"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much
matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.
If you haven't had that, what have you had?"
- Henry James
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, November 23, 2023
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Opening of Eyes"
"The Opening of Eyes"
"That day I saw beneath dark clouds
The passing light over the water,
And I heard the voice of the world speak out.
I knew then as I have before,
Life is no passing memory of what has been,
Nor the remaining pages of a great book
Waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things,
Seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years of secret conversing
Speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees
Before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
As if to enter heaven and finding himself astonished,
Opened at last,
Fallen in love
With Solid Ground."
~ David Whyte
"Are People Really Stupid?"
“All of the available data show that the typical American citizen has about
as much interest in the life of the mind as does your average armadillo.”
- Morris Berman
"Are People Really Stupid?"
by Fred Russell
"On the face of things, judging from the general level of knowledge and understanding, not to mention the intellectual pursuits, of most of the human race one is tempted to say that the overwhelming majority of mankind lacks the intellectual capacity, the intelligence, to contribute to human progress. And it is in fact a very small elite that has carried us beyond Neanderthal Man, without whom, if the truth be told, we might still be living in caves. It is, in a word, appalling to contemplate the level at which ordinary people use their minds, what they read, if at all, what they watch on TV, the movies they go out and see, and the ease with which they are seduced and manipulated by the technicians of the psyche, namely, politicians and advertisers.
The impression one gets when contemplating these tens and hundreds of millions of people glued to their TV screens for the reality shows and sitcoms or fiddling with their smartphones from morning till night is of complete empty-headedness. This is not to say that such people cannot be shrewd, resourceful, or, for that matter, simply decent. It is to say that at the average level of intelligence displayed by the human race, the great intellectual achievements of mankind seem to be beyond the scope of the vast majority of men and women. But are people really stupid? And if they aren't, who or what has held them back?
Now one may be inclined to place all the blame for our ignorance on the television producers and gadget makers, but the truth is that by the time they get to us the damage has already been done. All they really succeed in doing is dragging us down a little further. The problem starts in childhood. It starts in the schools with all those empty cells waiting to be filled and no one, not entire educational systems, really knowing how to fill them. In fact, the opposite result is achieved. By the time the child finishes elementary school, unless he is destined to join the intellectual or scientific or economic or political elite and is self-motivated, as the saying goes, he will have developed an aversion to the learning process that will persist for the rest of his life.
It is not hard to understand why. School bores him, and oppresses him. Its premise, fostered in the West by the Church the virtually exclusive supplier of teachers until fairly recent times, historically speaking is that as a consequence of Original Sin all men are born evil and must therefore be coerced into doing what is good. The result has been rigidly structured frameworks where teachers hammer away at the captive child until his head is ready to explode. Within just a few years, the public school system thus destroys the natural curiosity of the child and dooms him to a life of total ignorance, dependent, for whatever sense of the world he does have, on second rate journalists, who themselves lack the knowledge, understanding, discipline and integrity to be historians or even novelists and therefore shape his perception like the ignorant clerics of the Middle Ages, raining down on his head a disjointed and superficial body of information presented largely to produce effects, and even this is beyond his capacity to retain.
The man in the street may thus be said to have a great many opinions but very little knowledge, mindlessly repeating the half-truths of experts and analysts who reflect his own biases and constructing out of them a credo of dogmatic views that remain embedded in his mind for an entire lifetime like bricks in a brick wall.
Does it matter? After all, we have all the scholars and scientists we need, and besides, a world where everyone became one would be a dull place indeed. It can even be argued that it is better for the race if progress is opposed, since, judging from its products, it mostly expresses itself materially and economically in an unholy alliance of greed and technology. However, progress of this kind cannot be fought if all that people have on their minds is to wire themselves into this technology, and that is what they will be doing until their minds are engaged in less frivolous pursuits. They are thus doubly victimized, first by the schools, whose methods are not attuned to the temperament and capacity of the average child, and then by the economic elites who control the technologies and consequently the flow of information and whose only interest in the man in the street is as a consumer of their products.
Unfortunately, there is very little hope that any of this will change. The wrong people control human society and will continue to do so, because they created the model and are the only ones who know how to operate it. The sad truth is that today's man in the street is neither wiser nor more knowledgeable than a medieval peasant. Calling ourselves Homo sapiens, or even Homo sapiens sapiens, seemed like a good idea once but very few of us have lived up to the billing."
Apologies to armadillos for this comparison.
"Perhaps It's Just As Well..."
“It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.”
– Joseph Conrad, “Lord Jim”
Judge Napolitano, "Thanksgiving Special Edition"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/23/23
"Thanksgiving Special Edition, Part 1"
Comments here:
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Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/23/23
"Thanksgiving Special Edition, Part 2"
Comments here:
"A Curmudgeon’s Thanksgiving Prayer"
"A Curmudgeon’s Thanksgiving Prayer"
A balanced view…giving equal time to pros and cons…gratitude and grumps.
by Bill Bonner
Dublin, Ireland - "We are celebrating Thanksgiving with two of our sons, our wives, and grandchildren. We will sit down to dinner of turkey, onions, stuffing, beets, pumpkin pie…and who-knows-what-else, prepared by the women of the household. Before tucking in, your editor will rise to say grace. As the oldest member of the family, it falls to him to offer up a prayer suitable to the occasion. But unlike so many others, he will not put a sugar glaze – such as you might find on the sweet potatoes – over the facts. After tapping his glass, and rising to his feet, he will give it to them, like the Jameson whiskey aperitif, straight:
"Dear Lord (or whatever power, higher or lower, might be held responsible), we have so much to be grateful for, we scarcely know where to start. So, let’s begin in the beginning.
We are thankful to be alive. Our hearts still beat. We breathe in and out and enjoy each sunrise, happily counted among the quick, rather than the dead. But many are not so lucky. The average lifespan of American males is falling rapidly. On the rise are what are called ‘deaths of despair,’ where people are so forlorn they take drugs or do themselves in. We are grateful not to be among them.
We give thanks, too, because we are not at war. Instead, we pay the Ukrainians and Israelis to do the killing, and/or dying.
Trillions (with a Capital T): Job openings are plentiful, too; that’s something to be grateful for…even though many of these jobs are not the good-paying, ‘breadwinner’ jobs our fathers had. More and more, we’re forced to take low-paying employment in the service sector in order to keep up with our credit card payments. And more than ever, people don’t work at all. Retired, disabled, worn out, witless…or just lazy…we don’t know, but they’re millions of them and they all must be supported by those of us who still get up in the morning, put our pants on and go to the jobsite.
Thank God, too, that we have plenty to eat. We’re not like those poor people in Gaza that we’re helping to starve. Here in America, we have so much food that 7 out of 10 of us are overweight. And doctors have come up with a whole new maladie – diabesity – to describe an epidemic now sweeping the country.
And we’re not broke….yet. Our Thanksgiving dinner will cost 25% more than it did 4 years ago…but a bit less than last year. And we can put the whole thing on our credit cards, and pay 21% interest on it – forever.
Yes, that is really what makes America great…it’s what we have to be especially thankful for – credit. What other country can run up $33.7 TRILLION [we will emphasize the TRILLION as if it were a demon from Hell for the benefit of the 2-year-old at the table]…and keep on borrowing?
This week’s Treasury auction (at which the federal government raises money to pay for projects it doesn’t need with money it doesn’t have) went surprisingly well. Lenders were willing to give the US government – which must be run by some of the most irresponsible numbskulls on the planet – their money in exchange for a promise to pay just 4.408% interest (on 10-year Treasuries)."
[At this point, the turkey is getting cold…and the family is looking at the wall sockets for a plug that they can pull…]
Slaves to Interest: "But wait…there’s more! There’s the latest news [we raise our right arm for dramatic effect…and take a crumpled news item from our jacket pocket]
Here’s another thing we have to be thankful for. This is America, dammit. [We’re actually in Ireland…but they will get the point]. And in America, we’re free. Sort of. Here’s an update, from Fox Business. "American taxpayers are now slaves to interest payments. Interest on the federal debt is now so immense that it’s consuming 40% of all personal income taxes. The largest source of revenue for the federal government is increasingly being devoted to just servicing the debt, not even paying it down." The problem is getting worse daily and will eventually result in even more pain for taxpayers.
The recent monthly Treasury statement from the Fiscal Service showed that the Treasury Department paid $88.9 billion in October on interest for the federal debt. That’s almost double what it paid in October of the previous year. Worse, the Treasury is projecting interest payments for the fiscal year to exceed $1 trillion. Every month that goes by, the Treasury increases that forecast as the outlook worsens.
Yes, dear…dear…family. We are now prisoners…forced to slave away to pay for things we didn’t want, didn’t get…and never will have. Like Jacob Marley, we drag the heavy chains of past perfidy…recklessness…and corruption.
A total interest of $1 trillion/year…divided among, say, 100 million families …each American family pays $10,000 per year for interest on federal debt. What exactly does it get for the money? The answer: nothing! The services and products were delivered, often so long ago that we don’t remember what they were for. A war against Iraq? Salary increases for members of Congress and federal employees? Subsidies…pay-offs…aid…agencies – where did it all go? We don’t know. All we know is that it is gone… Our generation [we will point a finger towards our own chest] spent it. And now, you, my poor, dear…dear…family…you’ll be paying for it – and much more! – all your lives. Amen."
"We All Get Plucked in the End"
"We All Get Plucked in the End"
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France – "As our friend Nassim Taleb reminds us, there’s a downside to being a turkey. It’s called Thanksgiving. Every day for 1,000 days, it gets its food. The turkey gets used to it. It feels pretty good about things. Around the feed trough, it is common knowledge that the food “always” comes. And there is no turkey alive who can contradict it.
The more intellectual turkeys spin out theories to explain their good fortune. One says it’s because of turkey exceptionalism: “The food always comes because we’re turkeys, not starlings or pigeons. We are special. We don’t have to peck around on the ground trying to find crumbs or scratch in the dirt to find worms. We’re a superior bird; we have access to unlimited food.”
Another has a different hypothesis – better leadership: “We always get fed because our president has figured out how to make the farmers feed us. He’s the best turkey president ever. If the farmer is a little late, he knows how to make turkey life great again. Didn’t you notice? He takes three steps backward and makes a loud gobbling noise. That usually does it. If it doesn’t, he just keeps gobbling until the food comes. Always works. Always.”
And yet another pipes up: “Oh, enough with your fancy theories. We always get fed because that’s just the way it is. It’s nature.” “No, it’s not nature,” offers another. “It’s because the fix is in. The farmer has to feed us, or he’ll be charged with animal abuse. He has to keep the food coming; he has no choice.”
Bad Feather Day: But then, as the fourth Thursday of November approaches, the theories are put to the test. All are proved incorrect. The food doesn’t come. Instead, the turkeys are ushered into a special part of the farm complex where they’ve never been before. There is something disquieting about it. The turkeys begin to whisper among themselves. One says he hears cries coming from the next room. All of them notice the sounds of machinery… heavy machinery… and a few soft feathers floating through the air. “What’s going on…?” they wonder, one to another. And then, they begin to panic, running helter-skelter, hoping to escape.
Up until that day, the food came every day. Day after day… the sun shone… and along came the farmer with more grain. And then, without warning, everything changed for the turkey. Worse than a bad feather day… it was the final scene. The curtain fell. The court adjourned. We see the turkey’s life from the farmer’s perspective. It is not all gravy and sweet potatoes. But it is very predictable, with a definite beginning and a certain end. And a purpose. Have a nice Thanksgiving."
Adventures With Danno, "Thanksgiving Day Coffee Rant With Jess And Danno!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 11/23/23
"Thanksgiving Day Coffee Rant With Jess And Danno!"
"In today's coffee rant, it is Thanksgiving, and we are going over many questions we always get from our fans. We also go over our favorite foods and activities we do on Thanksgiving and getting our subscribers involved as we ask for your response as well!"
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Travelling with Russell, "Walking in Red Square & GUM Shopping Mall in Winter"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 11/23/23
"Walking in Red Square & GUM Shopping Mall in Winter"
"Take a walk with me in Moscow Russia and discover Red Square, GUM Shopping Mall along with other points of interest like Alexander Garden and the Eternal Flame. What does it look like in Moscow on a snowy day? How does the mood feel like as the weather gets colder."
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Wednesday, November 22, 2023
"The Housing Collapse Will Wipe Out Millions Of Americans This Winter"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 11/22/23
"The Housing Collapse Will Wipe Out
Millions Of Americans This Winter"
"There was a time when the American dream included home ownership, but that dream has now become a nightmare for many. That’s because millions of Americans are going to see their home equity being wiped out by the imminent housing collapse. A report from credit analytics firm TransUnion found that the average U.S. household is struggling to keep up with near 8% mortgage rates, and many are already losing their properties as they get underwater on their mortgage loans. On top of that, with buyers priced out and more sellers slashing their prices to sell properties before the end of 2023, many major cities are already seeing double-digit quarterly declines, such as San Francisco, where home prices came down by as much as 15% in the third quarter, as well as Seattle, and Austin, which reported a respective drop of 12% and 11% drop during the same period.
The red flags of a housing crash are becoming more apparent. If you’re new to our channel, thank you for joining us. Today, we will break down the latest data on the real estate market meltdown. And if you’re a regular here, thank you for your support. We have a lot to cover today, so we hope you’re prepared to hear this.
Over the past couple of weeks, major signs of distress emerged in the U.S. housing market, leading experts to worry about where we’re headed. Fortune said that the market is starting to “crack,” while Wells Fargo economists predicted a real estate recession due to rising mortgage rates.
To put it simply, between the high cost of the home and the elevated interest payments, many Americans simply can’t afford to purchase a new home anymore. As a result, sellers are slashing their listing prices right now. Redfin’s most recent housing market update indicates that approximately 1 in 15 U.S. homes on the market decreased in price in the past quarter. Compared to the same period in prior years, this is an alarmingly high rate.
To make things even worse, more than one in 10 homes bought in the past year are worth less than what owners owe on their mortgage. That’s what the new report released by real estate data firm Black Knight shows. About 11% of people who borrowed to buy homes in 2022 now owe more than the properties are worth, a figure that has steadily climbed since the start of 2023.
Moreover, more than one out of every four buyers who purchased a home in the 11 months of 2023 have properties worth less than the loans on them, meaning that they are already underwater on their mortgages and at risk of being foreclosed. That’s a very worrying development. Rising delinquency rates are an indication that conditions will get even more chaotic because once a mortgage payment is more than 90 days overdue, the threat of foreclosure becomes imminent. It is feared hundreds of thousands of Americans could be impacted by foreclosure in December.
The credit crisis can also play a major role as more expensive borrowing costs could further reduce the affordability of homes. When access to credit becomes more restricted, it can impact the number of potential buyers, and slow down property sales. In addition, global economic events, such as ongoing geopolitical conflicts, China’s economic downturn, and global food shortages can spill over into local property markets, affecting investor sentiment and confidence.
Ultimately, the coming housing crash will destroy the wealth many hard-working families took decades to build. And that’s the saddest part of this crisis because we can already see the slow-motion train wreck happening before our eyes. But the Federal Reserve and the federal government are still going to let it happen. It’s only by taking the equity of the bottom 90% of Americans that they will be able to stop the bleeding caused by the trillions of printed dollars that they pumped into the economy since 2020.
Don’t be mistaken. This is a man-made disaster. They want you to lose everything you worked for so that they can bring inflation down again."
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Jeremiah Babe, "Cars Blowing Up On Bridges Just A Normal Day?"
Jeremiah Babe, 11/22/23
"Cars Blowing Up On Bridges Just A Normal Day?
Black Friday Madness Is History; Losing Your Job"
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Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
528Hz Positive Energy, Self Healing with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey."
I can't praise this visually beautiful, and very effective, video enough. In these incredibly stressful times, please be kind to yourself and take the time to savor this exquisite work in full screen mode. Headphones suggested but not necessary. It works, as simple as that...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.
In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."
"Thanksgiving 2023: PEZ, Garfield, and Lab-Grown Poodle"
"Thanksgiving 2023:
PEZ, Garfield, and Lab-Grown Poodle"
by John Wiilder
"I’ve mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Most of the time it’s four or more days off for me, long enough not to be rushed. It’s also a holiday that doesn’t have the desperation of Christmas, nor the somber elation of Easter. Thanksgiving is peaceful for me.
Although I like to do this fairly often, at this time of year, I do like to sit back and think about the things that I’m thankful for. It’s a long list, so, here it goes the Thanksgiving 2024 version:
I’m thankful for Pa and Ma Wilder, who took me in and then didn’t drown me. I was an awful child. How bad? I caused more damage to our house than the First Gulf War. To be fair, the First Gulf War didn’t really do much damage to our house.
I’m thankful to my big brother, John Wilder, who pushed me into things that I needed to do, things that weren’t comfortable to me that helped me face difficulty and learn to overcome it. I also threw up all over his school clothes one year. Not sure how you get vomit out of a leather belt.
I’m thankful for Joe Biden, because there’s never been an easier, more corrupt, or more incompetent president to mock. Joe has single-handedly turned more Zoomers to the Right than any living man.
I’m thankful for winter, because no matter how cold it gets I can still put on more clothes. In the summer, there is a limit to how much clothing I can take off, or at least that’s what the police tell me.
I’m thankful for hot coffee on a cold winter morning when it’s silent as the snow keeps falling.
I’m thankful for PEZ®. Because it’s PEZ™.
I’m thankful for each morning. I hate mornings, but they’re better than the alternative. Oh, wait, I like afternoons. Sadly, everyone gets cross when I sleep into the afternoon.
I’m thankful that I have so few moments in life that are truly awful, and knowing that I can get over them because the world is actually a pretty great place, and I always know that there’s someone I can talk to, if I need to. Thankfully, I don’t have many feelings like you humans er, nevermind.
I’m thankful for firearms. They cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands, I’ll admit. But they cause even more damage when they’re only in the hands of the government. So if the government wants to have a gun-free world, they can disarm first.
I’m thankful for cats and dogs, but sorry cows taste so good. Cows look like they might be good bros and fun to hang with, but, sorry. They’re just too tasty.
I’m thankful for my close family, (The Mrs., kids). For whatever reason, most of them seem to put up with me, or at least haven’t filed restraining orders.
I’m thankful that you, reader, come here on a regular basis to share your ideas with me. I’m hopeful you get a chuckle or two.
I’m thankful for the taste of a turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving. Toasted bread, mayo, turkey, mustard, some salt and pepper are enough. Add in some lettuce and tomato if you have them, but they’re not required.
I’m very thankful for the time I have, and just wish there were more hours in a day. As I grow older, I know the most precious of all things is our time and attention. Of course, if I hadn’t eaten in a month or so, I’d probably be even more thankful for a gnawed pork chop bone. But sitting here, right now? It’s time.
I’m thankful to live in the time and place that I do. I’m sure the past was wonderful, and I’m sure the future will be wonderful. But, you know, there’s a problem with both of those. My stuff is all here, and I’m not even sure how to pack for 1850 or 2432, I mean, what’s the weather like?
Lastly (and firstly), I’m thankful to the Creator. It has been a weird ride so far, but enjoyable. I’m sure I’ll figure out the “why” part in the end. As Soren Kierkegard said, we can only understand the past from the vantage point of the future. But he said it in Danish, so he probably sounded like the Swedish Chef® when he said it.
I hope that your Thanksgiving is peaceful, joyful, and that you are surrounded by those that love you, or at least by PEZ™ dispensers from another cosmic realm that may eat your soul. Whichever you prefer.
What did I miss? What are you thankful for?"
"The Very, Very, Very Last Time..."
All we ever get is this...
And yet, despite it all, despite knowing better, we still hope...
“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
Bill Bonner, "Coast Unclear"
"Coast Unclear"
The winds howled, bonds sank
and the wars and stupidity continued...
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "The wind howled. A light rain fell against the windshield. It was dark as pitch. A fine night for an ocean voyage! Yes, we’re on our way back to the USA. The trip began last night as we drove up to the ferry at Cherbourg to take the Stena Line back to Ireland. This time of year, ferry service is reduced to a few hardy ships with a few intrepid travelers. There was no line waiting to board (in the summer, it can take hours). And once on the ship, we found it almost deserted…eerie, like an empty hotel.
Curiously, the only other cars getting on the ferry had Ukrainian license plates. The Irish have welcomed Ukrainians with open arms, sympathizing (perhaps to excess) with their plight. By contrast, they have not been very ‘solidaire’ with the Israelis. Maybe they have a race memory of when they were Palestinians…massacred, dispossessed, and turned into second class citizens in their own country by English invaders. For whatever reason, the Irish tend to side with the Palestinians.
We are still on the ferry, with limited internet service. But we turn to the financial news.
“More Bubble”: The US stock market is delighting in what appears to be the end of the Fed’s tightening cycle…and a big drop in inflation. Barron’s reports that…"The Stock Market Just Had Its Best Three Weeks Since 2020." Even the S&P 500 tech sector is back…up 48% this year, more than twice the S&P 500 itself. But we see no reason to change our outlook. In this century, it took $27 trillion worth of net federal stimulus, financed on credit at ultra-low rates, to bring us to where we are. It seems extremely unlikely that the trends of the last 23 years can continue now that the cheap credit has been cut off.
And amid all the diamonds of good news, we find some rough gravel. Manufacturing, industrial production and retail sales are all in decline. And US debt…we can hardly keep up with it. It was just last week that we reported a $33.5 trillion national debt. Now, it is $33.7 trillion, with the interest soon to top $1 trillion for the year.
The top of the credit cycle (the high water mark for bonds) came in July of 2020. Since then, bond investors have lost about a third of their money. We’re in a different Primary Trend now. While it is impossible to know exactly what it will bring, ‘more bubble’ is probably the least likely. Instead, the dip in inflation rates will probably prove ‘transitory.’ Most likely, too, the rise in stock prices will prove disappointing. And most likely of all, the moronic things our leaders are doing – deficits, military meddling, sanctions, tariffs, etc – will bring the kind of trouble they usually bring… inflation, poverty and war.
Eternally Optimistic: But this is a long term forecast. In the weeks and months ahead, anything can happen. So, we will keep our eyes on the ball, our shoulders to the wheel…and our thinking caps firmly on our heads…And what luck! We have an important ball to keep our eyes on - something for the history books.
Eternal optimists, we see in Milei’s victory a potential save for the Western democracy. In Argentina, universal suffrage was put into place early in the 20th century. Not only were all adults allowed to vote…they were required to do so. A few years later, the downhill slide began.
Requiring people to vote meant that a lot of people who might otherwise have gone about their business without harm to the public weal, had to pay attention to politics – at least for long enough to figure out which side of the bread had the butter on it. This simplified the job for political hustlers. Each vote was equal to every other vote, so they went after those voters who would sell their votes most cheaply – the urban, often unionized, ‘leftist’ proletariat.
A Matter of Principle: People are neither always good, nor always bad, but they are always subject to influence. And the promise of free money was decisive. Thus, did the teeming masses elect one populist big-mouth after another…and thus did the politicians inflate the currency to cover the costs of their own corruption. And then, finally, on Sunday, after 7 decades, the appeal of ‘something for nothing’ lost its purchasing power. That is what turned the election to Milei. He promised nothing. And as far as we know, it is the first time in history that a popular democracy has voted to reduce the power of government itself.
(You might say that voters wanted less government in the US when they elected Ronald Reagan in 1980…and again in 2016, when they elected Donald Trump. But Reagan believed it was important to increase military spending to counter what he saw as the threat of communism. Trump expanded both social and military spending shamelessly. Only Milei has vowed to cut back government as a matter of principle.)
Again, where this will lead, we don’t know. But it is worth watching…"
Judge Napolitano, "Col. Douglas Macgregor: Will Israeli War on Gaza Soon be Regional?"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/22/23
"Col. Douglas Macgregor:
Will Israeli War on Gaza Soon be Regional?"
"The Middle East is a region with complex geopolitical dynamics, and any escalation in one area has the potential to reverberate across borders. In the past, conflicts in the region have often drawn in multiple actors, turning local disputes into broader confrontations. Col. Macgregor and Judge Napolitano discuss the looming signs of this conflict expanding in near future."
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World War III Prelude: Middle East Crisis 11/22/23"
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 11/22/23
"Middle East Crisis Geopolitical Analysis"
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Full screen recommended.
Democracy Now! 11/22/23
"Gaza in Ruins: Satellite Imagery Researchers
Say Israel Has Destroyed or Damaged 56,000 Buildings"
"We speak with two researchers who lead the Decentralized Damage Mapping Group, a network of scientists using remote sensing to analyze and map the damage and destruction in the Gaza Strip since Israel's attacks began on October 7. Radar technology shows that Israel's bombing campaign has left about half of all buildings in northern Gaza damaged or destroyed since October 7, with at least 56,000 buildings in Gaza damaged overall. Doctoral researcher Corey Scher explains how researchers use open data to bring consistent, transparent assessments of the rapidly expanding damage in Gaza. "We've all been surprised at the speed of this," says Jamon Van Den Hoek, lead of the Conflict Ecology lab."
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What kind of inhuman MONSTERS do this? Bombing hospitals,
killing 14,000 defenseless older people, women and 5,000 children?
Shame and disgrace on America for supporting this!
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Time, AM 11/22/23
"Hezbollah's Blitz Forces Israel To Knock UN Door;
'We Are Coming' Warning 'Rattles' Netanyahu"
"Embattled Israel has knocked on the United Nations' door amid Hezbollah strikes. Israel has warned the UN that the Middle East could descend into a full-scale war. According to Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen, Hezbollah's attacks could be the trigger for regional war. The warning comes amid weeks of skirmishes on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier. Recently, the Lebanese group displayed its military drill and said, "We are coming."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Velocity, 11/22/23
"Russia Gives Israel A Warning"
"Israel have done something that crosses the line for Putin. After Russia gave Israel a warning things have started to change and we are now seeing the start of positive negotiations. Could this be the reason or was it something else?"
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Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Things Just Went From Bad To Worse, And They Are Laughing At Us!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/22/23
"Alert! Things Just Went From Bad To Worse,
And They Are Laughing At Us!"
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Related:
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/22/23
"Largest Banks Begins Shutting Off Accounts,
Americans Losing Access To Money!"
"With credit card debt hitting an all-time high of 1 trillion dollars, and delinquency rates increasing astronomically, banks are taking drastic measures. After the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and four other major banks this year, other banks are tightening their belts to avoid going under. The economy is being thrown into a precarious state– inflation is eating deeper, interest rates are rising, Americans need credit they cannot afford to pay back and banks are recording massive losses. Now, the banks want to get their money back by all means, even if it means leaving people stranded with no dime at all."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Did You Get Your Stimulus Check?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 11/22/23
"Did You Get Your Stimulus Check?"
"The IRS just issued an update to stimulus checks. Many people are still entitled to get a stimulus payment for the year 2020 and 2021. Today we discuss how to get this payment. Plus, we cover so much in the news right now."
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“Here’s The Real Story About Thanksgiving You’ve Never Heard”
“Here’s The Real Story About
Thanksgiving You’ve Never Heard”
Especially the parts about Squanto the “friendly Indian.”
by Nick Bauman
“The Thanksgiving story you know probably goes a bit like this: English Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they found a rich land full of animals and were greeted by a friendly Indian named Squanto, who taught them how to plant corn. The true story is more complicated. Once you learn about the real Squanto - also known as Tisquantum - you’ll have a great yarn to tell your family over the Thanksgiving table.
I asked historian Charles Mann, the author of “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus”, and Paula Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and an expert on Wampanoag history, to tell me the real story. “This is not revisionist history,” Peters promised. “This is history that’s just been overlooked because people have become very, very comfortable with the story of happy Pilgrims and friendly Indians. They’re very content with that - even to the point where no one really questioned how is it that Squanto knew how to speak perfect English when they came.”
Here’s what really happened. In 1614, six years before the Pilgrims landed in modern-day Massachusetts, an Englishman named Thomas Hunt kidnapped Tisquantum from his village, Patuxet, which was part of a group of villages known as the Wampanoag confederation. (Europeans had started visiting the northeast of what is now the United States by the 1520s, and probably as early as the 1480s.) Hunt took Tisquantum and around two dozen other kidnapped Wampanoag to Spain, where he tried to sell them into slavery.
“It caused quite a commotion when this guy showed up trying to sell these people,” Mann said. “A bunch of people in the church said no way.” Tisquantum escaped slavery - with the help of Catholic friars, according to some accounts- then somehow found his way to England. He finally made it back to what is now Massachusetts in 1619. As far as historians can tell, Tisquantum was the only one of the kidnapped Wampanoags to ever return to North America, Peters notes.
But while Tisquantum was in Europe, an epidemic had swept across New England. “The account that’s recorded by Gov. Bradford of Plymouth Plantation is that there’s a shipwreck of French sailors that year on Cape Cod,” Mann said. “One of them carried some disease and it wiped out a huge percentage of the population in coastal new England. The guess is it was some kind of viral hepatitis, which is easily communicated in water. It exploded like chains of firecrackers.”
When Tisquantum returned to Patuxet, he found that he was the village’s only survivor. “Into this bumbled the Pilgrims,” Mann said. “They had shown up in New England a few weeks before winter. Up until the Pilgrims, the pattern had been pretty clear. Europeans would show up, and Indians would be interested in their trade goods, but they were really uninterested in letting [Europeans] permanently occupy land.” Often, armed native people would even force Europeans to leave if they attempted to stay too long.
This time, the Europeans wanted to stay, and the disease that had decimated Patuxet ensured that they had a place to settle. “Patuxet ultimately becomes Plymouth,” Peters explained. “They find this cleared land and just the bones of the Indians. They called it divine providence: God killed these Indians so we could live here.” A website Peters helped create for the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival puts it even more bluntly: “The graveyard of [Tisquantum's] people became Plymouth Colony.”
Massasoit, a local Wampanoag leader, didn’t trust Tisquantum. “He looks at this guy and smells trouble,” Mann said. Massasoit kept Tisquantum under what was essentially house arrest until the Pilgrims showed up and promptly started starving to death.
Patuxet wasn’t the only native village decimated by the plague. The entire Wampanoag confederation had been badly hit – as much as 75 percent of the Wampanoag population was wiped out, Mann said. But the Narragansett, a rival neighboring group, basically weren’t affected by the disease at all. That put the Wampanoag in a precarious strategic position. Massasoit had an idea. “He decides we’ll ally with these guys, set up a good trading relationship, control supply of English goods, and the Narragansett won’t be able to attack us,” Mann said. On March 22, 1621, Massasoit went to meet with the Pilgrims. He brought Tisquantum along to translate.
Mann described the meeting in a 2005 article in Smithsonian Magazine: “Tisquantum most likely was not the name he was given at birth. In that part of the Northeast, tisquantum referred to rage, especially the rage of manitou, the world-suffusing spiritual power at the heart of coastal Indians’ religious beliefs. When Tisquantum approached the Pilgrims and identified himself by that sobriquet, it was as if he had stuck out his hand and said, “Hello, I’m the Wrath of God.”
Massasoit was right not to trust Tisquantum, who soon tried to pit the Pilgrims against him. But the plan didn’t work: Massasoit “is just pissed off and demands the Pilgrims hand him over because he’s gonna execute him,” Mann said. The Pilgrims didn’t. Instead, Tisquantum stayed in the colony with them, helping them prepare for the next winter.
“Never did the newcomers ask themselves why he might be making himself essential,” Mann wrote in Smithsonian. “But from the Pilgrims’ accounts of their dealings with him, the answer seems clear: the alternative to staying in Plymouth was returning to Massasoit and renewed captivity.”
It’s all a lot more complicated – Machiavellian, even – than the story you might have learned. Mann in Smithsonian again: “By fall the settlers’ situation was secure enough that they held a feast of thanksgiving. Massasoit showed up with “some ninety men,” Winslow later recalled, most of them with weapons. The Pilgrim militia responded by marching around and firing their guns in the air in a manner intended to convey menace. Gratified, both sides sat down, ate a lot of food and complained about the Narragansett. Ecce Thanksgiving.”
So what does this all mean? “While it was by far not the first occasion of human trafficking conducted by European explorers to the new world, the capture of Squanto and his fellow tribesmen would forever alter the course of history for people on two continents,” Peters wrote on the anniversary website. “We learn about Columbus landing in 1492 and it’s as if nothing happened for over 100 years until the Pilgrims landed,” Mann added. “But the Tisquantum story gives you this tiny peek into that all the people involved had been interacting for more than a century. And today, of course, the Wampanoag are still around.”
"How It Really Is"
"That's where it all begins. That's where we all get screwed big time as we grow up. They tell us to think, but they don't really mean it. They only want us to think within the boundaries they define. The moment you start thinking for yourself - really thinking - so many things stop making any sense. And if you keep thinking, the whole world just falls apart. Nothing makes sense anymore. All rules, traditions, expectations - they all start looking so fake, so made up. You want to just get rid of all this stuff and make things right. But the moment you say it, they tell you to shut up and be respectful. And eventually you understand that nobody wants you to really think for yourself.”
- Ray N. Kuili, “Awakening"
Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Aldi!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 11/22/23
"Stocking Up At Aldi!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Aldi and are stocking up on some of these great deals on groceries. Aldi is having a massive holiday sale, and we all need to be taking advantage of this opportunity. We take you with us and show all of these great deals going on!"
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Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell , Posted 11/21/23
"Russian Typical Supermarket: Globus"
"What does a Russian Typical (German) Hypermarket look like inside. Join me as i take a tour inside Globus, one of the most popular Hypermarket in Russia. Discover what a real Russian Typical (German) Hypermarket looks like."
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"One Could Make People Believe..."
“One could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness."
- Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism"
"JFK's Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve"
"JFK's Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve"
by John P. Curran
“Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution specifically says that Congress is the only body that can "coin money and regulate the value thereof." The US Constitution has never been amended to allow anyone other than Congress to coin and regulate currency. So what’s the Federal Reserve?
In 1910 Senator Nelson Aldrich, then Chairman of the National Monetary Commission, in collusion with representatives of the European central banks, devised a plan to pressure and deceive Congress into enacting legislation that would covertly establish a private central bank. This bank would assume control over the American economy by controlling the issuance of its money. After a huge public relations campaign, engineered by the foreign central banks, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was slipped through Congress during the Christmas recess, with many members of the Congress absent. President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by his political and financial backers, signed it on December 23, 1913. The act created the Federal Reserve System, a name carefully selected and designed to deceive. "Federal" would lead one to believe that this is a government organization. "Reserve" would lead one to believe that the currency is being backed by gold and silver. "System" was used in lieu of the word "bank" so that one would not conclude that a new central bank had been created.
In reality, the act created a private, for profit, central banking corporation owned by a cartel of private banks. The Federal Reserve Bank, a.k.a Federal Reserve System, is a Private Corporation. Black's Law Dictionary defines the "Federal Reserve System" as: "A Network of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves." Privately-owned banks own the stock of the FED. Who owns the FED? The Rothschilds of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb and Warburg of Germany; and the Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York. Did you know that the FED is the only for-profit corporation in America that is exempt from both federal and state taxes? The FED takes in trillions of dollars per year tax free! The banking families listed above get all that money.
The FED basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the FED banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it's interesting to note that the Federal Reserve Act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave Congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the FED over the economy is universally admitted. Any one person or any closely knit group who has a lot of money has a lot of power. Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money. Imagine the power these people would have. This is exactly what the privately owned FED is!
An often overlooked aspect of John F. Kennedy's attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the Constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.
When Kennedy signed this Order, it returned to the federal government, specifically the Treasury Department, the Constitutional power to create and issue currency- money - without going through the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. President Kennedy's Executive Order 11110 gave the Treasury Department the explicit authority: "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This means that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation based on the silver bullion physically held there. As a result, more than $4 billion in United States Notes were brought into circulation in $2 and $5 denominations. $10 and $20 United States Notes were never circulated but were being printed by the Treasury Department when Kennedy was assassinated.
It appears obvious that President Kennedy knew the Federal Reserve Notes being used as the purported legal currency were contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America. Kennedy knew that if the silver-backed United States Notes were widely circulated, they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve Notes. This is a very simple matter of economics. The USN was backed by silver and the FRN was not backed by anything of intrinsic value. Executive Order 11110 should have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level (virtually all of the nearly $37.7 trillion in federal debt has been created since 1963) if LBJ or any subsequent President were to enforce it. It would have almost immediately given the U.S. Government the ability to repay its debt without going to the private Federal Reserve Banks and being charged interest to create new "money". Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S.A. the ability to, once again, create its own money backed by silver and realm value worth something.
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation. Federal Reserve Notes continued to serve as the legal currency of the nation. According to the United States Secret Service, 99% of all U.S. paper "currency" circulating in 1999 are Federal Reserve Notes. It seems very apparent that President Kennedy challenged the "powers that exist behind U.S. and world finance."
Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to all future presidents not to interfere with the private Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. The Latin phrase, “Cui bono” ("To whose benefit?," literally "as a benefit to whom?”), is frequently applied in determining motive for a crime. Ask yourself, who had the most to lose if Kennedy had lived, and who benefited the most from Kennedy’s assassination? The answer is the same to both questions."
- http://rense.com/general76/jfkvs.htm
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"No man did more to expose the power of the FED than Louis T. McFadden, who was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee back in the 1930s. In describing the FED, he remarked in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June 10, 1932: "Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and he people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the maladministration of that law by which the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."
Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are not Government institutions, departments, or agencies. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers. Those 12 private credit monopolies were deceitfully placed upon this country by bankers who came here from Europe and who repaid us for our hospitality by undermining our American institutions.
The FED basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the FED banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it's interesting to note that the Federal Reserve Act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the FED over the economy is universally admitted. Some people, especially in the banking and academic communities, even support it. On the other hand, there are those, such as President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, that have spoken out against it. His efforts were spoken about in Jim Marrs' 1990 book "Crossfire":
"Another overlooked aspect of Kennedy's attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.
Kennedy's comptroller of the currency, James J. Saxon, had been at odds with the powerful Federal Reserve Board for some time, encouraging broader investment and lending powers for banks that were not part of the Federal Reserve system. Saxon also had decided that non-Reserve banks could underwrite state and local general obligation bonds, again weakening the dominant Federal Reserve banks. In a comment made to a Columbia University class on Nov. 12, 1963, ten days before his assassination, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy allegedly said: "The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight. In this matter, John Fitzgerald Kennedy appears to be the subject of his own book... a true "Profile of Courage."
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Executive Order 11110
AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:
SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended — (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j): "(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption," and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.
SECTION 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made."
JOHN F. KENNEDY
THE WHITE HOUSE
June 4, 1963
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Once again, Executive Order 11110 is still valid. According to Title 3, United States Code, Section 301 dated January 26, 1998: The 1974 and 1987 amendments, added after Kennedy's 1963 amendment, did not change or alter any part of Kennedy's EO 11110. A search of Presidential Directives has shown no reference to any alterations, suspensions, or changes to EO 11110."
- http://www.lust-for-life.org/
Tom Clay, "What The World Needs Now"
Full screen recommended.
Tom Clay, "What The World Needs Now"
Detroit DJ Tom Clay brought this out in the early 1970's and was seen as a celebration of the message behind that spread by John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.
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Canadian Prepper, "Breaking: Iran On Full Combat Alert, 12 Hours To Next Phase"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/21/23
"Breaking: Iran On Full Combat Alert,
12 Hours To Next Phase; Biblical Oil Crisis Looms"
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Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Jeremiah Babe, "Big Trouble For The Economy, The Economic Endgame Will Be Brutal;
Jeremiah Babe, 11/21/23
"Big Trouble For The Economy, The Economic
Endgame Will Be Brutal; Home Sales Collapse"
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Gerald Celente, "Retail Recession, Global Panic"
Very strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 11/21/23
"Retail Recession, Global Panic"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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