Tuesday, November 10, 2020

"The Story Of Man..."

“The sands of time blew into a storm of images... images in sequence to tell the truth! Glorious legends of revolutionaries, bound only by a desire to be true to themselves, and to hope! Parables of colliding worlds, of forbidden love, of enemies healing the wounds of circumstance! Projected myth of persecution through greed and selfishness... and the will to survive! The Will to survive! And to survive in the face of those who claim credit for your very existence! We survive not as pawns, but as agents of hope. Sometimes misunderstood, but always true to our story. The story of Man."
- Scott Morse

Vangelis, "Alpha"
This song always suggested the image of our relentless, idealized, noble, glorious March of Mankind through the ages. Despite it all, despite ourselves, we survive and march onward towards our unknown destiny.

Still, some wonder about our true nature as a species, as the Apex Predator of this planet, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did when he asked,“What can we know? What are we all? Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts.”

Indeed, Angelic aspirations regardless, the historical record suggests a less benevolent but far more accurate and truthful view of the instincts of beasts within Humanity...
Steve Cutts, "MAN"
“What a chimera then is man, what a novelty, what a monster, what chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, yet an imbecile earthworm; depository of truth, yet a sewer of uncertainty and error; pride and refuse of the universe. Who shall resolve this tangle?”
- Blaise Pascal

"Pride and refuse," indeed...

Gregory Mannarino, "The Debt Bubble Is HYPER-BALLOONING. JPM Caught Rigging The Market AGAIN!"

Gregory Mannarino, 
"The Debt Bubble Is HYPER-BALLOONING. 
JPM Caught Rigging The Market AGAIN!"

"How It Really Is"

 

"It’s Started Already: 'We have a list…'”

"It’s Started Already: 'We have a list…'”
by Simon Black

"On September 18 of the year 96 AD, a fairly obscure and elderly politician named Marcus Cocceius Nerva was proclaimed Emperor of Rome by the Senate. Rome was in chaos at the time; the empire had suffered from years of turmoil, economic decline, and oppression. Most of the last several emperors – going back before the suicide of Nero in 68 AD – had been extremely destructive… plundering the treasury, waging expensive wars, and dismantling individual liberty.

The government was also extremely unstable; it was not uncommon at that point for emperors to be deposed or even assassinated. In fact, Nerva’s predecessor– the emperor Domitian– had literally been murdered that morning. Nerva was seen by many Senators as the ‘safe choice’ to take over the government. He was old, frail, and sick… so he wasn’t expected to last very long.

Most of all, Nerva was completely unremarkable. He had spent his entire professional life in the service of the Empire, yet his name is barely mentioned in any historical record or associated with any major achievement. But ‘unremarkable’ was exactly what Romans felt like they needed at the time: Nerva would be a break from the chaos. Or so they thought.

We know now with the benefit of hindsight that Rome would never fully recover. There would be a few ‘good’ emperors along the way – people like Marcus Aurelius who were able to temporarily hold back the decline. But the long-term trends were unstoppable. Rome was slowly going bankrupt, destroying its currency, and rejecting the basic principles of its civilization that made it so powerful and prosperous to begin with. And no politician was able to put the brakes on those big trends and reverse the inevitable decline.

This is a common theme throughout history: empires rise and fall, not because of a single individual, but from decades of major trends that gradually cause an inevitable decline. These same trends keep surfacing over and over again across the centuries. Economic mismanagement is an obvious one: empires in decline almost invariably hold an arrogant belief that they are exempt from the natural laws of finance. In other words, they believe they can spend as much as they want, accumulate infinite amounts of debt, and debase their currency without limit, and somehow there won’t be any consequences.

Another trend is that the empire abandons its core values. Integrity, civic-mindedness, and hard work give way to corruption and entitlement. And perhaps the biggest trend of empires in decline is that society frequently turns on itself. Civility ends, and rage takes over.

It goes without saying that these trends are alive and well in the West today, especially in the Land of the Free. US finances have been in disarray for decades. Just this year alone, the national debt has grown by $4 trillion and the Federal Reserve has conjured another $3 trillion out of thin air. And even before Covid struck when the economy was firing on all cylinders, the government was still adding more than $1 trillion each year to the debt.

Now there are entire factions of politicians that want to take those numbers to the next level. In fact, there’s an entire school of economics now called “Modern Monetary Theory” which poses that governments can simply print as much money as they want without consequence. This is pretty classic empire arrogance.

But, again, the even more powerful trend now is the growing rage that’s so prevalent. We’ve seen it unfold in front of our very eyes – violence, arson, assault, looting, vandalism, intimidation. And if the this angry mob isn’t out in the streets causing mayhem, they’re on social media trying to destroy someone’s life who committed the thoughtcrime of intellectual dissent.

The election results last week proved that this angry mob is still a numerical minority. Unfortunately they are a very powerful minority that has taken over a number of important institutions. They already control the media. Objective journalism doesn’t exist anymore – it’s just activism and propaganda. (And if anyone needs any proof, look no further than a prominent CNN ‘reporter’ weeping tears of joy over the weekend on live television. How can these people expect to be taken seriously as objective journalists?)

The mob has also taken over education too. Schools and universities are now filled with enraged Marxists who spend dozens of hours each week indoctrinating our children with their new woke religion. They’ve even reinvented science, history, and mathematics to conform to the principles of critical race theory.

The mob also exerts extreme influence over major corporations. You can’t watch a Disney movie, or an NFL game, or even a commercial for men’s razors anymore, without having identity politics shoved down your throat.

They also hold extreme influence over Big Tech, whose one-sided censorship policies have become so absurd they’re starting to rival the Chinese Communist Party. Over the weekend, for example, Twitter was ablaze with activists who launched an ‘accountability project’ to create a database archiving every supporter, donor, staffer, etc. who supported the current Presidential administration. The project’s tagline is “Remember what they did,” and “We must never forget. . .” And they’re targeting “those who elected him,” and “those who funded him,” referring, of course, to the President and the 70 million people who voted for him.

One reporter from the Washington Post deemed that everyone archived “should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position, or be accepted into ‘polite’ society.” She concluded her thinly-veiled threat by saying, “We have a list.” Twitter, of course, did not see fit to censor this shining example of objective journalism, which now has 40,000 likes.

It’s a pretty blatant sign of decline when people start keeping ‘lists’ of political opponents they want to punish. And this madness is just getting started."
Related:
The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation. [Jim Quinn - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal at the website.

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 11/10/20"

by David Leonhardt

Nov. 10, 2020 8:06 AM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 50,967,300 
people, according to official counts, including 10,191,261 Americans.

      Nov. 10, 2020 8:06 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

Updated 11/9/20, 10:48 PM ET
Click image for larger size.

A "Must Read":

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/10/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/10/20"
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 11/10/20: "More Market Updates"
Updated live.
Daily Update (Nov. 9th to 12th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

"Reputation, Honor"

"Reputation is what other people know about you. 
Honor is what you know about yourself." 
- Lois McMaster

Happy 245th Birthday United States Marine Corps!

Happy 245th Birthday United States Marine Corps! 
Semper Fidelis!
On the 245th Marine Corps birthday Gen. David H. Berger
 reminds us how the Corps' legacy lives on in every Marine. 

"The Marines' Hymn"

- CP, Veteran, USMC

"Here’s How Trump Can Still Win"

- Social philosopher Omar Little, "The Wire"

"Here’s How Trump Can Still Win"
by Dick Morris

"1. Only the electoral college or the various state legislatures can declare a candidate the winner. To base this decision on network vote totals and projections and to call Biden the “president-elect” is irresponsible.

2. The recounts in Arizona, Georgia, and the other states are likely to go heavily for Trump. Most of the likely errors or invalid votes took place on mailed-in ballots. (Machine votes are harder to tamper with). Since Biden won upwards of two-thirds of mail-in votes and absentee ballots, it is likely that most of the discarded mail ballots will be subtracted from Biden’s total.

3. The networks currently give Trump 214 electorate voters (270 is the victory level)

4. Alaska, where Trump has led by 2:1 all week and is now more than half counted will likely throw its 3 votes to Trump giving him 217.

5. Trump has likewise led in North Carolina (15 votes) all week and his margin of 75,000 has not diminished. He will undoubtedly carry North Carolina. Like Alaska, the media will not call it for Trump to promote the illusion of a Biden victory. North Carolina would bring Trump’s vote to 232.

6. The vote count in Arizona shows Trump’s deficit shrinking from 30,000 on Friday to 18,500 on Saturday with about 100K left to count. After Arizona (11 votes) is fully counted, it will go through a recount subject to the pro-Trump bias identified in point 2. Were he to win Arizona, he would have 243 votes.

7. In Georgia (16 votes), Biden leads by only 8,400 votes, a margin that has been dropping. Like Arizona, Trump may still win the count and, if not, would have a very good chance of prevailing in the recount. With Georgia, Trump would have 259 votes

8. Wisconsin (10 votes) is tallied as having been won by Biden by 21,000 votes but a recanvass is in the offing. Given the facts enumerated in point 2, there is a very good chance Trump will carry Wisconsin. The recount process in Wisconsin is uniquely fair and transparent - a model for the nation - so Trump may well flip the state. If he does, he will have 269 votes - one shy of victory.

9. Then, it comes down Pennsylvania and its 20 votes. The Supreme Court provisionally allowed ballots to be counted if they arrived before Friday, Nov. 6, and were postmarked before Election Day, Nov. 3, and ordered late votes to be segregated. When Justice Samuel Alito was informed that the state had not segregated the late votes, as Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth had advised, Alito made it an order on Friday.

Biden currently leads by 37,000 votes in Pennsylvania. The number of late-arriving ballots likely far exceeds this total (the state has not published this information). Justice Alioto and a Court majority may throw out the late ballots, likely delivering the state to Trump. In addition, for the reasons stated above, a recanvass is likely to give Trump a decisive advantage. If he wins Pennsylvania, he would have 289 votes and a victory.

Will there be a recount in Pennsylvania? The current law requires one if the margin is under 0.5 percent and in Pennsylvania, it likely will be slightly greater. There are two ways to trigger a recount: First, the Supreme Court could order one after the vote counters so flagrantly violated Alito’s order to segregate the votes that he had to re-issue it. And remember, four justices wanted to reconsider whether to allow late ballots entirely but the court deadlocked 4-4 in October. Now with Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the mix, it may take a different view, particularly if the presidency hangs in the balance.

Second, Article II Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.”

The Pennsylvania Legislature, solidly in Republican hands (both houses) may choose to demand a recount before appointing electors. To build the case for doing so, it may hold hearings into the allegations of fraud so as to help the voters of the state understand how flagrantly their votes were mishandled. Already, the leader of the State Senate in Pennsylvania and the Speaker of the State Assembly have held a news conference announcing their intention to “audit” the vote-counting process.

As the saying goes: “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” And she hasn’t."
They missed, and left far too much evidence. 
So...

Musical Interlude: The Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter"; "If I Was a Dancer"

The Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter"
The Rolling Stones, "If I Was a Dancer"

"First Comes A Rolling Civil War"

"First Comes A Rolling Civil War"
by Pepe Escobar

"The massive psyops is ongoing. Everyone familiar with the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) knew how this would imperatively play out. I chose to frame it as a think tank gaming exercise in my Banana Follies column. This is a live exercise. Yet no one knows exactly how it will end.

US intel is very much aware of well-documented instances of election fraud. Among them: NSA software that infiltrates any network, as previously detailed by Edward Snowden, and capable of altering vote counts; the Hammer supercomputer and its Scorecard app that hacks computers at the transfer points of state election computer systems and outside third party election data vaults; the Dominion software system, known to have serious security issues since 2000, but still used in 30 states, including every swing state; those by now famous vertical jumps to Biden in both Michigan and Wisconsin at 4am on November 4 (AFP unconvincingly tried to debunk Wisconsin and didn’t even try with Michigan); multiple instances of Dead Men Do Vote.

The key actor is the Deep State, which decides what happens next. They have weighed the pros and cons of placing as candidate a senile, stage 2 dementia, neocon warmonger and possible extortionist (along with son) as “leader of the free world”, campaigning from a basement, incapable of filling a parking lot in his rallies, and seconded by someone with so little support in the Dem primaries that she was the first to drop out.

The optics, especially seen from vast swathes of the imperial-interfered Global South, may be somewhat terrible. Dodgy elections are a prerogative of Bolivia and Belarus. Yet only the Empire is able to legitimize a dodgy election – especially in its own backyard.

Welcome to the New Resistance: The GOP is in a very comfortable position. They hold the Senate and may end up picking up as may as 12 seats in the House. They also know that any attempt by Biden-Harris to legislate via Executive Orders will have…consequences.

The Fox News/ New York Post angle is particularly enticing. Why are they suddenly supporting Biden? Way beyond internal family squabbles worthy of the Succession saga, Rupert Murdoch made it very clear, via the laptop from hell caper, that he has all sorts of kompromat on the Biden family. So they will do whatever he wants. Murdoch does not need Trump anymore.

Nor, in theory, does the GOP. Former CIA insiders assure of serious backroom shenanigans going on between GOP honchos and the Biden-Harris gang. Trade-offs bypassing Trump – which most of the GOP hates with a vengeance. The most important man in Washington will be in fact GOP Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

Still, to clear any lingering doubts, a vote recount would be absolutely necessary in all 6 contested states – WI, MI, PA, GA, NV and AZ. Through hand counting. One by one. The DoJ would need to act on it, immediately. Not gonna happen. Recounts cost a ton of money. There’s no evidence Team Trump – on top of it short of funds and manpower – will be able to convince Daddy Bush asset William Barr to go for it.

While relentlessly demonizing Trump for spreading “a torrent of misinformation” and “trying to undermine the legitimacy of the US election”, mainstream media and Big Tech have declared a winner – a classic case of pre-programming the sheep multitudes.

Yet what really matters is the letter of the law. State legislatures decide whose electors go to the Electoral College to appoint the President. Here it is – Article II, Section 1, Clause 2: Each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature Thereof May Direct.”

So this has nothing to do with governors, not to mention the media. It’s up to GOP state legislatures to act accordingly. The drama may roll out for weeks. The first step of the Electoral College procedure takes place on December 14. The final determination will only happen in early January.

Meanwhile, talk of a New Resistance is spreading like wildfire. Trumpism, with 71 million + votes, is firmly established as a mass movement. No one in the GOP commands this kind of popular appeal. By sidelining Trumpism, the GOP may be committing seppuku.

So what will Deplorables do? The always indispensable Alastair Crooke hits the nail on the head in a powerful essay: Trump is the President of Red America. And depending on how the scripted (s)election tragicomedy develops next, the Deplorables are bound to become The Ungovernables.

Crooke references a crucial parallel evoked by historian Mike Vlahos, who shows how the current American saga mirrors Ancient Rome in the last century of the Republic, pitting the Roman elite against the Populares – which today are represented by Red (Trumpist) America: “This was a new world, in which the great landowners, with their latifundia [the slave-land source of wealth], who had been the ‘Big Men’ leading the various factions in the civil wars, became the senatorial archons that dominated Roman life for the next five centuries - while the People, the Populares, were ground into a passive - not helpless - but generally dependent and non-participating element of Roman governance: This sapped away at the creative life of Rome, and eventually led to its coming apart.”

So as much as the Dem machine had wanted it, Trump is not yet Imperator Caesar Augustus, whom the Greeks called Autokrator (autocrat), but was a de facto monarch. The American Augustus, Tiberius and most of all Caligula is still further on down the road. He will definitely be a benign, humanitarian imperialist.

In the meantime, what will imperial Big Capital do? The West, and especially the American Rome, is on the edge of a double precipice: the worst economic depression ever, coupled with imminent, myriad, uncontrollable explosions of social rage.

So the Deep State is reasoning that with Biden – or, sooner rather than later, Supreme shakti and Commander-in-Chief Maa Durga Kamala – the path gets smoother towards the Davos Great Reset. After all, to reset the chess pieces, first the chessboard must be knocked over. This will be one step beyond Dark Winter – which not accidentally was evoked by teleprompter-reading Biden himself on the final presidential debate. The script gets ominously closer to the Rockefelller Foundation’s 2010 Lock Step.

Meanwhile, Plan B is kept in ready, steady, go mode: the lineaments of a global rampage, focused on “malign” Russia’s sphere of influence to satisfy a “revived” NATO and the military-industrial complex, which selected the now media-appointed President-Elect in the first place because he’s no more than a pliant cardboard figure."

Monday, November 9, 2020

"Rental Market Apocalypse Triggers A Housing Crisis: Prepare Your Self For The Worst!"

"Rental Market Apocalypse Triggers A Housing Crisis:
 Prepare Your Self For The Worst!"
by Epic Economist

"The rental market collapse is not only putting families at risk of eviction as it is contributing to the permanent closures of several stores and leading U.S. shopping malls to bankruptcy. As the economy awaits another stimulus package, unemployed workers drowning in debt don't find the means to meet their rental payments, consumer spending continues to critically decline making several businesses delinquent on their leases, and leaving mall owners in a dangerous position. 

The more the delivery of further federal assistance is postponed the more store closures are increasing the risk for shopping malls to become bankrupt. This week, two major U.S. malls have already filed for bankruptcy, and economists are fearing that an explosion of debt on the rental market may trigger a commercial real state and residential housing apocalypse of unprecedented proportions. 

In this video, we discuss the many decisive factors building up the rental market crisis. The housing market is in big trouble due to the lack of federal aid to ease the effects of the economic collapse. Market analysts outline that commercial real estate and residential housing have enormous capitulation risks, which will add massive pressure on the next stock market crash.

A recent study found that up to 40 million people risk missing rent. Researchers indicated that the United States may be facing the most severe housing crisis in its history, while executives in the real estate and housing sectors argued that the longer the federal government waits to act, the steeper the financial cliff that renters will be pushed off when the eviction moratorium expires this winter.

Meanwhile, a recent analysis showed that in 25 major US cities, over 50% are at risk of facing a housing market bubble. Renters and tenants coping with hardships, combined with a looming correction in home values, could weigh heavily on the housing market. 

Landlords are having to deal with huge amounts of default, which means renters then will be on the hook for months of missed payments, meaning that mass evictions, permanent business closures, and more bankruptcies are expected to happen shortly, and its consequences are likely to bleed over the broader economy.

The outstanding rent debt could reach $7.2 billion before the close of 2020, and the total rent debt could reach nearly $70 billion by year-end if there is no additional stimulus spending, with nearly 12.8 million Americans owing an average of $5,400 from missed payments. Although the larger figure is far smaller than the 2007 subprime-mortgage bubble burst, this time around, tens of millions of people are going to be caught in a web of home-rental debt and eviction rates can be much higher.

However, the problem doesn't stop right there. As many renters relied on credit cards to afford their payments, the total national rent debt is probably far larger than what can be counted from missed payments alone. This relocation of debt from landlord to plastic can harm renters’ credit long term by using too much of their available credit line, which can lower scores. 

Renters that have previously arranged alternative payment plans with their landlords month are now falling behind on their settlements, and some landlords have been adding punitive late fees on top of what is already owed, so their debt is becoming much higher than just the face value of the rent. That is to say, the multibillion-dollar rent debt added to the fast-climbing credit card debt could put a large burden of uncollectible debt on bank balance sheets, which will restrict their ability to lend, and consequently, undermine the credit of landlords. 

On top of that, commercial properties have been experiencing growing hardships as the considerable decline in consumer spending at brick-and-mortar retail stores continues to compromise the livelihood of retailers in shopping malls, and thereby, jeopardizing mall owners' ability to pay for their commercial mortgage and stay in business too. 

Last week, CBL & Associates and Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust have filed for bankruptcy, seeking protection from creditors. Together the two properties account for some 87 million square feet of real estate nationwide. Both companies mentioned how the current recession has hurt their tenants, and, in turn, their own businesses.

Others are expected to follow, since a recent survey showed shopping centers and malls rank as the most-avoided public places among consumers, and despite the coming holiday season, 55.4% of those polled said they would avoid shopping at malls, which means our economy will still experience a lot of turbulence before the year ends."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.
Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”

"Listen..."

 

"Despite My Firm Convictions..."

"Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."
- Malcolm X

"Stock Market Euphoria; Dow Jones Rockets; Economic Bubble And Bailouts; US Debt"

Jeremiah Babe,
"Stock Market Euphoria; Dow Jones Rockets; 
Economic Bubble And Bailouts; US Debt"

Gregory Mannarino, "Post-Market 11/9/20: Critical Updates"

Gregory Mannarino,
"Post-Market 11/9/20: Critical Updates"

"The U.S. Presidential Election is NOT Over. Here's Where Things Stand Right Now"

"The U.S. Presidential Election is NOT Over. 
Here's Where Things Stand Right Now"
by Graham Summers

Disclaimer: none of the following is meant to be political analysis. I am not endorsing nor disparaging any candidate. I’m simply outlining the facts pertaining to the U.S. Presidential election.

"I want to warn you that the next few months in the U.S. will be extremely ugly. The country was already deeply divided before this election. And unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse. The fact is that Joe Biden HASN’T actually won this election yet.  That is not a typo. The media has done the U.S. a great disservice by claiming that Biden is the winner this early in the game. Everyone needs to take a step back and understand how the actual election process occurs based on federal law, not media reporting.

1) The election occurs in early November.

2) Votes are tallied while officials from both parties (Democrat and GOP) are present.

3) Provided officials from both parties are present during the vote tallies and there are:
No credible accusations of fraud.
No software glitches.
Then the vote tallies are ratified.

4) If the vote margin between winner and loser is 0.5% or smaller, an automatic recount is required.

5) If the margin between the winner and loser is larger than 0.5%, but either candidate (or a 3rd candidate for that matter) wants to dispute the results, he or she can pay to have a recount performed. The cost if roughly $3 million per state.

6) Once the recount is completed, or if a recount is not necessary, the individual states formally declare the winner on December 14th when they officially cast their electoral college votes for him or her.

7) Then, in early January of the next year, the new congress meets to count the electoral college votes and formally declare the winner.

8) The new President is sworn into office on January 20th.

This is how Presidential elections work in the U.S. under normal circumstances. The media cannot decide who wins. The media can simply project who they think will win based on vote totals at a given time. And unless the loser formally concedes prior to December 14th, the election remains in play.

So where are we in terms of the 2020 Presidential election? For starters, the races in multiple states (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona) are close enough to require mandatory recounts (within a margin of 0.5%).

On top of this, the Trump administration will be filing lawsuits in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona alleging fraud, illegitimate votes being counted, and GOP officials being barred from witnessing the ballots being tallied. Whether or not the Trump administration is right about this remains to be seen.

However, the fact lawsuits are being filed means the election will move into the courts. If the courts decide that the evidence the Trump administration presents is compelling, they can require a formal vote audit. If, during the vote audit, actual fraud is discovered, the court can rule that those votes are no longer valid, the formal vote counts can change, and it is possible that a given state ends up declaring a different winner.

Even if fraud is not discovered by the audits, but there is a particular problem with vote cards (the wrong type of ink was used, the hole punch didn’t go all the way through the ballot as was the case in Florida in 2000, etc.), the courts can deem those problematic votes as illegitimate. This again can mean the formal vote counts can change, and it is possible that a given state ends up declaring a different winner.

Mind you, that’s if the courts resolve the issue to everyone’s liking on the first go round. If either party or candidate is dissatisfied with a lower court’s ruling, they can appeal the ruling, which can result in the lawsuit moving up to a higher court, eventually reaching the Supreme Court, which serves as the ultimate arbiter of election law in the U.S. This was the case with the 2000 election, when the Supreme Court ruled that vote cards from Florida that didn’t have clean hole punches were NOT valid, which gave the state to George W. Bush and resulted in Al Gore conceding the election on December 13th.

None of the above items are conspiracy theory or wishful thinking. These are the actual facts of how Presidential elections are decided in the U.S. The media doesn’t decide elections. And technically, Joe Biden is NOT the President elect, no matter how much certain people might want him to be.

Remember, he wouldn’t be formally declared the President Elect until December 14th 2020, and that’s under normal circumstances. And as I mentioned already, this election is anything but normal. I mention all of this to help you keep a clear head during what is going to be an extremely stressful and psychologically draining four-week period between now and that date. Again, this election WILL not be decided before December 14th. And it’s possible things run even longer than that."
Related:

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Brasov, Romania. Thanks for stopping by!

"Manufactured Uncertainty"

"Manufactured Uncertainty"
by Jeff Thomas

"For many years, I’ve described a period that I envisaged to be in the future, in which much of what was considered "normal" would change dramatically. The borders of some countries would change. The types of governments that ruled over them would change. In some cases, they would morph slowly into new entities; in others they would change suddenly.

Much of the wealth in the world would change hands. Enormous fortunes would be made by a few, whilst the life savings of countless others would be lost. Large numbers of people would be on the move. Many would be refugees, hoping to escape poverty and/or oppressive governments. Others would be opportunists – those who look for the positives in periods of global upset. Above all, this would be a period of change.

For most people, this would one day be looked back upon as previous generations looked back on the World Wars or the Great Depression – a time of devastation, in which many people lost all or most of what they had had. But for some, especially those who foresaw the change, this period would one day be looked back upon as the time when their fortunes changed dramatically for the better.

Until recently, those who have predicted this dramatic change have been largely derided as "doom-and-gloomers" or "end-of-the-world crackpots." And it has been difficult to argue against this view, as regardless of how accurately we might have described what was headed our way, it was impossible to put a date on the onset of the crisis.

I became convinced of its eventuality in 1999, due to economic and political developments that would result in collapse at some point. But the speed at which this would occur, and what governments and others would do to delay the eventuality, could not be known in advance. The best I could do was to repeatedly advise that significant events would increase in velocity and magnitude the closer we came to the collapse. At that time, significant events were occurring once or twice a year. Since then, the frequency has increased until, today, significant events are occurring almost daily.

For those who have been following this line of thinking, the basic premise is that the governments of the world, often acting in concert with the major banks and industries, have sought to expand their wealth and power in such a way that, at some point, socio-economic collapse would inevitably occur. And they’ve succeeded marvelously. For decades, they’ve dramatically increased their positions but have reached the point at which the bill for the big party must be paid, and they have no intention of paying it. It will be passed to the hoi polloi, who will soon realize that it will break many of them. And they’ll be hopping mad.

So, how should this moment be handled? Historically, the most effective means by which those who have caused the problem can not only get away with it, but profit even more from the collapse, is to create a distraction to take focus away from themselves as the guilty parties.

As any magician knows, there’s no real magic. The trick is achieved through illusion. For a simple magic trick, a small distraction is needed. For a more elaborate trick to be pulled off, a larger distraction is necessary. But for a worldwide socio-economic collapse to be pulled off, whilst the magicians remain in place to benefit from it, a major distraction is necessary. In fact, if at all possible, multiple distractions should be employed.

Beginning in the early months of 2020, a virus has spread across the globe. This virus is familiar to science: It’s a mutation of the coronavirus, which has been around for sixty years or more. It’s a common virus, carrying with it relatively predictable symptoms and a relatively predictable outcome for those who contract it.

Actual deaths are few and will occur mostly in those who are old and infirm or whose immune systems are already compromised. But from the start, this virus was treated as a plague that would decimate the population. Almost immediately, the death figures were greatly exaggerated. The US government even went so far as to award thousands of dollars to hospitals for each death that they attributed to the virus.

Whole countries have been locked down, with millions of people losing their means of employment. In every case, essential freedoms have been removed from all citizens. At the same time, the death of a minor criminal at the hands of police sparked off a riot in a seemingly unrelated event. But, courtesy of the media, the riots quickly spread across the US in forty of the fifty states. Incredibly, many mayors and governors stated that the rioters were justified in their unlawful actions and ordered police to stand down, exacerbating the riots. To make matters worse, it soon became apparent that many of the rioters were bussed into cities, paid to cause as much destruction as possible. The funding for such groups has since been traced to plutocrats who created the problem in the first place.

In some locations, entire hotels in upper-class neighborhoods have been taken over by state governments to house homeless people, including the criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes. These events have become so widespread that whole neighborhoods are emptying out of residents. The upset and confusion increases each day, and the average person is now afraid to turn on the news each evening.

We’re witnessing a sleight of hand of epic proportions. We’ve entered the crisis period. From here on in, wealth will be extracted from the populace on a wholesale level. In addition, "inalienable rights" are already becoming a thing of the past. The uncertainty that the average person is finding himself in is not an illusion, but nor is it an accident.

Those who imagine that the Powers That Be exist to help them in their troubles will be the ones who are most dramatically damaged by this manufactured uncertainty, for they will live in the false hope that the very people who created the problem will come to their aid and save them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, just as those who are abused often turn to their abuser for protection, we shall see a populace that seeks salvation through a government upon which they bestow more power than before, not less.

Misguided political and economic ideas have taken hold in the US and around the world. In all likelihood, the public will vote itself more and more "free stuff" until it causes an economic crisis. It's all coming to climax soon."

"It’s Going to the Supreme Court"

"It’s Going to the Supreme Court"
by Jim Rickards

"The major news outlets have declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election based partly on a projection that Biden would win Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. Well, maybe, maybe not. Projections are not official certifications let alone final votes in the Electoral College (the composition of which will not be determined until December 8. The actual Electoral College vote for President happens on December 14).

In particular, the Pennsylvania outcome is based on counting several hundred thousand mail-in ballots that were received after Election Day. Pennsylvania state law passed by the legislature requires that mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day in order to be counted. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court (dominated by elected Democrats) ordered that mail-in ballots could be counted if they were received up to three days after Election Day.

The Constitution: But the U.S. Constitution clearly says that state election laws are to be set by the "legislature" of each state. Trump claims that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision is unconstitutional because it violates the requirement that legislatures set the rules. That claim is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. If that court agrees with Trump, then the late Pennsylvania ballots could be discarded, and Trump would win Pennsylvania.

Numerous challenges are working their way through the system. The processes and deadlines in several states could change the outcome of the presidential election. Depending on what happens in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, Trump could still emerge a winner. That's a longshot, and I’m not holding my breath. But, we must consider all possible outcomes. Even if Biden emerges as the winner, in the end, an even more decisive political race is yet to be decided - in fact, two races.

The Fight for the Senate: Going into election night, the Republicans held control of the U.S. Senate by a 53-47 margin (counting two independents with the Democrats). As of now, the winners in the Senate races would result in a 49-48 edge for Republicans with three seats undecided. One of the undecided seats is in Alaska. The race has not officially been called because Alaska has many remote locations, and it takes time to round-up the ballots. But, the Republican candidate leads by a two-to-one margin, and all analysts agree the Republicans will hold that seat. So, that puts the score at 50-48 in favor of Republicans. But, that's still not control. The Democrats will need 50 seats for control (where Vice President Kamala Harris can break a 50-50 tie) while Republicans need 51 seats for control, an outright majority.

Georgia on Our Minds: What's up with the two missing seats? Both seats are in Georgia. That state has a peculiar rule that you cannot win a Senate race unless you get over 50% of the vote, even if you got more votes than your opponent. On Election Day, no one got 50% in either of the two Senate races. This was because of third-party candidates and some Republicans fighting each other. Georgia law says in such cases, the two top contenders face a runoff election on January 5. With only two names on each ballot, someone must get 50% and be declared the winner.

One runoff involves Kelly Loeffler (Republican) versus Raphael Warnock (Democrat). The other runoff involves David Perdue (Republican) versus Jon Ossoff (Democrat). Loeffler and Purdue are both incumbents today. If Republicans win one or both of these races, they keep control of the Senate. If Democrats win both of these races, they take control of the Senate.

Control of the Senate will be determinative of even bigger issues like the Green New Deal, statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., tax increases, packing the Supreme Court and more. These changes will affect the shape of governance in the United States in a deleterious and irreversible way. Never have two Senate runoff elections been more important. Between now and January 5, we should all have Georgia on our minds.

But there’s one clear loser in this election - pollsters.

The Same Errors: We all recall how badly pollsters performed in the 2016 presidential election. Depending on the source, the odds of a Hillary Clinton victory were set at 90%, 92% or even 93%. The results were expected to be an electoral college landslide, with Clinton keeping the west and northeast, maintaining her "blue wall" (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin) and even picking off some southern and mountain states expected to be friendly to Trump, especially Arizona.

None of this happened. Trump held Arizona, swept the blue wall and defeated Hillary Clinton 304 to 227 in the Electoral College. The pollsters were not even close to this result. Pollsters then promised they would mend their ways, consider their mistakes, adjust their models and deliver much more accurate results for the 2020 election. Did they? They did not even come close. In many ways, the pollsters' performance was worse in 2020.

Not Just a Little Wrong: Pollsters will defend themselves by claiming that they projected Biden would win, and in fact, he did win (subject to legal challenges and recounts that are still ongoing). But, that's no defense. The polls showed Biden winning Wisconsin by 6.7%. It was actually less than 1%. They showed Biden would win Florida by 1%. In fact, Trump won Florida by 3%. And the list of missed calls goes on state by state.

The pollster's misses were not by 1% or so. That's certainly acceptable and within the margin of error. But they were wrong by five, six or seven percent, and sometimes more, depending on the state. The claims of adjusting for the errors in 2016, such as turnout models, educational levels, rural versus urban votes, etc. were all hot air. A few pollsters did get it right, like Rasmussen, Trafalgar and Susquehanna. But the mainstream polls such as ABC, CBS, NBC, Washington Post and New York Times were badly wrong. What's the lesson for investors trying to handicap elections in the future?

Ignore mainstream polls, focus on the few pollsters who have valid methods and weigh non-poll information using other inputs and models. Markets dislike uncertainty. Polls try to add some certainty to the process. As of now, most polls are worse than useless; they are systematically wrong.

Et Tu, Fox News? Meanwhile, the mainstream media has been clearly biased against President Trump. Many of Trump’s supporters consider Fox a sympathetic alternative. But, Fox News is now being called Faux News for its fake and misleading calls from a technical "decision desk" on election night.

Fox News made a series of wrong calls on election night. Anyone can make a mistake; I've made my share. But, this was different. The wrong calls were systemic, all in one direction and not merely wrong, but statistically unsupportable. One is left with the impression that the Fox News decision desk was out to sabotage Donald Trump, and they did a pretty good job of it.

The Fox decision desk is led by Arnon Mishkin, a registered Democrat and donor to the Democratic Party. That's fine as far as it goes, but on election night he acted more like a Democratic Party mole than an objective expert. He first said the House of Representatives would remain in Democratic hands. He went so far as to say Democrats would gain five seats at 9:40 pm on election night. Really?

Did Fox’s Early Call Influence the Vote? The House consists of 435 separate races from coast-to-coast. Some were easy to call, but many were hotly contested. Going into the election, the Democrats had 232 seats, and the Republicans had 197 (there were five vacancies and one independent). The Republicans only need to capture two vacancies and flip 18 seats to take control of the House. That's a tall order, but not impossible.

Fox's "call" was made early in the evening when polls were still open in most of the country. Many of the seats the Republicans hoped to regain were in California and the call came when people there were still lined up to vote. Did voters give up and go home when they heard Fox say the Democrats would still be in control?

In fact, the Republicans have gained five seats so far, and are on track to win at least six more. That could put the House at 227 Democrats and 208 Republicans, a gain of 11 seats for Republicans. Technically the Democrats would have control, but it takes only ten moderate Democratic crossovers to force Nancy Pelosi to compromise with the Republicans.

Why on earth was Fox calling the House and suppressing Republican votes early in the evening when matters were still up in the air? Fox became more blatantly false just before midnight when they "called" Arizona for Biden. They were the only major network to do so. This broke some solid momentum for Trump at the time.

As of today, the outcome is Arizona is still unclear. Biden may win it in the end, but the issue is why call such a close race days before the result is clear? These calls were not simple reversible errors. They had consequences in places like Pennsylvania and Georgia which mysteriously stopped their vote counting shortly after Arizona was called for Biden. The Fox decision desk was a fiasco. Fox's reputation has taken a hit and deservedly so. It may be a long time (if ever) before they recover their reputation. Now it looks like you can't trust the  news either. In the final analysis, don't bet on a Trump victory - the odds are stacked against him - but don't rule it out either."

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/9/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/9/20"
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 11/9/20: "ALERT!
The Stock Market Is Set For MASSIVE GAINS At The Open"
Updated live.
Daily Update (Nov. 9th to 12th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

"How It Really Is"