"They, the Elite"

"They, the Elite"

We, the obstacles in their way.

by Bill Bonner

“I haven’t read the Constitution, but, from what I’ve 

been told, most of it is a waste of paper, quite frankly.” 

~ Donald Trump

Youghal, Ireland - "The noose tightens. Higher interest rates. Lower real earnings. Businesses and consumers pull back. Most reach into their savings. Others look in their pockets for loose change. Some find nothing. NBCnews: "A growing number of consumers are falling behind on their car payments, a trend financial analysts fear will continue, in a sign of the strain soaring car prices and prolonged inflation are having on household budgets.

Repossessions tumbled at the start of the pandemic when Americans got a boost from stimulus checks and lenders were more willing to accommodate those behind on their payments. But in recent months, the number of people behind on their car payments has been approaching prepandemic levels, and for the lowest-income consumers, the rate of loan defaults is now exceeding where it was in 2019, according to data from ratings agency Fitch."

Collectivist Illogic: Most likely, the coming recession will make things worse. Prices, sales and profits will fall…along with the stock market. But we’ll come to that in due course. Today, we let you in on an insight. Free speech and free markets don’t really matter to the great majority of Americans. And now that they are being lost, most people don’t care. But why were they included in the Constitution in the first place? The answer occurred to your editor this past weekend. And maybe it isn’t such an important insight as he thinks it is. But we’ll let you be the judge of that.

The key to understanding the future of the USA, and why we are doomed, is to realize that ‘The People’ and ‘the deciders’ are not the same. Mancur Olson described the important difference in his book, “The Logic of Collective Action.” It tells us why the US government has gotten so big, so bossy, and so out-of-step with ‘The People.’ In short, the support for more government – laws, regulation, subsidies, bailouts, stimmies, and the like – is always very limited and focused. Some people, those who get the money, have a keen interest in making sure new programs, whatever they are, go ahead. The public, on the other hand, is usually unaware of what is going on. And if you explained it, most likely, it would be against it…or simply uninterested.

A public policy might deliver $1 billion in money to a small group of arms suppliers, for example, to ‘aid the Ukraine.’ Explain that to the average man. If the program goes forward, it will cost him…about $3.03. He’s not going to get too animated about that. He doesn’t really know where the Ukraine is; he has no idea of its history or of what led to the war. And helping the Ukraine to ‘protect its freedom’ sounds vaguely like a good thing.

But while the common man is ignorant or indifferent, the insiders who will get the money are well informed and keenly interested. The program could change their lives. Naturally, they’ll hire lobbyists…make campaign contributions to key members of Congress…and make sure everyone realizes that this is a matter of vital national importance.

Origins Stories: That explains how the US government got so big, and so powerful. But it doesn’t explain why it is now trying to stifle free speech and control the economy. Nor does it tell us how constitutional limitations – designed to protect free speech and a free economy – got there in the first place. For that, we need to go back to our origins.

Elites are never completely homogenous…and rarely all on the same page. When the American Revolution was announced, it had the support of only about a third of the population. Another third was against it. And the other third had better things to think about. At the crucial battle of Yorktown, Virginia, there were about as many Americans fighting for England as for the colonies…and the battle was decided by foreigners, not by Americans themselves. The French navy, under the Comte de Grasse, blockaded the Chesapeake, cutting off supplies to English forces.

The American elites of 1776, who wanted to break away from Britain, were outsiders. That is, they were rebels…defying the authority of the entrenched elite. Naturally, they wanted to be able to say what they thought, without going to jail. So, they favored ‘free speech.’ But so were ideas of liberty, free trade and social evolution very much in the ‘air du temps.’ Both Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” and Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of the Species” were published in 1776. These ‘liberal’ ideas caused them to have faith in the common sense of the masses…with their folk wisdom and traditional values. Besides, they needed ‘The People’ to win the revolution!

Today, the situation is completely different. The elite are not outsiders; they’re insiders, eager to protect their power, status and wealth. They do not favor free speech; if free speech were allowed, ‘The People’ – or at least dissident intellectuals – would use it to criticize them! The elite deciders believe they are no longer at the mercy of ‘old wives’ tales’ or constitutions. Like Joe Biden or Donald Trump, they think they can make up their own rules – as they go.

They are in the position of George III, eager to protect what they’ve got against the outsiders. They don’t like free speech, because it challenges their ideas. And they don’t like free markets either. Free markets are in constant churn. One man invents a state-of-the-art camera. Then, another invents a cellphone that takes pictures too. One upstart discovers oil and before you know it, his grandson is governor of New York.

Free markets, like free speech, make everyone better off. In the competition between ideas and opinions, much like the competition between businesses, entrepreneurs and technologies, The People come out ahead. But the insiders don’t necessarily come out ahead. They own the camera company, not tomorrow’s I-phone company; they’re the ruling class now, but not necessarily tomorrow’s governors and bureaucrats. Naturally, they try to stop the future before it happens."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"Massive Sales At Meijer! Stock Up Now! Price Increases Are Coming!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 12/20/22:

"Massive Sales At Meijer! 

Stock Up Now! Price Increases Are Coming!"

"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, 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:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Congress Pushes Massive Spending Bill"

Gregory Mannarino, 12/20/22:

"Congress Pushes Massive Spending Bill; 

Bank Of Japan Rattles The Global Bond Market"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Texas Power Grid Faces Crucial Moment Ahead Of Single Digit Temperatures" (Excerpt)

"Texas Power Grid Faces Crucial Moment

 Ahead Of Single Digit Temperatures"

by Tyler Durden

Excerpt: "Forecasters are warning that a potent Arctic airmass could plunge temperatures across Texas to single digits later this week. Temperatures in Texas's Permian Basin could dip to 25 F by late Friday, risking the potential for freeze-offs that could curtail the flow of natural gas. The blast of cold air comes just 22 months after the early 2021 cold wave that collapsed Lone Star State's power grid. One weather model via PivitolWeather forecasts single digits in a large swath of Texas on Friday.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), a commission responsible for assessing power risks, warned that cold could stress the electrical grid in Texas. "The effect it can have on generators - and the way demand can rise sharply in cold weather - can lead to load risk," Mark Olson, a reliability manager at NERC, said, who was quoted by Bloomberg.

According to Houston-based NatGas research firm Criterion Research, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) - the state's grid operator - expects power demand to rise to over 61 gigawatts on Friday, which would come close to summer loads and most prior winter showings.

A massive cold stress test for ERCOT appears to be imminent. Here's more from Criterion: "ERCOT formally issued an "Operating Condition Notice (OCN)" ahead of this week's winter weather that will run from December 22-26. The OCN goes into effect when temperatures fall below 25 degrees for the Austin/San Antonio and DFW areas. ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas cited that "As we monitor weather conditions, we want to assure Texans that the grid is resilient and reliable."

Full, well charted, article is here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, “Roll The Dice”

“Roll The Dice”

“If you’re going to try,

go all the way,

otherwise, don’t even start.

If you’re going to try,

go all the way.

This could mean losing girlfriends,

wives, relatives, jobs and

maybe your mind.

Go all the way.

It could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.

It could mean freezing on a

park bench.

It could mean jail,

it could mean derision,

mockery, isolation.

Isolation is the gift,

all the others are a test of your endurance,

of how much you really want to do it.

And you’ll do it,

despite rejection and the worst odds,

and it will be better than

anything else you can imagine.

If you’re going to try,

go all the way.

There is no other feeling like that.

You will be alone with the gods,

and the nights will flame with fire.

Do it, do it, do it.

Do it.

All the way,

all the way.

You will ride life straight to

perfect laughter, it’s

the only good fight there is.”

- Charles Bukowski

○

Full screen recommended.

Charles Bukowski, “Roll The Dice”

The Poet: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "What If?"

"What If?"

"What if you slept?

And what if,

In your sleep

You dreamed?

And what if,

In your dream,

You went to heaven

And there plucked

A strange and

Beautiful flower?

And what if,

When you awoke,

You had the flower

In your hand?

Ahh, what then?"

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Poet: Wendell Berry, "Circles of Our Lives"

"Circles of Our Lives"

"Within the circles of our lives

we dance the circles of the years,

the circles of the seasons

within the circles of the years,

the cycles of the moon

within the circles of the seasons,

the circles of our reasons

within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,

changed, changing. Hands

join, unjoin in love and fear,

grief and joy. The circles turn,

each giving into each, into all.

Only music keeps us here,

each by all the others held.

In the hold of hands and eyes

we turn in pairs, that joining

joining each to all again.

And then we turn aside, alone,

out of the sunlight gone

into the darker circles of return."

- Wendell Berry

○

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for."

- "Dead Poets Society"

"It's Like In The Great Stories..."

Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: "That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."

- Samwise Gamgee,

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

o 

 

Two Steps From Hell , "Downstream"

"And it's worth fighting for..." 

Be strong and never give up, no matter what...

"How It Really Is"

 

"Permanent Adolescence: The Epidemic That Will Destroy America"

"Permanent Adolescence:

The Epidemic That Will Destroy America"

by Dr. Paul Kindlon

"As a Humanities professor I have had the opportunity to teach psychology and social psychology for more than 25 years. Occasionally the knowledge obtained in these areas allows me to analyze and understand social behavior and certain cultural trends. This is one those occasions.

If one is able to observe American society in an objective manner (granted no easy task) it becomes clear that the country is suffering from an epidemic of arrested emotional development (AED). This particular illness is characterized by some combination of: addiction, greed, immaturity, fear, blame, shame, resentments, anger, confusion and suffering. What it means is that the vast majority of Americans are stuck in adolescence exhibiting behavior like lying, negative attitudes, disobedience and disrespect, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, and issues of sexuality.

One has only to watch American movies or television shows to get a snapshot of juvenile, puerile, and base comedy characteristic of adolescent humor. It’s no accident that 48 year old Jimmy Fallon is essentially the “eternal teenager” performing comedy that mostly includes bathroom humor and gags that are based on and appeal to a silly sense of immaturity. The other darling of late-night shows in America is Stephen Colbert, age 58, who specializes in insulting public figues in an overtly adolescent display of negative attitude and disrespect.

Another hallmark of AED is to evade responsibility and blame others for failure. One had only to observe the millions of Hillary supporters to understand this phenomenon. Also common for AED sufferers is to show disrespect in sophomoric ways usually by damaging property as we see with monuments being defaced and destroyed.

Teenagers, of course, tend to have identity issues often involving sexuality which is another phenomenon all too apparent in contemporary America. It’s almost uncool not to be LGBT or confused about your gender nowadays. Soon there will be as many genders as ice-cream flavors for it’s all just a matter of taste!

In terms of cognitive activity AED is characterized by exaggeration and over-simplification. If you are angry with one of your parents you might refer to them as a Nazi or Fascist.

This negative attitude now is extended to anyone who disagrees with you and can be seen in slogans such as “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA”. Adults are an endangered species. The cognitive effect of exaggeration and over-simplification leads to irrationality and confusion. Witness the millions of people who think they are being anti-racist by opposing “White Supremacy”. No anthropologist on earth would claim that “White” is a race (although a Neo- Nazi would) It’s not even a primary color. The Irish were discriminated against for more than a hundred years in America due to Anglo-Saxon racism yet the Irish are considered “white”. There are millions of Americans of German, Polish, and Scandinavian extraction who have been working-class and lower for a very long time. Are these “white people” guilty of supremacy? Against whom? Themselves?

Of course, what the protestors should be focusing on is class and not race which is really an arbitrary term. Unfortunately. the progressive movement in America has gone from “Occupy Wall Street” to “occupy the public bathroom”. Lenin would be turning over in his grave – if he had one. With regard to alcohol and drug addiction in America, the statistics are startling. Opiod addiction alone is becoming a national health issue as is depression. Alcohol abuse, of course, is also quite high. Lying is also becoming commonplace. It used to be just politicians and lawyers who were known to “play with the truth”. Nowadays the mainstream media is widely seen as a mainstream of lies with CNN now wearing the title of FAKE NEWS.

The teenage attempt to rebel and show disobedience is often manifested through the use of profanity intended to shock the older generation. Gratuitous profanity is pervasive in American culture and has replaced the imagination as a form of creativity. It is not an accident that Pussy Riot – a group of “performance artists” using profanity in a Cathedral considered sacred to “shock” the Russian public and “disobey” authorities – has found a home in the United States and been befriended by Madonna, another symbol of eternal adolescence. Her AED was on full display when she publicly offered all men fellatio if they voted for Hillary Clinton. And as any rebellious teenager attempting to shock the “older generation” she had to announce that she “swallows”. Stay classy, Madonna. Keep in mind we’re talking about a 63 year old mother of six.

You see…if everyone is a teenager there is no adult supervision. That is the problem. After an autopsy is conducted years from now to ascertain how and why the American Empire expired, the obituary will include multiple causes of death and AED will be listed prominently. Perhaps a precocious teenager will be allowed to write the epitaph that will read…”When extended, the bridge between adolescence and adulthood can take a heavy toll”.

- https://www.lewrockwell.com/

○

“Most people don’t grow up. It’s too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. That’s the truth of it. They honor their credit cards, they find parking spaces, they marry, they have the nerve to have children, but they don’t grow up. Not really. They get older. But to grow up costs the earth, the earth. It means you take responsibility for the time you take up, for the space you occupy. It’s serious business. And you find out what it costs us to love and to lose, to dare and to fail. And maybe even more, to succeed."

- Maya Angelou

"The U.S. Has Spawned An Entire Generation Of “Kidults” That Simply Refuse To Grow Up"

"The U.S. Has Spawned An Entire Generation Of

“Kidults” That Simply Refuse To Grow Up"

By Michael Snyder

"Do you know any adults that still live at home with their parents? If you are like most Americans, you probably know lots of them. Sadly, that is because the percentage of young adults that are living with at least one parent has been trending upwards for decades. Of course the cost of housing is one factor that is driving this phenomenon. At one point in 2022, housing was more unaffordable than it had ever been in the entire history of our country. So the truth is that many of the multi-generational households that exist today have formed due to economic necessity. But in other cases, “kidults” that simply refuse to grow up have moved back home with Mom and Dad because it is easier than trying to live independently.

Thanks to the “kidult” trend, approximately half of all U.S. adults in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket are currently living with at least one parent…"In July 2022, half of adults ages 18 to 29 were living with one or both of their parents. This was down from a recent peak of 52% in June 2020 but still significantly higher than the share who were living with their parents in 2010 (44% on average that year) or 2000 (38% on average)."

So what do parents think about all of this? Well, some like it, but even more don’t like it…"The share of adult children who live with their parents has ticked up in recent years. This just in: The parents don’t like it. A recent Pew survey found two-fifths of dads believe parents hosting adult children is bad for society, while only 12 percent think it’s a good thing. Moms agree, albeit to a lesser degree."

Overall, the Pew survey discovered that Americans have very mixed feelings about this phenomenon…"Over a third of Americans (36%) say that more young adults living with their parents is bad for society, while 16% say it is good for society. Nearly half of Americans (47%) say it doesn’t make a difference."

Of course every story is different. Some adults are living at home because they just cannot afford homes of their own. These days, millions of young people graduate from college with massive amounts of debt, and when all of that debt forces them to go back to living with their parents they are referred to as “boomerang kids”.

If you are a young person that has been financially crippled by student loan debt, I certainly don’t blame you for trying to save money so that you can turn your life around. Ultimately, trying to get out of debt is a really good thing. But of course there are millions of other young adults that simply refuse to grow up.

In fact, they have become so numerous that the toy industry has created a special term for them. They are called “kidults”, and these days they are spending billions of dollars on toys…"There are two things keeping the toy industry afloat right now: inflation and a consumer group known as “kidults.” These kids at heart are responsible for one-fourth of all toy sales annually, around $9 billion worth, and are the biggest driver of growth throughout the industry, according to data from the NPD Group."

Have you ever met an adult that has a special room for all of his Star Wars collectibles?If so, then you probably have a really good idea of the type of person that I am talking about. “Kidults” are shelling out so much money for toys that toy companies have actually begun to create “product lines just for these consumers”…

"Kidults, who tend to spend more on toys, have a great fondness for cartoons, superheroes and collectibles that remind them of their childhood. They buy merchandise such as action figures, Lego sets and dolls that might typically be considered “for kids.” However, in recent years, toy makers have created product lines just for these consumers, realizing that demand is high for this generation of adults who still want to have fun."

I am all for having fun. But this is getting ridiculous. Sadly, men are much more likely to be “kidults” than women are. Needless to say, this is one of the reasons why many women find it so difficult to find someone suitable to marry. The labor force participation rate for men has been trending down for decades, and meanwhile the labor force participation rate for women has been trending up for decades.

Of course the systematic emasculation of the male population is another reason why this has been happening, but that is a topic for another article. Once upon a time, it was extremely unusual for an able-bodied male to be doing nothing if he was capable of working. But now we have millions upon millions of men that have simply dropped out of the labor force completely.

Some of those men are now living with their parents, and that isn’t good for our society. Unfortunately, as economic conditions deteriorate, even more young adults will move back home with Mom and Dad. According to a Wall Street Journal poll that was just released, approximately two-thirds of Americans believe that “the nation’s economic trajectory is headed in the wrong direction”…"A majority of voters think the economy will be in worse shape in 2023 than it is now and roughly two-thirds say the nation’s economic trajectory is headed in the wrong direction, the latest Wall Street Journal poll shows.

The survey, conducted Dec. 3-7, suggests a recent burst of positive economic news -moderating gas prices and a slowing pace of inflation -haven’t altered the way many feel about the risk of a recession, something many economists have forecast as likely."

The coming year is definitely going to be quite rough, and the outlook for beyond that is even worse. As the economy crumbles and global events spiral out of control, we are going to need men to be men. But a lot of the “kidults” out there simply don’t want to be men, and that is extremely unfortunate."

- https://beforeitsnews.com/

"Putin is About to Announce Something BIG, Nuclear Preparations"

Canadian Prepper, 12/19/22:

"Putin is About to Announce Something BIG,

 Nuclear Preparations"

"Putin is expected to make a big announcement this week, more nuclear weapons moved to silos, major food price hikes coming, the Zap nuclear plant is fortified against attack possibly signaling imminent offensive, 2023 bleak economic outlook, and some advice for preppers."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Consumer Is At A Dead End Road With No Brakes; Housing Crash Is Here; Mass Company Layoffs"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 12/19/22:

"The Consumer Is At A Dead End Road With No Brakes; 

Housing Crash Is Here; Mass Company Layoffs"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Great Madness Sweeps The Land"

"A Great Madness Sweeps The Land"

by Charles Hugh Smith

‘In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, 

parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.’

- Friedrich Nietzsche 

"A great madness sweeps the land. There are no limits on extremes in greed, credulity, convictions, inequality, bombast, recklessness, fraud, corruption, arrogance, hubris, pride, over-reach, self-righteousness and confidence in the rightness of one's opinions. Extremes only become more extreme even as the folly of previous extremes wearies rationality.

Imaginary sins are conjured out of thin air to convict the innocent while those guilty of the most egregious fraud and corruption are lauded as saviors.

The national mood is aggrieved and bitter. The luxuries of self-righteousness, indignation, entitlement and resentment have impoverished the national spirit. Bankrupted by these excesses, what little treasure remains is squandered on plots of petty revenge.

Blindness to the late hour is cheered as optimism, confidence in the false gods of technology is sanctified while doubters of the technocratic theocracy are crucified as irredeemable infidels.

Witch-hunts and show trials are the order of the day as those who cannot stomach the party line are obsessively purged, as healthy skepticism is condemned as a mortal sin by brittle true believers who secretly fear the failure of their cult.

Mired in a putrid sewer of suspected subversion and disloyalty to The One True Cause, heretics are everywhere to those caught up in the mass hysteria. In this choking atmosphere of toxic hubris, self-righteousness, indignation, entitlement and resentment, humility is for losers, prudence is for losers, caution is for losers, skeptical inquiry is for losers.

Completely untethered from cause and effect, those confident in the inevitability of a glorious future of unlimited expansion cling to past glory as proof of future glory, even as their hubris leads only to a treacherous path of decay and decline. As they stumble into the abyss, their final cries are of surprise that confidence alone is not enough.

Those who see the madness for what it is have only one escape: go to ground, fade from public view, become self-reliant and weather the coming storm in the nooks and crannies where cause and effect, skeptical inquiry, humility, prudence and thrift can still be nurtured."

- http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/

o

"Sam’s Club Reports Mass Shortages As Thousands Of Items Disappear From Stores"

Full screen recommended.

"Sam’s Club Reports Mass Shortages As 

Thousands Of Items Disappear From Stores"

by Epic Economist

"Today, Americans are leaving stores with fewer items and larger grocery bills, and that’s a trend that is expected to continue in 2023. In fact, that’s one of the main complaints made by members of Walmart-owned Sam’s Club. New reports are exposing that Sam’s Club warehouses are starting to look alarmingly empty as many everyday products continue to vanish from the stores. A couple of weeks ago, the chain also announced that prices will be “readjusted” given that the entire industry is facing tougher conditions. As it turns out, the retailer’s supply chain problems are back, and according to executives, Sam’s Club may have to reduce its product assortment to deal with this crisis.

Sam’s Club has become the second-biggest retailer by sales and the biggest warehouse club operator in the U.S. With prices for basic food items going through the roof everywhere, more and more people have been going to the clubs to try to save money on bulk sizes of staples from pasta to cooking oil and rice. But while all of that new demand may seem good for business, it is also making warehouses look emptier, staple products are becoming harder to find and inflationary pressures are pushing Sam’s Club's famously low prices to levels they haven’t been in over 10 years.

Some viral videos at Sam’s Club warehouses show what customers are now witnessing every time they visit the store. One restaurant owner named Rebecca McBride noted that bulk retailers are the best choice when you’re making food in large quantities and need to buy vast amounts of “standard” ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, milk, heavy cream, and eggs. But when McBride went to her local Sam’s Club store to restock her pantry, she was shocked to see that these products have completely disappeared from the shelves. For McBride, the owner of a bakery in Texas, the sight of a store completely out of baking items was like a nightmare scenario.

Availability issues also made the company discontinue some consumer favorites, such as its store-brand Member’s Mark Organic Fruit Snacks. In another recent video, shoppers showed empty shelves in the produce aisle, with several greens and vegetables completely sold out. An analysis of customer complaints released by Retail Next, ranked some of the most cited product stockouts at Sam’s Club last month. 70% of surveyed consumers said stores were out of celery, grapes, lettuce, and chicken. Fruits were right behind it, with apples being the most mentioned of them. In fact, apple prices have been reportedly soaring at Sam’s Club stores, jumping from $7.49 in October to almost $10, or $9.89 this month.

A few weeks ago, Sam’s Club CEO announced that membership prices would go up for the first time in ten years. At the same time, its wide range of products that offered customers incredible variety is effectively shrinking, says Sam’s Club executive Clint Gill. “We still have too many items in our clubs, and we are working to downsize the assortment. We are not actively adding new items at this time,” Gill recently told suppliers at a recent WallStreet Speaker Series event. When companies that managed to keep inventories full and costs low even during the worst of the pandemic start to struggle with getting supplies and boosting profit margins, that’s when you know things are getting really bad really fast."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy NGC 5643? A swirling disk of stars and gas, NGC 5643's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms and brown dust, as shown in the featured image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The core of this active galaxy glows brightly in radio waves and X-rays where twin jets have been found. 

An unusual central glow makes NGC 5643 one of the closest examples of the Seyfert class of galaxies, where vast amounts of glowing gas are thought to be falling into a central massive black hole. NGC 5643, is a relatively close 55 million light years away, spans about 100 thousand light years across, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Wolf (Lupus)."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201005.html

"What Foolish Forgetfulness..."

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, so all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last. You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals… What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to defer wise resolutions to the fiftieth or sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained.”

- Denis Diderot

○

Hans Zimmer, "Time"

Judge Napolitano, "Col. Doug Macgregor, Ukraine/Russia War, Power and Patriot Missiles"

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 12/19/22:

"Col. Doug Macgregor, Ukraine/Russia War, 

Power and Patriot Missiles"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

"Kremlin: 'US & Russia On The Brink Of A Direct Clash' In Ukraine"

The Daily "Near You?"

Bristol, Vermont, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Streets of Philadelphia"

Full screen recommended.

"Streets of Philadelphia, 

Kensington Ave Documentary, December 11-12, 2022"

Problems with Drugs and Crime on Kensington Ave, Philadelphia

Philadelphia's most dangerous street. In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. 2 Kensington's high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia's problems.

Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem."

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Full screen recommended.

"North Philadelphia Slums At Night"

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Full screen recommended, if you can stomach it...

"The Kensington Avenue Reality of Never Ending Crisis"

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Full screen recommended.

Bruce Springsteen, "Streets Of Philadelphia"

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I believe it was Sartre who said, "This is Hell, 

cleverly disguised just enough to keep us from escaping."

I believe he was right...

"What Is Happening To Our Wealthiest Cities Clearly Demonstrates America’s Rapid Decline"

"What Is Happening To Our Wealthiest Cities 

Clearly Demonstrates America’s Rapid Decline"

By Michael Snyder

"The largest cities in the United States are becoming cesspools of crime, drugs, violence and homelessness, and no matter what “solutions” our politicians come up with the problems just continue to get even worse. Sadly, this is even happening in the wealthiest cities in the whole country. New York City is the financial capital of the entire globe, and over the past two decades San Francisco has been swimming in giant mountains of tech industry money. But today the streets of both cities look like something out of a post-apocalyptic horror movie. If things are this bad while economic conditions are still relatively stable, what will those streets look like two years from now when economic conditions are far worse?

New York City has seen some pretty rough times in the past, but the Big Apple has never had as many homeless people sleeping in shelters than it does right now…"New York City’s homeless problem does not appear to be getting any better. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, the numbers have actually hit an all-time high. They claim the average number of people sleeping in a shelter every night climbed to nearly 66,000 in October."

It is far more preferable to sleep in a shelter than it is to sleep in the streets, because violence in NYC has escalated to very frightening levels…"Fatal stabbings and slashings are up an alarming 37% in the Big Apple this year. The NYPD has logged 96 blade-involved killings so far in 2022, compared with 70 for the same period in 2021, according to department stats obtained by The Post. Stabbings and slashings overall are up 10% in 2022, with 4,344 compared to 3,954 last year, the stats show."

Meanwhile, the downward spiral that we are witnessing in San Francisco is incredibly alarming. I recently watched footage of what downtown San Francisco currently looks like, and afterwards I was truly at a loss for words.

- https://twitter.com/

Have things really gotten this bad? Part of the problem is that the office buildings downtown are much less occupied these days thanks to the “work at home revolution” that began during the early stages of the pandemic…"Today San Francisco has what is perhaps the most deserted major downtown in America. On any given week, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their prepandemic occupancy, while the vacancy rate has jumped to 24 percent from 5 percent since 2019."

Another major factor is drug addiction. Right now we are witnessing the worst drug crisis in the history of the United States, and it just keeps intensifying every year. In fact, the number of drug overdose deaths among our teens actually “doubled from 2019 to 2021”…"Drug overdose deaths among US teens doubled from 2019 to 2021 – even as use of illicit substances declined – as fentanyl fueled a nationwide crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today that teenage overdoses increased 109 percent over the two years. Deaths caused by fentanyl alone increased 182 percent."

Once upon a time, the United States was such a lovely place to be. But now our communities are degenerating into rapidly decaying hellholes and our streets are filled with violent predators.

Have you heard about a new trend called “jugging”? From coast to coast, predators are patiently watching potential victims and they strike as “they juggle smartphones and car keys in parking lots or at home”…"A new crime trend is targeting the distracted and the elderly, with police warning about it from Alabama to California. The big picture: Jugging involves thieves staking out unsuspecting victims at banks or retail stores before following and robbing them while they juggle smartphones and car keys in parking lots or at home."

But of course not all predators will be satisfied with just robbing you. When a 20-year-old pregnant woman was taken in by a 36-year-old man after being kicked out of her home, she was initially relieved to have a place to stay. But that sense of relief didn’t last long…

"A 20-year-old pregnant woman was kicked out of her house around Thanksgiving. Her luck appeared to be make a holiday rebound when a stranger offered her a warm meal and a place to stay. However, this was anything but charity. Michael Barajas, 36, is accused of subjecting the young woman to unimaginable depravities over the course of three weeks. It turns out that this particular predator actually had his teeth filed down into sharp points. He literally looks like he is insane, and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is describing him as “a monster”…

"According to the Tri-County Times, Barajas has been charged with human trafficking, kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, possession of methamphetamine, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and felony possession of a firearm. “This guy is a monster,” said Swanson. “If you look at the teeth that are filed down and the threats of ripping out a throat, I will say no more.”

Anyone with any sense never would have gone with him. But other predators can look completely innocent. For example, one 33-year-old man recently thought that he was pulling over to help a woman that was in trouble on the side of the road. But once he got out of his vehicle, two men jumped out from their hiding spots and viciously attacked him…

"Shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday, an unnamed 33-year-old man was driving along near the intersection of Hutchinson Road and South George Washington Boulevard, a rather rural area just outside Yuba City, about 40 miles north of Sacramento, when he spotted a woman standing near a black SUV on the side of the road. She flagged the man down, indicating that she was in some kind of distress.

The man pulled over and exited his vehicle to see how he could help. However, once he left his vehicle, two seemingly armed men jumped out of the woman’s SUV. One appeared to have a gun, the other had a knife. Under threat of violence, they zip-tied the driver’s legs together and stole his wallet and car keys. The three con artists then poured gasoline all over the victim and lit him on fire before they left, driving away in their own SUV and taking the victim’s car too."

This is what our country has become. We are rapidly evolving into a “Mad Max society”, and that is because we have rejected the values that this nation was founded upon. And if we stay on the path that we are currently on, things are only going to get worse. Ignoring what is happening is not going to make it go away. Social decay is systematically eating away at the foundations of our civilization, and at this point America’s decline is really starting to accelerate."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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Ray Charles, "America the Beautiful"

"It’s All Falling Apart - With Gerald Celente"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 12/19/22:

"It’s All Falling Apart - With Gerald Celente"

"The economy is falling apart. They can tell us anything they want, but we know that things are much worse than they are telling us. Today we have a special guest, the one, and only Gerald Celente from the Trends Journal. He talks about everything."

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Jim Kunstler, "A Christmas Parable"

"A Christmas Parable"

by Jim Kunstler

“The powerful are panicking, and so they should. 

Their secrets are leaking.” 

 - Miranda Devine, The New York Post

"As the Yule log burns down, and the trivialities of the season melt into air, the nation might ask itself how the authorities who run things went to war against the citizens of this land. I will tell you and it will probably make you angry: It started when the women of the professional and managerial class watched their avatar, Hillary Clinton, lose the 2020 election against a man who seemed the quintessence of everything they hated about Daddydom.

Donald Trump, flawed to perfection, wrecked the chance of the amalgamated successful women of America to run the national household. Out came the pussy-hats, the Wiccans, and the celebrities threatening to “blow up the White House.” Out came a savage animus against men generally, and a campaign to feminize them in retaliation - and then punish them for objecting to it. Up rose a social movement, Wokery, that had the earmarks of a histrionic religious mania, with Satanic overtones. Up rose the demons, the Antifa louts, the BLM arsonists, the drag queens.

Thus unrolled a national psychodrama that continues to spool out as every system, every business, every institution in our country wobbles and flies apart now. The men embedded in the professional and managerial class tried in 2016 to chivalrously protect their womens’ avatar and her steadfast followers and, failing ignobly that grim November day, then turned to actually attack their adversary, Donald Trump, with the explicit intent to destroy him by all means necessary. In the years-long process, they devolved into criminality, and in so doing they entered a vicious cycle of lying about everything they did to escape the consequences of their ostensible exercise in gallantry.

In effect, the people running things went from a war against a particular person to a war against reality and its twin sister, truth. Now they are deeply invested in unreality and untruth to the point where they have forgotten how this whole thing started and all they can do is desperately patch the dike they had to construct against a deluge of information composed of truth and reality coming at them like a tsunami rolling across the sea. The harder they work at this futile task of defense, the more absurd they make themselves, leading to ridicule, humiliation, and, finally condemnation in whatever remains of the legal arena, where their deeds will finally be judged.

The first stage of that outcome for them is pretending that none of it is happening. That’s why The New York Times and Washington Post ignore the news that the gallant knights of the FBI and several other tentacles of the Intel octopus mounted a ferocious, long-running psy-op through the new phenomenon of social media - that happened to rise in importance through this whole period of national discord. In effect, the intel agencies seized the transmitters (as Fidel Castro might put it) and used them very effectively to control their hallowed narratives.

The second stage is deploying a ruse to distract the public’s attention: That’s why CNN allowed Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the most accomplished liar in all of American politics, to set the stage on Sunday for this week’s criminal referrals against Mr. Trump to be issued out of the House Special J-6 Committee he sits on. That will give America something else to talk about than how they’ve been gaslit and deceived for years. If The Party of Chaos can only bring back The Insurrection to the spotlight, they will feel safe for a little while during the Christmas holiday - because shortly after the new year, there will be a different crew running the J-6 committee and, for the first time in a couple of years, they will be looking into neglected matters such as the FBI’s actual role in that event, and Nancy Pelosi’s failure to honor the then-president’s request for national troops to protect the Capitol building.

Between then and now, we must expect to see the release of Elon Musk’s Twitter files regarding the interactions between federal public health officials and the social network during the years of Covid-19. You understand that these officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, CDC chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and many others, lied about absolutely everything concerning the pandemic and continue lying to this moment about the putative remedy for it: mRNA vaccines, which happen to be killing a lot of people these days. That will be very serious business. Soon will come congressional inquiries, subpoenas, compelled testimony, and perhaps even criminal referrals.

Of course, the professional and managerial class also happens to be the most stalwart group of vaccine champions in the land and thus the most psychologically invested in thinking they did the right thing taking all those shots - while forcing as many others to submit, whether they consented or not. The psychology of previous investment is a prime generator of self-delusion. It looks like that class of people will be proven incorrect the hard way. It turns out, after all, that the mRNA “vaccines” were very effective at being deadly. The excess mortality has already kicked in. It’s 18 percent above normal, for instance, in Australia right now, because they’re keeping track. Our officials don’t want to keep track. They don’t want to know, and they certainly don’t want you to know. This is what you get when you make war against truth and reality."

- https://kunstler.com/

"How It Really Is"