Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, December 22, 2022
"Everything Is Fine…Until It Isn’t"
"Everything Is Fine…Until It Isn’t"
By Schiffgold
"For months, Peter Schiff, me, and a few others have been saying the economy is teetering on the brink of a collapse. But nothing has happened. Are we just wrong? It would be easy to conclude that we’re crying wolf. But before you write us off, I think you should consider another factor.
Predicting the exact timing of an event is much harder than generally recognizing that an event is on the horizon. It’s a little bit like forecasting weather. A meteorologist might know that a cold front is coming next week. She can see the changes in the atmosphere. But knowing a cold front is looming and saying it will come through at precisely 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday are two different matters.
I’m certain an economic downturn is imminent because I can see it brewing in the economic atmosphere. But I can’t tell you exactly when the crash will occur. Nor can I predict exactly what will precipitate it.
There is plenty of data out there suggesting that the US economy is already in the midst of a downturn. There are also some tremors under the surface signaling the underlying rot in the economy. For instance, some analysts have already said the volatility in the bond market could force the Federal Reserve to abandon balance sheet reduction. But there is still enough momentum in the economy to allow people to plausibly deny the problems.
Arguments about data aside, as I said when the Fed cranked up interest rates another 50 basis points at its December meeting, my pessimism is rooted in more fundamental dynamics. In a nutshell, this economy is not built to operate in a high-interest-rate environment. And the Fed has now raised interest rates to the highest level since 2007.
Quite simply, the US economy is addicted to easy money. It is addicted to artificially low interest rates and quantitative easing. You can’t take an addict’s drug away without sending him into withdrawal.
In the aftermath of 9/11 and the dot-com bubble bursting, the Fed dropped rates to 1%, at the time, a historically low level. That blew up the housing bubble. In 2004, the Fed began normalizing rates. They peaked at 5.25% in 2006. That precipitated the housing bust and ultimately the financial crisis in 2008.
Today, the Fed has pushed rates within 1% of that level. But there is a major difference between then and now. The bubbles are bigger. There is more debt. There is more malinvestment. If the extent of the bust is commensurate with the extent of the boom, we’re due for a doozy.
To be fair, Peter Schiff and I aren’t the only people worried about a recession. There are a lot of people in the mainstream saying the Fed needs to stop raising rates or it is going to cause an economic downturn. These folks are only half right. It’s not the rate hikes that will cause a recession. The Fed set that stage when it cut rates in the first place.
Economist Daniel Lacalle summed it up perfectly. "In a recent Bloomberg article, a group of economists voiced their fears that the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight may create an unnecessarily deep downturn. However, the Federal Reserve does not create a downturn due to rate hikes; it creates the foundations of a crisis by unnecessarily lowering rates to negative territory and aggressively increasing its balance sheet. It is the malinvestment and excessive risk-taking fueled by cheap money that lead to a recession.” When you understand these economic fundamentals, it becomes clear that the US economy is heading toward a cliff. But I still can’t tell you exactly when it will plunge over.
A few days ago, I was revisiting the timeline before the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession, and I realized the dynamics were much the same in 2006 and 2007 as they are today. Peter Schiff, Ron Paul and a few others were warning of a housing bust and financial crisis as the mainstream insisted everything was fine. In fact, up until the point Lehman Brothers went under in the fall of 2008, some people were still insisting everything was fine.
Of course, in retrospect, everything was far from fine as far back as 2006. And the Fed knew everything wasn’t fine. That’s why it started cutting interest rates in September 2007 - while still insisting everything was fine.
My point here is that everything is fine. Until it isn’t.
The Fed (the drug pusher) has been slowly cranking down the amount of drug it’s giving to the addict. The addict is already feeling the pain but hoping against hope he will get a bigger fix soon. That’s why the markets react with glee every time we get bad economic news or good news on the inflation front. The addict thinks that means the Fed will go back to the status quo – pushing the drugs. But at its December meeting, the Fed cranked down the drug level even lower.
Jerome Powell keeps saying the Fed can still manage a “soft landing.” But no matter what the pusher says, you can’t take away an addict’s drugs without causing pain. And at some point, the addict is going to go into full-blown withdrawal.
That’s why I’m convinced that at some point in the relatively near future, something big will break. There will be another Lehman-type event that sets off a crash nobody can deny. But when that happens, I can’t say. It could be next week, next month, or even a year from now. Regardless I believe the die has already been cast. It was cast the moment the Fed started running the printing press.
The question is what does the Fed do when this happens? How will it respond when it can no longer plausibly deny the economic chaos? Does go back to giving the addict his drug? Or does it let the addict die? If history is any indication, the Fed will go back to drugging up the economy. That means inflation wins. And if it doesn’t, you can expect a financial crisis that will make 2008 look like good times.
As Peter Schiff said in a recent tweet, “A pivot will send inflation soaring, which will compound the problem. But if they don’t pivot, we don’t just get a severe recession, we get a worse financial crisis than the one we had in 2008.”
"It Simply Means..."
“Never be ashamed of a scar.
It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.”
- Unknown
Judge Napolitano, "Ukraine - Will More Weapons Ever Be Enough? Scott Ritter"
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 12/22/22:
"Ukraine - Will More Weapons Ever Be Enough? Scott Ritter"
Comments here:
"Life Is Difficult..."
From "The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology
of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth"
o
"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney Harris
"It's Worse Than They're Telling You In Ukraine"
Full screen recommended.
Redacted with Clayton Morris, AM 12/22/22:
"It's Worse Than They're Telling You In Ukraine"
"President Zelensky traveled to Washington on Wednesday to ask for additional support for the war. He took Air Force One but did not dress up for the occasion. As he travels in luxury, the people of Ukraine are on lockdowns and soldiers are facing worse and worse conditions. Peace! Now!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Redacted with Clayton Morris, PM 12/22/22:
"Get Ready! Phase 2 Is Starting
and Putin Issues Major Warning to NATO"
"The Biden administration admits the war in Ukraine has entered the second phase. This is the phase where the Ukrainian army is eliminated and NATO uses what's left as a military base. Putin issues a major warning about Zelensky's Christmas wishlist for new weapons. The Washington Post admits Russia didn't blow up the Nord Stream pipeline after all."
Comments here:
o
Related:
"Is This Winning?"
"Recently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen carelessly revealed the devastating cost of the Ukraine war. “It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel have died to date,” she said."
Full article:
o
Douglas Macgregor,
"The Only Final Sin..."
"In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is
getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
- Hunter S. Thompson
o
"Stupid, senile and corrupt... in no particular order."
"Ho Ho Ho! Big Crash for the Holidays"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 12/22/22:
"Ho Ho Ho! Big Crash for the Holidays"
"It's all crashing Big Time. We are hearing so many different things in the economy. Gas shortages, and people not shopping. What are you saying?"
Comments here:
"Prices Continue To Rise At Kroger! What Now? What's Next?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/21/22:
"Prices Continue To Rise At Kroger! What Now? What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing massive price increases on groceries! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and the empty shelves situation! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
"Zelensky Pleading for World War III"
"Zelensky Pleading for World War III"
by Martin Armstrong
"I have warned from the start, Ukraine CANNOT be trusted and Zelensky is the man who would start World War III. Everything you worked for your entire life will be forfeited because of this actor. Look at the way he dresses. He is pretending to be poor and at war as if he was a soldier. I CANNOT stress enough, the sheer unbridled hatred of Ukrainians toward Russians is off the chart. They will massacre the Russians that have lived in the Donbas for centuries. That region should have been separated and those people have a fundamental human right to determine to live free of the hatred from Kyiv.
Those who listen to the propaganda that this is all Putin are surrendering not just their own future but their children and grandchildren. No matter what I write, I cannot stop our total collapse into war. It is NEVER the people who wage war, it is always those in power. In this war, they need to cover up the collapse in the monetary system. But they are wrong. They think they can destroy Russia and there will be no nuclear war.
It was the sheer hatred of that region that started World War I. There is no resolution. Ukraine will fight for its total annihilation. Take out Kyiv and then ask, is this what Europe wants and the United States? One Russian nuclear sub can surface offshore and fire 60 warheads. One 200-megaton set off in the Irish Sea will wipe out all of Britain.
The US just agreed to a military partnership with Israel for we are looking a the Middle East erupting into war. I cannot believe how DUMP our leaders really are. If the shoe was on the other foot, I would launch the missiles from North Korea against the South and Japan, China takes Taiwan, Iran kicks ass in the Middle East, and Russia nukes Kyiv and Warsaw. Both Hitler and Napoleon lost because you CANNOT wage a war on multiple fronts. The US thinks it can use the bodies of other nations and just supply the arms. If I wanted to take down the United States and Europe grinding them into the dirt, you wage war on four fronts simultaneously. Neither Europe nor the United States has the boots on the ground to defend against such an onslaught.
Click image for larger size.
Back in 2014, I wrote: ” Divide Ukraine along the historical language faultline and call it a day.” The borders claimed by Ukraine were merely drawn by Kruschev for administrative purposes. Then everyone was Russia. Ukraine was never a country and that is why it embraced ethnic cleansing and the German Nazi Movement. But today, they are not to be trusted with anything. The military support should END. After all, it was the USA that began the civil war using the interim government in 2014 instructing them to immediately send troops to wage war on the Donbas. The Ukrainian people wanted peace and that is what Zelensky promised. No elected government in Ukraine began this war. It was all at the direction of NATO and the USA. That is why Merkel played Putin as a fool to just buy time for Ukraine to build its army.
This is a situation that will NEVER be resolved without dividing the country along ethnic lines. The Middle East is no different between Sunni and Shite. There will never be a resolution. Christianity had its Protestant Revolution and there is no way all of Christians will return to the Pope. The same division exists in Ukraine as well as the Middle East. Accept it and move on."
o
Related:
"15 Facts Which Prove That A Massive Economic Meltdown Is Already Happening Right Now"
"15 Facts Which Prove That A Massive Economic
Meltdown Is Already Happening Right Now"
by Michael Snyder
"Economic conditions just keep getting worse. As we prepare to enter 2023, we find ourselves in a high inflation environment at the same time that economic activity is really slowing down. And just like we witnessed in 2008, employers are conducting mass layoffs as a horrifying housing crash sweeps across the nation. Those that have been waiting for the U.S. economy to implode can stop waiting, because an economic implosion has officially arrived. The following are 15 facts that prove that a massive economic meltdown is already happening right now…
#1 Existing home sales have now fallen for 10 consecutive months.
#2 Existing home sales are down 35.4 percent over the last 12 months. That is the largest year over year decline in existing home sales since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#3 Homebuilder sentiment has now dropped for 12 consecutive months.
#4 Home construction costs have risen more than 30 percent since the beginning of 2022.
#5 The number of single-family housing unit permits has fallen for nine months in a row.
#6 The Empire State Manufacturing Index has plunged “to a reading of negative 11.2 in December”. That figure was way, way below expectations.
#7 In November, we witnessed the largest decline in retail sales that we have seen all year long.
#8 Even the biggest names on Wall Street are starting to let workers go. In fact, it is being reported that Goldman Sachs will soon lay off approximately 4,000 employees.
#9 The Federal Reserve is admitting that the number of actual jobs in the United States has been overstated by over a million.
#10 U.S. job cuts were 417 percent higher in November than they were during the same month a year ago.
#11 A recent Wall Street Journal survey found that approximately two-thirds of all Americans expect the economy to get even worse next year.
#12 A newly released Bloomberg survey has discovered that 70 percent of U.S. economists believe that a recession is coming in 2023.
#13 Inflation continues to spiral wildly out of control. At this point, a head of lettuce now costs 11 dollars at one grocery store in California.
#14 Overall, vegetable prices in the United States are more than 80 percent higher than they were at this same time last year.
#15 Thanks to the rapidly rising cost of living, 63 percent of the U.S. population is now living paycheck to paycheck.
In a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has been dramatically increasing interest rates. Those interest rate hikes are what has caused the housing market to crash, but Fed officials insist that such short-term pain is necessary in order to tame inflation. But meanwhile our politicians in Washington are busy creating more inflation by borrowing and spending money at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented in our entire history.
This week, an abominable $1.7 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill is being rammed through Congress, but not a single member of Congress has read it. The bill is 4,155 pages long, and U.S. Senator Rand Paul just held a press briefing during which he wheeled it out on a trolley…"After the grossly bloated $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending bill advanced in the Senate by a vote of 70-25, GOP Senator Rand Paul held a press briefing during which he wheeled in the “abomination” on a trolley and demanded to know how anyone would be able to read it before the end of the week. Paul, along with the only other dissenting Senate Republicans Mike Braun, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Rick Scott highlighted how ludicrous the fast tracking of the bill has been."
Unfortunately, this absurd spending bill has broad support on both sides of the aisle, and that just shows how broken Washington has become. Our system of government has failed time after time, and our politicians continue to spend money on some of the most ridiculous things imaginable. The following examples that were pulled out of the 1.7 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill were discovered by the Heritage Foundation…
• $1.2 million for “LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers”
• $1.2 million for “services for DACA recipients” (aka helping illegal aliens with taxpayer funds) at San Diego Community College.
• $477k for the Equity Institute in RI to indoctrinate teachers with “antiracism virtual labs.”
• $1 million for Zora’s House in Ohio, a “coworking and community space” for “women and gender-expansive people of color.”
• $3 million for the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City.
• $3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia.
• $750k for the for “LGBT and Gender Non-Conforming housing” in Albany, New York.
• $856k for the “LGBT Center” in New York.
And have you noticed that our politicians often prefer to push these types of bills through just before major holidays when hardly anyone is paying attention? No matter who we send to Washington, the story remains the same.
As long as our politicians are borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we do not have, Fed officials won’t be able to win their war against inflation. The Fed can send interest rates into the stratosphere, but inflation will continue to remain high because our politicians insist on showering the nation with giant mountains of cash.
We should all be deeply, deeply offended by what is happening, but most Americans simply do not know enough to care. But once economic conditions get even worse than they were in 2008 and 2009, the majority of the U.S. population will become extremely angry. Of course things could have turned out much differently if we had made better decisions during the years leading up to this crisis. Unfortunately, we have run out of time to change course, and that means that a tremendous amount of pain is ahead for all of us."
"How It Really Is"
Civility?! This is 'Murica, fool!
"Ah, You Miserable Creatures!"
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
- Frederic Bastiat
Civility? How much more evidence do you need to
realize we as a society have lost our collective minds?
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
"Alert! Russia Declares Full Military Mobilization"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/21/22:
"Alert! Russia Declares Full Military Mobilization"
"On the same day that Zeke gets red carpet rollout in Washington, Putin gives military a blank check, deploys Sarmat 28 nuclear missiles and commits to full military mobilization."
Comments here:
The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"
"A Brave And Startling Truth"
by Maya Angelou
"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space,
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth.
And when we come to it,
To the day of peacemaking,
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms.
When we come to it,
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass,
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.
When the rapacious storming of the churches,
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.
When the pennants are waving gaily,
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.
When we come to it,
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.
When land mines of death have been removed,
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh,
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse.
When we come to it,
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory,
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets.
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun.
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.
We, this people on this mote of matter,
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence,
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor,
And the body is quieted into awe.
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow,
And the proud back is glad to bend.
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,
Created on this earth, of this earth,
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,
Without crippling fear.
When we come to it,
We must confess that we are the possible,
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.
That is when, and only when,
We come to it."
○
“The Christmas Truce of 1914”
“The Christmas Truce of 1914”
by Simon Rees
The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other -
instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.”
- Edward Abbey
“You are standing up to your knees in the slime of a waterlogged trench. It is the evening of 24 December 1914 and you are on the dreaded Western Front. Stooped over, you wade across to the firing step and take over the watch. Having exchanged pleasantries, your bleary-eyed and mud-spattered colleague shuffles off towards his dug out. Despite the horrors and the hardships, your morale is high and you believe that in the New Year the nation’s army march towards a glorious victory.
But for now you stamp your feet in a vain attempt to keep warm. All is quiet when jovial voices call out from both friendly and enemy trenches. Then the men from both sides start singing carols and songs. Next come requests not to fire, and soon the unthinkable happens: you start to see the shadowy shapes of soldiers gathering together in no-man’s land laughing, joking and sharing gifts. Many have exchanged cigarettes, the lit ends of which burn brightly in the inky darkness. Plucking up your courage, you haul yourself up and out of the trench and walk towards the foe…
The meeting of enemies as friends in no-man’s land was experienced by hundreds, if not thousands, of men on the Western Front during Christmas 1914. Today, 106 years after it occurred, the event is seen as a shining episode of sanity from among the bloody chapters of World War One – a spontaneous effort by the lower ranks to create a peace that could have blossomed were it not for the interference of generals and politicians.
The reality of the Christmas Truce, however, is a slightly less romantic and a more down to earth story. It was an organic affair that in some spots hardly registered a mention and in others left a profound impact upon those who took part. Many accounts were rushed, confused or contradictory. Others, written long after the event, are weighed down by hindsight. These difficulties aside, the true story is still striking precisely because of its rag-tagged nature: it is more ‘human’ and therefore all the more potent.
Months beforehand, millions of servicemen, reservists and volunteers from all over the continent had rushed enthusiastically to the banners of war: the atmosphere was one of holiday rather than conflict. But it was not long before the jovial façade was torn away. Armies equipped with repeating rifles, machine guns and a vast array of artillery tore chunks out of each other, and thousands upon thousands of men perished. To protect against the threat of this vast firepower, the soldiers were ordered to dig in and prepare for next year’s offensives, which most men believed would break the deadlock and deliver victory. The early trenches were often hasty creations and poorly constructed; if the trench was badly sighted it could become a sniping hot spot. In bad weather (the winter of 1914 was a dire one) the positions could flood and fall in. The soldiers – unequipped to face the rigors of the cold and rain – found themselves wallowing in a freezing mire of mud and the decaying bodies of the fallen.
The man at the Front could not help but have a degree of sympathy for his opponents who were having just as miserable a time as they were. Another factor that broke down the animosity between the opposing armies were the surroundings. In 1914 the men at the front could still see the vestiges of civilization. Villages, although badly smashed up, were still standing. Fields, although pitted with shell-holes, had not been turned into muddy lunarscapes. Thus the other world – the civilian world – and the social mores and manners that went with it was still present at the front. Also lacking was the pain, misery and hatred that years of bloody war build up. Then there was the desire, on all sides, to see the enemy up close – was he really as bad as the politicians, papers and priests were saying? It was a combination of these factors, and many more minor ones, that made the Christmas Truce of 1914 possible.
On the eve of the Truce, the British Army (still a relatively small presence on the Western Front) was manning a stretch of the line running south from the infamous Ypres salient for 27 miles to the La Bassee Canal. Along the front the enemy was sometimes no more than 70, 50 or even 30 yards away. Both Tommy and Fritz could quite easily hurl greetings and insults to one another, and, importantly, come to tacit agreements not to fire. Incidents of temporary truces and outright fraternization were more common at this stage in the war than many people today realize – even units that had just taken part in a series of futile and costly assaults, were still willing to talk and come to arrangements with their opponents.
As Christmas approached the festive mood and the desire for a lull in the fighting increased as parcels packed with goodies from home started to arrive. On top of this came gifts care of the state. Tommy received plum puddings and ‘Princess Mary boxes’; a metal case engraved with an outline of George V’s daughter and filled with chocolates and butterscotch, cigarettes and tobacco, a picture card of Princess Mary and a facsimile of George V’s greeting to the troops. ‘May God protect you and bring you safe home,’ it said. Not to be outdone, Fritz received a present from the Kaiser, the Kaiserliche, a large meerschaum pipe for the troops and a box of cigars for NCOs and officers. Towns, villages and cities, and numerous support associations on both sides also flooded the front with gifts of food, warm clothes and letters of thanks.
The Belgians and French also received goods, although not in such an organized fashion as the British or Germans. For these nations the Christmas of 1914 was tinged with sadness – their countries were occupied. It is no wonder that the Truce, although it sprung up in some spots on French and Belgian lines, never really caught hold as it did in the British sector.
With their morale boosted by messages of thanks and their bellies fuller than normal, and with still so much Christmas booty to hand, the season of goodwill entered the trenches. A British Daily Telegraph correspondent wrote that on one part of the line the Germans had managed to slip a chocolate cake into British trenches. Even more amazingly, it was accompanied with a message asking for a ceasefire later that evening so they could celebrate the festive season and their Captain’s birthday. They proposed a concert at 7.30pm when candles, the British were told, would be placed on the parapets of their trenches. The British accepted the invitation and offered some tobacco as a return present. That evening, at the stated time, German heads suddenly popped up and started to sing. Each number ended with a round of applause from both sides. The Germans then asked the British to join in. At this point, one very mean-spirited Tommy shouted: ‘We’d rather die than sing German.’ To which a German joked aloud: ‘It would kill us if you did’.
December 24 was a good day weather-wise: the rain had given way to clear skies. On many stretches of the Front the crack of rifles and the dull thud of shells ploughing into the ground continued, but at a far lighter level than normal. In other sectors there was an unnerving silence that was broken by the singing and shouting drifting over, in the main, from the German trenches. Along many parts of the line the Truce was spurred on with the arrival in the German trenches of miniature Christmas trees – Tannenbaum. The sight these small pines, decorated with candles and strung along the German parapets, captured the Tommies’ imagination, as well as the men of the Indian corps who were reminded of the sacred Hindu festival of light. It was the perfect excuse for the opponents to start shouting to one another, to start singing and, in some areas, to pluck up the courage to meet one another in no-man’s land.
By now, the British high command – comfortably ‘entrenched’ in a luxurious châteaux 27 miles behind the front – was beginning to hear of the fraternization. Stern orders were issued by the commander of the BEF, Sir John French against such behavior. Other ‘brass-hats’ (as the Tommies nick-named their high-ranking officers and generals), also made grave pronouncements on the dangers and consequences of parleying with the Germans. However, there were many high-ranking officers who took a surprisingly relaxed view of the situation. If anything, they believed it would at least offer their men an opportunity to strengthen their trenches. This mixed stance meant that very few officers and men involved in the Christmas Truce were disciplined. Interestingly, the German High Command’s ambivalent attitude towards the Truce mirrored that of the British.
Christmas day began quietly but once the sun was up the fraternization began. Again songs were sung and rations thrown to one another. It was not long before troops and officers started to take matters into their own hands and ventured forth. No-man’s land became something of a playground. Men exchanged gifts and buttons. In one or two places soldiers who had been barbers in civilian times gave free haircuts. One German, a juggler and a showman, gave an impromptu, and given the circumstances, somewhat surreal performance of his routine in the centre of no-man’s land.
Captain Sir Edward Hulse of the Scots Guards, in his famous account, remembered the approach of four unarmed Germans at 08.30. He went out to meet them with one of his ensigns. ‘Their spokesmen,’ Hulse wrote, ‘started off by saying that he thought it only right to come over and wish us a happy Christmas, and trusted us implicitly to keep the truce. He came from Suffolk where he had left his best girl and a 3 h.p. motor-bike!’ Having raced off to file a report at headquarters, Hulse returned at 10.00 to find crowds of British soldiers and Germans out together chatting and larking about in no-man’s land, in direct contradiction to his orders. Not that Hulse seemed to care about the fraternization in itself – the need to be seen to follow orders was his concern. Thus he sought out a German officer and arranged for both sides to return to their lines.
While this was going on he still managed to keep his ears and eyes open to the fantastic events that were unfolding. ‘Scots and Huns were fraternizing in the most genuine possible manner. Every sort of souvenir was exchanged addresses given and received, photos of families shown, etc. One of our fellows offered a German a cigarette; the German said, “Virginian?” Our fellow said, “Aye, straight-cut”, the German said “No thanks, I only smoke Turkish!” It gave us all a good laugh.’ Hulse’s account was in part a letter to his mother, who in turn sent it on to the newspapers for publication, as was the custom at the time. Tragically, Hulse was killed in March 1915.
On many parts of the line the Christmas Day truce was initiated through sadder means. Both sides saw the lull as a chance to get into no-man’s land and seek out the bodies of their compatriots and give them a decent burial. Once this was done the opponents would inevitably begin talking to one another. The 6th Gordon Highlanders, for example, organized a burial truce with the enemy. After the gruesome task of laying friends and comrades to rest was complete, the fraternization began.
With the Truce in full swing up and down the line there were a number of recorded games of soccer, although these were really just ‘kick-abouts’ rather than a structured match. On January 1, 1915, the London Times published a letter from a major in the Medical Corps reporting that in his sector the British played a game against the Germans opposite and were beaten 3-2. Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxons recorded in his diary: ‘The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.’
The Truce lasted all day; in places it ended that night, but on other sections of the line it held over Boxing Day and in some areas, a few days more. In fact, there were parts on the front where the absence of aggressive behavior was conspicuous well into 1915.
Captain J C Dunn, the Medical Officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whose unit had fraternized and received two barrels of beer from the Saxon troops opposite, recorded how hostilities re-started on his section of the front. Dunn wrote: ‘At 8.30 I fired three shots in the air and put up a flag with “Merry Christmas” on it, and I climbed on the parapet. He [the Germans] put up a sheet with “Thank you” on it, and the German Captain appeared on the parapet. We both bowed and saluted and got down into our respective trenches, and he fired two shots in the air, and the War was on again.’ The war was indeed on again, for the Truce had no hope of being maintained. Despite being wildly reported in Britain and to a lesser extent in Germany, the troops and the populations of both countries were still keen to prosecute the conflict.
Today, pragmatists read the Truce as nothing more than a ‘blip’ – a temporary lull induced by the season of goodwill, but willingly exploited by both sides to better their defenses and eye out one another’s positions. Romantics assert that the Truce was an effort by normal men to bring about an end to the slaughter. In the public’s mind the facts have become irrevocably mythologized, and perhaps this is the most important legacy of the Christmas Truce today. In our age of uncertainty, it comforting to believe, regardless of the real reasoning and motives, that soldiers and officers told to hate, loathe and kill, could still lower their guns and extend the hand of goodwill, peace, love and Christmas cheer. The Irish poet, Thomas Kettle, who was killed in the War in September 1916, captured that spirit in a poem he wrote to his little daughter, Betty, shortly before he died:
“So, here while the mad guns curse overhead,
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,
Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor –
But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed,
And for the secret scripture of the poor.”
"Coca Cola Warns That Prices Will Explode From Current Levels"
Full screen recommended.
"Coca Cola Warns That Prices Will
Explode From Current Levels"
by Epic Economist
"Some of the world’s largest consumer goods giants have recently laid bare the impact of inflation on their operations and admitted that more price hikes will be passed on to shoppers over the next few weeks and months. Amongst them, one of the most notable warnings came from Coca-Cola. The leading brand in the beverage category reported a series of disruptions on its production line and said that although it has managed to navigate through the current turbulent environment, that doesn’t mean the company will be immune to the effects of a recession. With commodity price inflation shooting up higher than expected, Food Business News reports that Coca-Cola is going into 2023 prepared for the economy to take a turn for the worst. Unfortunately for consumers, that means double-digit price increases on their favorite products are coming, and shortages of some popular soft drinks are on the horizon, too.
In the second quarter of 2022 alone, the company raised its average selling prices by around 12%, according to Reuters. In recent reports, its executives noted that the cost of aluminum for cans climbed about 60% over the course of a year. Labor, shipping, and other supply chain challenges also contributed to making the cost of production significantly more expensive. CCEP, a part of the company that is responsible for making, transporting, and selling products including Fanta and Sprite across 29 countries, recently said it had been experiencing “a number of logistics challenges”. “There are still logistical challenges and issues, as with every sector, and the shortage of aluminum cans is a key one for us now, but we are working with customers to manage this,” executives noted.
The combined effect of all of those issues has led the company’s executives to warn that a shortage of Coca-Cola products may be coming soon. “My analogy [about product shortages] would be it’s a bit like an earthquake,” Quincey said during an interview with CNBC. “You get further shock waves coming through, but they tend to be of diminishing magnitude,” he highlighted. However, it’s not possible to mitigate all challenges. He presented a second analogy, comparing the supply chain headaches to a game of whack-a-mole. “Some shortages are ongoing and structural, and some appear for a quarter and disappear again,” he added.
The CEO further elaborated that with costs still rising and supply bottlenecks showing little signs of easing, the coming price hikes will likely not be enough to fully cushion the company’s profit margins. But despite the new increases, Quincey acknowledges that Coca-Cola can’t keep on raising prices on their customers, especially because at some point those higher costs will hurt the beverage maker’s bottom line too. “Coca-Cola has been able to stay ahead of inflation so far, but consumers won’t swallow inflation endlessly,” Quincey told CNBC.
He observed that consumers are facing “a squeeze on purchasing power”. Now, U.S. markets are going through “a typically recessionary pattern,” he added, and companies must be very careful not to push consumers over the edge. It’s safe to say that with soda prices going up over 45% in less than four years, American shoppers are dangerously close to that edge. Very challenging times are approaching, and the economic recession that’s unfolding will certainly make things more chaotic this winter. We will continue to track this crisis and provide you with the latest information, warnings, and forecasts so you can stay ahead of the shortages and product stockouts at your local supermarket."
"2023 Will Be A Nightmare - What Will You Do When It Really Gets Bad? Stop Buying Toys And Prepare"
Jeremiah Babe, 12/21/22:
"2023 Will Be A Nightmare - What Will You Do
When It Really Gets Bad? Stop Buying Toys And Prepare"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Chrysalis"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Chrysalis"
“Oceans of strings and choirs, flutes and keyboards lift us
out of the trials and tribulations of our daily lives as though
we were on a ship with gossamer sails, sailing on the moonlight.”
– Steve Ryals
"A Look to the Heavens"
"One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes.
Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features though. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. M81's faint, dwarf irregular satellite galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just below the large spiral. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a well-determined distance for an external galaxy - 11.8 million light-years."
"That's Where It All Begins..."
"That's where it all begins. That's where we all get screwed big time as we grow up. They tell us to think, but they don't really mean it. They only want us to think within the boundaries they define. The moment you start thinking for yourself- really thinking- so many things stop making any sense. And if you keep thinking, the whole world just falls apart. Nothing makes sense anymore. All rules, traditions, expectations - they all start looking so fake, so made up. You want to just get rid of all this stuff and make things right. But the moment you say it, they tell you to shut up and be respectful. And eventually you understand that nobody wants you to really think for yourself.
- Ray N. Kuili
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