"Doug Casey on Diversity Officers, Compliance Officers, and Other Supernumeraries"

"Doug Casey on Diversity Officers, 

Compliance Officers, and Other Supernumeraries"

by International Man

"International Man: Everywhere you look, ever-increasing government regulations create a serious obstacle to economic activity. There are too many regulations today, many with severe penalties. Most companies of even modest size now have a compliance department, along with numerous compliance officers and supernumeraries. That wasn’t the case a few decades ago. It seems the compliance industry was created not by satisfying a demand in the marketplace, but rather by satisfying some rule a politician made arbitrarily. How and why did this happen? What does this say about the economy and society?

Doug Casey: It indicates a growing dislike and distrust of business and commerce and increasing reliance on the government. It’s a disturbing trend. Companies have a vested interest in providing the best product at the most competitive cost to their customers. That’s how you succeed in business. Government, on the other hand, is necessarily a monopoly based on coercion. That’s bad enough, but it’s run by - no surprise - the type of people who become government employees. You can see them at the DMV and the post office. Worse, the whole apparatus has long been captured by rent-seeking cronies.

The situation is complicated by the fact outfits like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter work hand in hand with certain government agencies. It’s unfortunate that at this point you really can’t trust either government or Big Business. On the bright side, however, the average person seems to be becoming aware of that. That’s a good thing because it’s better for the society if everybody is skeptical and questions authority.

Despite that, we’re basically becoming much more centralized. Big companies are getting bigger, merging and acquiring smaller companies. The government continues growing much faster than the economy itself. As an economy becomes more centralized, it naturally becomes less responsive. Big bureaucratic things move slower than little entrepreneurial things. They don’t react as quickly. They don’t notice what the little guy thinks or says and don’t much care about the peons in "flyover country."

It’s bound to get worse, not just for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, but because legislatures of all sizes are constantly passing new laws. They believe that’s what they’re there for. Old laws are rarely abolished, just buried under new laws. Furthermore, most new laws and regulations are oriented toward identity politics, notions of social justice, multiculturalism, political correctness, and the like.

Government regulations are never good; they subvert the market. And there are more of them now than ever. It goes back to what Reagan very cleverly said about the government versus the economy: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

International Man: According to Reuters, 66% of companies expect the cost of senior compliance staff to increase. And nearly two thirds of companies expect their total compliance budget to be slightly or significantly more over the next 12 months. This trend doesn’t show signs of slowing down. What does it mean when you have a whole category of busybodies looking for a hundred different reasons to say no to a client?

Doug Casey: Compliance results in waste, inefficiency, and less customer satisfaction. We’re becoming more like the old Soviet Union, where things weren’t done for economic reasons, but for political reasons.

It’s very bad for consumers and the economy overall. But little companies are hurt worse. Big companies can afford to hire a regulatory staff. They even hire lobbyists to get new regs passed, to cement themselves in place, and quash new competition. New regulations and compliance costs are very intimidating for little guys and new companies. But they’re not even a rounding error in costs for giant companies like General Motors or IBM or Google. Little companies and startups generally have to obey the same laws, but it’s a huge cost for them, sometimes an unsurmountable cost.

Regulatory compliance only helps the big get bigger. The little people can’t even get into the game to compete with them. That’s bad because it’s anti-entrepreneurial. It hurts the economy by increasing costs for all corporations of all sizes - even while it helps the big relative to the small.

More regulations are also an excuse for government to hire more employees to enforce them. So you’ve got higher costs for business and higher costs for government. It’s actually worse than a total waste. It would be better to pay these people to dig ditches during the day and fill them up at night. That would be better than having them enforce regulations that actively damage the economy. Everybody loses. There are no good consequences to regulations except for the cronies who get them passed and whom the regulations help at the expense of the economy as a whole.

International Man: How has overregulation created such a massive disincentive to producing products in the marketplace? How is it stifling economic development?

Doug Casey: Well, let me answer that question by looking at an industry that I’m involved in: the mining industry. It’s never been an easy business, but today it’s actually one of the worst businesses in the world because of regulation and government action in general.

It used to be that if you were lucky enough to find a viable deposit, the only thing that stopped you from putting it into production was raising capital and getting the machinery and miners on site to start digging. Today, from the time that you figure out it’s a viable deposit, it probably is going to take you another 10 years of jumping through various legal and environmental hoops. Regulations have practically killed the mining industry by raising its costs immensely.

Regulations don’t just stifle general economic development. If you violate them you’re subject to legal prosecution, possibly of a criminal nature. This is a huge disincentive to do anything. It’s why Americans are disinclined to open factories and employ people. Every employee is a potential liability, a walking potential lawsuit. It’s one more reason industry has left the US for other countries

International Man: The banking industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to the burdens of government regulations. It’s well known this has made dealing with banks and brokers a nightmare. Financial institutions often treat their own customers like they’re criminals or terrorists. Will banks regulate their way out of existence? Is the same kind of frustration coming to other industries?

Doug Casey: Essentially banking should be - and once was - a business like any other business. There were two totally different types of accounts: demand and time. With demand deposits, you charge people to store their money securely and write checks against it. With time deposits a customer had to leave his money with the bank for a fixed amount of time, for a fixed interest rate. The bank might give them 3% and lend it out at 6%. In those days, bankers competed based on their liquidity and solvency - nobody thinks of these things today. Everyone figures the government will bail out any bank that needs it.

Today banking is a highly regulated, quasi-government monopoly business. Classical banking was based on 100% reserves. Today it’s all fractional reserves, perhaps 10%. This is a subject few people have any familiarity with today. Perhaps we should talk about it in detail sometime.

Disregard their ads: Most banks today are zombies; they’re walking dead men. They’re all on the edge of bankruptcy because they’re no longer run according to classical rules of banking. Fractional reserve banking makes every bank in the world liable to a run. Few will prove solvent in a major economic downturn. Absolutely none of them are liquid. The system relies on the Fed to print money to paper over an excess of bad loans.

But it’s not just that the basic system is unsound. It’s become highly bureaucratized. When I was a kid it was possible to walk into a bank - as a kid with no identification - and open an account. It was easy. That’s impossible today. And forget about transferring any meaningful amount of money without filing numerous forms. "Where did the money come from?", "Where is the money going?", "Who exactly is the recipient?", and "Why are you sending it?" are standard questions now. Anybody can be accused of the artificial and made-up crime of money laundering today. Banks have become almost an arm of the State. It’s no wonder nobody trusts banks and everybody hates banks today. And they should.

The silver lining to this, however, is that as time goes on, people will increasingly use cryptocurrencies to obviate banks. With cryptos you can send money anywhere privately -which is impossible with banks - and instantly - which is impossible with banks - and at almost no cost - which is also impossible with banks today. Cryptos like Bitcoin check a lot of boxes.

The banking industry in its present form is a dinosaur. The only hope for the banking industry is for it to return to its roots. That would include the segregation of demand and time deposits, a return to banking secrecy, and the abolition of the Federal Reserve, among other things. But none of that is going to happen in today’s world.

International Man: The compliance industry represents a degradation of society and the economy. But today it’s gone much farther than that. There is another new supernumerary at many companies these days… diversity officers. Where did these people come from and what are the consequences for business and society as a whole?

Doug Casey: This was one of the more insane consequences of accepting the tenets of political correctness. Diversity officers require or at least encourage companies to have quotas of blacks, Hispanics, gays, the disabled, females, and so forth. I don’t know how many different classifications of politically favored people there are. But there are quite a few and more every day.

Companies are pushed to hire people based upon accidental characteristics like gender, skin color, religion, and God knows what else. Not what they can do or the quality of their work. It’s absolutely insane on every single level. Among other faults, it perversely works against the very people it’s supposed to help… smart customers will tend to avoid them because they might be an incompetent diversity-hire.

The fact that these things are accepted without protest is a sign of how degraded and irrational society has become. Nobody dares protest this nonsense for fear of being called out as an evil person.

It’s a boon only for ambulance-chasing lawyers and malingerers. Diversity and political correctness act as causes for frivolous lawsuits. Anybody can use arbitrary reasons based on accidental characteristics to sue and in effect shake down their employer. Diversity officers help only race-hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and people who see themselves as professional blacks or professional Hispanics or professional gender aberrants.

International Man: Many companies and institutions in America today value political correctness over merit. What will this trend do to productivity?

Doug Casey: It’s devastating. And it goes farther than just altering who is hired and why. Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) are trying and succeeding in influencing how people think. Through TV commercials, among other things. Some commercials are much more interested in promoting diversity than selling products. It should be a cause for shareholder suits against management. Take the infamous Gillette commercial that was so antagonistic and hateful against white males.

In the past, I just bought any razor that seemed to work. Including Gillette, which has a good product. But now I go out of my way as a matter of principle to not buy any Gillette product, because I’d feel I was supporting cultural Marxism and enemies of civilization. Not that the few dollars I spend on shaving equipment every year will make any difference, but I suspect there are millions of people who feel the same way.

SJWs are actually destroying their own companies in pursuit of political correctness and diversity. They’re not fostering harmony; they’re breeding resentment and antagonism. They’re causing people to look at themselves not as individuals - as human beings - but as members of racial groups. It’s insane and perverse. But this is just one symptom of the malaise affecting almost every aspect of Western Civilization."

- internationalman.com

Musical Interlude: Loreena Mckennitt, "Mummers Dance"

Loreena Mckennitt, "Mummers Dance"

"A Look to the Heavens"

Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 -- is helping to find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. 

Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star formation. M64 lies about 17 million light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210329.html

"How, Then..."

"How, then, shall we face the future? When the sailor is out on the ocean, when everything is changing all around him, when the waves are born and die, he does not stare down into the waves, because they are changing. He looks up at the stars. Why? Because they are faithful..."

- Soren Kierkegaard

"The Universe as Pool Hall"

"The Universe as Pool Hall"

by Fred Reed

"We will start this magisterial explanation of everything with the time-honored approach of the philosopher, beginning with the things we know beyond doubt and then reasoning from them to suitably astonishing truths. As we know, Descartes began by saying, “Cogito ergo sum,” I think therefore I am.” (Ambrose Bierce, a more profound thinker, said, “Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum. Cogito.” But this way lies madness.) So with what certain knowledge can we begin our quest?

Our only certain knowledge is that we don’t have any. Acceptance of this condition will diminish the world’s output of philosophy, or so we may hope, but this column faces reality with a brave front. We may now list our certainties: We don’t know where we came from, where we are, why, what if anything we should do while we are here, and where if anywhere we go when we die.

On this bedrock we shall construct our philosophy of everything. However, before we begin thinking about these profound matters, we need to take into account one more certainty: Thinking is impossible. I will explain. But what it comes to is that while we know nothing about which to think, it doesn’t matter because we couldn’t think about it if we did know something.

Why? Consider the brain. It is an electrochemical mechanism, blindly obeying the laws of physics and chemistry (chemistry being the physics of the interactions of atoms). For example, consider a nerve impulse propagating along a neural fiber, depolarizing, sodium in, potassium out. Pure chemistry and physics. When the impulse comes to a synapse, a neurotransmitter diffuses across the gap, pure chemistry and physics. It can’t do anything else. Even chemicals with long, imposing names cannot make choices. The neurotransmitter then binds to receptor sites, because it has to. Textbooks of neurophysiology state it thus: “A brain has less free will than a wind-up clock.” Or at least if it were so stated, it would be. This is close enough for philosophy.

Putting it precisely, the state of a physical system is determined entirely by its previous state. This establishes beyond doubt that we have no free will, and that what we think are thoughts were determined at the time of the Big Bang, if any.

Now, no philosophical essay can be held in repute unless it contains words ending “ism.” The reigning creed today is materialism, the philosophy of the wantonly inattentive. Many who believe in materialism are of high intelligence, and so can only be sufficiently inattentive by great effort. Anyway, a materialist believes than nothing exists but space, time, matter, and energy, however hyphenated. That is, physics. As the physicist Joe Friday said, “The physics, ma’am, just the physics, and nothing but the physics.”

This means that the Big Bang, if any, was set up, or I suppose I should say, set itself up, like one of those billiard-table trick shots. You know the kind: The balls seem randomly placed on the table but bounce around a lot before miraculously running into the pockets like birds returning to their nests. In the Bang, if any, all those subatomic whatsamajigggers erupted forth at exactly the right angles and velocities so that, billions of years later, they formed Elvis, San Francisco, and Hillary. (This had to be by chance, since no one in his right mind would form Hillary on purpose. QED.)

Next, consider plane geometry as taught in high school. (You may wonder why we have to consider it. Well, we just do.) Plane geometry deals with planes, lines, points, angles, and nothing else. It is useful and interesting, but it cannot explain a cheeseburger, Formula One race, or political hysteria. Why? Because cheeseburgers exist in three dimensions, which plane geometry doesn’t have. Formula One races involve matter, energy, and motion, which plane geometry also doesn’t have. Hysteria is an emotional state associated with liberal co-eds in pricey northern colleges who, thank God, do not exist in mathematics.

What it comes to is that a logical system is defined by its premises, and all downstream results are mere elaboration. (Of course, as established in the beginning of this luminous essay, we have no premises except the lack of premises, but philosophy readily overlooks such minor hindrances.) Plane geometry is not wrong. It is just incomplete. To state it in mathematical terms, you cannot flatten a cheeseburger enough to fit into a plane.

Physics, the foundation of the current official story of everything, also depends on its premises. Physics is just mathematical materialism. From its equations one may derive all manner of fascinating and useful things, such as planetary motion, npn transistors, smartphones, nerve gas, and hydrogen bombs. (Some of these may be more useful than others.)

But, just as you cannot get strawberry milkshakes from plane geometry, because they are not implicit in it, there are things you cannot derive from the equations of physics: Consciousness, free will, beauty, morality, or curiosity – the whiches there just ain’t in physics. This would not worry a rational thinker. He (or, assuredly, she) would simply state the obvious: Physics is not wrong, but incomplete. It does what it does, and doesn’t do what it can’t. Not too mysterious, that.

However, the true-believing physics-is-all Neo-Darwinian matter-monger cannot admit that anything – anything at all – exists outside of physics. Since some things obviously do, the only-physics enthusiasts have to resort to contorted logic. I think of kite string in a ceiling fan. Or simple denial.

For example, sometimes they say that consciousness is merely an “epiphenomenon.” Oh. And what does that mean? Nothing. (Actually it means, “I don’t know, but if I use a polysyllabic Greek word, maybe nobody will notice.”) Epiphenomenon of what?

Sometimes they will say, “Well, consciousness is just a by-product of complexity.” But if consciousness is a byproduct what is the primary product? A computer is somewhat complex, so is it somewhat conscious? Is a mouse less conscious than a human or just, in some cases, less intelligent? A materialist ignoring consciousness is exactly equivalent to a geometer ignoring cheeseburgers.

We will now examine the question, where did we come from? The answer is ready to hand: We don’t have a clue. We make up stories. The physics-only folk say, see, there was the Big Bang and all these electrons and protons and things flew out and just by chance formed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in the most motingator a-stonishing pool-table trick shot ever set up. Just by accident. Damn! Who would have thought it?

Of course any sane person, to include materialists when they are thinking of something else, would say that TSMC was designed by hordes of Chinese engineers. But of course designing anything requires mind and intelligence (or a computer designed to simulate these things), But Mind cannot be derived from the equations of physics. Therefore we are all mindless. In general human behavior supports this.

Of course other stories exist. Yahweh created the world, or maybe Shiva, or Allah, and I think some remote tribes believe that it just appeared on the back of a giant turtle. I have no information on the matter, though frankly I incline to the turtle story, but will let the reader know the instant I find out.

The weakness of creation myths from Bang to Turtle is the question of the five-year-old, “But Mommy, where did God come from?” or “Who made God?” Fifteen years later in dorm-room bull sessions he will phrase it differently, “Well, what came before the Big Bang?” Same question.

A sort of second-echelon creation myth now in vogue is Darwinian evolution, also a subset of physics and therefore completely determined. Mutations are chemical events following the laws of chemistry. Thus trilobites had no choice but to form, and so they did. Metabolism is physical from the level of ATP to animals eating each other.

There is of course no such thing as a sex drive, teenagers notwithstanding, since no sort of drive can be derived from physics. (This will no doubt devastate Pornhub.) From this the inevitable conclusion, proven by physics, A that we cannot reproduce. Therefore we either have always existed or do not exist at all.

To give oneself an aura of overwelling wisdom, one may say things like ontology, epistemology, entelechy, and teleology, but these do not detract from mankind’s underlying and perfect ignorance. It’s all a trick shot, I tell you."

- https://www.unz.com

The Daily "Near You?

Ocean Shores, Washington, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Standing Up When It’s Too Late"

"Standing Up When It’s Too Late"

By JR Nyquist

"This article is a comparison between America and another great empire faced with rot in high office and a decline of the state - Rome. The writer, JR Nyquist, artfully points out it’s not the big events that sink an empire but many seemingly little ones. You could call what is happening to the U.S. “death by a thousand cuts.” Except in this story, people are not really aware how deep the cuts are and exactly who is doing the cutting. I loved this piece, and I hope you do as well." - Greg Hunter

○

"There is a letter by Marcus Tullius Cicero, dated 18 December 50 B.C. This letter was written to his friend Atticus on the eve of the Roman Civil War. He wrote as follows: “The political situation alarms me deeply, and so far I have found scarcely anybody who is not for giving Caesar what he demands rather than fighting it out.” To explain the situation in brief, G. Julius Caesar had demanded the right to circumvent the Roman constitution, to break laws with impunity, to extend his command over a large army by using that army to threaten the Senate of Rome. “And why should we start standing up to him now?” asked Cicero. The next day he wrote to Atticus: “We should have stood up to him [Caesar] when he was weak, and that would have been easy. Now we have to deal with eleven legions…” Though he hated the idea of civil war, the only course, said Cicero, was to follow “the honest men or whoever may be called such, even if they plunge.”

And who were these “honest men”? “I don’t know of any,” wrote Cicero in the same letter. “There are honest individuals, but there are no honest groups.” Then he asked rhetorically if the Senate was honest, or the tax farmers, or the capitalists. None were frightened of living under an autocracy, he lamented. The capitalists, especially, “never have objected to that, so long as they were left in peace.” But civil war occurred nonetheless, because people are not free to be dishonest forever. They must admit to certain responsibilities, and oppose the advance of evil. The previous inclination to look away, to do nothing, to shrug off responsibility, proves in the end to be no more than a delaying tactic. They attempted to put off calamity, Cicero suggested, and made it all the more calamitous. That is all.

Why did the Roman Senate suddenly stand up to Caesar? What triggered their resistance? As with all free people, they began with policies of procrastination and appeasement. They hoped that the problem (i.e., Caesar) would go away. In the end, however, they discovered their mistake. Everyone still hoped for peace, though none believed it was possible. Everyone wanted to avoid war, but nobody saw a way out. Pompey stood before the Senate and gave voice to what everyone thought. “If we give Caesar the consulship, it will mean the subversion of the constitution.” In other words, it would mean the end of Rome, the end of the republic, the destruction of their country.

In a fitting preface to John Dickinson’s "Death of a Republic," George L. Haskins wrote, “that the history of Rome is the history of the world, that, as all roads lead to Rome, so all history ends or begins with Rome.” Why do free people fall into complacency? Why are threats ignored until the eleventh hour?

“Surely,” wrote Cicero at the end of Caesar’s dictatorship, “our present sufferings are all too well deserved. For had we not allowed outrages to go unpunished on all sides, it would never have been possible for a single individual to seize tyrannical power.” Caesar’s cause was not right, but evil, Cicero explained. “Mere confiscations of the property of individual citizens were far from enough to satisfy him. Whole provinces and countries succumbed to his onslaught, in one comprehensive universal catastrophe…” As for the city of Rome, Cicero lamented, “nothing is lef t- only the lifeless walls of houses. And even they look afraid that some further terrifying attack may be imminent. The real Rome is gone forever.”

Republics are slow to defend themselves against enemies that advance, like Caesar, under camouflage. But make no mistake, republics always defend. Groups and categories of men may not be honest or brave, but when they are finally confronted with the truth - as individuals - they see no other course. They stand up and fight. We should not be surprised, therefore, that Caesar was struck down in the Senate and killed by thrusting daggers.

It is all too true, of course. “We should have stood up to him when he was weak,” Cicero lamented. The problem with republican government is its tardiness; or rather, tardiness in the face of danger. As Machiavelli wrote, "The institutions normally used by republics are slow in functioning. No assembly or magistrate can do everything alone. In many cases, they have to consult with one another, and to reconcile their diverse views takes time. Where there is a question of remedying a situation that will not brook delay, such a procedure is dangerous."

Machiavelli concluded, therefore, “that republics in imminent danger, having no recourse to dictatorship, will always be ruined when some grave misfortune befalls them.” This is the weakness of republican government. Here is the ground on which it dies. An obvious threat, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor is not the greatest danger. It is the subtle, camouflaged threat, that creeps up from behind. It is this camouflage that gives reluctant men a way out. “We need not fight. We need not make a fuss. There is nothing to fear.”

When this is the prevailing view, people who understand a given threat may ask: “What is to be done?” As long as we are isolated individuals, there is nothing to do. The individual may be honest with himself, but groups are not honest. What prevails overall is an optimistic dismissal. “The threat isn’t real.” This is how Hitler got so far. This is how Communism took over so many countries, and continues today under camouflage. There is nothing the individual can do that will sway the crowd. And as we are a republic, our political system operates according to the psychology of a crowd. The majority are caught up in the fads and media trends of the moment. Cynical and empty publicity characterizes much of our public discourse. But one day the country will awaken. Then, and only then, Americans will stop going along as if nothing serious hangs over them. Will it be too late? Perhaps it will be too late to save the republic. But it will not be too late to save the country."

- http://usawatchdog.com/ 

"A Long Time Forgotten"

"A Long Time Forgotten"

by Bill Bonner

"We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green."

– English writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Long-suffering Diary readers have accompanied us for the last two days… wandering in and out of the woods… back and forth in history…wondering how come people forget the things that are most important to them… the things that make them successful. Well, today, we reach our destination – or at least, as far as we’re going to go: The wild weeds grow every day. Give them a chance, and they take over.

Getting Weedier: By our reckoning, America seemed to run out of “Roundup” around about the turn of the century – in 1999. Since then, by almost every measure, the country has been getting weedier. Here’s the latest from Harper’s: "The United States fell 11 places below its 2010 position, to just below Argentina and Mongolia, on a watchdog’s annual ranking of countries according to political rights and civil liberties; worldwide, freedom declined for the fifteenth consecutive year."

What seems to be happening is a general dumbing down… so that important insights and the hard-earned lessons of the past are forgotten… neglected and abandoned. Balance the budget? The expression hasn’t been heard in Washington for many years. Free enterprise… free markets – yes, of course, but with federal guidance! Real money? What’s that? Work for a living? Why not just hand out more stimmy checks? More women in the Cabinet? That’s what we really need! Even the most fundamental brick in the whole social edifice – the family – has been cast aside. Marriage rates in the U.S. are at their lowest level on record.

Weeding and Pruning: Civilization is restraint, said Sigmund Freud. But it’s more than that. It’s callouses. It’s planting and building. And it’s pulling out the weeds and pruning off foolish ideas. It requires discipline and a willingness to make distinctions – between what is true and what is false. Two plus two must equal four. Not seven. Words must have meaning; they can’t mean anything you want.

And money must have value; it must represent real wealth, not just pieces of paper you pass out on street corners. Robbers and counterfeiters should be hung, not hired to run government. Murder ought to be punished, not disguised as “war.” Spending must be controlled, and debt must be limited… not allowed to run wild until the country is bankrupt. Two plus two must equal four.

Civilization requires learning, too… and relearning… It means finding out what works and cleaning out what doesn’t… and always maintaining, shoring up… fixing and protecting.

Weeds Take Over: But the weeds don’t stop growing. And when the civilizing energy is spent, they soon take over. Then, a few generations go by, and soon, nobody remembers anything. In the jungles of Central America, for example, there are vestiges of a powerful civilization – including vast stone temples and sculptured heads. But by the time the Europeans arrived… nobody knew who made them… or how.

The same could be said about dozens of “lost” civilizations – the Zapoteca, Hurrian, Punt, Harapan… and so forth. On Easter Island in Polynesia, magnificent statues face out to sea. But the locals still don’t know why. Even here in Ireland, there are ruins that have been here for thousands of years. Who built them? When? Why? Nobody knows.

Within a mile of our house, there is the Molana Abbey (mentioned yesterday). It is in ruins. And there is a Norman castle nearby, also in ruins. There are ruins on our property, too. Maps from the 19th century ignore them… as if they didn’t exist. The cartographers must have thought they weren’t worth noting. Our house here was the “rectory” of the church down by the castle. The church itself is fairly recent – from the 19th century. But it, too, is abandoned, and covered in vines.

Lost Civilization: This past weekend, we cut into the laurel, the trees, the vines, the weeds, and the underbrush to try to reestablish a road that led from the old “lodge” (which must have functioned as a gate house) to the rectory. The lodge was barely visible when we arrived – completely covered in vines. The farm itself is about 60 acres. Before the Great Famine in the 19th century, the area had more people… and much more human activity. The fallen-down walls and houses attest to a more carefully planned and tended property, with large families and many hands at work.

People used to live here.

The old Ordnance Survey map from 1837 shows roads, houses, walls, orchards, and gardens that no longer exist. Back then, local people lived off the local produce that the farm supplied; it had to be productive. They couldn’t “print” bread, apples, or potatoes. Today, much of Ireland’s GDP comes from high-tech businesses centered around Dublin. Rural areas have been relatively neglected, except for the remaining farmers, who rely on the latest in farm equipment to make up for scarce, and expensive, labor.

Exploring the Woods: Unable to penetrate the thick underbrush on the old road coming up from the lodge, last Saturday, we brought in reinforcements – one of the O’Keefes with a backhoe – and Matt, who helps around the house. While they continued working on the road, we decided to explore from the other side, leaving from the house, crossing the cow pasture – hopping gingerly over the wire so as to avoid electrocution – and then entering the woods.

At least, this time of year, we can see much more; the trees and brambles have not yet set out their leaves. Once over the wire fence, we came to a stone fence, only about 3 feet high, with big gaps where the stones have disappeared. On the other side, a short, steep hill led down to a small stream, easily forded by stepping on stones. Up on the other bank was a large beech tree, so grand and thick, it had killed the competition, leaving only a carpet of ivy on the ground. It was not hard to see where the Celts got their weavy patterns – they are on display, natural expressions of the vines.

Vines on a tree.

Hidden Portal: Crossing over the ivy, we ducked under a laurel limb, and there it was – one of two large portals in an ancient wall. This wall – hidden in the woods – is higher than others in the area – about 12 feet tall. And it was built to a different standard. The stones are tighter, more carefully laid up than most.

Hidden portall

The entry passageway – big enough for a horse-drawn carriage – was sculpted with cut stone. Going inside, we saw that the wall continued around in a horseshoe form, with another large passageway on the opposite side and two doorways in between.

Ancient doorway.

The two large portals were in good shape, with scarcely a stone out of place. But a big stone must have recently fallen from the arch of one of the doorways; it lay naked on the ground, unclothed by moss or vines. We ducked under more laurel limbs… some growing over or into the high walls. A sycamore tree, too, has grown up in the middle of the horseshoe. What was it? An entry… but to what? And why was it open on one side, while seriously closed on another? When was it built? By whom? Why?

Ancient Enemies: We walked back down the hill to where we heard a chainsaw at work. Matt was cutting a big tree that lay across the road. Pat O’Keefe stood by his machine, waiting to push the debris down the hill. The O’Keefes have been in this area for “donkey’s years,” we were told. “They were a powerful family. And they probably know more about local history than anyone.”

So we asked Pat about the ruins. “Do you know anything about them?” “Yu blwa vul ashn crotrech” said Pat, a thin man with a thin beard. We don’t know what he said, either. So we turned to Matt, our regular translator. “What did he say?" “I don’t know meself. He’s from the other side of the river. And over here, we don’t talk to the O’Keefes."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/31/21: “S&P 500 Hits New Record High; Trillions In More Debt Will Support The Market”

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/31/21:

“S&P 500 Hits New Record High; 

Trillions In More Debt Will Support The Market”

- https://traderschoice.net/

"How It Really Is"

 

"White House Unveils Details Of Biden's

$2.25 Trillion Infrastructure Plan, Massive Tax Hikes"

"America’s Cities Are Being Turned Into Crime-Ridden War Zones, And Murder Rates Are Way Up Again In 2021"

"America’s Cities Are Being Turned Into Crime-Ridden

War Zones, And Murder Rates Are Way Up Again In 2021"

by Michael Snyder

"The wealthy are reveling in their giant mountains of money, but meanwhile our society is literally coming apart at the seams all around us. The stock market has been hovering near all-time record highs, and for those at the very top of the economic pyramid these may seem like the best of times. But for most Americans, the “good old days” are a long distant memory. More than 70 million new claims for unemployment benefits have been filed over the past year, poverty is absolutely exploding all around us, and crime rates are shooting higher at an unprecedented rate. In fact, one study of 34 big U.S. cities found that their murder rates rose by an average of 30 percent in 2020…

"A study by the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice found that murders increased by 30% across 34 large U.S. cities. In some areas, carjackings, robberies, shootings, sexual assaults and violence have become so common that it seems like the crime literally never stops. Unless you have a death wish, there are certain parts of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore that you should never enter night or day. If you doubt me, just go wander the streets of the worst neighborhoods of those cities and see what happens to you.

This was supposed to be a year when crime rates began to return to normal, but instead they are on the rise again. One study that looked at 37 large U.S. cities found that murder rates are up by an average of 18 percent so far in 2021… "The big increase in the murder rate in the United States in 2020 has carried over to 2021. A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of this year shows murder up 18 percent relative to the same period last year."

What is truly frightening is that this is about as good as things are going to get in America from here on out. So if murder rates are spiking this much under relatively good conditions, what will our cities look like when things get really crazy?

Some of the crimes that we are witnessing are almost too horrible for words. For example, just consider what just happened to a 12-year-old boy in Miami… "A suspect in a black car kidnapped the boy at about 2 a.m. early Saturday morning from a Miami street, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department. He drove a few blocks, raped the boy, and then shoved him out of the car and drove off, police said. A good Samaritan on a bike near the scene of the crime came to the boy’s rescue. He was bleeding from the head and said he had been shot."

How sick do you have to be in order to do something like that? Sadly, I could write about nightmarish crimes such as this every single day of the week if I wanted to, because they happen constantly.

Much of the crime boom is being fueled by gangs. There are more than 100,000 gang members living in the city of Chicago alone, and a steady stream of illegal immigrants ensures that the gangs will always have an influx of new recruits. Securing our borders would go a long way toward solving this problem, but we refuse to do that.

Just recently, a sheriff in Texas took a reporter from the Daily Mail down to “the easiest illegal border crossing along the Rio Grande”… "The crossing point is on private property where an abandoned house sits on a quiet rural street that runs parallel to the Rio Grande, about 5 miles out of town from Del Rio, Texas, 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. Law enforcement has nicknamed it ‘Border Lawn.’ ‘It’s the easiest illegal border crossing along the Rio Grande,’ Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

When the river is low, immigrants can wade across the Rio Grande in about five minutes. Authorities know that hordes of people come across the border at this spot each week, but they won’t stop it.

Of course any immigrants that are detained need to be held somewhere, and facilities at the border are already packed beyond overflowing. In particular, the infamous facility in Donna, Texas is already holding more than 10 times more migrants than it was designed to hold… "The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding facility in Donna, Texas, is supposed to house no more than 250 migrants during the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, the tent complex was holding more than 4,100 migrants, including 3,200 unaccompanied children, according to Oscar Escamilla, a Border Patrol official in the Rio Grande Valley who briefed reporters during the first press tour of a CBP facility under President Biden."

So much of the immigration debate is focused on the unfortunate children that are being held in places such as this, but that is just a drop in the bucket. Each week, thousands of grown men illegally cross the border without being detained at all. Many of those grown men end up in our core urban areas, and with few legitimate employment prospects available many of them turn to crime.

In an article that I published yesterday entitled “We Have Never Seen A Home Buying Frenzy Quite Like This”, I discussed the fact that we have seen a mass exodus from our core urban areas over the past year. Millions of Americans have been looking to buy homes in desirable rural and suburban locations, and this has pushed housing prices into the stratosphere.

Today, I came across another example of this phenomenon. 122 offers were made on a 1,400 square foot home that was listed for sale in Citrus Heights, California in just one weekend…"A Citrus Heights home in a quiet cul-de-sac received 122 offers in one weekend on the market. The 1,400 square feet home has three bedrooms, two baths and a spacious backyard with a swimming pool and an asking price of $399,900.00."

Could you imagine paying $400,000 for a house that is just 1,400 square feet in size? The real estate agent that listed this property was astounded to receive so many offers, because it wasn’t underpriced at all… “People would think that it was underpriced. It was not underpriced. It was straight on with the comps,” said Deb Brittan, the listing agent for the property. “I had hoped, I thought, maybe if we get 20 offers that would be amazing.” As for the couple that sold the house, they don’t need it anymore because they are moving to Idaho.

As conditions in the United States continue to deteriorate, we will continue to see people flock to rural and suburban communities at an unprecedented rate. So if you are planning to move, I would not wait. Millions of Americans have already been priced out of the market, and the feeding frenzy is not going to subside any time soon."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 3/31/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 3/31/21"

○

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

○

"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

Your guide:

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/31/21:

"It's All A Game. Bitcoin Going Mainstream. 

10yr Yield Drops, Dollar Lower."

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

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

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

○

A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

March 31st to April 1st, Updated Daily 

○

Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○
Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

And now, the End Game...

○

Oh yeah...

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Sea of Dreams"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Sea of Dreams"

"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Plunges Property Value By 75% As Debt Wave Trigger Mass Foreclosures"

"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Plunges Property

 Value By 75% As Debt Wave Trigger Mass Foreclosures"

by Epic Economist

"The commercial real estate collapse is rapidly accelerating, and economists are warning that the sector is about to suffer a double-whammy with the reopening of the economy. After almost one year of experiencing extensive losses - with hundreds of thousands of tenants who went bankrupt due to government-mandated shutdowns being ruthlessly pushed out of the market, property owners and lenders haven't felt the full force of the impacts of mounting rental delinquencies and a dramatic surge of vacant spaces. The worst is yet to come, they say, as the increase in people working from home is resulting in a major decline in demand for office space, while hiked online purchases are triggering more store closures of brick-and-mortar retailers at shopping centers. As both segments continue to struggle, occupancy rates may never return to previous levels, which in turn, is causing property owners to lose their ability to meet their loan payments, and lenders are at the brink of facing a tidal wave of bad debt amid new working trends and a changing economic landscape.

One of the most likely causes of this drastic downfall is the financial distortion caused by the Fed’s response to the current recession. Before the health crisis started, corporate debt was already skyrocketing, and that was driven by loose monetary policies designed to drive borrowing. However, as several businesses unexpectedly went under, leaving the market without paying what they owed to their landlords, the commercial real estate market was buried in debt, and consequently, property values are falling like a rock while a significant rise in foreclosures is already being registered. Much more distress is ahead, and that's what we're going to expose in this video.

The rationalization of floorspace might be fatal for shopping malls. Dan McNamara, a principal at hedge fund MP Securitized Credit Partners said that mall liquidations are expected to continue as 31 of the 39 malls in CMBX 6 are currently impaired. According to recent reports, malls are registering value losses of up to 75%.

On top of that, the fact that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the owner of twenty-seven malls across the country is in desperate need of selling anything it can to lessen the burden of its $32 billion debt load won't help mall valuations at all. Consequently, as the commercial real estate market gets plagued by too much debt and not enough profitable assets, banks are worrying that soon the financial system may get overloaded with a tidal wave of distressed loans.

As for the collapse of the office market, while a tech exodus is happening in San Francisco, after Oracle left the Bay area and headed to Austin, Texas, the total vacant office space in the region, including sublease and direct lease, is now of 13.9 million square feet, a new record, exceeding the levels seen during the dot-com bust and the financial crisis. Roughly 20% of corporate executives, or one-in-five said they plan to reduce office space in 2021, according to the American Institute of CPAs survey.

In New York, the financial district is already registering an enormous glut of office space. In Times Square alone, there's $1.1 billion worth of property loans now considered distressed, according to CREDiQ. Moreover, Federal Reserve data showed that, in the third quarter of 2020, U.S. commercial property debt jumped to an all-time high of $3.06 trillion, and as it seems that borrowers will leave this debt to the lenders, the commercial real estate collapse is threatening to trigger a banking crisis and result in the loss of billions of dollars.

Additionally, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, foreclosures of commercial properties jumped 16% between January and February, and in 29 states, they're still trending upward. Some say the commercial real estate collapse is a silent crisis no one seems to be paying attention to. Needless to say, that's a particularly dangerous situation because the entire market is reliant on banks, and the occurrence of a banking crisis on top of the looming simultaneous crash of the stock, housing and bond markets will undoubtedly push the United States over the edge.* As our businesses continue to die with each passing day, and both our financial markets and our economy have fallen into a ruinous debt spiral, and we should all be watching very closely to the next developments of this catastrophic downturn, here, on Epic Economist."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

○

They write "at the brink of facing a tidal wave of bad debt."

Yeah, something like this...

*multiple globally interconnected tidal waves.

Stipendium peccati mors est.

Full screen recommended.

Greg Hunter, "CV-19 Vaccine Warning – CV-19 Cure – Must Watch Videos"

"CV-19 Vaccine Warning – CV-19 Cure – Must Watch Videos"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"The Covid 19 (CV-19) headlines out so far this week are downright confusing and contradictory. One says “Covid-19’s Fourth Wave is hitting the U.S Hard.” Another says, “Texas Hits Record Low Covid Cases 3 Weeks After Lifting All Pandemic Restrictions.” What are you to believe? The mainstream media (MSM), CDC and most politicians have been lying about almost everything. The idea they are pushing that only a vaccine is the answer to what many people call a “Plandemic” is a huge lie. Let me prove it.

Please join Greg Hunter as he posts three videos: An introduction video by Hunter along with two “must watch” videos by top experts, so you can be informed about taking a vaccine (or not) or a treatment that can save your life. Big Tech, MSM and the CDC do not want you to hear what these experts have to say."

"There have been lots of reported problems with the so-called vaccines when, in fact, they are approved for “emergency use only” and, therefore, are “experimental.” This is not told to the public. Also, being kept from the public are the many reported problems after taking the shots. Some of these problems include, but are not limited to: blood clotting, sterilization of young women, miscarriages, Bell’s palsy and even death that far exceed death rates of many other vaccines - combined. It is also not explained to the public that this plan to fight CV-19 is simply a mass drug trial masquerading as some sort of vaccine. It is, in fact, “genetic engineering” where DNA is modified or changed. These are all sourceable medical facts that are provided by top medical doctors and even the “vaccine” manufacturers themselves. The most stunning fact is the vaccine makers have zero liability for the damage this experimental medical test causes. I have two videos I am embedding for you to see. The first, I am calling a “CV-19 Vaccine Warning.” (Please view this on Rumble as YouTube dislikes Rumble embeds. - CP)

- https://rumble.com/

Is vaccinating everyone on a global basis the right thing to do? Not according to one of the top virology experts in the world. His name is Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche. He is appealing to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the following video to stop these mass vaccinations immediately and to engage in public scientific debate on the best way to combat CV-19. Dr. Vanden Bossche says mass global vaccines are not the answer and gives a chilling reason why. If Big Tech gets its way, this urgent message from one of the world’s top virus doctors will never see the light of day. Please watch his 2 minute video I am calling a “CV-19 Vaccine Cry of Distress,” which contains a dire warning given to the WHO by Dr. Vanden Bossche below: (This is being embedded from YouTube, so you better watch it before they take this down.)

The second video, I am calling a “CV-19 Cure.” This video was taken off YouTube mid-March 2021 after tens of thousands of views. The video featured Dr. Pierre Kory during a Senate hearing in mid-December 2020 about alternative treatments to CV-19. Dr. Kory is an academic and expert in critical care. In his hearing, he is advising the use of the “miracle drug” called Ivermectin. Dr. Kory testifies that many peer reviewed medical studies say that Ivermectin will “cure CV-19” if taken long before people reach the hospital for treatment in dire condition. This video is less than 10 minutes long, and it is well worth your time." Please view this video here:

- https://www.c-span.org/video/

This is Greg Hunter, and I say, “The MSM is lying to you. I worked in the MSM for 9 years, and I can tell you it has really turned into a propaganda arm of the New World Order Globalists, Deep State, Democrats and even some Republicans too. I left CNN in 2008 and started USAWatchdog.com in 2009. If there is one thing I know how to do, it is to know what a verifiable reliable source is with top credentials. Please do your own research, and listen to the experts who put their reputations on the line to inform the public and save lives.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

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Related:

• "This Is Not What The News Media's Experts Predicted"

• Objective:Health: ‌Ivermectin: The Suppressed Miracle Drug for Covid-19

○

A Comment: This post, and others like it, could very well get this blog deleted like the original one was. This is a fight for our lives, folks, have to expect casualties. If that happens I'll instantly bounce back with version 3. No worries, mate! - CP

"Stop Buying Dumb Things; Bank Accounts Wiped Out; Home Prices Soar"

Jeremiah Babe,

"Stop Buying Dumb Things; Bank Accounts Wiped Out;

 Home Prices Soar"

Gerald Celente, “Trends Journal: Dr. Strangevax, Vaccinate the World”

Gerald Celente,

“Trends Journal: Dr. Strangevax, Vaccinate the World”

Gerald's in fine form here... lol

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind VII, "Reflection"

Full screen recommended for reflection, contemplation.

Liquid Mind VII, "Reflection"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large, dusty, spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this rich telescopic image. The field of view spans nearly 2 degrees, or about 4 times the width of the Full Moon, toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus.

About 13 million light-years distant, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. But X-ray and infrared observations reveal even more high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090109.html

"We Are All Alone..."

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and – in spite of True Romance magazines – we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely – at least, not all the time – but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

“If your happiness depends on someone else, then you do have a problem.”

- Richard Bach