Monday, August 7, 2023

"This Emotion Drives the World"

"This Emotion Drives the World"
By Brian Maher

“The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” Here you have the sage conclusion of Mr. Charles Munger, aged 99 and one-half years. Mr. Munger is of course the business partner of Warren Buffett and legendary vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. This ancient draws his conclusion from many, many decades of penetrating and microscopic observation. Penetrating and microscopic observation, that is, of man in action. And he concludes that the world is not driven by greed - but by envy. Envy. What human vice ranks fourth among the seven lethalist sins? That is correct. The answer is envy - the acid emotion of envy.

“Hate the Man Who Is Better Off Than You Are”: “The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence,” argued economics journalist Henry Hazlitt long ago: “Hate the man who is better off than you are.” He continued: "Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence or stupidity."

The History Pages Are Filled With Envy: “Hate the man who is better off than you are…” History is a detailed diary of this very hatred. The French Revolution. Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. China’s Cultural Revolution. Perhaps even America’s unfolding cultural revolution of its own. We cite but some examples. They all set out to right wrongs. They mostly ended up wronging rights.

The right to life itself was often among them. How many lives has envy claimed throughout time? We cannot furnish a specific answer. Yet the answer runs to many, many, many millions - you can be certain of it.

Jealousy Isn’t Envy: Here let us distinguish jealousy from envy…The two are siblings - yet they are not twins. It is said a man is jealous of his betters. Yet look closer. The average man harbors no jealousy for the great man. The average man is not jealous of the Alexanders of this world. He is nor jealous of the Caesars of this world. He is not jealous of the Napoleons of this world. He may envy them… yet he is not jealous of them.

That is because the world’s Alexanders, Caesars and Napoleons are men stamped from a finer metal. The average man - inwardly - acknowledges this metal is not in him. The sparrow understands its place is not among the soaring eagles. Rather, the subject of the average man’s jealousy is his peer - the average man.

Jealousy: As we have argued before: The average man is not jealous of the champion golfer who once shot 60. He understands the feat is beyond him. But he is jealous - not envious that is, but jealous - of the fellow duffer in his weekend foursome who once broke 80. He is not jealous of the Hollywood movie actor who hauls in the unattainable beauty. He is jealous instead of his acquaintance who captured the pretty-enough gal he himself set his cap for - the 7.5 out of 10 gal.

Is the average man jealous of a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk with their billions and billions? He is not. He harbors little ambition to gather such fortunes as theirs. Again, he may envy them. Yet he is not jealous of them.

Of whom is he jealous? He is jealous of the other fellow who got the promotion over him — and the raise. The Sage of Baltimore - H.L. Mencken - once defined a wealthy man as “a fellow who earns $100 more than his wife’s sister’s husband.” Be assured, the wife’s sister… and her husband… feel that $100 sharply.

Envy Is Never Contented: Envy, jealousy, jealousy, envy - they perceive only what they lack. They do not perceive what they have. That is, envy gives a man a mighty itch. This itch he forever scratches. It is never soothed.

Today’s average fellow lives grandly and royally compared with actual royalty of yesteryear. Next to them he wallows in a sort of luxury scarcely conceived 100 years ago. Could old Louis XIV cool himself with air conditioning devices against the savage summer heat? He could not. Today’s average man can. Could Louis board a jet airplane that could deliver him half a world away within hours? He could not. Today’s average man can.Could the same Louis stare at a television screen as live images from even the most distant parts tickle and delight him? Again, he could not. And again, today’s average man can.

Yet the envious man of today does not rate himself against the royalty of yesterday. He rates himself against what he believes to be the royalty of today. And against this royalty he finds himself lacking.

The Never-ending Chase: A man’s eye is forever glued to the next rung of the ladder… to the prettier plum just out of reach… to the greener grass just opposite the fence. A poor man may aspire for the middle class. But once he finds himself lodged therein, discontentment soon bubbles within him. It is not enough. He lights out for the upper classes. If by grace he attains it, he at once takes notice of the floor above him. And he begins another merry chase up the ladder. There is always another.

Such is man. He focuses not on what he has… but on what he lacks. He is forever climbing ladders. Here we do not criticize him. It is this ceaseless striving that accounts for all material progress. A contented civilization does not erect skyscrapers, amass empires or rocket into space. Only a striving, discontented civilization erects skyscrapers, amasses empires or rockets into space. And only striving, discontented men get on in this world.

Envy Can Be Costly: We hazard envy can wreck a man’s wealth as easily it can wreck his soul. That is because envy is an emotion that rips the reasoning capacities from him. And men of emotion are the market’s dupes. Nearly every time they are taken by reasoning men.

Can envy poison your investments? Yes it can, argues Mr. Marcelo Perez of Alhambra Investments: "In a day and age where… keeping up with the Joneses (or the Kardashians, or the Windsors) is no longer a silent, Sisyphean struggle but a top-rated TV series or Netflix special, it is only natural for this poison to seep into the investing world…"

YouTube stars dole out “investment strategies” left and right, extolling the benefits of the newest and coolest moneymaking venture, as per views, of course. Message boards are full of posts containing stock and option trades that yielded percent returns in the hundreds and thousands, over the course of no more [than a] few days. Virtually riskless, they say…

And even if we are skeptical, we become befuddled with amazement, consumed by “Why not me?” We are driven by envy as much as we are by greed. We see that our neighbor is excelling, or so we think, so we change our own course, or regret that we didn’t take the plunge.

The Siren Call of Envy: By our lights, envy is a thing to be resisted in this world. Yet it exerts a very heavy gravity upon it. It is very difficult for most to resist the tug. Perhaps we should all chain ourselves to our mainmast, like the ancient Ulysses. We should plug our ears against envy’s siren cries. Thus we can navigate clear of the destroying rocks that have claimed other men. Can we do it, collectively? Again, in this fallen world of sin… it is not easy. Yet we might recall the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”

The Daily "Near You?"

La Vernia, Texas, USA. Thank for stopping by!

"They Couldn't Have Known..."

“They couldn’t have known that even this was a lie – that we never really choose, not entirely. We are always being pushed and squeezed down one road or another. We have no choice but to step forward, and then step forward again, and then step forward again; suddenly we find ourselves on a road we haven’t chosen at all. But maybe happiness isn’t in the choosing. Maybe it’s in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.”
- Lauren Oliver

"What Can We Know?"

"What can we know? What are we all?
Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite,
with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Things We Don't Want to Do: Outside the Comfort Zone"

"Things We Don't Want to Do: 
Outside the Comfort Zone"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"Doing things we don't want to do, or that scare us, creates flow in our lives and allows us to grow. Most of us have had the experience of tackling some dreaded task only to come out the other side feeling invigorated, filled with a new sense of confidence and strength. The funny thing is, most of the time when we do them, we come out on the other side changed and often wondering what we were so worried about or why it took us so long. We may even begin to look for other tasks we've been avoiding so that we can feel that same heady mix of excitement and completion.

Whether we avoid something because it scares us or bores us, or because we think it will force a change we're not ready for, putting it off only creates obstacles for us. On the other hand, facing the task at hand, no matter how onerous, creates flow in our lives and allows us to grow. The relief is palpable when we stand on the other side knowing that we did something even though it was hard or we didn't want to do it. On the other hand, when we cling to our comfort zone, never addressing the things we don't want to face, we cut ourselves off from flow and growth.

We all have at least one thing in our life that never seems to get done. Bringing that task to the top of the list and promising ourselves that we will do it as soon as possible is an act that could liberate a tremendous amount of energy in our lives. Whatever it is, we can allow ourselves to be fueled by the promise of the feelings of exhilaration and confidence that will be the natural result of doing it.”
Of course, some have different perspectives...
Very strong language alert!
"All Swearengen", 
Ian McShane's character in “Deadwood”

"Once You Eliminate The Impossible..."

 

"Redacted, Judge Napolitano 8/7/23"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 8/7/23
"No One Is Ready For What's Coming 
In Weeks, It's Going To Be Bad"
"New reports suggest NATO is getting ready to throw Ukraine under the tank. Ex-CIA Larry Johnson says western intelligence are looking for ways to get rid of Zelensky and make it look like a Russian missile strike. General Cavoli says Russia's military hasn't been degraded AT ALL by the conflict in Ukraine despite what CNN says. And how long until the weapons bound for Ukraine wind up in the hands of African countries rising up against the U.S. and France?"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 8/7/23
"Plot to Kill Zelensky w Tony Shaffer fmr CIA"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

"Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Corruption And The End Of An Age" (Excerpt)

"Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Corruption 
And The End Of An Age" (Excerpt)
By John Wilder

Excerpt: “Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime, despair, this is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats, burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.” – "Batman Begins"

“If I were American, I’d vote Trump. But I’m an illegal alien, So I’m voting Biden.”

• Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
• People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology. Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
• Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
• Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
• Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
• Open War.
- Volume V, Issue 3

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly. The advice remains. Avoid crowds. Get out of cities. Now. A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue: Front Matter – Watch The Bugs Scatter – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – The End of an Age – Links

Front Matter: Welcome to the latest issue of the Civil War II Weather Report. These posts are different than the other posts at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War 2.0, on the first or second Monday of every month. I’ve created a page (LINK) for links to all of the past issues. Also, subscribe because you’ll join nearly 800 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge."

Full, highly recommended article is here:

Bill Bonner, "The Comic Opera"

"The Comic Opera"
Banana republics, institutional capture, 
deep state operatives and trumped up charges...
by Bill Bonner

"It rechristened its territories
As the "Banana Republics",
And over the sleeping dead,
Over the restless heroes
Who brought about the greatness,
The liberty and the flags,
It established a comic opera ..."
~ Pablo Neruda

Poitou, France - "Angels gasped. And the dead generations rolled their dry eyes in disbelief. Americans thought they could turn Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and Venezuela into dynamic democracies just like their own country. They sent in troops…Peace Corps volunteers…do-gooders…consultants…entrepreneurs…investors…money. They scarcely noticed as their own homeland went bananas.

Two important things happened last week…each signaling another milestone passed. While we were at an opera in Austria, an ex-president was indicted…and Fitch downgraded the most important asset in the entire world – US govt. debt. “No one is above the law,” said the mainstream press, with the mock piety of those who fashion the laws to suit themselves.

Respectfully Broke: This is the first time an ex-president has been charged with a criminal offense. Our guess is, it won’t be the last. Because…that’s what they do in ‘Banana Republics.’ And over in the GOP, lawyers are already at work building a cage in which to lock up Joe Biden for “conspiring” with his son to peddle influence in the Ukraine.

As to the downgrade of US Treasury bonds… “it doesn’t matter” was the near-universal refrain. “The economy is strong. You can’t look at it as though it were a private business or a household.” You can’t? Oh yes you can.

The US is going broke, just like a private business. But in the real economy, companies can’t ‘print money’ to cover their excess expenses and hide their shame. Nor do they have the biggest spade in the world – the world’s reserve currency – to dig a hole for themselves. When a private business or household takes on too much debt, lenders pull back. On Main Street, businesses and households still go broke in a common, respectable way. Not so the US government. Its bankruptcy will be one for the record books. It will pay its debts with cheap, ‘printing press’ money.

And there, front and center, is El Jefe, Jose Biden…with his ‘Bidenomics.’ Does anyone know what it is? Does Joe have any idea what he is talking about? The poor man can’t carry a tune…let alone a coherent economic policy. The signature element of Bidenomics, as near as we are able to determine, is simply Chiquita Finance. You enjoy the warm weather as long as possible – spend, spend, spend…borrow, borrow…borrow. And then, on a cold day, you pour gasoline over your head and set yourself on fire. And here’s the latest from MarketWise: "The U.S. debt will rise by more than $5 billion - every single day for the next decade."

As the investment world still comes to grips with the Fitch Ratings decision to downgrade the U.S. debt rating, here’s an eye-popping stat: the U.S. government’s debt will rise by $5.2 billion — every single day for the next decade from the latest missive from Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett, in which he references Congressional Budget Office projections to come up with the number

Trumped Up: Wall Street gets stimulated with monetary inflation. Main Street gets fiscal inflation. Nobody even suggests that the US should balance its budget or that the Fed should leave interest rates alone. Instead, ai chihuahua!, like all mismanaged nations, the US spends, borrows, and prints its way to the poor house.

As for Mr. Trump…the Democrats think they have the next election in the bag. By fiddling the justice system, they draw on the time-honored practice of banana republics everywhere. When you lose power…you flee the country. Otherwise, your opponents will try to lock you up. Juan Peron fled to Paraguay. Augusto Pinochet fled to London. Alberto Fujimori fled to Japan.

And now, the USA Democrats, along with the toady propaganda press, have convinced themselves that Donald Trump has committed neither an imbecility, nor an indiscretion, nor an act of supreme bad taste – any of which he would be convicted of summarily – but a crime!

The poor man may be rightly charged with a lot of things – ignorance, sloth, vanity, stupidity, mendacity, recklessness et al. But the surprise of the United States vs. Donald J. Trump is the extent of the corruption of the former, not the well-known failures of the latter. What we see, in other words, is another of America’s institutions – the judiciary – suborned by politics…and now swaying with the palms. In a properly-functioning democracy, public institutions show modesty and restraint. Congress is not supposed to interfere with the courts. And the courts should be wary of politics.

“Open and Shut”: But here’s Jack Smith, special counsel to the Justice Department, with what he thinks is an ‘open and shut’ case against the leading Republican challenger to his boss, Joe Biden. Reading between the lines of the New York Times report, we find no real crime at all…but a ‘conspiracy theory,’ an elastic charge used by the feds to put away people they want to disappear.

And once again, step by step, milestone by milestone, power is taken away from ‘The People’ and grabbed by the elites. The indictment stinks. Trump was a disgrace to the White House. And if the voters weren’t such morons they would have turned him out, and Joe Biden, too…years ago. Instead, the hacks in the Department of Justice have seized the initiative.

Yes…read it and weep. The military…the CIA and 16 other Deep State agencies…the FBI…Congress…the bureaucracy…the universities…the medical/pharma complex...the press…and now the courts, too, have become a part of the comic opera."

"Banks Are Not Your Friends"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 8/7/23
"Banks Are Not Your Friends"
"We keep hearing more stories about banks not being helpful. Now it’s getting worse. They’re not transferring peoples pensions. There a reason for this? We want to limit our exposure."
Comments here:

"Massive Sale At Big Lots! Stack Your Coupons To Save Even More!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 8/7/23
"Massive Sale At Big Lots! 
Stack Your Coupons To Save Even More!"
"In this video, we are at Big Lot's and notice they are having a massive sale this month. As we go around shopping we show all the prices, and ways we can all take advantage of these deals. They are even allowing everyone to stack their coupons, which makes this shopping experience even more worth it!"
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 8/7/23
"Russian Typical (Regional) Supermarket Tour: Pyaterochka"
"What does a Russian typical supermarket look like 1400km from Moscow? I decided to make a trip to Ufa, Russian to find out. What does a provinical supermarket in Russia really look like inside? Let's discover together the availability of food in provincial Russia."
Comments here:

Jim Kunstler, "Normies Awake!"

"Normies Awake!"
by Jim Kunstler

“The West can’t do diplomacy in general, it can’t run its cities or countries except into the ground, its high-tech projects fail almost as a rule, its infrastructure is crumbling, its economies are crumbling, and all public policies seem to have a civilizational suicide as a final goal.”
 - Gaius Baltar
"So-called Normies might be musing, this month of approved mental languor, whether the mighty efforts to suppress news of all kinds, about everything, have concealed the true tendings of our wayward country - leading them to wonder whether it is even possible to be a Normie in such an abnormal time and place.

What news is suppressed? That the USA is worse than dead broke. That the people were poisoned, apparently on-purpose. That the spectral “Joe Biden” sold out our country. That the war we started in Ukraine, on purpose, for no good reason, is about to be lost, and with it our standing around world. That there actually is such a criminal organism as the Blob at large in our government, responsible for the astounding abnormality immersing us. But never mind all that… for now, just go see Barbie. Have a clam roll, a dip in the ocean, another margarita…. September will be here soon enough.

Eventually, the official perversion of money - especially of borrowing an awesome lot it with no intention of ever repaying - leads to the unhappy circumstance of money disappearing until nobody has any money. And by such, the broke-ness of the government transmogrifies to a whole land full of broke people. Many banks go broke as well. Even the high-fliers who hoarded things that purport to represent money go broke. Then, nobody has the means to buy anything. Businesses that can’t sell anything stop being businesses. After a while, no activity is meaningful except grubbing in the soil to grow some food, or stealing it from those who grubbed and grew it. By then, you can barely even call it a society.

By September, we’ll have some idea where all that is heading. The bond market is wobbling because the government can’t stop increasing its spending. America issues more and more bonds to borrow ever more money, but to the world’s bond-buyers (a.k.a. lenders), what used to be considered virtually risk-free now looks like a bad bet. So, the enticement to buy, which is called the interest rate, has to go up. But as it goes up, the cash value of existing bonds goes down (who wants the older bonds when the newer ones pay more?)

The holders of bonds are mainly big institutions: banks, pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds (other countries). They put their large holdings into bonds because in normal times they are safe and dependable investments. But these are abnormal times. When the value of their bonds goes down a lot, the value of their reserves goes down. And when those reserves get reduced too much in relation to the institutions’ liabilities (what they owe), the institutions go bankrupt. When that happens, the people who are vested in those institutions lose their money, too, and end up having to sell stocks and other property to meet their obligations. This ends up looking like what we call “a crash.” It will get Normies’ attention.

How’s it going with the poisoning of America? Since Elon Musk bought Twitter (now “X”), the app has developed a beefed-up immune system against censorship aimed at it by the FBI, CIA, DHS, and the White House. Twitter is once again a popular medium of information exchange, where news flows pretty freely these days. Even news of previous censorship and cancellation is getting out - and with interesting possibilities for consequences.
The many brave doctors who questioned the “vaccine” story, are being heard now. Other entrepreneurial analysts on Twitter - e.g., Edward Dowd, The Unity Project, “The Ethical Skeptic,” “Chief Nerd” - regularly publish data and charts showing America and the rest of the world just how much damage the mRNA shots did to millions of people, how many have been disabled and killed by them. By September, the awareness of what has been done, and the psychopathic degree of official lying about it, could pass that threshold beyond which everybody knows and the great crime is revealed. Expect a major American political attitude adjustment.

There is surely enough publicly-seen evidence to make an impeachment case against “Joe Biden.” The process seems to move slowly, given the traditional lassitude of Congress, but momentum is building as all these other national fiascos careen toward criticality due to abysmal executive leadership. That evidence shows the Biden Family engaged in an international racketeering scheme to peddle “JB’s” influence when he was vice-president. That’s bribery and the very word is in the short passage of our Constitution describing the grounds for sacking a high official.

Rep. Comer’s House Oversight Committee has already dug up voluminous suspicious activity reports in Biden family bank accounts and has promised more, including information of offshore hidden accounts. Jim Jordan’s preliminary impeachment inquiry has drawn up its first witness list which includes the shadowy “JB” aide Michael Carpenter, and the slippery Trump impeachment “whistleblower,” CIA agent Eric Ciaramella - who essentially accused Mr. Trump of attempting to look into the very bribery crimes of the Biden family lately exposed, a pungent irony. When the impeachment process gets underway in earnest this fall, I expect “Joe Biden” will resign, leaving Ms. Harris to be managed by the shadow-president Barack Obama. That in itself will become a crisis of its own.

Our country has vested its prestige and treasure - but not our blood, at least yet - in the preposterous Ukraine proxy war, completely misjudging every element of it. The Russiaphobia of so many Blob officials was amplified by their own dishonest efforts to blame Russia for all the self-created ills of our own national life. The dirty secret of the Ukraine war is that we are no longer in control of events. The Russians are going to settle things there and that poor palooka of a country will be wrested back into their traditional sphere-of-influence, no more to be a troublemaker. I doubt that our puppet, Mr. Zelensky, will be in power by Halloween. NATO will cease to exist and each nation of Europe will then struggle to settle its own sovereign hash without much of an industrial economy left. Expect governments to fall.

In the meantime, enjoy the clam rolls, the surf, the corn-dogs at the fair, and all the other blessings of languorous August. Rest up for what’s coming when Normies awake!"

"Economic Market Snapshot 8/7/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 8/7/23"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

Sunday, August 6, 2023

"Warning: Banks Buying Gold As Americans Buy Barbie Dolls"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/6/23
"Warning: Banks Buying Gold As 
Americans Buy Barbie Dolls"
Comments here:

"Make Them Laugh..."

"Dark Winter: Walmart And Other Retailers Cancel Billions Of Dollars In Orders"

Full screen recommended.
"Dark Winter: Walmart And Other Retailers
 Cancel Billions Of Dollars In Orders"
Comments here:

"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Are Falling Apart In 2023"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Are Falling Apart In 2023"
by Preppers Guide, 8/6/23

"The restaurant industry is particularly vulnerable during economic downturns, and this time is no different. Managing a restaurant is a tough task, and many of our beloved chains have disappeared over the years. Many of our viewers were shocked to find out that even some of the biggest chains out there, including McDonald's, Burger King, and Starbucks are shuttering multiple locations this year. That's why we decided to list other major chains that are facing mounting challenges this year, or have been at serious risk of going under for years and are now being threatened by the ongoing recession. From Taco Bell to Chipotle, and even Red Lobster, no chain is immune to the retail apocalypse."
Comments here:

"Costco Reports 250% Price Hikes On Food Items As Supplies Run Out At Stores"

Full screen recommended.
"Costco Reports 250% Price Hikes On Food
 Items As Supplies Run Out At Stores"
by Epic Economist

"New reports reveal that Americans have started panic buying again. People are noticing that shortages are getting worse, and shelves are getting increasingly emptier as we approach the last quarter of 2023. Some have decided to act now before they can no longer find household supplies and their favorite items at their local stores. Many shoppers are buying in bulk to try to save on costs and stock up for the future, and they’ve been flocking to Costco in search of good deals. But in the past few weeks, it seems that a large number of items are sold out at Costco warehouses, and new price markups are shocking customers who revealed increases of up to 250% on Costco products, according to a recent analysis of consumer complaints. For that reason, in today’s video, we tracked which supplies faced the biggest price hikes at Costco stores over the past month, and we shared the latest warning from the company’s CFO Richard Galanti about the future of the U.S. economy.

A new analysis shows that the main reason for the company’s disappointing sales numbers: Soaring prices at the retailer’s warehouses. And some loyal customers, who pay a membership fee that can typically go from $60 to $100, are outraged with recent price markups. The megaretailer says that higher operational costs and commodity prices are affecting prices in all industries, but especially the grocery sector.

Americans are noticing a lot of sold-out notes on Costco shelves in the past few weeks. Shortages of household supplies and basic grocery items seem to be rapidly spreading across Costco warehouses. However, most of the complaints have been published by shoppers that just can’t believe the price hikes they’re seeing at their local stores. One major example of this was the 250% increase in the price of 40-packs of Kirkland-branded water bottles. One Redditor reported that the bulk buy, which cost $1.44 as recently as a year ago, now costs $4.99. "Yeah that used to be the case at the beginning of the year, just checked yesterday, and $4.99, ridiculous," user u/ghx16 wrote.

User jasonsparks19 said that crab legs have more than doubled in price over the past year: "King crab legs went from $23/lb to $48/lb." That’s a 110% increase. It has been difficult for shoppers to find chicken nuggets in stock at Costco, as they are often sold out in the frozen section due to the high demand. They used to cost $13 for a four-pound bag, but are now going for $19.99, causing some customers to express their displeasure with the price hike on Reddit. "I saw them today for the first time in a while too. My jaw dropped when I saw the price and I kept walking," a commenter said.

When even affordable chains are losing customers due to rising prices, then you know something must be broken in our economy. At this point, prices should be going down, but that’s not what we’re seeing when we go shopping. At the end of the day, Costco is not the only retailer raising prices right now, and certainly, it is not the only one facing financial losses and declining sales.

This situation is just a symptom of a much larger issue that is going to accelerate as we reach the final stretch of 2023. And you too should start preparing for the recession that has only just begun."
Comments here:

"What Happened Today In Hell? Streets of Philadelphia"

Full screen recommended.
"What Happened Today In Hell? Streets of Philadelphia"
Kensington, Philadelphia is infamous for Kensington 
Philadelphia zombies as a result of homelessness. 
o

Musical Interlude: "Deep Space, Ambient Meditation and Sleep Music from Soothing Relaxation"

Full screen recommended.
"Deep Space, Ambient Meditation
and Sleep Music from Soothing Relaxation"
"Deep ambient music for meditation and sleep composed by Peder B. Helland.
Turn the volume down and relax while you fly through space."

"A Look to the Heavens"

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

"We Are Like Butterflies..."

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever."
 - Carl Sagan

Chet Raymo, “Universal Constants, Universal Consensus”

“Universal Constants, Universal Consensus”
by Chet Raymo

“I once received a book in the mail, as I sometimes do, for potential review on this blog, James Stein's “Cosmic Numbers: The Numbers That Define Our Universe”. I often write here about books I read, but I don't review. I did glance at Stein's book, however. It has an audience, but it's not for me; been there, done that. The subtitle is provocative, however. The idea that a dozen or so numbers "define the universe." That's a mind-blowing concept.

The gravitational constant. The speed of light. Absolute zero. Planck's constant. The Hubble constant. And so on. Familiar to every introductory physics student. Built into the very structure of the Earth. And every other earth in the universe.
Look again at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photograph. above Those myriad of galaxies. Those yawning light-years. That infinitude of worlds. And, as far as we know, the fundamental constants are the same everywhere,

The human mind has thrown a net across the cosmos. And as we have brought the galaxies into our ken, so have we come to realize that we too are part and parcel of the fabric of cosmic space and time. Exceptional clarity. Impenetrable mystery.

So what do we make of the news so breathlessly reported in the media of neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light? This is surely a bit of heroic physics, pitting what we believe to be true against the refining fire of experience, but I wouldn't make too much of it yet. Tom suggested that perhaps the researchers unwittingly measured the distance from CERN in Switzerland to Gran Sasso in Italy with greater accuracy. That's the kind of whimsy the result calls for now. The real story - for the time being - is as an illustration of the way the engine of scientific knowing grinds inexorably toward consensus.”

"Yet Now..."

“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”
- Arthur C. Clarke, “Glide Path”

The Daily "Near You?"

Louisville, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Vax Humanitarian Catastrophe Being Turbocharged Without Treatment"

"CV19 Vax Humanitarian Catastrophe
Being Turbocharged Without Treatment"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"World renowned CV19 critical care and pulmonary expert Dr. Pierre Kory has run a full-time CV19 vaccine injury practice for two years. What Dr. Kory is seeing first hand in terms of injuries is frightening. Dr. Kory explains, “It’s been insane for two years plus. The world has gone mad. There is a simple reason the world has gone mad. It’s from unrelenting censorship and propaganda. Ed Dowd has brought forth the most compelling information on the CV19 vax out of anyone because it comes out of actuarial data, it comes out of labor statistics, and it comes out of the CDC. He is using their own data to show that we have a humanitarian catastrophe that occurred in the wake of this CV19 global vaccine campaign. We have countless record setting numbers of young people dying, employed white collar young people dying in droves. Yet, nobody wants to talk about it.”

With at least 676 million CV19 injections in the USA alone, there are too few people being treated for CV 19 vax injuries. Dr. Kory says, “Millions of people need treatment for injuries caused by the CV19 vax. I don’t talk that much in the book “The War on Ivermectin” about ‘Long Covid’ and CV19 vaccine injuries, but now that my career is treating those two illnesses, I am an expert in treating ‘Long Covid’ and CV19 vaccine injury. Our most effective medicine in treating those two conditions is Ivermectin. Now, you have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, who would benefit from chronic Ivermectin treatment for these long-haul syndromes and CV19 vaccine injuries. They have shut down the retail pharmacies. The American Board of Pharmacists bought all the propaganda or they were paid to push out propaganda. They shut down pharmacies and scared all the pharmacies from filling prescriptions for Ivermectin. So, you can’t go to a retail pharmacy for Ivermectin. You can go to a compounding pharmacy in your area and get it.”

Dr. Kory says this CV19 vax catastrophe is being turbocharged with Ivermectin being withheld and the medical community ignoring a huge problem with millions dying and being disabled non-stop from this bioweapon vax. Dr. Kory and others now say, “The CV19 vax did not help a single person.” The three big warning signs Dr. Kory spots when diagnosing a CV19 vax injury are: extreme fatigue, long recovery times for doing slightly strenuous activity and brain fog." There in much more in the 53 minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Dr. Pierre Kory, one of the top pulmonary and CV 19 vax injury experts on the planet. Dr. Kory is co-founder of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (flccc.net) and author of the new book “The War on Ivermectin.”

God have mercy on you if you've taken this shot...

"For Those Who Deny The Problems With The Vax"
o
"The Vaccine Death Report"
Complicity: The data suggests that we may currently be witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world. The severity of this situation compels us to ask this critical question: will we rise to the defense of billions of innocent people? Or will we permit personal profit over justice, and be complicit? Networks of lawyers all over the world are preparing class-action lawsuits to prosecute all who are serving this criminal agenda. To all who have been complicit so far, we say: There is still time to turn and choose the side of truth. Please make the right choice."
Freely download "The Vaccine Death Report" here:
o
"Unthinkable Thoughts"

"This Is The End Game"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 8/6/23
"This Is The End Game"
"You can’t have a world where everyone is in debt. You can’t have the United States of America losing money week after week. That’s where we’re at right now we’re losing $5 billion a day international debt."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"If NATO Goes Toe-To-Toe With The Russians NATO Will Lose"

Col. Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls 8/6/23
"If NATO Goes Toe-To-Toe 
With The Russians NATO Will Lose"
"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 8/5/23
Scott Ritter: “Ukraine’s army is 
being annihilated thanks to NATO’s plan.” 
"NATO has been urging Ukraine to undertake large-scale armored offensives instead of smaller, targeted attacks. Unfortunately, this strategy has proven devastating for the Ukrainian army, as it has faced relentless air and ground assaults from the Russian forces. One might question whether NATO intends to completely dismantle Ukraine's remaining military capabilities. To discuss this matter, we will be joined by Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector."
Comments here:

"War..."

Full screen recommended.
Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"
"A visual journey into mankind's 
favorite pastime throughout the ages."
"Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).] An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed 'approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war' to 'approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...'" The lower figure is more plausible but could still be on the high side considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD (wars and other man-made disasters with at least 300,000 and up to 66 million victims) claimed about 455 million human lives in total."
"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human
 race proved to be nothing more than the story of an
ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." 
- David Ormsby-Gore

"I Would Bet My Life On It..."

“I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”
- Tennessee Williams

"Walmart Prices Are Going Up! Get Prepared! Stock Up!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 8/6/23
"Walmart Prices Are Going Up! 
Get Prepared! Stock Up!"
"More price increases come to Walmart as meat and produce continue to be unaffordable! We go through Walmart trying to find the best deals we can as prices continue to skyrocket around the world. It's getting rough out here as families continue to seek out cheaper options to put food on the table!"
Comments here:

Saturday, August 5, 2023

"Puppet Masters of the Pandemic. Part 1: What Did The CIA Do in Wuhan?" (Excerpt)

"Puppet Masters of the Pandemic.
 Part 1: What Did The CIA Do in Wuhan?" (Excerpt)
by Robert W. Malone, MD, MS

Highlights from the Transcript (part I): The transcript has not been edited as carefully as I could for grammatical mistakes, with some clarifications and reduction in unnecessary text - so hopefully it isn’t too cringe worthy. - RWM

Excerpt: "Veronika Kyrylenko: Hi everyone. This is Veronica Kyrylenko with the New American magazine. We're in Madison Virginia, where we're hosted by Dr. Robert Malone, a brilliant scientist and the original inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, turned freedom fighter and a fearless troublemaker, taking on the deep state now.

Dr. Malone, just as the memory of COVID was beginning to fade from the public minds, like a haunting nightmare with occasional reminders caused by painfully slow congressional hearings regarding the Bethesda Boys and their knowledge timeline, you sir, inadvertently dropped a nuclear truth bomb. You aimed not at the regular usual suspects like the NIH technocrats that were practically caught red-handed in Wuhan. You sir, aimed not at the DOD that had its own shady dealings and business with the Wuhan lab.

Now, Dr. Malone, you aimed at Langley. While speaking with Steve Bannon last week, you said quoting your sources from inside the CIA, "Clearly the United States intelligence community was at the heart of this whole COVID crisis, working together with the CCP throughout this entire affair."
Full Part I of this article is here:
o
"Puppet Masters of the Pandemic. 
Part 2: What Did The CIA Do in Wuhan?" (Excerpt)
Part 2 of an interview with the New American Magazine
by Robert W Malone MD, MS

Excerpt: "From Part I - the interview left off with the big question of who is the puppet master? What's behind all this propaganda and control over the past three years? I spoke of different theories that people had put out there, and ended with the beginning of the hypothesis that the CIA may in fact be that controlling element. Part II picks up the thesis there.

From Part I: Dr. Robert Malone: We <Bret Weinstein, Steve Kirsch and myself> talked about emergent phenomena, that this might just be the consequence of simultaneous things happening and separate actors acting on their own initiatives, and the result would be a vector sum of things (controlling the propaganda and globalized governmental policies). I've never felt comfortable with that as an explanation for why we would see this amazing harmonization of propaganda, censorship, messaging strategies, technical strategies like the purchasing of influencers, et cetera, globally.

Then, a colleague ... a close colleague of mine who actually employs a former director of the CIA were discussing who is the puppet master? What's behind all this? We had a discussion in which he related a conversation with his employee (former DCIA) regarding the global power and reach of the CIA, in which the former DCIA concluded that the CIA was currently the most powerful organization in the world, perhaps the most powerful global organization in human history. This is one of those things I haven't wanted to believe…"
Full Part II of this article is here:

Jeremiah Babe, "The Bank Wants Your House"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/5/23
"The Bank Wants Your House; What Happens When 
Your Money Runs Out? Spiritual Warfare, Demonic Times"
Comments here: