"If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone"

"If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You

 Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone"

by Michael Snyder

"If you are really struggling with the high cost of living, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. In recent months, I have been hearing from so many people that feel like they are drowning financially. Have you experienced a palpable sense of panic when you compare your rising bills to the level of income that you are currently bringing in? So many people out there are stressed out of their minds because it has become such a struggle to pay the bills each month. As I discussed a few days ago, a typical U.S. household must now spend $1,069 more a month just to buy the exact same goods and services that it did three years ago. Over the course of an entire year, that is almost an extra $13,000 dollars. Month after month, prices just keep going higher, but those that are running things continue to insist that everything is just fine. No, everything is not just fine.

Last week, a TikTok video about rising grocery prices at Walmart quickly garnered more than a million views. The person that made the video found a grocery order that he had placed two years ago, and he decided to hit the “Reorder All” button to see what that same order would cost today…

Full screen recommended.

A recent TikTok video has gone viral, showing a user’s surprising experience with Walmart’s grocery prices. The user explained in his video that he tried to use the “Reorder All” button for an order he placed two years ago, which originally cost $126.67. To his shock, the same order would now cost $414.39. I was quite stunned by this video. Many of the things that I regularly purchase at the grocery store have doubled or more than doubled in price, but in this case the total cost of the grocery order had more than tripled…

The TikTok (@sewerlidd) explained that the original $126.16 purchase was for a month’s worth of groceries, which included 53 items. “A whole month of groceries just for me,” he said in the video. The total was updated to $414.39, almost quadrupling. “I feel like I’m going to be sick,” he said. Needless to say, this video has generated a ton of discussion online.

When Walmart was asked about this, they responded by saying that the primary reason there was such a difference is because the person that made the video was attempting to order “discontinued items”…"Walmart representatives have responded, stating that the claims in the video are not accurate. According to them, the discrepancies in prices are due to discontinued items rather than actual inflation." But this explanation certainly did not satisfy everyone. Another person hit the “Reorder All” button on an old order, and that order went from $180 back then to $430 today…

Viewers expressed both shock and frustration in the comments. “Now I feel a little less gaslit about grocery prices because it has gone crazy, and it’s not just me!” wrote one person. “Walmart, can you explain yourself, please,” added another. A fellow shopper said they used to spend $180 for two weeks’ worth of groceries and are now spending over $430 for the same amount.

If you think that the price of groceries is not a problem, I have a challenge for you. Fill up a grocery cart all the way to the very top with items that you typically eat, and try to keep the final bill under 300 dollars. If you are smart, you can do it, but it won’t be easy.

In the old days, you could buy a used vehicle for 300 dollars. Now, many people burn through more than 300 dollars in just one trip to the grocery store. This is just one of the reasons why inflation has become such a huge political issue.

According to Gallup, inflation was not really considered to be an important issue at all prior to 2022…"For the third year in a row, the percentage of Americans naming inflation or the high cost of living as the most important financial problem facing their family has reached a new high. The 41% naming the issue this year is up slightly from 35% a year ago and 32% in 2022. Before 2022, the highest percentage mentioning inflation was 18% in 2008. Inflation has been named by less than 10% in most other readings since the question was first asked in 2005."

The last three years have been an inflationary nightmare, and no matter how much our leaders try to deny it, a lot more inflation is on the way. Things are particularly bad in our major cities. In fact, it is being reported that Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the United States by a wide margin…"The New York borough of Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the U.S. - and the cost of living in the No. 2 place isn’t even close.

The cost of living in Manhattan is more than twice the national average. The second- and third-most expensive places are Honolulu and San Jose, California, but in comparison, they are much more affordable. Manhattan is 24% more expensive than Honolulu and 30% more expensive than San Jose."

It isn’t a big mystery why this is the case. When our leaders pumped trillions upon trillions of dollars into the system, the financial markets benefitted greatly. So Manhattan is swimming in cash, and prices there have gone into the stratosphere.

Many of us relentlessly warned about what would happen when our leaders flooded the system with cash, and now we are facing economic distortions that are extremely painful. For most Americans, prices have been rising much faster than their paychecks. As a result, our national standard of living has been steadily declining. And now we have entered a time when it appears that economic conditions are really slowing down.

For example, it is being reported that Ford is preparing for yet another round of layoffs…"Ford Motor is preparing for a new round of layoffs for its salaried workers in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company in March last year announced plans to reduce structural costs of up to $3 billion at its gas-powered vehicle unit. In August, Ford said it would cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India."

Over the past several years, our politicians in Washington have borrowed and spent trillions upon trillions of dollars, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve have pumped trillions upon trillions of dollars into the financial system. All that did was buy us a little more time. All that did was delay the inevitable. Now we are facing a crisis of absolutely epic proportions, and the economic suffering that we are currently experiencing is nothing compared to the economic suffering that is ahead of us."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"

by Jeff Thomas

"Just as people go through a lifespan that consists of different stages, so empires tend to follow a pattern of stages. They tend to start off slowly, making progress as a result of industriousness, understanding that progress is dependent upon hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit. This is important to understand, as it’s the one essential in the growth of a nation. No nation becomes an empire through complacency or a lack of productivity. Welfare states do not become empires, although most empires end up as welfare states. So, if that’s the case, what is the progression? And more importantly, what does this mean, considering the dramatic changes that are now unfolding in much of the world?

Prosperity: As stated, prosperity is created through a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit throughout a significant portion of the population. This is what brings about wealth creation – a condition in which people invest their time and money in a business enterprise that reaps profit. The profit is then re-invested to expand upon that success.

In the early stages of prosperity, those who create the wealth are revered, as the goods and services they create benefit all, even those who may be less ambitious or less imaginative and may never become business leaders themselves. But inevitably, there will be those who seek to prosper to the exclusion of others. This trend was seen around 1900 in the US – a time when the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs figured out that, if they banded together, they could buy both political parties. That would mean that, regardless of which party held power, the government could be counted on to pass laws that would protect their monopolies and make success increasingly more difficult for the competition.

Wealth Disparity: Of course, the objective of this would be that there would be a small number of individuals and corporations at the very top, who would be in a position to split up the pie amongst themselves and throw the crumbs to those beneath them. Over time, this would lead to those at the very top becoming inordinately wealthy, well beyond what would be normal for their level of investment. And very few new individuals and corporations would be able to break into this cabal. Only those who could add to the size of the pie would be allowed in.

Resentment: Not surprisingly, this, over time, would lead to resentment amongst those who were left out of the loop. When this became generational, with minimal change, the "greedy rich" would become the most hated segment of the population. Those who come to understand that they will never be able to advance to the top layer would come to regard themselves as "disenfranchised." This in turn results, eventually, in the awareness that the "little man" represents the majority of voters, which is then capitalized upon by opportunistic political candidates.

Increasingly, there are cries by political hopefuls for the one percent to be taxed. With every election these promises are renewed. And each time out, greater demands are made by the politicians. Of course, the one percent are already running the show on both sides of the aisle and can make sure that they are taxed very little, if at all. But someone must be made to cough up, so politicians go after the middle class, taxing them increasingly until, after decades of increases, they are squeezed to the limit. As Vladimir Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."

At this point the wealth disparity is at a peak and the resentment turns to anger. Those, who for decades have been promised a "fair share," realise that they have instead been sold out. And here’s where it gets interesting. Traditionally, once the population became resentful enough that the system was in jeopardy, those few who comprised the ruling elite were likely to essentially say, "Let them eat cake." This, ultimately, would lead to their downfall. But today, we have the illusion of democracy, which allows for a different paradigm.

Collectivism: From the time of the French Revolution onward, we have had the construct of collectivism to work with. Rather than defy the little man, defeat him by being seen to agree with him. Create political figures who call out for a re-engineering of society: "An equal outcome for all. Take the wealth from the wealthy who stole it and give it back to the little man." Such platitudes sell well when resentment has hit its peak.

But the secret benefit for the ruling elite is that the new breed of politician works for the one percent, just as politicians always have. And collectivism benefits the one percent even more than any free-market system could. Under it, the little man is not raised up, as promised. Instead, the middle class is beaten down to the same level as the little man, creating uniform poverty. As Winston Churchill stated, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Therefore, it should come as no surprise to us that, when an empire such as the US begins to unravel, the ruling elite who actually own the country are ready and eager to create a transition that will appear to benefit the little man but will, instead, enslave him to a greater degree than he ever could have imagined.

So, it should come as no surprise to us that in recent months, the US has witnessed a carefully orchestrated drama in which the poster boy for the greedy rich – the US president – goes down in flames. And the heroes of the play appear centre stage, providing a litany of collectivist promises that will bring cheers from the populace. And so the trap is sprung. A totalitarian future disguised as a panacea.

As P.T. Barnum said, "There’s a sucker born every minute," and there is no greater sucker than a voter who actually believes that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. His vain hope is that, even though every collectivist government in history has failed to deliver on its promises and has, instead, resulted in uniform misery, this time it will be different, and the new government will deliver on the now-hackneyed empty promises. The new paradigm was as inevitable as it will be long-lived and ultimately destructive."

- https://internationalman.com/

Bill Bonner, "A Dirty Business"

"A Dirty Business"

The West is setting itself up for a huge credit crisis. Central banks will still be able to 

fund their operations. But they won't be able to protect the value of their own currencies.

by Bill Bonner

"Pity the nation whose people are sheep,

And whose shepherds mislead them.

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars,

Whose sages are silenced,

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerors

And acclaim the bully as hero,

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture..."

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

London - "On the steps of the old church, stood an old man, with an old flag... honoring the death of an old soldier. The deceased was also an old friend. The day was warm. But the inside of the stone church was cool. There were about one hundred mourners. Ignoring the alarming headlines, we took time out in the middle of a work day to say goodbye.

France is in an uproar. The Daily Mail: "France battles to keep Le Pen from power: Panicking President Macron calls crisis meeting to defeat National Rally as socialists urge French leader's supporters to back them and 'do everything to prevent' hard-right election victory on Sunday." The ‘hard’ right may not be as steely as the crisis mongers claim. All over Europe (as in America), the ‘right’ is on the rise. Often called a ‘populous,’ ‘nationalist,’ or simply ‘right wing’ movement, it is easily mistaken for a real change of direction.

But a fundamental change of direction would mean reversing the growth of government, reducing its spending and backing away from its wars. The ‘populists’ have various ideas on these subjects - some good, some bad - but as far as we know, none really favors a fundamental change. And as far as we can tell, nothing that they offer will derail the coming financial debacle.

The West is setting itself up for a huge credit crisis. Central banks and central governments will still be able to fund their operations... and will still be able to boost (nominal) asset prices. But they won’t be able to protect the value of their own currencies. Shrewd investors — including foreign central banks - are preparing by buying gold. We are too.

Meanwhile... we were saying goodbye to an old friend...We sang our hymns. We said our prayers. We took the host but not the cup... (they do not share the wine in French Catholic services). And at the end... we lined up to sprinkle holy water on the casket. It was then that we noticed: something was missing. Pierre was a retired colonel in the French Army. Typically, the government honors its soldiers with a flag draped over the coffin. But there was no flag.

We knew Pierre from the church choir. We both sang bass. Pierre had no ear for music. So, we put him in the center... where he could follow along. “It can be a dirty business,” Pierre had told us, speaking of his lifelong military profession.

People look to the government to reduce the uncertainty in their lives. They don’t necessarily like their government. Still, they much prefer to be robbed by their own leaders, systematically and more-or-less peacefully, than to suffer violence, rapine and theft at the hands of foreign invaders. Then, the elites praise their men in uniform…but use them to leverage their own power and increase their own wealth.

General Smedley Butler, twice winner of the medal of honor, saw first-hand how it works: "I spent thirty three years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers."

It was the Algerian War that most troubled Pierre. By 1956, there were 400,000 French troops in the North African country. They were called in to help put down a rebellion by local ‘terrorists.’ Fresh from their defeat in Indo-China, the French army nevertheless pioneered many of the tactics that would later be used by the US in Vietnam - the helicopter, napalm and ‘strategic hamlets’ - with equally dismal results.

“The Algerian War was obviously unwinnable,” he told us. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. It was also destroying the French army. We were expected to do things that weren’t right. Torturing prisoners to get information. Ignoring civilian casualties. Retaliating for murders with more murders.

An army can win against another army. It can’t win against terrorists... or call them ‘freedom fighters,’ if you want. Because the harder it cracks down, the more people support the terrorists. Then the army begins to act like a police force...not a real army. And usually, a corrupt and brutal police force. It can keep a lid on things... even for a long time. But not forever.”

Whether it was Pierre’s choice... or his family’s... we don’t know. But Pierre’s coffin was bare."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Scott Ritter: Israel Will Be Destroyed In A War With Hezbollah"

George Galloway, 7/1/24

"Scott Ritter:

 Israel Will Be Destroyed In A War With Hezbollah"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Alert! Nuclear Code Crisis; Belarus Prepares For NATO Invasion; Israel Training To Nuke Iran!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 7/1/24

"Alert! Nuclear Code Crisis; Belarus Prepares 

For NATO Invasion; Israel Training To Nuke Iran!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "A Root Canal Would Bankrupt Most Americans Today, Half Of America Doesn't Have $500"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/1/24

"A Root Canal Would Bankrupt Most Americans Today,

 Half Of America Doesn't Have $500"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Americans Are Being Forced Out Of Retirement As They Can't Take Care Of Themselves Financially"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 7/1/24

"Americans Are Being Forced Out Of Retirement

 As They Can't Take Care Of Themselves Financially"

"Typically, when we think of retirement, we imagine kicking back and relaxing, but that's not the case for many struggling retirees. If you've been to a grocery store, department store, or fast food restaurant lately you probably have noticed an increase in elderly workers. That's because the current economic climate is forcing millions of senior citizens to come out of retirement. According to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, Americans are ‘unretiring’ en masse due to the rising cost of living.

Janette Campbell is one of them. The former teacher, who retired at the age of 62, dreamt of taking care of her grandchildren and traveling the world during her golden years. However, life didn’t work out that way for the senior Chicago resident. Living on a fixed retirement income, Campbell soon realized that she couldn’t keep up with all of her bills - especially her monthly mortgage payment. Her only option was to get a part-time job to be able to make ends meet.

Now aged 74, Campbell is working for United HomeCare, a non-profit home health and community care organization. She must use a walker to get around the office, where she spends her days checking emails, making calls and putting together promotional material — activities far from what she envisioned for her retirement. “I couldn’t afford to pay my mortgage and I didn’t want to be left out in the street homeless,” she told CBS Chicago, arguing that she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to fully retire.

For countless retirees living on a fixed income, making hard choices between paying their bills or buying food or medicine is something they have to make all too often. It's all about the rising cost of living, said Isaura Betancourt, the regional coordinator for SER National. "A lot of people are struggling. They retired and are forced into coming back into the workforce."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Mike Oldfield, "Tubular Bells, Finale"

Mike Oldfield, "Tubular Bells, Finale"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The photographer had this shot in mind for some time. He knew that objects overhead are the brightest - since their light is scattered the least by atmospheric air. He also that knew the core of our Milky Way Galaxy was just about straight up near midnight around this time of year in South Australia. Chasing his mental picture, he ventured deep inside the Kuipto Forest where tall radiata pines blocked out much of the sky - but not in this clearing. There, through a window framed by trees, he captured his envisioned combination of local and distant nature. Sixteen exposures of both trees and the Milky Way Galaxy were recorded.

Antares is the bright orange star to left of our Galaxy's central plane, while Alpha Centauri is the bright star just to the right of the image center. The direction toward our Galaxy's center is below Antares. Although in a few hours the Earth's rotation moved the Galactic plane up and to the left - soon invisible behind the timber, his mental image was secured forever - and is featured here."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210719.html

"Our Moral Compass..."

"The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, 

is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason."

- Samuel Pisar

"I think we need to be human. Nobody is objective. We need to go in and be human - especially today, especially given everything that's happening around us, especially given the divides between populations that are growing and what's at stake in terms of our collective humanity, and the fact that our moral compass is broken."

- Arwa Damon

"Moral compass?" Surely you jest! Look around!

This is 'Murica, fool!

"Even With Good People..."

"'Cause even with good people, even with people that 

you can kinda trust, if the truth is inconvenient,

and if the truth doesn't, like, fit, they don't believe it."

- Marie Adler

don Miguel Ruiz, “The Power of Doubt”

“The Power of Doubt”

by don Miguel Ruiz

“Have you ever asked yourself if something you heard was actually true? Have you ever wondered if someone was lying to you, or worse yet, have you ever wondered, “Am I lying to myself?” Do you believe those voices in your head that are giving you opinions? Do you tend to believe other people’s opinions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will understand when being skeptical is a good thing.

Right now, you’re delivering a message to yourself and to everyone around you. You’re always delivering messages, and you’re always receiving messages from one mind to another mind. But the most important messages are the ones you deliver to yourself. What are those messages? The word is a force you cannot see, but you can see the manifestation of that force, the expression of the word, which is your own life. The way to measure the impeccability of your word is to ask yourself: Am I happy or am I suffering? If you’re suffering, it’s because you’re telling yourself a story that isn’t true, but you believe it.

When you look at yourself in a mirror, do you like what you see, or do you judge your body and use the word to tell yourself lies? If you believe that you are not attractive enough, then you believe a lie, and you are using the word against yourself, against the truth.

Is it really true that you are too heavy or too thin? Is it really true that you are not beautiful? If you’re telling yourself: “I’m fat. I’m ugly. I’m old. I’m not good enough. I’ll never make it,” then be skeptical. Don’t believe yourself, because none of these messages come from truth, from life. These messages are distorted; they’re nothing but lies. The truth is, there are no ugly people. There’s no universal book of law where any of these judgments are true. Every judgment is just an opinion - it’s just a point of view - and that point of view wasn’t there when you were born.

Everything you think about yourself, everything you believe about yourself, is because you learned it. You learned the opinions from Mom, Dad, siblings and society. They sent all those images of how a body should look; they expressed all those opinions about the way you are, the way you are not, the way you should be. They delivered a message, and you agreed with that message. And now you think so many things about what you are, but are they the truth?

What is the truth and what is the lie? Humans believe so many lies because we aren’t aware. We ignore the truth or we just don’t see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn’t allow us to perceive the truth, what really is. We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.

In our development, as we grow throughout our lives, the structure of our beliefs becomes very complicated, and we make it even more complicated because we make the assumption that what we believe is the absolute truth. We never stop to consider that our beliefs are only a relative truth that’s always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory. As children, we are innocent; we believe almost everything that we learn, but everything that we learn isn’t true. We put our faith in lies, we give them power, and soon those lies are ruling our lives.

Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun. There is nothing to justify, nothing to believe. You have no mission except to enjoy life. You are here just to be, for no reason. Then the only thing you need to be is the real you. Be happiness. Be love. Be yourself. That’s wisdom. It’s the complete acceptance of yourself just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else just the way they are. The reward is your eternal happiness.

But first you have to unlearn a lot, and you only have one tool to do this. That tool is doubt. Being skeptical is an important part of recovering what you really are because it uses the power of doubt to break all those spells you’ve been under. Whenever you hear a message from yourself, or from someone else, simply ask: Is it really true? With the power of doubt, you challenge every message you deliver and receive. You challenge every belief that rules your life. Then you challenge all the beliefs that rule society, until you break the spell of all the lies and superstitions that control your world.

Once you recover all the power you invested in lies, you can see what is real; you can feel what is real. Even though lies still exist, you no longer believe them. You don’t believe everything anymore, but you can see, and what you can see is the truth. The truth doesn’t need you to believe it. The truth simply is, and it survives – believe it or not. Lies need you to believe them. If you don’t believe lies, they don’t survive your skepticism, and they simply disappear.

Centuries ago, people believed that the earth was flat. Some said that elephants were supporting the earth, and that made them feel safe. The belief that the earth was flat was considered the truth, and almost everybody agreed, but did that make it true? It was nothing but a superstition, and I can assure you that we still live in a world of superstition. The question is: Are we aware of it?

Wherever you go, you will hear all kinds of opinions and stories from other people. You will find great storytellers wanting to tell you what you should do with your life: “You should do this, you should do that, you should do whatever.” Don’t believe them. Be skeptical, but learn to listen and then make your choices. Be responsible for every choice you make in your life. This is your life; it’s nobody else’s life, and you will find that it’s nobody else’s business what you do with your life.

For centuries, there have been prophets who predicted big catastrophes in the world. Not that long ago, there were people who predicted that in the year 2000 all the computers would fail and society as we know it would disappear. The day arrived, and what happened? Nothing happened. Thousands of years ago, just like today, there were prophets who were waiting for the end of the world. At that time, a great master said: “There will be many false prophets who claim to be speaking the word of God. Don’t believe.” You see, being skeptical is nothing new. Doubt takes you behind the words and helps you to discern the truth from lies. And this is a good thing.”

- http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-Power-of-Doubt

The Daily "Near You?"

Greenville, South Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Wars And Rumors Of War: The Middle East"

Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 7/1/24

"Israel Will Be Torn Apart In Destruction 

After Threatening To Go Nuclear With Hezbollah"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 7/1/24

"Nasrallah’s Military On Par With US & Russia? 

Bombshell Claim On Hezbollah’s Rocket Prowess"

"As tensions heighten between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, a former Israeli military official has made a big revelation on Hezbollah's rocket prowess. Ram Aminach, the former economic advisor to the Israeli Chief of Staff, described Hezbollah as one of the five top superpowers in terms of the number of rockets it possesses. He further highlighted that Israel cannot confront Hezbollah without facing the entire Lebanon."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Free Download: Friedrich A. Hayek, "The Road to Serfdom"

"Friedrich A. Hayek, in "The Road to Serfdom" writes: “In order to achieve their ends the planners must create power – power over men wielded by other men – of a magnitude never before known. Their success will depend on the extent to which they achieve such power. Democracy is an obstacle to this suppression of freedom which centralized direction of economic activity requires. Hence, arises the clash between planning and democracy.

Many socialists have the tragic illusion that by depriving private individuals of the power they possess in an individualist system, and transferring this power to society, they thereby extinguish power. What they overlook is that by concentrating power so that it can be used in the service of a single plan it is not merely transformed, but infinitely heightened…

In the hands of private individuals, what is called economic power can be an instrument of coercion, but it is never control over the life of the person. But when economic power is centralized as an instrument of political power it creates a degree of dependence scarcely distinguishable for slavery.”

Freely download "The Road to Serfdom", by Friedrich A. Hayek, here:

- https://cdn.mises.org/

John Wilder, "Chevron And The Fall Of The Deep State"

"Chevron And The Fall Of The Deep State"

by John Wilder

"I know that the event of last week in the media was the debate. I’ll agree, it was pretty significant, significant enough that I stayed up even later to chat about it with The Mrs., who gets up really early. How early?

JW: Tonight’s debate was thermonuclear.

The Mrs.: You mean yesterday’s debate. Oh, wait, you haven’t slept, so for you it’s still yesterday.

Whatever timeframe you’re using, a really, really big thing happened on Friday. Let me explain, I’m a trained professional. Let’s go back in time a bit. Back in 1938, the Congress passed a law establishing a thing called the “Code of Federal Regulations” act. That act required all federal regulations to be put in a single source, which is now called the CFR. Note that I didn’t say a single book, since the CFR pages totaled 188,343 in 2021.

That’s not a typographical error. There are nearly 200,000 pages of federal regulations. They say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but I’m pretty sure that there is no sane human that could read and retain that insane level of regulation, except for Alex Trebek, and he is, alas, no more.

Now, there are several groups that really love that level of regulation:Lawyers, who build careers on understanding them,

ͦ Big Business, to keep out small-fry competition that can’t afford lawyers to interpret the rules to keep them out of trouble,

ͦ the Antifa® fascists, who are the people who really get bent out of shape if your lawn is 0.05” higher than the regulations say, and

ͦ They exist to write regulations, so they just want to write more.

This is an unholy combination. Regulations are based on law. The Congress of the United States passes a bill, and the President of the United States signs it, and, a law is created. I learned that on Schoolhouse Rock™ when that damn bill just wanted to be a law.

Laws, however, almost always constrain human activities. In some cases, like murder, a law can be a net social benefit, at least when the courts actually enforce the law equally and without favor. But murder is simple when compared to some of the federal laws on the books. I could get into the details, but it’s a federal crime:

ͦ to wash your fish at a faucet if it’s not a fish-washing faucet,

ͦ to let your pet make a noise that scares wildlife in a national park,

ͦ to sell onion rings that resemble onion rings, but made with diced onion,

ͦ to skydive drunk, and,

ͦ sell wine with a brand name including the word “zombie”.

Yes. This was made the force of law, that unelected regulators could make up whatever they wanted and put you in jail if you didn’t do what they made up last week. This was based on the “Chevron Deference” – a court decision that effectively let the Executive Branch make regulations, enforce them, and courts had to bow to their interpretation. It’s been the rule for 40 years.

But the most pernicious part of this is that it feeds into the same mindset that the GloboLeftElite has relied on for years. They want to take an existing law and pound and beat it to meet whatever they believe this Tuesday. For example, there was a requirement that industries stop pollutants from going into the air.

That makes sense. I could argue that it doesn’t need to occur at a national level and that states could regulate it and that might make it un-Constitutional, but, whatever. The law is there. It’s been there forever. The regulations meant to enforce the law when it came out made sense – spewing methyl-ethyl-death across the elementary playground might not be a great idea. On the other hand, maybe it would have made our children strong enough to work in the mines.

But that same law, written decades ago, was interpreted to mean that sweet, sweet carbon dioxide, you know, plant food, is now a pollutant. Why? Because the GloboLeftElite knows that gives them more control, and because it now fits with the Narrative of the Moment despite the original law being signed into law in 1963 and last amended in 1990.

Since CO2 wasn’t on the list of evil things in 1963 or in 1990, having the EPA to suddenly decide it was evil is just regulators making things up. The Supreme Court said, “No, you can’t do this. You have to pass a law. And no, the President can’t just say so.” The Chevron™ Deferral effectively allowed the Executive branch of government be also the Legislative and Judicial. This is extremely dangerous.

92% plus of people in Washington D.C. voted Biden. If regulations can be made willie-nillie without congress even having to pass a law, well, it will be members of the GloboLeftistElite that will write them. And, remember, these folks live to do one thing: write regulations.

One of the worst regulators at fault is the ATF®, who can’t even decide what a gun is. They’re in trouble on the rules they made up on “ghost guns” and pistol braces, and even the definition of who can sell guns without needing an ATF license. Make no mistake, this is a shattering blow for the Deep State, who wants to make regulations with the force of federal law, without there even having to be a federal law change in the first place.

Why does the GloboLeftElite and the GloboLeft hate this? Because all of their termites that have burrowed into the Fed.Gov are now less useful, and they actually have to follow the rules to make their changes. And that’s the sand the GloboLeftElite will have in their panties. They have to pass a law. They can’t make their regulatory changes in the dark of the night by unelected bureaucrats who reliably only vote for more government.

And, no, I won’t be waiting up for The Mrs. to get up so we can discuss this post. I’ll probably just sneak into bed while she gently snores beside me. Hey, wait, is there a federal regulation about snoring? I’ll bet there is... Also – this is what winning looks like. Enjoy this one."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"How It Really Is"

Dan, I Allegedly, "What is Your Privacy Worth?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/1/24

"What is Your Privacy Worth?"

"What would you do to save a few bucks? Would you let your insurance

 company follow all of your driving to save money? Our privacy is being eroded."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

"Is America Becoming Fascist? Government Spies Are 

Watching You From Some Of The Least Expected Private Companies"

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Holiday Sale At Meijer! $1.99/lb Hamburger!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 7/1/24

"Massive Holiday Sale At Meijer! $1.99/lb Hamburger!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

"Wait, How Much Have Groceries Gone Up?" (Excerpt)

By Jeffrey Tucker

Excerpt: "The most startling moment in the CNN debate last week between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was not from the candidates. It was from moderator Jake Tapper, who said with a straight face as if it were just the science that grocery prices were up by 20 percent since President Biden was elected.

Millions were watching. Intuition tells me that millions of people were stunned and thought to themselves or said out loud: no way. Truly, is there a single living soul in America who lives on a budget, watches their spending, and who believes that their grocery bills are only up by 20 percent in three years? Well, as it turns out, Mr. Tapper could have cited the leading authority on that statistic. It’s the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as reported by the Federal Reserve. The precise number is 20.8 percent.

The trouble is that this fits with no one’s experiences. People on social media are posting receipts showing grocery prices up by anywhere between two and 10 times that rate. In one viral video that offered receipts, a man bought 45 items (he says a full month of groceries) two years ago for $145. WalMart’s software allows him to reorder that now. He tried it just as a test. The new price: $414. That’s an increase in two years of 185 percent! If we stretch that to three years assuming no inflation in the first, that’s an annualized increase of 61 percent. Over two years, it’s 92.5 percent. Adding in some inflation in the first year, we can round it to 100 percent annualized, which is hyperinflation by any measure.

Commentators offered corrections that this is just one person’s experience. Maybe there was one item in there that went up vastly in price, changing the entire basket. All that is true. However, I tried looking at a few items that I bought in 2021 and found price increases of 54 percent. That’s just one item but a very normal one: lemon juice.

When all the anecdotal evidence points one way and all the official data points another way, we’ve got a problem. The distance between real experience and the official data is gigantic. And it raises the eternal problem first articulated by Chico Marx: “Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?”

Full article is here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/

Gregory Mannarino, "Economic Collapse Continues To Worsen, Faster!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/1/24

"Economic Collapse Continues To Worsen, Faster!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/1/24

"We Are In A 'Maximum Saturation Event', 

And The Next Phase Is Much Worse"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

Full screen recommended.

LifeWorthLiving, 6/30/24

"Doug Casey: 'Worse Than 1929-1946...'" 

Doug Casey, best-selling author, discusses what is going to be a 

"Greater Depression", where lower living standards will affect the populace. 

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"The Coming US Budget Disaster Will Impoverish Americans"

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/1/24"

○

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

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

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

○

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

○

Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

○

Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

○

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

○

And now... The End Game...

o

Bill Bonner, "Beyond the Herald's Cry"

President Ronald Reagan and Japanese Emperor Hirohito

 share a toast at the Imperial Palace

"Beyond the Herald's Cry"

In a country the size of the US, ‘the people’ are far too

 remote from Washington to have any real influence on it. 

That’s why state governments tend to do less harm than the federales.

by Bill Bonner

"The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."

- Emperor Hirohito, after Hiroshima

"The situation last week did not develop to Joe Biden’s advantage. But what did anyone expect? Put an old man at a podium; he’s likely to dodder a bit. And so what? Biden was never more than a figurehead anyway. His only real role was as a ‘dog in the manger,’ making sure no one else, who might disrupt the scammy system, got to sit in the Oval Office.

But last week’s debate was another one for the record books. America is already in the grip of the biggest, most costly experiment in monetary history... destined to prove, once again, that the authorities can’t be trusted with the power to ‘print’ money. Using this fake money, they pushed interest rates down to the lowest levels in five thousand years, well below zero... and crippled the economy with $100 trillion in debt.

Included in that figure is $35 trillion of US government debt; this was Miracle Gro for the feds, allowing them to get way too big for their britches... and setting the US up for perpetual war and bankruptcy. And now, Joe Biden, has had his Big Reveal. They opened the door and no one was home.

Inside Job: On the weekend, Americans were still reeling from the discovery that their President... the man with the nuclear codes... is senile. And as we guessed last month, the insiders are scurrying around to find a replacement.

Let us pause to draw breath. White House honchos must have known that their man was not up to the job. They must have known that he would stand at the podium as an elderly mouth breather and make a fool of himself. They must have known that he couldn’t put together a coherent thought... that he would be confused and hopeless, standing in front of fifty million spectators... and make a laughing stock of himself and of the USA.

Why did they do that? Why subject him to humiliation and scorn? Could they not have known... not have anticipated what would happen? Or did they set him up? Was the idea that he would make it so obvious that he was not going to be the actual president for another six months - let alone for 4 more years - that even he, through the accumulated fog of four-score years, could see that it was time to take himself off the stage?

There’s no shame in getting old. That’s the way it works. And it wouldn’t be the first time a mental defective was in the White House. In October, 1919, Woodrow Wilson was on the toilet when he had a stroke. He fell over and hit his head. Thereafter, he was absent... unable to think or speak clearly. For the next year and a half, his wife and personal physician covered for him. They claimed he was fine... recovering from the flu, or from ‘nervous exhaustion.’ The nation was probably better off without him, anyway. Life went on as before.

Astrologer in Chief: Later, Ronald Reagan was getting a little doddery in his second term. His wife, Nancy, turned to her astrologer, Joan Quigley, to help the president on key policy issues. Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, claimed that “every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance” by Quigley. 

Wilson had disgraced the nation with his meddling in Latin America. Then, after running for re-election as the man who ‘kept us out of war,’ he sent US troops to Europe, where more than one hundred thousand of them died. But the effect of it on the average citizen was probably modest. And Reagan’s team - famously minus our friend David Stockman - went on to ignore Reagan’s ‘small government’ promise altogether, and more than doubled US debt.

In both cases, what the voters had asked for had nothing to do with it. And today, the problem is not that Biden is a cut-out... a puppet for the ruling elite. The problem is that the whole system is counterfeit. Democracy only works on a small scale. “Beyond the herald’s cry,” as Aristotle put it, the elites take over. In a country the size of the US, ‘the people’ are far too remote from Washington to have any real influence on it. That’s why state governments - with the exception of the biggest ones - tend to do less harm than the federales.

Before 1971, the ‘power of the purse’ gave citizens some residual control over their government. Taxes are something that ‘the people’ understand. And a politician who raised taxes risked his career. But after the feds switched to fake, credit-based money, the insiders could print money and borrow it themselves - spending without having to raise taxes. Then, the situation did not necessarily develop to our advantage."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/