Monday, December 12, 2022

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"
by Jeff Thomas

"In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky. The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed. If there were a shortage of, say, shoes, we could make do for months or even years. A shortage of gasoline would be worse, but we could survive it, through mass transport or even walking, if necessary.

But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbor with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbor and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.”

But surely, there’s no need to speculate on this concern yet. There’s nothing on the evening news yet to suggest that such a problem might be on the horizon. So, let’s have a closer look at the actual food distribution industry, compare it to the present direction of the economy, and see whether there might be reason for concern.

The food industry typically operates on very small margins – often below 2%. Traditionally, wholesalers and retailers have relied on a two-week turnaround of supply and anywhere up to a 30-day payment plan. But an increasing tightening of the economic system for the last eight years has resulted in a turnaround time of just three days for both supply and payment for many in the industry. This a system that’s still fully operative, but with no further wiggle room, should it take a significant further hit.

If there were a month where significant inflation took place (The Feds lie say 9.1%; really now at least 17%), all profits would be lost for the month for both suppliers and retailers, but goods could still be replaced and sold for a higher price next month. But, if there were three or more consecutive months of inflation, the industry would be unable to bridge the gap, even if better conditions were expected to develop in future months. A failure to pay in full for several months would mean smaller orders by those who could not pay. That would mean fewer goods on the shelves. The longer the inflationary trend continued, the more quickly prices would rise to hopefully offset the inflation. And ever-fewer items on the shelves.

From Germany in 1922, to Argentina in 2000, and to Venezuela in 2016, this has been the pattern whenever inflation has become systemic, rather than sporadic. Each month, some stores close, beginning with those that are the most poorly capitalized.

In good economic times, this would mean more business for those stores that were still solvent, but in an inflationary situation, they would be in no position to take on more unprofitable business. The result is that the volume of food on offer at retailers would decrease at a pace with the severity of the inflation.

However, the demand for food would not decrease by a single loaf of bread. Store closings would be felt most immediately in inner cities, when one closing would send customers to the next neighborhood seeking food. The real danger would come when that store also closes and both neighborhoods descended on a third store in yet another neighborhood. That’s when one loaf of bread for every three potential purchasers would become worth killing over. Virtually no one would long tolerate seeing his children go without food because others had “invaded” his local supermarket.

In addition to retailers, the entire industry would be impacted and, as retailers disappeared, so would suppliers, and so on, up the food chain. This would not occur in an orderly fashion, or in one specific area. The problem would be a national one. Closures would be all over the map, seemingly at random, affecting all areas. Food riots would take place, first in the inner cities then spread to other communities. Buyers, fearful of shortages, would clean out the shelves.

Importantly, it’s the very unpredictability of food delivery that increases fear, creating panic and violence. And, again, none of the above is speculation; it’s a historical pattern – a reaction based upon human nature whenever systemic inflation occurs.

Then… unfortunately… the cavalry arrives. At that point, it would be very likely that the central government would step in and issue controls to the food industry that served political needs rather than business needs, greatly exacerbating the problem. Suppliers would be ordered to deliver to those neighborhoods where the riots are the worst, even if those retailers are unable to pay. This would increase the number of closings of suppliers.

Along the way, truckers would begin to refuse to enter troubled neighborhoods, and the military might well be brought in to force deliveries to take place. (If truckers could afford $5.75 a gallon diesel fuel.)

So, what would it take for the above to occur? Well, historically, it has always begun with excessive debt. We know that the debt level is now the highest it has ever been in world history. (US debt as of October 2022: $31.12 trillion; World debt as of Feb. 2022: $303 trillion.) In addition, the stock and bond markets are in bubbles of historic proportions. They will most certainly pop.

With a crash in the markets, deflation always follows as people try to unload assets to cover for their losses. The Federal Reserve (and other central banks) has stated that it will unquestionably print as much money as it takes to counter deflation. Unfortunately, inflation has a far greater effect on the price of commodities than assets. Therefore, the prices of commodities will rise dramatically, further squeezing the purchasing power of the consumer, thereby decreasing the likelihood that he will buy assets, even if they’re bargain priced. Therefore, asset holders will drop their prices repeatedly as they become more desperate. The Fed then prints more to counter the deeper deflation and we enter a period when deflation and inflation are increasing concurrently.

Historically, when this point has been reached, no government has ever done the right thing. They have, instead, done the very opposite – keep printing. A by-product of this conundrum is reflected in the photo above. Food still exists, but retailers shut down because they cannot pay for goods. Suppliers shut down because they’re not receiving payments from retailers. Producers cut production because sales are plummeting.

In every country that has passed through such a period, the government has eventually gotten out of the way and the free market has prevailed, re-energizing the industry and creating a return to normal. The question is not whether civilization will come to an end. (It will not.) The question is the liveability of a society that is experiencing a food crisis, as even the best of people are likely to panic and become a potential threat to anyone who is known to store a case of soup in his cellar.

Fear of starvation is fundamentally different from other fears of shortages. Even good people panic. In such times, it’s advantageous to be living in a rural setting, as far from the centre of panic as possible. It’s also advantageous to store food in advance that will last for several months, if necessary. However, even these measures are no guarantee, as, today, modern highways and efficient cars make it easy for anyone to travel quickly to where the goods are. The ideal is to be prepared to sit out the crisis in a country that will be less likely to be impacted by dramatic inflation – where the likelihood of a food crisis is low and basic safety is more assured."

Musical Interlude: Josh Groban, "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)"

Full screen recommended.
Josh Groban,
 "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled into space appear from our vantage point as if we are looking down a helix. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce.
The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius) and spans about 2.5 light-years. The above picture was taken three colors on infrared light by the 4.1-meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots of unknown origin.”

"In The Only Time You Are Alive..."

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”
~ Wendell Berry

"Fools And Knaves"

“In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of
fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain
degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.”
- Philip Stanhope

“There are more fools than knaves in the world,
else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.”
- Samuel Butler

"Population Control: Expect Global Food And Water Shortages To Worsen, And Much Higher Inflation"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/12/22:
"Population Control: Expect Global Food And Water 
Shortages To Worsen, And Much Higher Inflation"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Covesville, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Breaking: Elon Drops MASSIVE Bombshell in Twitter Files 5 Release"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 12/12/22:
"Breaking: Elon Drops MASSIVE Bombshell 
in Twitter Files 5 Release"
"Elon Musk just dropped the Twitter Files 5 with stunning Trump revelations. And get ready for the most explosive Twitter files drop yet, the Covid Files. Will it lead to the prosecution of Dr. Fauci? The Pentagon green lights attack on Russia while NATO chief worries this is about to explode out of control. Is Putin already attacking the U.S. energy grid?'
Comments here:

Judge Napolitano, "Col. Doug Macgregor: U.S. Gives Ukraine OK To Drone Strike Russia"

Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 12/12/22:
"Col. Doug Macgregor: 
U.S. Gives Ukraine OK To Drone Strike Russia"
Comments here:

"A Brief Disagreement"

Full screen recommended.
Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"
"A visual journey into Mankind's favorite pastime throughout the ages."

"Welcome to Fifth Gen (Information) Warfare" (Excerpt)

"Welcome to Fifth Gen (Information) Warfare" (Excerpt)
The battleground is consensus of the swarm and your own mind.
by Robert W Malone MD, MS

Excerpt: "Congratulations. As we approach 2023, you are now completing and have survived the third year of the largest, most globally coordinated psychological warfare operation in the history of mankind. During this period, on a daily basis, you have experienced the US Government and many western nations deploying highly refined, military-grade fifth generation warfare technologies against their own citizens. For those who have avoided the jabs which are neither safe nor effective, you deserve a medal for your ability to see through the fog of information warfare. Those, like me, who trusted the FDA and took the initial jabs only to suffer the adverse effects of same, perhaps a purple heart for being wounded in battle. For the millions of battlefield dead, the excess mortality documented by Ed Dowd and so many others, a moment of silent mourning is in order."
Full article is here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"Economic Market Snapshot 12/12/22"

"Economic Market Snapshot 12/12/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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...

"Buckle Up for a Hard Landing"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 12/12/22:
"Buckle Up for a Hard Landing"
"It’s time to get your tray tables and seats upright in order. 
You need to buckle up for a hard landing."
Comments here:

"And The fREakSHoW Continues... Big Time!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/12/22:
"And The fREakSHoW Continues... Big Time!"
Comments here:
ͦ
"And The fREakSHoW Continues..."
Full screen recommended.
Louis Armstrong , "What A Wonderful World"
Oh yeah...

"The Narrative: Crumbling in 2023?"

"The Narrative: Crumbling in 2023?"
by John Wilder

"This isn’t my prediction post for 2023, but one thing that I’m seeing is that toward the end of 2022, the oddest thing seems to be happening – The Narrative is crumbling. Good. Now do the January 6 Committee.
Click image for larger size.
As you can see from Elon’s Tweet® above, Musk has enough data to realize what most readers here have known for a long time: Fauci has always been on his own side, and was tied into some pretty shady stuff. The Twitter© purchase gave Musk more public power than being an okay car manufacturer for niche cars that are (at least presently) wholly impractical for widespread use or a really good rocket manufacturer that has revolutionized space travel.

If humans ever set foot on Mars, it will be because of the work that Musk started with SpaceX®. Sure, that might change the history of humanity and eventually turn us into a multiplanetary species, but his purchase of Twitter™ is changing the world, now. As I’ve written about before, Twitter™ is different. It was pumped up by the Left and eventually co-opted by them as one of their means to rapidly reprogram their NPCs.

As such, that left evidence. I was a user of Twitter© for a while, and had individual Tweets© that got a lot of response – some of them in the tens of thousands. They weren’t anything in particular, merely reacting against the Leftist narrative. That wasn’t allowed, apparently. After a year and a half, I noted that my Tweet reach was now very, very limited. That was fine. I could take my ball and just spend time writing here instead of Tweeting®. The Leftist tactic of silencing the Right worked in my case.

Now Musk has the keys to the data, and has already started showing the slime-trail that the Leftists always leave behind. The rot was inside, of course. Leftists tend to try to hire their own, and it turns out that the Federal Government was directing (in some cases) the stories what stories would be told, and what stories would be suppressed.

Wonder what data exists in the private messages of the Very Important? Probably only one person has greater access to that data (outside of the .gov people) and that’s Mark Zuckerberg. Mark won’t be telling anyone, because as Elon heads out to space, the Zuck seems to be suffering a reboot as Faceborg© slowly loses billions of dollars in value.

This makes me wonder if 2023 isn’t the year that The Narrative finally cracks. Disney’s™ stock value has plummeted, and they can’t make movies that people don’t want to see forever. Eventually, they have to have some cash coming in to pay for the LGBTQ+ chat rooms and employee abortions and transition surgery.

That’s another thing that’s past its sell-by date: the trans (and trans indoctrination) movement. Parents will put up with a lot, but when you start messing with their kids? They push back. And they are pushing back. Parents are pushing back at school board meetings, and the woke can’t stand the light. This one, in particular, opened a lot of eyes. But, hey, the science is settled that there's no difference between men and women, right?
Click image for larger size.
The Narrative on the COVID vaxx is also fading. It is now inescapable and proven that the vaxx has killed more people than any vaccine in history, and the long-term effects are unknown. I certainly don’t hope that all the people who took it die, since I know several people I really like that got the vaxx.
Click image for larger size,
I think it’s also becoming clear that a very, very large number of the people who are Leftist activists are...  crazy. The recent Department of Energy, um, person in charge of nuclear waste is now accused of (spins wheel) lifting luggage at airports. Clearly this, um, person is nuts, and we’re lucky that they were stopped after lifting a few bags, rather than after they went full “where can I bury all these bodies?” But that seems to be a qualification to be placed into high office in Biden’s administration.

Any Rand was really wrong about a lot of things, but she knocked it out of the park with one particular statement: "We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." That’s what The Narrative does. And the consequences of ignoring reality are showing up again and again here at the end of 2022, and will more in 2023.
Click image for larger size.
Even the virtue signaling, when it doesn’t have a basis in reality can lead to failure. When the symptoms of the situation are addressed, but the root cause isn’t, the problem will rot and fester. The sooner The Narrative crumbles and people are brought, face to face with reality, the sooner actual solutions can be found.

I’m sure that some people would rather that The Narrative would have crumbled a few months earlier, and probably would have made other choices. Including losing the “Where’s Waldo” hat. And if you think that's mean, he called me an idiot first."

Bill Bonner, "Until Something Breaks"

"Until Something Breaks"
No magic... no genius... and no common sense.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "Last week came more evidence that inflation is not going away. Today, we explain why. MarketWatch: "In data released Friday, U.S. producer prices rose 0.3% in November versus the 0.2% median forecast from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The increase in producer prices over the past 12 months slowed to 7.4% from 8.1% in the prior month, and was down from a 11.7% peak in March."

The report, which came in above expectations, indicated that there’s less moderation in price pressures than analysts had expected for last month. Foretelling much worse inflation sometime in the future, prices for finished consumer goods actually went up at a 16% rate – the highest in 48 years.Three Major Busts

But that’s the trouble with a ‘sea of lies;’ it inevitably gets stormy. Ships run aground. The Fed gave out the lie that it could manipulate the economy and make us all richer. It claimed to be “smoothing” the economic cycle. No more bubbles. No more busts. But thanks to the Fed, we’ve seen 3 major bubbles in the last 22 years. And three major busts. We’re still in the 3rd one.

The Fed had no magic…no genius…and no common sense. All it was really doing was ‘printing up’ money…and handing it out to its friends on Wall Street…and to the government itself. As long as the money kept coming – they could refinance old debt with new, cheaper debt, and the economy looked stable and healthy.

But it was actually getting weaker and more vulnerable to inflation. The debt, public and private, ballooned by more than $60 trillion since the beginning of the century. And who will pay it? The same people who will pay higher prices for everything. The same people who have been losing income for 20 months in a row…and who will lose their jobs in the next recession.

And this time, the Fed won’t come to the rescue. Facing US policymakers right now, for the first time in 4 decades, is a headwind that won’t go away: inflation. That’s the big difference between the 1982-2020 period and today. The Fed can no longer support the stock market, and the economy, with cheaper and cheaper lending rates. That is not a detail; it’s fundamental to understanding what comes next.

Demand Boosters: In short, neither the government, corporations, nor households are going to be able to rollover their debt at lower rates. Instead, interest rates will be higher. And many debtors won’t be able to refinance at all. Here’s the latest on the debt market, from MarketWatch: "U.S. bond yields rose on Friday, giving the 10-year rate its biggest weekly advance in five weeks, after data showed that wholesale price inflation picked up in November by more than expected. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was up 7.5 basis points at 3.567% versus 3.492% Thursday afternoon. It rose 6.5 basis points this week for the largest weekly gain since the period that ended Nov. 4."

The proximate cause of this inflation is the federal government’s over-spending during the Covid Panic…along with a long history of the Fed lending money at rates that are far too low for far too long. And though the Fed has begun a ‘tightening cycle,’ its key rate is still about 370 basis points BELOW the inflation rate.

The lawmakers make things worse, too. Spending for 2023 is expected to reach about $5.9 trillion, or more than 25% of GDP. That will leave it with a projected deficit of $1 trillion, which will surely go up as the recession begins to bite. All of these are ‘demand’ boosters. They give consumers (or at least the government) more money to buy things, pushing up prices.

But there are two sides to prices – supply and demand, bid and ask. On the ‘bid’ side, the feds’ money adds to the money supply. But on the supply side, too, there are some nasty rocks in the sea of lies. Supplies of goods and services depend on labor, investment, innovation, transportation, energy, and a host of other in-puts. When those become more difficult to acquire, distorted by phony price signals, or just more expensive, prices for goods and services rise.

Real goods and services are mostly produced by the middle class in the private sector. They drive the trucks…keep the books...run the factories…and make sure the work gets done. But the middle class is working less and less. The labor participation rate has gone down this entire century. Today, there are nearly 100 million adults who don’t work at all.

Covid-era Hallucinations: To make matters worse, those who still work are often beset by busybodies. The private sector is ruled by the public sector. And the public sector aims not to increase output, but to stifle it. During the Covid Panic, for example, the public sector actually shut down much of the private sector. Factories were closed. Restaurants and bars were shuttered. Airplanes were grounded. Much supply was lost to bottlenecks and inventory mistakes made under the influence of Covid-era hallucinations.

But even more output is lost to the steady and unrelenting, day after day, growth of laws and regulation. More restrictions…more lawyers…more accountants…more administrators…and every one of them rocking the boat.

Everyday, The Wall Street Journal brings more examples. “FTC Sues to Block Activision Deal,” says the main headline. Friday. Then, over in the left hand column: “Pressure is mounting on the SEC to step up enforcement of key hubs of the crypto industry…”This followed an announcement on Thursday: “Federal lawmakers dealt a setback to Boeing, proposing a defense bill that didn’t exempt…” blah, blah…

These, of course, are just the big items. Behind them are thousands of pettifogging rulings…directives and diktats…each of them making output more expensive. So, don’t count on a quick return to the Fed’s inflation target – 2%. More likely, inflation will be stubborn…forcing the Fed to keep raising rates “until something breaks.”

Jim Kunstler, "The Alarm Bells Go Off"

"The Alarm Bells Go Off"
by Jim Kunstler

"Startling fact of the week: Twitter’s senior ranks of content moderators included over a dozen former FBI and CIA agents and analysts who let child porn run loose all over the app while surgically removing any utterance contradicting the government’s claim that mRNA “vaccines” are “safe and effective” - not to mention the effort this elite crew expended against anyone objecting to the Woke-Left’s race and gender hustles. Wouldn’t you like to know how much they were paid? Probably more than government work.

Here’s another awful reality (better fasten your seatbelts): What also emerged in the tweet record of Yoel Roth, the company’s chief censor (former “Head of Trust and Safety”), begins to look like a gay mafia assault on the collective American psyche. Having gained official federal government sanction and protection, a statistically tiny homosexual demographic left in charge of the country’s main public forum has been out for revenge against their perceived enemy, political conservatives - Americans disinclined to join the cheerleading for drag queen story hours, “minor-attracted persons,” transsexuals in the military, and other LBGTQ cultural pranks.

In the process, that gay mafia running the public dialogue supported every lie that the government, its protector, put out, to keep it happy and well-fed. Shocking, I’m sure… but there it is. That means they also promoted the most-deadly psy-op in world history: the Covid-19 scare and the mass “vaccination” crusade that will end up killing many millions world-wide, after destroying the economies of the Western Civ nations. The whole package looks like an attempt to turn the world upside down and inside out. Is it any wonder that so many feel the USA has gone crazy?

Of course, that aroused the widespread suspicion that these now-exposed nefarious operators in social media were merely tools for some murky plutocrat elite led by the likes of the WEF, Bill Gates, and George Soros. Could that be the greatest “conspiracy theory’ of all? More likely, I hesitate to suggest, all these characters in one way or another are merely tools of history itself, as the world enters the darkest days of a Fourth Turning secular winter. As TS Eliot observed: “Humankind cannot bear too much reality.”

Thus, so many sense we live in dangerous times. Everything appears to veer out-of-control, including thought itself. Disorder incites more disorder. While all this madness is going on in-country, the US government, led by the phantom president “Joe Biden,” continues to prosecute its insane proxy war in Ukraine in order to antagonize Russia. Lately the US has sent drones hundreds of miles inside Russia to blow up military airfields. How is that not an escalation of hostilities, and exactly how far do the American people want their government to take this crazy project?

Not a goshdarn inch further, the opinion polls indicate. We are apparently not quite so insane as to welcome nuclear annihilation, and we seem to recognize what might bring it on. And so, the dreadful realities of time still stand before us, unmoved by all the mental illness they provoke, uninterested in our excuses for behaving so badly. Is there any way to face them? To incorporate them into a truth-based narrative that Western Civ can use to rescue itself from something that looks like suicide?

Elon Musk, alone, apart from, and in defiance of all the cowards running things in America - the corporate sell-outs, the craven college presidents, the bought-off politicians, the bad-faith media fabulists, the vindictive denizens of Hollywood - is moving to inject some therapeutic truth into the American lunatic asylum. He came out pretty hot over the weekend, branding Dr. Anthony Fauci as a criminal, calling for his prosecution, and promising the release of Twitter files that will demonstrate just how deceitful and untrustworthy the old Twitter acted in all the medical melodrama surrounding Covid-19 and the “vaccines.” On Sunday, Elon tweeted, “Now things get spicy.” Will the reveal of all that wickedness make any impression on half the people of this country still deranged by the many previous salvos of official propaganda? Maybe not all of them. Maybe only twenty percent. But that would be enough to tip the consensus of opinion in the right direction: a recognition of the harm that has been done… and the will to quit doing more of it.

Beyond that, even, Elon has put the basic question to America: Are you in favor of free speech or not? Especially now that you know that “moderating” free speech is an invitation to live in lies. And lying all the time really does bend that old arc of history toward evil."

"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”

"Budget Christmas Shopping! Save Money This Holiday Season"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/12/22:
"Budget Christmas Shopping! Save Money This Holiday Season"
"In today's vlog we are going over very budget friendly stores to SAVE MONEY this Christmas! Prices are up everywhere this year, and we're gonna show how we can still save during this Holiday Season!"
Comments here:

Sunday, December 11, 2022

"Unbelievable! NATO Chief Issues Warning; Millions Fleeing; USA OK's Attacks On Russian Nuclear Bases"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/11/22:
"Unbelievable! NATO Chief Issues Warning; Millions Fleeing; 
USA OK's Attacks On Russian Nuclear Bases"
"Odessa has been bombed to the Stone Age, the USA has greenlit Ukrainian attacks on Russian nuclear bases, Putins nuclear threats have reached unprecedented levels, NATO chief says we are headed for a world war. Buckle up!"
Comments here:
ͦ
"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly."
- Jim Quinn

"The Housing Market Crash Nobody Thinks Possible Is Here"

Full screen recommended.
"The Housing Market Crash Nobody 
Thinks Possible Is Here"
by Epic Economist

"First, they told us that the housing market was fine, and the rapid spike in prices was a healthy sign. Then, they were forced to admit that we were in the largest housing bubble ever. And now, the Dallas Fed is warning that a 20% correction is likely to occur, even though home prices have risen on average by 47% over the past couple of years. It’s safe to say that a 20% drop won’t correct markets where prices skyrocketed over 70%, such as Austin, Texas, and Boise, Idaho. It would take a whole lot more to bring overvalued markets back to normalcy. And according to Zillow estimates, almost 60% of U.S. housing markets are ‘significantly’ overvalued right now. That doesn’t bring any relief for homeowners, who are already struggling with mortgage rates that are still two times higher than they were in 2021 and falling property values that already wiped out trillions in home equity so far this year. According to Redfin, 2023 will be marked by the largest year-over-year decline in home prices since 2008. All indicators signal that more turbulence is ahead. They can deny all they want, but the housing market crash nobody thought possible is already upon us, and losses will only get bigger from this point on.

For the first time in a decade, U.S. homeowners are seeing their home equity fall abruptly. All thanks to soaring mortgage rates that have depressed purchasing power and sent home values down. Overall, U.S. homeowners with a mortgage have lost a collective $1.5 trillion in equity since May, according to September data provided by mortgage services company Black Knight. Since then, the number of underwater mortgages — where someone owes more on their loan than their home is worth — has more than doubled. Now, roughly 450,000 homeowners are already underwater on their mortgages, and nationwide double-digit declines in property values haven’t even started yet.

All in all, ever since the Federal Reserve began slowing down the economy to tame inflation growth, the wealth of American households has evaporated—collapsing by more than $6.8 trillion since January. From June to November, the average home lost almost $40,000 in value. In fact, BlackKnight data shows that roughly 10% of U.S. households who bought a home with a mortgage in 2022 are already underwater, and at least 40% have less than 10% equity. Andy Walden, vice president of research at Black Knight, said he expects more people will fall underwater in coming months as home price declines accelerate in 2023. Up until this point, the higher rates and the lower prices haven’t resulted in any of the benefits policymakers thought it would. Those struggling to buy their first home continued to be shut out, making up less than 25% of transactions last month.

“First-time buyers are really struggling with high prices, the high bar to get into the market, and high mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. The repercussions are impacting sellers, too. Right now, they’re either dropping asking prices at a faster pace than at any point in the past few years or removing their properties from the market altogether. In essence, this Fed-driven bubble burst is making conditions worse for everyone – owners, buyers, sellers, and even real estate agents. The most worrying part of all this is the fact that there the housing market goes, the broader economy follows, and if it is going down, everything else will fall out of place too."

"No One is Shopping"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 12/11/22:
"No One is Shopping"
"The worst holiday shopping season ever. Take a look a South Coast Plaza. It’s two weeks to Christmas and people are not shopping like they used to."
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An interesting comparison...Sanctions? Bah...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell , 12/11/22:
"Moscow Christmas Markets on Red Square December 2022"
"Take a walk through the famous Moscow Christmas Markets on a snowy December day in Red Square. See how the Christmas Markets look on Red Square in December 2022. Delight in the Christmas cheer and enjoy the sights and sounds that Red Square has to offer at the Christmas markets."
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Musical Interlude :2002, "Spirit Moves"

Full screen mode recommended.
2002, "Spirit Moves"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"A gorgeous spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years distant, NGC 1309 lies on the banks of the constellation of the River (Eridanus). NGC 1309 spans about 30,000 light-years, making it about one third the size of our larger Milky Way galaxy. Bluish clusters of young stars and dust lanes are seen to trace out NGC 1309's spiral arms as they wind around an older yellowish star population at its core. 
Not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy, observations of NGC 1309's recent supernova and Cepheid variable stars contribute to the calibration of the expansion of the Universe. Still, after you get over this beautiful galaxy's grand design, check out the array of more distant background galaxies also recorded in this sharp, reprocessed, Hubble Space Telescope view.”

"Life's Impermanence..."

"Lifes impermanence, I realized, is what makes every
single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here.
It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted."
- Wes Moore

"We're All..."

"We're all sinking in the same boat here. We're all bored and desperate and waiting for something to happen. Waiting for life to get better. Waiting for things to change. Waiting for that one person to finally notice us. We're all waiting. But we also need to realize that we all have the power to make those changes for ourselves."
- Susane Colasanti

The Poet: Mark Jarman, "Coyotes"

"Coyotes"

"Is this world truly fallen? They say no.
For there's the new moon, there's the Milky Way,
There's the rattler with a wren's egg in its mouth,
And there's the panting rabbit they will eat.
They sing their wild hymn on the dark slope,
Reading the stars like notes of hilarious music.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?

And yet we're crying over the stars again,
And over the uncertainty of death,
Which we suspect will divide us all forever.
I'm tired of those who broadcast their certainties,
Constantly on their cell phones to their redeemer.
Is this a fallen world? For them it is.
But there's that starlit burst of animal laughter.

The day has sent its fires scattering.
The night has risen from its burning bed.
Our tears are proof that love is meant for life
And for the living. And this chorus of praise,
Which the pet dogs of the neighborhood are answering
Nostalgically, invites our answer, too.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?"

~ Mark Jarman

"We Were Here..."

"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

"Now the voices and the sound of movement were gone, and the stream could be heard running quietly under its banks. The air was full of the scent of water and of flowers. She walked, quiet, while the house began to reverberate: a band had started up. She walked beside the river while the music thudded, feeling herself as a heavy, impervious, insensitive lump that, like a planet doomed always to be dark on one side, had vision in front only, a myopic searchlight blind except for the tiny three-dimensional path open immediately before her eyes in which the outline of a tree, a rose, emerged then submerged in dark. She thought, with the dove's voices of her solitude. Where? But where. How? Who? No, but where, where… Then silence and the birth of a repetition. Where? Here. Here? Here, where else, you fool, you poor fool, where else has it been, ever…?"
- Doris Lessing

The Daily "Near You?"

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Our Moral Compass..."

"The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason."
- Samuel Pisar

"I think we need to be human. Nobody is objective. We need to go in and be human - especially today, especially given everything that's happening around us, especially given the divides between populations that are growing and what's at stake in terms of our collective humanity, and the fact that our moral compass is broken."
- Arwa Damon
"Moral compass?" Surely you jest! This is 'Murica, fool!

"30 Questions for a Narrative Believer" (Excerpt)

"30 Questions for a Narrative Believer"
by Margaret Anna Alice

Excerpt: "Do you (or did you) believe the COVID narrative? If so, would you be willing to answer some questions? All I ask is that you honestly engage with the questions. I promise to listen attentively and respectfully. Your responses may help me and many others answer questions of historic importance. If you would like me to consider publishing your answers in a future post, please share them in the comments. If you would prefer to keep them anonymous, you can email them to me by signing up for my newsletter and replying to the Welcome message. Feel free to selectively respond if you don’t have time to answer them all. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts.

Note to My Readers: I need your help gathering responses. Can you please share this widely and ask friends, family members, coworkers, and other narrative believers to take this opportunity to relay their perspective?

Share: With the holidays coming up, this could offer a meaningful way to connect and help you understand each others’ experiences and viewpoints. You could record audio or video of their responses as you ask them and then send me transcripts of their answers if they are willing to share them publicly (I can retain anonymity as desired). I realize there are a lot of time-consuming questions here, and you may exhaust the patience of your subjects if you try to go through all of them. The first question alone could prompt an hourlong conversation. To save time, you may wish to select the ones you think are most appropriate for the particular party.

If you’re part of a church or other group, you could see if it would be possible to set up discussion groups, and people could take turns answering questions, maybe over multiple sessions.

Get creative! Feel free to add your own questions (share in the comments if you’d like) and simply use this article as a springboard for deeper conversations. While asking questions, try to avoid being confrontational or judgmental. We want participants to reflect on their feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behavior without fear of backlash. This may open up avenues for healing dialogue as you process the past three years together."
Full article is here:

Greg Hunter, "Cut Interest Rates & Dollar is Done, Toast, It’s Over"

"Cut Interest Rates & Dollar is Done, Toast, It’s Over"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan says do not expect the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates anytime soon. Morgan thinks the Fed is not going to devalue the dollar. Morgan explains, “We need to continue the dollar until the new system is initiated. That’s the point. Yes, it’s about interest rates, that is part of the mechanics about this. The philosophy is we need a dollar in the system as the king when we transition into the new system. Now, there is a debate whether that is true or false. Is this going to be a global currency? Is it going to be a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that is worldwide? Or is it going to be nation states with their own currencies? That has yet to be determined. I think the power behind the Fed wants the dollar to survive, and they are going to make it survive. That means they are going to push interest rates as high as necessary until they can transition to this new system.”

So, what about this so-called Fed “pivot” to lower interest rates to save the day? Forget it. Morgan explains, “Take the converse. Most of my peer group talks about the ‘pivot.’ Meaning, the Fed stops raising interest rates or they get to a level, they pause, and they start to lower them. Anybody who is anybody in the financial markets knows if that is the case, they have basically destroyed the U.S. dollar. It’s done. It’s toast. It’s over. What that means is people will get rid of it as fast as they can. All the dollars overseas will come back and repatriate for anything such as land, Toyotas, Fords – anything. 60% of all printed physical currency (U.S. dollars) is held outside the borders of the United States. The reason for that is two-fold. 

Number one, it is the reserve currency of the world. The second reason is that it is trusted in countries that continually have currency crises. Argentina has a currency crisis every decade, and you have Turkey, and you have several others including Zimbabwe. What do they use? They use metal and U.S. printed currency. That’s their black market or free market. So, the currency of the U.S. dollar is trusted. If you use the Exter Inverted Pyramid as a model as to how the crash happens, there is a run to the U.S dollar before there is a run to gold. So, I am not surprised to see the dollar so high, but it has backed off some recently. The dollar is trusted at this point in time, and to keep that trust going, we are going to sweeten the deal and keep pushing interest rates up higher and higher. They are saying trust us, trust us, trust us. They are doing it to buy time because everyone knows the system is failing, and they have to do something different.”

Morgan also gives predictions for what is in store in 2023. He talks about why you need gold and silver and why you need it now. Morgan also has predictions for war, real estate, food, unemployment, the vaxed and inflation along with deflation. The unprepared will be struggling way more than the prepared next year. You need to get ready now according to Morgan." There is much more in the 46-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One on One 
with David Morgan, founder of “The Morgan Report.”

"How It Really Is"


"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/22/22:
"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
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