"Last Round-up at the Wokester Corral"

"Last Round-up at the Wokester Corral"

by Jim Kunstler

I have some questions for former friends who have dumped me on account of my support for Mr. Trump’s re-election - which is mostly a vote to prevent the Democratic Party and its fellow travelers from running the government. On the whole, these former friends are college-educated, mature in experience, and cultured. Some of them are well-acquainted with history, which is to say, they ought to know better than to support the obviously illiberal motives of the political Left.

Are you against the principle of free speech? The Democratic Party is. They used to be champions of the First Amendment; now they want to make it conditional on ideas and sentiments they support. Contrary ideas are to be labeled “hate speech,” and suppressed, along with anything that might hurt somebody’s feelings. How did you come to such a complete misunderstanding of what free speech means? Namely, that a free society is obliged to tolerate the expression of disagreeable ideas up to the limit, as the Supreme Court put it, of “crying ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

I will answer my own question partially by saying: you have been programmed against free speech by what used to be the very vehicles of it, the newspapers and TV News channels, which have, amazingly, come out against freedom of the press and turned into propaganda outlets for Woke Progressivism and its illiberal agenda - thereby inadvertently committing suicide of the entire profession. We’ve seen this acted-out most vividly just the past week in the social media companies’ efforts to suppress all news of the Biden family’s global business operations, along with The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and other leading news organizations that Americans used to depend on to know what was happening in the nation. This is especially unforgivable during a national election.

Did you support the movement on campus in recent years to shut down events featuring speakers such as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve), Heather Mac Donald of City Journal, Dinesh D’Souza, and many others who represented not-so-Woke ideas that “offended” you? Since when are your feelings so special that they negate the open exchange of ideas in the places that used to be dedicated to it, the universities? Should higher education only entertain ideas that you and your cohorts approve of? What if, in some future, a different cohort gains control of higher education and seeks to exclude your ideas on the grounds that they’re “offensive” (i.e. they just don’t like them)?

Are you in favor of a politicized Department of Justice and CIA? That is what the Democratic Party’s Resistance League deliberately brought about during the 2016 election, and they continue to promote it. Is it okay for bureaucrats to break the law to disable their political adversaries? That was the essence of the RussiaGate ruse. Former employees of those agencies, such as ex-CIA chief John Brennan and Andrew Weissmann, who ran the Mueller investigation, to this day still hype “Russian collusion” falsehoods to deflect attention from their own misdeeds. You let them get away with that.

Is it okay for these government agencies to spy on US citizens without any legal predicate, except their being political adversaries? Would it be okay if that were used against you in some future disposition of things? Is it okay for the FBI to withhold exculpatory evidence in federal court proceedings, thereby obstructing justice? Is it okay for the FBI and CIA to “leak” falsehoods to news reporters for political advantage? Do you not understand how by failing to oppose these actions you undermine the basis of political rectitude in a republic - bearing in mind the literal meaning of the word republic, from the Latin, res publica, the public thing, where civilization lives?

Are you against reason itself? For all your talk about the primacy of science, your agenda militates furiously against it: Math is “racist,” there’s no biological basis for understanding sex, all science is a “white colonial way-of-knowing,” masculinity is “toxic,” women can have penises and men can menstruate. Do you really believe these absurd fantasies manufactured in the graduate schools in the service of academic careerism at all costs - or do you just go along with them for the sake of protecting your own careers and perquisites?

Are you in favor of Antifa riots and the BLM hustle? They are staunchly supported by elected Democratic mayors and governors. These organizations looted and burned down shopping districts in many cities, and Democratic leaders did nothing to stop them. In Portland, Oregon, the nightly riots have continued for over 120 days under Mayor Ted Wheeler and Governor Kate Brown. The nightly riots have ceased to have any genuine political purpose or meaning; rather they’ve degenerated into a party space for energetic young people who can’t otherwise go to clubs, parties, concerts, cafes, or raves during the Covid-19 shut-down. So, rather, they’re enjoying a long-running game of “Cops-and-Robbers” out in the streets, busting things up, setting fires, getting chased around, and waking people up in their homes late at night with bullhorns and heavy metal music. They’re obviously having fun. The police have been forbidden to effectively disperse them, and the Multnomah County DA refuses to prosecute any of them — all of which just inspires the Antifas and BLMs to keep the game going. They have no real stake in the public interest. The net effect is terrible destruction of the city as a functioning civic organism. The Democratic Party has made it all possible. Wait until it comes to your town or city.

Are you in favor of cancel culture? The Democratic Party is addicted to it. Should livelihoods and reputations be destroyed for expressing an opinion, or telling a joke? Is asking someone for a date in the office a firing offense? Were Christine Blasey Ford and Michael Avenatti unimpeachable witnesses during the Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS hearings? Or was that just an instance of anything goes and nothing matters? How much sadistic pleasure do you suppose has been involved in the professional ruination of men in the media, the arts, and politics? How much of cancel culture and the Me-Too movement have been based on simple coercion, the wish to push other people around, and on vengeance for personal losses and slights?

By the way, did you notice that Jeffrey Toobin has not been fired from his positions at The New Yorker magazine and CNN for jerking-off on-screen during a Zoom meeting of his professional colleagues last week? None of them have even publicly criticized him. Why do you suppose that is? I suppose it’s because he is a favored member of the Woke Journalists club and enjoys special protection from professional ruin - though the truth is he’s thrown away his credibility as a legal commentator, whether the Wokerati like it or not, especially on matters of public conduct. But that’s just one example of the hypocrisy that Wokesterism is full of, and reveals its chronic disingenuous insincerity.

The Democratic Party supports all this pernicious mendacity and bad faith, and more. Joe Biden is the current figurehead of the Party. Mr. Biden pretty clearly has insurmountable defects of his own, first as an international grifter while holding national office, as well as the misfortune of his cognitive decline, which is not his fault, but disqualifies him for high office. As for everybody else in the party, I don’t want such a reliably dishonest gang to be in charge of running the American government. So, I’m voting for Mr. Trump. He’s far from my idea of an ideal candidate, but despite his defects, he’s managed to hold the country together during the greatest disruption of normal life since World War Two. I’ve also come to admire his resilience and, yes, his bravery, in the face of an opposition that has spared no effort of foul play to destroy him.

I’m under no illusions that Donald Trump will Make America Great Again in the way that many of his supporters understand that slogan. The USA is headed into a terrible ordeal of economic disorder that I call the long emergency. Mr. Trump won’t stop it, and it may yet make a fool out of him. But the Democratic Party’s agenda would add an extra layer of tyrannical and sadistic insanity to the process that will only bring more suffering to more people, and I don’t want that to happen. I believe that Mr. Trump will probably win the election, but we’ll have to see what kind of nefarious dodges his opponents will employ to prevent any resolution of that outcome."

- https://kunstler.com/

“Stock Market Desperation; Housing Sales Fall; Hotel Industry Smashed; California Burning”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Stock Market Desperation; Housing Sales Fall; 

Hotel Industry Smashed; California Burning”

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Where the Stars and Moon Play"

2002, "Where the Stars and Moon Play"

Full screen mode recommended.

"A Look to the Heavens"

“M13 is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hercules, M13 is frequently one of the first objects found by curious sky gazers seeking celestials wonders beyond normal human vision. 

M13 is a colossal home to over 100,000 stars, spans over 150 light years across, lies over 20,000 light years distant, and is over 12 billion years old. At the 1974 dedication of Arecibo Observatory, a radio message about Earth was sent in the direction of M13. The featured image in HDR, taken through a small telescope, spans an angular size just larger than a full Moon, whereas the inset image, taken by Hubble Space Telescope, zooms in on the central 0.04 degrees.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160727.html

"Each Of Us..."

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

- Robert F. Kennedy

"Tako-Tsubo Syndrome: The Broken Heart Disease"

"Tako-Tsubo Syndrome: The Broken Heart Disease"

by Prof. Filippo Crea

"It seems an infarction, but it's not. It's called Tako-Tsubo syndrome, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy, and it's a rare disease which at first used to be confused with the far more common (and dangerous) cardiac infarction. Patients arrive to the emergency room with the characteristic heart attack symptoms: acute pain in the chest, an electrocardiogram with the typical changes and the release of those enzymes associated with the usual heart disease. Yet, as soon as a coronarography is performed, in order to discover the location where the occlusion preventing the blood reaching the heart was formed, nothing is found. In the infarction this occlusion causes a number of heart cells to die.

Many have defined it also as the "broken heart disease": it affects mostly women in post menopause period, when they are no longer protected by the estrogen hormones, and it is associated with strong emotional stress, like a bereavement, in 80% of the cases. This is the reason why it is often associated with a broken heart. Researchers at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of the Catholic University – Policlinico Gemelli of Rome, led by Filippo Crea, have identified the mechanism underlying this peculiar pathology and have published an article in the "European Heart Journal," of the European Society of Cardiology. This article is already among the fifty most-read in the field.

"In 80% of the patients, symptoms disappear spontaneously after a couple of weeks, leaving no trace behind", explains Filippo Crea, "whilst in the other cases the damage persists. The fact is that the damage caused by this syndrome is in the heart but not in the coronaries. What we have tried to explain is the mechanism which leads to the onset of these symptoms".

To perform this analysis, the group led by Crea studied fifteen women aged on average 68 for a month. Thanks to this study, they were able to identify for the first time the physiopathological mechanism of the disease. "We concentrated on the apical region of the heart", explains first author Leda Galiuto, "because that is the area where the dysfunction is localized. Due to this, the heart takes on the characteristic shape of an air balloon, or – as the Japanese observed – of a local octopus trap. The Tako-Tsubo is as a matter of fact the name of this pot in Japanese."

The hypothesis the researchers developed is that the mechanism which influences the dysfunction resides in the spasm of the small coronary vessels, the so-called coronary microcirculation. "To prove our hypothesis we used the myocardial contrast echography, a method we pioneered and which allows us to study the coronary microcirculation in a selective, safe and cheap way at the patient's bedside", explains the young researcher. "The microcirculation plays an important role in cardiac diseases", adds Crea, "and the intense vasoconstriction of these small vessels cannot normally be noticed in a coronarography."

Researchers have also been able to demonstrate that this microvascular spasm is reversible and, once over the acute phase, the microvascular dysfunction causing the symptoms is also resolved. "Usually patients are not left with any damage, because the lowering of the blood input is sufficiently serious to prevent the heart from contracting properly, and hence the balloon-like shape, but not enough to determine the death of blood cells, which is what normally happens in an infarction", concludes Crea."

Prof. Filippo Crea, fcrea@rm.unicatt.it, Catholic University of Rome
- http://www.eurekalert.org/
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"Chronic Stress Resulting in ‘Broken Heart’ Syndrome"

by N. Shahid, S. Bruhl, B. Saeed & U. Pandya

"Broken heart syndrome/ tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy is a recently described stress-induced cardiomyopathy that is often associated with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary ischemia including chest pain, ST changes and elevated cardiac enzymes. In most cases the syndrome is triggered by profound physical or psychological stress and has an increased incidence in post menopausal women. Here we describe a patient who was admitted with nonspecific abdominal pain and symptoms of ileus that went onto develop Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy as confirmed by left ventriculography. Unlike previously reported cases, our patient appeared to develop the syndrome as a result of chronic rather than acute stress." Full article:

- http://ispub.com/IJC/8/1/9044

- http://ispub.com/

Citation: N. Shahid, S. Bruhl, B. Saeed & U. Pandya: "Chronic Stress Resulting in ‘Broken Heart’ Syndrome." "The Internet Journal of Cardiology", 2009 Volume 7 Number 1

"A Life of Learning: Earth School"

 

"A Life of Learning: Earth School"

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOm

"Earth school provides us with an education of the heart and the soul. Life is the province of learning, and the wisdom we acquire throughout our lives is the reward of existence. As we traverse the winding roads that lead from birth to death, experience is our patient teacher. We exist, bound to human bodies as we are, to evolve, enrolled by the universe in earth school, an informal and individualized academy of living, being, and changing. Life’s lessons can take many forms and present us with many challenges. There are scores of mundane lessons that help us learn to navigate with grace, poise, and tolerance in this world. And there are those once-in-a-lifetime lessons that touch us so deeply that they change the course of our lives. The latter can be heartrending, and we may wander through life as unwilling students for a time. But the quality of our lives is based almost entirely on what we derive from our experiences.

Earth school provides us with an education of the heart and the soul, as well as the intellect. The scope of our instruction is dependent on our ability and readiness to accept the lesson laid out before us in the circumstances we face. When we find ourselves blindsided by life, we are free to choose to close our minds or to view the inbuilt lesson in a narrow-minded way. The notion that existence is a never-ending lesson can be dismaying at times. The courses we undertake in earth school can be painful as well as pleasurable, and as taxing as they are eventually rewarding. However, in every situation, relationship, or encounter, a range of lessons can be unearthed. When we choose to consciously take advantage of each of the lessons we are confronted with, we gradually discover that our previous ideas about love, compassion, resilience, grief, fear, trust, and generosity could have been half-formed.

Ultimately, when we acknowledge that growth is an integral part of life and that attending earth school is the responsibility of every individual, the concept of "life as lesson" no longer chafes. We can openly and joyfully look for the blessing buried in the difficulties we face without feeling that we are trapped in a roller-coaster ride of forced learning. Though we cannot always know when we are experiencing a life lesson, the wisdom we accrue will bless us with the keenest hindsight."

- http://www.dailyom.com/

•

"Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have 

drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you."
- Richard Bach

•

"Ten Rules For Being Human"

Rule One: You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

Rule Two: You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called 'life.' Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Rule Three: There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.

Rule Four: A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

Rule Five: Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six: 'There' is no better than 'here'. When your 'there' has become a 'here,' you will simply obtain a 'there' that will look better to you than your present 'here'.

Rule Seven: Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about  another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

Rule Eight: What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

Rule Nine: Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

Rule Ten: You will forget all of this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner knowing.

- Cherie Carter-Scott, 

From "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules"

"Know What's Weird?"

"Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change,

but pretty soon... everything's different."

- Calvin, from "Calvin and Hobbes"

"Perhaps It Is Better..."

"Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Stock Market Craters, Gold Target Price, Treasury Bubble, MORE!"

Gregory Mannarino, 

"Alert! Stock Market Craters, Gold Target Price, Treasury Bubble, MORE!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"The Coming of Corporate Collectivism"

"The Coming of Corporate Collectivism"

by Jeff Thomas

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here." 

- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

"Benito Mussolini stated that "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." Quite so. Interestingly, many, and perhaps most people today, lack an understanding as to the system under which they are ruled.

In the US in particular, most people who vote Republican take pride in believing that the US is a capitalist state. Democrats, too, regard the US as a capitalist state, and take the view that that’s what’s wrong with America today. Increasingly, they seek a move in the socialist (or collectivist) direction to save them from the perceived evils of capitalism.

Interestingly, though, the evils to which they refer are the socio-economic inequalities that exist and the fact that those on the lower levels of society have decreasing opportunity to improve their lot in life. And, of course, since they believe they live under a capitalist system, they assume that capitalism must be the problem. But this is not the case.

It can be said that the first major introduction of corporatist collectivism occurred in 1913, with the introduction of the Revenue Act and the Federal Reserve Act. These were enacted under President Woodrow Wilson and were peddled to the American public as being anti-corporatist. The Revenue Act, which introduced income tax, was touted as creating a tax primarily for the rich, which would even out income disparities. The Federal Reserve was claimed to be a government agency that would ride herd over the greedy banking interests on Wall Street.

However, those few who actually read the bill learned that the Federal Reserve was neither federal nor a reserve. It was to be owned by the larger banks and would give them the power to control the currency of the US. By promising collectivist changes, the goals of corporatism were advanced.

And so it is today. Virtually all the ills of American society, as described by liberals, have been caused by the introduction of collectivist concepts, capitalized upon by the plutocracy of the US.

The US is not a capitalist state. If we were to define it accurately, the economic system is corporatist and the social system is collectivist. It is, however, true that there exist the remnants of a free market, or capitalism. Yet, to most – either liberal or conservative – this would seem impossible. We’ve been taught to regard Wall Street as a denizen for greedy capitalists. Surely, they would never support collectivism – the savior of the masses.

Well, yes and no. Wall Street has dominated the American economy for over one hundred years. And in all of that time, they’ve sought a greater level of collectivism. They understand that collectivism (under any of its guises of socialism, fascism or communism) is a highly effective means by which to rule over others.

Collectivism does not raise up the masses, as Karl Marx suggested. Instead, it evens out the classes by lowering the great majority of people to an equal level of poverty. The premise is a simple one: Promise largesse from the government, with the stipulation that basic freedoms must be relinquished in order to receive the largesse. Then, once all have been subjugated under collectivism, the largesse is steadily diminished. Corporate leaders convince the people to give up their rights, but then fail to deliver on their end of the bargain: to bestow riches upon the now-subjugated populace.

And again, this is nothing new. In 1917, one Leon Trotsky was hosted in New York by the most prominent banking and industrial firms. He was provided with funding, along with a US passport, courtesy of President Wilson. A contingent then went with Mister Trotsky to Russia with the funds necessary to wrest control of the new Soviet Union – to replace the Mensheviks with the Lenin/Trotsky-led Bolsheviks. The bargain was that the Soviet Union would be collectivist and that the goods needed by Russians would be supplied from New York, in perpetuity, unseen by the public in either Russia or the US.

Within a decade, the same firms began funding an up-and-coming Adolf Hitler. They funded his rise to power in 1933 and spent the remainder of the decade taking control of much of German industry, in addition to installing American-owned plants in Germany. Prior to Hitler’s rise, Germany was flat broke and heavily in debt, but the massive monetary shot in the arm from Wall Street firms ensured that Germany would rise quickly and come to dominate Europe. Indeed, without US funding, the creation of the German war machine would have been impossible.

The term "Nazi" is an abbreviation for Nationalsozialistische – the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Like the Russian people, the German people had been sold the collectivist promise, believing that their lives would somehow be better if they agreed to give up their liberties and accept totalitarian rule. What they received was the totalitarian rule without the promised largesse.

The effort to create the same situation in the US has long been in the works. In the 1930s, great strides were made toward collectivism under the New Deal. However, post-war prosperity made Americans unwilling to give up liberties for largesse. But today, increased governmental regulation has diminished the free market, diminishing opportunities for the average American. This has created a condition in which roughly half of Americans now buy into the empty promise of collectivism.

America no longer has true "liberal" and "conservative" parties. They now have "liberal" and "liberal-light" parties. Regardless of who is president, the US is on course to go full-bore in 2021 into dramatic social and legislative changes that will complete the transformation into Corporate Collectivism. All that’s needed is a trigger, as occurred in Germany in February of 1933.

Just two weeks prior to the 1933 German national elections, Adolf Hitler hosted a secret fundraising meeting for German and American industrialists, which netted him millions in donations, upon which he could finance a totalitarian corporate collectivist government. He then surreptitiously created the Reichstag fire, blaming it on dissidents and political opponents, ensuring that he would be elected.

In his address at that fundraiser, he stated, "There are only two possibilities, either to crowd back the opponent on constitutional grounds, and for this purpose once more we have this [upcoming] election, or a struggle will be conducted with other weapons, which may demand greater sacrifices… I hope the German people thus recognize the greatness of this hour." Germany was about to receive a totalitarian corporate collectivist rule, either through election or through the creation of civil unrest.

Similarly, the US today is about to undergo dramatic change. The remaining question is whether that will take place through election or its historic alternative. The ripple effects of a contentious US presidential election outcome are only starting to take shape. That’s not to mention the unprecedented amount of money that is being pumped into every corner of the economy by the Federal Reserve. The consequences of this could be life changing to the average person."

- internationalman.com

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 10/26/20"

Oct 26, 2020, 9:29 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 43,179,100 

people, according to official counts, including 8,702,600 Americans.

      Oct 26, 2020 9:29 AM ET: 

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

◆

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

OCT 26, 2020 2:47 PM: "Twitter Again Accuses Trump Of COVID-19 'Misinformation As Surgeon General Warns Some States May Cancel Thanksgiving: Live Updates"

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Updated 10/26/20, 11:24 AM ET

Click image for larger size.

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

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Nerinx, Kentucky, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Musical Interlude: Michael Bolton, "When I'm Back On My Feet Again"

"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks... Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life... I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on." 

- "Penny Baxter", Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

○

Here's the truth, plain and simple. Things are really bad now, and God help us, it's going to get much, much worse. Things will never be "normal" again, face that fact. There's going to be incredible, unbelievable pain and suffering, and we're all going to take hits that don't seem survivable at times, knocking us to our knees in despair. But don't just wallow in hopeless self-pity, and don't you dare ever give up...if you're still alive your work here isn't done, and we need you. So get up, damn you, get up! You're not alone! WE will get through this horror together... and back on our feet again, better and stronger than ever... - CP

The Poet: William Stafford, "Starting With Little Things"

"Starting With Little Things"

"Love the earth like a mole,

fur-near. Nearsighted,

hold close the clods,

their fine-print headlines.

Pat them with soft hands -

Like spades, but pink and loving; they

break rock, nudge giants aside,

affable plow.

Fields are to touch;

each day nuzzle your way.

Tomorrow the world." 

- William Stafford

"It May Be Necessary..."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. 

In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, 

so you can know who you are, 

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

- Maya Angelou

"A Triumph for Democracy"

"A Triumph for Democracy"

by Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "Last week, we looked at the likely election result. We’ll get back to that in a minute. But first, two stark and disturbing actualities: First, the coronavirus is not going away. Second, neither is the recession.

Delaying the Inevitable: As for the coronavirus, it can be delayed. But it can’t be defeated. Here’s Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, over the weekend: "The U.S. is “not going to control” the pandemic…"

And in Europe, ABC News reports: "Dr. Eric Caumes, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, said the country needs to lock down again. “We have lost control of the epidemic, though it doesn’t date from yesterday,” he said on broadcaster Franceinfo."

Here in Argentina, we live with some of the toughest restrictions in the world. And the result? About the same as the U.S. – more than 600 deaths per 1,000,000 people. We don’t usually give advice to public authorities. But were we in charge, we would level with people: The government will not protect them from the coronavirus. If they are old or fat, they should take their own precautions. Others should go about their business, and not allow the virus to ruin their lives. In other words, most people should defeat the coronavirus the same way they defeated the Hong Kong Flu – by getting it… and getting over it. Then, the old folks could go about their lives, too.

Depression Ahead: Meanwhile, the lockdown recession is probably becoming a depression. Here’s CNBC: "Long-term Unemployment is On the Rise." "In September, long-term unemployment, or those that have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, jumped to 2.4 million, the highest thus far in the coronavirus pandemic-induced recession, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 800,000 out of work Americans moved into the long-term unemployed category from August to September, the largest month-over-month increase ever, according to Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project." (Note these "official" figures are totally inaccurate, intentionally. - CP) And now that we have the lights turned on, let’s look at the election.

Alternative Outcome: Sleepy Joe Biden is likely to win. (I disagree - CP). Alas, with COVID-19 still on the loose… and the economy sliding towards depression… the old guy will wake up and begin a frenzy of boneheaded activism. He’ll push for more government spending, financed with more “printing press money”… which would speed America’s descent into a social, political, and economic disaster.

The good news is that there could be an alternative outcome. Nothing succeeds like failure. If Biden wins, the long faces in the GOP will shuffle about, depressed… forlorn… taking off their MAGA caps… taking down the Trump and Pence signs… and rueing the day they ever let their party be hijacked by a reality TV star, who spent most of his adult life as a Democrat.

Maybe then, they might pull a book off the shelf and dust it off… Maybe Friedrich Hayek’s "The Road to Serfdom". Or perhaps Ron Paul’s "The Revolution". (We modestly recommend our own "Win-Win or Lose", which offers a simple and novel explanation for “conservativism.”) Heck, they could even read the U.S. Constitution… although, it is shockingly radical. And who knows, they might rediscover the virtues of their political creed. Then, they might get to work…

They might even be able to stymie the Democrats’ big-spending plans... and delay America’s rendezvous with disaster.

Determined Opposition: Readers will recall that America’s best administrations have had weak presidents and strong opposition. When George Bush, senior left office, and Bill Clinton took over in 1992, the “national” debt measured 66% of GDP. Eight years later, it had been reduced to only 57%. By our reckoning, this was the peak of U.S. power, influence, and wealth.

From this perspective, we can look back on the Clinton years with nostalgia. But was this because the Democrat Clinton was more prudent, more sensible… more conservative? Of course not. It was because he faced a fiery, determined opposition – the conservatives in the GOP – which, either as a matter of principle or convenience, fought tooth and nail to stop him from spending money.

Big Spenders: Then, when their own party got into power, the Republicans forgot all about conservatism and became big-spenders… ready to improve the world and bankrupt the nation. In 2001, came Bush fils and Dick “deficits don’t matter” Cheney to the White House. They added more than 20 percentage points to the debt-to-GDP ratio… leaving it at nearly 80%.

Bush was succeeded by the Democrat, Obama, who did even more damage. From 80%, the national debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 107% by 2016. The conservatives who were left fought him. But too many had partaken of the forbidden fruit. In the crisis of 2008-2009, their knees buckled and they almost all crawled along with the “stimulus” claptrap. 

In 2016, power went back to the Republicans. By this time, the conservatives had become extinct. And Trump added another $8 trillion in four years, bringing the ratio (as of the second quarter of 2020) to 146%. Over the last two decades, U.S. GDP doubled – from $10 trillion to $20 trillion. But federal debt rose from $6 trillion to nearly $29 trillion – more than three times as much – thanks to the combined efforts of Republicans and Democrats.

New Season:

And now, we come to another change in power. The voters may elect a new cast of characters. But the show will go on… the long-running spectacle… the 21st season of the great epic: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire…starring GWB, Obama, Trump… Cheney, Mnuchin, Greenspan, Yellen, Powell… and now, Biden, Harris… and who knows who else? And this will be a major triumph for democracy. It will succeed in replacing a big-mouthed oaf with a worn-out hack… while remaining on course for absolute catastrophe."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

"Are We Going to Witness the Worst National Emotional Meltdown in U.S. History Once This Election is Over?"

"Are We Going to Witness the Worst National Emotional 

Meltdown in U.S. History Once This Election is Over?"

by Michael Snyder

"Right now we are experiencing the calm before the storm. Many Biden supporters believe that a Trump victory would literally be the worst thing that could possibly happen to our country, but at the moment most of them are quite confident that Biden will win. Likewise, many Trump supporters are absolutely convinced that we will plunge into a horrifying socialist abyss if Biden wins, but for now most of them are convinced that the polls are wrong and that Trump will pull out another victory in November. So with just a little over a week until Election Day, most Americans that really care about politics are pacified because they believe that a positive outcome is right around the corner.

But soon that will change, and tens of millions of Americans will simultaneously melt down emotionally right in front of our eyes. I think that just about everyone realizes that this national temper tantrum is coming. It is just that most of those that deeply care about politics assume that it will happen to the other side.

At this point, even Facebook is preparing for the worst. In fact, they are getting ready to implement “emergency measures” that are usually reserved for the most “at-risk” countries: "As the U.S. braces for election-related unrest next month, Facebook executives are implementing emergency measures reserved for “at-risk” countries in a company-wide effort to bring down the online temperature. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the social media giant plans to limit the spread of viral content and lower the benchmark for suppressing potentially inflammatory posts using internal tools previously deployed in Sri Lanka and Myanmar."

So what would those “emergency measures” look like? Well, that could potentially even include manipulating your news feed to alter what sort of content you are allowed to see: "Facebook has a number of options it could take including “slowing the spread of viral content and lowering the bar for suppressing potentially inflammatory posts” and “tweaking the news feed to change what types of content users see,” the Wall Street Journal reported."

Of course Facebook has already been manipulating our news feeds for a very long time, but that is a topic for another article. Personally, I absolutely detest all of the censorship that the big social media companies have been doing, and I am not surprised that they are preparing to go even further.

"According to Facebook, these new “emergency measures” will be implemented if there is “election-related violence”: "However, the social media colossus only plans to put these restrictions in place in the event of election-related violence (something many others are fearful of and preparing for). However, during a staff meeting CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “a decisive victory from someone” could “be helpful for clarity and for not having violence or civil unrest after the election” which would reduce Facebook’s need to step in."

Considering the fact that we are seeing election-related violence almost constantly now, I would say that there is a pretty good chance that Facebook will actually proceed with these emergency measures.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is also deeply concerned about what this election may do to our nation. In a very long article that they just published, they discussed the fact that both sides are convinced that “the wrong outcome will bring disaster”: "One week before Americans choose their path forward, the quadrennial crossroads reeks of despair. In almost every generation, politicians pose certain elections as the most important of their time. But the 2020 vote is taking place with the country in a historically dark mood - low on hope, running on spiritual empty, convinced that the wrong outcome will bring disaster.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican political consultant who has been convening focus groups of undecided voters for seven presidential cycles. “Even the most balanced, mainstream people are talking about this election in language that is more caffeinated and cataclysmic than anything I’ve ever heard.”

Emotions were definitely running high in 2016, but we have never seen anything quite like this. Most Democrats believe that Trump and his supporters are deeply evil, and likewise most Republicans believe that Biden and his supporters are deeply evil. And of course there are also many that are entirely convinced that all of them are deeply evil.

When you have a nation that is this deeply divided, how is anyone ever going to be able to bring us together in unity? It has been said that a house divided with surely fall, and at this point our divisions have brought us to the verge of national collapse. Here is more from the Washington Post: "But now, the worry on the right that a Democratic win would plunge the nation into catastrophic socialism and the fear on the left that a Trump victory would produce a turn toward totalitarianism have created “a perilous moment - the idea that if the other side wins, we’re in for it,” said Peter Stearns, a historian of emotions at George Mason University. “The two sides have come to view each other not as opponents, but as deeply evil,” he said. “And that’s happening when trust in institutions has collapsed and each group is choosing not to live near each other. It seems there’s no middle ground.”

But as I pointed out at the beginning of this article, for now both sides are relatively calm because they both believe that they are going to end up winning. In 2016, the big national polls were dead wrong and Trump pulled out a close victory when the mainstream media had assured everyone that it was inevitable that Hillary Clinton would win. And once again this year there are indications that the big national polls may be flawed and that Trump may be doing significantly better than the mainstream media is telling us.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton never came close to the 50 percent mark in most national polls in 2016, and Joe Biden has consistently been above that level in recent weeks. Democratic operatives would have us believe that indicates that there are far fewer undecided voters this time around. So I guess we will just have to wait until the real results start coming in to see who was right and who was wrong.

Because so many Americans are voting by mail, it is going to take a lot longer than usual to count all the votes, and a number of key swing states are likely to be very close. If the results are close enough, it may take weeks before we have an official winner. Once an official winner is finally declared, there will be tens of millions of Americans in deep emotional pain. When all of those deeply hurting people start lashing out, you won’t want to be anywhere around."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/26/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 10/26/20"

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

○

Gregory Mannarino,

AM Oct 26, 2020

"Critical Alerts And Market Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Updated live.

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

○

- https://markets.businessinsider.com/

Oct. 26, 2020, 10:30 AM: "Global Stocks Tumble as Investors Dump Risk with COVID-19 Cases Rocketing and no US Stimulus Seal"

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

OCT 26, 2020 12:15 PM: "Ranks Of The Long-Term Unemployed Growing"

OCT 26, 2020 11:55 AM: "Creditors Finally Wake Up To An Apocalyptic Reality: Bond Losses As High As 99%"

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

Daily Update (October 25th to 26th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

○

Insanity... 

○

And now. The End game...

“Fiscal Insanity On Steroids; Middle Class Going Extinct; Markets Fragile; Stimulus Emergency”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Fiscal Insanity On Steroids; Middle Class Going Extinct; 

Markets Fragile; Stimulus Emergency”

"Next Up: Global Depression"

"Next Up: Global Depression"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"
Let's revisit the pandemic projection chart I prepared on February 2, 2020, nine days after authorities publicly acknowledged the Covid virus outbreak in China. Wave 2 shown on the chart is now underway with a vengeance and next up is Global Depression.

This projection was based on two well-known dynamics:

1. History offers a basic template for viral pandemics in which the initial wave dies back in summer and then re-ignites in a second larger Wave 2 in autumn and winter.

2. Humanity's default responses to novel crises: denial, fantasy, magical thinking and manipulating data to support a simplistic, emotionally satisfying ideological position.

Each of these predictable dynamics has manifested in all their perverse glory. A number of cognitive/logical errors are manifesting as well. False binaries i.e. false perceptions of the situation being either/or. For example: you get the virus and either recover or die. We only count those two options. This false binary conveniently ignores:

A. the third category - you get the virus and become a long-hauler (a.k.a. Long Covid) who is debilitated for months by exhaustion and other post-viral conditions; (Long COVID slide presentation)

B. the fourth category - you get the virus and recover quickly but suffer major organ damage that isn't immediately visible/symptomatic;

C. the fifth category - you get the virus, recover, assume you're immune forever and then contract the virus again some months later - only this time the consequences are far more severe.

And so on. The same holds true for ideological false binaries. Those holding binary ideological positions - you are either With Me or With The Wrong Side - spend their time and energy cherry-picking and manipulating data so it supports their pre-selected ideological world view.

Those of us who simply want unmolested data so we can decide for ourselves have no recourse, as the ideologically motivated have poisoned the data (don't test don't tell, under-reporting, over-reporting, ignoring lag times in reporting, suppressing data, requiring data be reported to privately owned corporations rather than government agencies, discounting good data in favor of bogus data that reaches the "right" conclusion, and so on) in an endless profusion of manipulation for political purposes.

As with China's Communist leadership, if data that can't be gamed or manipulated enters the public domain, it's immediately suppressed. Skeptics of China's permanently miraculous "growth" statistics discovered electrical consumption figures did not reflect the miraculous "growth" in the officially sanctioned statistics, and so China moved to suppress this inconveniently factual data so it would not longer be available.

We're seeing the same politicization of data in the U.S. We're now down to public-health data collection that hasn't yet been suppressed or manipulated: hospital admissions and death certificates. Authorities suppressing Covid-related deaths can report any cause of death they want, but the peak of deaths far above the statistical norm tells us an important fact despite the suppression/obfuscation.

Confusing categories, correlations, causes and conclusions. It's widely held that the Covid pandemic is fundamentally a power-grab by elites. Fair enough; crises have long been the excuse given for "temporary emergency measures" that become permanent power-grabs.

But to accept that the pandemic is the cover for a power-grab by elites does not mean the Covid virus is a harmless chimera. The virus can be dangerous in ways that aren't measured by counting deaths and the pandemic can still be the excuse for "emergency powers" becoming permanent, i.e. a power grab. One conclusion (a power-grab) does not require a second completely different conclusion (the virus is not dangerous to anyone under the age of 70 and therefore it's no big deal).

The assumption that there's a correlation between an ideological position and wearing a mask (or other behavior) is ungrounded. An individual can reach conclusions outside rigid ideological boundaries. Personally, I found this study of which passengers caught the virus on a bus in China useful in my own decision-making: Coronavirus can travel twice as far as official 'safe distance' and stay in air for 30 minutes.

The most consequential falsity in my view is the belief that the global economy was robust before the pandemic and it will revert to that robustness once we: get a vaccine, end the lockdowns, seek herd immunity, etc. etc. The global economy was teetering on the edge of recession and financial implosion long before the pandemic appeared. Ending the pandemic cannot restore an illusion of "growth" that masked a hollowed out, fragile, brittle global economy.

The Global Depression was baked in long before the pandemic. All the pandemic did was kick out the last rotten 2X4s holding up the fading facade of "growth." As the global tsunami of Wave 2 sweeps away the sandcastles of denial, fantasy and magical thinking, it's worth recalling that the Covid-19 virus has four features that make it difficult to control:

1. It is highly contagious.

2. Carriers with no symptoms can infect others.

3. A significant percentage of older/compromised patients develop severe symptoms that require hospitalization.

4. Once the healthcare system is overwhelmed, the system cannot provide care to everyone who needs it. As a result, the death rate rises the moment the healthcare system is overwhelmed/breaks down.

We've drawn a gravely false conclusion from central bank money-printing and technology: we now assume that central banks can print up as much money as we need to buy whatever we need in whatever quantity we need. The magic of technology essentially guarantees that there will always be a substitute, "cure" or "solution" available whenever we need one.

Unfortunately, central banks can't "print" experienced doctors or nurses. When the front line of healthcare workers is depleted by illness and burnout, there are no substitutes or Big Tech robots-to-the-rescue. The healthcare system we've optimized for "creating shareholder value" (i.e. unlimited greed pathologically pursued by any means available) will break down and that will be that.

Central banks can't "print" creditworthy borrowers, solvent companies, real-world collateral, risk-free "investing," oil, jobs, trust in failed institutions, social cohesion or anything else of importance that is now scarce.

The belief that central banks printing currency can "buy/fix" everything that's broken, lost or scarce is the ultimate in denial, fantasy and magical thinking. All that was unsustainably fragile, corrupt and brittle is unraveling, and thinking that ending the lockdowns, approving a vaccine, etc. will stave off causality is the supreme indulgence in denial, fantasy and magical thinking."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

Musical Interlude: The Moody Blues, "Blue World"

The Moody Blues, "Blue World"