"Chaos Reigns In The Streets Of America As An Epic Crime Wave Terrorizes The Nation"

"Chaos Reigns In The Streets Of America

 As An Epic Crime Wave Terrorizes The Nation"

by Michael Snyder

"If you were hoping that the United States would become a lawless society, you have now gotten your wish. Some of the numbers that I am about to share with you are just mind blowing. For example, I had no idea that police in New York City were injured by criminals thousands of times last year. All over the nation, law enforcement is losing control and violent criminals are getting the upper hand. We have never seen anything quite like this before, and I am entirely convinced that this crime wave is only going to get worse as economic conditions deteriorate. Even in our capital city, crime is completely and utterly out of control. If you can believe it, the number of carjackings in Washington D.C. was up 97.9 percent last year…

"Residents of the District of Columbia paid the sixth-highest amount on car insurance when compared to the 50 states in 2023 with an average annual full-coverage rate of $2,756 last year – which amounts to nearly $230 a month, according to a report by Insurify. The report found that Washington, D.C., residents’ car insurance premiums were 37% higher than the national average, which was $2,019 for a full-coverage policy, as national auto insurance rates increased by 24% last year.

Police data show carjackings in the nation’s capital spiked by 97.9% in 2023 with 958 reported carjackings last year compared to 484 in 2022, with motor vehicle theft up 82% from 3,756 in 2022 to 6,829 in 2023. Vehicle theft in the greater Washington-Maryland-Virginia area also rose by 68% last year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau."

Vehicle theft is even worse in some areas along the west coast. In Oakland, approximately one out of every 30 residents had a vehicle stolen from them in 2023…"Robberies grew 38% last year in Oakland, according to police data. Burglaries increased 23%. Motor vehicle theft jumped 44%. Roughly one of every 30 Oakland residents had a car stolen last year, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis."

On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was taking action, deploying 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the surrounding area to conduct a law enforcement surge operation. The aim: to crack down on crime, including vehicle theft, retail theft and violent crime. Gavin Newsom wants to run for president at some point, and so he doesn’t want to look soft on crime. Unfortunately for him, it is way too late for that.

Other west coast cities are also experiencing unprecedented crime waves. In Seattle, one restaurant has actually been broken into five times in the last six months…"The sound of crashing glass has become too familiar at Sandia, a Mexican restaurant in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood on NE 45th Street. “As of today, now we have been broken into five times,” said Nathan Yeager, the owner. In the surveillance video provided to KING 5, you can see criminals break the front door with a crowbar, climb over the counter, steal money from the till, and then sneak around while looking in every door for something to take."

There is no way that I would open a small business in Seattle. Or Portland. Or Oakland. Or San Francisco. Or Los Angeles. Of course I could say the exact same thing about many cities on the east coast as well. In New York City, police officers “are getting beaten at a record-setting pace”…"City cops are getting beaten at a record-setting pace - a disturbing and dangerous trend fueled by radical protests, an influx of criminal migrants, bail reform, anti-cop rhetoric and soft-on-crime prosecutors, experts told The Post. The number of cops hurt by suspects surged 20% in 2022, when 4,724 uniformed officers suffered injuries in attacks, compared to 3,933 in 2021. But the law enforcement nightmare grew worse last year, when 4,077 cops were hurt by suspects in just the first nine months of 2023 - on pace for a record-breaking 5,436 injuries, the latest NYPD stats show."

At this stage in our societal collapse, the criminals are not even afraid to attack the cops. It is so difficult to be a police officer these days. They literally put their lives on the line for us every single day. Of course the Biden administration has made the national crime wave significantly worse by allowing millions upon millions of migrants to come pouring over the southern border. In fact, we just learned that police in the Big Apple have arrested a “very, very violent” migrant that shot a tourist in the leg “after opening fire in Times Square”…"A teenager gunman burst into tears as he was hauled away in handcuffs for allegedly shooting a tourist in the leg after opening fire in Times Square. Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, 15, a migrant from Venezuela, was arrested by US Marshals in Yonkers after a nearly day-long manhunt. NYPD Deputy Chief of Detectives Jason Savino called him a ‘very, very violent’ suspect who recklessly fired a ‘very large’ .45 caliber handgun in a crowded area of New York City."

Needless to say, our wide open borders have also made it easy for cartels to transport drugs all over the country. Earlier today, I came across an article that explained that drugs that are produced in Mexico have been flooding the state of Montana…"Illegal drugs have long flowed from Mexico to the more remote parts of the U.S. But with the rise of fentanyl, cartel associates have pushed more aggressively into Montana, where pills can be sold for 20 times the price they get in urban centers closer to the border, state and federal law enforcement officials said.

Cartels have been particularly focusing on Indian reservations throughout Montana, and one state lawmaker says that it seems like “fentanyl is raining on our reservation”…"On some reservations, cartel associates have formed relationships with Indigenous women as a way of establishing themselves within communities to sell drugs, law enforcement officials and tribal leaders said. More frequently, traffickers lure Native Americans into becoming dealers by giving away an initial supply of drugs and turning them into addicts indebted to the cartels. “Right now it’s as if fentanyl is raining on our reservation,” said Marvin Weatherwax, Jr., who serves on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and represents the 15th district in the Montana House of Representatives."

There is nowhere that you can go in the U.S. to completely escape all of this. From coast to coast, our society is literally coming apart at the seams. In Alabama, thieves recently stole an entire 200-foot tall radio tower…"A landscaper in Jasper, Alabama, was doing a property cleanup when the crew discovered that a 200-foot radio tower was missing. Brett Elmore, general manager of WJLX, said that every piece of equipment at the radio tower’s site had been stolen and the wires cut out.

“This is going to get out eventually, so I might as well make it public before it does,” Elmore wrote on Facebook. “I have heard of thieves in this area stealing anything, but this one takes the cake. This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we have … when [they] arrived, he called and notified me that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE!” the radio manager wrote."

If things are this bad now, what will our society look like once millions upon millions of people in this country become extremely desperate? You might want to think about that, because we really are right on the brink of an extremely apocalyptic chapter in human history. But most people don’t want to think about such things. Most people just want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that everything is okay.

It can be so easy to ignore what is really going on in the world and tune in to the alternate reality that television creates for us. Did you know that a 30 second commercial during this year’s Super Bowl cost 7 million dollars? After sitting in front of the television for a few hours, you may be tempted to buy into the fictional reality that they are trying to sell you. But the truth is that life in America is not good right now, and the crime in our streets is only going to intensify during the months and years ahead."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

The best little whorehouse, well, anywhere...

Bill Bonner, "The Farmers Revolt"

"The Farmers Revolt"

All across Europe the natives are getting restless...

by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - "The natives are getting restless. Driving through France, you see road signs turned upside down. We didn’t know what to make of it. “That’s the farmers,” a friend informed us. “They’re turning the signs upside down because they say the whole system of farm regulations is upside down.”

Bloomberg: "Farmers’ Revolt Threatens Election Year Upsets Around the World." "Eric Foucault is driving his hulking green tractor more slowly than he can walk. Shouting into his mobile phone above the cacophony of engines and horns, the farmer from south of Paris is one of 200 others clogging up the highway into the French capital. Foucault and his fellow protesters are restless, their list of grievances long: soaring costs, increasing bureaucracy, new European Union regulations in its Green Deal and imports diluting their markets. “He who sows misery reaps anger,” says one of their placards."

France isn’t the only country where the feds are planting misery. The Guardian: "Thousands of tractors block Berlin…An estimated 30,000 protesters, including farmers supported by a wide range of representatives from other industries from fishing to gastronomy to logistics, blocked the streets around the government quarter on Monday with their vehicles, including lorries and forklift trucks, and even children’s toy tractors."

The Cost of Government: As we saw yesterday, ‘inflation’ takes several forms. There’s monetary inflation, fiscal inflation, and regulatory inflation. Choose your poison. Either way, the ‘inflation’ is a cost of government; prices are higher than they would be otherwise because of some government policy. The more policies, the higher the prices.

Joseph Tainter proposes that the rise and fall of civilizations traces an arc of inflation. Inevitably, a society faces challenges. Its elites find solutions…which inevitably lead to more wealth and power for the elite themselves. Each ‘solution’ imposes some form of cost, aka inflation – via taxes, regulations, controls, government spending or money-printing. Finally, the costs become so great that the society sinks into ‘the swamp.’

This implies that the cost of government is actually a lot higher than you think – and eventually, fatal. And you can’t measure it only by adding up consumer prices and taxes. Look at countries that have had large, ambitious governments – the Soviet Union, North Korea, or Hitlerian Germany. (In 1945, nearly half of Germany’s entire GDP was devoted to its military and firepower industries.) People in these countries do not necessarily suffer from rising consumer prices; prices are typically controlled, along with everything else. But they always suffer. And usually from a form of state-imposed shrinkflation, where the availability and quality of goods and services shrinks…until there is little left. And then, it is just a matter of time (perhaps a long time) before the system fails completely.

Pretending to Pay: In the Soviet Union people used to say ‘we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.’ The ‘work’ – directed as it was by the deciders – was largely useless. Taxi drivers, for example, were paid on the basis of how many miles they drove each day. They soon developed a scam…jacking up the rear of the taxi, they idled the motor as the wheels turned and the odometer spun around. Then, they took the ration of gas that they hadn’t used, by not picking up passengers and not taking them where they wanted to go, and sold it on the black market. But when they got paid, they discovered that other parts of the economy had been similarly corrupted; there was nothing much to buy.

To reduce this to a memorable axiom: the larger the government, the poorer the people. And it’s not just the farmers who are up in arms. Here’s the latest from France. The Western Journal: "Nationalist and populist movements are making great strides across Europe – even in France, where the once-thought-powerless right-wing National Rally party is surging in the polls. While the next presidential election in France is still three years away, a new poll shows National Rally's Marine Le Pen is leading and could win the 2027 race."

In Pakistan, voters just sent the political establishment a warning: “It is now evident that there is much anger against the establishment’s open and constant interference in civilian matters - interference which has only grown over the years because there has been no firm political consensus against it,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper wrote in a post-election editorial.

In Argentina, Mr. Milei, the most audacious of the reformers, tries to undo 70 years of policy mistakes. The OCRegister: "As Milei proved in Argentina, far-left status quos can’t last forever and can be defeated."

Straw Poll: In America, voters face a grim choice – between a geriatric hack…and a political grifter; what can they do? Dan Denning reports: Watched the Super Bowl last night with family and friends...the ads are always a big deal. The three ads everyone remembered:

1. A State Farm ad with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2. An ad about Jesus ...showing people who are traditionally enemies/adversaries washing one another's feet.

3. And RFK, Jr. for President as an Independent using the theme song and images from JFK's campaign (evocative of all the Camelot nostalgia).

Quick straw poll of a traditionally conservative family had three members saying they'd vote for RFK, Jr. over either Trump or Biden. What’s next? Will someone really ‘drain the swamp?’ Or, will we drown in it?"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

o

"The Collapse Of Complex Societies"

"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. "The Collapse of Complex Societies," though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."

Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here;

- https://ia600106.us.archive.org/

"The Dark Years Are Here"

"The Dark Years Are Here" (Excerpt)

by Egon von Greyerz

Excerpt: "A Global Monetary & Commodity Inferno Of Nuclear Proportions: When the sh-t hits the global fan, it often does it at the optimal time for the maximum amount of damage and with the worst kind of sh-t to soil the world. For years I have been clear that the world is reaching the end of an economic, financial and monetary era which will affect mankind catastrophically for decades.

The world will obviously blame Putin for the catastrophe which will hit every corner of our planet. But we must remember that neither Putin nor Covid is the reason for the economic cataclysm that we are now approaching. These events are catalysts which will have a major effect because they are hitting a gigantic debt bubble of a magnitude that has never been seen before in history. And it obviously takes very little to prick this epic bubble.

What is unequivocal is that all currencies will finish the 100+ year fall to ZERO in the next few years. It is also crystal clear that all the asset bubbles – stocks, bonds and property – will implode at the same time leading to a long and deep depression.

We had the warning in 2006-9 but central banks ignored it and just added new worthless debt to existing worthless debt to create worthless debt squared – an obvious recipe for disaster. So as is often typical for the end of an economic era, the catalyst is totally unexpected and worse than anyone could have forecast."

• "Von Greyerz – The Dark Years Are Starting"

• https://goldbroker.com/news/

• Von Greyerz, "The Dark Years Are Here II"

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Related, highly recommended:

"Dark Years & The Fourth Turning"

Greg Hunter, "$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen"

"$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen – 

Egon von Greyerz"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"There is sufficiency in the world 

for Man's need but not for his greed." 

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.

EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 quadrillion, and that’s with a global GDP of $80 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era. 

These derivatives, at some point in the coming few years, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”

EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything. 

Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it. The risk is increasing exponentially,  and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com. 

- https://rumble.com/

o

"Five Wall Street Banks Hold $223 Trillion in Derivatives - 

83 Percent of All Derivatives at 4,600 Banks"

Gregory Mannarno, "Epic Warning From JP Morgan! 'People Will Lose Their Homes, Spending Power, Security'"

Gregory Mannarno, AM 2/13/24

"Epic Warning From JP Morgan! 

'People Will Lose Their Homes, Spending Power, Security'"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/13/24

"Blow Up! Stock Market Crates As Bonds Sell Off Big Time"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "You Owe WHAT Now?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 2/13/24

"You Owe WHAT Now?"

"We are seeing seniors that are becoming homeless, because they have been paid too much Social Security. It is making people homeless to where they cannot pay for essentials."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "$60 Nachos For The Brain Dead; Living In A Shed/Tiny House Is The American Dream"

Jeremiah Babe, 2/12/24

"$60 Nachos For The Brain Dead; 

Living In A Shed/Tiny House Is The American Dream"

"Living in a shed or tiny house is now becoming a charming dream for so many Americans that have been priced out of the market and who now have to work multiple hospitality jobs just to get by. The brain dead were spending $60 for nachos at the super bowl as the NFL price gouged their fans."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! NATO Will Enter Ukraine Soon; Austin Down!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 2/12/24

"Alert! NATO Will Enter Ukraine Soon; Austin Down!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002,"When I See You Again"

Full screen recommended.

2002,"When I See You Again"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large, dusty, spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this rich telescopic image. The field of view spans nearly 2 degrees, or about 4 times the width of the Full Moon, toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus. 

 Click image for larger size.

About 13 million light-years distant, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. But X-ray and infrared observations reveal even more high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090109.html

"Here's A Question..."

“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like – people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore – to control your life? How long?” - Andy Stanley

“That goes for old wounds, too, you know. I really wish we’d had the chance to talk before this,” he says, cracking the window so the smoke can escape. “There’s a Longfellow quote I have stuck on my bulletin board at the church office – ‘There is no grief like the grief that does not speak’ – and it’s true. I’ve found that keeping pain inside doesn’t give it a chance to heal, but bringing it out into the light, holding it right there in your hands and trusting that you’re strong enough to make it through, not hating the pain, not loving it, just seeing it for what it really is can change how you go on from there. Time alone doesn’t heal emotional wounds, and you don’t want to live the rest of your life bottled up with anger and guilt and bitterness. That’s how people self-destruct.” - Laura Wiess

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; 

it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." 

- Sydney J. Harris 

"Don’t Waste Time, That’s All You Have"

"Don’t Waste Time, That’s All You Have"

by John Wilder

"One of Seneca's (Dead Roman Philosopher Dude) most famous quotes is, "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." What surprises me is that Seneca wrote this before Twitter® existed. But even back in the time of Rome, there were ways to waste time. I’m thinking Facebook® might be that old.

Regardless, his message is timeless: every moment that we’re breathing here on Earth is precious. We may not always get a choice as to how we spend our time (Ted Kaczynski seems to be booked every day) but the true crime is to waste time. Oh, and blowing people up.

I have been as guilty as anyone of wasting time. And one of the biggest wastes of time is to become consumed by negative thoughts and emotions. In reality, most of the time (most) the things that irritate me are small. How small? So small that if I pack up my emotions, and really assess as to why I’m mad, it just looks silly. When Hillary reflects on why she’s mad, well, she calls the Suicide Hotline and places an order.

But that reflection is crucial. It’s called self-control, and although it appears to be unfashionable in certain locations (Chicago, I’m looking at you) it is the only way to be successful. If I threw a temper tantrum when (spins wheel) I drop a sock on the floor, I think there’s a simple word for that in the English language: Leftist feminist the ATF unstable.

No, when I’m upset I stop. I take a deep breath. I ask myself, “Does it matter?” Most of the time, it doesn’t. At all. Very few of the things that have irritated me matter at all over any rational timeframe. The old two rules apply: 1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. 2. It’s all small stuff.

The second question is, can I control whatever the situation is or influence it? If the answer is no, then that’s like being mad that the Sun is coming up in the morning. Even if it’s my mistake, it’s sillier than being angry over the English coal minimum price subsidy in the 1800s or...anything that happened in 1619.

One concept I’ve come across recently is "amor fati," which is Latin for “put armor on fat people”. Oh, wait, my translator was wrong. It really means, "love your fate." I think I first heard a variation of this when I was a kid: “You get what you get, and you’ll like it, and grease up the fat people so we can put plate mail on them.”

The reality of amor fati is this, though: I am where I am, and I have a choice. I can get up every morning and be mad, or I can be happy where I am. Does that mean I’m content? No. Does that mean I’m not going to fight like hell? No. Does that mean I’m not going to try to change certain things with the fire of a thousand suns? No.

It does mean that if life sucks, I can still find meaning, still find purpose, and still try to create the change that I seek to create. It’s not complacency. Heck, Seneca himself was one of the richest dudes in all of Rome. That didn’t just happen. He didn’t just wake up one morning, and say, “Holy crap, I have an amazing amount of money. How did that happen?” Seneca embraced what he had, and tried to better himself, and change himself. He did okay.

Our choices are our choices, but even more than that, we always have the choice how we feel, even Ted Kaczynski. We may have lost everything else, but we always retain that. We should not be overcome by fear or despair. To be clear – those are just about the most negative things we can let into our lives, unless you know one of the women on 'The View.'

The only proper way to deal with tough times is to face into them. Our obstacles make us stronger. Each obstacle we face with virtue and excellence improves us. Except for bullets. Those sound like they really suck.

Regardless of all of that, the first point is still the most important: our lives aren’t too short – our lives are exactly as long as they are. Deal with it. Love it. Use your time – every minute. Every second you waste? It’s wasting your life. Now, go make something happen."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

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The Alan Parsons Project, "Time" 

The Daily "Near You?"

Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Bill Bonner, "Crooks and Cronies"

"Crooks and Cronies"

Joe Biden's dusty memory,

 the giant debt iceberg and creeping ‘inflation normative'...

by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - "Last week brought more evidence that America’s captain is losing his mind. CBS Boston: When President Joe Biden's memory was called into question this week, it touched off a debate about whether an 81-year-old is mentally fit to run the country. "My memory is fine," said Biden, defending himself at a news conference Thursday. He went on to talk about tensions in Gaza and mistakenly referred to the leader of Egypt as the president of Mexico. No matter. The system is set up so that the chief executive can be a complete moron; it won’t make any difference. The ship stays on course. Unfortunately, it is on course for its own destruction. That is, it is headed to more inflation and debt.

Fortune: "Jamie Dimon says Washington is facing a global market "rebellion" because of the tab it is racking up, while Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan believes it's time to stop admiring the problem and instead do something about it. Elsewhere "The Black Swan" author Nassim Taleb says the economy is in a "death spiral", while Fed chairman Jerome Powell says it's past time to have an "adult conversation" about fiscal responsibility. A debt crisis is the ‘most predictable crisis in US history.’ We all see it coming. And yet, according to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, it’s not “yet on top of the political agenda.”

Iceberg Ahead! Meanwhile, ‘The Hill,’ calls it the ‘biggest cause of America’s decline’: "Uncontrollable U.S. Debt: The U.S. Debt Clock displays the inevitability of American decline -a “ticking time bomb” of data and financial evidence - especially the following three. The U.S. government’s total unfunded liabilities - the combined amount of payments promised without funds to recipients of Social Security, Medicare, federal employee pensions, veterans’ benefits and federal debt held by the public - stand at $212 trillion, and are rapidly increasing. For context, that number was just $122 trillion as recently as 2019 and is projected by the Debt Clock to reach $288.9 trillion by 2028.

But how did the iceberg get so big? And why is it getting bigger? It is the most obvious danger in the North Atlantic; why are we heading straight for it? Let’s look more closely at ‘inflation.’ There, we may find an answer. There’s more than one cause. Here’s how they work:

Monetary inflation is simple. The feds ‘print’ up money to fund their boondoggles and reward their cronies. The extra cash and credit increase the money supply and raise prices. But the government doesn’t just hand out franklins and jacksons on the street corners. They borrow the money from the big banks, thereby increasing the nation’s debt.

Fiscal inflation is another way to increase prices. The politicians spend more than they raise in taxes. Again, the idea is to redistribute wealth, from the people who earned it to those groups favored by the political caste. The extra spending gives people cash to spend. Prices rise. And again, the government borrows money to cover the spending; debt goes up.

Crooks and Cronies: Many economists claim that government borrowing doesn’t actually cause inflation, because it merely takes ‘liquidity’ from savers and transfers it to spenders. The amount of ‘liquidity,’ remains the same. But what really happens is that while the amount of money may remain constant, the volume of useful goods and services goes down. Savers might otherwise support new factories and new businesses, thereby increasing output. Instead, the money goes to fund the feds’ fantasies and boondoggles, lowering real output. Prices rise.

And this is a good place to introduce a new concept, what the French call ‘inflation normative.’ There are ‘normes,’ regulations promulgated by the deciders in Paris or Brussels (home of the European Union bureaucracy.) These rules add up, year after year, benefiting specific groups, at the expense of everyone else. Some favored cronies and special interests get more of what they want. The rest of the population is hassled and hampered by pettifogging rules…and ultimately pays more for the goods and services it wants.

Give Up, Drop Out: For example, we are putting a wood stove in a little apartment that we are building in an outbuilding at the farm. Left to our own devices, we would connect it to an existing chimney. “You can’t do that…” says the plumber. “Why not?” “It’s not up to the ‘normes.’ All wood stoves need to be connected to a stainless steel tube in the center of the chimney.” “Well…okay…I’ll drop a tube down the chimney.” “No, you can’t do that. It has to be done by a licensed plumber.”

Just this week, a new rule increased the parking fees in Paris, for us, by 200%. We have an old, diesel-burning SUV. Henceforth, we will pay three times the regular parking fees – if it is allowed into the city at all. These are minor things – for us. For others, the inflation of regulations makes life not only more expensive, but almost impossible. The old give up and retire. The young drop out.

Complying with government ‘normes’ – like government spending itself – is counted in GDP. And people who apply them and enforce them are counted as gainfully employed. But ‘inflation normative’ gives us a false picture; real output goes down…and the debt becomes harder than ever to pay. More to come…"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Banks Without Cash - Your Money May Be Trapped!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, PM 2/12/24

"Banks Without Cash - 

Your Money May Be Trapped!"

"Banks don’t want to have cash on hand. There are even some banks

 that will not do any cash transactions. They tell you to go to the ATM."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Being Poor Ain't Cheap"

"Being Poor Ain't Cheap"

by Joshua Wilkey

"Poor people are cash cows. It makes no sense, really. One would think that poor people, by virtue of being poor, would not be profitable customers. However, for many large corporations that target the poor and working poor, there's big money to be made on the backs of those who have no money.

At Dollar General Store locations, customers can get cash back on their purchases. This is not novel. In fact, most all retailers these days offer this option. Soccer moms get cash back so they can have lunch money for their children. Restaurant patrons can get money back to leave a cash tip for their servers. I sometimes get cash back at the grocery store so I can buy Girl Scouts cookies on the way out. It's a simple process. Click "yes" when the little screen asks for cash back, tap the $20 icon, and the cashier hands you some bucks along with your receipt. We've all done it. For those who are poor and those of us who are not but who have limited retail options, however, there's often a sinister catch.

I noticed this a few years ago, first at Dollar Tree, then at Dollar General. There's a little asterisk after the standard "would you like cash back?" prompt. The footnote indicates that "a transaction fee may apply." The transaction fee is usually $1 no matter the amount of cash back. If one opts to get $10 cash back, one is charged a dollar. That's a ten percent fee, for a service that costs the retailer nothing. It's just another way for retailers like Dollar General to make a profit off of their customers, many of whom are very often living below the poverty line.

If an organic grocer or movie theater were charging a fee of this sort, I would likely be annoyed by it, but I wouldn't be so annoyed that I would write about it. However, the poorest members of our communities do not shop at Whole Foods, and they do not often get a chance to go see the latest blockbuster at the theater. They can afford neither. In fact, they likely do not have either organic grocers or first-run theaters in their neighborhoods. Instead, they have Dollar General. Dollar General's stores grow like kudzo in rural America. Even if there isn't a real grocery store in most tiny communities, there's probably a DG.

These ridiculous transaction fees are but one example of how corporations make billions of dollars by taking advantage of socioeconomically disadvantaged customers with few options. There are many other examples, though, and politicians continue to allow it at the expense of their poorest and most marginalized constituents.

Payday lending is one of the most sinister ways that large corporations exploit poor people. For those who are not familiar, payday lending goes something like this: People who are running short on money but who have a verified record of regular income (whether it be Social Security, SSI, payroll, etc.) are able to go to payday lenders and receive a cash loan to be repaid on payday. Often, borrowers are unable to repay their full loan balances and simply “roll over” their loan until a future payday, accruing all sorts of fees and additional interest. The annualized interest rate on these loans is often in the triple digits. Yes, that’s right. Sometimes the annual interest rate is over one hundred percent.

In defense of this practice, many payday lenders and their high-dollar lobbyists argue that they are simply offering a service to poor borrowers that said borrowers cannot obtain anywhere else. This is partially true. The poorest members of society have no access to traditional forms of credit. Some even lack access to checking accounts because of low credit scores or a history of financial missteps.

I know some people who make occasional use of payday lending because they genuinely have emergencies arise that they could not address without a short-term infusion of cash. I also know people, including members of my own family, who have been riding the high-interest payday loan merry-go-round for years, and who have paid thousands more back than they have borrowed yet still owe more. In debating the role of payday lending in our communities, it is essential that we take a nuanced approach. Some form of short-term credit is necessary for those mired in poverty. However, it is flat-out immoral that we regulate payday lending so loosely in many places that people end up feeling crushed under the weight of small high-interest loans that they have no hope of ever repaying. Taking out a $1,000 payday loan should not mean a person becomes tied to tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Another egregious example of corporations exploiting the poor is rent-to-own retailing. Companies like Aaron’s and Rent-a-Center purport to offer a valuable service for the poor. Because those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum are seldom able to save for big-ticket items like appliances or furniture, these retailers offer a pay-by-the-month scheme that often requires no credit check and no money down. The result is that customers pay as much as three times the retail price of the item, assuming they are able to make payments until the item is paid for. When they are not able to maintain the payments, the retailers simply show up to repossess the items.

Like payday lenders, rent-to-own retailers argue that they provide a valuable service to poor consumers. However, many observers, myself included, conclude that some rent-to-own practices are ethically questionable and tend to target vulnerable consumers who need immediate access to essentials like appliances and bedding. In many states, companies are not required to disclose the final price of the items. Instead, they simply tell customers the amount of the monthly or weekly payments. Because companies call the arrangement "rent-to-own," in many places they are not required to disclose the amount of "interest" customers will pay because it technically isn't interest. When consumers can no longer afford the payments and have to return the item, they often get no credit for payments they have made even if they have paid substantially more than the item is worth. Many customers never realize that they are paying as much as three times the retail price for their items. Those who do realize it likely have no choice apart from going without a bed or refrigerator.

In some instances, state attorneys general have successfully sued major rent-to-own retailers for violating usury and consumer protection laws. However, because these retailers are covered generally by state laws rather than by federal laws, there exists a hit-and-miss patchwork of regulations. Some consumers enjoy greater protections than others. The only determining factor is their location. Those states with more corporation-friendly attorneys general are unlikely to see any activity that might force retailers to behave more ethically toward their customers, because such enforcements will result in a drop in profitability for the retailers. Many major corporations spend good money to be sure that politicians protect their interests rather than the interests of consumers. Rent-to-own retailers and payday lenders are no exception. The poor, of course, can’t afford lobbyists or political contributions.

There are some who will argue that the free market, not the federal government, is the best solution to corporations that exploit the poor. However, those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum, especially the rural poor, do not live in anything resembling a free market. Also, it is important that we label the behavior of rent-to-own companies and payday lenders as what it is: exploitation.

In the hills of Appalachia, poverty is often the rule rather than the exception. One of the most poverty-stricken ZIP codes in the United States is Manchester, Kentucky. Manchester is located in Clay County, which has a population of just over 20,000 people. According to the most recent US Census data available, the per-capita income average between 2011 and 2015 was just $13,802 (less than half the national average) and 46% of the population lives below the poverty line. In Manchester, Rent-a-Center is often the go-to option for poor people looking to buy appliances or furniture. The county has a Walmart, but the nearest discount appliance and furniture dealers are miles away, too far for many to drive. There are some locally-owned options, but few in Clay County are able to pay cash for major purchases given the high rate of poverty and the low rate of employment.

In addition to the rent-to-own retailers, Clay County also has no less than five payday lenders, but only two traditional banks. Conveniently, the primary shopping center in Manchester currently houses a Dollar General, a Rent-a-Center, and two payday lending branches, all within feet of one another.

In places like Manchester, rent-to-own and payday lending outfits thrive. They do so often to the detriment of the poor folks who frequent their businesses. Those promoting the so-called free market approach might argue that customers are not forced to do business with these types of companies. However, given their dire financial circumstances and lack of available options, poor people in Manchester have little choice. They are excluded from participating in the wider world of commerce, often because of forces beyond their own control.

Manchester is not a rare exception. Particularly in central Appalachia, rent-to-own retailers are often the only option for poor people, and payday lenders outnumber banks by large measure. In addition to being food deserts, many poverty-stricken communities are retail deserts. In the most isolated rural areas in Appalachia, Dollar General is one of the only available retail options. Within ten miles of our house in rural Jackson County, NC, there are four Dollar General stores, and our community isn't even particularly isolated. Dollar General is the closest store to our home, and my wife and I tend to shop there by default because it is either that or a ten minute drive to the closest grocery store, or worse, a twenty minute drive into town. While we have the resources to go to town any time we want, many of our neighbors do not. The folks in the trailer park down the road often walk to Dollar General because they have few other options. This does not seem much like a free market driven by competition. Therefore, "free market" solutions simply do not work here.

Dollar General is, I believe, fully aware of the demographics of their shoppers. They know that there are often few ATMs near their locations, and their customers often lack access to traditional banking anyway and end up paying fees of three or four dollars to access their money at ATMs. Especially for people who depend on Social Security or SSI for their income, access to money is an important issue. Dollar General and similar retailers, it seems, understand this. Their solution is not to offer a resource for their customers but to profit from their customers’ limited access to funds. It's cheaper than an ATM, but it's a fee more affluent shoppers never have to think about. While there is nothing illegal about this, it is certainly morally questionable.

That’s the thing about the so-called free market. It makes no accounting for moral right or wrong. That, free market proponents allege, is up to the consumers. Poor consumers, however, still need to eat. They still need ovens and beds. Consumer choice and self-advocacy is often, like so many forms of social or political action, a full-stomach endeavor. When one is hungry, one’s ability to be an activist is diminished. When poor people have no choice but to do business with the greedy companies who reap a hefty profit from their customers' lack of options, those drawing the short straw simply do what they must to survive. Surviving is what poor people do best, and it makes for a miserable life. I know, because I have been there.

When poor people have little option but to do business with discount retailers who charge cash-back fees, rent-to-own retailers who charge inflated prices, and payday lenders who mire their customers neck-deep in impossible-to-pay-back high-interest loans, they are even less likely to ever escape poverty. The stark reality is that poor people often pay substantially more for essentials – bedding, appliances, housing – than would those of us with means. If my wife and I needed a new washer, we'd shop around for the best deal and go buy it. In fact, we might even buy it from Amazon Prime and get free two-day shipping. When my mother, who lived her entire life in poverty, needed a new washer, she was forced to buy one from a rent-to-own outfit that charged her an outrageous delivery fee and hassled her every time she was even a few hours late on a payment. She probably ended up paying $2,000 for a $450 washer. The poor do not have access to Amazon Prime like the rest of us because they can't afford a hundred bucks a year to subscribe. They do not get free delivery and obscenely low prices. They get fleeced.

The limited options available to those in poverty are rarely considered by the political ideologues who are so prone to victim-blaming. These retailers, who are all too often protected by state and federal lawmakers from both parties, package their predatory tactics as opportunities. What they are really selling are tickets on yet another segment of the poverty train. The politicians who protect them should be deprived of options and see just how much more expensive it is to survive. They should be ashamed for protecting those who profit from poverty, and those of us who know about it and have the resources to fight back should be ashamed for letting it happen to our neighbors."

- https://www.thisappalachialife.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"'The Graveyard Of Israel', Regional Armageddon in the Middle East"

MUST WATCH!

Full screen recommended.

Breaking Points, 2/12/24

"Bibi Bombs Rafah As Egypt Threatens War"

"Krystal and Saagar discuss Benjamin Netanyahu 

bombing Rafah, Gaza as Egypt threatens war."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 2/12/24

"Alastair Crooke: 

 Regional Armageddon in the Middle East"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 2/12/24

"'Ready For War': Putin Ally's Big Declaration 

Against Israel; Iran FM In Israel's Backyard"

"Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid Israel's all-out war in Gaza. Hossein issued a warning to Israel during a press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, and said, "There will not be any Zionist action without a response." Mekdad also threatened Israel, saying, "Syria has waged several wars against the Zionist entity and is ready for new wars."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 2/12/24

"'Ready For Israel’s Full-blown Collapse': 

Iran FM Near Israel's Golan Heights With Bashar Al-Asad"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 2/12/24

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Ridiculous!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Aldi and are noticing some massive price increases on groceries and other products. It continues to get rough out here as many families continue to struggle to put food on the table!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 2/12/24: Full-Blown Liquidity Crisis"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/12/24

"Full-Blown Liquidity Crisis Worsening Much Faster!

 This Is Not An Accident!"

- https://traderschoice.net

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/12/24

"The System Is Destabilizing, 

Expect Hyper-Debt And More War Moving Forward"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Think About It"

"Think About It"

by Jim Kunstler

“It’s not enough to be against globalism or the WEF, 

we have to also be for something better.” 

- Tom Luongo, Gold, Goats ‘n Guns

"Mr. Luongo makes an important point. I want you to think about this: there is a reason that the WEF-Globalist cabal is losing the battle to control and dominate the rest of us. They are trying to power straight into the opposing currents of reality. Above all, they seek to centralize power and decision-making. But the world is moving in the opposite direction. All of the WEF’s aims founder on the macro trends unspooling in history.

The rising rule for human affairs now is that anything organized at the giant scale is going to wobble and fail. There will not be any world government run by the creatures of Davos or Brussels, or Washington DC, or any other place that the grandiose imagine would be their seat of global power. It’s not going to happen so you can stop worrying about it. But you’d better prepare for what is happening: everything in our world wants to get smaller, slower, finer, and more local. Anything that opposes these trends is pissing into the wind.

Since every activity we humans practice has to move in that direction, we are seeing colossal industries, institutions, and arrangements crack up: everything from national government to long-distance supply chains to giant retailing outfits to worldwide business networks to overgrown universities and high schools to transport matrices to metroplex cities to mega-farms to political parties.

Where the rot is probably greatest, but more veiled for the moment, is in the operations of organized capital, the banks and money systems, including financial markets. When these monsters blow, as they must, all the others will shake, rattle, and roll. They have to blow because the fuel tank is emptying.

American oil production may be at an all-time peak now at about 13-million barrels-a-day, but most of that - about 8-million - is shale oil, which is a manifestation of our tremendous debt roll-up since 2009. Now that we’re at the absolute limits of debt, we’re also at the limits of shale oil. The production of shale oil paralleled the accumulation of all that debt both in size and rate of increase, and as the debt goes bad - meaning, unpayable - the organized capital sector will blow and shale oil production will fall as sharply as it rose. It is also a fact that shale oil is subject to natural limits - we’re out of “sweet spots” to drill.

That’s America. Europe is way worse because aside from whatever oil is left in the North Sea (not much), Europe has no oil. Europe’s largest gas field - Groningen in the Netherlands - is scheduled to cease operations in October of this year. You all know what happened to the Nord Stream pipelines. And then Germany, in some psychotic fugue state, shut down its entire nuclear power industry, while France is just not replacing its nuke plants as they age-out. Europe is completely screwed. They won’t have anything we might call modern industry. In the meantime, the WEF is playing them like a flugelhorn, keeping them distracted with “green” politics, an unchecked immigrant invasion, and sexual confusion.

A lot of the same nuttery afflicts us in the USA, of course, but none of that alters the real macro trends. Our federal government is not really getting more powerful, it’s cracking up, starting from the very top, with a mentally incompetent president - the secret that everybody knows. Agencies like the DOJ and Homeland Security may seem more tyrannical for the moment, but they are actually breaking as institutions because in their lawlessness they’ve lost the trust of the people - and nothing is more fundamental to a civilized society than trust in the law. That’s what consent of the governed means.

So, the period of disorderly transition we’re in is not moving toward greater dominance by giants, but to the survival of the small and nimble. We will not see capital formation like the orgy of recent times; rather the vanishing of things falsely presumed to be capital, contraction not expansion. You’ll be struggling to identify and preserve real wealth, which you’ll find in unexpected places, like the friends you can count on, your reputation for honesty, your dependability, acquired skills, and your health, physical and psychological.

The WEF won’t be able to impose its Globalist nightmare of elite transhumanism and surveilled bug-eating serfs, and they know it now. They’re running scared. The vile Yuval Noah Harari has even said so publicly. The political figures and agents serving that cabal will be lucky if they are not hanged in the public squares. The political criminals here in America, the hoaxsters, the grifters, the seditionists, the Lawfare agents, the election fraudsters, know very well the danger of their looming prosecutions, and that’s exactly why the Democratic Party and its blob henchmen and flunkies are acting like desperate lunatics.

Expect: failed national governments, maybe even state governments; failed supply lines; failed electric supply, failed trucking, failed big box stores, failed supermarkets, failed giant companies; failed banks, failed investments, failed money, failed news orgs, failed airlines, failed car dealers, failed hospitals, failed colleges, and much more. But don’t discount human ingenuity and resourcefulness, our ability to work-around and reinvent systems for daily life, even if it’s on a downscaled and more modest level.

Expect rebuilt local economies from production to wholesale to retail. Expect smaller stores, fewer things to buy but much of it better quality. Expect a lot less long-distance travel but a lot more happening in your locality. Expect the rebirth of local culture - theaters, live music, news-sheets, dances - to replace all the canned entertainments we’re used to. Expect small private academies to rise to replace the shuttered central schools. Expect small, local clinics to appear from the ashes of the medical conglomerates. Expect Americans to return to churches as an organizing mechanism for community relations. Expect more formality and less slobbery in public. Expect all of us to feel a renewed sense of gratitude for being here instead of rage, resentment, and grievance, because it’s likely there will be far fewer of us around."

- https://kunstler.com/