"A Look to the Heavens"

“Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31 at left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy. This narrow- and wide-angle, multi-camera composite finds details of spiral structure in both, while the massive neighboring galaxies seem to be balanced in starry fields either side of bright Mirach, beta star in the constellation Andromeda. Mirach is just 200 light-years from the Sun. But M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is really 2.5 million light-years distant and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is also about 3 million light years away.

Although they look far apart, M31 and M33 are engaged in a gravitational struggle. In fact, radio astronomers have found indications of a bridge of neutral hydrogen gas that could connect the two, evidence of a closer encounter in the past. Based on measurements, gravitational simulations currently predict that the Milky Way, M31, and M33 will all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers, billions of years in the future.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150926.html

◆

"Everything passes away- suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"

- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"

“Alert Wall Street Preparing For A Sudden Stock Market Crash To Unfold On November 3rd"

“Alert Wall Street Preparing For A Sudden 

Stock Market Crash To Unfold On November 3rd"

by Epic Economist

"Investors have been preparing for election-related stock market crash. David Kotok, co-founder and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors told in a recent interview for CNN Business, "there is a creeping concern. If it appears too close to call, we're going to get a market correction as we get closer to the election."

In the meantime, all we know for sure is that both sides have recruited vast armies of lawyers, and it's hard to conceive that either President Trump or Joe Biden would rush to hand over the race. Alternatively, it's being said that there is a larger probability the situation will develop into a “Bush vs. Gore on steroids”, and many on Wall Street are anticipating a sharp stock market crash if that happens. "We've been very blessed in [previous] presidential elections," Hooper completed, "even in 2000, when it was unclear what the outcome was, it was orderly and civilized. There is a fear that it might not be this time. And that could fuel more volatility and selloffs."

At this point, all Wall Street wishes for is a clear, undisputed winner, otherwise a stock market crash would erupt on the horizon once again. Furthermore, the political drama will not only interfere with financial markets, but it can jeopardize the fragile economic upswing and derail Main Street into a second round of deep recession. The Fed, on the other hand, would have to unleash another massive shoot of printed money to stop the bleeding in the markets, enhancing the size of the debt bubble and adding more pressure to this stock market collapse scenario. 

Another aggravating concern to the real economy is that a new surge of corporate layoffs has begun. It seems like the coming holiday season will be very bitter for millions of Americans. The Washington Post published an analysis that points out that the economic collapse boosted by the health crisis is sparking a colossal disparity in social inequalities, "delivering a mild setback for those at or near the top and a depression-like blow for those at the bottom. Recessions often hit poorer households harder, but this one is doing so at a scale that is the worst in generations". 

Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve during the Great Recession, said the current collapse is "an even more unequal recession than usual. The sectors most deeply affected by [the health outbreak] disproportionately employ women, minorities, and lower-income workers". The Post outlined that low-wage jobs were lost at about eight times the rate of high-wage ones, and although the devastation was deepest among the lowest-paid, middle-class jobs were not spared. To conclude, Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi highlighted that "there are very clear winners and losers here. The losers are just being completely crushed. If the winners fail to help bring the losers along, everyone will lose. Things feel like they are at a breaking point from a societal perspective". That is to say, as the dividing line between the haves and have-nots in the United States is pushing both extremes further away, we'll see millions falling into poverty. Despite the outcome of the elections, America seems to be headed for a horror show, and economic conditions are on the path to get a whole lot worse."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

"I Cannot Believe..."

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be “happy.” I think 

the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate.

It is, above all, to matter and to count, to stand for something, 

to have made some difference that you lived at all.”

- Leo C. Rosten

Gregory Mannarino, "A Dire Warning On The Economy...YOU LOSE"

Gregory Mannarino, 

"A Dire Warning On The Economy...YOU LOSE"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"A Universal Law..."

“Here is a universal law: that when it comes to negative and positive, you will always thrive more powerfully in the positive if you have first been immersed in, and have heroically overcome, the polar opposite negative of that thing. To abide in the positive existence of something, without having known and overcome it’s polar opposite – that is to be only a frame of the real structure. Easily toppled down and taken apart. True power is in the hands of the one who thrives in the positive, after having known and conquered the negative. Because when the demons come along, she will say to those demons: “I know you, I have owned you, but now you bow down to me.”

- C. JoyBell C.

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Mustang, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What Hypocrites"

"What Hypocrites"

by Brian Maher

“The only difference between the Republican and Democratic 

parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when 

corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.”

- Ralph Nader

"We have waded into presidential politics… and with predictable consequences. Yesterday - for example - we vented Robert Kiyosaki’s controversial opinion that President Trump is doing the nation a blessing by avoiding income taxes. Here is one reader’s response, Bob by name: "Are you s****ing me? I don’t like to pay taxes, but no taxes, no schools, fire departments, social security, police, criminal justice system as lousy as it is, electricity, garbage pickup, sewer systems. No one would be held accountable for anything! Do you want to drown in garbage and your own s***?

Everyone would run amok. This what you want? We all just run around with guns, like the wild West? I do what I need to do to try to have a stable and civilized country. And for you to say that this LYING TURD whom we call president should not do his part, reflects heavily and badly on your own lack of judgement, reason, and character. I doubt if anyone will read this. No one of your group will have the b***s to respond anyway! I will not unsubscribe yet, to see if you respond. That’ll be a cold day in Hell!"

It is our unfortunate duty to remind Bob that hell is characteristically hot today. Our agents have checked. Yet we freely confess: Our judgment, reason and character remain much in doubt. We nonetheless hope that Bob does not unsubscribe. A loss of any reader is a personal devastation - and a blow to our diminished character. Yet to address Bob’s central question: How can a man of so much wealth - Donald Trump - pay so little in taxes when Bob pays so much?

The Tax Code Rewards Entrepreneurship: You may like it or you may dislike it. Yet as Mr. Kiyosaki explained yesterday, the tax system is structured to reward entrepreneurship and risk while punishing wage-slavery (we are among the slaves): "Government leaders learned a long time ago that the tax codes could be used to make people and businesses do what they want by utilizing the tax codes. In short, the many credits and breaks that are found in the tax codes are there precisely because the government wants you to take advantage of them. For instance, the government wants cheap housing.

Because of this, there are many tax credits for affordable housing that developers and investors can take advantage of that minimize their tax liability, put more money in their pocket, and in turn, create affordable housing. Everyone wins. I would rather invest my money in affordable housing than give it to a bureaucrat.

There are many scenarios like this in the tax codes that incentivize investors and entrepreneurs to do activities the government is looking for while rewarding those who take those actions with lower, or zero, tax burdens. Because of this, limiting your tax liability actually means you’re doing what the government wants you to do through the tax codes. And that is the most patriotic thing you can do."

Tax-dodging is patriotic? Many disagree - our reader feedback demonstrates the point in full. Robert nonetheless concludes: "Criticisms of Donald Trump’s tax returns are capitalizing on the general ignorance around money and taxes that much of our country has. In that way, it is actually a lie and a form of fear-mongering. It is an attack without legs to stand on, preying on emotions rather than appealing to logic and intellect. But that’s what most of our politics has devolved to these days, so I’m not surprised. I encourage you to begin looking at how you can be patriotic not by paying your taxes, but by investing and building businesses that the government rewards with tax breaks and credits for doing exactly what they want."

Reader mail nonetheless remained overwhelmingly critical. Reader H.S., for example, addresses Robert after this fashion: "I had a lot of respect for you even though you had paired up with Trump and wrote your book in the past with him. I let that slide, but it is NOT patriotic to have people in the country pay more taxes than you when you are a billionaire…"

We are then addressed directly: "I will still listen since I paid to be a subscriber, but please respect that not EVERY member of your email circuit is a Trump supporter! I'm just letting you know, you probably will lose a whole bunch of people as subscribers if you keep pushing this guy on us. I am just simply asking to wait on it, since it literally sickens me that people support this fraud of a candidate."

Just so. And of course we acknowledge our reader’s complaints. We would only respond that we do not support the president. Nor do we oppose him. We are politically agnostic.

Debt, Debt, Debt: What are we for? We are for the man who would leave us in peace. We are for the man who would not pick our pocket. We are for the man who lacks all desire to improve the world. In very brief, we are for the man absent from the ballot.

The incumbent has sent debt soaring to dimensions truly obscene. The pandemic plays a responsible part, we acknowledge. Yet even pre-pandemic, his tax cuts came without spending cuts. Thus his deficits were gargantuan. The debt burdens he imposed were correspondingly gargantuan. Let us acknowledge it: The “king of debt” was never a Republican model of fiscal probity.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had previously pegged deficits over a trillion. CBO presently projects over $3 trillion. Let the crocodile’s tears come strolling down Republican cheeks. When was the last occasion the deficit shrank under a Republican? Where is Mr. Robert Taft? Meantime, Mr. Biden presents a fiscal challenge even greater…

Democrats Would Spend Even More: The man is a Democrat. And Democrats exist to spend money - your money. This is especially true for Mr. Biden’s understrappers who would certainly boss him once in office. Have you considered the cost of the “Green New Deal?”

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that they are more open about their profligacy. The one party will borrow more, the other will tax more. Yet threaten to constrain either of them... Then watch the warfare immediately halt… and the hands of peace come extending from both sides. Fiscal probity is on neither agenda. Their difference is merely a difference of degree. And so today we drop a mournful tear on the ashes of fiscal responsibility.

As we have noted before, Republicans once defended the approaches to the United States Treasury. But they have since sold the pass. And both parties have sold us all down a river..."

- dailyreckoning.com

"This Is Always The Hope..."

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”

- Inga Muscio

"The Empire of Uncertainty"

"The Empire of Uncertainty"

by Charles Hugh-Smith

"Normalcy depends entirely on everyday life being predictable. To be predictable, life must be stable, which means that there is a high level of certainty in every aspect of life. The world has entered an era of profound uncertainty, an uncertainty that will only increase as self-reinforcing feedbacks strengthen disrupting dynamics and perverse incentives drive unintended consequences.

It may be more accurate to say that we’ve entered the Empire of Uncertainty, an empire of ambiguous borders and treacherous topology. A key driver of uncertainty is the Covid-19 virus, which is a slippery little beast. Nine months after its emergence on the world stage, discoveries are still being made about its fundamental nature.

Humans crave certainty, as ambiguity and uncertainty create unbearable anxiety. This desire to return to a predictable “normal” drives us to grasp onto whatever is being touted as a certainty: a cure, a vaccine, a fiscal policy to restore the “Old Normal” economy, etc. But none of these proposed certainties is actually certain, and those touting these certainties are non-experts who latch onto an “expert” opinion that resolves their need for certainty and predictability.

What we want, of course, is a return to old certainties that we’re familiar with. In the context of pandemic, the model most people are working from is a conventional flu pandemic: a certain number of people get the virus and become ill, a certain number of then die, and those who survive resume their old life. But there is mounting evidence that Covid-19 doesn’t follow this neat pattern of “the dead are gone and everyone else picks up where they left off.” Counting the dead as the key statistic completely ignores the long-term consequences of Covid-19 that include permanent organ damage.

How many people who get the virus, even asymptomatically, and who end up with damaged heart muscles or other permanent organ damage is unknown. Why is it unknown? Because the system is set up to only count the living and the dead. Chronic disability among the survivors isn’t even being monitored, much less counted. The longer-term consequences of the pandemic are not even being tracked on any comprehensive scale. Please read these articles and then ask: is there any plausible foundation for certainty?

• "New Insights into How COVID-19 Causes Heart Damage"

• "COVID-vaccine results are on the way — and scientists’ concerns are growing." Researchers warn that vaccines could stumble on safety trials, be fast-tracked because of politics or fail to meet the public’s expectations.

• "Opinion: Beware of covid-19 vaccine trials designed to succeed from the start."

• "As Their Numbers Grow, COVID-19 “Long Haulers” Stump Experts (via Cheryl A.)"

A significant number of otherwise healthy people who get the virus suffer long-term organ damage. Another set of people suffer disabling exhaustion, brain fog, etc. for months on end. Are there no economic or behavioral consequences to these lingering effects? Of course there are, and that is a source of great uncertainty that won’t be dissipated for months or even years, as these long-term consequences aren’t even being tracked. We have essentially no comprehensive data on long-term consequences because none is being collected on a systemic, rigorous basis.

Various piecemeal studies of the people who recovered from Covid have found that between 10% and 50% remain debilitated months later by a range of conditions that cannot be explained by a single cause or mechanism. 

• "Italy’s Bergamo is calling back coronavirus survivors." About half say they haven’t fully recovered.

• "Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19" (Italy)

• "COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven’t Had Any Symptoms" (scientificamerican.com) A growing body of research is raising concerns about the cardiac consequences of the coronavirus

• "High odds severe Covid-19 can lead to kidney injury or failure, medical studies reveal."

• "Thousands of New York ‘Long Haulers’ Struggle with COVID-19 Months After Diagnosis."

Then there’s the inherent uncertainties of vaccines. There is as yet no evidence to support the claim that a 100% effective vaccine is just around the corner–or even possible. Let’s say whatever vaccine (or vaccines) are 80% effective for X length of time in 80% of the patients. That means 20% of those getting the vaccine could still get the virus. And of those who are protected by the vaccine, 20% will not know that the effectiveness ended long before the claimed duration of the vaccine’s effectiveness. A significant number of people will refuse to take the vaccine, and should one person who took the vaccine die, this number will increase.

As non-experts, we’re quick to conclude a cure is certain. We assume it will be like all the other miracle drugs of the past 50 years. But it’s increasingly evident that there is no cure for Covid-19 that eliminates 100% of all long-term consequences. The point here is that the patient surviving doesn’t mean there is certainty that they won’t suffer long-term consequences of the infection. There is also no certainty that those who get the virus cannot get re-infected later. Maybe the number of people who will get it again is small, but what this percentage might be is completely unknown.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously differentiated between “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.” The vast majority of the media, mainstream and alternative, is working on the assumption that we know all the unknowns, and it’s just a matter of time before it all gets sorted and we return to normal.

I am focused more on the unknown unknowns, of which I see an entire universe of possibilities. The evidence of long-term chronic consewuences strongly suggests that Covid-19 is not just another standard-issue flu. It’s increasingly apparent that it’s a very slippery snippet of RNA, and everyone assuming it’s just another flu virus and certainty will soon return will be proven wrong.

Meanwhile, other uncertainties loom large. The U.S. has fractured into warring camps very reminiscient of the final days of the Western Roman Empire. Rather than unite to save the core, factions are expending their last reserves on in-fighting and internal jockeying for the rapidly diminishing power of the central state. Those concerned about a potential constitutional crisis or recount in the presidential election are merely extending what’s already visible: fractures have widened to the point there’s no middle ground left.

The emergency financial policies that were intended to restore normalcy–printing $3 trillion and throwing it around as recklessly as possible to bail out all the speculators who’d left the U.S. economy fragile and vulnerable to any shock–these policies are no longer working, and claiming they are working just fine only deepens the future waves of volatility. Anyone claiming they can project the trajectory of the U.S. and global economy is deluding themselves. Where the economy will be in 9 months or 18 months, never mind five years from now, is not a known unknown, it’s an unknown unknown.

There are no roads out of the the Empire of Uncertainty nor are there any safe havens of absolute certainty within its shifting borders. It takes a different kind of mindset to become comfortable with the permanent ambiguity and uncertainty of unknown unknowns playing out, very likely in increasingly chaotic waves of increasing amplitude. Letting go of certainty is difficult because it’s so comforting. But there is another kind of comfort that comes with embracing uncertainty as a state of being and a state of awareness."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"Geezer Elite Turns Desperate"

"Geezer Elite Turns Desperate"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "In the 1950s, Tommy d’Alesandro put together the Democratic machine in Baltimore – then headquartered in Lil’ Italy (pronounced Lil It-lee). His daughter Nancy (now Pelosi) was a pretty girl. Smart and tough, too. She went to Washington in 1963 to work as an intern in the office of Senator Daniel Brewster. She knows the place well.

Meanwhile, Fred Trump built a middle-brow real estate empire. He set up his son Donald in an apartment deal in the early 1970s – giving the kid a million dollars a year in income.

Mitch McConnell went to Washington more than half a century ago to work for Senator Marlow Cook. Except for a brief stint at a Kentucky law firm, he never left.

Joe Biden, ditto… In a flukey election in 1972, he became a U.S. Senator from the state of Delaware, just weeks before his 30th birthday.

Anthony Fauci got a job at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda in 1968. He’s been living off the federal government ever since.

These were the lucky ones… the elite. They gained fame, fortune, power, and status early on… and never gave it up. And now, aging… listening to the Grateful Dead in their private moments… shored up by botox, hair coloring, and Viagra… as needed… they are desperate to hang on to the world that has been so good to them.

Signs of Weakness: But the world they built is a counterfeit one. And it’s getting harder and harder to hold it together. Here’s Bloomberg: "Manhattan apartment rents plunged last month by the most in nearly nine years. That’s only one sign of weakness for the borough’s leasing market. […] The median rent, with concessions such as free months factored in, plummeted 10% to $3,167. It was the biggest rate of decline in records dating to October 2011."

While renters flee New York, their jobs are on the run, too. From The Washington Post: "Layoffs still piling up as jobless claims remain stubbornly high 837,000 Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. […] Another 650,000 people had new claims processed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance last week, the program for self-employed and gig workers, up slightly from 630,000 the week before. The total number of people claiming unemployment insurance ticked up slightly, to 26.5 million for the week ending Sept. 12."

Sellout: We are exploring the sellout of America by its geriatric elite. They launched wars against drugs, poverty, terrorism, a virus… and especially, against honest money. The wars benefited the warriors, shifting power, status… and about $30 trillion… to the elite over the last 30 years. But the more they scam, the more they have to scam to keep the jig up… and the more angry people they leave behind.

After Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker “rescued” the system in 1980, the resulting fake dollar and fake interest rates produced fake wealth on a scale the country had never seen before. The Dow rose 29 times. But the wealth was heavily concentrated in the richest zip codes. The rest of the country got, relatively, poorer. Factory jobs decamped to China and Mexico. The old machinists, welders, and hot roll handlers in Gary, Detroit, Mansfield, and St. Louis were left behind. Now, they live in shabby neighborhoods… on disability, if they can get it… reminiscing about the good ol’ days.

Wealth migrated from the towns where people made things to the towns where people just made money. Like Manhattan, where apartment prices rose four times since the beginning of this century. And there, people made plenty of money, thanks to the Fed’s war on honest money.

Five Assaults: The Fed launched five major assaults. There were three waves of interest rate cuts – 1989-1992, 2000-2003, and 2007-2008 – along with a $3.6 trillion heavy artillery barrage after the crisis of 2008-2009 and $3 trillion more to fight the COVID Shutdown. Almost every penny went to the richest, oldest 10% of the country… leaving 90% of the population behind.

This COVID Shutdown – another attempt to protect the old at the expense of the young – forced much of the economy onto the internet, leaving behind millions of face-to-face, hand-to-mouth workers. Waiters, parking lot attendants, landlords in some areas, clowns in Disney World, strippers in Las Vegas… whole industries were decimated. Many people will never get their jobs back. They have been left behind, perhaps permanently.

No Complaints: Meanwhile, the Boomer Elite… bless their hearts (including your editor and many of his Diary readers)… is living high on the hog. Maybe we weren’t as lucky as The Donald or The Nancy, but we can’t complain. We went to college. We avoided the assembly lines and shop floors. We punched a keyboard, not a time clock… And come the coronavirus… we could work from home. And we made investments… partaking of the great promise of degenerate American capitalism – that the government would make sure we didn’t lose money.

As often chronicled in this space, three times this century, the markets have tried to correct… and three times, the Federal Reserve has fought back, making sure the wealthy elite retained its ill-gotten gains. And then, just to make it better for ourselves… we can move to a Zoom Town. That’s right, we can leave behind the whole complex of crime, poverty, job losses, politics, and social disruption… and live far enough away from the big city, where it is safe, beautiful, and pleasant… but still with enough bandwidth to let us “visit” with our children and grandchildren… and carry on with the rump ends of our careers.

Left Behind: And now… here we are. We save more than ever (what is there to spend money on?) We enjoy more time at home. Nobody asks us to get on a plane… to come into the office… or even attend a dinner party. We boomers have left behind the factory workers. We’ve left behind the Old Economy and its hourly wage earners. We’ve left behind the towns where we were born. We left behind the old folks when we set off to make our careers… And now, we leave behind our own children as we head for comfy retirement in Idaho or North Carolina (paid for by the next generation!)…

But wait… you say the biggest “Left Behind” is still ahead? You say we’ve been promised $210 trillion (according to professor Lawrence Kotlikoff) in pension and medical benefits that can’t possibly be paid? You say the feds already spend two dollars for every dollar they collect in taxes? You say the millions of left-behind people are losing faith in the “social contract”? You say that our geezer elite won’t be able to keep this up much longer… and that we may be left behind, too? Stay tuned…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/2/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/2/20" 

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

"The Only Thing Systematic Is The Destruction Of America"

○

Gregory Mannarino,

AM 10/2/20 UPDATE: 

“Alert! Critical Must Know Updates"

 - https://traderschoice.net/

○

Updated live.

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

Daily Update (October 1st to 2nd)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

"This Real Moron Thing..."

 

"Caution: Low-flying Black Swans"

"Caution: Low-flying Black Swans"

by Jim Kunstler

"The New York Times almost wet its panties breaking the pre-dawn news that the president has tested positive for coronavirus. By the end of day, Democrats across the land - or, at least, up and down the east and west coasts - will be gathering unto Santeria shrines, lighting MAGA hats on fire, sacrificing chickens, drawing Wiccan pentangles in the moonlight, and entreating all the other unseen powers of Providence to rapture Mr. Trump into everlasting oblivion somewhere beyond the crab nebula.

The Judeo-Christian God of our fathers must have a special animus for the Golden Golem of Greatness. He/She/It/or They have heaped more tribulation on Mr. Trump than on the biblical Job of Uz, anguishing in Yahweh’s holy whirlwind. RussiaGate, VeryFinePeopleGate, UkraineGate, BoltonGate, now this! It typically takes about four days for Covid-19 symptoms to present, so early next week sometime the world will know if the bug made the president sick or if he shook it off like just another impeachment effort. The ordeal will also be an interesting test of the hydroxychloroquine + zinc regimen Mr. Trump says he’s been on.

The joyful hysteria in the mainstream news is so boisterous this morning that The Times hasn’t even played its obvious next card, which, I guarantee you, will be an effort to postpone the hearings over SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett on account of coronavirus being on-the-loose among government officials. I’m pretty sure that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will keep a firm hand on the tiller of that ship - even if the darn proceeding has to go full Zoom meeting, they will git’er done (as we say in Deplorable Land).

If the virus doesn’t knock Mr. Trump on his ass, I imagine we’ll be seeing quite a lot of him campaigning by video in quarantine, old game-show performer that he is. I wouldn’t even rule out some updated Oval Office versions of The Apprentice, with the president taking the opportunity to dismiss a few of the seditionists still lurking in government. Gina Haspel, you’re fired! Christopher Wray, you’re fired! Michael Horowitz, take a hike! General Mark Milley, you’re busted to corporal! Remember, the old Chinese word for crisis, weiji, means a combo of danger and opportunity.

Of course, there are small-but-real odds that the disease could make Mr. Trump very ill, or even launch him up to that great boardroom the sky. What then? Does Veep Mike Pence carry on in his place? Or do the Trump forces in the GOP bring in Rick Grenell or Johnny Ratcliffe as an emergency candidate for president? Just as in the case of mass mail-in voting, this is a scenario the country hasn’t run before.

Technically, Mr. Trump’s two-week quarantine will be over by October 15, just in the nick of time for the second debate with Joe Biden. But Ol’ White Joe is sure to demur on that meet-up for reasons of virus exposure risk - though his peeps seemed less than eager for Round Two even before last night’s announcement of the president’s positive test. If that happens, and the president comes through his infection in good shape, then Mr. Biden will be seen as a weakling, which, technically, he is on cognitive grounds, apart from his inherent character deformities.

The focus in days ahead surely will be on Mr. Trump’s medical condition, but there’s plenty more action in the offing as October rolls out. There’s the aforementioned Amy Coney Barrett SCOTUS business, there are new rumblings out of John Durham’s office just in the past few days that something consequential may be up there, and there is the stalemate on a coronavirus relief bill in Congress.

The latter matter hints at the catastrophe lurking in the background of the election: the stupendous mass bankruptcy of unemployed or laid-off middle-class people whose rent and mortgage payment holidays will eventually run out, not to mention car payments and all the other overdue, usual, rotating bills each household must pay to stay above water. After half a year of lockdowns, millions are on the brink of financial ruin.

Of all the things that have made Americans anxious and hysterical this year, this horror of middle-class financial ruin has not quite expressed itself overtly in the public arena - at least, not in the streets. For sure, the Antifas and BLM mobs have been active looting, burning, and smashing things up, but many of these are unemployables, and the ones burdened with college debt may be counting on Democratic Party promises of a jubilee on that.

The foundering middle-class may be people most sympathetic to Trump and Trumpism. You can’t sell them on the identity politics nonsense that has become the Dem’s stock-in-trade. Laid-off airline pilots, hair stylists, and insurance adjusters are probably not interested in critical race theory, gender dysphoria, re-imagining law enforcement, able-ism, and the travails of the “neuro-diverse” (the latest term-of-art for the mentally ill). They may also catch a whiff of yet deeper economic calamity in the Democrats’ relish for more lockdowns, and even in the promised “universal basic income” schemes that would pay the able-bodied to not work. The question for this large group is how many will swap their liberty for the very sketchy and conditional security of a Woke nanny state that requires strict obedience to whatever crazy crusade it thinks up next?

There’s your true friction point in the current disposition of things. People used to being busy, productive, and independent may feel a mighty resentment about becoming that kind of society, and they may fight over it. At least they’ll turn out to vote on it. Maybe they’ll do both."

- https://kunstler.com/

"How It Really Is"

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 10/02/2020"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 10/02/2020"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Despite the unfairness of the debate between President Trump and former VP Joe Biden, Trump still destroyed Dem candidate Biden. This was despite the fact that moderator Chris Wallace was also debating President Trump on behalf of Biden. Also, Trump’s microphone was noticeably turned down compared to Biden and Wallace. There is no doubt about this as you can go back and listen to it and measure it on a meter. This is too stupid to be stupid, and it is simply a dirty trick to try to subtly minimize Trump in the debate. There is also speculation that Biden got the questions ahead of time and that he had help by wearing an earpiece and special contact lenses that would act as a teleprompter. This may or may not be true, but who cares. Trump won and Biden got beat. 

Democrats know they are losing and losing badly. Black voters are switching to the GOP and so are Hispanic voters in record numbers. This is why we have the in-your-face vote-by-mail cheating scams. It is also why the DNC and MSM are constantly making up false stories about how Trump is a racist. The Dems also know that polls for independent voters show about 70% of them are turning to Trump and the Republican Party. It all boils down to no cheating will mean no victory for Dems in November. So, they cheat and cheat big or lose big.

The Democrats in the House have passed a new stimulus bill with zero Republican support. Good luck getting it passed thought the Senate as it was only a partisan attempt by Nancy Pelosi who was criticized by members of her own party for not getting bipartisan support. Without a new stimulus bill, there will be more layoffs as restaurants, airlines and other impaired businesses struggle to gain traction."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about 

these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.

"Global Food Shortages Are Becoming Very Real & U.S. Grocery Stores Prepare For Worst Case Scenarios"

"Global Food Shortages Are Becoming Very Real & 

U.S. Grocery Stores Prepare For Worst Case Scenarios"

by Epic Economist

"While the world turns the spotlights to failed attempts of fixing broken economic systems, a hunger crisis is spreading across the globe. Amid a sanitary outbreak that is devastating countries politically and economically, and as a consequence of catastrophic natural disasters, recent reports are indicating that we're about to see “famines of biblical proportions”. Countries that once eradicated the dreadful effects of malnutrition are witnessing a reoccurrence of high poverty rates, meaning that a larger portion of their population is now facing deep food insecurity. 

From Asia to Africa to South America, the hunger crisis is leaving a troubling track, and specialists are warning that if the world leaders don't take action soon enough, the repercussion of the widespread food shortages will become more fatal than the current viral outbreak. 

The Executive Director of UN's World Food Program (WFP) David Beasley has repeatedly warned that in addition to the damages that emerged with the global health crisis, the world would face “multiple famines of biblical proportions” that would likely cause 300,000 casualties per day, triggering a hunger crisis. Now, this critical situation is already a reality for many countries. A couple of months ago, while speaking at an online briefing broadcast by the UN on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the WFP chief disclosed the distressing fact that 821 million people are currently battling with food insecurity. “If we don’t prepare and act now, to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade,” he said, the outcome could lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe in a short few months”. “Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations, including many women and children, face being pushed to the brink of starvation, with the specter of famine a very real and dangerous possibility,” he added.

Now, grocery stores across the United States are stocking up on products to avoid shortages during a second wave of coronavirus. When the  media starts acknowledging that food shortages are on the horizon, it's a sign things are about to get much worse. The report specified that household products - including paper towels and Clorox wipes - have been difficult to find at times during the pandemic, and if grocery stores aren’t stocked up and prepared for a second wave this winter, runs on products and shortages could happen again.

Furthermore, noting that the food prices will likely increase due to the greedy ambitions of a handful of billionaires, who are profiting at the expense of workers financial pain, which unables them to afford for basic goods. With high demand for groceries comes higher prices in the aisles. Since March, more Americans have been eating at home - and their grocery expenses have been growing. This is partly due to the fact that food manufacturers and grocery stores are rethinking their pricing strategies now because demand is surging.

What is more, on top of the threatening food shortages and soar in prices, other determinants may contribute to the disruption of the food supply chain, since many U.S. farmers have gone bankrupt during this downturn. They revealed that federal payments have actually done very little to keep them afloat. In fact, the initial payments under the Food Assistance Program, which provided $16 billion in direct support and $3 billion in purchases, disclosed an uneven distribution of financial aid, and most of the payments were redirected to large, industrialized farms.

Another distressing event that adds to all these factors is the major natural disasters that happened this year in agricultural areas of many countries, but most concerningly in China, where crops were wiped out on a massive scale, leaving a dent in global food production. For now, most Americans still have access to plenty of food, and we shouldn't take that for granted, because global conditions are swiftly changing and we probably should take this window of opportunity to start preparing for the very challenging times that are ahead of us." 

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

“Mortgage Delinquencies Record High; 837K Jobless Claims; Layoffs, Cyberattacks; Retail Closures”

Jeremiah Babe, 

“Mortgage Delinquencies Record High; 837K Jobless Claims;

 Layoffs, Cyberattacks; Retail Closures”

Gregory Mannarino, "IMF: 'We Are In Another Global Debt Crisis.'"

Gregory Mannarino,

"IMF: 'We Are In Another Global Debt Crisis.'"

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, “Zero Degrees Zero, Ambience Minimus”

Liquid Mind, “Zero Degrees Zero, Ambience Minimus"

Free Download: Aldous Huxley, "The Doors of Perception"

 

“There are things known and there are things unknown,

 and in between are the doors of perception”

- Aldous Huxley 

Freely download "The Doors of Perception", by Aldous Huxley, here:

- https://maps.org/images/pdf

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140828.html

“How Buster Douglas Beat Mike Tyson”

"The image that comes to mind is a boxing ring. There are times when... you just want that bell to ring, but you're the one who's losing. The one who's winning doesn't have that feeling. Do you have the energy and strength to face life? Life can ask more of you than you are willing to give. And then you say, 'Life is not something that should have been. I'm not going to play the game. I'm going to meditate. I'm going to call "out". There are three positions possible. One is the up-to-it, and facing the game and playing through. The second is saying, Absolutely not. I don't want to stay in this dogfight. That's the absolute out. The third position is the one that says, This is mixed of good and evil. I'm on the side of the good. I accept the world with corrections. And may [the world] be the way I like it. And it's good for me and my friends. There are the only three positions."

- Joseph Campbell

○

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact,

it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are,

what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

- Maya Angelou

○

“How Buster Douglas Beat Mike Tyson” 

by johnnysmack7

“Going into the fight, Mike Tyson was the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He held the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. Despite the several controversies that marked Tyson’s profile at the time, such as his notorious, abusive relationship with Robin Givens; the contractual battles between longtime manager Bill Cayton and promoter Don King; and Tyson’s departure from longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, Mike Tyson was still lethal in the ring, scoring a 93-second knockout against Carl “The Truth” Williams in his previous fight. Most considered this fight to be a warm-up bout for Tyson before meeting up with then-undefeated number 1 heavyweight contender Evander Holyfield (who was ringside for the fight). Tyson was viewed as such a dominant heavyweight that he was not only viewed as the world’s top heavyweight, but often as the number one fighter in the world pound-for-pound (including by “Ring Magazine”), a rarity for heavyweights.

Buster Douglas was ranked as just the #7 heavyweight by Ring Magazine, and had met with mixed success in his professional boxing career up to that point. His previous title fight was against Tony Tucker in 1987, in which he was TKO’d in the 10th round. However, a string of six consecutive wins gave him the opportunity to fight Tyson. In the time leading up to the fight, Douglas faced a number of setbacks, including the death of his mother, Lula Pearl, 23 days before the fight. Additionally, the mother of his son was facing a severe kidney ailment, and he had contracted the flu on the day before the fight.”

- http://www.knockouts2sleep.com

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. 

That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”

- Vince Lombardi

At 2:40 of this video Douglas takes a tremendous uppercut and goes down, kneeling to clear his head; you can see him wondering to himself if he should get up. No one at all expected him to, but he reached for something deep inside himself, found an inner strength perhaps even he was unaware of, and got back up to continue the fight. The rest, as they say, is history… and real glory. 

– CP

Full screen mode suggested.

"The Madman"

 

"The Madman"

"It was in the garden of a madhouse that I met a youth with a face pale and lovely and full of wonder. And I sat beside him upon the bench, and I said, “Why are you here?” And he looked at me in astonishment, and he said, “It is an unseemly question, yet I will answer you. My father would make of me a reproduction of himself; so also would my uncle. My mother would have me the image of her seafaring husband as the perfect example for me to follow. My brother thinks I should be like him, a fine athlete. And my teachers also, the doctor of philosophy, and the music-master, and the logician, they too were determined, and each would have me but a reflection of his own face in a mirror. Therefore I came to this place. I find it more sane here. At least, I can be myself.” Then of a sudden he turned to me and he said, “But tell me, were you also driven to this place by education and good counsel?”

And I answered, “No, I am a visitor.”

And he answered, “Oh, you are one of those who live in the madhouse on the other side of the wall...”

- Kahlil Gibran

The Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, "I Want A Lot"

 

"I Want A Lot"

"You see, I want a lot.
Perhaps I want everything:
the darkness that comes with every infinite fall
and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing
and are raised to the rank of prince
by the slippery ease of their light judgments.
But what you love to see are faces
that so work and feel thirst...

You have not grown old, and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"The Essence Of Human Existence..."

"Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 

'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'

I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions.

I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out."

- Eugene Cernan

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Belleville, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"A Corrupt Elite Strangles the Economy"

"A Corrupt Elite Strangles the Economy"

by Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "We begin today with a new study by the RAND Corporation. It tallies a little more of the hidden cost of House Arrest. ABC News reports: "Now, new data shows that during the COVID-19 crisis, American adults have sharply increased their consumption of alcohol, drinking on more days per month, and to greater excess. Heavy drinking among women especially has soared. […]

“The magnitude of these increases is striking,” Michael Pollard, lead author of the study and a sociologist at RAND, told ABC. “People’s depression increases, anxiety increases, [and] alcohol use is often a way to cope with these feelings. But depression and anxiety are also the outcome of drinking; it’s this feedback loop where it just exacerbates the problem that it’s trying to address.”

The bills will continue to trickle in for years. Jobs lost. Companies bankrupted. Careers and families stifled and stunted.

Job Cuts: Yesterday came more news of job cuts. Here’s Bloomberg: "American Airlines Group Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. will start laying off thousands of employees as scheduled, spurning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s appeal for a delay as he negotiates with Congress over an economic relief plan that includes payroll support for U.S. carriers. American is furloughing 19,000, while United is laying off about 13,000."

Bloomberg also reports: "Tens of thousands of job cuts announced by blue-chip companies in a 24-hour period are a warning sign for the world’s recovery and emerge just ahead of two key reports forecast to show limited progress in the U.S. labor market.

In one of the biggest layoff announcements since the pandemic caused widespread economic shutdowns, Walt Disney Co. said late Tuesday that it’s slashing 28,000 workers in its slumping U.S. resort business. In the hours that followed, the pace of job cuts at some of the world’s biggest companies – across a range of industries from energy to finance – quickened. On Wednesday, Allstate Corp., the fourth-largest car insurer in the U.S., said it will cut 3,800 jobs, roughly 8% of its workforce. And Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to cut roughly 400 jobs after temporarily suspending job reductions at the beginning of the crisis."

High Price: When the figures are eventually toted up, they will show that the U.S. paid a very high price – for nothing. Different countries (and different states) tried different techniques to control the spread of the coronavirus, from strict lockdown (as here in Argentina) to a light touch (as in Sweden). Their results are all over the place. Northern Italy had a high death rate; Southern Italy had a low rate. Sweden’s death rate was high in nursing homes, but low in the general population.

America, with the most sophisticated and expensive medical care in the world, has had more deaths than any other nation. But some areas had almost none at all. Africa, with minimal medical services, has had relatively few. As near as we can tell, it doesn’t matter what the feds do. The virus has a mind of its own.

Why Do It? But today, we are puzzling over a larger phenomenon: How come? If the payoff from LockDown-LockUp policies was so uncertain, why do it? Old people are about 1,000 times more at risk from the virus than young people (and seniors are 10 times more likely to die from something other than the coronavirus). Why not just advise them to lay low? Why inconvenience millions of young people for the convenience of a few old ones? Why make 300 million fearful… when only 30 million had much to worry about?

But a similar question could be asked about a lot of things. Why are so many things set up that way? Each new bugaboo sends the nation into hysterics; many suffer and only a few benefit. The War on Terror benefited a few military/industrial/consulting companies in Northern Virginia; it cost the rest of the nation $6.4 trillion. The anti-racism industry makes billions; it puts everyone else at each other’s throats.

Likewise, the poverty fighters have been gaining wealth and status on the front lines of the War on Poverty; poor people are just as poor as ever. The government’s medical care giveaways are designed, chiefly, for old people; the young pay.

The Federal Reserve’s fake-money/fake-interest-rate policies have shifted more than $30 trillion to the richest people in the country over the last 30 years; the poor and middle classes got nothing. Getting right to the point, the fix is in – a few benefit… most pay.

Optical Illusion: And now, a geriatric elite controls the country… its businesses… its armed forces… its money and its government. Donald Trump is 74. Joe Biden is 77. Nancy Pelosi is 80. Mitch McConnell is 78. Jerome Powell is 67. Anthony Fauci is 79. Biden, Pelosi, McConnell, and Fauci have been in government for a combined 185 years. Naturally, they arranged the furniture to suit them. And what suited them all was a scammy, modern look – heavy on the trompe l’oeil, where things are never quite what they appear. That’s why the subject never came up in the presidential debate. The reds and blues may disagree on the details – Who’s more corrupt? Who’s more dangerous, Antifa or Proud Boys? But there is one thing they agree on so completely that it is never even mentioned…

Complete Agreement: The biggest threat to the U.S., and most of its people, remains hush-hush… like the source of a mobster’s wealth… And whatever else may happen… nothing can be allowed to interfere with it. The flimflam must go on. Not since the French Revolution has there been an elite so desperate to hold on to its privileges. The French aristocracy hoped to remain exempt from taxes. But the American geriatric aristocracy seeks an exemption from the laws of economics! More to come…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

○

"The New York Fed, Pumping Out More than $9 Trillion in Bailouts Since

September, Gets Market Advice from Giant Hedge Funds"

"The New York Fed was in charge of almost all of the secret $29 trillion in bailouts during the 2007 to 2010 financial crisis. Congress never approved these loans or was even aware of where the money was going. After the Fed lost a multi-year court battle to keep its bailouts a dark secret from the American people, we learned that Morgan Stanley was one of the largest recipients, receiving a cumulative total of $2.04 trillion according to the audit conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)."

And how are you doing, Good Citizen?