“Stockdale Paradox: How It Can Help You Survive the Worst”

“Stockdale Paradox:

How It Can Help You Survive the Worst”

By Janey Davies, B.A.

“Would you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist? Perhaps you’re more of an idealist? Maybe you think it’s important to see the reality of a situation? In any case, is it better to be one or the other? The Stockdale Paradox states that a mixture of realism and optimism is the best way forward.

What Is the Stockdale Paradox and Who Was James Stockdale? The Stockdale paradox is named after the high-ranking naval officer Admiral James Stockdale. Stockdale fought in the Vietnam War and, unfortunately, was captured by the Viet Cong. He was held prisoner from 1965 to 1973. During this time, he underwent some of the most brutal torture ever inflicted during a conflict; all whilst living in subhuman conditions. But Stockdale survived. Not because he was an unwavering optimist, or, indeed, a naïve idealist. Stockdale lived to tell his horrific tale because he managed to deal with the realism of his appalling situation with a small measure of optimism.

Life in Prison During the Vietnam War: Out-matched by America’s great show of military strength, Vietnamese guards took a different tactic. They set about staging a propaganda war instead. They captured thousands of US soldiers and brutalized many into ‘confessing’ the bombings of school children and homes of civilians. Guards filmed US prisoners denouncing the US government in humiliating videos.

So why did Jim Stockdale survive whereas others didn’t? In an interview, he said: “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”

He was asked ‘Who didn’t survive?’ “Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.” The interviewer pressed Stockdale for more details. “The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale’s Role as a POW in Vietnam: American POWs endured appalling conditions in the prison camps. Routinely shackled to beds by their legs with ironclads, these metal shackles were extremely tight and led to infections and sores. For days on end, prisoners were left to lie in their own feces and urine.

Vietnam guards tortured Stockdale over twenty times. One form of torture was the rope trick. Prisoners would have their hands cuffed behind their backs, then guards would use ropes to rotate their arms up until their elbows and shoulders popped out of their sockets. Guards would hang prisoners up for hours, days even. During this time prisoner’s arms would turn purple through lack of blood. Sometimes guard would hogtie a prisoner’s arms and legs together then string them up from a meat hook. Returning at regulars intervals, guards would tighten the ropes until the prisoners had no feeling left in their limbs. Arms and legs would balloon to twice their normal size.

Remember, these were prisoners with infections and injuries from the war or previous torture. So they were already gravely ill before these hanging sessions. And torture sessions would go on for hours, in some cases even days.

One such inmate of a notorious POW camp, known as the Hanoi Hilton, is Congressman Sam Johnson. He described the torture in an interview: “As a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, I could recall nothing from military survival training that explained the use of a meat hook suspended from the ceiling. It would hang above you in the torture room like a sadistic tease – you couldn’t drag your gaze from it.” How do you survive such mental and physical torture with no end in sight?

How Stockdale Survived the POW Camps: Jim Stockdale knew that no one could survive endless torture, either physically or mentally. So he devised a step-by-step system of rules that would help. For instance, he advised prisoners to endure x number of minutes, then give away some information. This gave the prisoners a system to work from. In fact, Stockdale was instrumental in organizing his fellow inmates. He invented an elaborate communication system so that isolated prisoners could feel connected.

Slashing his body with a razor and beating himself bloody with a stool, Stockdale knew the guards would not videotape him as propaganda for the Vietnamese war effort. He taught prisoners a simple code of blinking Morse Code when they were videotaped for propaganda purposes. Now prisoners have a modicum of hope that their messages were getting out.

So where did Stockdale get his incredible resilience from? Was it his training in the Navy? Actually, Stockdale took inspiration from philosophy. He remembered quotes from the famed Stoic Epictetus: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.” “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

A Matter of Free Will: Stockdale realized that despite his capture and subsequent imprisonment, he still had the capacity for free will. Although he couldn’t change what was happening to him, he could control how he reacted to it all. And that’s different from hoping things will turn out okay in the end. It is being proactive but also realistic about the situation. There are the factors you can control, for instance, your reaction to imprisonment and torture.

Then there are other factors you cannot control, such as liberation. Stockdale knew that to survive this horrific experience, he could not have ‘faith’ that things would turn out alright in the end. Because, dash this faith, time and time again, and there was no knowing if his mental state would ever recover from the sheer disappointment. Instead, he confronted head-on the desperation and brutality of his situation and devised methods to deal with the worst of them.

So What Does Stockdale Paradox Teach Us? So how does the Stockdale Paradox help us today? I’ll let Jim Stockdale answer that question: “You have to have faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” In other words, a healthy dose of realism along with a measure of optimism is the best way through any difficult situation.”

- https://www.learning-mind.com/

"I Want Better..."

“People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.”

- Ray Bradbury

"How It Really Is"

 

But of course...

"Zombies Everywhere"

"Zombies Everywhere"

By Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Yesterday, we promised a “reveal.” Why do empires collapse? And why do economies decay? Keeping it all very simple… A society prospers or declines depending on how much of its vitality is engaged in providing useful goods and services… compared to how much is spent grifting… stealing… politicking… and wasting time and savings on zombie companies, wars, and dead-end investments. And appearances can be misleading…

Complete Disaster: In the early days of the Third Reich, for example, many observers thought the German economy would be a good model for the rest of the world. Coming out of a catastrophic hyperinflation in the early 1920s… and after dragging the burden of reparations like a ball and chain… Germany nevertheless rebounded smartly in the 1930s. Suddenly, everyone was working and every industrial chimney was belching smoke.

But it was a fraud. The German economy had been hijacked by warmongers – drafted in to support Hitler’s fantasies of world domination. Instead of making passenger cars, it was tanks that rolled off the assembly lines. Instead of making commercial airliners, they built fighter jets and bombers. Instead of growing wheat and vegetables for their families… German laborers were needed on the Eastern Front! In the 1940s, when the unemployment rate in Nazi Germany went to zero… workers were forcibly recruited from France and Poland. By then, Germany was “investing” more than half its entire GDP in the war effort. We all know what these “investments” produced – a complete disaster, for Germany as well as her neighbors.

Impaired Judgment: As a general rule, the more of a society’s energy is “invested” by government (rather than by private investors with a profit motive), the lower the return. Government “investments” are more likely to be either disguised transfer payments… or worse, megalomaniacal crackpottery. In either case, the real return on investment is typically below zero.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve noticed that many private investments can also be unproductive. When fake money is handed out like free booze, it’s bound to lead to some impaired judgment. At its recent peak, the cryptocurrency market was worth $2.4 trillion. And of America’s top 1,500 companies, 200 of them – with a combined market value of $2.3 trillion – haven’t made a profit in three years. Cryptos aren’t designed to provide products or services. And money-losing companies subtract wealth; they don’t add it. Together, that is nearly $5 trillion of zombie capital. (Much of it will disappear in the next crash.)

Connecting the Dots: But how can we connect these dots? The misguided investments… the idle minds… the goofball spending? For the first time in the history of economics – you are the first to see it, Dear Reader – we unveil our Zombie Index (ZI).

Remember, when people can work, save, invest, and innovate – without interference – they prosper. But when people are distracted, detained, bamboozled, or otherwise prevented from carrying on with their projects, the society gets poorer. And now, our impression is that the zombies are many… They are breeding like rabbits. We think that explains why U.S. GDP growth rates are now at their lowest levels since the Great Depression. Let us see if our hypothesis is true.

The U.S. labor force participation rate hit 67% in 2000. Now, it’s down to below 62%. That’s about 7 million more zombies right there. This year, there are about 260 million adults in the U.S. But, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 151 million are “employed.” That leaves 109 million zombies.

An important nuance: There is nothing wrong, morally, with being a zombie. Old people. Sick people. Children. Prisoners. Malingerers… lazy bums… and crypto day traders. Zombies are not necessarily good or bad. But they must eat. And since they do not produce, they must eat what others produce.

We hasten to let ourselves… and many dear readers off the hook… adding that a retired person, living off his own accumulated savings, is not a zombie at all. He earned the money… and merely delayed spending it. But that kind of fine tuning of our Zombie Index will have to wait for someone with more than half an hour to think about it. Grossissimo modo, our Zombie Index tells us what percentage of the population is producing wealth… and what part is consuming it. Generally, (this is in no way to be confused with science) the more zombies you have… the lower the wealth of the society.

Government Zombies: But wait… What about all the people employed by the government? Some, such as firefighters and teachers, do useful work that we would gladly pay for. Most do not.

Optimistically, let us say that 80% of government employees are “zombies.” In 2020, there were about 22.5 million on state, local, and federal government payrolls. So we take 80% of these “employed” people – about 18 million – and move them over to the zombie side of the street. It should be added that there are millions more who are honestly employed in the private sector… but who still do zombie work. Accountants preparing tax returns, lawyers… lobbyists… diversity commissars… and millions of others… do not really add to our wealth. But that calculation is far beyond the scope of this little reverie.

So is the fact that many people – in and out of government – not only fail to add to output, they actively try to reduce it… by imposing regulations, paperwork, skullduggery, and claptrappery – such as the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rates. As they say in France… “Half the population works; the other half tries to stop them.”

Final Tally: So, putting the numbers together… out of 332 million people in America, approximately 199 million (109 million unemployed + 18 million “zombie” government employees + 72 million non-adults = 199 million) – 60% of all Americans – are zombified. To these simple numbers we add another important measure. In 2000, state, local, and federal governments together – the biggest source of zombieism – spent an amount equal to 34% of GDP, or about 1 out of every 3 dollars. Today, the number is 44%. That represents a huge gain for the zombies. And it completes our Zombie Index as follows…

We add the two ratios together – 60% and 44% – and divide by two, giving us our final Zombie Index reading of 52%… or just over the half-way mark. The French are right! Half the people work; the other half get in their way. For reference, the Zombie Index for the year 2000 would have been about 45%, which confirms our impression: The zombies are multiplying. Regards,"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

Greg Hunter, "Dollar is Going to Collapse"

"Dollar is Going to Collapse"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Money manager and economist Peter Schiff says all the debt and money printing by the Fed will, ultimately, get down to one thing and that is the U.S. dollar. The Fed has been getting away with this turbocharged money creation policy since the last financial meltdown in 2008. In 2021, the consequences of “money for nothing” are finally kicking in. Schiff explains, “The inflation crisis and the dollar crisis are a much bigger economic event that will have a much greater impact than the 2008 financial crisis. I have been warning about the consequences of all this money printing for years and years. Now, finally, you are really starting to see that. The government has been able to bury the amount of inflation they have been creating because of the CPI (Consumer Price Index). The CPI doesn’t really capture the degree that prices are going up. So, it creates a false sense of confidence that we haven’t had inflation, but now prices are rising so rapidly that even the government’s doctored CPI number can’t hide it. We are getting these huge price increases across the board.”

How worried should people be about all the Fed money printing? Schiff warns, “The Fed says there’s nothing to worry about. Inflation is just going to magically come back down. We are still going to be at 2% inflation. So, we can keep the printing presses going with the pedal to the metal, and we are going to have these huge deficits. We are going to print all this money, and there is nothing to worry about. Well, you better worry! This crisis will be much worse than 2008, and unlike 2008, nobody’s getting a bailout. The reason the Fed could do the bailouts is the Fed could print the money to fund the bailout. The next crisis is the dollar that is going to be in crisis. The dollar is going to be crashing, and they can’t bail anybody out from a dollar crash because all they can do is print more dollars, which will just accelerate the collapse of the dollar.”

The warning is simple. Schiff says, “This is a completely dysfunctional economy that is going to collapse when the bottom drops out of the dollar. I think that crisis is close at hand.”

In closing, Schiff points out, “Gold and silver are very cheap. Everything is in a bubble except gold and silver because gold and silver are real money. We are going to see all these bubbles deflate in terms of gold and silver. The price of stocks, real estate and crypto currencies are all going to come way down in terms of gold and silver. Get your gold and silver, physical coins, buy that now while you can still get it. In the future, not only are the prices going to go way up for the metal, but the premium on the coin is going to go way up in addition to that.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter with Peter Schiff on Rumble:

- https://rumble.com/

○

Related:

"Systemic Risks Abound"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/26/21: "A Stock Market Crash Beyond Your Wildest Nightmares IS COMING... Be Ready"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/26/21:

"A Stock Market Crash Beyond Your Wildest 

Nightmares IS COMING... Be Ready"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"What Will You Do When Soaring Prices Will Lead To Panic And Chaos At Grocery Stores?"

Full Screen Recommended.

"What Will You Do When Soaring Prices Will Lead 

To Panic And Chaos At Grocery Stores?"

by Epic Economist

"Signs of an imminent economic catastrophe just keep growing all around us. Experienced investors, economists, financial analysts, and other highly respected voices have been warning about the continual deterioration of our living standards and the collapse of our currency. However, most Americans seem to be in a state of numbness and they don't realize the impending dangers of an inflationary spike. With so many other disasters going on, we can understand why most part of society isn't listening to those warnings. People have their hands full, trying to take care of their families and make a living during one of the worst recessions this country has ever seen. But when prices start to rise at the grocery store, while housing prices skyrocket and health care costs keep spiraling out of control, it becomes evident that inflation is already a major problem.

Perhaps those warnings never reach the average person also because the mainstream media keeps denying there's anything to worry about. Politicians and policymakers continue to overlook this issue so that they can keep launching massive 'fiscal relief' packages without ever considering the consequences that will follow. Since the beginning of the health crisis, the Federal Reserve never ceased to inject more and more liquidity into the financial system, while the federal government always found a way to recklessly spend these fresh piles of newly created dollars. In a failed attempt to 'help' the population, our leaders directed a fraction of that printed money to Americans through stimulus checks, but those have only made the problem worse, as they resulted in rampant inflation and widespread shortages, and unfortunately, they weren't enough to ease the financial pain most people have been facing.

Even though trillions upon trillions of dollars have been pumped into the economy, the U.S. still has 8.2 million fewer jobs than it did before the sanitary outbreak. In fact, last Thursday, we learned that another 444,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits. Needless to say, in 2019, this figure would have been considered devastating and probably unacceptable. But now that things have been going from bad to worse for so long, that number is actually seen as “good news”, as the "new normal" make these absurdities look palatable. Political leaders were trying to artificially create an "economic boom," but they ended up setting the stage for an implosion of epic proportions. 

 According to data from Deutsche Bank, Americans have been searching for “inflation” online more frequently now than they have in over a decade. They have certainly been feeling the painful impacts of rising prices, but as the government keeps insisting that everything is okay - negating people's economic suffering and reaffirming there will be no change in the current monetary policies - millions of Americans just don't know what to do to fight it. 

On the other hand, the wealthy groups of the US society are always aware of potential threats that can compromise their gains, and they have deeply concerned about inflation. Many of them have begun offloading overly-inflated stocks at a very brisk pace in recent weeks, as reported by a recent Bloomberg piece, which noted that when the nation's CEOs, billionaires, and corporate insiders start to run to the exits sooner than expected in what seems to be the end of a 13-year bull market, it's because they know there's something extremely wrong with the economy, and the imbalances happening in our current inflated equity markets are a clear signal that they have to leave before everything bursts.

Now it is time to wake up to the fact that we are steamrolling toward an economic disaster that will make the history books, and inflation is just one element of the many crises our society will have to deal with. So pay attention to the real facts and to the voices that are underscoring problems that the media keeps sweeping under the rug, and do not uncritically believe in the rosy forecasts provided by "official" sources, otherwise, you will be blindsided by the coming perfect storm that will plunge our nation into a nightmarish depression. And given that dissonant voices have been silenced, in this video, we decided to bring them back to the surface and share the warnings several experts have been sounding recently."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

MUST WATCH! "Bills Are Coming Due; Hedonistic Society About To Learn A Valuable Lesson; Big Shots Will Lose"

Jeremiah Babe,

"Bills Are Coming Due; Hedonistic Society About To 

Learn A Valuable Lesson; Big Shots Will Lose"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/25/21: "Economy In FREE-FALL And INFLATION IS SURGING! But The Fed. Says 'Don't Worry About It.'"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/25/21:

"Economy In FREE-FALL And INFLATION IS SURGING! 

But The Fed. Says 'Don't Worry About It.'"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Land of Forever"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Land of Forever"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.

The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left of the bright crescent region. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121025.html

“What is Courage?”

“What is Courage?”

by Dr. Joe Alton

"In the Parkland high school shooting in South Florida, just a few miles from my home, we saw the extremes of human fortitude in the persons of Coach Aaron Feis and Deputy Scot Peterson. Peterson, a trained security professional, stayed outside while a shooting was in progress in the area he was hired to defend. Feis, a man not charged with the safety of others, protected them with his body at the expense of his own life.

I have thought about the idea of courage often; my writings on disaster preparedness presuppose that a certain amount is necessary to be resilient in the face of adversity. Yet, can a person really know what they will do when faced with a decision that can cost them their life?

Some just naturally run towards the sound of gunfire, while others naturally run in the other direction. The Department of Homeland Security recommends going the other way in their “Run, Hide, Fight” triad for active shooter events. There are those, however, who will run towards danger. Many of these individuals are or were in the military, law enforcement, and fire/emergency services.

Examples might be hitting the beach on D-day, running into the World Trade Center on 9/11, or perhaps the nurse who ran into the building to help victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. In many of these instances, they knew they were in danger, but went above and beyond.

Courage takes other forms as well. If you were, for example, the first African-American student in an all-white school district during the civil rights era or the first woman cadet in a military academy, you’ll never have to prove your bravery and determination to me in any other way.

You might think courage is an inborn virtue, constant over a lifetime. I’m not sure about that. I, personally, was a fearful little boy, then became a (stupidly) fearless teenager. I eventually morphed into an average adult. Now, in my golden years, I may have more of a tendency to head towards the sound of gunfire; after all, what have I got to lose at this point? Sit me in front of a doctor telling me that I have cancer, however, and that might be a very different story.

Then there’s the fortitude it takes to re-invent yourself. I don’t consider myself to be particularly courageous. After I retired from the active practice of medicine, I was tempted to take up golf. It was something I had tried years before but was, frankly, terrible at. Instead, I decided, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to write a blog about preparedness. That led to writing books, podcasts, a YouTube channel, and an entirely different career all about teaching others to survive natural or man-made disasters.

It’s hard to teach courage, but you can foster motivation in people. If people are taught the importance of something, they might be more apt to defend it. Loving something deeply also gives you the motivation to be brave in its defense. I can’t think of something more important than the lives of our young people. Coach Feis realized this, and acted accordingly.

Is courage contagious? Fear certainly is. If 50 people around you drop to the floor at the sound of gunfire, you might do the same. If those same people run towards the sound of gunfire, you might, too, although it puts you at risk. You might consider this foolhardiness rather than courage (Homeland Security does), but, where a gunman is concerned, you’re more likely to stop the killing by doing something other than laying on the floor in plain sight.

Speaking of fear, courage is not the absence of it, but. rather, the overcoming of it. There is physical courage and there is moral courage. Our founding fathers were men of wealth and privilege, and it would have been very easy to support remaining a colony of England. But they realized the importance of freedom, and put their fates and fortunes on the line to bring forth a new nation.

Activism is a form of courage, but courage is not just the act of speaking up; sometimes, shutting up and listening to opposing viewpoints takes fortitude as well. If more people would sit down and listen to each other, we might come more easily to agreement on a lot of today’s controversies. This takes more courage than keeping a closed mind.

If we are to be resilient in the face of adversity, it is courage, above all other virtues, that will make it possible. If we are to survive as a society, it will be because of the fortitude and strength of our citizens to pick up the flag, so to speak, and move forward. That goes for active shooter incidents and it goes for every obstacle you face in life."

- http://www.shtfplan.com/

"The Greatest Casualty of Covid?"

"The Greatest Casualty of Covid?"

by Jim Rickards

"In Chapters One and Two of my new book, 'The New Great Depression,' I explain how the pandemic originated from a bioweapons laboratory in Wuhan, China and how the virus spread around the world, regardless of policies such as lockdowns and masks, which proved to be useless. But, in Chapter Five, I explore one of the least reported and potentially longest lasting legacies of the pandemic – mental health disorders.

Most experts and almost all everyday citizens are unaware of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus can penetrate the neural network and brain membrane, directly impacting cognition. Even more important are the long-term effects of adaptive behavior. For the past 15 months, the U.S. population has been terrorized with demands for lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing, facemasks, skipping holidays, and now injections with experimental gene modification treatments, (which are not true vaccines in the traditional sense).

People adapt by becoming anti-social and withdrawn. Disorders such as anxiety, depression, violence, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and suicide all climb rapidly. The difficulty is that once behavior adapts in this way, it’s not easy to switch back to how things were before the pandemic. The adaptive behavior can persist for years or even decades in the absence of some equally catastrophic event that causes a new adaptation, such as war or a natural disaster. Some people adapt more easily than others. This can lead to clashes between those who are more able to get back to normal and those who cannot.

Kicking the Mask Habit: For example, a supermarket chain in New York decided to eliminate the indoor mask requirement for those who are vaccinated. They also said they would not ask for proof of vaccination, and the no mask policy would essentially be an honor system. This provoked a furious backlash from customers who insisted that masks were still required and they would continue wearing their masks indefinitely. Some claimed that any “scientifically literate” person would still wear a mask, despite the fact that actual science shows that they don’t really work.

There was a counter-backlash from customers who were “done with masks” and objected to the mask fearmongers. Of course, the store management was just trying to get back to normal and got caught in a crossfire of caustic comments from both sides. Expect more of this. Fear is not easy to overcome, even as the pandemic dies out.

“Voluntary” Vaccination: Governments are trying to assure citizens that they won’t require proof of vaccination (so-called “vaccine passports”) and are relaxing mandatory mask policies in response to the decline in pandemic caseloads. But, both policy assurances are lies.

The vaccine passport requirement is underway (see more below). Europe has already announced that Americans won’t be allowed to travel to the EU without a vaccination. Even if the U.S. does not go that far, the fact that Europe does means you’ll need your injection and a QR code validation on your smartphone (something like a boarding pass) if you want to travel abroad. The same is true for masks.

The CDC said that masks are no longer required outside. As mentioned, many businesses took the cue and said masks are no longer required inside either if the customer has been vaccinated. (By the way, none of these rules seem to take into account the 33 million Americans who have had COVID and recovered. These individuals have actual antibodies that are likely far more effective at fighting the disease than the genetically modified antibodies produced by the so-called vaccines. Why do they need masks?)

No Vaccine, No Entry: Most businesses that dropped mask requirements allowed customers to make their own choices based on an honor system about vaccination. Now, Oregon has intervened to require actual proof of vaccination before entering a building without a mask, even if the building owner is willing to use an honor system.

These policy choices, apart from being obnoxious, are not free. They impose a huge cost on the economy and slow the recovery. Fear of shopping, dining out, going to theatres, etc. will continue to be a drag on economic growth long after the new caseload count for the coronavirus approaches zero. This will be just one more headwind to robust economic growth in the year ahead. But the greatest casualty of COVID may be our freedom.

Big Government, Big Business, Big Tech and Big Pharma Equal Big Brother: Readers of George Orwell’s 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' are familiar with Big Brother and his totalitarian tactics. Big Brother was the dictator of super-state Oceania. He used continual surveillance and Thought Police to monitor the population and stamp out any signs of political dissent or independent thinking. The image of Big Brother and fear of the Thought Police have been used continually since the book was published in 1949 to warn of the power of big government and the infringements of civil liberties.

Of course, the threats today don’t come just from the government; they also come from Big Business, Big Tech and Big Pharma. They are all components of a twenty-first century digital Big Brother culture. As a result of COVID restrictions used to curtail freedom and frighten the population, Big Brother tactics are no longer just a warning; they are a reality. For evidence, look no further than the Excelsior Pass.

Cuomo’s Brainchild: Excelsior Pass is the brainchild of Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, whose policies killed over 15,000 people. His executive order forced COVID victims into nursing homes so they could spread the infection among the most vulnerable members of society. Excelsior Pass is a digital vaccination passport that uses a QR code on your smartphone to prove you have been vaccinated. Politicians claim vaccination is “voluntary,” but if you don’t get the vaccination, you can’t get the Excelsior Pass. And without the pass, you cannot attend certain shows or sporting events. Private businesses not directly regulated by the state can decide on their own to require Excelsior Pass if you want to eat in certain restaurants or shop in certain stores.

Already, sports arenas are setting up preferred seating for those with Excelsior Pass and separate seating in less desirable parts of the stadium for those without. (No doubt the hot dog and beer vendors somehow won’t make it to the segregated seating areas). There’s a lot more coercion and invasion of privacy here that meets the eye. Medical records used to be carefully protected and almost impossible for anyone to see except your doctor. Now you have to put your medical records on public display to go to a baseball game.

What about those who have even stronger antibodies because they survived COVID? What about the fact that the “vaccines” are not really vaccines but are experimental gene modification treatments that may produce permanent changes to your genetic make-up? What about the public humiliation that comes with segregation?

Big Brother Is Already Here: Far more Democrats than Republicans are getting the vaccine. Is Excelsior Pass just another way to segregate against Republicans? Minorities are also reluctant to get the vaccine because they have been used as medical guinea pigs in the past. Is this kind of segregation against minorities OK? What happens if six months from now, the neo-fascist Dr. Anthony Fauci decides you need a booster shot? Does your Excelsior Pass suddenly expire if you refuse the booster? Will you have to do as you’re told for the rest of your life just to be allowed out?

This is just one more example of how COVID has morphed from a pandemic to a semi-permanent excuse for the government to invade privacy, mandate healthcare choices and exercise political control over people’s lives. Big Brother is not coming. He is well and truly here."

- dailyreckoning.com

The Daily "Near You?"

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

"The Reality Of Life..."

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

- Malcolm X

"What Is Your Plan As Major U.S. Cities Devolve Into Lawless Wastelands Dominated By Violent Criminals?"

"What Is Your Plan As Major U.S. Cities Devolve 

Into Lawless Wastelands Dominated By Violent Criminals?"

by Michael Snyder

"Our cities are filled with extreme violence, and the blood of the innocent flows in our streets, and yet most Americans still seem to be in denial about what is happening. This isn’t just a momentary spike in violent crime that we are witnessing. The increase in violent crime that we experienced in 2020 was unprecedented, and things have been even worse in 2021. If you are not familiar with those numbers, here is a reminder…"Police and public reported data details that from January through March of 2021, the homicide rate rose by 28% from the same period last year in 20 major cities across the country. Homicides had already previously risen by 30% in 2020."

Everyone should be able to agree that we are very rapidly going in the wrong direction. But many on the left assured us that things would “return to normal” and the violence in the streets would subside once Joe Biden was in the White House. Obviously, that hasn’t happened. In fact, the violence in New York City over the weekend made headlines all over the nation…

"New York City is officially back: almost 30 people were shot in New York City this past weekend – and that number was only up until about 2PM on Sunday. 29 victims in total had been struck by gunfire by early evening Sunday, according to the New York Post, with one reported fatality. “These kids are having running gun battles and innocents are getting shot,” one veteran NYPD officer told the Post."

Do you remember when New York City was one of the safest big cities in the United States? Those days are now gone, and violent criminals are having a field day as the Big Apple slowly but surely descends into madness.

Of course New York City still has some catching up to do in order to get to Chicago’s level. During the weekend before last, 48 people were shot, and five of those that were shot ended up dying… "Chicago police are planning to target 15 areas of the city this summer in the battle to combat violence and keep people safe. The plan comes after a particularly violent weekend in which police say five people were killed and 48 people were shot, including two police officers and six juveniles." Authorities in Chicago have promised that they will work very hard to implement their plan to fight violent crime, but things certainly didn’t get any better this past weekend. In fact, they got even worse. Over the weekend, 55 more people were shot, and 11 more people were killed. What a nightmare.

But if you want to see a city that is quickly becoming even more violent than Chicago, just check out Minneapolis. Violent crime in the city spiked dramatically in 2020, and the numbers have surged even higher in 2021… "The city has seen a 222 percent increase in carjackings this year compared with this point in 2020, averaging 1.27 incidents per day, according to police data. Homicides are up 108 percent from a year earlier, while shootings have risen 153 percent."

If you are running a city and carjackings, shootings and murders are all up by triple digit percentages, you are definitely not on the right track. Minneapolis had been the epicenter for the “defund the police” movement, but now that violent crime has started to spiral out of control, the city has decided to bring in outside law enforcement help… "Minneapolis police are bringing in outside help as they try to temper weekend violence that killed a least four people, including a college senior who was out celebrating graduation. Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking a day after a mass shooting downtown, said the city has asked state and federal agencies for assistance, as Minneapolis police face a shortage of officers. Is anyone surprised that Minneapolis is now facing a “shortage of officers”? What did they think was going to happen when city officials endlessly demonized the police?

On the west coast, authorities are facing other sorts of problems. The number of people that died from drug overdoses in San Francisco was twice as high as the number of people that died from COVID last year, and addicts continue to litter the streets with thousands upon thousands of used drug needles. Street crime is completely out of control as addicts endlessly search for money for their next hits, but city politicians keep insisting that they can handle this crisis.

Crime is on the rise from coast to coast, but before I end this article I would like to discuss one more type of violence that we have seen in recent days that is especially chilling. Israel’s conflict with Hamas sparked a huge wave of anti-Jewish attacks, and many of these incidents made international news… "There were a series of street attacks that authorities are investigating as anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of Israel’s 11-day war with Hamas.

The list includes a Jewish man who was attacked by a pro-Palestinian activist in Times Square, a Jewish teenager was also put in a chokehold outside a Brooklyn synagogue over the weekend, and a rabbi was hounded with abuse in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The incident in Hallandale Beach was particularly alarming. After yelling “Jews should die”, an unidentified man later returned to that same location and dumped a bag of human feces right in front of a Jewish synagogue…

A man yelled antisemitic remarks at a rabbi in front of a South Florida synagogue, before returning and dumping a bag of human feces in front of the building. Cellphone video captured the unidentified man as he shouted ‘Jews should die’ at a rabbi outside the Chabad of South Broward on Friday. The man left and returned a short time later, carrying a bag that contained human feces, said Hallandale Beach Police Capt. RaShana Dabney-Donovan."

There is so much hatred for Jewish people out there right now, and the recent military conflict in the Middle East brought much of it to the surface. In Brooklyn, a man named Ali Alaheri was arrested after he purposely set fire to a synagogue and a Jewish school… "A New York man was charged Saturday with setting fire to a synagogue and Jewish school in Brooklyn earlier in the week. Ali Alaheri, 29, is accused of torching the Jewish center near Borough Park at around 4am on Wednesday. The building suffered some damage before firefighters put the fire out."

I keep telling my readers that I have never seen more hate in America as I am seeing right now, and these are yet more examples that prove my point. Sadly, the level of hatred is likely to go even higher as our society comes apart at the seams in the months and years ahead. As our major cities devolve into lawless wastelands, what are you and your family going to do? Do you plan to stick it out, hoping that things will eventually “return to normal”? That will be the choice for a lot of people, and many of them will deeply regret going that route.

Others anticipate that they will just rely on their “survival skills” if things get crazy enough, but one new survey has found that most Americans are severely lacking in such skills… "Are you ready for life as a “Mountain Man” (or woman)? Apparently, the average American thinks they are, even if most can’t even start a fire! A new study finds the average American thinks they can survive for 16 days alone in the wilderness. The survey of 2,000 people reveals Americans feel quite at ease with the idea of surviving in the wild. However, only 17 percent feel “very confident” in their ability to start a fire with flint. Moreover, just 14 percent feel the same about their ability to identify edible plants or berries in nature."

The truth is that most people don’t have any sort of a detailed plan for what is ahead, because most people still believe that everything is going to work out just fine somehow. Meanwhile, our cities are becoming more lawless by the day, and the last 12 months have clearly demonstrated that it doesn’t take much to push the restless populations of those cities over the edge and into violence."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Keep on Truckin’"

"Keep on Truckin’"

By Bill Bonner

"Truckin’, like the do-dah man

Once told me “You’ve got to play your hand”

Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime

If you don’t lay ‘em down."

– "Truckin’," by Grateful Dead

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "In the year we were born – 1948 – the Ford F-Series pickup truck also made its debut. The old stove kept on trucking – with incremental improvements – over the next 72 years. The improvements were the natural consequence of technological innovations, which were incorporated into the truck design as they came along. Electric windows, power brakes, power steering, automatic transmissions, big, comfy, power-adjusted seats – these upgrades are now the source of sterile argument in the economics profession.

There are those who believe that the real price of a new truck should be adjusted downward because it is a better truck today than it was in 1948. “You get more for your money,” they say. “So inflation is not as bad as it looks.” And there are those who think a price is a price. (More on that in a future Diary.)

Rising Prices: What people care about is not their absolute wealth (how rich they are compared to a savage 10,000 years ago… or an F-Series buyer in 1948), but how rich they are compared to other groups around them, or to their own brothers-in-law. It is galling to see others get richer than you are… especially when you think they might be up to something. It is even more annoying to see yourself getting poorer, as prices rise faster than your income. And it is alarming to see your country driven into the ditch by the doo-dah diddleheads in Washington.

The recent numbers, for example, show food prices rising. The price of bacon rose 87 cents per pound in the last year, or 16.3%, according to Porkbusiness.com. At $6.22 per pound, bacon is just below its 2017 all-time high of $6.36. Retail pork prices set an all-time high of $4.32 per pound in April (up 11% on the year).

And then there’s beef. Retail prices for choice beef hit $6.76 per pound in April. Except for the period between May and July of last year – when everyone was stocking up on beef for lockdowns – that’s the highest price on record, according to Steiner Consulting. Boneless choice sirloin steaks are now at least $9.34 per pound in some American grocery stores (8.7% higher than a year ago).

Housing prices are rising even faster.  And let’s not forget the year-over-year increase of 19.1% in median U.S. house prices for existing homes. That median price is now $341,600, an all-time high. And the 19.1% increase was the biggest year-over-year price gain on record. The previous year-over-year record was 16.6% in 2005 – two years before the housing bubble burst and triggered a Global Financial Crisis. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that wages for private industry workers increased 2.8% in 2020. So housing is going up nearly seven times faster than incomes.

And the Wall Street Journal adds more detail: "Home prices in the U.S. have shot up in the past year, driven by limited supply, record-low interest rates and buyer demand. Bidding wars have spread from such high-profile locations as Palm Beach, Fla., and the suburbs outside New York City to smaller cities and towns, including long-neglected locales where properties typically sat on the market for months.

The median listed price for a house jumped 24% in January from a year earlier in the metropolitan area surrounding Allentown, [PA] the Rust-Belt city whose decline was memorialized in a 1982 Billy Joel song, according to data from Realtor.com. It was the same in such spots as Martin, Tenn., a small city 150 miles from Nashville, where the median asking price went up 159% over the same period; in Kendallville, Ind., about 30 miles outside Fort Wayne, it climbed 56%."

Unaffordable Housing: These prices were no accident. They were caused by the Federal Reserve. It pushed down interest rates (just as it did before the housing bubble of 2005-2007), thus making housing speculation attractive. Many of the buyers are large corporations. They can borrow money at near-negative rates. Then, they can rent the houses out for a huge return on capital. Or they can sell them. If they borrow at 3%… and housing goes up at 19% – they enjoy a 16% win… and an almost infinite gain on real investment.

Houses today are bigger, with air-conditioning and indoor plumbing. But in terms of price and time (the ultimate… and immutable… “money”), housing is once again becoming unaffordable. In 1971, when the fake-money system began, you could buy the typical American house for about $25,000. Today, it’s almost 14 times as much.

In 1971, the average American worker earned around $3.60 per hour. So it would have taken him 173 weeks (at 40 hours per week) to buy the average house. Today, the average wage is about $25 per hour. At that rate, he’ll have to work 341 weeks to buy the house. Yes, the new house may be “better”… but so what? Existing houses – including those built before 1971 – are also expensive. And maybe – with their solid wood doors… hardwood floors… and brass fittings – even better.

More Expensive Wheels: So let’s turn to transportation. Last Wednesday, Ford unveiled its radical new F-150 Lightning. It’s all electric, with a 300-mile range on the “extended” battery version. It also allows you to work power saws and other machinery directly from the pickup, without needing a generator.

It looks like a nice truck. And with the tax credits, the basic model can be cheaper than a gasoline-powered model. Ford took more than 44,000 orders for the new truck within 48 hours of the launch. The list price is “around $40,000,” we were told. So let’s look at that in terms of time. At today’s $25-per-hour wage, it will take a working man 40 weeks to buy his new electric wheels.

Back in 1971, the old-fashioned, carbon-burning, “fifth generation” F-100 cost about $2,300. Divide that by the $3.60 wage… and you get 639 hours… or just under 16 weeks! Is the new electric model really worth nearly three times as much time? It’s got plenty of “electronics.” But our experience is that the electronics are often time wasters. They make things hard to figure out… and impossible to fix. And charging a big battery takes time. Should that be added to the cost?

Relatively Poorer: And if the cost of food, shelter, and transportation is going up – in terms of the time it takes to get them – aren’t we getting absolutely poorer, not richer? And if that is so, how come? The U.S. empire is the richest in history. But that doesn’t make it immune to the traps and temptations that have bedeviled all previous empires – including the obvious one, fake money. And even with technological progress continuing to make most things absolutely cheaper, and more abundant… man – aided and guided by his jackass elites – can still make a terrible mess of things. Stay tuned."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

○

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/25/21: "INCREDIBLE! Today the Fed. Says: 'INFLATION IS NOT REAL.'"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/25/21:

"INCREDIBLE! Today the Fed. Says: 'INFLATION IS NOT REAL.'"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Warnings Of A Dramatic Inflationary Collapse Just Keep Getting Louder"

"Warnings Of A Dramatic Inflationary 

Collapse Just Keep Getting Louder"

by Michael Snyder

"Signs of impending economic doom continue to grow all around us. For years, highly respected experts have been warning about the steady destruction of our standard of living and the death of the U.S. dollar. Perhaps you didn’t listen to those voices at first, and that is understandable. Most Americans have their hands full making a living and taking care of their families. But then housing prices started to go absolutely nuts, health costs continued to spiral out of control and a trip to the grocery store just kept getting more painful. At this point, nobody can honestly deny that inflation has become a major problem.

But even though the chorus of voices that is warning of a dramatic inflationary collapse is growing by the day, the Federal Reserve just keeps pumping more giant piles of money into the financial system, and the federal government continues to engage in the most reckless spending binge in the entirety of U.S. history.

Despite the utterly insane policies of our “leaders”, the U.S. economy continues to languish in economic purgatory. Trillions upon trillions of dollars have been poured into the economy, and yet the U.S. still has 8.2 million fewer jobs than it did last February. They had hoped to create an “economic boom”, but instead they are setting the stage for an implosion of epic proportions. In fact, John Williams of shadowstats.com insists that we are “eventually headed into a hyperinflationary economic collapse”…

So, is the choice inflation or implosion? Williams says, “That’s the choice, and I think we are going to have a combination of both of them. I think we are eventually headed into a hyperinflationary economic collapse. It’s not that we haven’t been in an economic collapse already, we are coming back some now. The Fed has been creating money at a pace that has never been seen before. You are basically up 75% (in money creation) year over year. This is unprecedented. Normally, it might be up 1% or 2% year over year. The exploding money supply will lead to inflation. I am not saying we are going to get to 75% inflation - yet, but you are getting up to the 4% or 5% range, and you are soon going to be seeing 10% range year over year. The Fed has lost control of inflation.”

And remember, when the Fed has to admit the official inflation rate is 10%, John Williams says, “When they have to admit the inflation rate is 10%, my number is going to be up to around 15% or higher. My number rides on top of their number.”

You don’t want to believe Williams? That is fine. He has just been right time after time over the years. But feel free to ignore him if you wish.

If you are determined to ignore the truth, you probably will not like what Egon von Greyerz is saying either… "As technological developments and markets go parabolic, we observe many market “experts,” even intelligent ones, forecasting that we are now in an exponential economic era. Thus many believe that this will go on forever. This is the typical attitude at market and economic tops and guarantees that THIS WILL NOT END WELL!

It is clearly absolute nonsense to believe that exponential expansion based on deficits, debts and fake money is the beginning of a new era. Anyone studying the economy and history of markets knows that exponential moves indicate the end of an era and not the beginning. As I have repeatedly said, history is our best teacher and it both rhymes and repeats itself. And history now gives us dire warnings."

If you wish to reject what these experts are telling us, can you point to another time in history when officials have wildly created new money and everything has turned out just great? “New money” is always such a tempting solution, because every time it always seems to work at the beginning. It is kind of like a tonic that instantly makes you feel better for a few hours but that ultimately kills you in the end as you keep taking it.

Now that we have greatly accelerated our journey toward an inflationary collapse, even Warren Buffett has started to sound the alarm… “We are seeing substantial inflation,” Warren Buffett told attendees at last week’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. “We are raising prices. People are raising prices to us, and it’s being accepted.”

Ordinary Americans are searching for “inflation” online more frequently now than they have in more than a decade, data from Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid shows. But CNN insists that everything is going to be just fine. So that means that we don’t have anything to be concerned about, right?

Personally, I am deeply concerned about the second half of this calendar year, and it appears that I am not the only one. Billionaires and corporate insiders have been offloading stocks at a very brisk pace in recent weeks… "When the country’s CEOs and billionaires start to head to the exits a little bit quicker than usual at the tail end of a 13 year bull market, it may be time to start paying attention."

That’s what we found noteworthy about a recent Bloomberg piece, which noted that stock sales by some of the world’s richest shareholders are “reaping a windfall”, thanks to our current inflated equity markets, “to the tune of trillions”. Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and Google co-founder Sergey Brin are just two of the well known names that have been offloading stock. They are joined by names like Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison.

If you have been snoozing for the last few years, now is the time to wake up. Because we are steamrolling toward an economic implosion that will make the history books, and our economic problems are just one element of the “perfect storm” that our society is facing. But a lot of people out there are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming, because they have no interest in listening to the warnings. Instead, they have placed their trust in the talking heads that the corporate media puts on television, and those talking heads keep assuring us that everything is going to be just fine."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Musical Interlude: James Taylor, "You Can Close Your Eyes"

"You Can Close Your Eyes"

"Well the sun is surely sinking down, but the moon is slowly rising.

So this old world must still be spinning round, and I still love you.

So close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right.

I don't know no love songs, and I can't sing the blues anymore.

But I can sing this song, and you can sing this song, when I'm gone.

It won't be long before another day, we gonna have a good time.

And no one's gonna take that time away. You can stay as long as you like.

So close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right.

I don't know no love songs, and I can't sing the blues anymore.

But I can sing this song, and you can sing this song, when I'm gone."

- James Taylor

Musical Interlude: Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Large galaxies and faint nebulae highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image. M81 is gravitationally interacting with M82 just below it, a big galaxy with an unusual halo of filamentary red-glowing gas.

Around the image many other galaxies from the M81 Group of galaxies can be seen. Together with other galaxy congregates including our Local Group of galaxies and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the M81 Group is part of the expansive Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies. This whole galaxy menagerie is seen through the faint glow of an Integrated Flux Nebula, a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our Milky Way Galaxy."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080512.html

The Poet: James Broughton, "Quit Your Addiction"

"Quit Your Addiction"

“Quit your addiction

to sneer and complaint.

Try a little flaunt,

Call for comrades

who bolster your vim

and offer you risk.

Corral the crones,

Goose the nice nellies,

Hunt the bear that hugs

and the raven that quoths.

Stay up all night

to devise a new dawn...”

- James Broughton,

“Little Sermons of the Big Joy”

"Eventually You Understand..."

"That's where it all begins. That's where we all get screwed big time as we grow up. They tell us to think, but they don't really mean it. They only want us to think within the boundaries they define. The moment you start thinking for yourself- really thinking- so many things stop making any sense. And if you keep thinking, the whole world just falls apart. Nothing makes sense anymore. All rules, traditions, expectations- they all start looking so fake, so made up. You want to just get rid of all this stuff and make things right. But the moment you say it, they tell you to shut up and be respectful. And eventually you understand that nobody wants you to really think for yourself.”

- Ray N. Kuili, “Awakening"

"25 Basic Skills You Should Master To Prepare For The Imminent Economic Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

"25 Basic Skills You Should Master To 

Prepare For The Imminent Economic Collapse"

by Epic Economist

"Wildfires, storms, floods, pest infestations, supply chain disruptions, and economic collapse can all happen unexpectedly. A disaster - whether is natural or a result of human actions - can turn life upside down and change society as we know it in a blink of an eye. Here in the United States, we have experienced all of those calamities over the past year and we became unpleasantly aware of how our leaders are unprepared to handle a national emergency. Threats of economic collapse continue to emerge as our country's vulnerabilities have been exposed to the whole world. And this might be particularly dangerous at a time of growing tensions with other economic superpowers because now they know where our blind spots are at. And as the entire globe is fragilized and leading economies are facing steep recessions, our resource-rich country becomes an obvious target. The last thing you want to do is to wait until things have gone wrong to start acting.

We have been facing exceedingly tough challenges over the past 17 months, and we've learned the hard way how much a single disaster or disruption can impact everyone's lives. And there are many more challenges ahead as we approach another season of extreme weather conditions, while widespread shortages are getting even worse, civil turbulence continues to erupt across major cities and our power grid and water systems remain vulnerable to external attacks. But something we do not need to learn the hard way is how life can radically change in a snap of fingers. It's possible to prepare in advance and to set our minds into learning skills that can ensure our survival. So that when things go south you won't get desperate trying to do everything you postponed all at once, you will only have to readapt your mindset, grab your essentials and head out.

Developing the mental and emotional capabilities needed to make it through times of crisis are also survival skills that can be learned. Many may think that this sort of ability will come naturally, as we often adapt to situations that arise unexpectedly. However, when a disaster occurs, it might become extremely hard to keep calm and to think clearly amid the rising chaos. Having some techniques of situational awareness in mind will allow you to assess the situation you're in with more care and will definitely be of great advantage to you.

We have previously discussed about the supplies you will need to ensure your survival after the imminent economic catastrophe, but just as important are the skills you need to develop to adapt to any situation and any place you're in. Supplies may be incredibly helpful, but they can be stolen, burn, or lost in a storm, but the knowledge and skills you have will stay with you no matter what. That's why today, we listed 25 basic skills you need to master before the next economic collapse or any type of disaster. Take some time to learn them and also stimulate your family members or your group members to learn them as well.

The time to get ready for the next economic collapse is not after it has already happened. It’s right now. So don't wait until it's too late, check out this list and start preparing today."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

The Daily "Near You?"

Koln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Thanks for stopping by!

"How They Use Fear to Control You"

Full screen recommended.

Sofo Archon, 

"How They Use Fear to Control You"

"Whether you know it or not, fear is constantly being used against you."

"Happy Birthday"

"Happy Birthday"

by Jim Kunstler

"We step back from the disorders and idiocies of the moment to wish Bob Dylan a happy 80th birthday. He entered the scene in a previous moment of national disorder, the Sixties, as we call that wild era when we Boomers came of age and turned the world inside out for a while, flinging our ids into a raging zeitgeist. Bob was actually a little older, not quite a boomer, born seven months before the US entered World War Two.

This is important because he was poised perfectly on the front end of that breaking wave in a particular way that I will try to explain. When he stole into New York City from his Midwest Nowheresville in the winter of 1961, he was unformed, ambitious, intelligent, cunning, and not yet grown up. He did his growing up in public over the next decade. He acted it out in the songs he wrote. It was the essence of what he meant to those of us who trailed behind him. He instructed us in the mystery of what it means to come through adolescence into consciousness, and he did it with a matchless artistry that, once he got traction, made his competitors look barely adequate. It’s easy to understand how being cast in that role irked him, but that’s how it was.

It was Bob who turned the long-playing record album into the art-form of my generation. Before that, the pop music scene in America just amounted to different sorts of adolescent fluff, clichéd hormonal yearnings of boys and girls for each other. It was a long way from the Everlys’ “Wake Up Little Susie” to Bob’s “Visions of Johanna.” He was twenty-four when he wrote it in late 1965 (and then recorded it in February, 1966). Twenty-four is about the age when the judgment region of the human brain finally develops, and the song spells out vividly the jarring wonder of becoming a fully-equipped adult - and recognizing it! The subject of the song isn’t a girl anymore, she’s a woman, with such cosmic ramifications that “the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.”

Lyrics like that - and Bob generated them by the bale then - just made everybody else’s songs seem a little lightweight and silly. The Beatles came close around exactly the same time with their venture into songs of full-fledged adulthood in the album Rubber Soul, but they were not able to bring the focus of a single sensibility to it the way Bob did, and they knew it.

Anyway, Bob had been leading up to that for years lyrically. He had a comfortable childhood back in Minnesota, but it was a harsh place. He absorbed that and summed it up with dazzling concision and specificity in songs like “North Country Blues” about a failing family in a failing town where the iron ore mines are shutting down and there is no such thing anymore as the future. Similarly, “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” which is the story of a despairing farmer who kills himself and his family of six out on the lonesome South Dakota prairie. These were stories about other people and other lives, reportage from the scene, with more resonance than Walter Cronkite could ever hope to bring to it.

When Bob wrote about himself and his own strange journey, more and more he populated that dreamscape with a hallucinatory cast of characters: dwarves, madonnas, hermit monks, cowboy angels, drunken politicians, Napoleon-in-Rags, the mystery tramp… Imagine how weird it was to be Bob in those few years. He barely had to struggle to become famous, was rolling in dough before he was twenty-five, and had every jerk-off workaday Johnny journalist tugging at sleeve whenever he left the house begging him to explain how the world worked. No wonder he played cute with them, claimed he was “just a song-and-dance man,” when everybody knew better. And amazingly, he pulled it off.

Once he completed that transformation into adulthood, he had pretty much done his duty, and everything after that has been a long coda, with not a few flashes of the old brilliance like these stupendous lyrics from his 1985 song “Dark Eyes”:

A cock is crowing far away and another soldier’s deep in prayer,
Some mother’s child has gone astray, she can’t find him anywhere.
But I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise,
Whom nature’s beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes

Sounds like what’s going on ‘out there’ right now, don’t you think? He deserved that Nobel Prize. I’m glad he’s persevered through all these years and still goes on stage and keeps putting out tunes. I met him once back in 1975 when I worked for Rolling Stone Magazine. It was after a benefit concert in San Francisco in the Fairmont Hotel. I couldn’t help greeting him like an old friend, and was foolishly surprised to realize that he didn’t know me from a hole in the wall. Anyway, I’m glad we shared these decades together on this marvelous planet and I salute him on his birthday for what he gave that has lived inside me all these years."

- https://kunstler.com/

"Here's A Question..."

“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like – people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore – to control your life? How long?”

- Andy Stanley

“That goes for old wounds, too, you know. I really wish we’d had the chance to talk before this,” he says, cracking the window so the smoke can escape. “There’s a Longfellow quote I have stuck on my bulletin board at the church office – ‘There is no grief like the grief that does not speak’ – and it’s true. I’ve found that keeping pain inside doesn’t give it a chance to heal, but bringing it out into the light, holding it right there in your hands and trusting that you’re strong enough to make it through, not hating the pain, not loving it, just seeing it for what it really is can change how you go on from there. Time alone doesn’t heal emotional wounds, and you don’t want to live the rest of your life bottled up with anger and guilt and bitterness. That’s how people self-destruct.”

- Laura Wiess

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/24/21: "Must Know Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/24/21:

"Must Know Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/