Friday, May 5, 2023

"The Scourge of the Middle Class"

"The Scourge of the Middle Class"
How inflation is hollowing out 
the central pillar of America's economy...
by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "Yesterday’s big news was not news at all. ABC News: "Fed raises interest rates 0.25%, escalating inflation fight amid banking woes." "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its short-term borrowing rate another 0.25%, escalating the central bank's attack on inflation just two days after the forced sale of First Republic Bank. The Fed’s 10th consecutive rate increase arrives less than a week after fresh government data showed that U.S. economic growth slowed over the first three months of this year. "Inflation pressures continue to run high," Powell said. "The process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go."

How long is the ‘long way?’ We don’t know. But it is possible that the Fed has already hiked about as far up as it is going for this season. Traders are awaiting the jobs report out later today. Rumors – ‘early data’ – tell us that unemployment claims are moving up fast. That, along with other signs of an approaching recession, may cause the Fed to ‘pause,’ and await developments.

On Their Way: Another bank failed last week – First Republic Bank – the second biggest bank failure in US history. Pacific Western (PacWest) may be next. M2, measuring the money supply, is down more than 4% – the biggest decline on record. Rents are still going up, but only at a 1.7% rate. House prices are up 2% – the lowest rate in more than 10 years. Lumber has fallen 80% from its May 2021 peak. Pending home sales are down 23% since last year. 30% of San Francisco offices are vacant…7x the rate at the end of 2021.

We are still in the ‘deflation’ stage. The foam is leaving the beer. Stocks are down about 10% from their peak at the beginning of last year, 16 months ago. But we still haven’t seen the big sell-off…the crash…or even the recession. We presume they are on their way. And when they arrive – or we get a sudden, nasty political shock – the Fed will likely turn around completely and high-tail it back to deeply negative real territory. Then, we can move from the ‘deflation’ stage to the ‘inflation’ stage…which will probably lead to the ‘hyper-inflation’ stage.

Ultimately, the Fed only has two choices: ‘Inflate or Die.’ Either the authorities print more money to keep the jig up…or they let the beer go flat, the lights go off, musicians pack up…and the party’s over.

The Cost of Empire: This week, we focused on why the deciders will continue to print money. They run an empire. And empires have life cycles of their own. Once underway, even a clownish, losing empire…like our own Empire of Debt…is hard to stop. We’ve seen that the empire makes us all poorer; ours costs about $1.5 trillion per year. That’s about $17,000 per family of four, annually.

US tax receipts are only enough to cover domestic spending, including “transfer” payments – Social Security, unemployment comp, etc. We are just in the opening chapter of America’s Decline and Fall, and already it is politically impossible to balance the budget. So, the entire cost of America’s overseas misadventures must be borrowed…or printed. You can inflate without an empire, but it’s hard to have an empire without inflating. This practically guarantees higher consumer prices.

We saw too that inflation is the scourge of the middle class. Real wages go down. Prices go up. And housing – the emblem of the middle class – becomes a debt trap. Families borrow to buy houses. Then, they refinance. And then they must have low rates, or they will lose their homes. The Fed ‘prints’ to keep rates low…drawing them further and further into debt.

When the Empire Dies: The shrinking of the middle class also dooms representative democracy. The elites use their access to ‘printing press money’ and their control of the federal budget to squeeze as much wealth and power, as fast as possible, from the rest of the society.

The poor, meanwhile, become dependent on the feds. The government pays for their indoctrination and education…it provides ‘affordable housing’ and subsidized mortgages…it gives out food stamps (‘Independence’ cards)…and it forces employers to pay ‘minimum’ wages. The elites even tease the poor – like a stripper at an old man’s birthday – revealing promises of ‘reparations’ and a ‘universal basic income.’ Why do demagogues target the poor? Because there are more and more of them, and their votes are relatively cheap.

With fewer independent, middle class voters…political power ends up in the hands of those who are best able to manipulate the poor. Then, they must reward the poor with free stuff, requiring more printing press money, while continuing the policies that make the poor poorer and the rich richer – including keeping the empire in business.

Yesterday, we saw what inevitably happens. The empire dies. The US, said Madeleine Albright, is ‘indispensable.’ But the graveyards are full of poor people, broken banks and indispensable empires."

"How It Really Is"

 

Jim Kunstler, "Pretend to the End"

"Pretend to the End"
by Jim Kunstler

“Who would have thought in 2020 when they were voting for Joe, that they were voting for the most hardcore accelerationist collapsitarian candidate in history.” - Deep South SR on Twitter

"The creatures of the underworld running our country must think the public is awfully stupid. You are expected to take at face value the claim that “Joe Biden” is actually up for re-election. Could it be more obvious that he’s pretending? (Just as he’s been pretending to serve as CEO of our government.) Meanwhile, we are not supposed to notice that the entities behind him are scrambling to dismantle, demolish, and asset-strip what remains of the USA in body and spirit. But enough of us are noticing to make it a problem for them.

First, who are these entities? They are exactly who you think they are. What you see around you is not just a complex system (Western Civ) unwinding and breaking apart — though that is part of the story. It is also the appearance of a controlled demolition by desperate, frightened, and crazy people who want to be the ones left standing when the demolition is complete. The catch is, they are pretending, too. They are control-freaks who cannot keep things under control.

This power underworld is a coalition of large public and private organizations, here and out there in the world, and the folks in charge of them, and they are all out of control, too, pretending that their operations are coherent and efficacious. For instance, the vast consortium of intelligence agencies in our country, the CIA, DIA, ad nauseam, their multitudinous spin-offs, and their international partners (e.g., MI6, Mossad, the World Health Organization). If you want to see how they actually work, watch the Coen Brothers’ movie "Burn After Reading." You will see a bustle of perfectly hapless, frantic, and insanely self-destructive activity performed by clueless clowns in nice business suits.

There is also the matrix of banking, including the international regulatory agencies such as the IMF, the World Bank, the Fed, the European Central Bank, and the banks themselves. And the bankers — Powell, LeGarde, Dimon, et. al — and the money managers, Fink, Soros, and their nefarious activities. They are all pretending to be in charge of a money system so burdened with fakery and legerdemain that it’s in the process of flying up the cosmic wazoo and vanishing, leaving Western Civ, functionally, broke.

My guess is that the nominal leader of this underworld in the USA — more like a master-of-ceremonies than an actual director — is Barack Obama. He has been running “Joe Biden” since the 2020 coup against Mr. Trump. The Clintons wanted to be in the mix somewhere, but it appears they’ve lost the fight for dominance — what with Bill in a perpetual doghouse and Hillary wearing that “loser” sign plastered on her back. For now, “Joe B” is a place-holder for the Party of Chaos. Who else have they got? Gavin Newsom? I’m sure. Hair and teeth only get you so far. Just wait until they roll the footage of San Francisco. Kamala Harris? Discussion unnecessary. Elizabeth Warren? (Grandma Oatmeal, we call her.) A bunch of governors no one has ever heard of? For now, they’ll just try ignoring RFK, Jr., since he wants to turn the Democratic Party upside-down and inside-out while rinsing it with Draino.

Who will they slot in when “Joe B” gets the hook? Michelle Obama, of course. Seems ridiculous, I know. (Actually, it’s completely ridiculous.) But our country has become so marinated in recycled products, celebrities, and narratives that Mr. Barack Obama (and cohorts) might just be bold enough to try it. Michelle is just another product at this point, like a can of Bud Lite, or a Hostess Ho-Ho, and that’s how they will try to sell her. The public’s collective mind has been successfully disordered to the degree that unreality no longer registers. If they pull this off, it will be Mr. Obama’s fourth term — and the coup-de-grace for the nation.

I don’t think the public will stand for it, but the condition of our country is so grave now that the actual contest underway is not between political personalities but between economic collapse and civil war. In the latter race there will be a winner and a runner up, and it looks like the economic collapse is already well advanced. Inflation is crushing the middle-class and business activity of every kind — except maybe drug trafficking — is falling into a coma.

Meanwhile, the escapades of the “Joe Biden” crime family inch towards critical mass. It’s another sign of the public’s disordered collective mind that so much evidence of grotesque criminality could already stand revealed before them without anyone in authority (hint: the heads of the DOJ and FBI) feeling the pressure of public opinion to act. Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray have foolishly made themselves accessories in all that crime by working to cover it up. Everyone knows it and that is arguably the most demoralizing of all the manifold failures ongoing. Real justice is AWOL.

You’re aware, no doubt of the situation on the Mexican border. Just days from now many tens of thousands of people from foreign lands waiting there will be ushered illegally across the Rio Grande by agents of the US State Department working with a whole bunch of NGOs and the United Nations to enable that rush to the entrance. The inflow will continue indefinitely. The operation has got the blessing of the “Joe Biden” regime, and everybody knows that, too. My guess is that’s what will set off a new civil war: when citizens of the border states eventually take up arms against this invasion, and our government tries to stop them from defending their own country."

"We Are Going Bankrupt"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/5/23
"We Are Going Bankrupt"
"The debt ceiling is coming due. We are being told two things. The first is that if we don’t solve the debt ceiling by June 1, the United States will go bankrupt. The second is, if we don’t solve this, we’re being told that this will be worse than the great recession."
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'Washington Did It!' Russia's Startling Claim After "Attack" on Kremlin"

Full screen recommended.
Firstpost, 5/5/23
"'Washington Did It!' 
Russia's Startling Claim After "Attack" on Kremlin"
Hours after Russia claimed President Putin survived an “assassination attempt”, Moscow’s retaliation has begun. It unleashed a wave of drone attacks on Ukraine. As for the “assassination attempt”, Moscow blames the US. Is the war in Ukraine taking a dangerous turn?
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"Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/5/23
"Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club! 
This Is Crazy! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Sam's Club, and are noticing massive 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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Thursday, May 4, 2023

"Putin Just Said Washington Planned Assassination; Nuclear Threat Elevated; DEFCON"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/4/23
"Putin Just Said Washington Planned Assassination; 
Nuclear Threat Elevated; DEFCON"
Comments here:

Gerald Celente, Trends In The News, 5/4/23

Very strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends In The News, 5/4/23
"Kremlin Attacked, Is DC Next?"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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"Are You Getting Worried Yet? Banks Will Fall Like Dominoes; No Job, No House"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/4/23
"Are You Getting Worried Yet? 
Banks Will Fall Like Dominoes; No Job, No House"
Comments here:

"Evictions Double Or Triple As Rent Prices Financially Destroy Millions Of Americans"

Full screen recommended.
"Evictions Double Or Triple As Rent Prices 
Financially Destroy Millions Of Americans"
by Epic Economist

"New data just revealed that eviction cases in the U.S. have jumped by almost 80% since October 2022. Official agencies report that about 13% of the U.S. population, which represents over 40 million people, is at risk of losing their homes this year amid explosive rent prices and a worrying trend among some of the country’s biggest landlords of increasing the rate of monthly evictions to boost their cash flow growth. While companies and investors worry about their bottom lines, families are losing everything, and homelessness is growing all across the country. Housing advocates say this is the cliff we’ve been warned about and things will only go downhill from here.

Corporate landlords are removing renters from homes at rates that largely surpass the typical pre-pandemic rate, a new report from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University shows. Analyzing how eviction levels changed in 32 U.S. cities over the past six months, researchers found that landlords in these areas filed about 970,000 eviction cases every month, a whopping 79% increase compared to a year prior.

In Phoenix, for example, rent prices shoot up over 25% year over year, with a median asking rent of $2,261. In Maricopa County alone, evictions are at their highest levels since at least 2016, with more than 45,000 filings so far this year. “Lately, it just seems to be all that we’ve been doing,” said Huberman, the presiding justice of the peace for Maricopa County.

Even areas experiencing less dramatic increases in rent are witnessing a rise in evictions as Americans scramble to cope with inflation. In Minneapolis, where rent increases have trended below the national average, evictions in December were 37% above their historical averages after shooting up in June, when the state lifted its eviction moratorium.

In the last quarter, the Las Vegas Justice Court head over 45,000 eviction cases, a significant rise compared to earlier years when the average was closer to 30,000 cases. In Dallas County, home to the city of Dallas, landlords filed almost 60,000 evictions in the past four months. This is not just a problem isolated to major urban centers, but also rural and industrial communities, where housing costs have been surging at an alarming pace as well. The latest analysis of weekly U.S. Census data indicates that in the absence of robust and swift intervention, an estimated 44.5 million people in America could be at risk of eviction in the next several months. That represents about 13% of the U.S. 331 million people population.

“My biggest fear is the cliff that we’ve been all anticipating is here. From here on out, it’s going to be a very, very difficult time,” highlighted Tim Thomas, research director at the Urban Displacement Project at the University of California, Berkeley. “I don’t want to be a doom and gloom person, but we’re probably about to see the worst of what’s about to happen.”

Although inflation has finally started to ease, overall economic uncertainty is still on the rise, and rents nationwide are still $800 more expensive than in 2019. Before the pandemic, the median rent in the U.S. was at $1,062. Today, it stands at $1,937. America can’t afford to wait for another major national emergency to happen to finally start taking action. People are losing the roof above their heads, and their sense of dignity and security now, so we must act now before this crisis spirals out of control."
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Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus, The River.
Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531 (right of center), a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. Nicely detailed in this sharp image, the NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the well-studied system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51.”

The Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, "Sunset"

"Sunset"

"Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you,
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth,
leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so helplessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing
that turns to a star each night and climbs –
leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads)
your own life, timid and standing high and growing,
so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching out,
one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next, a star."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

"A Kind Of Stubborn, Unrecognized Courage..."

"For many great deeds are accomplished in times of squalid struggle. There is a kind of stubborn, unrecognized courage which in the lowest depths tenaciously resists the pressures of necessity and ill-doing; there are noble and obscure triumphs observed by no one, unacclaimed by any fanfare. Hardship, loneliness, and penury are a battlefield which has its own heroes, sometimes greater than those lauded in history. Strong and rare characters are thus created; poverty nearly always a foster-mother, may become a true mother, distress may be the nursemaid of pride, and misfortune the milk that nourishes great spirits."
- Victor Hugo

"Red Alert! Putin Blames U.S. For Kremlin Attack, Activates Nuke Forces At Highest Level"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 5/4/23
"Red Alert! Putin Blames U.S. For Kremlin Attack, 
Activates Nuke Forces At Highest Level"
"Russian President Putin blamed the U.S. for the terror attack against the Kremlin and vows a devastating response. Meanwhile Washington is playing dumb pretending it doesn't know anything about the drone strike. Russia says Ukraine is ready to launch its "massive" offensive. Reports show Russia activated its nuclear forces to the highest level of readiness."
Comments here:

We could all be dead in an hour...

The Daily "Near You?"

Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"None Of You Seem To Understand..."

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

"The Point..."

“Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”
- Sue Monk Kidd

"Meanwhile, Back in France"

"Meanwhile, Back in France"
By Addison Wiggin

“Everybody singin' in the kitchen bangin' on the pots and pans...”
- Bobby Bare

"A concert of casseroles. That’s how the Free French began their resistance to “overreaching” retirement reform, enacted by French President Emmanuel Macron in April. Banging on pots and pans. Now, the photos coming out of France look more like a hostile takeover than a walkout. “The page is not going to be turned as long as there is no withdrawal of this pension reform,” exclaims Sophie Binet, a French trade unionist and leader of the General Confederation of Labour. “We will not give up, there will be no truce,” she resolves.

108 police officers were injured in riots across France, Gérald Moussa Darmanin, Ministre de l'Intérieur reports. “Black Bloc” anarchists ransacked a McDonalds on Place Leon Blum and wrecked several real estate agencies, lighting everything in their wake on fire. Police responded by throwing tear gas and firing rubber bullets. Trash continues to pile up on the rues and avenues as sanitation workers continue their revolution.

“Regrettably,” writes our friend Egon von Greyerz, a Swiss gentleman who runs Matterhorn Asset Management, “a rotten and bankrupt financial system needs to go through a cleansing period which the world will now experience.”

Do we sound any less dramatic than the labor leaders and their voyous anarchiste? We actually have a Tennis Buddy Indicator (TBI) edition francaise to share today. You’ll recall the TBI uses tennis buddies as a way to take the pulse of the everyday man.

When we were living in France, we played tennis at the 5th arrondissement public courts near Jardin de Luxembourg. M. George was the coach. He was a debonair gentleman of a certain age. He was giving tennis lessons to the public just for something to do.

On occasion he’d pull me aside and ask me how life was in the United States. He’d never been but he heard it was awful. At the time, 9/11 had recently happened, there were frantic reports of anthrax being mailed to government employees and a father son duo were driving around the Washington D.C. area shooting people at random.

“Not so good, I guess,” I would reply. The French presse seem to enjoy stories of horror coming from the States. “I think what your problem is,” M. Georges would remind me – you can imagine his French accent if you want, it makes the story better – “you Americans live to work. We French… we work to live.” I heard that exact phrase come out of the mouth of one of the protestors near a fire being interviewed for NBC Nightly News. “Must be a theme,” I thought to myself, “the exact same phrase 20 odd years later.”

The protestor went on to explain that while a 2-year increase in the retirement may not seem like a lot to Americans, the unions took to the streets to draw the line somewhere. The change was pushed through L’Assemblee without a vote. “If we don’t draw the line here,” we paraphrase, “what stops them from doing it again? We don’t want to be working into our 80s like Americans. We want to stop working and enjoy life.”

He’s got a point. To a point. “What, are you turning into a socialist now?” Jennifer, my wife, asked when I was talking to her about the dramatic videos of protests on streets we know well. “No, not at all. It’s not an economic argument, it’s a cultural one.” The Free French feel it is their collective responsibility to rise against government reform without their consent. It’s in their blood going back years… even if the laws of economics come and bite them in the ass."

"Follow your own bliss,"

"This is Like a Horror Movie"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/4/23
"This is Like a Horror Movie"
"Things are getting spookier and spookier as we live through this economy. Globally there are mass layoffs and problems all around. Banks are failing at a record pace."
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"How It Really Is"

 

Bill Bonner, "A Roman Sunset"

"A Roman Sunset"
The rise and fall of empires and those who mourn their passing...
by Bill Bonner

"In other words, there is little doubt in my mind that the existing world order is changing rapidly in challenging ways and that people who are living on the assumption that things will work in the orderly ways that they have gotten used to will be shocked and hurt by these changes to come." ~ Ray Dalio

"Fish gotta swim. Churches gotta have crosses. And empires gotta go whither they go. That is, they need to go to the grave. And the greater the imperial success, the more lavish the funeral. The Roman Empire was the western world’s biggest success story. It ran for nearly 500 years…and dominated all of Western Europe…North Africa…and much of the Middle East. Contemporaries regarded it as permanent. And many of its finest achievements seem to have been constructed to be amortized over a millennia – temples, aqueducts, roads…some still in service.

But even the Roman Empire reached its sell-by date eventually – in 476. German warfighters, many armed by the empire itself, breached Rome’s walls…and began to do what barbarians do…raping, murdering, torturing, stealing, enslaving, destroying, and vandalizing. The Empire whimpered, begged, and died. Europe spent the next 800 years in mourning.

Mock Outrage: Yes, the empire left its monuments – the colosseum, for example, where fighters went at each other with sword and spear…where the arena was flooded so that naval battles could be staged, with hundreds of dead, for the amusement of jaded crowds.
“It will be great when they get it finished,” said an American tourist, gawking at the colosseum, and perhaps missing the point of it. (According to Mark Twain).
And there too, still standing, is Trajan’s column, recalling the long history of battles…wars…death, destruction…sacrifice and bamboozle – stretching the empire’s limits far beyond what the first ‘Romans’ must have ever imagined.

And the Forum…where Senators argued, raising a finger to emphasize a point or calling out their opponents in mock outrage, much like they do in Washington today. Where and how should the empire strike next? Which ally should it support? Which enemy should it target with sanctions and war?

When tourists first visited Rome…after reading about its antique wonders in the classics of Petrarch, Virgil and Caesar himself…they stumbled over the fallen stones, hidden in the underbrush…and chased away the goats to get a better view. By then – this was the 18th century – Rome was a faded memory, a remote legend…a ghost… as forgotten as Mike Pence -- like an abandoned graveyard, overgrown and forlorn; people hardly knew where it was. And who wept before the tomb? Who brought flowers to lay upon the grave?

Third Time Unlucky: But Rome was not alone. Empires come and go…each one leaving, but for a few years, the faint odor of a sweaty gladiator. The Sumerians? Akkadians? Hittites? Persians? Ottomans? Holy Romans? The Angevins? The Abbasid Caliphate? The Austro-Hungarians? Aztecs? Babylonians? Banamas? Carthaginians? Chola? Comanches? Golden Horde? Mongols? Zulu? The Belgian Colonial Empire? First Reich? Second Reich? Third Reich?

Who remembers the Abbasid Caliphate….in 850 AD it was perhaps the richest and most powerful empire in the world. It reached across North Africa to what is today Pakistan…a distance of 3,500 miles. It fought the Byzantines…captured Cyprus…massacred the Barmakids. And who cares? Who remembers? Who lights a candle or keens at the sepulcher?

There too among the shades and shadows is ancient Lydia. By the 6th century, BC, it had spread its protective wings over the many tribes of Anatolia. Its king was said to be the richest man alive – Croesus. His wealth came from the river Pactolus, where King Midas was said to have washed off his “Midas Touch.”

Lydia enjoyed its moment in the sun. Everything went well until 550 BC. It was then that Croesus made a fatal mistake. He attacked the city of Pteria and enslaved its population. But Pteria was not his to sack. Cyrus, the Persian Emperor, was not called “the great” for no reason. He counterattacked, Croesus was beaten, and soon all of Lydia squirmed beneath the Persian heel.

What happened to Croesus? What became of his wealth? Show us where it is buried…or where Croesus lies. No one knows. And the Lydians? Pffft…gone too. Their language erased. Their empire vanished. We should spend a moment in silence, recalling the splendor of their civilization. But we have no idea…

Fruitcake & Fuhrers: The Third Reich was supposed to last 1,000 years. In the event, fruitcakes lasted longer…the Reich was gone before children, born in 1933, became teenagers. To this day, there are probably still a few yellowed photos of the Fuhrer hanging on neglected walls – maybe in Paraguay. And it was during the lifetime of some people reading this message that millions stood and gave the Fuhrer a stiff-arm salute. Little girls, their hair in golden braids, brought flowers to honor him. And even now, 8 decades later, he is not yet forgotten; he is on the History Channel, almost every night. But where is his empire? From the Pyrenees in the West to the Urals in the East…it was triumphant…unbeatable…sure of itself and its mission. And today, its glories, such as they were, are almost unmentionable.

And the US empire? Is this where history ends, where love and goodness reign eternal? Or will it end up in the same place as all the others? In another unmarked grave in a paupers’ field? And will anyone give a damn?"

"Major Price Increases At Kroger! This Is Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/4/23
"Major Price Increases At Kroger!
 This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing some major price increases on groceries! This is not good as stores are already charging extremely high prices on most items!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Irina from Russia, 5/4/23
"Real Life In Russia Under Sanctions, 
Russian Supermarket"
Comments here:
(1 ruble is .013 US dollars)

"Alert! Banking System Collapse Is Accelerating! Prepare For 'The Greatest Depression'"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/4/23
"Alert! Banking System Collapse Is Accelerating! 
Prepare For 'The Greatest Depression'"
Comments here:
o

"Russia Strikes Kyiv With 'For The Kremlin' Message; 'Revenge' Strikes After 'Bid On Putin's Life'"

Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 5/4/23
"Russia Strikes Kyiv With 'For The Kremlin' Message; 
'Revenge' Strikes After 'Bid On Putin's Life'"
"Following the drone attack on the Kremlin - the official residence of the Russian President, Moscow struck multiple Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles. According to Ukraine’s military, fragments of Russian drones inscribed with the message "For Moscow" and "For the Kremlin" were found in the city of Odessa. It comes in the aftermath of Russia's claim that Ukrainian forces were behind the attack on Kremlin."
Comments here:
o
Col. Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls, 5/4/23
"A Massive Russian Offensive is Annihilating Ukraine"
"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
Comments here:

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

"Red Alert! Kremlin 'Leave Us No Choice', Bombers Being Loaded"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/3/23
"Red Alert! Kremlin 'Leave Us No Choice', 
Bombers Being Loaded"
Comments here:

"Warning! Another Bank Is Collapsing Right Now, Let Them Fail"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/3/23
"Warning! Another Bank Is Collapsing 
Right Now, Let Them Fail"
Comments here:

"Oh Sh*t, The Small Bank Collapse Is Real And It's Here"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, PM 5/3/23
"Oh Sh*t, The Small Bank Collapse Is Real And It's Here"
"Half of America’s banks are “potentially insolvent,” according to Stanford School of Business. You may not want to hear that on a day when small bank stocks are taking a nose dive but the writing is on the wall and has been since March when Silicon Valley Bank started this domino chain. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in an effort to stop the bleeding. Maybe that will help but the U.S. is about to hit a debt ceiling in short order so the crisis continues."
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"15 Facts Target Is Getting Pulverized By This Economy"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Facts Target Is Getting Pulverized By This Economy"
by Epic Economist

"Target’s boom may be over, but its bust has only just begun. The retailer saw sales skyrocketing during the pandemic, but everything came crashing down when inventory imbalances plunged profits by over 90% in a single quarter. Its supply chain problems continue to spark major disruptions in its operations and cause frustration among shoppers who are tired to see empty shelves at Target's stores. Several signs of distress are indicating that the company's financial health is rapidly deteriorating, and believe it or not, the megachain is falling behind smaller competitors in many categories right now.

Three years after the pandemic, Target aisles are still looking barer than normal. Shortages of baking goods, meats, produce, dry goods, and frozen food are making customers increasingly frustrated. On social media, thousands of posts document the retailer’s inventory holes. “What the heck is going on at Target? Have they given up?” one shopper asked on Reddit with an image of empty shelves. “My local target has looked like this recently too. I don’t know what's going on,” answered another. “The shelves are always half-empty, and if you ask a clerk for something, she may say “I’ll see” and point vaguely to two or three barren shelves down the way,” a third commented. “Is your Target at an all-time low right now, too?” another user asked. One employee responded, “None of us have enough hours. The stores are in disarray because no one has time to pick anything up at this rate. Our fulfillment team is getting the raw end of the deal as per usual. I overheard customer service workers telling someone on the phone that fulfillment can’t complete their order the same day it was ordered because they are so far behind. It's all spiraling out of control.”

In other words, its supply chain may be a much bigger problem than anyone imagined. According to retail expert Neil Saunders Target’s messy supply chain may cost an additional $100 million for the company this year. Problems with its next-day delivery capabilities, supplier losses, expensive transportation, and clogged warehouse space are just a few of the issues plaguing the retailer’s supply chain right now. If the chain doesn’t fix its network and improves its operations, expenses can be even greater than predicted and further damage Target’s balance sheet.

If the company fails to strategize during this critical moment, we are likely to see mass store closings and widespread layoffs being announced. Never before in history, the big-box chain faced so many difficult challenges all at once. With economic indicators signaling that more volatility is coming, the retailer must position itself to fight yet another battle. If there's something that we learned in the past few years is that the retail apocalypse forgives no one. We've seen huge chains falling apart and disappearing from one year to the other, and if Target doesn't play catch up soon, it may suffer from the same fate as other collapsing retailers. Today, we compiled several facts that reveal how poor Target's financial situation really is and expose the factors threatening to dismantle the retailer's business in 2023."
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Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind XII: “Peace”

Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind XII: “Peace”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65 (bottom). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. 
NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years. Of course the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way."

"When the Sky Is No More Than Remembered Light"

"When the Sky Is No More Than Remembered Light:
Mark Strand Reads His Poignant Poem 'The End'”
- by Maria Popova

“Not every man knows what is waiting for him, or what he shall sing,
when the ship he is on slips into darkness, there at the end.”

“It’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention,” the Pulitzer-winning poet Mark Strand (April 11, 1934–November 29, 2014) observed in contemplating the artist’s task to bear witness to the universe. And yet this universe in which we live is predicated on impermanence, and the lucky accident of our existence is crowned with the certitude of its end from the start. Why, then, are we always so shocked by the finitude of all we hold dear and, above all, by our own mortality? Few are those who can say with sincerity, like Rilke did an exquisite 1923 letter, that “death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love.” Instead, we spend our lives shuddering at any reminder of our inevitable end, unsalved by the miracle of having lived at all.

Montaigne articulated the central paradox of being perfectly in 16th-century meditation on death and the art of living: “To lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago.” Still, lament we do, and some of our greatest art gives voice to that lamentation.

That paradox is what Strand explores with transcendent courage and curiosity in his poem “The End,” found in his "Collected Poems" (public library) - the trove of truth and beauty that gave us Strand’s love letter to dreams.

In this hauntingly beautiful recording, courtesy of The New York Public Library, an aged Strand reads his poignant poem shortly before he repaid his own debt to mortality:

"The End"
by Mark Strand

"Not every man knows what he shall sing at the end,
Watching the pier as the ship sails away, or what it will seem like
When he’s held by the sea’s roar, motionless, there at the end,
Or what he shall hope for once it is clear that he’ll never go back.

When the time has passed to prune the rose or caress the cat,
When the sunset torching the lawn and the full moon icing it down
No longer appear, not everyone knows what he’ll discover instead.

When the weight of the past leans against nothing, and the sky
Is no more than remembered light, and the stories of cirrus
And cumulus come to a close, and all the birds are suspended in flight,
Not everyone knows what is waiting for him, or what he shall sing
When the ship he is on slips into darkness, there at the end."

Complement with the lyrical "Duck, Death and the Tulip", Marcus Aurelius on mortality and the key to living fully, and the great Zen master Seung Sahn Soen-sa’s explanation of death and the life-force to a child, then revisit Strand’s celebration of clouds and everything they mean."

"The Essence Of Human Existence..."

"Curiosity is the essence of human existence.
'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'
I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions.
I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out."
- Eugene Cernan

The Poet: David Whyte, "One Day"

"One Day"

"One day I will say
the gift I once had has been taken.
The place I have made for myself
belongs to another.
The words I have sung
are being sung by the ones
I would want.
Then I will be ready
for that voice
and the still silence in which it arrives.
And if my faith is good
then we'll meet again
on the road,
and we'll be thirsty,
and stop
and laugh
and drink together again
from the deep well of things as they are."

- David Whyte,
"Where Many Rivers Meet"

"The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.
And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see -
it is, rather, a light by which we may see - and what we see is life."
- Robert Penn Warren

"In Three Words..."

"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 C

The Daily "Near You?"

Frankfurt Am Main, Hessen, Germany. Thanks for stopping by!

"For Whom the Polls Bell"

"For Whom the Polls Bell"
RFK, Jr. shakes up the Republican and Democrat elites...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

Dublin, Ireland - Here’s a headline from Slate: "What to Take Away From Those Alarming RFK Jr. Polls." What is ‘alarming’ about the polls is that they show a rising…and surprising…support for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It’s alarming to Slate – and the Liberal Elite – because they regard RFK,Jr. as a “kook,” a “fringe figure,” an “eccentric” and, OMG, a “conspiracy theorist.” As we’ve seen, RFK,Jr. has turned away from the orthodox views of both Republican and Democratic elite. He aims to take America out of its $1.5 trillion/year Empire business.

Here at Bonner Private Research, we’re not the kind of faux ‘conservative’ you see on TV. No, we’re the old-fashioned, finger-waving, ‘we told you so’ kind of conservative. And what we’re telling you today is what we’re going to wag a finger about tomorrow: RFK,Jr. is right…sometime in the future, thinking Americans, if there are any left, will regret their Empire and wish they’d gotten out sooner.

Empire Regret Syndrome: You’ll recall that the empire is expensive. It supports thousands of grifters in the military and out of it…in think tanks, Congress, universities, ‘defense’ suppliers, the World Bank…and many other squirrely sinecures. It is so costly that the government needs to borrow…and print…money to support it. As in the Vietnam War, the money in circulation goes up…followed by consumer prices. You get what you pay for. We get ships and missiles. We don’t get houses, cars, carrots and the other things people want to buy. Again, consumer prices go up.

RFK, Jr. is the first candidate who proposes to put a stop to it. But, empires have a logic…and a trajectory…of their own. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. Empires gotta be empires.

Military enterprises can be profitable – but only so long as you are winning, bringing back booty, selling captured slaves and collecting tribute. Even then, the easy money and slaves eventually undermine your home economy…and then you need to use violence not on foreigners, but on your own citizens, to keep them in line.

Yes, what goes around, comes around. A nation that celebrates its ‘shoot ‘em ups’ abroad eventually gets shoot ‘em ups at home. That is perhaps the meaning of this strange news at OpenTheBooks on Substack: "Since 2006, 103 rank-and-file agencies outside of the Department of Defense (DOD) spent $3.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment (inflation adjusted to CPI). 27 of those agencies are traditional law enforcement under the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

However, 76 agencies are pencil-pushing, regulatory agencies, i.e. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Social Security Administration (SSA), Veterans Affairs (VA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and many others.

Headcounts: There are now more federal agents with arrest and firearm authority (200,000) than U.S. Marines (186,000).

Fraud, Farce and Failure: If you favor gun control, you might want to start there. A ‘police state’ is not something anyone ‘wants.’ But it is part of the empire’s life cycle. You pass a Patriot Act, giving your elite more power to fight ‘terrorists’ abroad…and then, mirabile dictu, you find terrorists at home!

This insight is important to us, because it gives us a hint about which way the fight against inflation might go. In a nutshell, we expect the empire to keep doing what empires do – fighting, fleecing, and fudging the facts. We expect the Fed to put on a show too – dancing around the ring, jabbing at its opponent…and then taking a dive. Between them, look for at least a decade of financial and political fraud, farce and failure.

But let’s stick with today’s theme – why empires cannot push away from the table before their arteries get blocked. In short, there are too many people with spoons in their hands and pudding in the bowls before them. Here’s Senator Tommy Tuberville: "Experts have known for more than a decade that the military is top heavy. We do not suffer from a lack of generals," Tuberville said. "When my dad served in World War II, we had one general for every 6,000 troops. Think about that: one for every 6,000. Now, we have one general for every 1,400 enlisted service members." The brass lives high on the hog at the Pentagon. Then, it moves even higher on the hog.

Uncivilizing America: In another book, now entitled “Uncivilizing America” and scheduled for release in two weeks [now available on Amazon…note that it is an updated version of “Win -Win or Lose” which was never distributed outside of our own channels] we highlight the case of General Keith Alexander, USA retired. The greatest danger he ever faced came from the dessert counter at the Officers’ Mess…and paper cuts at his desk. But Mr. Alexander is emblematic of the trend in the empire’s Praetorian Guard towards bureaucracy…expense… incompetence…and mendacity. Alexander told Congress that his outfit did not collect information on Americans…even while he was putting together the most extensive database in history…recording every conversation that Americans ever had. Alexander: “I believe it is in the nation’s best interest to put all the phone records into a lockbox that we could search.”

Who can search it? The people with all those guns, of course. And now, he’s moved on, but no….he’s not retiring gracefully to the family farm as Dwight Eisenhower did in 1961. Now he’s selling his secrets to foreigners. Here’s the Washington Post: "Retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who led the National Security Agency under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, secured $2 million in consulting deals with foreign governments after leaving office, including a $700,000 contract to advise Saudi Arabia on cybersecurity after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, newly released records show.

Alexander’s consulting firm also won a $1.3 million contract from the government of Japan to provide advice on cyber issues, according to additional documents obtained by The Washington Post as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit."

Lies and Murder: If we were going to sell our soul to the Saudis, we’d want a little more money. But Alexander knows what his soul is worth. And he’s not the only one. More from the Washington Post: "Retired military officials are finding high-paying jobs with the Saudi government and can make up to 7-figure salaries working for other foreign governments:

A new investigation by The Washington Post found that more than 500 retired military personnel have taken jobs with foreign governments since 2015, and a majority of the positions were located in North Africa or the Middle East, including consulting jobs for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense.

Australia's government, for example, offered former senior US Navy officials more than $10 million for consulting deals. In Azerbaijan, one retired US Air Force general was offered a consulting job with a pay of $5,000 a day."

From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the contracts keep coming. Among the Empire’s many tricks – to keep the money coming its way – is its willingness not only to lie but to murder. The Church Committee found as many as 638 schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro, for example. In one of them, the CIA recruited the Mafia to poison Castro’s food.

Which is why criticizing the US military/industrial/spook complex is not necessarily a good strategy for getting ahead in life…or getting elected to the White House. While those responsible for wasting $20 trillion – and the deaths of a million people – get even more money…those who ‘blow the whistle’ go to jail. Or worse. We’d advise Mr. Kennedy to get a food taster."
o
Joel’s Note: As if promising to reign in the empire’s military and tighten her fiscal belt wasn’t enough, RFK, Jr. recently set the cat amongst the elitist pigeons by daring to come out on the side of (gulp)… free speech! Here was the senator, dropping some truth bombs of his own on Twitter yesterday (May 2, 2023)…"Instead of championing free speech, the U.S. actively persecutes journalists and whistleblowers. I’ll pardon brave truth-tellers like Julian Assange and investigate the corruption and crimes they exposed. This isn’t the Soviet Union. The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents.

Other brave truth-tellers include John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner, Daniel Hale, Thomas Drake, Jeffrey Sterling, and Edward Snowden. They were trying to return America to its democratic and humanitarian ideals.

Since the passage of the euphemistically-named “Patriot Act,” the United States Government has been committed to transparency… your transparency, that is. In addition to massive spook and spy programs of its own (as uncovered by some of the above whistleblowers), it has actively encouraged citizens to turn against one another by fostering an “If you see something, say something” environment of snitching and Stasi-style paranoia.

But in a classic case of “rules for thee, not for we,” the state is all about keeping its own sordid affairs away from the disinfecting light of public scrutiny, regularly jailing dissidents in a manner most unbecoming of country that calls itself the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.”

Over the past few months, journalists Matt Taibbi, Barri Weiss and Michael Shellenberger brought to light the Twitter Files, which demonstrated explicit collusion between US federal agencies and Big Tech, in which information of critical public interest (see the Hunter Biden laptop story) was suppressed in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

Did the journalists receive any thanks for their investigative reporting? Any applause from the media or members of Congress for rooting out collusion and corruption? Any ovation for “speaking truth to power” or “afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted?”

Hardly. After being lectured by congress, the award-winning journalists were smeared by their (no doubt jealous) coevals in the mainstream press, if their story was covered at all. As for Mr. Taibbi, probably the lead journalist of the trio, he was rewarded with a visit from the IRS while he was giving testimony to congress. Pure coincidence, we’re sure."

It is sometimes said that “democracy dies in darkness.” The obvious corollary: “authoritarianism thrives in the shadows.” Let there be light."

"Real Life in Russia Under Sanctions! Russian Supermarket!"

Full screen recommended.
Irina From Russia, 5/2/23
"Real Life in Russia Under Sanctions! 
Russian Supermarket!"
"My name is Irina. I live in Russia In Siberia city Novosibirsk. I am blogger and I show my life in Russia. I post videos daily about Prices In supermarket, shopping malls, grocery stores and beautiful places In my city. I hope you will like my Vlogs from Russia."
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o
So tell me, Good Citizen, how's YOUR supermarket?
We all know, don't we? Yeah...

"How It Really Is"