"More Than Half Of All Americans Plan To Stockpile Food And Essentials For The Chaotic Months Ahead"

"More Than Half Of All Americans Plan To Stockpile 

Food And Essentials For The Chaotic Months Ahead"

by Epic Economist

"Americans already started to stockpile food and other essential goods in face of the prospects of more food shortages, and many have expressed to believe the elections will bring a lot of tension to the streets. In this video, we examine the growing distress that is leading 56 percent of the population to expect a boom of social agitation in the coming days.

According to a recent report, the main reason why a large portion of the population is stockpiling food and essential goods is the apprehension surrounding the event of another wave of infection cases, while the economic depression getting even deeper and more complex. 

After witnessing massive supply shortages, it's no wonder why Americans are deeply alarmed about the prospects of not finding food, cleaning products, or the basic goods they need one more time. The main concern is related to the convergence of a substantial rise in viral cases, plus the potential conflicts resultant from the elections, and another round of supply chain disruptions happening all at once. 

Despite some cities and states had experienced low case rates, many continued to document food shortages, and now as a survey show, over half of Americans affirmed they will start a stockpile to keep themselves and their families secured throughout the coming months.

There is already evidence that shows grocery sales are rising. Even the mainstream media has turned its attention to a significant growth in the number of grocery store chains which are foreseeing shortages and have been stocking up on essential goods. 

Many grocery store chains realized if grocery stores aren’t stocked up and prepared for a second wave this winter, runs on products and shortages could happen again. However, some products might remain difficult to find, and less supply combined with higher demand leads prices to soar.

Of course, food manufacturers and grocery store owners are seizing the opportunity to rethink their pricing strategies to maximize their profits. And as the demand goes up, the global food production has become increasingly stressed. While prices climb up, food security for tens of millions worldwide is put into jeopardy.

Such upswing in food costs will directly impact the most vulnerable households, pushing millions into poverty and hunger. Experts are warning that emergency funds need to be built to avoid a global famine, but not much has been done so far. Instead, food insecurity has been spreading and the world is experiencing one of the worst food crises in five decades.

We can predict a critical surge of households falling into extreme poverty, and, at the same time, the wealth inequality gap will become abysmal. Throughout history, food price volatility and disruptions have often culminated in social tumult and aggressive confrontation.

And there are many reasons to believe that we are about to witness the result of social discontentment on the streets again. A new poll showed that nearly half of the interviewees disagreed with the idea that the election "is likely to be fair and honest” and they expect to see "an increase in social confrontation as a result of the election". 

The election's legitimacy was put into question after President Trump's claimed there would be a potential fraud including millions of mail-in ballots. For that reason, many are pondering whether there would be a peaceful transition of power in case of an unfavorable outcome. 

Even a national campaign has been issued to disavow physical aggression from either side and ask people to respect those who voted differently. But many aggravating layers are piling up to what can be the worst division the nation has ever seen. 

In the case of a contested election, both sides will have will doubt the integrity of the election and each side will blame the other for inciting disorder. All signals are telling us that we're entering more tumultuous, restless times. So you should start preparing now."

-  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Gregory Mannarino, "IMF Warns On The Market. Expect PARABOLIC DEBT Moving Forward"

Gregory Mannarino,

"IMF Warns On The Market. Expect PARABOLIC DEBT Moving Forward"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind II: "Slow World"

Liquid Mind II: "Slow World"

The Daily "Near You?"

Yorba Linda, California, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Sooner Or Later..."

“Sooner or later, fate puts us together with all the people, one by one, who show us what we could, and shouldn’t, let ourselves become. Sooner or later we meet the drunkard, the waster, the betrayer, the ruthless mind, and the hate-filled heart. But fate loads the dice, of course, because we usually find ourselves loving or pitying almost all of those people. And it’s impossible to despise someone you honestly pity, and to shun someone you truly love.”

- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”

“In These Times”

“In These Times”

“In these times when anger

Is turned into anxiety,

And someone has stolen

The horizons and mountains,

Our small emperors on parade

Never expect our indifference

To disturb their nakedness.

They keep their heads down,

And their eyes gleam with reflection

From aluminum economic ground,

The media wraps everything

In a cellophane of sound,

And the ghost surface of the virtual

Overlays the breathing earth.

The industry of distraction 

Makes us forget

That we live in a universe.

We have become converts 

To the religion of stress

And its deity of progress;

May we may have courage 

To turn aside from it all,

And come to kneel down before the poor,

To discover what we must do,

How to turn anxiety

Back into anger,

How to find our way home.”

~ John O’Donohue,

from “To Bless the Space Between Us”

○

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.”

- https://www.davidpaulkirkpatrick.com/

○

“Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jungian psychiatrist and post trauma recovery specialist, writes this to  social activists. Estes is perhaps most famous for her book, "Women Who Run With the Wolves." I originally posted this in March of 2017. I thought Labor Day, 2018 was a good day to reprint it. This letter appears, in part, on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ blog. The date of the original letter is unknown.

"In Search of Santiago’s Aunt"

"In Search of Santiago’s Aunt"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "Was she still there? Was anyone there? Had it been turned into a hippie colony? Or abandoned altogether? On Sunday, we went to find out. And we pass along this recollection of our expedition while it is still fresh in our mind.

Degenerate Capitalism: But first… from The New York Times comes another illustration of how late, degenerate capitalism works. First, the feds weaken an industry. Then, they make it dependent. Here’s The New York Times: "Federal payments to farmers are projected to hit a record $46 billion this year as the White House funnels money to Mr. Trump’s rural base in the South and Midwest ahead of Election Day.

The gush of funds has accelerated in recent weeks as the president looks to help his core supporters who have been hit hard by the double whammy of his combative trade practices and the coronavirus pandemic. According to the American Farm Bureau, debt in the farm sector is projected to increase by 4 percent to a record $434 billion this year and farm bankruptcies have continued to rise across the country."

Mule Story: But let’s move on. The adventure began with a mule. Or the story of a mule. “I went with my father. Must have been 20 years ago,” said Santiago. “There’s an oasis on the other side of the Apacheta. That’s where we got the mule. My aunt lived there.” The story seemed so implausible, it had to be true.

The Apacheta is a spine of naked, brutal, unforgiving mountains on the east side of the Calchaquí Valley, about 10 miles from our house. No water. No grass. Just bare rock, sticking almost straight up. We have admired them for the last seven months. The evening sun hits them… and they almost sparkle.

But we never imagined that anyone lived out there… on the other side of them. There are no roads. No rivers. No farms. Nothing. As far as we could tell, there was no way to cross the mountains. And no reason to. The map showed only one thing – an abandoned uranium mine that could only be reached by a long, circuitous route around the whole mountain range and down the valley on the other side. But after Santiago’s report, we checked Google Earth. Was there a green spot somewhere out there? Yes… a small patch… Looking closer, we saw what looked like corrals and tiny fields. But it was not just on the other side of the Apacheta… but on the far side of a further mountain ridge.

Who lived there? What did they do? Were they still there? Or was it, like the uranium mine, long since vacated? “What happened to your aunt? Is she still there?” we questioned Santiago. “I don’t know. We haven’t heard from her in two decades.” “Maybe we should go check?” “Yes, that would be a good idea.” “But how do we get there?” was our next question. “There’s a small pass. I remember where it is… I think.”

Expedition to Cortaderita: That was all the encouragement we needed. “Cortaderita” the homestead is called. Our farm is the nearest thing to it. And yet, when we began asking questions about it, almost no one had ever been there. “I went there as a boy,” said one of the old-timers, wrenching his face up as he tried to recall. “My father would go out there to hunt guanaco. You can get there. Takes about eight hours. The trouble is, there’s no pasture to feed the horses. You could go in one day… but you have to leave around 4 in the morning… and hope to get back before midnight.”

So, Sunday morning, we saddled up in the dark. There were four of us going on the expedition. Your editor and his wife, Elizabeth, of course. Ramón, a neighbor, who has been here all his life, but never ventured east of the Apacheta. And Santiago, our guide.

The horses seemed to know we were going on an adventure. They are not usually summoned before dawn. They pulled at their bridles, eager to move ahead more quickly. We headed south… across the soft desert behind the house… and then turned to the north and east, following a dry riverbed. We were in high spirits, aiming for the “red hills,” which act as a prelude to the Apacheta. The red hills are the oldest of the three ridges we would cross. In some places, these are little more than dunes of red sand. We skirted them easily. And by the time the sun rose, we were already headed into the Apacheta.

There, millennia of rain and wind had carved out a narrow channel, very different on one side from the other. On the east side, there were towering rocks, smoothed and sculpted into strange shapes and sizes. To the west were sheets of stone, millions of years of sediment, pushed up from the ground. Not rounded, but sharp and straight. Called “the arrows” locally.

Ramón was mounted on a Paso Fino – a Peruvian with a steady gait, but not recommended for rough mountain terrain. Santiago rode a tiny horse from the south of Argentina, sturdy and surefooted. Your editor and his wife were both mounted on bigger horses, mixtures of creoles and thoroughbreds, well-trained and dependable. Elizabeth was on our old horse, El Bayo (the Bay), leaving us with El Chavo (the Joker), a younger, more vigorous animal.

We passed through the narrow defile… marveling at the fantastic, voluptuous forms… nooks, crannies… sweeping shoulders of stone… soaring promontories… Then, the channel opened up. We knew we had to go east. But there were several different possibilities.

“Stay here… I’ll see where this one leads.” Santiago trotted off to the right. We sat on our horses, waiting. In a few minutes, he returned. “Yes… We can get up out of the canyon here.” We followed. But now, we were no longer on the smooth surface of the arroyo. Now, we were on the rocks, with the horses picking their way along. It was difficult going, especially for Ramón. After about 20 minutes, we came to the end of the arroyo… and arrived at the base of a hill. It was steep, but the horses could make their way up… finally coming to a flattish plain on top. From here, we could see what looked like a pass far in the distance. We had already been riding for about four hours. “Another couple of hours to the pass,” said Santiago.

Perfect Gaucho: Everybody is related in the valley. Santiago works at a nearby farm. He is the son of one of our tenant farmers. He is the nephew of two of our cowboys and the cousin of several others. Other cousins, uncles, and aunts fill the valley. He is thin, agile, and strong. Dressed in a wide-brimmed black hat, with his bombachos and high boots, he is a perfect gaucho, more at home on horseback than on foot.

Santiago’s aunt, whom we were aiming to visit, is the sister of one of our tenant farmers (arrenderos) and the sister-in-law of another. She is also the aunt of more than one of our ranch hands… and so forth. It seemed unlikely to us that Santiago could remember a trail he took one time, 20 years ago. But he seemed to know where he was going.

Santiago leads the way

As a precaution, we had studied the Google Earth map carefully before we left. But that proved not especially helpful. We knew the general outline of the land, and we could point in the direction we were meant to go. But we didn’t know which path or arroyo to take to get there. And you can spend hours following a dry riverbed that leads nowhere. Once on the high plain, it was easier to see where we were going. The sun was high, but not hot. Santiago took off a coat and put it under him. We kept going.

Limping Horse: The oasis we were looking for was on the other side of the pass in front of us… and then, on the other side of a third ridge of mountains. On Google, they appeared to be uncrossable. But ahead of us was a little notch. We could even see a little bit of green. We came to the pass without incident. Again, we puzzled over which path to take. But we decided to follow the one recently used by the guanaco. They must be going somewhere… probably to get water.

The other side of the mountain proved greener. But more difficult to navigate. More rocks. More churchi bushes with long thorns. More cactus, too. “This is the kind of country where you need chaps,” said Ramón. The needles stuck into our legs and forced us to detour… down off the trail and into another arroyo. And then, Santiago led us to another trail, which led up and over several steep hills.

“My horse is starting to limp,” Ramón noticed. It had probably hit its leg on rocks… or had a thorn in it. Ramón got down. Santiago joined him, as the two of them felt the horse’s leg and massaged it briefly. Then, they remounted and we continued.

Uphill Struggle: Your editor, fresh from his Google Earth search, suggested a different way. “We could go down to the bottom of the arroyo and then head up the next big one. That should take us where we want to go.” But it was too late. We were in the middle of a complicated and difficult configuration of hills, cactus, rocks, and washed-out trails. And even if we went back to the bottom of the arroyo, we had lost our bearings… It wouldn’t be clear where we were or where we should go.

“No… It’s this way,” Santiago insisted. We continued northward. The horses struggled up hills… and slid down the loose stones on the other side. Then, coming to the crest of yet another rugged hill, we saw it in the distance. “Cortaderito,” said Ramón.

Sign of Life: Ramón is in his sixties. He was born here. He is a farmer and a cattleman. But he is a little heavy. Diabetic. With high blood pressure. “If I survive the coronavirus,” he joked, “I’m good for another 10 years.” We were not sure it was such a good idea for him to come. His wife fretted about it. But he is tough. And good humored. It was his horse we worried about now.

With the destination in sight, we continued with lighter hearts and easier conversation. Down one hill, up and over another. And then, we followed the trail to a cluster of improbable trees… a pine and a poplar… and on to a small pool with a tiny stream of water still running into it.

First sign of life

“There are people still here,” said Santiago.

No One Home: Continuing along, after a while, we heard dogs barking. In front of us was one of the most ramshackle clusters of buildings we had ever seen. Cactus wood, adobe, poles, junk, plastic… windswept… on a barren knoll, away from the trees and the water… We arrive at a house.

The dogs kept barking. But they were wagging their tails. They must not see many strangers… but they were friendly. Chickens wandered about. And a young guanaco – its fleece still wispy, as if of tiny threads of gold – came out to greet us. Guanaco are usually wild animals. This one was a household pet…

Ramón and the two Bonners held back. Santiago advanced… “Hola!…” Santiago, still on his horse, yelled towards the house. No answer. We shifted in our saddles. The horses, tired and thirsty after six hours and a 3,000 foot climb, breathed heavily. “Hola!…” Santiago tried again. Still no reply… To be continued…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands,

hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

- H. L. Mencken

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/13/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/13/20"

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

○

"Employment’s Recovery Road Comes to an End"

by David Haggith 

Please view  this complete, highly recommended article here:

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

Gregory Mannarino,

AM Oct 13, 2020: 

"US Economy IN MELTDOWN. Stock Market Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Updated live.

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

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

Daily Update (October 12th to 13th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Insane...

"Just When We Think..."

"Just when we think we figured things out, the universe throws us a curveball. So, we have to improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong."

- "Dr. Meredith Grey", "Grey's Anatomy"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 10/13/20"

by David Leonhardt

10/13/20

• Chinese authorities will test all nine million residents of the city of Qingdao for the coronavirus, in response to an outbreak of nine cases. The move is typical of China’s aggressive - and successful - campaign to control the virus, after initially downplaying the dangers.

• Johnson & Johnson has paused the late-stage clinical trial of its vaccine because of an “unexplained illness” in one of the volunteers.

• What happens when the first vaccines are approved? Expect months of “chaos and confusion,” experts say, as the world learns which work best and how long their protections last.

• The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, refused to answer reporters’ questions after they asked that he keep his mask on.

• Several companies - including Google, Target, Microsoft, Ford Motor and The New York Times - have extended working from home through next summer.

Oct 13, 2020, 12:14 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 37,805,100 

people, according to official counts, including 7,840,484 Americans.

      Oct 13, 2020 12:14 AM ET: 

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

◆

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

OCT 13, 2020 2:30 PM: "Netherlands, Ukraine Tighten Restrictions As Countries Across Europe See Record COVID-19 Cases: Live Updates"

OCT 13, 2020 10:25 AM: "25-Year-Old Nevada Man First American Confirmed To Have Caught COVID-19 Twice"

OCT 13, 2020 8:10 AM: "Dutch Woman Dies After Being Reinfected With COVID-19, Global Cases See Biggest Weekly Jump Yet: Live Updates"

◆

Updated 10/13/20, 3:24 AM ET

Click image for larger size.

- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

"The Illusion Of The Tiny Shadows..."

“In The Republic, Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain. Blinded by the glare, he is unable to seeing anything and longs for the familiar darkness. But eventually his eyes adjust to the light. The illusion of the tiny shadows is obliterated. He confronts the immensity, chaos, and confusion of reality. The world is no longer drawn in simple silhouettes. But he is despised when he returns to the cave. He is unable to see in the dark as he used to. Those who never left the cave ridicule him and swear never to go into the light lest they be blinded as well.”

- Chris Hedges

○

”To attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood;

It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing the Darkness.

It cannot be.”

- Frank Herbert

"Our Simulacrum Economy"

"Our Simulacrum Economy"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Readers once routinely chastised me for over-using simulacrum to describe our economy and society. The problem is this word perfectly describes the hollowed-out, rigged economy and social order we inhabit and so synonyms don't quite cut it: it's not the same as simulation or imitation or counterfeit. My use (or over-use) dates back to the 2009 publication of my book "Survival+", which included a chapter titled Simulacrum and the Politics of Experience. I use simulacrum to describe a carefully constructed representation of a once-authentic system that is intended to shape our behavior to suit the interests of those constructing the simulacrum.

The simulacrum has the look and feel of the once-authentic system but it's rigged to benefit the few whose interests are better served by the simulacrum than they could ever be served by an authentic system. As I wrote in "Survival+:" A simulacrum is used to distort a reality that, once revealed, would cause the target audience to act in ways that would not serve the interests of those deploying the simulacrum.

The point of a simulacrum is to mimic an authentic system realistically enough so nobody notices it's rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many. This is different from a simulation--for example, a flight simulator--that models the actual experience. It's also not a faux copy or counterfeit of the authentic system; it is a replacement that's real in every way.

French Postmodernist Jean Baudrillard's 1981 book "Simulacra and Simulation" attempts to differentiate Simulacra and Simulation by noting that a simulacrum is not a copy of an original (i.e. a counterfeit) because the original is no longer accessible. As a result, the simulacrum becomes not just real but hyper-real.

For an example, consider capitalism which in its classical form is the risking of capital to generate financial and social gains that were not possible in a pre-capital economy. The labor and materials needed to construct a major canal, for example, were beyond the reach of villages or even towns, and so their economies remained localized and poor due to the inability to reach distant, more lucrative markets. Once capital could be assembled in sufficient size, the localized, fragmented economies were unified by the canal, and commerce expanded exponentially as a result, benefiting everyone with access to the canal: laborers, farmers, craftspeople, traders and those who risked the money to construct the canal.

Contrast this authentic form of capitalism with the monopoly-finance-state version we inhabit, a simulacrum of authentic capitalism that retains enough superficial similarities to the original that the vast majority of participants don't even realize that their experience of this simulacrum is entirely different from an experience of authentic capitalism.

Rather than draw benefits from this hyper-real monopoly-finance-state version, the vast majority of participants are exploited, as the value of their labor and capital is extracted by the simulacrum version of "capitalism" which divvies up the extracted value between the monopolies / cartels who control most of the valuable economic activity, the financial sector that parasitically feeds on the real economy and the state, which extracts wealth to feed its vast network of dependents, enforcers and minders of the entire system.

In this hyper-real simulacrum, a vast fortune is never more than a couple of stock gambles, TikTok clips or YouTube videos away. Or for those wary of the casino, the enormous mortgage taken on for life promises access to the riches of the Everything Bubble. In the hyper-real casino, everyone has access to the terrors of losing, but only a few know the joys of the rigged games that guarantee a few big winners by design and a fortunate few who stumbled into the game at a propitious moment.

As Baudrillard anticipated, the authentic original version of capitalism is no longer accessible. The simulacrum that we call capitalism is rigged, and the mechanisms are so cleverly obscured that the vast majority of participants willingly allow themselves to be exploited, disempowered or marginalized because they have no experience or even reference point to the authentic original version, as it no longer exists. Everything they know and experience - the economic models, symbols, signifiers, narratives, adverts, etc., and their own conceptions of value and agency, have all been so thoroughly debauched that they have no idea that the authentic original has been lost.

The problem is our system only survives by cannibalizing its weakest parts, and once they've been consumed, the system can no longer sustain itself and it expires. Simulacra are not fake, but they are profoundly unstable and prone to collapse. Everything gluing the monopoly-finance-state system together is unraveling due to the excesses of extraction and exploitation the system has perfected.

Once the rigged system collapses, we'll have an opportunity to assemble an authentic economy, a new original that isn't rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many. This is what I discuss in my new book "A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet," (free excerpt (PDF)."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Choice..."

"Except for totally impulsive or psychotic behavior, every human

decision comes down to the choice between two alternatives."

- Jeff Duntemann

"What’s Behind No-show Joe"

"What’s Behind No-show Joe"

by Jim Kunstler

Something even stranger and more sinister than the Covid-19 virus is creeping across the USA: Joe Biden’s Flying Dutchman campaign which, like the ghost-ship of legend, plies the vasty electoral seas with a skeleton crew and no hope of ever landing. Late last week, the candidate blew into Yuma, AZ, for a rare, joint appearance with veep pardner Kamala Harris and, guess what, absolutely no civilians (i.e. voters) showed up at the event, though the local TV news had publicized it. Weird, a little bit?

Face it: we’re living in the days of fantastic high-tech information mischief. Virtually all of the traditional news media, plus the powerful new social media, plus the news media of foreign lands, and scores of other embeds in the federal bureaucracy, are behind the story that Ol’ White Joe and his understudy, Ms. Harris, are way ahead in the polls. Do you ask yourself, as I must, whether this is all a gigantic psy-op? And why would it be?

All right, I know that many readers are cross-eyed to the point of nausea over the Barr-Durham investigation, especially the failure to deliver indictments before the election. The complete absence of leaks from that outfit has been crazy-making itself for many. But I take that as a sign of the profound seriousness of the investigation. Durham’s crew is methodically making a case for the worst and largest seditious conspiracy in US history. It requires the most extreme care. They are not going to blow it by allowing any suspicion that it is being used as a campaign ploy on behalf of Mr. Trump.

Sometime after the election and before the 20th of January, a great big hammer is going to come down on the people who organized the RussiaGate op and many of its spinoffs. As the late Tom Petty observed, the waiting is the hardest part, and not only for those in the Counter-resistance who have already connected the felonious dots based on publicly available documents, but also for the targets of the Barr-Durham RussiaGate probe, the Resistance itself - the long log of Obama Admin officials, Clinton campaign minions, and even senators who worked to prevent Donald Trump’s election by foul means and then tried to disable and overthrow him when it didn’t work, in order to cover up their criminal culpability.

You understand that the targets of Barr and Durham are almost all lawyers, Democratic Party-connected lawyers, that is. And so, what they are doing in the shadows of Joe Biden’s ghost campaign is attempting to mount a last-ditch lawyers’ assault on their antagonists, who have regained control of a rogue Justice Department. Thus: Lawfare. If RussiaGate was the most dastardly crime of government against itself ever in US history, then the final result will be the most awful roundup and prosecution of disgraced former officials ever seen in the history of the world’s great nations. Criminal liability may even extend into the news media itself - though they may only be named as unindicted co-conspirators.

Thus too, the unanimity in the news media on not reporting the documents lately declassified by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe, and his predecessor Rick Grenell. What had been a slow dribble of documents zealously protected by seditionists still in office - namely CIA chief Gina Haspel and FBI director Christopher Wray - is becoming a torrent of incriminating information as it is finally pried from their hands. The real story is getting out there, into the public realm, by other means despite the attempts to suppress it - and none of it is coming from Barr and Durham. Their work constructing a difficult case goes on independent of those declassified releases. It is driving the Resistance batshit crazy.

Hence, all the noises emanating from Lawfare circles about the monumental legal battle to come over the mail-in vote. So high are the stakes - so many careers possibly broken and celebrated figures sent to trial, maybe even prison - that the Democratic Party’s Lawfare gang will dare to confound the resolution of a presidential election and disrupt a 200-plus year history of orderly government. They will mount scores of lawsuits in every swing state against its slate of electors in an effort to thwart an electoral college vote scheduled for December 14. They won’t care whether they turn the USA into a failed state. They just desperately want to get their friends and colleagues off the hook.

All this is why the Biden-Harris campaign is such a dispirited fiasco. They don’t matter. Their only “policy” is to front for a lawyer network aimed at protecting its members at any cost. Their aim is to hijack what’s left of America’s legal system in order to destroy it. They went public with the scheme in the so-called Transition Integrity Project and the “war game” it ran over the summer. That scenario seemed feasible up to the sudden death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court will change the odds of that scheme greatly against them… and they know it."

- https://kunstler.com/

"We Destroyed the World’s Greatest Economy for No Reason"

"We Destroyed the World’s Greatest Economy for No Reason"

by Jim Rickards

"Everyone knew the second quarter of 2020 was going to be a disaster, and it was. The U.S. economy fell by 31.4% (annualized) in the second quarter. But, the expectation was that we’d have a V-shaped recovery with a sharp bounce-back in the third quarter, a reopening of closed businesses, rehiring of the unemployed and a rising stock market. But so far, the economy is not following the script laid out for it by the politicians and experts.

The stock market did rally, but that was mainly because the stock index components are heavily weighted to companies least affected by the pandemic including Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet (Google), Facebook and Microsoft. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Federal Reserve printed $4 trillion of new money and backstopped money markets, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, foreign central banks and other facets of capital markets with direct purchases, guarantees or currency swaps. Even at that, stocks have been struggling since hitting new highs on September 2.

And yes, there was growth in the third-quarter (the best estimate is that the economy will grow at about a 35% annualized rate, but we won't have official figures until October 29). The 35% third-quarter recovery was to be expected as Americans got back to work after the lockdown. That 35% rate might sound like the third quarter will basically make up for the second quarter, but it won’t.

Not as Good as It Sounds: The 35% gain is applied to the lower level of output resulting from the 31.4% loss. If you take 100 as a starting place, reduce it by 31.4% you get to a new level of 68.6. If you increase that level by 35% you get back to 92.6. That still leaves you 7.4 percentage points in the hole, not counting the 5% drop in the first quarter. When you apply 7.4% to a $22 trillion economy, that means you still have $1.6 trillion of lost output on an annualized basis even after the 35% third-quarter recovery.

The V-shaped recovery looks more like an “L” with flattish growth beyond the third-quarter. Things will not necessarily get much better from there, and progress is very much in doubt. The lockdown continues in many places. The virus has not gone away, and the caseload and fatalities continue to grow.

A second wave of layoffs has now begun as companies that were able to hang on thanks to Payroll Protection Plan loans find that the money has run out, and their businesses are still closed. They are now being forced to let go of workers who might have survived the first layoffs in March and April. So the letter to describe the recovery isn’t a “V” or even an “L” but possibly a “W,” with another recession right around the corner.

Beyond the second wave of layoffs, there is a persistent problem of the long-term unemployed whose businesses are shut down or dead in the water with no prospect of any return of demand. This is a combination of factors the economy has not seen since the 1930s. It’s worse than a technical recession, it’s a depression, and its effects will be felt for years, or even decades, to come.

When Will Output Return To 2019 Levels? The U.S. will not regain 2019 output levels until at least 2022, and growth going forward will be even worse than the weakest-ever growth of the 2009–2020 recovery. The post-2009 recovery produced only 2.2% growth. It was an L-shaped recovery. It was a real recovery, yet the output gap between the former trend and the new trend was never closed.

The U.S. economy suffered over $4 trillion of lost wealth based on the difference between the former strong trend and the new weaker trend. That lost wealth was a serious problem for the U.S. before the New Great Depression. Now the prospect is for even lower growth than the weak post-2009 recovery.

The U.S. economy would have to grow 10% a year in 2021 and 2022 to return to 2019 levels of output. First, is 10% growth even a reality? Past history says no. Since 1943, U.S. annual real growth in GDP has never exceeded 10%. In fact, post-1980 recoveries averaged 3.2% growth. And since 1984, growth has never exceeded 5%.

So 10% is a very optimistic forecast to begin with. Here’s the problem: Using 100 as a yardstick for 2019 output and assuming unrealistic back-to-back years of 10% real growth in 2021 and 2022, one still does not get back to 2019 output levels. It would take the highest annual real growth in over 40 years, sustained for two consecutive years, to get close to 2019 output levels. It’s far more realistic to assume real growth will be less than 10% per year. That puts the economy well into 2023 before reaching output levels last achieved in 2019.

Another “L”-shaped Recovery: The new recovery, far from the 10% growth discussed in the example above, may only produce 1.8% growth, even worse than the 2.2% growth before the pandemic. It’s another L-shaped recovery, the second in a row. Now the bottom of the L is even closer to a flat line, and the output gap compared with the long-term trend is even greater. All of this economic devastation was not caused directly by the virus. It was caused by the policy response to the virus, specifically the extreme lockdowns ordered by many state governors. Was it all worth it? The likely answer is "no."

90% of Lockdown Benefits at Only 10% of the Cost: Many top scientists agree that lockdowns don't work. The virus will spread with or without a lockdown. Some measures make sense such as washing hands, keeping social distance and wearing masks in crowded spaces. But there's no evidence masks do any good at all when the wearer is alone, outdoors or at a reasonable distance from others. We could have followed these basic rules and gotten 90% of the benefit of a lockdown at only 10% of the cost.

Those supporting lockdowns have ignored the costs of increased suicides, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and the depression and anxiety that result from lack of social interaction. There was never a good reason to close every bar, restaurant, salon, boutique and public space.

“We Destroyed the World's Greatest Economy for No Good Reason”: Even the World Health Organization is coming out against lockdowns. Dr David Nabarro, the WHO's special envoy on COVID-19, says: "We really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method… We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it."

We destroyed the world's greatest economy for no good reason."

- dailyreckoning.com

"Alert: $27 Trillion Dollar Government Debt Heading To Economic Collapse & Stock Market Crash"

"Alert: $27 Trillion Dollar Government Debt Heading 

To Economic Collapse & Stock Market Crash"

by Epic Economist

"The government debt has become so massive, it will exceed the entire size of the economy by the end of next year. Additionally, the national budget deficit is expected to hit record highs, also pushing the economy into another, more intricate collapse, and consequently, spreading fear on the stock markets that will unavoidably experience a crash.

This scenario corroborates with the assertion that the US economic collapse has just begun. For that reason, in this video, we discuss how the huge national debt and the budget deficit will lead us to a catastrophic path of financial and economic depression, and we present to you a report that shows regardless of who's the winner of the elections, the national debt bubble will explode in any way.

Recently, the national debt surpassed $27 trillion, about three months ago, the debt was standing at $24 million. It took the nation 210 years to run the National Debt up to $2 trillion. It took exactly 2 months and 2 days to add the most recent $2 trillion. At the same time, the federal government set a new record for the biggest budget deficit in any fiscal year. 

The federal response to the health crisis was the main catalyst for the massive spike in the budget deficit. For Fiscal Year 2020 the budget deficit will be at least $3.7 trillion, or 17.9% of projected GDP, and it could reach even larger levels in face of a second surge of infection cases. This figure is more than three times as much as the 2019 default and more than double the levels seen after the market collapse and Great Recession of 2008-09. 

The expansion of the deficit will boost the federal debt to exceed annual gross domestic product next year, to levels last witnessed following World War II. However, when debt levels exploded as a consequence of the enormous borrowing to finance the WW2 effort, those levels swiftly declined during the postwar boom. 

Right now, we won't see these levels receding any sooner, since the federal spending tendency is to create more debt. In fact, behind the facade President Trump called “the greatest economy in the history of America", the federal government was already engaged in fiscal stimulus. 

Even before the outbreak has arrived in America, the deficit featured numbers you would expect to see during a massive economic slowdown. The federal response to it, just put spending and debt in hyperdrive.

As we approach the November 3rd elections, a report warns that despite who wins, the spending trend will continue and, in both scenarios, the national debt will likely explode. The report outlines that under current law, trillion-dollar annual budget deficits will become the new normal.

If things were bad before, from now on they're only getting worse, because after analyzing the spending and tax proposals from both candidates, the organization discovered that in either case, economic prospects will be bleak. The difference between both agendas is derisive and the main discrepancy would be defined by how the two candidates would manage to arrive at these deficits. 

What our leaders are failing to do is to help to end the health crisis and effectively rescuing the economy, addressing these unsustainable long-term deficits. But by taking advantage of the current monetary policy, debt levels won't cease to grow. The administration has the responsibility to balance its spending not to put the financial markets rebound at the expense of people's lives.

If government officials aren’t held accountable for their decisions, their tendency is to always enact fiscally reckless policies. By looking at both spending proposals, we can clearly see that we can't rely on Team Red or Team Blue to save the day. What many may not understand is that the national debt is not only a federal problem. We are the ones who are going to pay for it.

It means we will be seeing these massive numbers translated into higher taxes and massive inflation, as a result, less income, higher prices, and more bills to pay. Politicians will not lead us out of the current fiscal calamity they have put us into. Instead, they will use our economic illiteracy to keep us into a loop where we endlessly jump from an economic rock bottom to the next."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

Musical Interlude: Chuck Wild, Liquid Mind, “Dream Ten”

Chuck Wild, Liquid Mind, “Dream Ten”