Wednesday, November 25, 2020

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.
The galaxy’s protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872′s spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. 

With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance.

Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

"Briefly..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm

"Doug Casey on the COVID Thanksgiving Restrictions and the 'Great Reset'"

"Doug Casey on the COVID 
Thanksgiving Restrictions and the 'Great Reset'"
by International Man

"International Man: Thanksgiving and the holiday season are here. The COVID hysteria has justified a new wave of government restrictions.  Many governors and mayors are ordering citizens to "stay at home" and cancel their traditional plans. Is this a "new normal" in which local officials feel emboldened to dictate more and more of what people can do in their own homes?

Doug Casey: There's not much question about it. First, let me draw your attention to an important fundamental: the type of people who go into government. It doesn't matter if it's national, state, county, or city government. They're the kind of people who think they know what's best for others and like bossing them around. They see the virus as a great opportunity to make themselves important and to cement themselves in power. They want to deconstruct America. The phrase "build back better" is being used not just by people in the new Biden regime but by people all over the world.

These people see the COVID hysteria as an excuse for a "Great Reset." They don't describe exactly what the elements of the Great Reset might be, but they're hitting the same notes sung by the people that go to the World Economic Forum in Davos. They're promoting a great change in the world at large and America in particular.

It appears the world is ready for it; however, it's for the same reasons that Biden won the election. I listed six factors why I thought Biden would win in our interview a couple of months ago: the virus hysteria, a pending economic collapse, negative demographics, the moral collapse of the old order, and the Deep State, and, of course, cheating - which was critical in the short term. There's no question that stormy times are ahead.

We’re headed for a great leap forward - to borrow a phrase from Mao - in State power. Much higher taxes, much higher inflation, much more regulation, a big drop in the general standard of living, and a fair measure of social chaos.

International Man: Among the most extreme examples of this dystopian power trip is from California’s governor Gavin Newsom. Recently, he issued a list of nine mandatory requirements for Thanksgiving social gatherings. The ridiculous list includes things like "no more than three households" at Thanksgiving, mandatory masks at all times except when eating, and no shared family-style dishes for guests. Has the COVID hysteria generated a serious new political threat to individual freedoms?

Doug Casey: It seems like the world is mimicking the dystopian movie, V for Vendetta, in which a virus played a major role. If it's not this virus, which is trivial for everyone except very old or very sick people, there will be another virus. In addition to the seasonal flu, about every decade, there’s something new—Hong Kong flu, Asian flu, swine flu, bird flu, SARS… all of them about as deadly as COVID, and none of them even remotely comparable to the Spanish flu of 1918. None of them, even the Spanish flu, had serious economic consequences. This flu is only serious because of the hysteria surrounding it.

Consequences? Testing will be mandatory, and you'll need a health passport. At some point that may include being chipped, like your dog. What shocks me is that the average person is all for it. Everybody is a "Karen" today. They shame people who don't wear their masks, despite the fact that masks are of little or no value. Masks, social distancing, lockdowns, and non-gathering are doing immense damage to society at every level—health-wise, socially, and financially. This nonsense is rupturing the social fabric everywhere. That’s extremely dangerous.

The fact is that people are looking for guidance from the government—not independent scientists, who are being "canceled" and de-platformed. This is more serious than the hysteria that started with 9/11, which is ongoing. The COVID hysteria can best be compared to the Salem Witch Trials, the Orson Wells Martian Invasion Hoax, or an end-of-the-world prediction in a religious cult.

International Man: California's Governor Newsom was recently busted at one of that state’s fanciest restaurants for breaking the exact rules he imposed on everyone else. When asked to comment, he said it was "an error in judgment." What's your take on politicians like Newsom and others who are revealing that the lockdowns are "for thee and not for me"?

Doug Casey: I don't think there's a cure for it. You've got to remember that California has elected insane politicians for decades now - one after another after another, each one worse than the one before. Why should that trend change? The voters are clearly getting what they want. In fact, the trend is accelerating towards more authoritarian leaders at every level. Fear is ruling the public psyche. And when people are afraid - whether of the virus, economic turbulence, a foreign or domestic enemy, or a hundred other things - they want "strong leadership." Elected politicians have become an elected aristocracy, a new ruling class. And they like it.

The best thing that can happen to California is that it breaks up into several states. Southern California around Los Angeles is one culture; San Francisco and Oakland are another culture. In the far north - places like Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou counties - are totally different cultures again. The farming areas are yet another culture. There's absolutely no reason for California to be one state. Dividing it would be a way of limiting the damage.

But that's not going to happen for a lot of reasons. Of course, as I've pointed out before, the best thing that can happen to the United States at this point is to break up into several different countries.

Politicians like Gavin Newsom live in their own silos. They're like medieval royalty. They don't know and don't really care what the little people do as long as the little people pay their taxes and do what they're told. The plebs are so indoctrinated and browbeaten that they're happy to pay their taxes and follow orders. They're told it's the cost of civilization when it's actually a sign of how uncivilized the world is becoming, and how different the US is from the ideas that once made America unique. I don't see any solution because trends stay in motion until they reach a crisis point.

There’s no question the elite are eager to promote policies like negative interest rates, the abolition of cash and more. A crisis is coming, and at that point, anything can happen. Generally speaking, when you have a crisis due to bad times, things usually get worse, because the most aggressive liars and power-grabbers take control. So, I'm not terribly optimistic about the near-term future. "

Gregory Mannarino, “Free-Fall” - The FED Will Soon Unleash More Debt Than Ever Before”

Gregory Mannarino,
“Free-Fall” -  
The FED Will Soon Unleash More Debt Than Ever Before”

Musical Interlude: Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Moby, "Love Of Strings"
Life... magnificent, precious Life.
Full screen a must!

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Vineland, New Jersey, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What to Say When You Meet the Angel of Death at a Party"

"What to Say When You Meet the Angel of Death at a Party"
by Kate Bowler

"Every 90 days I lie in a whirling CT machine, dye coursing through my veins, and the doctors look to see whether the tumors in my liver are growing. If they are not, the doctors smile and schedule another scan. The rhythm has been the same since my doctors told me I had stage IV colon cancer two and a half years ago. I live for three months, take a deep breath and hope to start over again. I will probably do this for the rest of my life. Whatever that means.

When my scan is over, I need to make clear to my friends and my family that though I pray to be declared cured, I must be grateful. I have three more months of life. Hallelujah. So I try to put the news in a little Facebook post, that mix of sun and cloud. I am trying to clear the linguistic hurdles that show up on my chart. Noncurative. Stage IV. I want to communicate that I am hoping for a continued durable remission in the face of no perfect cure, but the comments section is a blurry mess of, "You kicked cancer's butt!" and "God bless you in your preparations."

It feels impossible to transmit the kernel of truth. I am not dying. I am not terminal. I am keeping vigil in the place of almost death. I stand in the in-between where everyone must pass, but so few can remain.

I was recently at a party in a head-to-toe Tonya Harding costume, my blond wig in a perfect French braid, and a woman I know spotted me from across the dance floor.  "I guess you're not dying!"  she yelled over the music, and everyone stopped to stare at me. I'm working on it!"  I yelled back, after briefly reconsidering my commitment to pacifism.

We all harbor the knowledge, however covertly, that we're going to die, but when it comes to small talk, I am the angel of death. I have seen people try to swallow their own tongue after uttering the simple words, "How are you?" I watch loved ones devolve into stammering good wishes and then devastating looks of pity. I can see how easily a well-meaning but ill-placed suggestion makes them want to throw themselves into oncoming traffic.

A friend came back from Australia with a year's worth of adventures to tell and ended with a breathless, "You have to go there sometime!"  He lapsed into silence, seeming to remember at that very moment that I was in the hospital. And I didn't know how to say that the future was like a language I didn't speak anymore.

Most people I talk with succumb immediately to a swift death by free association. I remind them of something horrible and suddenly they are using words like pustules at my child's fourth-birthday party. They might be reminded of an aunt, a neighbor or a cousin's friend. No matter how distant the connection, all the excruciating particularities of this person's misfortune will be excavated.

This is not comforting. But I remind myself to pay attention because some people give you their heartbreak like a gift. It was a month or so into my grueling chemotherapy regimen when my favorite nurse sat down next to me at the cancer clinic and said softly: "I've been meaning to tell you. I lost a baby." The way she said "baby," with the lightest touch, made me understand. She had nurtured a spark of life in her body and held that child in her arms, and somewhere along the way she had been forced to bury that piece of herself in the ground. I might have known by the way she smoothed all my frayed emotions and never pried for details about my illness. She knew what it was like to keep marching long after the world had ended.

What does the suffering person really want? How can you navigate the waters left churning in the wake of tragedy? I find that the people least likely to know the answer to these questions can be lumped into three categories: minimizers, teachers and solvers.

The minimizers are those who think I shouldn/t be so upset because the significance of my illness is relative. These people are very easy to spot because most of their sentences begin with, "Well, at least.."  Minimizers often want to make sure that suffering people are truly deserving before doling out compassion.

My sister was on a plane from Toronto to visit me in the hospital and told her seatmate why she was traveling. Then, as she wondered when she had signed up to be a contestant in the calamity Olympics, the stranger explained that my cancer was vastly preferable to life during the Iranian revolution.

Some people minimize spiritually by reminding me that cosmically, death isn't the ultimate end. It doesn't matter, in the end, whether we are here or there. It's all the same, said a woman in the prime of her youth. She emailed this message to me with a lot of praying-hand emoticons. I am a professor at a Christian seminary, so a lot of Christians like to remind me that heaven is my true home, which makes me want to ask them if they would like to go home before me. Maybe now?

Atheists can be equally bossy by demanding that I immediately give up any search for meaning. One told me that my faith was holding me hostage to an inscrutable God, that I should let go of this theological guesswork and realize that we are living in a neutral universe. But the message is the same: Stop complaining and accept the world as it is.

The second exhausting type of response comes from the teachers, who focus on how this experience is supposed to be an education in mind, body and spirit. "I hope you have a Job experience", one man said bluntly. I can't think of anything worse to wish on someone. God allowed Satan to rob Job of everything, including his children's lives. Do I need to lose something more to learn God's character? Sometimes I want every know-it-all to send me a note when they face the grisly specter of death, and I'll send them a poster of a koala that says, "Hang in there!" 

The hardest lessons come from the solutions people, who are already a little disappointed that I am not saving myself. There is always a nutritional supplement, Bible verse or mental process I have not adequately tried. "Keep smiling! Your attitude determines your destiny!"  said a stranger named Jane in an email, having heard my news somewhere, and I was immediately worn out by the tyranny of prescriptive joy.

There is a trite cruelty in the logic of the perfectly certain. Those people are not simply trying to give me something. They are tallying up the sum of my life - looking for clues, sometimes for answers - for the purpose of pronouncing a verdict. But I am not on trial. To so many people, I am no longer just myself. I am a reminder of a thought that is difficult for the rational brain to accept: that the elements that constitute our bodies might fail at any moment. When I originally got my diagnosis at age 35, all I could think to say was, "But I have a son." It was the best argument I had. I can't end. This world can't end. It had just begun.

A tragedy is like a fault line. A life is split into a before and an after, and most of the time, the before was better. Few people will let you admit that out loud. Sometimes those who love you best will skip that first horrible step of saying: "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry this is happening to you."  Hope may prevent them from acknowledging how much has already been lost. But acknowledgment is also a mercy. It can be a smile or a simple, "Oh, hon, what a year you've had."  It does not ask anything from me but makes a little space for me to stand there in that moment. Without it, I often feel like I am starring in a reality program about a woman who gets cancer and is very cheerful about it.

After acknowledgment must come love. This part is tricky because when friends and acquaintances begin pouring out praise, it can sound a little too much like a eulogy. I've had more than one kindly letter written about me in the past tense, when I need to be told who I might yet become.

But the impulse to offer encouragement is a perfect one. There is tremendous power in touch, in gifts and in affirmations when everything you knew about yourself might not be true anymore. I am a professor, but will I ever teach again? I'm a mom, but for how long? A friend knits me socks and another drops off cookies, and still another writes a funny email or takes me to a concert. These seemingly small efforts are anchors that hold me to the present, that keep me from floating away on thoughts of an unknown future. They say to me, like my sister Maria did on one very bad day: "Yes, the world is changed, dear heart, but do not be afraid. You are loved, you are loved. You will not disappear. I am here." 
"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."
- Orson Scott Card

"The Simple Step..."


"Our Frustrations Run Far Deeper Than Covid Lockdowns"

"Our Frustrations Run Far Deeper Than Covid Lockdowns"
by Charles Hugh Smith

It's easy to lay America's visible frustrations at the feet of Covid lockdowns or political polarization, but this conveniently ignores the real driver: systemic unfairness. The status quo has been increasingly rigged to benefit insiders and elites as the powers of central banks and governments have picked the winners (cronies, insiders, cartels and monopolies) and shifted the losses and risks onto the losers (the rest of us).

We now live in the world the 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat so aptly described: "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

As I noted in "The One Chart That Predicts our Future," ours is a two-tier society and economy with a broken ladder of social mobility for those trying to reach the security of the technocrat class and a well-greased slide for everyone who trips and slides from relative security down to the ever-expanding ALICE-precariat class: assets limited, income constrained, employed.

As Bastiat observed, those rigging the system to benefit themselves always create a legal system that lets them off scot-free and a PR scheme that glorifies their predation as well-deserved rewards that are the natural due of their enormous appetite for hard work and innovation.

You know, hard work and innovation like this: "JPMorgan Makes $1 Billion From Gold Trading After Paying $1 Billion Fine For Manipulating Gold Trading." Embezzling a couple billion dollars also earns you a get out of jail free card: none of the perps in Wall Street's skims, scams and frauds ever gets indicted, much less convicted, and none of Wall Street's legalized looters ever goes to prison.

And this is a fair and just system? Uh, right. Meanwhile, the reality is the roulette wheel is rigged and only chumps believe it's a fair game. Those who know it's rigged have essentially zero agency (control / power) or capital to demand an unrigged game or finagle their way into the elite class doing the skimming.

The net result is soaring frustration with a patently unfair system that's touted as the fairest in the entire world. Gordon Long and I do a deep dive into the frustrations with systemic unfairness in our new video, "The Frustrations of Unfairness Are Reaching a Boiling Point:, below.

The key takeaway in my view is the unfairness isn't limited to the economy, society or politics - it's manifesting in all three realms. It isn't just frustration with domestic issues - the global economic order is also a source of unfairness and powerlessness. We each drew up a list of specific drivers of unfairness / frustration. Here's my list:

And here's Gordon's list:

There is much more in our presentation. These are the dynamics that are tearing apart our social cohesion and that will soon start destabilizing the economy - regardless of how much "money" the Federal Reserve prints.
"MACRO ANALYTICS - 11-19-20 - 
The Frustrations of Unfairness Are Reaching a Boiling Point!"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 11/25/20"


Nov. 25, 2020 9:32 AM ET:
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 59,913,400 
people, according to official counts, including 12,670,178 Americans.
At least 1,411,378 have died.

      Nov. 25, 2020 9:32 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count
Updated 11/25/20, 9:25 AM ET
Click image for larger size.

"How It Really Is"

 

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/25/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 11/25/20"
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 11/25/20:
"The US Economic Collapse Is Getting Worse, Faster"
Updated live.
Daily Update (Nov. 23rd to 25th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

"The Dow Just Hit 30,000, But Meanwhile The Real Economy Is Having A Meltdown"

"The Dow Just Hit 30,000, 
But Meanwhile The Real Economy Is Having A Meltdown"
by Michael Snyder

"Did you hear the good news? The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000 for the first time ever this week. In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the stock market has been soaring to heights that we have never seen before. What we have been witnessing is completely insane, but I suppose that if the entire system is utterly doomed, we might as well go out with a bang.

I have often said that the stock market has become entirely detached from reality, and that statement has never been truer than it is right now. For the companies listed on the S&P 500, profits are down about 48 percent compared to last year. But fundamentals do not seem to matter in the giant casino that Wall Street has become.

Instead, the key is to create as much buzz and speculation around your company as possible. In this type of environment, a mirage known as “Tesla” can be worth more than all of the other major automakers in the entire world combined: "The electric car maker’s shares continued to climb more than 4% on Tuesday, increasing its total market value above $500 billion for the first time. Tesla’s market cap rose to more than $520 billion Tuesday afternoon. Tesla (TSLA) is now worth more than the combined market value of most of the world’s major automakers: Toyota (TM), Volkswagen (VLKAF), GM (GM), Ford (F), Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) and its merger partner PSA Group (PUGOY)."

Anyone that believes that Tesla is actually worth 500 billion dollars is probably clinically insane. But of course there are hundreds of other big corporations that are wildly overvalued at the moment as well.

Meanwhile, the real economy continues to implode. According to Fox Business, we are facing “a tidal wave of evictions at the end of the year”: "The U.S. is facing a tidal wave of evictions at the end of the year unless the federal government, in the eleventh hour, extends key pandemic-related protections for millions of renters and homeowners. More than 5.8 million adults say they are somewhat to very likely to face eviction or foreclosure over the course of the next two months, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey completed Nov. 9. That represents about one-third of the 17.9 million Americans who were behind on their rent or mortgage payments last month."

The reason why millions upon millions of Americans are in danger of losing their homes is because we have seen an unprecedented tsunami of unemployment in 2020. More than 70 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment this year, and there has never been another year in all of U.S. history when we have even seen half that number.

This absolutely massive wave of job losses has pushed millions of Americans into poverty, and hunger is on the rise all over the country. The following comes from Simon Black: "New York City is up 33% this year. St. Louis is up 66%. In Oregon it’s up 100%. I’m not talking about real estate prices, local budget gaps, or even property tax rates. These are the startling increases in the number of people across the country, and the world, who are in need of food. But at least the stock market is doing well, right?

In Texas, the CEO of one food bank says that the number of people that they are helping has doubled this year: "Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, told CNBC that his Texas food bank now feeds double the amount of people it used to compared to before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the United States. “Pre-pandemic we fed about 60,00 people a week and now we’re seeing about 120,000 per week, and most of those are new to the food bank, and have never had to ask for help before,” Cooper said during a Tuesday evening interview on “The News with Shepard Smith.”

And what makes all of this even more heartbreaking is the fact that most of the households that need assistance have children living at home. Just check out these numbers from Washington state: "Nearly one-third of Washington households have struggled to get enough to food at some point since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a new study found. Of the 30% of households that experienced food insecurity, 59% had children living at home, according to the Washington State Food Security Survey, put together by a team of professors and researchers at Washington State University, the University of Washington and Tacoma Community College."

Now another wave of lockdowns is being instituted all over the nation, and that is going to take the level of economic suffering in this country to an even higher level. For many workers, being laid off just before the holidays is especially painful: "Waiters and bartenders are being thrown out of work – again – as governors and local officials shut down indoor dining and drinking establishments to combat the nationwide surge in coronavirus infections that is overwhelming hospitals and dashing hopes for a quick economic recovery."

And the timing, just before the holidays, couldn’t be worse. Can you imagine just barely making it through the first round of lockdowns and then being told that you have to do it again?
This is the reality that so many Americans are facing at this moment. For example, this is what 34-year-old Tracey Grey told CBS News about her situation: "My savings are depleted. If 10 of my clients cancel their membership, right now, I’m done. When I say I’m literally just making it, I am literally just making it. I’m one paycheck away and that’s not even an exaggeration."

Now more than ever, the stock market is not a barometer for the health of the overall economy. The truth is that an economic collapse has begun, and over time it will get much, much worse. But for the moment, nothing you can say will keep the ultra-wealthy from feeling euphoric as they monitor their rapidly rising stock portfolios. For them, this will definitely be a very happy Thanksgiving. But for most of the rest of the country, the current state of affairs is nothing to smile about."

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

"Dow Jones Historic 30K As Millions Can't Pay Rent; Millions Jobless; Millions Hungry; Millions Broke"

Jeremiah Babe,
"Dow Jones Historic 30K As Millions Can't Pay Rent; 
Millions Jobless; Millions Hungry; Millions Broke"

"Life..."

"Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit."
- A.W. and J.C. Hare, "Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers," 1827

"As Americans..."

''As Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?''
- Dave Barry

"There Were Two Americas Today As Dow Struck 30,000"

"There Were Two Americas Today As Dow Struck 30,000"
by Tyler Durden

"The K-shaped economic recovery, one where the rich grow richer and the working-poor are crushed with job loss and insurmountable debts, was on full display Tuesday afternoon as the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 30,000 for the first time. 

By mid-afternoon, hours after the DJIA soared to new highs, Bloomberg tweeted a disturbing video of yet another massive food bank line, something we've been highlighting this fall as an increasing occurrence as covid winter continues to crush the working-poor.  Today's food bank lines were situated in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where hundreds of vehicles were lined up "at a local stadium parking lot," Bloomberg said. The lines snaked around a parking lot, with an overflow of vehicles pouring out onto the city street. 

- Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) November 24, 2020

On Monday, we noted that on Dec. 31, many of the key provisions in the CARES Act are set to expire if there is no action from Congress. This could be catastrophic for 12 million America who will lose access to their Emergency unemployment benefits activated in the aftermath of the covid pandemic, which alone could be a drag of up to 1.5% to growth in 1Q, according to a recent Bank of America report. 

Additionally, the expiration of eviction moratorium, mortgage forbearance programs, and suspension of student loan payments could compound the working poor's financial stresses, many of whom, about 21 million of them, are unemployed and receiving benefits from the government. 
Click image for larger size.
In today's America, massive food bank lines are becoming a common occurrence once more - similar to what was seen in the early days of the pandemic. Earlier this month, the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) handed out more than 600,000 pounds of food to 25,000 hungry people - one of the largest-ever food giveaways, explained NTFB officials. 

Thousands of cars lined up to collect food in Dallas, Texas, over the weekend, stretching as far as the eye can see. pic.twitter.com/xLFGOcBkPK
- CBS News (@CBSNews) November 16, 2020

While other stimulus packages could be introduced under the Biden administration, America's working poor has been permanently scarred for years and financially set back a decade.  The K-shaped recovery is getting worse - dropping helicopter money has yet to fix the economy as promised earlier in the year as millions of families are set to go without food this holiday season. 
Click image for larger size.
Just a reminder, a rising stock market tide doesn't lift all boats."

"The U.S. Dollar Is Being Systematically Destroyed, And We Are On A Path That Leads To Hyperinflation"

"The U.S. Dollar Is Being Systematically Destroyed,
 And We Are On A Path That Leads To Hyperinflation"
by Epic Economist

"The U.S. dollar is being systematically destroyed and economists are alerting for a dollar collapse by the end of 2021, with an over 50% chance of a double-dip recession. Seen that more and more stimulus will be issued to stop the bleeding of the economy and the financial markets, we have been caught up in a path that will inevitably lead to a hyperinflationary Great Depression. Why should we all be worried about this? Because it literally means that the deterioration of our purchasing power will become so extreme that our currency will lose its dominance in international trades, which of course, would spark a catastrophic financial disaster, while severely damaging our prospects for an accomplished economic recovery. To better illustrate how we're falling into an economic and financial hell hole, in this video, we present the sharpest, most critical assessments market strategists and economists have been unceasingly shouting and our leaders keep pretending not to listen. 

"If we keep treating the U.S. dollar like it is toilet paper, it is just a matter of time before our entire financial system goes down the tubes". That's what economic collapse writer and analyst Michael Snyder outlined in his latest article. It may seem a harsh assessment at a first glance, but all evidences suggest that he might be right. Currently, the U.S. dollar still holds its position as the world's primary reserve currency, which grants us some perks since we have control of it. However, it appears that our leaders are taking the dollar's leading status for granted, and the persistence on the enaction of reckless monetary policies is already prompting major countries to start massively abandoning the dollar as a trade currency. And everything signals that authorities will persist with their liquidity injection delirium while maintaining to the public their constant "support" to the markets is a viable solution, when, in essence, all they have been doing is putting a band-aid on a trillion-dollar open wound. 

In reality, not content with this year's record-low interest rates, the Federal Reserve may stretch them for years. Last Monday, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said there is still “quite a long way to go” for the U.S. recovery from the health crisis, disclosing that he projects that the Fed will "keep interest rates at their current near-zero level until perhaps into 2024". Evidently, the federal government will keep pumping “stimulus package” after “stimulus package” regardless of who enters or leaves the White House. Simply put, this "free money" may even be helpful to assist unemployed citizens in the short term, but as we are well aware by now, the largest chunk of these trillion-dollar liquidity injections stay trapped into the financial markets, and consumer spending isn't considerably benefited on the long run. The result of it is essentially a huge inflation that pushes prices up, dramatically compromising our purchasing power. That's why Williams says that we are literally on the verge of a hyperinflationary catastrophe.

On a similar note, the economist Stephen Roach told CNBC last week that the "seemingly crazed idea" that the US dollar would collapse against other dominant currencies in the post-outbreak global economy is not so crazy anymore. Last June, Roach predicted a dollar crash that would collapse its value by 35% against other major currencies within the next couple of years. Roach based his prediction on historical evidence, exposing that in 8 of the past 11 business-cycle recoveries economic output has rapidly climbed and then sharply fallen. The economist who is also a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, also said he can anticipate a more than 50% chance of a double-dip recession in the United States.

Since the dollar's fate has already been traced, Williams, Snyder, Roach, and pretty much every economy analyst and market watcher have been defending that the best way to protect your wealth is coming back to hard money. As Williams perfectly summarizes: "To save yourself, you have to preserve your wealth, your dollar assets. To do that, you have to convert your dollars into physical gold and silver, precious metals, and just hold them. They will retain value over time as opposed to paper dollars that will effectively become worthless. You’ll be getting a lot of money from the government, and they will keep giving you more and more and more, but that’s going to be an environment of rising and rising inflation. It’s not necessarily going to buy you more. Hyperinflation will bring political disruption. Hyperinflation is a form of default. Gold is telling us hyperinflation is straight ahead of us.”

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert: DOW 30,000. Hidden In Plain Sight: Fed. 'Sees Light At The End Of The Tunnel.'"

Gregory Mannarino,
"Alert: DOW 30,000. Hidden In Plain Sight:
 Fed. 'Sees Light At The End Of The Tunnel.'" 

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Land of Forever"

2002, "Land of Forever"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"How did galaxies form in the early universe? To help find out, astronomers surveyed a patch of dark night sky with the Very Large Telescope array in Chile to find and count galaxies that formed when our universe was very young. Analysis of the distribution of some distant galaxies (redshifts near 2.5) found an enormous conglomeration of galaxies that spanned 300 million light years and contained about 5,000 times the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dubbed Hyperion, it is currently the largest and most massive proto-supercluster yet discovered in the early universe.
A proto-supercluster is a group of young galaxies that is gravitationally collapsing to create a supercluster, which itself a group of several galaxy clusters, which itself is a group of hundreds of galaxies, which itself is a group of billions of stars. In the featured visualization, massive galaxies are depicted in white, while regions containing a large amount of smaller galaxies are shaded blue. Identifying and understanding such large groups of early galaxies contributes to humanity's understanding of the composition and evolution of the universe as a whole."

"Here We Are..."

"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why."
- Kurt Vonnegut
But perhaps there's something that transcends "no why..."

"If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering."

"The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity - even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not."
- Viktor Frankl

"Quiet Please! Taming 'Monkey Mind' in Meditation"

"Quiet Please! Taming 'Monkey Mind' in Meditation"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"We all have the endless chattering and noise in our head often referred to as the monkey mind. It’s been called the monkey mind – the endless chattering in your head as you jump in your mind from thought to thought while you daydream, analyze your relationships, or worry over the future. Eventually, you start to feel like your thoughts are spinning in circles and you’re left totally confused.

One way to tame this wild creature in your head is through meditation – although the paradox is that when you clear your mind for meditation you actually invite the monkey in your mind to play. This is when you are given the opportunity to tame this mental beast by moving beyond thought – to become aware of a thought rather than thinking a thought. The difference is subtle, but significant. When you are aware of your thoughts, you can let your thoughts rise and float away without letting them pull you in different directions.  Being able to concentrate is one of the tools that allows you to slow down your thought process and focus on observing your thoughts.

To develop your concentration, you may want to start by focusing on the breath while you meditate. Whenever your monkey mind starts acting up, observe your thoughts and then return your focus to your breath. Some breathing meditations call on you to focus on the rise and fall of the breath through the abdomen, while others have you concentrate on the sound of the breath. Fire can also be mesmerizing, and focusing on a candle flame is another useful tool for harnessing the mind. Keep the gaze soft and unfocused while observing the color, shape, and movement of the flame, and try not to blink. Close your eyes when you feel the need and continue watching the flame in your head. Chanting, devotional singing, and mantras also still the mind. However you choose to tame the monkey mind, do so with firm kindness. The next time the chattering arises, notice it and then allow it to go away. With practice, your monkey mind will become quiet and so will you."
Try this:

Free Download: T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets"

“Little Gidding”, Excerpt

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started 
And know the place for the first time. 
When the last of earth left to discover 
Is that which was the beginning; 
At the source of the longest river 
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree.

Not known, because not looked for 
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always - 
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded 
Into the crowned knot of fire 
And the fire and the rose are one.”

- T.S. Eliot

The "Little Gidding" is the last of T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets," 
which you may freely download here:

The Daily "Near You?"

 
Taupo, Auckland, New Zealand. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Paul L. Dunbar, "We Wear The Mask "

"We Wear The Mask"

"We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes -
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!" 

- Paul L. Dunbar

"Maddest Of All..."

"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams - this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness - and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"
- Miguel de Cervantes, "Man of La Mancha"