"Why We're Doomed: Our Delusional Faith In Incremental Change"

"Why We're Doomed: Our Delusional Faith In Incremental Change"

by Charles Hugh Smith

When times are good, modest reforms are all that's needed to maintain the ship's course. By "good times," I mean eras of rising prosperity which generate bigger budgets, profits, tax revenues, paychecks, etc., eras characterized by high levels of stability and predictability.

Since stability has been the norm for 75 years, institutions and conventional thinking have both been optimized for incremental change. This is an analog of natural selection in Nature: when the organism's environment is stable, there's little pressure to favor random mutations, as these can be risky. Why risk big changes when everything's working fine as is?

Absent any big changes in their environment, organisms' genetic programming remains stable. Unlike natural selection's process of generating random mutations and testing their efficacy and advantages over the existing programming, human organizations quickly habituate to stable eras by institutionalizing incremental changes as the only available process for reform/change.

Radical reforms are not just frowned on as 1) unneccesary and 2) needlessly risky, there is no institutionalized process to propose, test and adopt radical changes because there is no need for such a process.

Nature has such a process: punctuated equilibirium. When faced with a rapidly changing environment, organisms face intense evolutionary pressure to adapt or die. Mutations which confer a significant advantage in the new environment become part of the species' genetic programming as those with the adaptation bear offspring who carry the advantageous adaptation. Those without the advantageous adaptation die and those with the adaptation thrive and multiply.

Once the environment stabilizes in "the new normal," the evolutionary pressure lets up and the species returns to the stability of relatively few changes in its genetic programming. Organisms which have lost the ability to adapt to rapid change die off once they encounter instability. Species that constantly face instability and rapid change will selectively favor genetic traits which optimize rapid evolution. Nature tends to retain a basement closet full of fast-evolution tricks just in case the organism faces novel challenges.

Alas, human organizations and conventional thinking have no such closet of fast-evolution tricks. Rather, human organizations and conventional thinking marshal formidable forces to suppress anything which threatens the status quo, because why risk upsetting the feeding trough unless it's absolutely necessary?

Therein lies the fatal problem: radical adaptation is never absolutely necessary in human organizations and conventional thinking until it's too late - and even then, the leadership and conventional thinking will fatalistically accept oblivion rather than opt for a risky strategy of testing every mutation and fast-tracking whatever has promise, even though the odds of failure are high since 1) the challenge is novel and therefore unpredictable and 2) most mutations will fail to provide the radical advantages needed to meet the challenge.

In other words, what's absolutely necessary to human organizations and conventional thinking is the suppression of potentially dangerous novel ideas because the worst-case scenario is that the novel ideas upset the feeding trough all the insiders have come to depend on.

Unfortunately for human organizations and conventional thinking, novel challenges demand precisely what they're incapable of: risky rapid evolution. The risks will never seem worth it because some insiders might lose their spot at the feeding trough. Since this loss is viewed as catastrophic by those at risk, they will fight with everything they have to stymie any radical reforms. Ironically, their resistance to rapid evolution only guarantees the demise of the entire organization/status quo, including the spot at the trough they were so eager to defend at all costs.

As the crisis deepens, the default setting in organizations and conventional thinking is that incremental changes and reforms will be enough, because they've been enough for four generations. I call this entirely natural default setting the delusional faith in incremental change because this faith isn't guided by history or the logic of causality; it's simply convenient and easy. Nobody gets fired or demoted for agreeing to do more of what's failed spectacularly.

I've prepared a chart of the delusional faith in incremental change showing how each new crisis is met by incremental institutionalized defaults that are completely inadequate to the novel challenges that have arisen. The blindness to the need for radical adaption has been institutionalized as well: this is what worked in the past, so it will work now. Why risk everything when we have procedures that have worked well?

Each stage of the crisis draws whatever conventional response causes the least pain. First, the "rainy day fund" is drained to keep everyone at the feeding trough. Studies of options are funded, and so on. The recommendations are either too timid and clearly inadequate or they're too bold and risky. So incremental policy and budget tweaks are adopted as acceptable institutional defaults.

But rifts open in the leadership as the farsighted few demand rapid, radical adaptations and the conventional risk-averse crowd digs in their heels. The farsighted few are pushed out or quit / retire, eliminating the only people who had the ability and experience to actually pull off a radical change of course. A reshuffling of leadership evokes hope that the modest reforms will work magic. Alas, incremental tweaks only work in eras of stability. They fail miserably in unstable eras of rapidly-evolving challenges.

As everything runs to failure, the only acceptable path is to do more of what's failed spectacularly, a default to low-risk incrementalism that only accelerates the final inevitable collapse. The delusional faith in incremental change guarantees systemic failure. Better not to risk any radical evolution that might fail, and so failure is thus assured. This is why our status quo is doomed:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "With No Economic Recovery In Sight, The FED Is Calling For More Debt"

Gregory Mannarino,

"With No Economic Recovery In Sight, The FED Is Calling For More Debt"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"A Herd Animal..."

“Of course, we doubt if many public prescriptions are really intended to solve problems. People certainly believe they are when they propose them. But, like so much of what goes on in a public spectacle, its favorite slogans, too, are delusional – more in the nature of placebos than propositions. People repeat them like Hail Marys because it makes them feel better. Most of our beliefs about the economy – and everything else – are of this nature. They are forms of self medication, superstitious lip service we pay to the powers of the dark, like touching wood….or throwing salt over your shoulder. “Stocks for the long run,” “Globalization is good.” We repeat slogans to ourselves, because everyone else does. It is not so much bad luck we want to avoid as being on our own. Why it is that losing your life savings should be less painful if you have lost it in the company of one million other losers, we don’t know. But mankind is first of all a herd animal and fears nothing more than not being part of the herd.”

- Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva, “Mobs, Messiahs and Markets”

"In Search of Santiago’s Aunt – Part II"

"In Search of Santiago’s Aunt – Part II"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "Tomorrow, we’ll return to our usual focus on the world of money. There have been a couple of interesting developments, for example, in the COVID Lockdown story. Stay tuned…

Discovering Cortaderita: Meanwhile… When we left you yesterday, we were describing our trip out beyond the Apacheta mountains. Improbably, there is an oasis far out in the bleak and barren mountains behind us. Santiago, a man who works at a neighboring farm, but whom we know because he is related to many of our own farm hands, told us about a visit some 20 years ago to his aunt who lives there. Was she still there? Was she still alive? Had it become a hippy colony? No one seemed to know. So, on Sunday, we set out on an expedition to find out.

We arrive at a house.

Having set off before dawn, and after six hours on the trail, we arrived at the place called Cortaderita. Someone was living there. Santiago called out. “Hola!”… But there was no answer. We sat on our horses, eager to dismount. “Hola!” Santiago tried again. Meat hung from a wire, drying. The dogs barked. The chickens scratched the ground. A curious young guanaco came over to take a look.

A curious guanaco.

Happy Reunion: Finally, a man emerged from the house. A few minutes later, the house disgorged another person, a woman. The man was dressed in dirty cotton clothes. The woman, too. He wore a baseball cap. She wore a multi-colored Andean bonnet. They appeared to be in their 50s or 60s. They looked puzzled. They walked towards Santiago, who had dismounted. The man smiled. He had all his teeth, which is rare in the area, with two long, sharp incisors that made him look a little like Dracula. The woman smiled, too… but with more of a look of concern on her face. “Who were these people?” “What did they want?” she seemed to be thinking.

She came on more cautiously. Her dark red skirt was covered with an apron. She was missing teeth. We didn’t like to think about how the teeth had been taken out. When was the last time they had a visitor? A month ago? A year ago? Who would make the trip? Why? Santiago approached the woman. “I’m Santiago Guantay, son of your sister, Josefa.” The woman looked more puzzled than ever, as if she were trying to remember. She hesitated. Then, she reached out… and hugged him. Tears formed on her cheeks.

Lunch at Cortaderita: While Santiago embraced his aunt, the rest of us dismounted. We took the horses over to a hitching post, tied them up, and loosened their cinches. Ramón checked his horse’s leg. “The white legs are always weaker than the brown ones,” he said. The saddlebags were removed. And introductions continued. “This is Señor Bonner; he’s the owner of San Martín.” “My name is Anacleto,” the man said, still smiling. “This is my wife, Alejandra.”

Our bona fides established, we sat down at a table under a plastic tarp. We each took out what we had brought for lunch and put it on the table to share with the others. Sausages. Milanesas. Cheese. Bread. A bottle of wine. We had also brought some walnuts and raisins to leave with our hosts.

We hadn’t known what we would find. Santiago’s family had not heard from his aunt in two decades. Had she moved away? Had she died? No one knew. There was a rumor that the outpost had been taken over by hippies. They went about naked, it was said… growing an ultra-puissant variety of marijuana in the high, mountain sun. It would have made a good place for them. They wouldn’t have to worry about visits from the authorities; no one would know – or care – what they were up to.

Unrelenting Misery: But the oasis was smaller than we expected. There was water; it was sweet and reliable. “It runs just like that all year round,” explained Anacleto. But there was probably only enough to support a single, small family. It almost never rains in this area. And all their food had to be produced here; there was no way to get supplies from town. The spring water had to be used to water animals and crops, too.

A steady stream of water ran into a small pond. From there, the water leaked over to a small orchard, with unpruned pear, plum, and peach trees. And they had carved tiny irrigation ditches to carry the water to a field of beans not far away. Anacleto said they grew corn, too, but we saw no evidence of it. Nor was there a vegetable garden. It would have been easy to grow a few heads of salad, some onions, and some beets. But there were none. Apart from the fruit trees, which looked like relics from an earlier era, there was nothing to break the unrelenting, windblown misery of the place.

Another Era: The water did not run into the house. It would have been easy to put in a plastic pipe to get running water; but they must not have thought about it, or cared. They carried water in buckets. The house had no TV. No telephone signal reached them. No microwave. No dishwasher. No clothes washer. There were no electric appliances of any sort. No water heater. No heating at all, other than a cooking fire in the kitchen. They had no transportation, either. No mules. No horses. If they went anywhere, they went on foot. There was one sheep and a lamb in the yard.

A survivor…

“That’s all that’s left,” Anacleto explained. “The others were killed by puma. “But we still have about 30 goats… and as many cows.” “What do the cows eat?” we asked, looking out at the barren valley. There was no pasture anywhere. “They find things up in the hills.” We were about as high “up in the hills” as we could get. But mountain cattle find little clumps of grass… and tiny pools of water. Somehow, like the people in front of us, they survive.

“Have you been down to the valley recently?” we wondered. “No… Not for about six months. We heard they had the plague (the peste, he called it) down there.” Of all the world’s 8 billion people, these two were probably the least likely to get the coronavirus. They have almost no contact with the outside world.

Family Connections: Anacleto seemed a little awkward. Uncomfortable. He got up from the table and stood by himself, wondering what to do. We posed questions in our más o menos Spanish. He often didn’t understand what we were saying… “He’s asking you…” Santiago interpreted. Between Santiago and Ramón, there was practically not a single stranger in the entire Calchaquí Valley. So the whole family tree was soon established. Anacleto’s brother worked down in the valley. He worked for so-and-so, who had a cousin who was married to so-and-so…

As for his wife, Santiago’s aunt, she was related to almost everyone we knew in the area. Santiago brought her up-to-date on the family. But she was curiously passive. Almost indifferent. She asked no questions. She seemed almost in shock, as if she didn’t know what was going on. Maybe she had lived in this strange, isolated place for so long, she had lost interest in the outside world… even in her own relatives. Not once did she suggest that she might like to visit them… or that they should visit her.

Anacleto and Alejandra

Want for Nothing: While the story of humanity is generally a tale of progress, anthropologists sometimes find isolated tribes that have gone backward. They lose their skills. They abandon their gods. Their myths, rules, and rituals are forgotten. We wondered whether the couple in front of us had not slipped. “Do you have any children?” “Yes, we have two… a son and a daughter. The son lives about three hours away, near the uranium mine. Our daughter went to the city.” “When was the last time you saw them?” Anacleto made a gesture with his hand… as if it had been a while and he couldn’t remember.

The two had nothing. But perhaps they wanted nothing. They paid no rent. No electricity bill. No telephone bill. No gas bill. No insurance bill. No medical bills. No food bills. But they had sunshine every day. Water. Food.

“And what if either one of them should have a health emergency?” Ramón asked on the ride back. “Here, they have no access to anything. They’re completely on their own.” Ramón is a practical man. Farming in the Calchaquí Valley isn’t easy. And he’s done it all his life. There is almost never enough water. Machines break down; parts need to be ordered from Europe or America. The government makes life difficult. Inflation comes and goes. Workers come and go, too.

For him, the forlorn romance of Cortaderita – isolated… with a stunning view over a desert valley – was overshadowed by problems. How could they get supplies? How do they know what’s going on in the world? Why would anyone want to live like that?

Last Goodbye: We finished our lunch and said our goodbyes. It was already 3 p.m… we only had about four more hours of daylight. Alejandra grasped Santiago’s hand. Both knew it would probably be for the last time. She sent her regards to her sister and her brother. We said goodbye. Elizabeth took a photo. “There’s a better way to go back,” Anacleto advised Santiago. Take the trail to the west after you pass the pond.” When we got to the pond, we let the horses drink.

The horses having a drink before the long trek home.

Then, we continued, turning to the right, as Anacleto had suggested. The first part of the trail was rough. We had to go up and over the crest of the mountain… and then down a steep hillside, all the way to the arroyo at the bottom. After that, it was easy riding… along the sandy quebrada, all the way back through the Apacheta… and out onto the wide slope down to the Calchaquí itself.

The long journey home.

Sticking It Out: “They really ought to leave there,” Ramón concluded. “They live as though it were 100 years ago… or 1,000 years ago. They don’t have anything but hand tools. “My father brought the first tractor to the valley… but that was more than 70 years ago. And they still don’t have anything that is mechanized. No generator. No internal combustion engines. They don’t even have a mule to pull a plow.”

But they looked healthy. Weather-beaten, but still sturdy. And it looked like – whatever the reason – they were prepared to take it to the end. “That’s what Marta Sandoval did. And it’s what Eleena wants to do,” Elizabeth reminded us. Marta lived alone at a remote outpost, not as far away as Cortaderita, but almost impossible to get to. We visited her when she was in her eighties. She already had something wrong – an abscess in her jaw. “Can we take you down to the city?” we had asked. “Wouldn’t you like to live closer to doctors and services?” She, too, had nothing… no electricity, no running water… nothing but a few goats. But she stuck it out. Her grandson went to check on her a year later… and found her dead.

Eleena lived with her husband at a very pretty outpost called Coralito. Her husband died two years ago. Her daughter dragged Eleena down to the local town to live with her. But she didn’t want to stay. She wanted to go back to her mountain outpost. And there she is, alone. In her eighties. Spry, but withered. Fortunately, she’s easier to visit. A farm road takes you up to the base of the mountains. From there, it’s an hour and a half on foot. Her grandson checks on her each weekend. She intends to stick it out, too… to the end.

“I’ve been here all my life,” Ramón concluded. “Sooner or later, the valley makes everyone a little loco. Including me.”

Getting close to the end of the trail.

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/14/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/14/20"

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

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Gregory Mannarino,

AM Oct 14, 2020: 

"Prices Continue To Rise In a DEAD Economy"

- 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 14th to 15th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Insane...

"How It Really Is"

 

Don't hold your breath...

"Notice Anything Odd?"

Click image for larger size.

Oct 11, 2020, 1:57 PM: 

"These are the BLM arrested last night. Notice anything odd?"

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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Related, presented in full here, without comment:

"'Guillotines, Motherf*cker': Colorado Democratic Committee 

Member Caught On Hidden Camera Talking Violent Revolution"

You should be careful what you ask for, you just might get it...

Greg Hunter, "Unlimited, Endless, Infinite Amount of Dollar Creation"

"Unlimited, Endless, Infinite Amount of Dollar Creation"

Merry-Go-Round of Money Printing Madness

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Financial writer and precious metals expert Craig Hemke has made many correct predictions over the years. Hemke studies hard and pores over detailed information to make his calls. Hemke points out his biggest call is easy to see when considering the massive money printing going on at the Federal Reserve and historic spending in Congress. The latest stimulus offer in Congress is a staggering $1.8 trillion. Keep in mind, that is on top of trillions of dollars already spent in 2020 fighting CV19. Hemke explains, “That’s $1.8 trillion! When I was in college 35 years ago, the Reagan budget deficit was $250 billion, and, oh gosh, it was the end of the world! How can they do $250 billion? ‘Trickledown’ economics and all this stuff, and now we are talking 10 times that, and it’s like, yeah, whatever. The moral of the story is there is no going back. The Fed is telling you they are going to do whatever it takes to prompt inflation and to flush as much cash out there as possible to prop up their system. The politicians are going to give them the debt to monetize. If Trump wins, you are going to get this $1.8 trillion in new spending, but if Biden wins, you are not only going to get that, you are going to get the Green New Deal, universal healthcare and all this other jazz.”

But no matter who wins in November, the Fed is going to fight debt destruction, or so-called deflation. That means massive money printing to buy bonds and everything else. Hemke says, “Fed Chairman Jay Powell, and all the other central bankers, are telling you they are going to do everything they can to keep that from happening. Powell is begging for new Treasury debt to monetize. If you look at Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole at the end of August, he was saying we are not going down this path of deflation because it becomes a vicious cycle. That’s where you get deflation, and you expect more deflation and that brings about more deflation, and you get even higher expectations of deflation. That’s what Japan has been doing the last 30 years. Powell has said we are not going to do it even if it means unconventional policy like helicopter money. You have heard this bantered about now, and it’s just putting straight cash into your bank account. These things are all coming.”

What is Hemke telling people to do in the face of guaranteed massive money printing such as the country has never seen before? Hemke says, “Don’t get cute here. Don’t sit there and think gold is going to pull back to $1,800 (per ounce), so I am going to wait. No man, buy some today, and then if it pulls back, buy some more. We are on this merry-go-round of madness that is not going to slow down. It’s just going to spin faster and faster, and your only protection, your only financial protection is to not save in their phony baloney fiat money, the dollar. Your protection is to save in sound money. Money that cannot be devalued with the stroke of a pen is gold and silver. That’s what I advise. This financial political complex is going to try to keep all of these plates spinning as long as they can. The only way they can do that going forward from 2020 on is an almost unlimited, endless, infinite amount of dollar creation.”

-https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with financial writer and 

precious metals expert Craig Hemke, founder of TFMetalsReport.com.

"Facts Do Not Matter To The Covidian Cult"

"Facts Do Not Matter To The Covidian Cult"

by CJ Hopkins

"One of the hallmarks of totalitarianism is mass conformity to a psychotic official narrative. Not just a regular official narrative, like the “Cold War” or the “War on Terror,” or even a myth like the “American Dream.” A totally delusional official narrative that has little or no connection to reality and that is contradicted by a preponderance of facts.

Nazism and Stalinism are the classic examples, but the phenomenon is better observed in cults and other sub-cultural societal groups. Numerous examples will spring to mind: the Manson family, Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, the Church of Scientology, Heavens Gate, etc., each with its own psychotic official narrative, i.e., Helter Skelter, Christian Communism, Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy, and so on.

Looking in from the dominant culture (or back through time in the case of the Nazis), the delusional nature of these official narratives is glaringly obvious to most rational people. What many fail to understand is that to those who fall prey to them (whether individual cult members or entire totalitarian societies) such narratives do not register as psychotic. On the contrary, they feel entirely normal. Everything in their social “reality” reifies and reaffirms the narrative, and anything that challenges or contradicts it is perceived as an existential threat.

These narratives are invariably paranoid, portraying the cult as threatened or persecuted by an evil enemy or antagonistic force which only unquestioning conformity to the cult’s ideology can save its members from. It makes little difference whether this antagonist is mainstream culture, body thetans, counter-revolutionaries, Jews, or a virus. The point is not the identity of the enemy. The point is the atmosphere of paranoia and hysteria the official narrative generates, which keeps the cult members (or the society) compliant.

In addition to being paranoid, these narratives are often internally inconsistent, illogical, and… well, just completely ridiculous. This does not weaken them, as one might suspect. Actually, it increases their power, as it forces their adherents to attempt to reconcile their inconsistencies and irrationality, and in many cases utter absurdity, in order to remain in good standing with the cult. Such reconciliation is of course impossible, and causes the cult members’ minds to short circuit and abandon any semblance of critical thinking, which is precisely what the cult leader wants.

Moreover, cult leaders will often radically change these narratives for no apparent reason, forcing their cult members to abruptly forswear (and often even denounce as “heresy”) the beliefs they had previously been forced to profess, and behave as if they had never believed them, which causes their minds to further short circuit, until they eventually give up even trying to think, and just mindlessly parrot whatever nonsensical gibberish the cult leader fills their heads with.

Also, the cult leader’s nonsensical gibberish is not as nonsensical as it may seem at first. Most of us, upon encountering such gibberish, assume that the cult leader is trying to communicate, and that something is very wrong with his brain. But the cult leader’s intention is not to communicate. His intention is to disorient and control the listener’s mind. Listen to Charlie Manson “rapping.” Not just to what he says, but how he says it. Note how he sprinkles bits of truth into his stream of free-associated nonsense, and his repetitive use of thought-terminating clichés, described by Robert J. Lifton as follows:

“The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly selective, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. They become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.”

- "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism", 1961

If all this sounds familiar, good. Because the same techniques that most cult leaders use to control the minds of the members of their cults are used by totalitarian systems to control the minds of entire societies... Milieu Control, Loaded Language, Sacred Science, Demand for Purity, and other standard mind-control techniques. It can happen to pretty much any society, just as anyone can fall prey to a cult, given the right set of circumstances.

It is happening to most of our societies now. An official narrative is being implemented. A totalitarian official narrative. A totally psychotic official narrative, no less delusional than that of the Nazis, or the Manson family, or any other cult.

Most people cannot see that it is happening, for the simple reason that it is happening to them. They are literally unable to recognize it. The human mind is extremely resilient and inventive when it is pushed past its limits. Ask anyone who has struggled with psychosis or has taken too much LSD. We do not recognize when we are going insane. When reality falls apart completely, the mind creates a delusional narrative, which appears just as “real” as our normal reality, because even a delusion is better than the stark raving terror of utter chaos.

This is what totalitarians and cult leaders count on, and exploit to implant their narratives in our minds, and why actual initiation rituals (as opposed to purely symbolic rituals) begin by attacking the subject’s mind with terror, pain, physical exhaustion, psychedelic drugs, or some other means of obliterating the subject’s perception of reality. Once that is achieved, and the subject’s mind starts desperately trying to construct a new narrative to make sense out of the cognitive chaos and psychological trauma it is undergoing, it is relatively easy to “guide” that process, and to implant whatever narrative you want, assuming you have done your homework.

And this is why so many people - people who are able to easily recognize totalitarianism in cults and foreign countries - cannot perceive the totalitarianism that is taking shape now, right in front of their faces (or, rather, right inside their minds). Nor can they perceive the delusional nature of the official “Covid-19” narrative, no more than those in Nazi Germany were able to perceive how completely delusional their official “master race” narrative was. These people are neither ignorant nor stupid. They have been successfully initiated into a cult, which is essentially what totalitarianism is, albeit on a societal scale.

Their initiation into the Covidian Cult began in January, when the medical authorities and corporate media turned on The Fear with projections of hundreds of millions of deaths and fake photos of people dropping dead in the streets. The psychological conditioning has continued for months. The global masses have been subjected to a constant stream of propaganda, manufactured hysteria, wild speculation, conflicting directives, exaggerations, lies, and tawdry theatrical effects. Lockdowns. Emergency field hospitals and morgues. The singing-dancing NHS staff. Death trucks. Overflowing ICUs. Dead Covid babies. Manipulated statistics. Goon squads. Masks. And all the rest of it.

Eight months later, here we are. The Head of the Health Emergencies Program at the WHO has basically confirmed an IFR of 0.14%, approximately the same as the seasonal flu. And here are the latest survival rate estimates from the Center for Disease Control:

Age 0-19 … 99.997%

Age 20-49 … 99.98%

Age 50-69 … 99.5%

Age 70+ … 94.6%

The “science” argument is officially over. An increasing number of doctors and experts are breaking ranks and explaining how the current mass hysteria over so-called “cases” (which now includes perfectly healthy people) is essentially meaningless propaganda, for example, in this segment on ARD, one of the big mainstream German TV channels.

And then there is the existence of Sweden, and other countries which are not playing ball with the official Covid-19 narrative, which makes a mockery of the ongoing hysteria.

I’m not going to go on debunking the narrative. The point is, the facts are all available. Not from “conspiracy theorist” websites. From mainstream outlets and medical experts. From the Center for F***ing Disease Control.

Which does not matter in the least, not to the members of the Covidian Cult. Facts do not matter to totalitarians and cult members. What matters is loyalty to the cult or the party. Which means we have a serious problem, those of us to whom facts still matter, and who have been trying to use them to convince the Covidian cultists that they are wrong about the virus... for going on eight months at this point.

While it is crucial to continue reporting the facts and sharing them as widely as possible (which is becoming increasingly difficult due to the censorship of alternative and social media), it is important to accept what we are up against. What we are up against is not a misunderstanding or a rational argument over scientific facts. It is a fanatical ideological movement. A global totalitarian movement … the first of its kind in human history.

It isn’t national totalitarianism, because we’re living in a global capitalist empire, which isn’t ruled by nation-states, but rather, by supranational entities and the global capitalist system itself. And thus, the cult/culture paradigm has been inverted. Instead of the cult existing as an island within the dominant culture, the cult has become the dominant culture, and those of us who have not joined the cult have become the isolated islands within it.

I wish I could be more optimistic, and offer you some sort of plan of action, but the only historical parallel I can think of is how Christianity “converted” the pagan world, which doesn’t really bode so well for us. While you’re sitting at home during the “second wave” lockdowns, you might want to brush up on that history."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Timely Repost: "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

“Hotel Industry Bleeding Money; Las Vegas Depression; Airlines Crashing; Illinois Bailout; US Debt”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Hotel Industry Bleeding Money; Las Vegas Depression; 

Airlines Crashing; Illinois Bailout; US Debt”

Musical Interlude: Josh Groban, “Gira Con Me Questa Notte”

Josh Groban, “Gira Con Me Questa Notte”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of island universes a mere 500 million light-years away. Also known as Abell 2151, this cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star-forming spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars. The colors in this remarkably deep composite image clearly show the star forming galaxies with a blue tint and galaxies with older stellar populations with a yellowish cast.

The sharp picture spans about 3/4 degree across the cluster center, corresponding to over 6 million light-years at the cluster's estimated distance. Diffraction spikes around brighter foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy are produced by the imaging telescope's mirror support vanes. In the cosmic vista many galaxies seem to be colliding or merging while others seem distorted - clear evidence that cluster galaxies commonly interact. In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140625.html

"Three Things..."

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special. I just got one last thing... I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.”

- Jim Valvano

The Universe

“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents.  And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”

“Tallyho,”

    The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
- www.tut.com

"The Moral Principle..."

"The precept: "Judge not, that ye be not judged" is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects for oneself. There is no escape from the fact that men have to make choices; so long as men have to make choices, there is no escape from moral values; so long as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. To abstain from condemning a torturer, is to become an accessory to the torture and murder of his victims.The moral principle to adopt in this issue, is: "Judge, and be prepared to be judged."

- Ayn Rand

"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.