Running 'Cause I Can't Fly 2

Thursday, June 27, 2024

"World War 3 Prelude, 6/27/24"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/27/24

"Dr. Gilbert Doctorow: Russian Retaliation!"

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Canadian Prepper, 6/27/24

"WW 3 Update: US Warns Citizens; Russia Diplomatic Emergency;

Israeli Tanks Approach Lebanon; EMP Nukes"

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Larry C. Johnson, 6/27/24

"Russia is Ready to Respond to NATO with Crushing Force"

Larry C. Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right.

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Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 6/27/24

"U.S. & NATO To Deploy 300,000 Soldiers in Ukraine?

Russia Big & Secret Move!"

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The Middle East

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Times Of India, 6/27/24

"Russia To Join Lebanon War If Israel Invades?

Moscow's Mega Naval Wargames In Mediterranean"

Russia 'spooks' West with its mega naval war games in the Mediterranean Sea. The crew of the missile cruiser Varyag demonstrated its war preparedness in the region. The Varyag crew completed tasks to detect and destroy small-sized high-speed targets. Fire at simulated targets was carried out using heavy machine guns “Kord” and “Utes.” The destruction by detonation of a floating sea mine was also displayed. The drills come amid fear of Israel and Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

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Oneindia News, 6/27/24

"‘Don’t Even Dare’: Turkish President Erdogan

Warns Israel Against Attacking Lebanon, Extends Support"

"Turkish President Erdogan warns of Israel's potential plans to expand conflict into Lebanon, accusing Western powers of supporting Israel behind the scenes. He criticizes Netanyahu and calls for Muslim countries to show more solidarity with Lebanon. These remarks have sparked tension between Turkey and Israel, with Israeli officials accusing Erdogan of supporting Hezbollah. The ongoing conflict has severely damaged Turkey-Israel relations, with Erdogan positioning Turkey as a strong advocate for Palestinian rights and critic of Israel's actions."

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Times Of India, 6/27/24

"'Revenge Coming...':

Houthis Warn As Israel Wipes Out Hamas Chief's Family"

The Ansarullah Political Bureau condoles the death of Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh’s sister and her family members in an IDF airstrike in northern Gaza. Ansarullah points out to the resilience and patience of Haniyeh. The Iran proxies further slammed Israeli arrogance and said that the latest attack shows their confusion and failure due to the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and the resistance.

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Times Now, 6/27/24

"Haniyeh's War Cry After Sister's Death In IDF's

Gaza Airstrike; Hamas Chief Fumes, Dares Israel"

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh suffered a major setback in Gaza carnage after his sister and family members were reportedly killed on June 25. As per Israeli media, airstrike by IDF in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City killed Haniyeh's relatives. IDF said Hamas terrorists used the targeted building, some of them were involved in the holding of Israeli hostages as well as part of the October 7 attack.

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Dan, I Allegedly, "Insider Tells All - Banks Are About To Fail"

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Dan, I Allegedly, 6/27/24

"Insider Tells All - Banks Are About To Fail"

"In this video, I reveal insider information from the commercial banking industry that's too critical to ignore. With banks like Flagstar and Zion Bank Corp. drowning in debt, we're on the brink of a massive collapse. Imagine banks having 300-500% more loans than their actual worth - it's a ticking time bomb!"

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Douglas Macgregor, "Nearly A Million Russian Troops Ready"

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Douglas Macgregor, 6/26/24

"Nearly A Million Russian Troops Ready"

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"Russia To Directly Attack USA? Putin Aide's Big Hint As Moscow Vows Revenge For Crimea"

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Times Of India, 6/26/24

"Russia To Directly Attack USA?

Putin Aide's Big Hint As Moscow Vows Revenge For Crimea"

"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow did not rule out a military response to a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimean beachgoers with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia said on Sunday that the United States was responsible for the Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five U.S.-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more."

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Hindustan Times, 6/26/24

"Putin Issues Chilling Warning To U.S. Over Crimea Strikes;

‘Will Not Go Unpunished…’"

"Tensions between Russia and the United States, are escalating following the deadly strikes in Crimea. Russia has blamed the U.S. and issued warnings of retaliation in response to the Crimea strike carried out by Ukrainian forces. This message was conveyed directly to U.S. envoy Lynne Tracy, who was summoned by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Additionally, Russia cautioned the U.S. diplomat about impending consequences for the strikes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol as "barbaric," stressing that the direct involvement of the United States resulting in casualties among Russian civilians will not go unanswered. He added, "Time will tell what these consequences will be."

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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Memory of the Sky"

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2002, "Memory of the Sky"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What's happening at the center of the Trifid Nebula? Three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear near the bottom, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, cataloged as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulas known.

The star forming nebula lies about 9,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). The region pictured here spans about 10 light years. The featured image is a composite with luminance taken from an image by the 8.2-m ground-based Subaru Telescope, detail provided by the 2.4-m orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, color data provided by Martin Pugh and image assembly and processing provided by Robert Gendler."

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

Chet Raymo, “Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”

“Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”

by Chet Raymo

“If there is one word that should not be uttered, it is the name of – no, I will not say it. Any name diminishes. In the face of whatever it is that is most mysterious, most holy, we are properly silent. It is appropriate, I think, to praise the creation, to make a joyful noise of thanksgiving for the sensate world. But praising the Creator is another thing altogether. When we make a big racket on His behalf we are more than likely addressing an idol in our own image. What was it that Pico Iyer said? “Silence is the tribute that we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred place, just as we slip off shoes.” The God of the mystics whispers sweet nothings, as lovers do.

In a diary entry for “M.”, near the end of his too-short life, Thomas Merton wrote: “I cannot have enough of the hours of silence when nothing happens. When the clouds go by. When the trees say nothing. When the birds sing. I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.” The natural world was for Merton the primary revelation. He listened. He felt a presence in his heart, an awareness of the ineffable Mystery that permeates creation. It was this that drew him to the mystical tradition of Christianity, especially to the Celtic tradition of creation spirituality. It was this that attracted him to Zen.

There come now and then, perhaps more frequently in late life than previously, those moments of being (as Virginia Woolf called them) when creation grabs us by the shoulders and gives us such a shake that it rattles our teeth, when love for the world simply knocks us flat. At those moments everything we have learned about the world – the invaluable and reliable knowledge of science- seems a pale intimation of what is. In Virginia Woolf’s novel “The Waves”, the elderly Bernard says: “How tired I am of stories, how tired I am of phrases that come down beautifully with all their feet on the ground! Also, how I distrust neat designs of life that are drawn upon half sheets of notepaper. I begin to long for some little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”

In moments of soul-stirring epiphany, it is reassuring to feel beneath our feet a floor of reliable knowledge, the safe and sure edifice of empirical learning so painstakingly constructed by the likes of Aristarchus, Galileo, Darwin and Schrodinger. But at the same time we are humbled by our ignorance, and more ready than ever to say “I don’t know,” to enter at last the great silence. Erwin Chargaff, who contributed mightily to our understanding of DNA, wrote: “It is the sense of mystery that, in my opinion, drives the true scientist; the same blind force, blindly seeing, deafly hearing, unconsciously remembering, that drives the larva into the butterfly. If the scientist has not experienced, at least a few times in his life, this cold shudder down his spine, this confrontation with an immense invisible face whose breath moves him to tears, he is not a scientist.”

The whole thrust of the mystical tradition, the whole thrust of science, is toward the great silence- an awareness of our ignorance and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” A lifetime of learning brings one at last to the face of mystery. We live in a universe of more than 2 trillion galaxies. Perhaps the number of galaxies is infinite. And the universe is silent. Achingly, terrifyingly silent. Or, rather, the universe speaks a little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Why You Can Do Anything You Want… And Why You Can’t"

"Why You Can Do Anything You Want…

And Why You Can’t"

by Paul Rosenberg

"People frequently tell children “You can do anything you want.” And this causes a lot of confusion, because in the real world, they can’t. And after their first clash with the aforesaid real world, the child is left wondering all sorts of unpleasant things:

Did mom and dad lie to me? Are they just ignorant? Am I defective? Should I find someone to blame?

The worst thing about this, however, is that the child is likely to have their opinion of themselves reduced. And that’s tragic. As I’ve noted many times, we are magical creatures. Humans, alone in the known universe, are able to create willfully… are able to reverse entropy willingly. The child should think of his and her self as magical… because they really are! So, let’s make some sense of this problem.

Why You Can: Humans are radically amazing. Sure, we’ve been long trained to consider each other to be sacks of crap – a belief that’s essential to rulership – but it simply isn’t true. We are stunningly capable beings, and we generally behave pretty well, even under the reign of self-debasement.

Take a look around you. Wherever you live, you’re surrounded by buildings, roads, and cars. All of them exist only because of human virtues. Without human creativity, they could not exist. Without human cooperation, they could not exist. And they are everywhere. We’ve filled the Earth with hospitals and airplanes and food and computers and medicine. And the list could go on almost indefinitely.

More than that, we’ve learned how to cooperate very well. Forget wars; they’re run by competing states and will exist as long as states do. Instead, look at your local soccer league, little league, church choir, and family gathering.

And remember that we’ve been trained to see one flaw in a cooperative group and condemn the whole from it. (And to hypnotically accept any and every flaw of the state.) A few flaws are meaningless compared to modes of cooperation that thrive over decades, centuries, and millennia. Does being less than perfect make us monsters? Does anything less than 100% equal zero?

So, we are wonderful creatures. And how much better might we be if we dared consider that possibility? Here’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton that I’d like you to read: "There runs a strange law through the length of human history – that men are continually tending to undervalue their environment, to undervalue their happiness, to undervalue themselves. The great sin of mankind, the sin typified by the fall of Adam, is the tendency, not towards pride, but towards this weird and horrible humility."

Can we dare imagine that Chesterton was right? And if not, why not? That kind of imagination is what the child needs, and it is that kind of imagination that results in human thriving, as noted by Leon Battista Alberti, the epitome of the Renaissance Man: "A man can do all things if he will."

Yes, that’s a bit overstated, but we have the essential ability to do amazing things, and if we thought and acted like it – thought and acted like Leon Battista Alberti – we’d do a lot more amazing things.

Why You Can’t: There are two reasons you can’t do anything at all. The first is simple: Nature stands in your way. No matter how much we imagine we can do something, if nature doesn’t agree, we can’t do it. We can work with nature to do “impossible” things (building flying machines for example), but we can’t simply violate it.

The second reason is also simple: Other human wills oppose us and stand ready to use violence against us. This second reason is habitually cloaked in confusing and deceptive terminology of course, but the truth is that adversarial wills and their violence oppose us all.

What we lack is what we can call “a life affording scope.” Limitations of our scope – weaponized wills set against us – have been colorfully covered by Reason magazine’s “Brickbats” section for decades, but the problem goes much farther than that. I’ll give you a few thoughts on that, then bring this column to a close:

• Regulation forbids adaptation.

• Obligation supplants compassion.

• Only violent and corrupt human wills deserve restriction.

And one more, the "14 words" we used in a previous article: "We are a beautiful species, living in a beautiful world, ruled by abusive systems." This is why I’ve been drawn to the cryptosphere. Our scope of life within that realm is not obstructed by weaponized wills. It’s a special place."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"The Only Absolute..."

"Never perceive anything as being inevitable or predestined.

The only absolute is uncertainty."

- Lionel Suggs

○

"Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science - by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans - teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us."

- Carl Sagan

The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"

"A Brave And Startling Truth"

by Maya Angelou

"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet

Traveling through casual space,

Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,

To a destination where all signs tell us

It is possible and imperative that we learn

A brave and startling truth.

And when we come to it,

To the day of peacemaking,

When we release our fingers

From fists of hostility

And allow the pure air to cool our palms.

When we come to it,

When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,

And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.

When battlefields and coliseum

No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters

Up with the bruised and bloody grass,

To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.

When the rapacious storming of the churches,

The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.

When the pennants are waving gaily,

When the banners of the world tremble

Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.

When we come to it,

When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,

And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.

When land mines of death have been removed,

And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.

When religious ritual is not perfumed

By the incense of burning flesh,

And childhood dreams are not kicked awake

By nightmares of abuse.

When we come to it,

Then we will confess that not the Pyramids

With their stones set in mysterious perfection

Nor the Gardens of Babylon

Hanging as eternal beauty

In our collective memory,

Not the Grand Canyon

Kindled into delicious color

By Western sunsets.

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe

Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji

Stretching to the Rising Sun.

Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,

Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores

These are not the only wonders of the world.

When we come to it,

We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,

Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger

Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.

We, this people on this mote of matter,

In whose mouths abide cankerous words

Which challenge our very existence,

Yet out of those same mouths

Come songs of such exquisite sweetness

That the heart falters in its labor,

And the body is quieted into awe.

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,

Whose hands can strike with such abandon

That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.

Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness

That the haughty neck is happy to bow,

And the proud back is glad to bend.

Out of such chaos, of such contradiction

We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.

When we come to it,

We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,

Created on this earth, of this earth,

Have the power to fashion for this earth

A climate where every man and every woman

Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,

Without crippling fear.

When we come to it,

We must confess that we are the possible,

We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.

That is when, and only when,

We come to it."

The Daily "Near You?"

Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

"What Might have Been..."

“Space I can recover. Time, never.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte

“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”

- Ryan Holiday

○

And in secret moments of despair,

Too late, too late...We think what might have been,

should have been, and we let it slip away...

Chris De Burgh,

"Carry Me (Like A Fire In Your Heart)"

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

by Jeff Thomas

"Most of us would like to assume that we’re smarter than pigs, but are we? Let’s have a look. Pigs are pretty intelligent mammals, and forest-dwelling wild pigs are known to be especially wily. However, there’s a traditional method for trapping them. First, find a small clearing in the forest and put some corn on the ground. After you leave, the pigs will find it. They’ll also return the next day to see if there’s more.

Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence.Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side. Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate.

At first, the pigs will run around, trying to escape. But if you toss in more corn, they’ll eventually calm down and go back to eating. You can then smile at the herd of pigs you’ve caught and say to yourself that this is why humans are smarter than pigs. But unfortunately, that’s not always so. In fact, the description above is the essence of trapping humans into collectivism.

Collectivism begins when a government starts offering free stuff to the population. At first, it’s something simple like free education or food stamps for the poor. But soon, political leaders talk increasingly of "entitlements" – a wonderful concept that by its very name suggests that this is something that’s owed to you, and if other politicians don’t support the idea, then they’re denying you your rights.

Once the idea of free stuff has become the norm and, more importantly, when the populace has come to depend upon it as a significant part of their "diet," more free stuff is offered. It matters little whether the new entitlements are welfare, healthcare, free college, or a guaranteed basic wage. What’s important is that the herd come to rely on the entitlements. Then, it’s time to erect the fence.

Naturally, in order to expand the volume of free stuff, greater taxation will be required. And of course, some rights will have to be sacrificed. And just like the pigs, all that’s really necessary to get humans to comply is to make the increase in fencing gradual. People focus more on the corn than the fence. Once they’re substantially dependent, it’s time to shut the gate.

What this looks like in collectivism is that new restrictions come into play that restrict freedoms. You may be told that you cannot expatriate without paying a large penalty. You may be told that your bank deposit may be confiscated in an emergency situation. You may even be told that the government has the right to deny you the freedom to congregate, or even to go to work, for whatever trumped-up reason.

And of course, that’s the point at which the pigs run around, hoping to escape the new restrictions. But more entitlements are offered, and in the end, the entitlements are accepted as being more valuable than the freedom of self-determination.

Even at this point, most people will remain compliant. But there’s a final stage: The corn ration is "temporarily" cut due to fiscal problems. Then it’s cut again… and again. The freedoms are gone for good and the entitlements are then slowly removed. This is how it’s possible to begin with a very prosperous country, such as Argentina, Venezuela or the US, and convert it into an impoverished collectivist state. It’s a gradual process and the pattern plays out the same way time and again. It succeeds because human nature remains the same. Collectivism eventually degrades into uniform poverty for 95% of the population, with a small elite who live like kings.

After World War II, the Western world was flying high. There was tremendous prosperity and opportunity for everyone. The system was not totally free market, but enough so that anyone who wished to work hard and take responsibility for himself had the opportunity to prosper. But very early – in the 1960s – The Great Society became the byword for government-provided largesse for all those who were in need – free stuff for those who were disadvantaged in one way or another.

Most Americans, who were then flush with prosperity, were only too happy to share with those who were less fortunate. Unfortunately, they got suckered into the idea that, rather than give voluntarily on an individual basis, they’d entrust their government to become the distributor of largesse, and to pay for it through taxation. Big mistake. From that point on, all that was necessary was to keep redefining who was disadvantaged and to then provide more free stuff.

Few people were aware that the first sections of fence were being erected. But today, it may be easier to understand that the fence has been completed and the gate is closing. It may still be possible to make a hasty exit, but we shall find very few people dashing for the gate. After all, to expatriate to another country would mean leaving all that free stuff – all that security.

At this point, the idea of foraging in the forest looks doubtful. Those who have forgotten how to rely on themselves will understandably fear making an exit. They’ll not only have to change their dependency habits; they’ll have to think for themselves in future. But make no mistake about it – what we’re witnessing today in what was formerly the Free World is a transition into collectivism. It will be a combination of corporatism and socialism, with the remnants of capitalism. The overall will be collectivism.

The gate is closing, and as stated above, some members of the herd will cause a fuss as they watch the gate closing. There will be some confusion and civil unrest, but in the end, the great majority will settle down once again to their corn. Only a few will have both the insight and temerity necessary to make a dash for the gate as it’s now closing.

This was true in Argentina when the government was still generous with the largesse, and it was true in Venezuela when the entitlements were at their peak. It is now true of the US as the final transition into collectivism begins. Rather than make the dash for the gate, the great majority will instead look down at their feed and say, "This is still the best country in the world," and continue eating the corn."

- https://internationalman.com/

"And I Ask..."

"Few Really Ask..."

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world – few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”

- Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”

11 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is In Far Worse Shape Than Most People Think by Michael Snyder

"11 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is In

Far Worse Shape Than Most People Think"

by Michael Snyder

"Unless you are living under a bridge or you are eagerly drinking the kool-aid that the mainstream media is dishing out, you probably understand that the economy has been struggling. Survey after survey has found that the American people are deeply dissatisfied with how the economy has been performing, and as a result it has become the number one issue this election season. But even though a large portion of the population is not happy about how things have been going, the truth is that the situation is far more dire than most people realize. Just this week we have received quite a bit of very troubling news, and the outlook for the months ahead is very bleak. The following are 11 signs that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than most people think…

#1 Just like in 2008, delinquencies are on the rise. In fact, credit card delinquencies have now reached the highest level that we have seen in more than 10 years…"Meanwhile, more consumers aren’t making loan payments on time. Credit card delinquencies have hit their highest level in over a decade, and auto delinquencies are also spiking. This could prove to be yet another tripwire for the stock market, as consumer spending accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity."

#2 The commercial real estate crisis just continues to escalate. An article that originally appeared in the New York Times claims that major Wall Street banks have “begun offloading their portfolios of commercial real estate loans hoping to cut their losses”…"Some Wall Street banks, worried that landlords of vacant and struggling office buildings won’t be able to pay off their mortgages, have begun offloading their portfolios of commercial real estate loans hoping to cut their losses. It’s an early but telling sign of the broader distress brewing in the commercial real estate market, which is hurting from the twin punches of high interest rates, which make it harder to refinance loans, and low occupancy rates for office buildings — an outcome of the pandemic."

#3 When banks get into trouble, they start shutting down branches. So far this year, U.S. banks have closed more than 400 branches all over the country…"US banks closed 51 branches across the country in the first three weeks of June. The figures suggest banks are committed to increasingly offering their services online and axing costly bricks-and-mortar locations. More than 400 bank branches have closed so far in 2024."

#4 Big companies are laying off workers from coast to coast. For example, approximately 500 Texas truckers just lost their jobs when a large logistics company abruptly shut their doors for good…"A truck and logistics company has abruptly shut – affecting 2,000 workers – just three years after being bought by private equity. Out of the blue, staff at US Logistics Solutions were given news on Thursday that they were out of a job and would also not get their paychecks on Friday. Around 500 were truck drivers, and the rest a mixture of warehouse, dock and office workers at the Humble, Texas- based company."

#5 The Dallas Fed Services Index has now been in negative territory for 25 months in a row…"This is the 25th straight month of contraction (sub-zero) for the Dallas Fed Services index and judging by the respondents’ comments, there is a clear place to point the finger of blame"

#6 The “restaurant apocalypse” just continues to intensify. This week, we learned that Hooters has suddenly decided to permanently shut down close to 40 “underperforming” locations…"The Atlanta-based sports bar chain, Hooters, abruptly shuttered dozens of “underperforming” restaurants across the U.S., as it joins a growing list of eateries facing the harsh realities of inflation and changing consumer habits, according to reports. Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) reported that word began to spread on Sunday evening that Hooters locations in places like Bryan, Texas; Lakeland, Florida; and Louisville, Kentucky were closing abruptly, with nearly 40 restaurants in the U.S. shutting their doors."

#7 Retail chains continue to go belly up at a staggering rate. Today, it was being reported that two large retailers in the Northeast have made a decision to file for bankruptcy…"Two sister chains that sell sporting goods have filed for bankruptcy as retailers continue to struggle. Bob’s Stores, which sells athletic and casual clothing, and outdoor gear retailer Eastern Mountain Sports together have 50 stores across the northeast of America."

#8 We just learned that consumer confidence in the U.S. dropped lower this month…"US consumer confidence teetered slightly in June as Americans grew a little warier about the future, new data released Tuesday showed. The Conference Board’s latest consumer confidence index dipped to 100.4 in June from a downwardly revised level of 101.3 in May."

#9 The initial consumer confidence reading has been revised down in 7 of the last 8 months.

#10 Housing in the U.S. is now more unaffordable than it has ever been before…"The housing cost burden has hit a record, according to a new report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Home prices are now 47% higher than they were in early 2020, with the median sale price now five times the median household income, according to the study."

#11 As I discussed yesterday, the homeless population in the city of Chicago tripled from January 2023 to January 2024…"The number of Chicagoans living in city shelters or on city streets tripled between January 2023 and January 2024, according to the annual survey used by federal officials to track homelessness, city officials announced Friday."

Those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest by the harsh economic conditions that we have been experiencing. Homelessness, poverty, hunger and theft are all on the rise, and many of those that serve struggling communities say that they are being absolutely overwhelmed because they simply do not have sufficient resources to meet all of the needs.

Sadly, I am entirely convinced that this is just the beginning. I believe that conditions will eventually become much harsher as the economy continues to deteriorate during the months ahead. But Joe Biden and his minions insist that everything is just great. In fact, they would like you to believe that the economy is “booming” right now. You can believe that if you want, but the cold, hard numbers that we keep getting directly contradict the endless stream of propaganda that we are constantly being fed."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

- Mark Twain

“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, "Dry Land"

"Dry Land"

In the US, the Swamp has spread from under 10%

of the US economy in 1930 to close to 50% today.

As the Swamp expands, less and less dry land is left for private life.

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "We are watching events in Argentina. Like a political prisoner in a dark cell, we listen to the explosions and hope the revolution goes our way. An old friend, Rob Marstrand, lives in Buenos Aires. He’s been paying attention too... and betting heavily on Javier Milei’s success at rocking the boat.

He reports that the legislature (or, the ‘rats’ nest’ as Milei calls it) was given a huge reform package, designed to reduce the reach of the Argentine feds. After weeks of trimming... massaging... and horse trading, the measure reached the Senate. And there, it was debated from 10 a.m. until early in the morning the next day.

While this was going on, mobs formed in the streets and set cars on fire... including one with a reporter in it. Rob reports: ‘It was a tawdry spectacle, but a reminder of a universal truth. Members of the militant and petulant hard left don't sit quietly when they don't get their own way. They go out and break things.’ Finally, the vote was taken. It was dead even. So, the Vice President, Victoria Villarruel, who presides over the Senate, cast the deciding vote... and the measure passed.

Was it all that Milei wanted? Was it ‘mission accomplished?’ No, of course not. But it was a giant step forward. Rob reports: "It's a good start. And if economic growth starts to rebound in the coming months, and ordinary people start to feel the benefits fairly soon, and hopes of a better future become embedded, then the country has a real chance of creating a virtuous circle of economic success.

I remain mildly optimistic, which is a big change from the deep pessimism I felt last year, as the country barrelled towards hyperinflation. But I recognize that there's still plenty that could go wrong. The crucial thing is that Milei's reforms start to bear economic fruit before the struggling populace loses patience. But even getting inflation down to normal levels will be a big win, to allow average wages to catch up with prices, and no longer fall behind every month."

Fruit? Here comes a juicy peach. Bloomberg: "Argentina monthly inflation slows to lowest level since 2022." "Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent last month, less than economists estimates for five percent and the lowest level since January 2022. Monthly inflation in Argentina slowed to its lowest level in May since early 2022, capping the fifth straight cooler print under President Javier Milei as market doubts linger that the trend can be sustained."

While far from a definitive victory, a slower pace of price increases marks another positive development for Milei... after the majority of his economic reforms passed through the Senate... in a pivotal vote.

All over the world, dreamers and schemers turn their lonely eyes to the pampas. Nation states have become larger, more ambitious, more controlling, and more and more powerful. Taxes, debt, inflation, regulations, rules — the thicket of restrictions and permissions gets denser and denser. In the US, the Swamp has spread from under 10% of the US economy in 1930 to close to 50% today. As the Swamp expands, less and less dry land is left for private life. Argentina is the only country on earth making a serious drainage effort.

Deng Xiaoping approved the ‘capitalist road’ in 1979... and then, Mikhail Gorbachev liberated Eastern Europe in 1991. Milei aims to lead the first and only peaceful, intentional liberation since the fall of the Berlin Wall. If he succeeds, it not only points the way to more successful turnarounds - maybe even in the US - but also to enormous potential profits. Big money was made in both Chinese stocks... and in Eastern European stocks.

After 1999, the Warsaw stock market rose eight times. The Shanghai index, meanwhile, rose from only 128 in 1991 to almost 6,000 in 2007... now back down to 3,000. And Argentina’s Merval Index is already up a stunning 47% year-to-date. Stay tuned."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Strange Prices At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 6/26/24

"Strange Prices At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Sam's Club and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices as it continues to get rough out here for many struggling families trying to put food on the table!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Warning: Why Buying a House Will Never Be the Same"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly AM 6/26/24

"Warning: Why Buying a House Will Never Be the Same"

"We're diving into something HUGE that will change the real estate game forever. On July 1st, a new housing law will hit California, and trust me, house flippers don't want you to know about this! Senate Bill 968 (AB 968) will require all house flippers to disclose every single bit of work done on a property in the last 18 months, including building permits and contractor information. This is going to shake things up BIG TIME, especially for those cutting corners to make a quick buck. You won't believe the chaos this will cause – lawsuits, halted escrows, and more! My friends in the flipping business are already freaking out. If you're thinking about buying a house or are just curious about the real estate market, you need to watch this video."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 6/26/24"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/26/24

"Rapidly Worsening Liquidity Crisis,

Full-On Banking Crisis; FED Pumping The System"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/26/24

"Nations/Governments Stock Piling Food?

What Do They NOT Want You To Know"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! 'Leave While You Can' Canada Warns; Nuclear Dirty Bomb; Russia's Emergency Call

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/25/24

"Alert! 'Leave While You Can' Canada Warns;

Nuclear Dirty Bomb; Russia's Emergency Call With USA"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Jeremiah Babe, "Warning! Big Bank Losses Are Coming; California Is Going Out Of Business; Hooters In Trouble"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/25/24

"Warning! Big Bank Losses Are Coming;

California Is Going Out Of Business; Hooters In Trouble"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Presidential Reality Show! The Great Debate: Daffy Duck VS Goofy, That's All Folks!"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 6/25/24

"Presidential Reality Show! The Great Debate:

Daffy Duck VS Goofy, That's All Folks!"

The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing

global current events forming future trends.

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "I Was Wrong...It's About To Get Ugly! Food Prices Skyrocketing!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 6/25/24

"I Was Wrong...It's About To Get Ugly!

Food Prices Skyrocketing!"

"Food prices are starting to skyrocket again, making it even more

difficult for people already struggling due to inflation, and many other factors!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"10 Big Restaurant Chains Closing Multiple Locations Right Now"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 6/25/24

"10 Big Restaurant Chains

Closing Multiple Locations Right Now"

"In recent years, the restaurant industry has been navigating through a storm of challenges, each wave more tumultuous than the last. Picture this: vibrant dining rooms once filled with laughter and the clinking of glasses now stand eerily quiet, shadows of their former selves. The pandemic was a wrecking ball, swinging with relentless force, shuttering doors and dimming neon signs across the globe. As the world ground to a halt, so did the lifeblood of countless eateries, leaving restaurateurs grappling with empty tables and silent kitchens.

Yet, COVID-19 was just the beginning. Supply chain disruptions turned sourcing ingredients into a high-stakes scavenger hunt. Prices soared, and the simple act of buying meat, vegetables, and even basic cooking oil became a daily battle against inflated costs and scarce availability. Add to this the labor shortage, an exodus of workers leaving behind a gaping void in an industry built on human touch and service. Restaurants have found themselves in a tug-of-war for talent, offering unprecedented wages and benefits just to keep their doors open.

The result? A seismic shift in the landscape of dining. Beloved chains, once cornerstones of comfort and convenience, are now facing the unthinkable: the need to close stores to stay afloat. It's a dramatic reshuffling, an industry on the brink, fighting to adapt, survive, and maybe, just maybe, thrive once more. As we dive into the stories of these ten restaurant chains, it’s clear that the battle for survival is far from over, and the casualties are mounting. Without further ado, let's check out this list!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"You Can't Taper a Ponzi Scheme"

"You Can't Taper a Ponzi Scheme"

by Nick Giambruno

"You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme." Financial commentator and Bitcoin pioneer Max Keiser originally said these simple yet profound words. A Ponzi scheme is an unsustainable scam that relies on a continuous influx of new money to keep it going. The scheme collapses if the flow of new money slows down or tapers.

Many believe the Federal Reserve is running what amounts to a giant Ponzi scheme. That’s because the US government’s obscene spending and skyrocketing debt have reached an inflection point where the whole system will collapse unless the Fed pumps an ever-increasing amount of new fake money into the system. Government spending is the leading cause of the problem. However, the government cannot even slow the growth rate of spending, let alone cut it. Here’s why.

The biggest expenditures for the US government are so-called entitlements. It’s unlikely any politician will cut these. On the contrary, I expect them to continue growing as the last Baby Boomers enter retirement in 2031. With the most precarious geopolitical situation since World War 2, so-called defense spending seems unlikely to be cut. Instead, it is all but certain to increase. Income Security is a catch-all category for different types of welfare. That’s unlikely to be cut too.

Efforts to reduce expenditures will be meaningless unless it becomes politically acceptable to cut entitlements, national defense, and welfare. Further, interest expense is exploding higher. The federal interest expense recently exceeded $1 trillion for the first time and is shooting higher. That means the interest expense is already bigger than defense spending and everything else in the budget except for Social Security, which it will also likely exceed soon.

Click image for larger size.

The cost of debt service (interest expense) is taking up a larger portion of the budget, leaving less for other expenditures. That means the government has to borrow increasingly larger amounts to maintain basic functions. The situation is compounded by the fact that the more the US government borrows, the larger the interest expense on the federal debt, which causes it to borrow even more. Borrowing money to pay debt service is the inflection point in the debt spiral, and the US is at that point.

Here's the bottom line with the budget. Expenditures have nowhere to go but up. But don’t count on increased revenue to offset these increases in expenditures. Even if tax rates went to 100%, it would not be enough to stop the deficits—and the debt needed to finance them—from growing.

The truth is, no matter what happens, the debt will not stop growing. It’s not even going to slow down. The debt is increasing exponentially. The only way the US government can continue to finance itself is for the Fed to create ever-increasing amounts of fake money. If the Fed doesn’t provide more monetary accommodation to lower interest rates, the growing interest expense will bankrupt the US government… and bring down the entire debt-based economy with it. In short, the Fed must print ever-increasing quantities of fake money, or the system will collapse.

Ludwig von Mises, the godfather of free-market Austrian economics, summed up the Fed’s dilemma: "There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

The US government will not voluntarily "abandon credit expansion," as Mises puts it because Washington is dependent on issuing increasing amounts of debt to pay for the ever-growing costs of Social Security, national defense, welfare, and interest on the federal debt. As Max Keiser succinctly said, "You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme."

That means their only choice is to debase the US dollar by ever-increasing amounts until, as Mises puts it, the "final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." That’s why I am convinced extreme currency debasement is the inevitable outcome of the debt spiral. All the rest is noise.

Michael Saylor captured the essence of the situation when he said, "The road to serfdom consists of working exponentially harder to earn a currency that is growing exponentially weaker."

I believe rampant currency debasement will be the most important investment trend of this decade, and it will devastate most people. The worst of it could go down soon… and it won’t be pretty. It will result in an enormous wealth transfer from savers and regular people to the parasitic class—politicians, central bankers, and those connected to them. Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—because they failed to see the correct Big Picture as their governments went bankrupt. Don’t be one of them."

- https://financialunderground.com/

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"

Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"