Friday, June 2, 2023

"Write Your Worries On The Sand..."



“I walked slowly out on the beach.
A few yards below high-water mark I stopped and read the words again:
WRITE YOUR WORRIES ON THE SAND.
I let the paper blow away, reached down and picked up a fragment of shell.
Kneeling there under the vault of the sky,
I wrote several words, one above the other.
Then I walked away, and I did not look back.
I had written my troubles on the sand.
The tide was coming in.”
- Arthur Gordon

"15 Big Box Retailers At Risk Of Bankruptcy In 2023"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Big Box Retailers At Risk Of Bankruptcy In 2023"
By Epic Economist

"The list of endangered retailers continues to grow this year. Many companies that actually exited bankruptcy in the past are now being threatened by it again, while others that proved resiliency and stability for decades are struggling with debt, weak revenue, and higher competition and may have to shut doors for good in the next few months. Forbes analysts say that a bankruptcy wave was already expected. The only surprising thing about it is that it didn't happen sooner. For many iconic companies, this will be the end of an era. And for many Americans, this crisis will result in some lamentable losses of favorite stores, brands, and products.

For example, after witnessing the bankruptcy and outright collapse of rival Cineworld, shares of AMC dropped by 38% in a single day. During the pandemic, the world's largest movie theater chain became a meme stock and retail investors pushed its stock up more than 1,000%. Unfortunately, from that point on, things have only gone downhill for the entertainment retailer. A series of controversies have emerged, including allegations that Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX may have manipulated AMC stock. More recently, Robinhood warned investors that the company was about to file for bankruptcy – which AMC later said wasn’t true. Well, at least for the time being because conditions continue to deteriorate from the chain. In February, its quarterly loss shot up to $287 million, and overall revenues fell again. The retailer is still in a very vulnerable position, and the current economic challenges may push it over the edge.

Similarly, 130-year-old teen-targeting clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch may actually be in its final year. The impact of inflation in 2022 caused a higher-than-expected plunge in sales and almost 150 store closings. Deutsche Bank analyst Tiffany Kanaga said that the institution is “highly skeptical of Abercrombie’s ability to stabilize its gross profit margin against this competitive mall backdrop.” The retailer is trying to move its operations to online platforms as its brick-and-mortar business falls apart.

Moreover, High-end department store chain Macy’s isn’t new in bankruptcy court. If first filed for bankruptcy in 1992, filing for a second time one decade later, in 2003. If anything, the timing of the filings reveals just how sensitive the company is to economic downturns and this time is no different. In 2020, Macy’s dodged bankruptcy by securing $4.5 billion in financing, but the scenario drastically changed in 2023. In the past few months, the chain has reported store shutdowns, and sales declines both in physical and online stores. A looming change in leadership is also fueling rumors that Macy’s is preparing to go out of business in the coming months.

Once again, JCPenney is on the verge of bankruptcy. In the first quarter of 2020, it filed for Chapter 11 protection to restructure its $4 billion debt, exiting bankruptcy in November, when two firms rescued the department store. Since then, the company hasn’t released financial reports, insisting that it is now on “solid footing.” But data released by Retail Dive shows ongoing volatility under its post-bankruptcy ownership.

The months ahead will be exceedingly difficult for US businesses. This is the time to show support to our favorite brands because they may be gone from our economic landscape before we even notice. The retail collapse has only just begun, and thousands of companies will continue to die right before our eyes. Today, we decided to compile the businesses that recently indicated they may be going out of business by year's end."
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The Daily "Near You?"

West Liberty, Kentucky, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, 6/2/23"

Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, 6/2/23
"This Was A Trap That the Russians Set For The Ukrainians"
Your home for analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States and the world.
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 6/2/23
"'They Were All Killed Instantly!'
 Donetsk Under Continued Devastating Attack"
"NATO continues to strike residential centers inside of pre-war Russia. This morning Ukraine and NATO attacked Moscow using UAP's. In response Putin launched a devastating strike at NATO decision making centers inside of Ukraine. Patrick Lancaster joins us with the latest attacks on residential neighborhoods in Donetsk."
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"Hurry Up and Crash Already"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 6/2/23
"Hurry Up and Crash Already"
"Things have been propped up so long. It’s a wonder that the crash hasn't happened yet. Now that the debt ceiling nonsense is done a lot of people are not happy about that as well. What’s next?"
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Saints and Geniuses"

"Saints and Geniuses"
With so many of our better angels on the job, how come we're falling behind?
by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "We left you sitting on the edge of your chair yesterday, didn’t we, Dear Reader? You were wondering, as we were: how come the US falls behind? How come the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Why do our schools get worse, not better? Why do our life expectancies fall? Why do our middle classes get poorer…while our military enters more and more conflicts, and loses them all?

With so many saints and geniuses on the job – Ms. Elizabeth Warren in the Senate…Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman at The New York Times…Ta-Nehisi Coates, here and there…do-gooders doing well in academia as well as government itself – clarifying ‘the science’… protecting us from AI, drugs, poverty, Russia, Chinese chips… censoring wrong-think…stimulating the economy with trillions of new dollars… enacting thousands of new laws and regulations (all aimed at the perfection of our society and the expansion of the government) – we pause to catch our breath – America’s slippage is as spellbinding as it is inexplicable.

Under the Influence: Donald Trump blames foreigners – both those who offer us their labor (Mexicans)….and those who send us their finished products (Chinese).

Joe Biden favors domestic enemies – pretending that straight, white, Republican males want to end our democracy.

A better explanation comes from Vladimir Lenin. He thought there was a flaw in capitalism itself that causes a drift toward fascism. In the 1970s, and ‘80s, economist George Stigler, and others, developed the theory of ‘regulatory capture’ to explain it. The idea was that the angels working for the feds were subject to influence. Ruthless, profit driven capitalists lure them into sin. Big businesses ‘capture’ the agencies…and use them to stifle competition, increase sales, lower taxes, and raise profit margins.

That is the way most thinking politicians, if there are any, see it. RFK, Jr. takes the idea a little further. Big Pharma and the FDA took advantage of the Covid Hysteria, he says, to sell drugs and gain power. Raytheon and General Dynamics teamed up with the Pentagon to exploit America’s empire madness and sell more weapons.

But the capture goes much further. The Drug Enforcement Agency protects illegal drug dealers – by keeping prices high and access limited. Police departments and prisons get bigger budgets, too. And the last thing anti-poverty warriors want is for the poor to suddenly become independent. The poverty-fighters live on greasy grants and giveaways from feds; take them away and they would have to earn an honest living. And now there are whole new industries colluding with the feds to sell “green” energy as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

But there’s something missing in the “capture” hypothesis. Who’s being captured by whom?

All Too Human: Our contribution to the ‘capture’ theory is to observe that both the regulators and the regulated put on their pants one leg at a time. Both want the same things – power, money, status. And they both get it by conspiring against the public. One side has money (made by providing goods and services for grateful customers). The other has power – given to it by the deciders, and backed by the firepower of the police and the army. Neither is a devil. Neither is a saint. Instead, both are all too human.

Government programs depend on chaste federal agents, pure of heart, clear of head, and ready to forsake earthly temptations. ‘Regulatory capture’ imagines that they, Ms. Warren and the entire regulatory, Deep State payroll are like nuns in a remote convent, always praying for peace and prosperity, while in danger of being carried off and ravished by lusty Vikings.

Of course, if the feds wanted to avoid ‘capture,’ they could easily strengthen their defenses. No speaking fees. No revolving door. No consulting for regulated industries. Why aren’t these measures taken? Oh, dear reader, you disappoint us. Isn’t it obvious? These gals want a good time too!

And what about using the tax system, as Ms. Warren suggests, to right wrongs? She aims to reduce inequality, she says, by taxing the wealth of the richest families. But the more laws and regulations, the more enforcers and adjusters, the greater the opportunity for the elite who know how to get around them.

Already, the tax code runs to 70,000 pages…with 3 million words…each of them intended to improve the world in some way. Surely, another few pages – with a property tax on wealthy families, such as the Kennedys, will help set things to right?

More Public Disservice: But wait…who writes those thousands of pages of tax code? Who puts the loopholes into the tax system and then advises rich people on where to find them? What lawyers move from the upper ranks of the IRS to partnership in the major tax firms? Who do these ‘public servants’ really serve – the middle class, or their rich clients? ‘The People’…or the elite?

And who will write the new tax law? Who will consult…who will interpret…who will slip the plum into the pudding? Perhaps it could be inserted as an amendment to this helpful IRS instruction: "For purposes of Paragraph (3), an organization described in Paragraph (2) shall be deemed to include an organization described in Section 501(c) (4), (5), or (6) which would be described in Paragraph (2) if it were an organization described in Section 509(a)(3)." Who would know?

But maybe the rich and powerful…along with their lawyers, lobbyists and Congressional representatives (for whom they paid good money!) will take a break. Maybe they’ll go to the Hamptons for a long summer vacation while Ms. Warren writes the new tax law herself. And Ms. Warren? Who does she work for? The few? Or the many? Have the capitalists been unable to tame her…or she, them? Did she remain hidden in some dark nook, innocent, in prayer…as the rest of Washington was captured? Or, by proposing yet another phony regulatory ‘solution’ is she merely anesthetizing ‘the people’…allowing the elite to rip them off even more?"

"How It Really Will Be, And Probably Already Is""

 

"We Are In A Full Blown Debt Crisis, Things Are About To Get Much Worse From Here"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/2/23
"We Are In A Full Blown Debt Crisis, 
Things Are About To Get Much Worse From Here"
Comments here:
o
And it's only beginning...

"Strange Prices At Family Dollar! This is Crazy! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/2/23
"Strange Prices At Family Dollar!
 This is Crazy! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog, we are at Family Dollar and are noticing some strange price increases! We are seeing some skyrocketing prices and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products, and charging very high prices!"
Comments here:

Jim Kunstler, "Who Can You Trust?"

"Who Can You Trust?"
by Jim Kunstler

“I’m sick and tired of hearing Democrats whining about Joe Biden’s age. The man knows how to govern. Just shut up and vote to save Democracy.” - Rob Reiner, Hollywood savant.

"Perhaps you’re aware that the World Health Organization (WHO) is cooking up a plan to impose its will over all the sovereign nations on this planet in the event of future pandemics. That means, for instance, that the WHO would issue orders to the USA about lockdowns, vaccines, and vaccine passports and we US citizens supposedly would be compelled to follow them.

Why the “Joe Biden” regime would go along with this globalist fu**ery is one of the abiding mysteries of our time - except that they go along with everything else that the cabal of Geneva cooks up, such as attacks on farmers, and on oil production, and on relations between men and women, and on personal privacy, and on economic liberty throughout Western Civ, as if they’re working overtime to kill it off. And all of us with it.

I think they are working overtime at that because the sore-beset citizens of Western Civ are onto their game, and getting restless about it. So, the Geneva cabal is in a race against time before the center pole of their circus tent collapses and the nations of the world are compelled to follow the zeitgeist in the direction of de-centralizing, foiling all their grand plans.

The “Joe Biden” regime is pretending to ignore the reality that this WHO deal is actually a treaty that would require ratification by a two-thirds vote in the senate, an unlikely outcome. In any case, handing over authority to the WHO - in effect, to its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - to push around American citizens like a giant herd of cattle would be patently unlawful.

That center pole of the circus tent is the wobbling global economy. It’s barely holding up the canvas over the three rings of the circus. In the center ring, the death-defying spectacle of the Biden Family crime case is playing out before a huge audience (us). This week, a gun went off at the FBI and smoke is curling out of the barrel. FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to verify that he’s been sitting on an incriminating document for three years from a “trusted” confidential human source, i.e., an informant, stating that the Biden Family received a $5-million bribe from a foreign entity when “JB” was vice-president.

That’s only one bribe of many others, of course, as documented in the Hunter Biden laptop, and it must be obvious it represents treasonous behavior that will demand resignation or impeachment. As this spools out in the weeks and months ahead, do you think Americans will be in the mood to accept further insults such as “Joe Biden” surrendering our national sovereignty to the WHO?

Anyway, you must ask yourself: why on earth should I trust the WHO about anything? Did they not participate in laying a trip on the world with Covid-19? How did those lockdowns work out? Do you think they destroyed enough businesses and ruined enough households? How’s the vaccination program doing? Effective? Safe? Yeah, maybe not so much. Maybe killing a lot of people, wrecking immune systems, sterilizing reproductive organs, causing gross disabilities, shattering lives.

Of course, in over three years neither the WHO nor the US medical authorities showed the slightest interest in helping to figure out how the Covid-19 virus was made in a lab, and exactly how it got loose in the world. Lately, Dr. Ghebreyesus has warned the world about much worse future pandemics supposedly coming down at us. Oh? Really? What does he know that we don’t? That possibly new efforts to concoct chimeric diseases are ongoing in labs around the world? (You know that dozens of such labs were discovered in Ukraine as the war got underway there in 2022.) What’s Dr. Ghebreyesus doing to stop that?

If US orgs and citizens are involved in this “research,” why doesn’t the WHO alert our government leaders so they can stop it. (Would they? I’m not so sure.) And, who is behind it this time? The Eco-Health Alliance again, like with Covid-19? By the way, that outfit got another whopping grant last fall from the NIH to “study” bat viruses - right after the NIH terminated a previous grant on account of The Eco-Health Alliance failing to turn over notebooks and other records.

No, you cannot trust the WHO about anything. The “trust horizon” (a concept introduced by the great Nicole Foss, late of The Automatic Earth dot com) is shrinking. You can no longer trust any distant authorities. You also cannot trust the US federal government (especially the executive branch behind “Joe Biden”). And notice: the trust horizon is shrinking just as the world is de-centralizing. This, you see, is the main contradiction behind all the Globalist’s twisted ambitions to control everything, including you. They are working against the current tide of human history which is pushing everything toward down-scaling, re-localization, and re-assertion of the sovereign individual person.

That trend will become increasingly evident as things organized at the giant scale start to implode - giant retail chains, medical behemoths, hedge funds, big banks, you name it. The world no longer has the mojo for globalism. There’s reason to wonder these days whether the USA has the mojo to remain a unified national polity of states. Our federal government is not only financially bankrupt beyond any coherent reckoning, it is also morally bankrupt, and it has decided to make war against its own people. None of this is satisfactory and none of this is working. It’s time to figure out who and what you can trust and act accordingly."

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up for 6/2/23"

"Debt Ceiling Explodes,
 Banks Implode and CV19 Bioweapon/vax Update"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"The Senate passed the House debt ceiling bill that will keep record high spending for at least two more years. Actually, there is no debt ceiling as this bill suspends it until 2025. Let the money printing begin, and now with a turbo charger!!! The hard part will be financing this pig of a debt deal. No way the federal government will sell this debt, which sources say will be at least $4 trillion in new spending. So, the Fed will be forced to monetize it. Count on much bigger inflation coming soon.

Half of America’s banks are insolvent, according to one overseas report out early last month. The report was not covered by the Lying Legacy Media (LLM) and largely missed by the Alt media. The report by the Financial Times says half of America’s 4,800 banks may already be insolvent. Yikes!! Maybe this is why Congress is getting ready to print trillions of new dollars. Is the banking system going to get yet another bailout? Will the U.S. dollar survive this round of money printing? To make matters worse, retail giants Costco and Macy’s are warning about a sinking economic forecast. Add four-fold rising announced layoffs this year, and things are not looking good at all.

Bad news for actor Jamie Foxx. He’s been in the hospital for more than a month for what was called a “medical complication.” We now find out the actor has a CV19 vax injury so bad it has left him blind and partially paralyzed. Is this the injury that will finally bring a spotlight to the dangers of the CV19 bioweapon/vax? On the other side of the Atlantic, testimony by Dr. David Martin is shedding a light on the CV19 bioweapon/vax because he proves in front of the EU Parliament that is exactly what it is. He shows records going back to 1990 to prove it. The video revealing this has gotten 200-million views. Dr. Martin says this presentation has hit “pay dirt” to wake up the world to the crimes committed with Covid and the CV19 Spike Protein bioweapon/vax.

The LLM has a special role in pushing this huge CV19 bioweapon/vax psyop, and you can see part of it here. There is much more in the 52-minute news cast."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 6/2/23.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

A Blues Musical Interlude: John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

"Nuclear Blackout; US Stops Sharing Data; Moldova Enters The War"

Canadian Prepper, 6/1/23
"Nuclear Blackout; US Stops Sharing Data;
Moldova Enters The War"
Comments here:

Douglas Macgregor, "The Return of The 30 to 35,000 Ukrainian Troops"

Douglas Macgregor, 6/1/23
"The Return of The 30 to 35,000 Ukrainian Troops"
Comments here:

"Walmart CEO Warns Of Price Increases And Hard Times Ahead As Retailers Brace For Bankruptcies"

Full screen recommended,
"Walmart CEO Warns Of Price Increases And 
Hard Times Ahead As Retailers Brace For Bankruptcies"
By Epic Economist

"Walmart is warning American consumers that hard times are ahead. This week, the company confirmed more price hikes, store closings, and layoffs in 2023. Executives, including CEO Doug McMillion, expect increased turbulence in the retail sector this year. Analysts at UBS believe almost 100,000 stores could shut down. They say a flood of bankruptcies is about to hit major US retailers, starting this summer. That comes as consumer spending drastically slows down, retail sales drop, and companies report pressure on profit margins. Walmart’s cautious note is putting other big brands on high alert given that economic conditions continue to deteriorate all over the country.

Walmart sounded alarms this week when it slashed its quarterly and full-year profit estimates. America’s largest retailer is warning that conditions in 2023 will be abnormally hard as it forecasts slower sales and profit growth, disappointing investors, and leaving other major US companies on edge.

On top of the problems happening in its brick-and-mortar operations, Walmart reported an 8% decline in average daily visits to its website over the past 12 months. So far this year, the company already announced a large number of layoffs at its fulfillment centers and multiple store closings. Now it is saying that consumers should brace for more price hikes due to “stubborn inflation”.

In fact, a new survey conducted by Digital.com, which asked over 1,000 retail owners and executives how inflation is impacting profitability, pricing, and discount offers found that 55% of retailers have increased prices by 20% or more on average. Of those who have increased prices, 28% of major retailers raised prices by 50% or more. When asked why they have increased prices, 66% of businesses cited rising inflation, 69% supply chain issues, and 57% increased demand. Furthermore, 55% shrank discounts, and 48% increased the price of complementary products.

Adding to consumers’ woes, about 38% of businesses said they will offer fewer discounts than last year, and 14% will not offer any at all. Walmart is certainly one of the best-positioned companies in the industry, and its large-scale operations definitely give the company leverage to stay afloat during turbulent times like these. But that doesn’t mean that the retailer isn’t struggling, and the message it is sharing with the public and other businesses is a sign that economic conditions are going to get even tougher from this point on.

Since the start of the year, retail bankruptcies are piling up. Party City, Tuesday Morning, Bed Bath & Beyond, Joann Fabric, David’s Bridal, mattress manufacturer Serta Simmons and Independent Pet Partners, a pet store retailer, have filed all for bankruptcy in 2023. UBS analysts updated their store closings prediction in April, saying that if the economy continues heading towards a prolonged recession, the number could reach upwards of 94,000 store shutdowns. Ongoing economic headwinds may eviscerate financially struggling brands that have barely survived the pandemic-induced recession of 2020 and 2021. This time around, only the strongest will remain standing, and we’re about to find out who is who."
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"Tipping Restaurant Cashier For Doing Nothing; Grocery Stores Under Attack; Macy's Economic Red Flag"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/1/23
"Tipping Restaurant Cashier For Doing Nothing; 
Grocery Stores Under Attack; Macy's Economic Red Flag"
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Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 6/1/23
"Trends Journal"
T'he Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current 
events forming future trends. Find out more here: https://trendsjournal.com
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Deuter, "East of the Full Moon"

Deuter, "East of the Full Moon" 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"This colorful cosmic skyscape features a peculiar system of galaxies cataloged as Arp 227 some 100 million light-years distant. Swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces, Arp 227 consists of the two galaxies prominent on the left; the curious shell galaxy NGC 474 and its blue, spiral-armed neighbor NGC 470. The faint, wide arcs or shells of NGC 474 could have been formed by a gravitational encounter with neighbor NGC 470. Alternately the shells could be caused by a merger with a smaller galaxy producing an effect analogous to ripples across the surface of a pond.
Remarkably, the large galaxy on the right hand side of the deep image, NGC 467, appears to be surrounded by faint shells too, evidence of another interacting galaxy system. Intriguing background galaxies are scattered around the field that also includes spiky foreground stars. Of course, those stars lie well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. The field of view spans 25 arc minutes or about 1/2 degree on the sky."
                 - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100211.html

"Know What's Weird?"

"Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change,
but pretty soon... everything's different."
- Calvin, from "Calvin and Hobbes"

"The Great Enemy Of Freedom..."

"In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.

In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...

Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?

The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means."
 - Wendell Berry,
"The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays"

"It Takes Considerable Knowledge..."

"The greater our knowledge increases,
the greater our ignorance unfolds."
- John F. Kennedy
o
"It takes considerable knowledge just to 
realize the extent of your own ignorance."
- Thomas Sowell 
o

The Poet: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

- Dylan Thomas

The Daily "Near You?"

La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Splendid..."

 

"Good Or Bad..."

"Good or bad, everything we do is our best choice at that moment."
- William Glasser
o
“Life does not require us to be consistent, cruel, patient, helpful, angry, rational, thoughtless, loving, rash, open-minded, neurotic, careful, rigid, tolerant, wasteful, rich, downtrodden, gentle, sick, considerate, funny, stupid, healthy, greedy, beautiful, lazy, responsive, foolish, sharing, pressured, intimate, hedonistic, industrious, manipulative, insightful, capricious, wise, selfish, kind or sacrificed. Life does, however, require us to live with the consequences of our choices.”
- Richard Bach, “Running From Safety”

"Billions May Die in Mankind's Greatest War w/ Artificial Intelligence"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/1/23
"Billions May Die in Mankind's 
Greatest War w/ Artificial Intelligence"
Comments here:

"Who Wants This?"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 6/1/23
"Who Wants This?"
"It sounds like some futuristic world where crime is running rampant. But it’s not a movie, it’s happening right here. Los Angeles is going to have no bail for most crimes."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! It's Getting Unaffordable!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/1/23
"Massive Price Increases At Kroger!
It's Getting Unaffordable!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing some huge price increases on groceries! This is getting very concerning as many families are struggling to put food on the table."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 6/1/23
"Russian Typical (Close to Home) 
Supermarket Tour: Pyaterochka"
"What does a Russian typical supermarket look like in Moscow, Russia. Take a look inside the most popular supermarket in Russia. With over 19,000 locations Pyaterochka is the best known Russian typical supermarket by a long way."
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Comments, Good Citizen? Yeah, what could you say?

"10 Big Retailers in US Collapsing Right in Front of Our Eyes"

Full screen recommended.
"10 Big Retailers in US Collapsing 
Right in Front of Our Eyes"
by Finance Today

"Because of the most challenging economic climate that has been witnessed since the 1970s, the retail industry is going through widespread destruction. Even long-established enterprises that have been there for generations are suddenly going out of business because of the current climate. It has been reported by a number of different sources that customers' favorite stores, such as Starbucks and Disney, as well as clothing merchants and department stores, will close their doors this year. The sector as a whole is in a precarious position as a result of the widespread closures that have already taken place. This is due to the fact that retailers are currently grappling with falling sales, rising inflation, and enormous debt burdens during a period of heightened financial unpredictability and higher potential for catastrophe. This video presents a list that we have developed of the top ten retailers who will be fighting for their very existence in the year 2023. Only the most robust brands will make it through, so check out our list of companies to keep an eye out for if they are filing for bankruptcy."
Comments here:

"Something Like Reverence..."



"When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair." 
- Blaise Pascal

Ahh, but it does...
“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”
- Scott Russell Sanders

Folks, I fear our time for such reverence is here.
God help us, God help us all...

"Ukraine Preparing to Engulf the Entire World in Death & Carnage"

Click image for larger size.
"Ukraine Preparing to Engulf 
the Entire World in Death & Carnage"
By Martin Armstrong

"Some people have been sending hate mail claiming I am a Putin supporter. My advice to you is to grab a gun and go volunteer to fight for Zelensky. ALL my sources have been screaming from the beginning that this Ukrainian war has been instigated by the US which has been taken over by a silent coup of the Neocons. Then some just hate Trump and are so blinded by it that they are walking into their doom.

Ukraine is out to create World War III. Russia has NOT been using military aircraft in Ukraine. They have only used missiles and drones. Ukraine has no need for F16 jets other than to launch a war on Crimea to try to destroy the Russian fleet and they will use them to attack Moscow directly. They want the F16s from Biden but the long-range missiles from Germany. They are giving the Neocons cover so they can pretend that they did not supply those weapons to Moscow and when they attack a NATO country, then World War III will begin.

Get your head out of the sand. Wake up! Pull that COVID mask off of your eyes and get your head out of the sand. You are taking your family down a very dark path.

Russia will have NO CHOICE but to protect its own people and that will be through nuclear confrontation. UKRAINE is the enemy of the entire world – they only seek death & destruction. Had the Minsk Agreement been honored – there would have been NO war!"

"Fall Of American Empire And Descent Into A New Dark Ages" (Excerpt)

"Fall Of American Empire And Descent Into A New Dark Ages"
By Jim Quinn

Excerpt: “The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.” - Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 38 “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”

“The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.” - Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 38 “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”

The moniker of my website originated from a quote by David Walker, then Comptroller General of the U.S., in 2007. I wholeheartedly endorsed Walker’s viewpoint and become politically active in trying to get Ron Paul elected as president in 2008 and 2012. It was a fruitless effort, as the uni-party in Washington DC, controlled by the dark forces of the Deep State, do not allow men and women who truly want to reduce the size and scope of government to ever get elected. His warning sixteen years ago is a perfect example of being right but being early. When talking about the decline of empires, you are really deliberating about a process, not an event. The Roman Empire did not fall on a specific day due to a specific cause. It collapsed in stages over hundreds of years due to numerous reasons, each triggering events which compounded upon each other and ultimately led to the final collapse.

Walker said, “The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon.” He believed we were resting on the laurels of being the sole superpower, as our empire built on debt was slowly and methodically crumbling. He cited three reasons for the fall of the Roman Republic that resonated in 2007 regarding the American Empire (formerly a republic):

• There has been a decline in moral values and political civility at home. Examples include the devaluation of life, greater self-centerdness by individuals and increased partisanship and ideological divides in Congress.

• We now have an overextended military around the world. While the US military is unmatched as to its capabilities, it is under stress and stretched very thin.

• There is fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. Our debt ratios are set to increase dramatically when the baby boomers retire.

It’s almost humorous Walker was issuing these dire warnings when the 2007 annual deficit was $160 billion. At our current rate of debt accumulation, it takes only one month to reach $160 billion. In 2020 and 2021 it only took 20 days to accumulate $160 billion. The national debt in 2007 was $9 trillion, up from $5.6 trillion in 2000. Today it stands at $31.8 trillion. Interest on the national debt will approach $900 billion this year, exceeding defense spending.

Walker warned about our debt ratios skyrocketing when the baby boomers retired. Well, the debt to GDP ratio has doubled from 62% in 2007 to 124% today, and most boomers can’t even afford to retire. U.S. unfunded liabilities total $188 trillion. Personal debts total $25 trillion, with $1.8 trillion of student loan debt and $1.3 trillion of credit card debt. The fiscal irresponsibility of our government and its citizens is breathtaking, unsustainable, and ultimately fatal to our empire. Walker may have been early, but he certainly was not wrong."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

"War Alert Sent To Millions; Russian Doomsday Planes Sent To Siberia; STRATCOM Targeted"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/31/23
"War Alert Sent To Millions; Russian Doomsday
 Planes Sent To Siberia; STRATCOM Targeted"
Comments here:
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Full screen recommended.
Douglas Macgregor, 5/31/23
 "Orlan Drones - Ukraine Should Not Strike Inside Russia"
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"Middle Class Families Can't Afford Homes Anymore As Mortgage Rates Hit Record Levels"

"Middle Class Families Can't Afford Homes 
Anymore As Mortgage Rates Hit Record Levels"
By Epic Economist

"90% of Americans say that owning a home is a key part of the American dream. But today, more than half of them believe they will never own their dream home, and about 70% of U.S. households can’t afford the average-priced home, especially when considering that mortgage rates have more than doubled since 2020. What’s even more alarming is that homeownership rates amongst middle-class families are rapidly shrinking. Month after month, more and more middle-income Americans are being priced out of the market entirely, and that is having a huge impact on their ability to build equity, save money, and actually have a middle-class lifestyle. Never before in history, middle-class families have been so close to financial insecurity and poverty. And the ongoing housing crisis has everything to do with it.

In the past decade, mortgage payments on homes sold at the median price in the United States have tripled. Over the past three years alone, mortgage rates shoot up by 131%, going from 3.15% in May 2020 to 7.29% in May 2023. It is safe to say that the growth of median salaries hasn’t approached that pace. There is a nationwide shortage of homes for sale right now, and those listed on the market are reaching record highs. No wonder why increasingly more middle-class Americans are finding themselves completely priced out of the housing market.

In fact, the National Association of Home Builders reports that the average new home price is $436,800 in 2023. That's a 32% increase from 2020 when that average was at $329,000. Moreover, at least 500 cities in the U.S. now have an average home price of $1 million. Over that same time span, middle-income earners have seen their salaries rise by 5.1%, U.S. Labor Department data shows. Adding the highest mortgage rates in two decades to the picture, the conditions look even grimmer for would-be buyers this year.

NAHB’s priced-out index estimates that for every 0.5% increase in mortgage rates, 1.3 million households are pushed out of the market. This means that since the third quarter of 2022, an additional 5.2 million families became unable to purchase a new median-priced home. To be fair, more than 70% of Americans don’t earn enough to buy a new home in 2023, according to NAHB’s housing affordability Pyramid. Their calculations revealed that out of 132.5 million American households, 96.5 million of them aren’t able to afford a $430,000 median home.

The combination of the current lack of affordability and weak wage growth, is putting middle-income earners in great danger. A separate report by Primerica reveals that Nearly three-quarters, or 72%, of middle-income families, say their earnings are falling behind the cost of living, up from 68% a year ago, making it harder to live the same

Almost 60% of middle-income Americans said it is very or somewhat unlikely that today’s young adults will have a better life than their parents. And one of the biggest contributors to that decay in their living standards is the lack of access to affordable housing.

In other words, the middle class is literally being excluded from the American dream. If we can’t afford homes, how can we become financially independent? Younger generations are doomed to a future of economic uncertainty and declining quality of life all thanks to the asset bubbles created by reckless monetary policies, inflation, and now the highest mortgage rates in years. We’ve been warned that a great reckoning would come. Now it is clear that the countdown has begun."
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"American Will Struggle To Pay their Bills; Debt Ceiling Will Be Catastrophic To Middle Class"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/31/23
"American Will Struggle To Pay their Bills;
 Debt Ceiling Will Be Catastrophic To Middle Class"
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Musical Intelude: Peder B. Helland, "Sunny Mornings"

Full screen recommended.
 Soothing Relaxation,
"Sunny Mornings"
"I am a composer from Norway and I started this channel with a simple vision: to create a place that you can visit whenever you want to sit down and relax. I compose music that can be labeled as for example: sleep music, calm music, yoga music, study music, peaceful music, beautiful music and relaxing music. I love to compose music and I put a lot of work into it.

Thank you very much for listening and for leaving feedback. Every single day I am completely astonished by all your warm support and it really inspires me to work even harder on my music. If you enjoy my work, I would be very happy if you decided to subscribe and join our community. Have a wonderful day or evening!"
- Peder B. Helland, composer for Soothing Relaxation

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue vdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still life with dark, obscuring clouds recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are interstellar dust clouds, blocking the light from background stars in the case of Barnard's dark nebulae. For vdB 31, the dust preferentially reflects the bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae.
Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded by flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that distance this cosmic canvas would span about four light-years.”

"I Promise You This..."

"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am- a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
- Edward Abbey

Chet Raymo, “Singing Beside Me In The Wilderness”

“Singing Beside Me In The Wilderness”
by Chet Raymo

“In one of those infuriating lapses that go with being a certain age, we could not remember the other evening the name of the poet who wrote "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou..." After scraping the tip of my tongue for a few minutes, I turned to the computer (Google is my browser's home page) and by typing "jug thou" brought Omar Khayyam back into consciousness. (Another click and I could have had the entire Rubaiyat.) (Freely download the entire "Rubaiyat" at that link. - CP)

And so it is that the Googlized internet arrives just in time to compensate for our withering brain cells. Everything I ever remembered is there to be Googled, plus everything I never remembered. Ten billions pages. The searchable memory of the human race. With more yet to come.

My great-great-grandchildren will no doubt have tiny video cameras implanted in the middle of their foreheads, like Hindu beauty marks, recording everything that passes before their eyes 24-7, with a sound track too. All of which will be stored digitally, ready for instant playback, and searchable by date, time, GPS coordinates, or keywords- the whole of a life, not only available to the subjects themselves in their memory-lapsed dotage, but to future generations. "Here's great-great-grandpa on his ninety-first birthday, back in 2027. Look how he dribbles soup on his shirt. Ha, ha."

I think nature knew what it was doing when it allows our memory to fade with age. It is particularly notable that the more unpleasant memories go first, so that every summer past was golden with sunshine, and every child was a model of respectful propriety. And no one, not even grandpa himself, remembers the time he... “

"In These Downbeat Times..."

"In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot live in the twenty-first century at each other s throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation - and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so."
- Cornel West

"Economic Death Spiral, Be Ready Because The Worst Is Yet To Come!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/31/23
"Economic Death Spiral, 
Be Ready Because The Worst Is Yet To Come!"
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The Daily "Near You?"

             
 
Pearland, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

'Every Human Decision..."

"Except for totally impulsive or psychotic behavior, every human
decision comes down to the choice between two alternatives."

- Jeff Duntemann