had their backs…and that this was the dip they were looking for. They went ‘over the top,’ charging the enemy with bayonets attached, and giving out their full-throated war-cry – BTFD.

It was then that Chairman Powell let them know: “You’re on your own,” he told them: “It is very premature to be thinking about pausing. People when they hear ‘lags’ think about a pause. It is very premature, in my view, to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hikes. We have a ways to go,” he said.

Three of These Things: The next three hours were the worst for a ‘Fed day’ (when the Fed makes its interest rate announcement) in history—especially for investors in the tech-heavy Nasdaq. And who can blame them? The only world they have known was remarkably prosperous…forgiving and safe. It was a world – roughly from 1980 to 2022 – that was marked by three extraordinary things.

First, the Chinese were giving us the cheapest labor ever.
Second, capitalists and innovators were giving us the cheapest energy ever.
Third, the Fed was giving us the cheapest credit in history.

It was those three things, and not the genius of the Fed jefes, nor the wizards of Silicon Valley, nor the know-it-alls in the White House that gave us 36,000 on the Dow, the “goldilocks economy,” and the “great moderation” of the pre-2022 economy. And now, things have changed so fundamentally that investors are forced to ask questions. ‘Where are we?’ they want to know.

Here at Bonner Private Research, the question mark is our most treasured punctuation. We use it on everything, like duct tape or WD40. We keep them in the back of the truck, along with the spare tire, the jack, and the bottle of whiskey; we never know when we might need them. Typically, question marks disappear when things go well. But when the fender falls off, you get out the duct tape.

How come productivity is falling? Why hasn’t this ‘transitory’ inflation transited? What the Hell was White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre trying to say?

Investors long for the good ol’ days. They keep waiting, hoping, dreaming of a Fed pivot. Each time, they bid up stocks…hoping that things will get ‘back to normal’ tootsweet. And each time, our old classmate, Chairman Powell, who must keep a photo of Paul Volcker on his desk, proves them wrong.

Mr. Powell meets Mr. Market: But a whole generation of Americans have never known ‘normal.’ And now that the curiously beneficent conditions of the last few decades, have deserted them, the new normal is terrifying.

As to the cheap labor, China is running out of it. The rush of some 500 million peasants into a modernizing, industrial economy was a “one off” event. There aren’t many peasants left; those that still live in Chinese villages are needed on the farms. Chinese labor is no longer dirt cheap. And the feds are working hard to discourage trade with China, anyway. Mr. Trump limited imports from China. Mr. Biden kept his tariffs in place.

Energy isn’t so cheap anymore either. Typically, oil prices go down when the dollar goes up. But today, the dollar is at a 20-year high…while oil is over $86 a barrel – up from under $20 in 2020. Nor is oil or gas likely to get much cheaper. Practically every major government in the Western world has threatened to put the producers out of business, while actively subsidizing their competition. The price of gasoline is already inching back up. And gas heating bills this winter are expected to be about 30% higher than last year.

And interest rates? For the moment, the Fed is raising them (making credit more expensive). Mr. Market is raising them too; he’s got to protect himself from inflation. Mortgage rates, for example, topped 7% last week. Between the two of them – Mr. Powell and Mr. Market – the price of credit is going up. And for better or for worse, the world of 1980-2022 is dead."

"Stock Up Now At Walmart! Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 11/7/22:
"Stock Up Now At Walmart! 
Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"
"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing that they are having a huge sale on holiday baking items this month! We are stocking up, and showing the best deals as we take you shopping with us. It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
By comparison:
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 11/7/22:
"Russian Supermarket After 9 Months of Sanctions"
"Let's take a look inside a Russian Supermarket after 9 months of ongoing Sanctions. How does the Russian Supermarket look inside now? Are the shelves full, did sanctions affect the daily shopping of Russians? Here's a EuroSpar Supermarket in Moscow during Sanctions."
Comments here:
- https://www.youtube.com/
Look at the area around the market, the buildings, cars, streets. Look at the people, how they're dressed and appear. Are they so different from you? Compare the supermarket, how does it compare to where you shop? Do you see empty shelves? What do you think about this?

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/7/22"

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/7/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/7f22:
"Debt Market Hair Trigger And Anything 
Can Set It Off - Be Prepared" 
Comments here:
Latest Market Analysis, Updated 11/7/22
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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...

Col. Douglas Macgregor, "Ukraine Update: Dangerously Stupid"

Global Research, 11/7/22:
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 
"Ukraine Update:Dangerously Stupid"
Comments here:

"Briely..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm

“I often question my sanity. Occasionally, it replies.”

- Darynda Jones

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Musical Interlude: Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia")

Full screen recommended. A must!
Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia") 
(Live In London 2011)

Feel this in your soul...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This rock structure is not only surreal - it's real. The reason it's not more famous is that it is, perhaps, smaller than one might guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few meters. Even so, the King of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating example of an unusual type of rock structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer rock.
Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting for a suitably picturesque night behind a sky with few clouds, the foreground had to be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the background. After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the horizontal bar, the background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching overhead.”