"And Down We Go..."

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 6/8/23

"And Down We Go..."

"New York City is suffering with a tremendous amount of smoke from the Canadian wildfires. What is worse is what they are giving away for free. Business is suffering globally. Interest rates are on the rise from around the world."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/8/23"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/8/23

"It's Over... Recession/Depression Will Sweep 

The Globe As Central Banks Consolidate Power"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Crazy High Prices At CVS! This Is Unaffordable! What Now?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 6/8/23

"Crazy High Prices At CVS! 

This Is Unaffordable! What Now?"

"In today's vlog, we are at C.V.S. looking at some different grocery prices. As some foods are getting too expensive at our main supermarkets we are seeking out other options!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Emergency! NATO Troops To Ukraine; Nuclear Strike On Russia's Border"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper 6/7/23

"Emergency! NATO Troops To Ukraine; Nuclear Strike 

On Russia's Border; Wildfire Toxic Plume In Next 24 Hours"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times 6/8/23

"Russia Smashed German Radar Station In One Shot

 Amid Intense Fight In The Woods With Ukrainians"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls 6/8/23

"Disastrous Attacks Into Russian Defenses"

"Ukraine news today and in-depth discussion of

 current geopolitical events in the United States of America."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Banks Are Handing Out Credit Cards Like Candy; Mortgage Demand Falls"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/7/23

"Banks Are Handing Out Credit Cards Like Candy;

 Mortgage Demand Falls"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"20 Needed Foods That Will Double In Price This Summer!"

Full screen recommended.

Red Pilled TV, 6/7/23

"20 Needed Foods That Will 

Double In Price This Summer!"

"Clayton Morris joins us to discuss the U.S. economy in this breaking news update. Grocery prices have become a huge source of anxiety for many American families these days. We're clearly seeing that the current rate of price increases is reaching far higher levels than the official rate of food inflation suggests. While government officials tell us that we're paying around 15% more on groceries, some staple products have faced spikes of over 100% this year. And farmers, food makers and retailers are all warning us that a wide range of grocery products are about to get even more expensive in 2023. As it turns out, the surge in consumer prices wasn't transitory after all. And a series of events that continue to impact our food supply chains throughout the entire year are making the outlook for the next few months even more disturbing than it already is right now. We firmly believe that the best way of preparing to cope with these wild price swings is to get ahead of the hikes before they begin to ripple through the system."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Truckers Warn About Disastrous Freight Market Collapse As Rates Face Massive Drop"

Full screen recommended.

"Truckers Warn About Disastrous Freight 

Market Collapse As Rates Face Massive Drop"

by Epic Economist

"US truckers and trucking companies are warning we're in the middle of a freight recession worse than the 2008 crisis. As retail sales drop, and both manufacturing and import activity continue to slow down due to lower consumer demand in 2023, the road transportation industry is seeing orders being cut in half, leading to falling cargo volumes all across the country. The collapse was the word used by one industry CEO to define what just happened to freight rates, and that is putting several trucking companies at serious risk of bankruptcy. But according to Western States Trucking Association, the ongoing downturn in the freight market is only a sign something far more distressing is about to break out in America.

When the health crisis locked people at home and Americans started to order more goods online, the freight market boomed, and rates shot up by up to 500% in some areas. But things have started to cool off in 2022, and since then, per-mile rates have been plunging at the fastest pace on record. By November, prices were already nearing pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, higher maintenance prices, as well as an increase in the cost of capital, and other difficulties in operating have resulted in a brutal mix for a notoriously cyclical industry — one that has the potential to be worse than famous trucking downturns experienced in 2019 and in 2008-09.

Today, instead of a shortage, the freight market is flooded with thousands of small-scale owner-operators and carriers of all sizes. But the threat of a deep recession is now reducing demand for goods, and as a result, cargo volumes are plunging all over the US. On top of that, data provided by Freight Waves shows that the per-mile rate fell to $1.49. At the peak of the boom in 2021, drivers were pulling in as much as $3.01 per mile. This means that freight rates declined by 52% so far, and could go even lower in the months ahead.

This means that there is far less money to be made in the sector. For those who made high investments to be able to enter the industry and profit from the boom, this may be just the beginning of a financial disaster. Since December, thousands of small carriers have revoked their operating authority, and bankruptcies started to arise in the truckload industry.

To make things worse, a recent CNBC supply chain survey that analyzed inventories and warehouse space tracked a decrease in truck movements in and out of the warehouse, revealed that ocean freight orders are down 50% year over year and that will keep impacting both rail and road Transportation in the short and long run, with trucking executives calling it “freight recession.”This along with a 40% decrease in manufacturing orders, are very bad news for the freight market.

The economic recession that is now upon us is going to shake entire industries to the core, millions of layoffs are expected, and economic and financial uncertainty will only grow worse. The crisis that is now unfolding before us will be unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, and the freight market meltdown is just one of the multiple indicators that something is terribly wrong in our system and that the dominoes have already started to fall."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This rock structure is not only surreal - it's real. The reason it's not more famous is that it is, perhaps, smaller than one might guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few meters. Even so, the King of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating example of an unusual type of rock structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer rock. 

Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting for a suitably picturesque night behind a sky with few clouds, the foreground had to be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the background. After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the horizontal bar, the background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching overhead.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170328.html

Chet Raymo, “A Few Words Inspired By The Tomato Plant”

“A Few Words Inspired By The Tomato Plant”

by Chet Raymo

"Mostly we think of life in terms of individuals - this person, this tomato plant, this frog, this oak tree, this gnat. And we talk about birth and death as the beginning and ending of life. But there is another sense in which life is just one thing, whose beginning is lost in the depths of time and whose end is not in sight. Life in this sense embodies itself in matter, temporarily, as a tomato or a frog, puts on matter and puts off matter as we might don or doff clothes. By this account, I am an ephemeral conglomeration of atoms that life is using to perpetuate itself.

But what is this thing called life? It cannot exist except as embodied form, but it maintains a continuity independent of any particular embodiment. It is a strange enduring wave that stirs the material world into purposeful and directed avenues. With Johannes Kepler we might call it the facultas formatrix of nature, the formative faculty, but giving something a name doesn't explain it. Whatever life is - in the unitary, enduring sense - it would be surprising if it only existed here on Earth. If I were a betting man I would bet that life is as pervasive as matter itself, or energy. Matter, energy and complexification. We have lots left to learn.

But let's be cautious. There are lots of folks out there with half-baked biocentric theories of the universe. Someone once chided the philosopher W. V. O. Quine with a quote from Shakespeare: “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” To which Quine is said to have responded: “Possibly, but my concern is that there not be more things in my philosophy than are in heaven and earth.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: Walt Whitman, "Miracles"

"Miracles"

"Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge

of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with anyone I love, or sleep in the bed

at night with anyone I love,

Or sit at the table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honeybees busy around the hive

of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining

so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon

in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread

with the same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swim- the rocks- the motion of the waves

- the ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?"

- Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass"

"The Illusion Of The Tiny Shadows..."

“In 'The Republic', Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain. Blinded by the glare, he is unable to seeing anything and longs for the familiar darkness. But eventually his eyes adjust to the light. The illusion of the tiny shadows is obliterated. He confronts the immensity, chaos, and confusion of reality. The world is no longer drawn in simple silhouettes. But he is despised when he returns to the cave. He is unable to see in the dark as he used to. Those who never left the cave ridicule him and swear never to go into the light lest they be blinded as well.”

- Chris Hedges

o

”To attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood;

It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing the Darkness.

It cannot be.”

- Frank Herbert

"Oh Yeah..."

"When life hands you a lemon, say

"Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

- Henry Rollins

The Daily "Near You?"

Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What Do You Call This?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 6/7/23

"What Do You Call This?"

"So much is happening around the world. As we enter vacation season, we are seeing that now. Hotels are having major financial troubles. Where will it go from here? What do you call this Recession?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Spatially Regarded"

"Spatially Regarded"

Apple's latest costly gizmo, mixed reality checks

 and the whacky world of meta finance...

by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

Youghal, Ireland - "This week, we have another big player on the field of dreams. The most celebrated home run hitter of all time has stepped up to the plate. Apple has been warming up in the tech bullpen for years. And on Monday, it got its turn at bat, unveiling what is supposed to be the Next Big Thing in the tech world. Spatial computing.

What’s that? We have no idea. But it looks like what Facebook was trying to do with its META rebranding. You put on the headset and you have 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones working for you. What do all those gadgets do? We don’t know that either, but we suspect they are going to waste a lot of time for a lot of people. Business Insider:

"There's one product which has been making all the headlines from Apple's WWDC on Monday. The Vision Pro headset marks the tech giant's foray into the metaverse — although the company stayed clear of using that branding. But on TikTok and Twitter, everyone's been laughing about the audience's reaction to the Vision Pro's eye-watering price tag.

Show Me the Money! The laughter came after Apple told its audience that it would offer its new gizmo for $3,499, or with add-ons, about 10% of an average person’s income. “Who’s going to buy them?” wonders colleague, Dan Denning. “With what money?”

The advertising tells us that this device will ‘take you into a different dimension…a different world’ with a ‘mixed reality.’ The message is lost on us. The 3 dimensions we have already seem completely adequate…and our real world, such as it is, is spooky enough.

The fans pushed shares in Apple’s stock to a new high after the announcement. Up 38% this year, the company now has a market cap of $2.85 trillion. That’s 27x forward earnings and more than 7 times sales.

“Mixed reality” is what we live with in the financial world. Apple is a fantastic company. It is real. It makes real products. It earns real profits. But ‘mixed’ with the reality of it is a substantial amount of fairy dust. Is a company that makes electronic devices really worth more than all US automakers…and its entire construction industry – put together? Is it really worth one tenth of US GDP?

We doubt it. Apple’s stock in trade is popular technology. But the fashions of the tech world change, and there is little likelihood that Apple will be able to stay on top of them. The newest technology always gets replaced by even newer technology. And while the future is always full of surprises, they are rarely happy ones for investors who buy a mature tech company at 27 times its future earnings. Things go right; things go wrong. But when you’ve bet heavily on an aging player, whose fame and fortune could scarcely improve, the risk of a strike-out is high.

Mind the Gap: Yesterday, we were exploring the gap between reality …and hope, dreams…and the future conditional (subjunctive mood) tense. We guessed that between the two, for the 21st century alone, is a gap of $160 trillion minus $25 trillion…or about $135 trillion. That’s the amount – grosso modo – that asset prices worldwide would have to fall in order to get back into sync with the real economy of goods and services.

This calculation is a very rough guess…not even using the back of an envelope. It is just meant to show that there is a large reckoning ahead. Water seeks its own level…and, one way or another, sooner or later, somehow, asset prices and real output have to get back into whack. How, why, when…to be determined.

Nvidia has provided us with an illustration. Either the company is going to sell so many more chips (about 40 times as many) that it is actually worth today’s price. Or, today’s price will have to come down. The shares might someday be worth $391. Or, they might not.

Space to Let: And that is true of the entire capital structure – stocks, bonds, property. Either it gained $160 trillion in real value over the last 23 years. Or, that number is just a feint…a fraud foisted on us by money-printing central banks worldwide. And how about those $32 trillion in US bonds? How much are they really worth? How much will they be worth if the Fed continues to raise rates…or allows interest rates to go up on their own? How much will they be worth if it doesn’t?

Have you been to San Francisco lately? A quarter to a third of the office space is vacant. Even in those buildings with active tenants, only a third to a half of workers show up. The owners often used cheap short-term credit to buy their buildings, counting on rents to pay their mortgages. Now, they have to refinance at higher rates…with less rental income. How much are those buildings worth now?

How much is Apple worth? Nvidia? The entire edifice of jumped up capital prices? We don’t know. But we’re all going to find out."

Joel’s Note: "Speaking of commercial real estate, here comes the proverbial “other shoe to drop.” From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal…"Interest-only loans as a share of new commercial mortgage-backed securities issuance increased to 88% in 2021, up from 51% in 2013, according to Trepp. Nearly $1.5 trillion in commercial mortgages are coming due over the next three years.

Fitch Ratings recently estimated that 35% of pooled securitized commercial mortgages coming due between April and December 2023 won’t be able to refinance based on current interest rates and the properties’ incomes and values. While many malls and hotels face high default risks, the situation is particularly dire for office owners. Mark Edelstein, chair of law firm Morrison Foerster’s global real-estate group, said he is seeing more lenders take over office buildings than at any point since the early 1990s.

Such are the constraints of the merely three-dimensional world, dear reader. Debts mount. Loans come due. And a reckoning must be had. According to Xiaojing Li, managing director at data company CoStar’s risk analytics team, as much as 83% of outstanding securitized office loans won’t be able to refinance if interest rates stay at current levels. And if they go higher? Look out below!"

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

o

$3,499 for a virtual reality headset? 

That's insane. I suggest you consider Second Life.

"Expect the Unexpected"

"It's free. Second Life is the largest user-created virtual world on the internet. With thousands of virtual experiences and communities, you'll never run out of places to explore and people to meet. Music clubs, roleplaying communities, virtual cinemas and more. Second Life is always wonderful, sometimes weird, and 100% wow-worthy. Explore. Discover. Create. A new world is waiting..."

- https://secondlife.com/

I've been in SL every day for 12 years now...

- CP

“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”

“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”

by Simon Black

"The morning of June 28, 1914 began like any other normal day. It was a Sunday, so a lot of people went to church. Others prepared large meals for family gatherings, played with their children, or thumbed through the Sunday papers.

At that point, tensions had been high in Europe for several years; the continent was bitterly divided by a series of complex diplomatic and military alliances, and small wars had recently broken out. Italy and the Ottoman Empire went to war in 1912 in a limited, 13-month conflict. And the First Balkan War was waged in early 1913. Overall, though, the continent clung to a delicate peace. And hardly anyone expected that most of the next three decades would be filled with chaos, poverty, and destruction. And then it happened.

That Sunday afternoon, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated during an official visit to Sarajevo. And the world changed forever. Five weeks later the entire continent was at war with itself. But even still, most of the ‘experts’ thought it would be a simple, speedy conflict. Germany’s emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, famously told his troops who were being shipped off to the front line in August 1914, “You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees...” It took four years and an estimated 68 million casualties to bring the war to a close. But that was only the prelude.

Following (and even during) World War I, a series of bloody revolutionary movements took hold in Europe, including in Russia, Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ireland. Then came the Spanish flu, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. Later, Germany sunk into one of the worst episodes of hyperinflation in human history.

Communism began rapidly spreading across the world almost as quickly as the Spanish flu, often through violent fanatics who engaged in murder and arson in order to intimidate their opponents; this became known as the ‘Red Scare’ in the United States.

Of course there were some good years during the 1920s when people generally felt prosperous and happy; but it all came crashing down at the end of the decade when a severe economic depression strangled the entire world. It lasted for more than ten years, during which time the world was once again brought to an even more destructive war that didn’t end until atomic weapons obliterated the civilian populations of two Japanese cities.

Again – go back to June 1914. Who would have thought that the next 30+ years would play out so destructively? Even for the people who did predict that Europe would go to war in 1914, most leaders thought it would be over quickly. And almost no one expected it would spawn decades of chaos.

Today we’re obviously living in different times and under different circumstances. But we may be standing at a similar precipice as in 1914, staring at enormous trends that could shape our lives for years to come. Covid only scratched the surface.

We now know without a doubt, for example, how governments will respond the next time they feel there’s a threat to public health. They’ll say, “We’re listening to the scientists.” Really? The same scientists who tell people they can’t go to work, school, or church, but it’s perfectly fine for peaceful protesters to pack together like sardines without wearing masks because they’re apparently protected from the virus by their own righteousness? The same scientists who want to lock everyone down to prevent Covid, but are happy to accept skyrocketing rates of cancer, depression, suicide, heart disease, and domestic abuse as a result of those very lockdowns…?

The public health consequences from this pandemic will reverberate for years to come. And that doesn’t even begin to take the economic consequences into consideration. Western governments have taken on trillions of dollars in new debt this year and central banks have printed trillions more. Even with all that stimulus, however, there are still hundreds of millions of people worldwide who lost their jobs, and countless businesses that have closed.

Future generations who haven’t even been born yet will spend their entire working lives paying interest on the debts that are being accumulated today. The long-term consequences of all this are incalculable.

And then there are the social trends – the rise of neo-Marxism that’s sweeping the world so fast. It’s the Red Scare of the 21st century. They despise talented, successful people. They believe it’s greedy for you to keep a healthy portion of what you earn…but it’s not greedy for them to take it from you and spend it on themselves.

Many of the people in this movement, of course, are violent fanatics who routinely engage in arson, assault, and vandalism. Same for the social justice warriors who are just as quick to violence and intimidation; plus they’ve already commandeered the decision-making of some of the largest, most powerful companies in the world. You can’t even watch a football game or a TV commercial anymore without some commentary on oppression and victimization. And any intellectual dissent is met with intimidation…or censorship.

In fact the largest consumer technology companies in the world have become our censors. We’re not allowed to share scientific information that doesn’t conform to the Chinese-controlled World Health Organization’s guidance. And news articles that don’t match their ideology are blocked.

Let’s not kid ourselves – these trends are not going away any time soon. It’s great to be optimistic, hope for the best, and enjoy the good years as they come. But it makes sense to at least be prepared for the possibility that we could be at the very beginning of a period of enormous instability that may last a very long time."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The Quick Guide to World War 1"

And we never learn anything at all, do we? Just have to do it...

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Bioweapon/Vax Beginning of Transhumanism"

"CV19 Bioweapon/Vax Beginning of Transhumanism"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Karen Kingston is a biotech analyst and former Pfizer employee who understands complicated medical and biological contracts. Kingston warns the mRNA technology in the CV19 bioweapon injections is just the beginning of forcing a transhuman agenda onto an unsuspecting public. If the technology (which is also called a “synthetic pathogen”) in the CV19 bioweapon/vax is not stopped, there would be “no flesh would be saved” as Jesus warned more than 2,000 years ago. 

In a new Substack post, Kingston contends mRNA technology is a weapon of mass destruction and explains, “When I put that headline up that mRNA technologies, Neuralink or Neural Lace, which is the injectable form of Neuralink, are both weapons of mass destruction and transhumanism, this is to do non-human genetic editing to the human genome as well as to integrate bio-digital technology with humans. Those are not my words. Those are Dr. Robert Malone’s words during a Glenn Beck interview. This is where he said mRNA technologies are a suite of technologies for the purposes of transhumanism. The reason why I say these are weapons of mass destruction is James Clapper, who is a former Lt. General with the U.S. Airforce and served in the intelligence community under President Clinton, stated that the gene editing mRNA technology are weapons of mass destruction. Because once you make permanent changes to a species genome, that’s to the extinction of that species. It doesn’t matter if it is plants, animals or human beings themselves.”

Kingston goes on to say, “What we are breaking today is Covid 19 and the Covid 19 injections have a lot of neurological harmful effects. That’s because they are neural weapons as well. That’s the breaking news here. These CV19 injections include the Neural Lace technology.  .Even Covid itself was a nanotechnology attack. It was not a virus. It is this lipid nanoparticulate matter. With Covid, people lost their sense of taste and smell. That is a nervous system attack. So, that would have to be a neuroweapon attack. People also have brain fog and fatigue. These are neurological symptoms of being attacked with a neural weapon. So, not only are the CV19 injections bioweapons, chemical weapons and technology weapons, they are also neural weapons. This is complete experimentation on civilians without informed consent, and what the technologies are and potential outcomes of those technologies is by definition biowarfare. It’s in violation of the Geneva Convention. It’s in violation of the bioweapons convention. It’s in violation of the international code for military justice. It’s in violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments. Pfizer, Moderna and the other manufacturers are very guilty of unleashing weapons of mass destruction on global civilians.”

Kingston also talks about mRNA technology referred to as synthetic biology that dark powers want to put in your food, water and even the air you breathe. Kingston will tell you how to stay clear of this destructive technology, and how to fight it too by taking things like Ivermectin. Kingston also discusses the need for a mass wakeup to the transhuman agenda using synthetic biology and mRNA. Kingston thinks if enough people can wake up and understand what is happening, this is the best way to bring it to a stop.

In closing, Kingston says, “This is really important for people to understand and that is synthetic biology is changing the entire landscape of our world. When they hijack the photosynthesis process of plants, and that is what they are doing, instead of producing oxygen and glucose, the plant is producing these new proteins which are weaponized. We will decrease the oxygen levels of all current biological lifeforms. So, it’s destroying the environment. This is directed evolution and transhumanism. It’s not just a war against humanity, it’s a war against all of God’s creation and all biological lifeforms.”

Maybe this is why Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” There is much more in the 1-hour and 5-minute interview."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Comments here:

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with renowned biotech analyst Karen Kingston as she gives an update on the bioweapon mRNA injections and why this “synthetic biology” needs to be stopped. 

- https://rumble.com/

"How It Really Is"

Yeah, Joe, the right track straight to Hell...

"That's why they call it the American Dream.

Because you have to be asleep to believe it."

- George Carlin

"This Is Really Starting To Look A Lot Like Ancient Rome"

"This Is Really Starting To Look A Lot Like Ancient Rome"

by Simon Black

"In the late summer of 408 AD, a barbarian army under the command of Alaric, king of the Visigoths, set out on a leisurely march across the Italian countryside towards the city of Rome…so that he could burn it to the ground. Alaric had been promised money by the Roman government in exchange for a military alliance between Rome and the Visigoths; but just before the money was supposed to have been paid, the Romans canceled the deal. Talk about a bonehead move.

Alaric was a decorated warrior at the head of a powerful army. And the Western Roman Empire, by comparison, was barely even functional anymore. The government was bankrupt, the currency was a joke, the economy was in the dumps, the military was weak, the borders were nonexistent…and there was no sense of unity in Roman society.

So it clearly made no sense to turn Alaric into an enemy. But then again, the emperor in the west was a weak, incompetent stooge named Honorius, whose legacy is so horrendous that he consistently ranks among the worst emperors in Roman history. And there’s some pretty stiff competition on that list. Alaric, to his credit, actually tried to avoid conflict with the Romans and work out a resolution. But Honorius refused to negotiate…so Alaric gathered his troops and marched towards Rome.

Now, at that point in history, the city of Rome itself wasn’t even the capital of the western empire anymore; it had been moved to Milan, and then to Ravenna. But Rome was still among the largest and most prominent cities in the world, even in the early fifth century. And Alaric knew that sacking it would send shockwaves across the empire.

Alaric and his barbarian army were practically unopposed on their way to Rome; according to the ancient historian Zosimus, in fact, their march was so leisurely it was as if they were “at some festival” rather than heading to war. They arrived in the fall of 408 AD and encircled the city, cutting it off from any resupply…meaning it would only be a matter of time before residents all starved to death and the Visigoths plundered the city.

The destruction of Rome was an unthinkable cataclysm. And so, with the barbarians literally at the gates, Honorius finally agreed to negotiate a deal. And it was a costly one - many times more expensive than their original agreement. That should have been the end of the story… and yet Honorius found a way to screw it all up again.

Early the following year in 409 AD, Honorius tried to double-cross Alaric by sending troops to ambush the Visigoths. The attack failed, and Alaric was infuriated by this violation of their treaty. Again, to his credit, Alaric tried negotiate a peaceful solution, and he asked for lands, titles, and tribute as compensation. But Honorius-- who at that point was a highly experienced diplomat-- instead sent an insulting letter back to Alaric. Talks quickly broke down, and Alaric turned back towards Rome in late 409.

Once again - and only after the barbarians were at the gate -  the government finally agreed to Alaric’s demands… and the destruction of Rome was narrowly avoided for a second time. Yet then Honorius managed to screw it up for the third time in a row. The following year, in 410 AD, Alaric and Honorius were set to meet near the capital city of Ravenna to discuss peace and cooperation. But Alaric and his men were ambushed just prior to the meeting by Roman troops. He survived. And, completely fed up with Honorius, Alaric took his troops back to Rome for the third (and final) time in two years.

The Visigoths entered the city on August 24, 410 AD through Rome’s Salarian Gate, about 3 kilometers north of the Colosseum. Alaric and his men spent three full days sacking the city. Almost everything of value was stolen or destroyed. Cultural treasures were defaced, monuments were ripped down, buildings were burned to the ground, and the city’s residents were killed or enslaved.

It was difficult to not think of this story when news broke about the debt ceiling ‘resolution’ late last week, because the two situations share many parallels. The sack of Rome in 410 AD was a crisis of their own making. Decades of terrible strategic and financial decisions had reduced Rome to a shell of its former greatness, weakening the western empire considerably. Their enemies noticed.

The United States is in a similar position; decades of terrible decisions have led to a $31+ trillion national debt that grows by leaps and bounds every single year. Through its completely irresponsible addiction to spending, the government has weakened the country considerably… and America’s adversaries have noticed.

In the early 400s, Rome was led by a complete buffoon who, despite all of his years in government service, engineered a crisis by refusing to negotiate or to take an obvious risk seriously…only to ultimately cave and narrowly avoid an earth-shattering catastrophe.

This is a clear similarity to the debt ceiling fiasco that we saw play out over the last few months. The risk was obvious…and yet the guy who shakes hands with thin air refused to negotiate until the last minute, just barely averting disaster. Waiting until the last minute to just barely avoid a major catastrophe is not a viable problem solving strategy. Neither is kicking the can down the road.

Yet every few years the debt ceiling becomes a major crisis. They consistently wait until the last minute, hastily negotiate a short-term patch, and kick the can down the road for another few years while they take the country even deeper into debt, until the whole cycle begins anew.

The Romans tried to do the same thing with the Visigoths: negotiate a terrible, last minute solution. Make the problem worse. Repeat. This approach didn’t work in the early 400s, and it won’t work today. As the sack of Rome demonstrated, when you’re constantly taking things to the brink of disaster, eventually someone is going to go too far.

A worldwide financial meltdown triggered by the United States defaulting on its debt was very narrowly avoided. This time. Who’s to say that when this comes up again in 2025 that some idiot politician won’t take things too far? The really ridiculous thing about the debt ceiling crisis was that it shows the inability of the US government to negotiate responsibly…with itself! This was literally a case of American politicians trying to resolve their differences with other American politicians. How is this going to work out when the people on the other side of the table aren’t from another US political party…but from the Chinese Communist Party?

It’s worth thinking about given how the specter of conflict continues rising; just over the weekend, a Chinese naval vessel intentionally maneuvered to within 150 meters of US and Canadian ships in the Taiwan Strait. And this was just one of many obvious escalations in recent months.

The last point worth mentioning is that the sack of Rome illustrates how dangerous complacency can be. When Alaric showed up in 408 AD for the first time, the city’s destruction was avoided. When he showed up the second time in 409 AD, the city’s destruction was avoided again. So you can probably imagine that when Alaric and his barbarian army were on the way to Rome for the third time in 410 AD, the city’s residents probably felt confident that their leaders would once again figure out a last minute solution. That misplaced confidence in their incompetent leaders cost Romans dearly."

- https://www.sovereignman.com/

"Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/7/23"

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

Your guide:

Full screen recommended.

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/7/23

The US Economic Freefall Accelerates As 

The Trade Deficit Hyper-Balloons"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Stocking Up At Sam's Club! Get Prepared! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno,6/7/23

"Stocking Up At Sam's Club! Get Prepared! What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog, we are prepping our pantry with everything we buy from Sam's Club! Times are getting tough as we face more price increases on food and other items. We take you with us as we show some long shelf life options, as well as explain ways to save money."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 6/7/23

"Russian (Owned) Typical Supermarket Tour: Magnit"

"What does the inside of a Russian typical supermarket look like? Together we will find out in this tour of a Russian (Owned) typical supermarket tour. What items do they stock, what are prices like? How busy is it in Magnit supermarket, a very typicall supermarket in regional Russia?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

And how's your life going, Good Citizen? Yeah...

"New Info About WW3; Dam Plan Reveals Major Escalation In Coming Weeks"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/6/23

"New Info About WW3; 

Dam Plan Reveals Major Escalation In Coming Weeks"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Cargo Ship Crisis Is Back; Time To Pay The Piper; Banks Will Take Catastrophic Losses"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/6/23

"The Cargo Ship Crisis Is Back; Time To Pay The Piper; 

Banks Will Take Catastrophic Losses"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Target Is Being Financially Eviscerated Right Now As Major Retail Business Starts To Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

"Target Is Being Financially Eviscerated Right 

Now As Major Retail Business Starts To Collapse"

By Epic Economist

"Target has lost over $10 billion in just 10 days. The retailer is being financially eviscerated right now as investors sell off its shares, consumers reject its products, and executives fear the added financial problems will be translated into more store shutdowns, price hikes, and lower profits over the next few quarters. The company is in real danger, experts say. And that means Target may be the next one to fall during the Great Retail Collapse.

The decline of Target may happen sooner than everyone could have imagined. Since the start of the month, the retail titan is being absolutely hammered on the US stock market as investors go into full sell-off mode, wiping out $14 billion of the company’s market value. It all started after the company reported sluggish sales growth, disappointing forecasts for earnings for the rest of the year, and more recently, a controversial product release that sparked outrage amongst some shoppers.

The debate over its new Pride collection became extremely heated on social media in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would remove some of its controversial items as a result of threats made to its staff in stores. David Evans, the Chief Insights Officer for Collage Group, a consumer research firm, believes that Target failed to access the problem promptly and it became way too big to ignore. “They probably did lose control of the narrative,” he said.

But although Target’s recent stock collapse seemed a direct result of the Pride collection drama, and this probably has weighed into it, analysts don’t think a consumer boycott is the main reason the retailer is falling apart. Things have been ugly for Target for quite some time now. The big-box chain was already facing a painful downturn since 2022, and conditions have only gotten worse as Americans continued to cut back on non-essential spending amidst a weakening broader economy, according to CNBC.

Meanwhile, CEO Brian Cornell says the company is aware of the challenges consumers are facing this year and how this will impact sales growth, profits, and its financial health. He stressed that the retail chain was focused on managing the financial impact of all this so it can continue to keep its stores open. During a number of interviews, Cornell said he does not want to close more stores in 2023, but data exposed during a conference call with the media shows that the big-box chain is also expected to lose over $1 billion in profits by the end of the year.

No wonder why, the retail giant is flashing a consumer recession warning. “We continue to face elevated volatility and see a reprioritization of spending away from discretionary categories in the face of persistent inflation in groceries and essentials,” Target chief growth officer Christina Hennington said on a call with analysts. By now, the overwhelming majority of businesses in the United States for bracing for increased uncertainty and a prolonged economic recession. A recent survey conducted by the EY CEO Outlook Pulse revealed that the vast majority of US business CEOs, or a whopping 98%, are now preparing for an economic downturn characterized by geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruption, and financial insecurity. The current state of the US economy should be a major red flag for companies that, just like Target, have been in trouble for several quarters in a row. One single black swan event could rapidly push them over the edge, and into oblivion."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Kevin Kern, "Another Realm"

 

Kevin Kern, "Another Realm"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.

The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”

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

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/6/23"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/6/23

"Dam Destroyed, What is the Russian Strategy? 

Col. Doug Macgregor"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Point Of No Return..."

”There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”

- Graham Greene

○

“When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of no 

return when you no longer have enough breath to double back. 

Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown…and pray for an exit.”

- Dan Brown

"Pandora’s Ballot Box"

"Pandora’s Ballot Box"

By The ZMan

"According to Merriam-Webster, hope is a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. You want something to happen. You have little or no reason to think it will happen, yet you sense that it is going to happen. Hope and faith are traveling partners, in that hope is often the result of trusting a system or person. The system has worked in the past, so despite evidence that it is not going to work this time, you hope that it carries through again.

Hope and faith are the cornerstones of elections. In the best of times, people are left to hope that the guy who wins will do a decent job. Even when it is obvious that the winner will be a dud, maybe even crazy, people have faith in the system to carry us through the ineptitude of the office holders. Popular government requires people to believe that all of us are smarter than most of us. Every couple of years people hope this is true as they cast their ballots for people they barely know.

What we have seen over the last thirty years is that some people, the people we call the Left, have increasingly lost faith in the system. Their reason for voting is not the hope that it will continue on, but that this time it finally fails. Barack Obama was the turning point with his constant talk about hope and change. The whole point of his presidency was to destroy the old system and replace it with a new one. He was the change they had been waiting for.

The looming presidential election is looking like a similar inflection point for the people we call the Right. In 2016, most of them voted for Trump, hoping he would be a message to the system. People voted for Trump as a rebuke, an often crudely humorous rebuke, of official Washington. These people still had faith in the system, so they hoped that Trump could deliver the message. The people were unhappy, and Washington needed to address their concerns.

This time, much of the support for Trump is like the hope and change business that Obama ran on in 2008. People saw what happened in the Trump years and they have been following the aftermath. They no longer have faith in the system. The system produced this corrupt ruling class. The thinking is that another Trump term will cause so much anger in official Washington that they will go berserk. Everyone else will then see that the system is hopelessly broken.

There is still some faith in the system. Lots of the MAGA hat wearing folks think this time will be different, but a good chunk of his support is cynical. This is why his support is so solid, despite the presence of Ron DeSantis. People know that in a normal country with a functioning political system, DeSantis would be the far better choice, but America is no longer a normal country. Prudent administration is not the answer to a demonic ruling class hellbent on pulling the roof down on us.

On the other hand, Ron DeSantis is the hope and faith option. His support is entirely from people who still have faith in the system. Here is the venerable Paul Gottfried coming out in support of DeSantis over Trump. Josh Hammer, a member of the common good conservative club, is also supporting DeSantis. Pedro Gonzalez sounds like Bill Kristol in coming out in favor of DeSantis. Three people from three different perspectives making the same argument.

These folks and the others supporting DeSantis think the system is mostly fine, but it needs the right guy to get the right result. They hope DeSantis is that guy, because after all, he “got things done” in Florida. For his supporters, Florida is a model for how things ought to run. DeSantis is therefore the model for how an executive pulls the right levers in the system in order to get the desired result. The fact that Florida is nothing like Washington plays no role in their thinking.

DeSantis is the last gasp of conservatism. Until the catastrophe of the Bush years, the subtext to conservatism was that it needed to be presented to the Left in just the right way so as not to upset them. Conservatism had to sneak up on lefty with a pleasant-sounding program presented by someone they liked or at least they could not plausibly claim was Hitler. For the DeSantis supporters, their guy is Trumpism without the crude orange man that makes the regime so angry.

Of course, their support rests on the assumption that the right man can get in there and pull the right levers to get the right result. It also assumes that the people in opposition will go along with this. The shadow of ignorance about the nature of the people in charge hangs over the DeSantis supporters. They are sure that the other side wants what they want and that they do not believe what they say. They just need a good talking to and they will stop the nonsense.

The hard reality is that the people who run the empire want what they want, and they will not be talked out of it by an election. The reason they recoiled like a startled snake when Trump came to town is because they feared him. He represented a threat to their preferred order, so they sunk their venomous fangs into his presidency. They will do the same thing to the next guy if he proves to be a threat. There is no way to clear out this nest of vipers at the ballot box.

In the 2016 election, Michael Anton famously penned the Flight 93 election essay that allowed many on the Right to throw in with Trump. The essay was an argument in favor of Trump as one last desperate attempt to save the system. The fact that the Trump presidency ended like the famous flight did not register with many people. Some of them are now throwing in with DeSantis for the same reason. It is one last desperate attempt to save the system, in which they still have faith.

According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from the gods, Zeus took vengeance by giving the lovely Pandora to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. She was left with a jar and told not to open it. Being a woman, this meant she could do nothing else but open it and out came all the evils that plague the world. She quickly put the lid back on, but the only thing remaining was what is often translated as hope, but which could also mean deceptive expectation.

In 2016 the Dirt People stole fire from the gods in that they defied their masters and supported Trump in the primary then the general election. Instead of sending a jar containing plagues, they sent another ballot box. In 2020 that box was opened and out came the secret police to carry Joe Biden to the White House. Despite it all, some still cling that that ballot box, hope trapped inside, thinking that maybe this time when they open the box, their hopes will be realized."

- https://thezman.com/

o

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”

- Inga Muscio

"Look At Where We're Headed"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 6/6/23

"Look At Where We're Headed"

"It’s getting gloomy out there. Here we are in early June and it looks like we are in the economic hurricane. Is this what Jamie Dimon warned us about? Today I’m with the CEO of Patriot Gold, Jack Handy."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Thanks for stopping by!