The Poet: Rod McKuen, “A Cat Named Sloopy”

 

“A Cat Named Sloopy”

“For awhile

the only earth that Sloopy knew

was in her sandbox.

Two rooms were her domain.

Every night she’d sit in the window

among the avocado plants

waiting for me to come home,

my arms full of canned liver and love.

We’d talk into the night then,

contented,

but missing something.

She the earth she never knew,

me the hills I ran

while growing bent.

Sloopy should have been a cowboy’s cat,

with prairies to run,

not linoleum,

and real-live catnip mice,

no one to depend on but herself.

I never told her,

but in my mind

I was a midnight cowboy even then.

Riding my imaginary horse

down Forty-second street,

going off with strangers

to live an hour-long cowboy’s life.

But always coming home to Sloopy,

who loved me best.

For a dozen summers

we lived against the world.

An island on an island.

She’d comfort me with purring,

I’d fatten her with smiles.

We grew rich on trust,

needing not the beach or butterflies.

I had a friend named Ben

Who painted buildings like Roualt men.

He went away.

My laughter tired Lillian

after a time,

she found a man who only smiled.

But Sloopy stayed and stayed.

Winter,

Nineteen fifty-nine,

Old men walk their dogs.

Some are walked so often

that their feet leave

little pink tracks

in the soft snow.

Women, fur on fur,

elegant and easy,

only slightly pure,

hailing cabs to take them

round the block and back.

Who is not a love seeker

when December comes?

Even children pray to Santa Claus.

I had my own love safe at home,

and yet I stayed out all one night,

the next day too.

They must have thought me crazy

screaming SLOOPY!

SLOOPY!

as the snow came falling

down around me.

I was a madman

to have stayed away

one minute more

than the appointed hour.

I’d like to think a golden cowboy

snatched her from the window sill,

and safely saddlebagged

she rode to Arizona.

She’s stalking lizards

in the cactus now perhaps,

bitter, but free.

I’m bitter too,

and not a free man anymore.

But once upon a time,

In New York’s jungle in a tree,

before I went into the world

in search of other kinds of love,

nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.

Looking back,

perhaps she’s been

the only human thing

that ever gave back love to me.”

- Rod McKuen 

"If You Will Not Fight..."

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” 

– Attributed to Sir Winston Churchill

"How It Really Is"

"Too OId to 'Get It'”?

"Too OId to 'Get It'”?

by Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Wow… Last week was exciting! But first, a more personal report. Last weekend, we went up to Dublin to see, for the first time, our new grandson You’re not supposed to be doing “non essential” travel in Ireland right now. But we also had a doctor’s appointment in the city, so the trip was A-OK with everyone.

When we first came to Ireland, more than 20 years ago, it took three or four hours to drive from Waterford to Dublin. Tiny roads snaked along the coast and through the many towns and villages. But then, the “Celtic Tiger” – a period of rapid real economic growth – roared in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Almost the entire housing stock was upgraded. And sleek new highways were added. Now, the drive takes only two hours, over a pleasant auto-route with very little traffic.

Sleek and Modern: Dublin itself has retained much of its grittiness. But many parts of the city have been tarted up… Some – the Dublin Docklands, for example, nicknamed “Silicon Docks,” due to the arrival of so many leading technology companies, such as Google and Facebook – are as cool and modern as any in the world.

Our son and his wife live in an attractive residential area. The houses are modest, but charming… red brick, with small yards in front… and many nearby parks – all of them ebullient with flowers in this spring season. Ireland seems especially propitious for flowers of all sorts. It rains. Then, the sun comes out. And then, it rains again. And never does it get so hot – as it does in Maryland in the summertime – that all living things seek shelter and mercy.

“It reminds me of Nova Scotia,” says Elizabeth, our wife, whose grandparents lived there. We would go to visit every summer… packing the whole family in our Chevy van… and later (after the family had grown), using two vehicles. Baltimore is almost unbearable in July. Whole weeks go by with the temperature over 90 degrees. Plants go into shock. Some dry up. People hide away in their air-conditioned houses. The sun beats down like a Biblical curse.

We would try to choose the hottest months to make our annual getaway… driving up the I-95 to New Brunswick, where we’d take the ferry across the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia. Arriving in Annapolis Royal, we’d enter a gas station. There would usually be a pair of locals leaning over the counter, discussing the weather.

“When do you think this heat wave will end?” “I don’t know… But I hope it is soon. I can barely stand it.” “Yep… S’posed to get up into the upper 70s again today. But it will pass.” And so it always did. And we were soon in our cabin, gloriously huddled around an open fire.

New Grandson: But enough reminiscing… Our new grandson is only two weeks old. And as you can imagine, he is already in the 90th percentile, along with all grandchildren. “He looks like your father,” said one of the parents. “No… He looks more like my mother,” said the other. “I think he looks like somebody… but I can’t place him…” To us, he looked like every baby we’ve ever seen… mushy and adorable, of course.

Remarkable Week: But let’s look back at the remarkable week just past. It was last week when the long-expected inflation bus finally rolled into town. The Bureau of Labor Statistics – acting like a traffic cop with a faulty speed gun – reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was way over the limit… traveling at the fastest rate in 40 years… That news triggered a brief stock market sell-off… with investors afraid that the Federal Reserve would have to hike interest rates in order to prevent runaway inflation.

Upon closer inspection, housing and some producer prices were found to be hitting double-digit speeds. But by then, the Fed, the media, and the usual sell-side economists were out in force, explaining why the inflation numbers were nothing to worry about. There was no inflation. “We are coming off an extremely low base… from the bottom of the COVID-19 panic,” they said. “Besides, a little inflation is a good thing,” they continued. It “signals a robust recovery”… and it “helps to make up for years of sub-optimal inflation readings.” Together, the two defense arguments were a little like the lawyer who claimed his client never met the girl… “Besides, how was he to know she was underage?”

The second argument undermined the first. But it hardly matters. Birds gotta fly. Fish gotta swim. And the feds gotta inflate. It’s inflate or die. And sooner or later, the inflation’s gotta show up in consumer prices.

Nuttiest of All: And Elon Musk… God bless him… God help him… Dogecoin went down 30% after Musk – the erstwhile self-proclaimed “Dogefather” – called the crypto coin a “hustle” on nationwide TV. Then, bitcoin fell after Elon said Tesla would no longer take it in payment… until it figured out a way to mine new coins without using so much electricity.

Customers turning away from The Doge and bitcoin had to go somewhere… Some must have gone to SHIB… another dodgy doggy coin – a spoof on a spoof. It went up 1,700% in a week… prompting Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin to “burn” 410 trillion of the coins. All of this proves, at least to our satisfaction, that trying to invest in cryptos is like relying on the “greater fool theory” when you are playing poker in an insane asylum. They’re all nuts. And you might be the nuttiest of all.

More Musk Mischief: But wait… the week wasn’t over. And Elon wasn’t finished working his mischief. He later tweeted the Doge back to life – “Do you want Tesla to accept doge?” Musk asked his fans – and then hinted that Tesla might sell its pile of 38,300 bitcoin. The Doge went up almost 50%… and bitcoin went down even further… for a loss of about 30%. Musk added that if The Doge can’t “scale,” he might start his own cryptocurrency.

There are already some 7,800 of these crypto coins. Of course, there were plenty of cars, too, before Elon developed the Tesla. And Mr. Musk was probably encouraged by a recent launch. Earlier this month, the “Internet Computer” – a new crypto, with perhaps the snazziest name in the whole cryptosphere – came out. Within 24 hours, it had a market value of $45 billion (currently about $25 billion).

Out of It: And so… whether we look at the private sector or the public sector… at cryptos or at federal deficits (already headed for an 8-month record over $2 trillion)… at Elon, or at Janet, Joe, or Jerome…well, everyone is nuts. Or else we’re just too “out of it” to appreciate what is going on.

Maybe this is just one of those times in history when you have to be young… or brain damaged… to understand it. No one over 50 can be trusted to “get it.” But we’re not sure if that “50” refers to age or I.Q."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"A Primer For The Propagandized: Fear Is The Mind-Killer"

"A Primer For The Propagandized: 

Fear Is The Mind-Killer"

by Margaret Anna Alice 

“Totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.”

- George Orwell

"The noose is dangling gently around our necks. Every day, they cinch it tighter. By the time we realize it’s strangling us, it will be too late. Those who – gradually and gleefully – sacrifice their freedoms, their autonomy, their individuality, their livelihoods, and their relationships on the altar of the “common good” have forgotten this is the pattern followed by every totalitarian regime in history.

Everyone wonders how ordinary Germans could have been manipulated to participate or stand dumbstruck while their government was transformed into a genocidal juggernaut. This is how. Read Sebastian Haffner’s "Defying Hitler" memoir to see how this can happen anywhere - including here.

Everyone wonders how Russians could have permitted and even zealously reported fellow citizens for imprisonment and execution under "Article 58", the penal code invented to incarcerate anyone who dared express the slightest whisper of noncompliance under Stalin’s homicidal state. This is how. Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s meticulously documented "The Gulag Archipelago" to witness this progression of authoritarian lunacy.

Everyone wonders how Hutus could have suddenly started axing their Tutsi neighbors to death after being inundated with waves of anti-Tutsi propaganda from "Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines." Read Philip Gourevitch’s "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda."

The list goes on. And on. And on. From Machiavelli’s "The Prince" to Étienne de la Boetie’s "The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude" to Edward Herman’s and Noam Chomsky’s "Manufacturing Consent" (and accompanying documentary) to BBC’s "The Century of the Self," mechanisms of mass control have been chronicled for millennia.

George Orwell wrote, "As far as the mass of the people go, the extraordinary swings of opinion which occur nowadays, the emotions which can be turned on and off like a tap, are the result of newspaper and radio hypnosis.”

Can you imagine what master propagandist Edward Bernays would have done with access to today’s mainstream media conglomerate combined with the global surveillance infrastructure of Big Tech? And you really think that’s not happening now - with another century of psychological, neurological, and technological research under their belts?

The present ability to curate reality and coerce obedience is unprecedented, far beyond what Orwell envisioned in "1984", Bradbury in "Fahrenheit 451", Huxley in "Brave New World," and Burgess in "A Clockwork Orange."

A textbook example of "Problem Reaction Solution", the current tsunami of worldwide hysteria is the latest and potentially most threatening example of mass control in history.

The recipe is simple. Take a naturally occurring phenomenon, say a seasonal virus, and exaggerate its threat far beyond every imagining - despite exhaustive evidence to the contrary. Suppress, silence, ostracize, and demonize every individual who dares present facts that expose the false mono-narrative.

Whip up a witches’ brew of anger, envy, and, most importantly, fear, escalating emotions to a boil so as to short-circuit our faculties of reason and logic.

Isolate us from one another, supplant real-world interactions with virtual feuds, label nonconformists as a threat to the group, and pump the public with a disinformation campaign designed to confuse and atomize. In essence, foster a cultlike mentality that shuts down thought to guarantee assent.

Cultivate and wield our cognitive biases - especially ingroup bias, conformity bias, and authority bias - against us in a comprehensive divide-and-conquer policy that keeps us too busy squabbling amongst each other to recognize and unite against those corralling us into a Matrix-like collective delusion that enables the powerful to extract our resources for their own gain.

This ideological mass psychosis is religion - not science. If this were about science, the Media–Pharmaceutical–Big-Tech complex would not be memory-holing every dissenting voice, vilifying every thought criminal, and censoring every legitimate inquiry in quest of the truth.

Mark Twain said, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” He also said: “In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”

The next time you’re watching the news, reading a social media post, listening to a friend repeat a scripted talking point, pay attention. Learn to identify the earmarks of propaganda, the clickbait used to trigger your emotions, the mechanisms employed to engineer your cognitive biases.

Don’t let your pride prevent you from seeing - and admitting - the Emperor is naked. We are losing our last sliver of opportunity to resist authoritarianism. This is not a partisan issue. Those who wish to control us have made it such because disunited lemmings are easier to steer than independent, critical thinkers.

This is a human issue. This is about crushing the middle class - the backbone of a democratic republic - and transferring trillions from the middle and lower classes to the ruling plutocracy. This is about demolishing the foundations of a free society and building it back - not better, but better-controlled.

I will close by recommending a series of illuminating videos on menticide (“the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person’s values and beliefs … to induce radically different ideas”) throughout history by "Academy of Ideas." This analysis of mass psychosis is nonpartisan and of value to every thinking human being.

• "Is a Mass Psychosis the Greatest Threat to Humanity?"

• "The Mass Psychosis and the Demons of Dostoevsky"

• "The Manufacturing of a Mass Psychosis – Can Sanity Return to an Insane World?
"

"Dare to question. Dare to disbelieve. 

Dare to defy ideology in favor of science while you still can."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

“The FED Is Playing With Fire - Don’t Get Burned; Sell Your Home Now; Market Reckoning"

Jeremiah Babe,

“The FED Is Playing With Fire - Don’t Get Burned; 

Sell Your Home Now; Market Reckoning"

Gregory Mannarino, “Markets, A Look Ahead, 5/16/21”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts3LvrEizTk

Gregory Mannarino,

“Markets, A Look Ahead, 5/16/21”

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Elton John, "Your Starter For"; "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"

Elton John,

"Your Starter For";

"Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides.

Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Recent predictions hold that our Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130825.html

"Regret..."

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;

it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

~ Sydney J. Harris

"It's What It Is..."

"Life is not what it's supposed to be. It's what it is.

The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."

- Virginia Satir

The Daily "Near You?"

High Springs, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Life Of Man..."

"The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair."

- Bertrand Russell

"Crabs in a Bucket"

"Crabs in a Bucket"

by Sarah Robinson

"When I was a little girl, I lived very close (an hour and fifteen minutes) to the Florida panhandle beaches. Which meant we spent a TON of time there. Early evening was one of my favorite times to walk the beach with my mom and my older brothers. We were all clean and fed and slightly sun weary but still desperate to be outside. So, we would grab flashlights, dip nets and a bucket and search the ocean’s edge for crabs. We would catch a bucket full in an evening and drag them back home where my mom or my grandmother would cook them up into something delicious. (Yes, I was traumatized by the crabs being put into boiling water, but that story is for another day.)

The problem was that as we made that long walk home carrying crabs, there were always one or two who figured out how to climb up to the edge of the bucket in an attempt to escape. Every now and then we would have to tap the edge of the bucket to knock them back down. Because I was too little to carry the bucket very far, I got the job of watching for potential escapees. And I noticed something... well… odd. More often than not, as a crab would begin to inch its way higher to the edge of the bucket, the other crabs would latch on to him and pull him back down. I watched this scenario play out again and again, year after year.

Fast forward to this morning. As I was drinking my coffee and perusing my twitter stream, and up pops this gem from @paulocoelho (He wrote "The Alchemist", one of my all time favorite books): “Only mediocrity is safe. Get ready to be attacked, and be the best.” Maybe it was the early hour. Maybe it was my post-event mushy brain. I don’t know. But the minute I read Paulo’s tweet, I thought of those crabs in a bucket. So I sent him this tweet: “I’m thinking of crabs in a bucket. They always try to pull down the one who’s figured out how to escape.”

Paulo liked my analogy so much that he retweeted it and I’ve spent my morning connecting with people all over the world who liked it, too. It resonated deeply for a lot of people. I did a quick Google search and discovered that “Crab Mentality” is actually an official phrase that roughly means “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” And it is talked about. A lot.

There will always be people who will subtly or not so subtly try to keep us from escaping. Why? Because our escape threatens their mediocre existence. Pulling us down, sabotaging our efforts, picking apart our brilliant ideas – all of that keeps them feeling safe. And living undisturbed mediocre lives.

So what if we added a new piece to the crab mentality picture? Imagine a crab, or a group of crabs on the other side of the bucket building a ladder to aid your escape. They managed to crawl out of the bucket in spite of all the energetic attempts to pull them backwards. Because they’ve tasted freedom and they know your struggle, they are putting energy into aiding and abetting your escape.

I believe that for those of us determined to get out of the bucket, such a group exists. It may take some time to find them, but they are there, ready to throw a safety rope over the edge and pull us out. Start listening for them. Start looking for them. They are there. Reach just a little further and they’ll meet you at the edge of the bucket."

- http://www.escaping-mediocrity.com/

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

'I Am Always Tempted..."

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

- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' 

I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"

- Sydney J. Harris

Musical Interlude: The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"

Full screen!

The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Rising Inflation and Bill’s Doom Index"

"Rising Inflation and Bill’s Doom Index"

by Bill Bonner

OUGHAL, IRELAND – "Oh my… look up. There it is. Our old, tattered Black & Blue… Our trusty “Crash Alert” flag, proudly signaling the alarm. Yesterday, we saw consumer prices moving up. And we saw how the supply of “money” is far outstripping the supply of goods and services you buy with it. So far this century, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet (a rough way of keeping track of the supply of dollars) rose 15 times. U.S. GDP (an equally approximate measure of output) only doubled. That is the classic definition of inflation.

Today, we’re going to look at what kind of inflation it is… and how long it will be with us. Is it “transitory,” caused by a booming recovery and trillions in stimmy money. Or has it come with big suitcases and its favorite pillow… as if it intends to stay? We’ll come back to those questions. But first… the big news…

Crash Alert! Our Doom Index is registering an 8 – which is Crash Alert territory. We created the Doom Index a number of years ago to improve on our (often faulty) intuition. It tracks 12 key indicators to try to detect when there are dangerous excesses in the economy and markets are out of whack. Yes, you can see the full report on the latest Doom Index Reading here. But here’s the short version from our ace research team:

The chart below shows our Doom Index levels by quarter. The red bars indicate a reading of 8 or higher. That’s when we raise our “crash alert” flag and tell investors it’s time to prepare for a market crash. The last time we raised our “crash alert” flag was at the end of Q2 2019, when the Doom Index hit 8. We stayed in the “Danger Zone” for the next four quarters.

Economic conditions improved slightly in the second half of 2020, as evidenced by our Doom Index reading dropping to 7 for Q3 2020 and Q4 2020… Our recent Doom Index reading – based on the Q1 2021 data – is 8… which means we’re raising our tattered “crash alert” flag.

[…]it appears that the stock market is getting way ahead of the economy… Nearly all stock market valuations are at all-time highs, investors are using more leverage, junk bonds are looking riskier, and of course… the feds keep printing.

More Inflation Sightings: Meanwhile, we looked at some of the inflation sightings yesterday. Here’s The Wall Street Journal with more: "Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes. Price tags on consumer goods from processed meat to dishwashing products have risen by double-digit percentages from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Whirlpool Corp. freezers and dishwashers and Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. lawn and garden products are also getting costlier, the companies say. Some consumers are feeling stretched."

No Big Deal: But don’t worry. Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve and Janet Yellen at the U.S. Treasury both assure us that inflation is no big deal. The Fed is still “printing” $120 billion per month… trying to overcome the “low inflation” threat. According to Powell, the nation’s economic health is threatened not by inflation, but by the lack of it… that is, by persistent Consumer Price Index (CPI) readings below 2%. He thinks stable prices somehow inhibit growth.

As for Yellen, she believes the feds can hit whatever pitch comes their way. Here’s what she confidently told a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event last week: "I don’t think there’s going to be an inflationary problem. But if there is, the Fed will be counted on to address them." That settles it for us. Nothing to be concerned about. There is no inflation. And if there were any, just as a hypothetical, the Fed would smash it out of the ballpark. And Ms. Yellen should know. She used to run the Fed.

Intellectual Exercise: But… just in case – not that we’re doubting Ms. Yellen… or second-guessing the Fed – but just as an intellectual exercise, for our amusement… what if they’re all not really up to playing in the Major Leagues? What if they are better suited to the Special Olympics?

Before last Friday’s jobs report came out, Ms. Yellen suggested that interest rates might have to go up to contain rising price inflation, caused by a robust recovery. That is, she said she was concerned about “overheating,” whatever that is. Then, after stocks began to fall, she backtracked, letting the speculators know that she didn’t really mean it. In the space of less than 24 hours, she determined that the economy’s temperature was just right after all. She must have breathed a sigh of relief on Friday. The employment numbers made it clear that the economy is not heating up; it’s cooling off.

Phew! This takes the pressure off Yellen and Powell to “address” the inflation issue. But only by misunderstanding the nature of the inflation – which both Ms. Yellen and Mr. Powell are eager to do. More like “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry than “Boog” Powell, both want to win the game… but neither has any idea how to play it. They believe that inflation is purely cyclical, caused by rising demand in an expanding economy. (They also believe they can cause the economy to expand by pretending, that is, by inflating the money supply to look like real demand is increasing.)

Double Act: But this is no natural cyclical inflation. It is systemic. It is not driven (or, at least, not entirely) by the business cycle. Instead, it is man-made… caused by the two illustrious strike-outs themselves – Yellen weighing down heavily on the White House’s fiscal bench… and Powell heading up the Fed’s monetary team. The fiscal team spends. The monetary team prints. And they’ll both keep at it until the final inning… when the game is lost."

- https://www.rogueeconomics.com/

"Americans Are Panic Buying Homes! Prices Are Soaring: Prepare Your Self For A Housing Market Crash!"

Full screen recommended.

"Americans Are Panic Buying Homes! 

Prices Are Soaring: Prepare Your Self For A Housing Market Crash!"

by Epic Economist

"Americans are in a wild panic buying frenzy for homes despite skyrocketing prices, which has been worrying experts that the fast growth of the housing price bubble and historically low inventory levels might lead the market to a sharp correction way sooner than expected. Panicked buyers are taking part in bidding wars and offering hundreds of thousands of dollars above the asking price, but on the flip side, a large chunk of the population is getting priced out of the market and affordable housing is nowhere to be found. House prices are soaring like never before even as the economy is still facing the worst slump since the Great Depression.

As we previously discussed, the frantic rally is being fueled by low-interest rates, which is keeping mortgage payments more affordable, cushioning the housing market from the current recession. But it wasn't that long ago that real estate experts were expecting the worst. At the beginning of the health crisis, everyone was predicting home prices would collapse given that this is what typically happens when economic downturns occur. But due to the extraordinary monetary response to the sanitary outbreak, markets have been artificially sustained and asset valuations were turbocharged. However, the current pace of home price appreciation is getting increasingly unsustainable, and mortgage rates are moving upward as inflation fears have started to mount, meaning that the current housing boom is headed to a bust.

Real estate analysts have been reporting this to be the most competitive market they have ever seen. According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of sales of existing homes reached the highest level since 2006 - with the US housing inventory dwindling by over 50 percent, while prices rose 9% from pre-outbreak levels, and the median price of an existing home hitting a record high of $329,100 in March. In one alarming example of how crazy the market has become, in a CNN article, realtor Ellen Coleman reported having received "76 all-cash offers on a $275,000 fixer-upper in suburban Washington D.C. within three days of listing the property. The four-bedroom, 1,800 square-foot home sold for $460,000, a 70% increase on the asking price".

Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather, "we are in a record-breaking housing market with asking prices at an all-time high, median sale prices at an all-time high, the share of homes selling over list price at an all-time high, and homes selling faster than ever before: 58% under contract within two weeks of listing and 46% within one week of listing". "Ask just about any real estate agent, and they'll tell you they've never seen a market this hot," he said. Another example of how the panic buying trend has been pushing prices through the roof can be seen in Southern California, where extreme prices are being reported in all corners of the region. For instance, in Orange County, with the highest spike on record, having registered a 38.5% increase in sales leading the median price of a home up by 10.6% to shocking $835,000.

Vanessa Stone, an Enfield real estate broker said that in the 32 years she’s been selling real estate "the current frenzy surpasses even the hot home-selling market of the early 2000s before the crash of 2007". How much longer such extravagant gains will continue is a question worrying both buyers and sellers. Americans are already sensing something is wrong in the market and recent date shows how home-buying sentiment has collapsed to its weakest since 1983. Although bubble deniers have been multiplying lately, realtors are frequently comparing the current market rally to what they have witnessed during the peak of the 2006 historic real-estate bubble.

But just because the market looks different on a macro level, doesn't mean this time will be different, as many want to believe. As we well know, blind believers frequently end up very, very frustrated when they choose to ignore the warning signs that are flashing right into their faces. And if you don't want to get caught off guard, don't take the opinion of those who make their living by selling the idea of a rose-colored reality as the gospel. The next housing market crash is fast approaching and all evidence is there for you to see. So beware of those weirdly upbeat forecasts or you might end up bitterly disappointed."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

"We Are Watching A Giant Illusion; IRS Coming For You; Where Are The Good Times? Economy Worsens”

Jeremiah Babe,

“We Are Watching A Giant Illusion; IRS Coming For You; 

Where Are The Good Times? Economy Worsens”

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "You and Me"

Full screen!

Moody Blues, "You and Me"

"Riding the Lightning, and Living to Tell the Tale"

Well, I owe you an apology for not alerting you to my sudden and quite unexpected absence but there was simply no time to react to a medical emergency which very nearly took me out of this world. EMTs got me to the ER with no time to spare. 2 unspeakably horrifying jolts of cardioversion - "If they hadn't shocked you when they did you'd be dead." - and a Medevac ride to Tucson for 5 days in the superlatively excellent Banner Medical Center Tucson's Cardiac ICU has produced wonderful results, so now home. Slow and easy from now on, my friends, posting may be diminished briefly while I continue getting myself together, so please bear with me. I'm just grateful to be alive, and expect  to be up to speed quickly. I hope you're all well and savoring this day, because tomorrow isn't guaranteed for any of us. Make this a good day!

- CP

"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Triggering 45% Drop In Property Value As Businesses Face Foreclosure"

Full screen recommended.

"Commercial Real Estate Collapse Triggering 45%

 Drop In Property Value As Businesses Face Foreclosure"

by Epic Economist

"While the entire country is on a countdown to the end of the health crisis, the retail industry should brace itself because a huge wave of closures is coming. Analysts from stockbroking firm UBS are warning that "at least tens of thousands" of store closures will occur as a result of the permanent shift in consumer behavior and the rise of e-commerce, whereas a new study conducted by Morgan Stanley experts found that 1 out of 3 shopping malls will soon disappear from the U.S. economic landscape. The decay of struggling U.S. malls has been years in the making. Industry analysts have been speculating for years what would be the ultimate catalyst to trigger malls' undoing - and after the sanitary outbreak hit, they had their answer. It seems like hundreds of commercial properties have reached the point of no return across the U.S., and that's mainly attributed to the fact that the strict social distancing restrictions forced consumers to learn to buy the things they like, want, and need using online platforms. In face of endless possibilities and increased convenience offered by the virtual experience, it's very unlikely customers ever resume their previous spending patterns in physical stores.

Already, 18 major retailers filed for bankruptcy, mostly concentrated in apparel and footwear, home furnishings, grocery, and department stores, according to Green Street reports. Some of these businesses spent over 100 years building their brands into household names, but in 10 short years, a retail apocalypse swept across the industry and left stores empty while malls started to lose relevance. The decay of the sector, like so much in the last decade, can be traced back to the last financial crisis. After the housing bubble burst, several retailers struggled to make it through the Great Recession. Hundreds of thousands of employees were laid off and private equity firms intervened, but in that process, they burdened mall brands with massive amounts of debt. Even companies that managed to stay afloat during the current recession, have been announcing mass store closures hoping to curb their expenses.

Consequently, such closures are having a huge impact on mall occupancy rates and recent numbers are already showing it. In the first quarter of 2021, regional malls in the United States registered the highest vacancy rate in history at 11.4%. The outlook for the sector remains bleak as many more closures are expected. In a report released in April, UBS predicted that in the best-case scenario roughly 80,000 retail stores would close all across the nation in the next few years, affecting nearly 9% of all retail stores, which means one in eleven stores in the United States is on the verge of disappearing forever. In the worst-case scenario is that twice that number of stores could be shut down, accounting for as many as 150,000 closures.

In face of this gloomy forecast, and considering it would be incredibly difficult to fill in all that vacant retail space during one of the worst economic recessions this country has ever experienced, according to a team of Morgan Stanley analysts, 30 to 35 percent of U.S. malls are likely to close for good over the next few months. In other words, 1 out of 3 shopping malls may go extinct even before the economy reopens. Until two years ago, Green Street Advisors still expected them to disappear by 2030, but after last year's events, that forecast got remarkably adjusted: now they anticipate the malls will fade out before the end of this year.

Investors are now having to assess if the best move is to reoccupy the vacant space or cut out the distressed property from their portfolios entirely. Remaining a viable option for investment in a market that is becoming increasingly distressed will certainly not be easy. Already, some of these property owners have taken some desperate measures to keep doors open. As a sign of the times, while vaccines roll out across the country, thousands of people are getting vaccinated in abandoned Kmarts, Sears, and Toys R Us, instead of CVS pharmacies or local health clinics.

For mall owners that have seen store vacancy rates skyrocket over the past twelve months, the symbolism of having deserted stores transformed into mass vaccination clinics underscores how rapidly our economy has changed after the health crisis began, and how the retail apocalypse is turning our once-thriving economic landscape in a dystopian scenario. And even though the end of the outbreak might be in sight as the distribution of the vaccine ramps up, for decaying malls, it seems that this "new normal" means that the new dystopian reality is here to stay."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

"Consumers Squeezed; Millions Depend On Credit Cards To Survive; Auto Debt Explodes; Cyberattacks"

Jeremiah Babe,

"Consumers Squeezed; Millions Depend On Credit Cards To Survive;

Auto Debt Explodes; Cyberattacks"

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Return to Freedom"

Full screen!

2002, "Return to Freedom"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue vdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still life with dark, obscuring clouds recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are interstellar dust clouds, blocking the light from background stars in the case of Barnard's dark nebulae. For vdB 31, the dust preferentially reflects the bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae.

Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded by flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that distance this cosmic canvas would span about four light-years.”

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

"Do You Want..."

"Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?"

- Macklemore

Chet Raymo, "On Saying 'I Don't Know'"

"On Saying 'I Don't Know'"

by Chet Raymo

“Johannes Kepler is best known for figuring out the laws of planetary motion. In 1610, he published a little book called “The Six-Cornered Snowflake” that asked an even more fundamental question: How do visible forms arise? He wrote: "There must be some definite reason why, whenever snow begins to fall, its initial formation is invariably in the shape of a six-pointed starlet. For if it happens by chance, why do they not fall just as well with five corners or with seven?"

All around him Kepler saw beautiful shapes in nature: six-pointed snowflakes, the elliptical orbits of the planets, the hexagonal honeycombs of bees, the twelve-sided shape of pomegranate seeds. Why? he asks. Why does the stuff of the universe arrange itself into five-petaled flowers, spiral galaxies, double-helix DNA, rhomboid crystals, the rainbow's arc? Why the five-fingered, five-toed, bilaterally symmetric beauty of the newborn child? Why?

Kepler struggles with the problem, and along the way he stumbles onto sphere-packing. Why do pomegranate seeds have twelve flat sides? Because in the growing pomegranate fruit the seeds are squeezed into the smallest possible space. Start with spherical seeds, pack them as efficiently as possible with each sphere touching twelve neighbors. Then squeeze. Voila! And so he goes, convincing us, for example, that the bee's honeycomb has six sides because that's the way to make honey cells with the least amount of wax. His book is a tour-de-force of playful mathematics.

In the end, Kepler admits defeat in understanding the snowflake's six points, but he thinks he knows what's behind all of the beautiful forms of nature: A universal spirit pervading and shaping everything that exists. He calls it nature's "formative capacity." We would be inclined to say that Kepler was just giving a fancy name to something he couldn't explain. To the modern mind, "formative capacity" sounds like empty words.

We can do somewhat better. For example, we explain the shape of snowflakes by the shape of water molecules, and we explain the shape of water molecules with the mathematical laws of quantum physics. Since Kepler's time, we have made impressive progress towards understanding the visible forms of snowflakes, crystals, rainbows, and newborn babes by probing ever deeper into the heart of matter. But we are probably no closer than Kepler to answering the ultimate questions: What is the reason for the curious connection between nature and mathematics? Why are the mathematical laws of nature one thing rather than another? Why does the universe exist at all? Like Kepler, we can give it a name, but the most forthright answer is simply: I don't know.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Yerevan, Armenia. Thanks for stopping by!

“Some Things You Need To Know”

“Some Things You Need To Know”

by Marc Chernoff

“I know you’re reading this. And I want you to know I’m writing this for you. Others will be confused. They will think I’m writing this for them. But I’m not. This one’s for you.

I want you to know that life is not easy. Every day is an unpredictable challenge. Some days it can be difficult to simply get out of bed in the morning. To face reality and put on that smile. But I want you to know, your smile has kept me going on more days than I can count. Never forget that, even through the toughest times, you are incredible. You really are. So smile more often. You have so many reasons to. Time and again, my reason is you.

You won’t always be perfect. Neither will I. Because nobody is perfect, and nobody deserves to be perfect. Nobody has it easy, everybody has issues. You will never know exactly what I’m going through. And I will never know exactly what you’re going through. We are all fighting our own unique war. But we are fighting through it simultaneously, together.

Whenever somebody discredits you, and tells you that you can’t do something, keep in mind that they are speaking from within the boundaries of their own limitations. Ignore them. Don’t give in. In this crazy world that’s trying to make you like everyone else, find the courage to keep being your awesome self. And when they laugh at you for being different, laugh back at them for being the same.

Remember, our courage doesn’t always roar aloud. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering, “I will try again tomorrow.” So stand strong. Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out. And I am committed to making the best of it along with you.”

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"Lemons..."

"When life hands you a lemon, say

"Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

- Henry Rollins

Happy Mothers Day 2021

"How It Really Is"

 

"Courage..."

“Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor – the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds. But in my opinion, this definition fails to recognize the inner strength and level of commitment required for us to actually speak honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences – good and bad. Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as “ordinary courage.”

- Brené Brown

Greg Hunter, "Confronted with a Nightmare Scenario"

"Confronted with a Nightmare Scenario"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Financial writer John Rubino says there is no easy way out for the financial and political mess the United States has created for itself. Rubino starts with the economic problems and explains, “Now, inflation is starting to spread. Look at lumber. If you are trying to build a house, it’s $35,000 more now than it was two years ago just because of lumber. Iron ore, house prices, grains, food and you name it, we’ve got inflation going on. At the same time, we have an apparent labor shortage. All these companies are coming out and saying we would love to take on all the business we are being offered to us, but we don’t have enough people. Even Uber and Lyft cannot find enough drivers. It’s weird it is happening this soon, but we should not be surprised since we dumped tens of trillions of dollars into the economy over the past year. This is what you would expect if you get the money supply going up 30% or 40%, which it did. This is what you get. The economy overheats. Now, we are confronted with the nightmare scenario in a fiat currency system. Inflation starts to pick up, which it is. That sends interest rates higher, which is happening. That threatens all the heavily indebted people out there because as rates go up, their costs rise. Then they go bankrupt in increasing numbers, and the system collapses. We are in the early stages in that kind of a process, and I don’t think anybody knows what to do about it.”

It seems Sam Zell knows what to do. Who is Sam Zell? Rubino says, “Well, Sam Zell is one of the biggest real estate investors in the world. The guy has a history of being right at the big turning points. He will build a massive commercial real estate empire with billions and billions of dollars of offices and shopping malls and stuff like that. Then towards the end of the cycle, he will start selling. He will basically get out at the peak of the market. Then the market tanks, and he buys back in. So, he’s a really good indicator of where the economy is going because he has such a history of being right. So, now, the guy is buying gold. I think this is the first time I have ever heard of him doing that. He usually just sells his real estate and goes to cash. Now, he’s selling out of some of his real estate, and instead of putting it into a bank, he’s buying gold with it. This is a good sign from a smart guy. This guy is right so frequently, the fact that he is buying gold is a really good gold buying signal.”

Rubino goes on to warn, “I think the next stage in the market psychology is when people figure out there is no adult supervision left in these markets. Daddy is not going to come home and fix this. We are at the point where there are no solutions, and that’s when things spin out of control. The Mad Max scenario is the extreme end of the spectrum of possibilities, but there can be political and financial chaos where something like the Great Depression or something like the Weimar Germany hyperinflation becomes a real possibility. This is beyond the ability of any individual to fix. We can’t save the system.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One 

with the founder of DollarCollapse.com, John Rubino.

- https://rumble.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/9/21: "Markets, A Look Ahead: A False Flag Event Has Occurred"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/9/21:

"Markets, A Look Ahead: A False Flag Event Has Occurred"

- https://traderschoice.net

And so...

"Cyberattack Forces Shutdown Of Largest Gasoline Pipeline In United States"

Musical Interlude: John Mellencamp, "Ain't That America"

Full screen recommended.

John Mellencamp, "Ain't That America"

What we once were...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest. Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant.

NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies. The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy. Visible in the above photograph is the active central nucleus, also known to be a bright source of X-rays and gamma rays.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111220.html

"The Time You Have Left..."

  

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.

Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”

~ Leo Babauta

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "Coming Home"

"Coming Home"

"When we are driving in the dark,

on the long road to Provincetown,

when we are weary,

when the buildings and the scrub pines lose their familiar look,

I imagine us rising from the speeding car.

I imagine us seeing everything from another place -

the top of one of the pale dunes, or the deep and nameless

fields of the sea.

And what we see is a world that cannot cherish us,

but which we cherish.

And what we see is our life moving like that

along the dark edges of everything,

headlights sweeping the blackness,

believing in a thousand fragile and unprovable things.

Looking out for sorrow,

slowing down for happiness,

making all the right turns

right down to the thumping barriers to the sea,

the swirling waves,

the narrow streets, the houses,

the past, the future,

the doorway that belongs

to you and me."

- Mary Oliver

The Daily "Near You?"

Grasse, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France. Thanks for stopping by!

"Never Regret Anything..."

 

"The Water Pitcher"

"The Water Pitcher"

by Paulo Coelho

"A legend tells of a man who used to carry water every day to his village, using two large pitchers tied on either end of a piece of wood, which he placed across his shoulders. One of the pitchers was older than the other and was full of small cracks; every time the man came back along the path to his house, half of the water was lost. For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger pitcher was always very proud of the way it did its work and was sure that it was up to the task for which it had been created, while the other pitcher was mortally ashamed that it could carry out only half its task, even though it knew that the cracks were the result of long years of work.

So ashamed was the old pitcher that, one day, while the man was preparing to fill it up with water from the well, it decided to speak to him. "I wish to apologize because, due to my age, you only manage to take home half the water you fill me with, and thus quench only half the thirst awaiting you in your house."

The man smiled and said: "When we go back, be sure to take a careful look at the path." The pitcher did as the man asked and noticed many flowers and plants growing along one side of the path. "Do you see how much more beautiful nature is on your side of the road?" the man remarked. "I knew you had cracks, but I decided to take advantage of them. I sowed vegetables and flowers there, and you always watered them. I've picked dozens of roses to decorate my house, and my children have had lettuce, cabbage and onions to eat. If you were not the way you are, I could never have done this. We all, at some point, grow old and acquire other qualities, and these can always be turned to good advantage."

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/