"Shortages Are Getting Worse As The Global Supply Chain Crisis Enters An Ominous New Chapter"

Full screen recommended.

"Shortages Are Getting Worse As The Global 

Supply Chain Crisis Enters An Ominous New Chapter"

by Michael Snyder

"All of the shortages were supposed to be gone by now. During the first half of 2021, the blind optimists were assuring us that by the end of the year the pandemic would be over, the spike in inflation would have proven to be “transitory”, the global supply chain crisis would be resolved, and the U.S. economy would be booming. Of course the truth is that none of those things happened. In fact, overall conditions are even worse than they were six months ago. Now we are heading into 2022, and even the optimists are finding it difficult to say anything positive about the coming year.

What is 2022 going to look like if global supply chain problems continue to intensify? Not since World War II have we seen anything like the long-term shortages that we are now experiencing, and for many people this has been deeply frustrating.

For example, a lot of pet owners have been dealing with severe pet food shortages for months, and those shortages just seem to keep getting even worse. The following comes from a Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Pet-Food Shortage Is Real, and Owners Are Scrambling”… "After an online order didn’t show on time, Phyllis Pometta stopped at five different stores before she hit pay dirt. There it was on the shelf: beef stew-flavored dog food. Ms. Pometta scooped up about four cans, which weren’t her preferred brand. She was desperate, with supplies of the food she usually bought for her dog nowhere to be found online or in stores."

These shortages are not just limited to a few areas of the country. This is truly a nationwide phenomenon, and experts agree that it isn’t going to end any time soon. Meanwhile, we are now being told that our nation is in the midst of “the great Candy Cane Crisis of 2021”…"And now we’re apparently in the thick of what the New York Post has called “the great Candy Cane Crisis of 2021.” According to the outlet, some retailers haven’t been able to keep candy canes in stock, due to a combination of ongoing supply chain issues and a downturn in this year’s peppermint crop. “We only received half of our candy cane order for the holiday season and sold out almost immediately. We currently have zero in stock,” Mitchell Cohen, the owner of New York City’s Economy Candy, told The Post."

I never imagined that I would be writing about a candy cane shortage in December 2021, but here we are. And for those that like to get drunk during the holiday season, we are also facing a growing nationwide shortage of beer…"Having a hard time finding your favorite craft beer? It could be part of the aluminum shortage, but the price of ingredients for beer is also skyrocketing due to supply chain issues throughout the world." If this particular shortage continues to get worse, what will alcoholics all over America do in the months ahead?

Over in Japan, they are facing a different sort of a crisis. A lack of potatoes is forcing McDonald’s to start rationing french fries…"A ‘fry-tening’ supply chain problem has materialized for McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan is forcing it to ration french fries for at least a week due to a potatoes shortage. Beginning on Friday, Japanese consumers desiring a classic Big Mac will be barred from ordering medium- and large-sized french fries. They will be only allowed to order small french fries as the company blames massive flooding in Vancouver for its soggy mess and attempts to source spuds elsewhere."

The good news is that the Japanese tend to be quite polite, and so a lack of fries probably won’t start any riots. But if we had to start rationing fries here in the United States, it would be a completely different story.

On the other side of the globe, the energy crisis in Europe went to an entirely new level this week…"Europe’s energy crisis got even worse on Tuesday as a shortage of natural gas, nuclear outages, declining wind power output, and cold weather boosted prices. The gas price at the Dutch TTF hub, the benchmark gas price for Europe, soared 10% to a new record high of 165 euros per megawatt-hour after gas entering Germany at the Mallnow compressor station plunged to zero. Flows were diverted eastward to Poland." Energy prices in Europe are now rising at an exponential rate, and that is going to mean a very cold winter for a whole lot of people.

I would like to tell you that these problems are going to go away in 2022, but I can’t. Instead, it appears that our supply chain issues may continue to escalate.

One of the largest grocery store chains here in the United States began limiting purchases of certain food items prior to Thanksgiving, and then they made the list of restricted items quite a bit longer for the Christmas season…"Publix, which has more than 1,280 stores in the southern U.S., started limiting purchases of canned cranberry sauce, gravy, canned pie filling ahead of Thanksgiving. It has expanded its list of limited-purchase products ahead of Christmas to include sports drinks, half-and-half creamers, bacon, toilet paper, disposable plates, vegetable oils and cat food. “Due to ongoing supply issues and increased holiday demand, we have updated our purchase limits,” Maria Brous, Publix director of communications, told USA TODAY, adding most products on the list are limited to two of each item including cat food variety packs."

But widespread rationing is perfectly normal, right? The American people showed a great deal of patience early in this crisis, but now they are getting very restless, and many are blaming Joe Biden for our woes.

In fact, CNN is reporting that Joe Biden now has the lowest economic approval rating of any president since Jimmy Carter in 1977…"Biden now sports the lowest net economic rating of any president at this point through their first term since at least Jimmy Carter in 1977. In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden comes in with a 44% approval rating to 55% disapproval rating among registered voters on his economic performance. This makes for a -9 point net approval rating. The average of all polls taken in December is quite similar with Biden at -13 points on the economy."

And another recent survey found that seven out of every ten Americans believe that 2021 was a bad year for our country…"The new Fox Business survey of registered voters finds 70 percent say 2021 was a clunker for the country. While that is better than the 78 percent who felt that way about 2020, it’s still much worse than the 38 percent who called 2019 bad."

In addition, 55 percent feel this was a bad year for them personally. That too is an improvement from a high of 67 percent last year, but a far more negative assessment than in December 2019, before the pandemic started, when just a quarter said the same (26 percent). It has definitely been a very tough year for most Americans, and so many of us are desperately hoping for a major turnaround in 2022. But that isn’t going to happen.

It has taken decades of exceedingly foolish decisions to get us to this point, and an incredible amount of pain awaits us as we continue to steamroll down the path that we are currently on. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Powell, Yellen, Fauci and all of our other “leaders” in Washington are absolutely clueless. And if you actually believe that they can navigate us out of this mess, you are clueless too.

The blind are leading the blind, and most Americans don’t even realize that they are leading us right into a horrifying economic abyss."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

Gerald Celente And The Judge, "The US Government Hates Christmas"

Gerald Celente And The Judge,

"The US Government Hates Christmas"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Musical Interlude: Flash And The Pan, "Hey, St Peter"

Flash And The Pan, "Hey, St Peter"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What will become of our Sun? The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky - and visible toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars.

It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210712.html

"Doug Casey on How Marxists Captured the Universities and Will Soon Capture the Nation"

"Doug Casey on How Marxists Captured the

 Universities and Will Soon Capture the Nation"

by Internationalman.com

"International Man: Communist and socialist ideas are growing in popularity among the millennial and Gen Z generations. In fact, the majority of young people dislike capitalism and favor a more socialist or even a communist economic system. This is evidenced by the rise of politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) and The Squad. What’s your take on this?

Doug Casey: The youth are being corrupted, and it’s more serious than ever. Although I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek since people have probably thought the youth were becoming degenerate since about day one.

For instance, one of the two charges against Socrates when he was executed in Ancient Greece was corrupting the youth. Older people always think the youth are foolish, ignorant, lazy, crazy and generally taking the world to hell in a handbasket. And, of course, many of their charges are, and always have been, true. But as kids get older, they generally get wiser, more knowledgeable, harder-working, and more prudent—nothing new here. The world has survived roughly 250 new generations since civilization began in Sumer 5,000 years ago. And it will likely survive this one too.

That’s the bright side. And, as you know, I always look on the bright side. But, on the other hand, the American university system has been totally captured by Cultural Marxists, socialists, statists, collectivists, promoters of identity politics, and people of that ilk. These people hate Western Civilization and its values and are actively trying to destroy them. My view is that this challenge is perhaps the most serious we’ve ever encountered, and the dangers are greatly amplified by advancing technology.

International Man: What role are Western universities playing? How is this shaping current and future generations?

Doug Casey: Universities have been totally transformed in many ways over the past century, and it’s been for the worst in every instance. When the average 18-year-old goes to college, he knows very little about how the world works in general. He’s got vague ideas he picked up mostly from TV, movies, and people who got a job teaching high school. They know basically nothing about economics, government, or history. Worse, what they think they know is mostly wrong. That makes them easy prey for professors with totally bent views to indoctrinate them.

It’s not so much that they’re taught inaccurate facts. There are plenty of "factoids" (artificial facts), of course—like the War Between the States (which shouldn’t be called the Civil War) was mainly fought to free the slaves. Or that Keynesian economics is correct. Or that the US is a democracy ruled by "We the People." And many, many more. But that’s just part of the problem.

It’s not just the factoids they’re taught. It’s the way the schools interpret actual facts and the kind of meaning they infuse into events. The "why?" of events is twisted, and concepts of good and evil are perverted. The education system has been almost completely captured by Marxists and other leftists. They’re in a position to indoctrinate the youth, and they use that power to the maximum. Once a kid’s thoughts are bent—much the way a tree can be bent as a sapling—in one direction or another, it’s very hard to straighten them out.

Of course, that leads to the question of whether the youth should be directed one way or another in the first place. Which values are "right" or "wrong?" I certainly have views on that subject, but this isn’t the place to go into them—beyond saying that basic values are too important to be left to random government employees.

The real problem, however, is that today’s education does not teach critical thinking. Rather just the opposite is true. Students are taught blind acceptance of what’s currently considered politically correct. Instead of questioning authority in a peaceful and rational manner—which is what Socrates did—the current idea is to prevent any divergent views from even being discussed. The professors are basically all socialists, and the kids tend to believe what they’re taught. Those views are reinforced by the other sources of information surrounding them—Hollywood, mass media, and the government itself.

Destructive ideas usually start with "intellectuals." Intellectuals typically despise business, commerce, and production, and they envy the money the capitalists have. Intellectuals feel they’re not only smarter but also much more moral than business people. That gives them the right, in their own eyes, to dictate to everyone else. They’re usually socialists, and approve of "cadres" like themselves, ordering everyone else around. Intellectuals naturally gravitate to the universities, where they’re paid to hang out with each other, be lionized by kids, and hatch goofy ideas.

This has always been the case. But it’s become a much bigger problem than in the past, partly because a much, much higher percentage of kids go to college now than ever before. Even in the recent past, at most five or 10 percent of kids went to college. These days, almost everybody goes, and a much higher proportion of the youth are being infected with leftist memes than ever before.

Some kids will grow out of it and realize that most of what they’ve paid an exorbitant amount of money to learn is nonsense. But most will reflexively defend what they were taught in the cocoon. And I’m afraid those people now make up a big chunk of the U.S. population.

Kids who are polled say that they think socialism is good.. I suspect the polls are accurate. And even if they don’t think it, almost all of them feel it—although few know the difference between thinking and feeling … If you’re brought up thinking that the values of socialism and the welfare state are good, and everyone around you believes in them, the chances are you will too.

International Man: What are your thoughts on the emphasis on identity politics and the concept of "white privilege?"

Doug Casey: Identity politics is essentially the idea that a person is first and foremost a member of some race or ethnicity and only secondarily an individual. In recent years, most people have been indoctrinated indirectly and directly, subtly and overtly, to believe white people and the civilization they created are bad. The meme is everywhere. They’ve come to believe Western Civilization is a bad thing and that white people are destroying the world.

Even if they don’t want to believe it because the concept is so stupid and so utterly contrafactual, they end up accepting it just because they’ve heard it over and over. Propaganda works. Memes that originated with intellectuals in universities have thoroughly infiltrated the mass media and the entertainment industry. It’s perverse how today’s "thought leaders" overwhelmingly think the same thing.

There’s been no defense at all—forget about a counterattack—from so-called capitalists and business leaders. All they’re interested in is making money. In fact, they not only accept the ideas but contribute money to the causes of their enemies, idiotically thinking that virtue-signaling will placate them. It’s an unfortunate fact that business people, especially the suits managing large corporations, don’t really care how they make money. They tend to be completely amoral or immoral philistines and political hacks. They look like hypocrites and are (correctly) held in contempt by the intellectuals. The corporate types are happy to work with and for their counterparts in government, which is exactly what the fascism of Mussolini advocated. They self-righteously make charitable contributions to universities and NGOs, subsidizing the source of the poison.

There’s almost no defense of the ideas that brought us Western Civilization, which is responsible for just about everything that’s good in the world. I’m not kidding when I make that assertion. With the exception of a few anomalies like Taoism, martial arts, yoga, and Oriental cooking, East minus West equals zero. Without it, the whole world would resemble Africa, Cambodia, or Mongolia—not even today, but 200 years ago. Ideas like individualism, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, science, rationality, and capitalism are products of Western Civilization. These concepts no longer have any defenders anywhere. They’re under attack everywhere.

International Man: What do you think the impact of this will be on the markets and the economy?

Doug Casey: I’m bearish, Especially for the near term since actual Jacobins are in charge in Washington. How can the markets be healthy when what passes for a ruling class in the West actually hate themselves and middle class is collapsing economically and psychologically? When, political entrepreneurship is valued more than making money through production, When the currency is being actively destroyed to prop up what has become a very corrupt political system?

In fact, the economy and the markets are the least of our problems. The very foundation of civilization itself is under attack. The widespread acceptance of destructive statist and collectivist ideas is serious. The consequences will be the same here as they were in Russia under the Soviets, in Germany under the Nazis, and in China under Mao. The situation may be even more serious since the idea of Western Civilization itself is under serious attack in the U.S., which has been the bulwark for the last century. So, excuse my bearishness, but I think it’s warranted."

- internationalman.com

"We Have A Fear..."

"We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and

the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves

because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together."

- Terence McKenna

"Standing Up When It’s Too Late"

"Standing Up When It’s Too Late"

By JR Nyquist

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

○

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- http://usawatchdog.com/

"Bound for Collision"

"Bound for Collision"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland... "It could be almost anything, of course. A stock market crash. A sharp rise in bond yields. Extreme weather. A new ‘variant.’ The omicron variant, for example. An internet search this morning turned up a total worldwide death count of 8 people, 7 in the UK and 1 in Texas. Not exactly the end of the world.

But when you have a degenerate empire sinking into an abyss, you go with the emergency you have on hand. And those are just the known unknowns. As for the unknown unknowns, the woods are full of them. Today, we return to one of the most plausible… and most alarming.

The Fed claims it has begun a tightening cycle. That means, it will be throwing less gasoline on the inflation fire than before – but still about $3 billion per day of new money. It says it will reduce the amount of new money creation gradually, and then stop it altogether in March of next year. Then, it will consider raising its key lending rate - the real rate, adjusted for inflation, is currently 6.5% below zero.

No serious person believes these baby steps will relieve the upward pressure on prices. Certainly, investors don’t believe it. Yesterday, shaking off Monday’s shivers, they bid up stocks… as if they hadn’t a care in the world. And the Biden Administration, backed by the Democratic party, and the whole elite establishment, says what is needed is more spending, not less. There are more emergencies that need to be met – with money, of course. ‘Social infrastructure.’ Covid. Climate change. A record Pentagon budget… and maybe even war with Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran.

Fitter, Happier, More Productive: According to the fantasy, more boondoggles will contribute to growth, which as we all know, is the same as progress - with a chicken in every pot… free lunches all around… diversity, equality and equity for all, necking in the parlor and dancing in the street. As to ‘growth,’ the idea that a group of politicians can create real economic progress by printing up money and passing it out to their cronies, friends, and pet projects has been around for a long time. But if they could really do that... what have they been waiting for?

Of course, they haven’t waited at all. In this century, the US government, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve, stimulated ‘growth’ more than any time in America’s history. US debt has grown by more than $23 trillion since 1999 – a 300% increase.

Click image for larger size.

Source: US Federal Reserve

But look out the window. Do you see dancing in the streets? Are people more prosperous than they were in 1999? Happier? Freer? We didn’t think so either. Instead, the rich got richer… growth rates fell… and markets became more bizarre and erratic. Wall Street had to be bailed out… in the emergency of the housing debt crisis of 2008-2009.

And then, the whole economy had to be bailed out in the Covid shutdown emergency of 2020 and on... and on... And now, the public, betrayed by its leaders and now bearing the cost of so much ‘emergency’ spending, in the form of higher consumer prices, is becoming surly and ill-tempered.

But steeped in the holiday spirit, as we are, we are loath to sink into a pit of despair and spoil Christmas. We’ll save that for January… This week, we’ll just keep rolling merrily along, doing our best to keep a straight face and a positive attitude. But just to give us all a fair warning, we see a very dangerous intersection ahead – and a new emergency.

Out of Energy: From one direction come 7 billion people… almost everyone of whom depends on the traditional fossil fuel that made our modern economy possible. From the other comes the feds’ inflation…distorting the prices that the energy industry needs to keep supply in balance with demand. And there… at the crossroads itself… is the US government directing traffic!

We hardly need to say so, but in today’s world – distributing food, providing shelter, and delivering energy – with its factories, trucks, tractors, electric lines – runs mostly on fossil fuels. Take them away, suddenly or haphazardly, and the result is likely to be widespread misery. The delivery mechanism for energy, as for other things, is exceedingly complex… with millions of components all working together, all over the world, with different climates, different religions, different languages… and all guided by prices. If prices go up… supplies generally follow. If they go down, so too go supplies.

But now, a menace we haven’t seen, in the USA, for nearly half a century – inflation – is corrupting price signals. Suddenly, prices are going all over the place. The price for a gallon of gasoline, for example, gained more than 50% over the previous year. And last week, Goldman Sachs’ head of energy research said the price of oil could go to $100 a barrel next year.

But instead of going up, in response to higher prices, energy supplies are headed down. Rystad Energy: "Global oil and gas discoveries in 2021 are on track to hit their lowest full-year level in 75 years should the remainder of December fail to yield any significant finds, Rystad Energy analysis shows. As of the end of November, total global discovered volumes this year are calculated at 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and, with no major finds announced so far this month, the industry is on course for its worst discoveries toll since 1946. This would also represent a considerable drop from the 12.5 billion boe unearthed in 2020."

After working so fluidly for more than a century, with only very few problems, all of a sudden it looks like supply and demand are bound for a collision. That will be a genuine emergency. Stay tuned..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

“The Wit and Wisdom of Will Rogers”

“The Wit and Wisdom of Will Rogers”

by Tom Purcell

"Things are mighty heated these days. Tempers are flaring and minds 

are closed. Here’s the solution: the wit and wisdom of Will Rogers.

“The short memory of voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

“We’ve got the best politicians that money can buy.”

“A fool and his money are soon elected.”

Rogers spoke these words during the Great Depression, but they’re just as true today. With 24-hour news channels, our memories are shorter than ever. And in the mass-media age, the politician who can afford the most airtime frequently wins.

“Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.”

“Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing.

That was the closest our country has ever been to being even.”

“Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

Today, unfortunately, we’re getting more government than we’re paying for. We cover the difference by borrowing billions every year. As the king of the velvet-tipped barb, Rogers never intended to be mean, but to bring us to our senses. One of his favorite subjects was to remind the political class that it worked for us, not the other way around.

“When Congress makes a joke it’s a law, 

and when they make a law, it’s a joke.”

“You can’t hardly find a law school in the country that don’t, through 

some inherent weakness, turn out a senator or congressman from

 time to time…if their rating is real low, even a president.”

“The more you observe politics, the more you’ve 

got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

That’s for certain. Rogers’ thinking on American 

foreign policy really hits home today:

“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.

You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.”

“Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.”

Rogers was born and raised on a farm in Oklahoma. His wit reflected the heart of America — the horse sense, square dealing and honesty that were the bedrock of our success:

“When a fellow ain’t got much of a mind, 

it don’t take him long to make it up.”

“This country is not where it is today on account of any one man.

It’s here on account of the real common sense of the Big Normal Majority.”

Franklin Roosevelt, a frequent target of Rogers’ barbs, understood how valuable Rogers’ sensibility was during the years of the Depression: “I doubt there is among us a more useful citizen than the one who holds the secret of banishing gloom… of supplanting desolation and despair with hope and courage. Above all things, Will Rogers brought his countrymen back to a sense of proportion.”

A sense of proportion is clearly what we’re lacking right now. We need to get it back quickly. What we need now more than ever is the calm, clear perspective of Will Rogers. He offered some sound advice on how we can get started: “If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”

Excerpt from: 

“Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!”

 by Tom Purcell

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "What I Have Learned So Far"

"What I Have Learned So Far"

"Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I

not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,

looking into the shining world? Because, properly

attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.

Can one be passionate about the just, the

ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit

to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a

story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.

Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of

light is the crossroads of - indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone."

~ Mary Oliver

The Daily "Near You?"

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Thanks for stopping by!

Gregory Mannarino, "Beyond The Debt Hyper-Bubble... A Biblical Loss Of Life Will Occur"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/22/21:

"Beyond The Debt Hyper-Bubble... 

A Biblical Loss Of Life Will Occur"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"There Is No Christmas For The Homeless This Year - LA Edition"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, 12/22/21:

"There Is No Christmas For The Homeless This Year - LA Edition"

"I am in Downtown Los Angeles, California. There is no Christmas for the Homeless this year. As the economy gets slammed there are tens of thousands of people sleeping on the streets."

Gregory Mannarino, “The Entire Financial System Will Lock Up When The Debt Hyperbubble Bursts”

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/22/21:

“The Entire Financial System Will Lock Up

 When The Debt Hyperbubble Bursts”

- https://traderschoice.net/

"And Never, Never..."

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."

- Arundhati Roy

"How Vulnerable Is Your Personal Supply Chain?"

"How Vulnerable Is Your Personal Supply Chain?"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Americans consider abundance and ready availability as birthrights so basic they're like the air we breathe. The idea that shelves could become bare and stay bare is incomprehensible. yet that is the world we're entering, for a number of complex reasons.

One is that the world added not just another billion humans (now 7.9 billion), but one billion middle-class consumers, consumers who use about 100 times more energy per person than poor people. These additional billion middle-class consumers doubled the number of high-energy consuming humans in a few decades, and this enormous expansion of demand has consumed all the easy-to-extract resources of the planet. There are no cheap, easy-to-extract resources left; all that's left is expensive to reach, extract, transport, etc., and since energy is the master resource, as its cost rises, so does the cost of literally everything that depends on energy.

Consider a poor person in a rural village. Most of their food is grown locally, and their income is so limited they do not have the means to consume much energy or items shipped halfway around the world via the global supply chain. They might have a cheap mobile phone and a few consumer items gifted to them by relatives working in the developed world, but very little of their consumption depends on long global supply chains. If those chains break, the impact on the poor villagers is relatively modest.

Compare this relative self-sufficiency to the extreme dependence on long supply chains of the average American. Very little, if any, of their everyday consumption is sourced locally, i.e., within walking distance. Every item on the shelves requires immense consumption of energy to be manufactured/produced and shipped to the shelf, and every item has a long dependency chain of intermediaries, each of which is dependent on numerous components, specialty materials, machinery and processes.

Every intermediary, and every process and source used by each intermediary, is a potential source of failure of the entire supply chain. Complexity and supply chains are abstractions. To understand the intrinsic fragility of global supply chains, we must count the number of intermediaries in the chain from the resources extracted from the Earth to the end customer in the store aisle, and then count the intermediaries in each of those links.

Counting the intermediaries in every dependency chain between the source of what we need/ want and the item on the shelf (or in the UPS/FedEx/postal service vehicle) is a measure of our dependency: the more intermediaries, the greater our vulnerability and the greater the fragility of the dependency chain.

This chain of dependencies is poorly understood outside each specialized industry. Consider semiconductors, widely touted as “the new oil,” i.e., the essential component in global production. The process of manufacturing semiconductors is extremely complex and resource-intensive, and many of the solvents, machines and components are only manufactured by one or two firms globally. If any of these links are disrupted, the entire chain of production breaks, as each is irreplaceable.

If one firm produces 80% of the global supply of a specialty solvent, the smaller firm producing the other 20% cannot quadruple production for many reasons: its facilities are limited, adding capacity is a multi-year project, the equipment to expand isn’t available, the supply of the petrochemical feedstock cannot be increased due to limitations in the storage and delivery chain, and so on.

There are many limits which are excluded from consideration when the supply chains are functioning. If we consider a system Americans take for granted - the ample supply of gasoline and diesel fuels - there are many unseen limits in the delivery system: the number of tanker trucks is limited, the number of drivers credentialed to drive the trucks is limited, intermediate storage of fuels is limited, and so on.

The system is optimized for the average driver to have less than half a tank of fuel. Should the system break down and drivers start hoarding, i.e., constantly topping off their fuel tanks, then the system cannot recover its previous stability: the system has been optimized to a narrow range of storage, tanker trucks, drivers, etc., and once the system breaks out of that narrow window, the entire chain collapses.

This is the reality of long global supply chains with dozens or hundreds of intermediaries: every supply chain has been optimized to function within a narrow window, and once any intermediary is disrupted, the entire chain breaks and cannot be restored once hoarding (at the wholesale level, over-ordering) begins. Hoarding is our instinctive response to shortages, and once the awareness of systemic fragilities and vulnerabilities rises, so too will hoarding.

There is another source of fragility in long supply chains with many irreplaceable intermediaries. Each intermediary must make a profit or it will shut down. If price increases passed along to an intermediary cannot be passed along to the next link, then the firm absorbing the increase will lose money. Since many intermediaries are small, marginally profitable firms, they cannot absorb losses for long. Once they shut down, the chain cannot be restored without replacing them, and that is a major project, as many intermediaries have specialized skills and trusted networks which cannot be replaced without local connections and sources.

Lastly, many of the global supply chain’s numerous intermediaries depend on credit markets to function, as their receivables often exceed 90 days. In other words, they often receive payment months after they delivered the goods or services, and so they rely on credit to fund day to day operations. Should credit markets seize up - a typical occurrence in crises - these intermediaries will shut down due to lack of funding.

The price to be paid for stripping the domestic economy of productive capacity will be far higher than proponents of trade can even imagine, much less calculate. The price to be paid for becoming dependent on long, complex global supply chains with hundreds of intermediaries optimized for a narrow window of functionality will also be far higher than conventional analysts can imagine, much less calculate.

How vulnerable is your personal supply chain? For the average American, the answer is: very. How do we reduce that extreme vulnerability? One way is to consume less. Another is to reduce the number of intermediaries between the source of our essentials and our household. For example, a barrel that collects rainwater off your roof is a source of water that has no intermediary. Vegetables collected from your home garden have limited intermediaries (sources of fertilizer and seeds). A solar panel that can charge your mobile devices in daytime has no intermediary once the panel has been purchased and installed.

All the items that become sources of essentials - water barrels, solar panels, fertilizers - could become costly or scarce, as each requires massive amounts of energy to produce. Obtaining sources is different from stockpiling the end products. Both are worthy of consideration. So is moving to a less dependent locale and reconfiguring one's life to consume less and reduce the number of intermediaries between your household and the sources of what you need."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

"Addictive 'Brain Hijacking': Methods Of Social Media Platforms Harmful To Users, Especially Children: Insider"

"Addictive 'Brain Hijacking': Methods Of Social Media 

Platforms Harmful To Users, Especially Children: Insider"

by Isabel van Brugen and Joshua Philipp

"Addictive “brain hijacking” methods used by social media giants to keep users on their platforms have harmful effects, particularly on children, according to industry insider Rex Lee, who says the companies may be violating child protection laws and consumer protection laws by employing such techniques.

Lee, who has over 35 years of experience in the tech and telecom industry, recently testified before Congress, speaking to members about some of the deceptive practices used by social media networks - in particular, “brain hijacking.” “The first time I’d ever heard of brain hijacking, I thought it was something from a science fiction movie,” he recently told EpochTV’s Crossroads program.

He said that social media apps, including those developed by Google, Meta, and Bytedance, are intentionally developed to be addictive. Part of what makes these platforms addictive is associated with brain hijacking technologies, which involve suggestive and manipulative advertising, he explained.

Lee, who works in the tech industry for an enterprise app and platform developer, said that he was shocked after coming across an admission in a 2017 Axios interview by Sean Parker, who served as the first president of Facebook. In the interview, Parker said that Facebook was intentionally developed using addictive technologies associated with something he described as a “social validation feedback loop.”

“That in itself is what is at the heart of brain hijacking,” Lee said. “And what that does is that reassures the end user that what they’re posting on the platform is being accepted by a lot of people. In other words, a social validation feedback loop would be associated with a thumbs up, or confetti or emojis, and that sort of thing after they do a post.”

Lee said these are addictive qualities that developers put into their app and platform designs, which ultimately end up harming the user. “Sean Parker actually admitted this during the Axios interview when he said, ‘God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains,’” Lee said. “But it’s not only the brains of children, it’s the brains of the end user, whether it’s an adult, teen, child, or business and user. This is why people are checking their smartphones up to 150 times a day.”

Lee added that Parker expressly told Axios that the feedback loop was “exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting vulnerability in human psychology.” Lee has been providing to congressional committees, as well as senators and House members, insider information on how these platforms are developed.

The cybersecurity and privacy adviser also highlighted the harmful effects these social media platforms have on young teenagers, describing the platforms as “no different than tobacco companies making bubblegum-flavored cigarettes to sell to children.” “These social validation feedback loops are what’s at heart, and why young teen girls as well as boys who utilize this technology can be harmed by it - they get addicted to it, they never can find fulfillment in it,” Lee said. “And then, they end up depressed and they end up always constantly having to look for that validation, not only from the technology, but from the other end users on the platform.”

“This also is dangerous because it contributes to cyber bullying,” said Lee, explaining that cyberbullies themselves may become addicted to bullying others online. “They [cyberbullies] get a few thumbs up from that post where they’re bullying somebody and then more thumbs up comes. And then that person, the bully, becomes addicted to actually harming people, as well as the recipient starts getting harmed,” he explained. “And we all know what that leads to anxiety, self harm, as well as suicides. And all of those are up among teen and young adult adult users, especially young girls who utilize the platform.”

“Kids are being exploited,” he alleged, noting that social media giants may be violating a child online protection law - the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) enacted in 1998. “It’s actually illegal for a child under 13 to use any type of technology that’s supported by predatory apps that are developed to exploit the user for financial gain through methods such as data mining and surveillance,” Lee said of the law.

Lee said he analyzed the legal language on a Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone that was pre-installed with over 175 apps created or developed by 18 companies, including Chinese tech company Baidu. He explained that what’s often hidden from the user within the devices themselves is “the most important part of your terms of use.”

This includes the application permission statements and application product warnings “which describe in great detail how much surveillance and data mining that the tech companies can conduct on you. But they don’t want that online. They hide that within the devices, and some of those application permission statements actually contain product warnings,” Lee said.

“So again, another cigarette analogy would be, it would be like the warning for cigarettes being printed on the inside of the package,” he explained. “So that after you consume the product, you understand then that it commit that it can cause cancer, it’s the same thing.” He added, “They’re hiding the product warnings within the application permission statements, which can only be accessed from within the device and not online.”

Lee said the FTC should be taking action to investigate these companies for related harm reported by their consumers, and enforce existing customer laws, particularly since former senior executives, such as Parker, have admitted that they developed these technologies to be addictive, “even at the expense of the end user safety.” “We not only had these platforms weaponized against the end user to exploit them for financial gain through harmful technology, such as addictive apps, but now they’re using them to oppress people and spread misinformation, censorship, crush freedom of the press, and in other things,” Lee added. “It’s unbelievable.” The Epoch Times has reached out to Meta, ByteDance, and Google for comment."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/

- https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Greg Hunter, "Only Second Coming Will Make Things Better in 2022"

"Only Second Coming Will Make Things Better in 2022"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Precious metals expert and financial writer Bill Holter says huge lies and massive money printing have held the financial system together. His big prediction for 2022 is that both the lies and money printing are going to get much worse. Holter explains, “The risk for a meltdown from these levels, the risk has never been higher or could be higher than it is right now. You have got everything going in the wrong direction. In the year 2022, I will say without the second coming of Jesus Christ, things are not going to get better. At this point, evil has its hand on too many controls. They control too many avenues. They control the media and just go right down the list. Evil has too much control at this point.”

Holter says forget what the Fed is saying about “tapering” the easy money policies and raising interest rates to fight inflation. Holter contends, “They just cannot do it. We have an economy that it’s clear it’s beginning to slow. It’s clear that inflation is raging. So, the Fed is stuck in a corner. They need to raise interest rates, and they need to fight inflation, but at the same time, if they do that, they will pop the debt bubble. That’s the rock and the hard place the Fed is in between. What they are saying is we are going to take the patient off life support, and with the biggest credit bubble of all time, they can’t do it. If they do, you will see a credit temper tantrum turn into a credit meltdown.”

Holter also sees the narratives of lies giving way to the truth. Holter says, “The narrative on so many things is blowing up. Senator Joe Manchin saying that he’s not going to go along with spending another $2.5 trillion. The White House is trying to pass off as truth that spending another $2.5 trillion is going to tame inflation. This is truly George Orwell "1984", "Animal Farm" or whatever you want to call this. Up is down, black is white and truth, well, you can’t find truth today.”

Holter is also predicting the vax injections and the narrative that they are working is going to collapse. Now, to be “fully vaccinated,” you need a booster. Even those people are getting Covid. Just ask triple vaxed Senators Booker and Warren, who both recently tested positive for Covid. Holter explains, “That’s one of the narratives that I believe will fail in 2022. The reason being is people can see with their own eyes what’s happening. They know people who have had adverse reactions. They know people who have died. You can tell someone it’s sunny outside, but when they walk outside, the moon is out. They know they are being lied to. That’s where we are headed, and I think we are really close. I think in the first quarter of 2022, the vax narrative is going to completely collapse. With it will go a great deal of misplaced confidence. Markets are held up by confidence. The dollar is held up by confidence. The credit markets are held up by confidence. Anything you do to ding or hurt confidence is going to have an adverse effect on assets, not hard assets, paper assets and all that runs on confidence.”

Holter is predicting the Fed is going to be forced to start another round of QE in 2022 and not cut back. Another 2022 prediction that Holter is seeing is “some type of failure to deliver in the of physical gold and silver markets because the stress in the gold and silver supply, I have never seen in my life.”

There is much more in the nearly 1 hour interview, including predictions on Donald Trump being President again, Senator Joe Manchin leaving the Democrat Party, a coming false flag and even war. In short, Holter says, “This is good versus evil. It’s really that simple.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

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

financial writer and precious metals expert Bill Holter of JSMineset.com.

- https://rumble.com/

A Christmas Musical Interlude: Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"

A Christmas Musical Interlude:

Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Bank Meltdown, More Banks Are Closing; Stop Trusting Banks; Taxpayers To Pay Delinquent Home Owners"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/21/21:

"Bank Meltdown, More Banks Are Closing; Stop Trusting Banks; 

Taxpayers To Pay Delinquent Home Owners"

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal," "Happy New Year!"

Full screen recommended.

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal", 12/21/21:

"Happy New Year!"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"The Great Supply Chain Collapse – Jim Rickards"

Full screen recommended.

"The Great Supply Chain Collapse – Jim Rickards"

by Epic Economist

"Global supply chains are facing a very chaotic crisis that only seems to get worse. While some bottlenecks ease others are just starting. With each passing day, new shortages emerge around the world due to delivery delays, shipping disruptions, and a record congestion of cargo ships at ports. The network of world trade is also being plagued by container backlogs, labor shortages, geopolitical tensions, energy shortages,​ travel restrictions, and lockdowns. The combination of these factors is creating a ripple effect all over the planet, but especially in the United States. For that reason, analysts at Capital Economics are predicting the supply chain crisis to last for at least another two years.

But have you ever wondered why supply chains have become so tangled up? Or what's the root of the supply chain collapse? In an article brilliantly written by the economist and financial commentator, James Rickards, which was recently published in his blog, the Daily Reckoning, the analyst explains that there's no simple answer for that question. In fact, he says that supply chains are so complex that the answer is essentially irrelevant. It is a very intricate network, whose scale and complexity can be compared to an ecosystem. That's why paying attention to the exact cause and effect to get to the root of the problem can be a dead-end. The processing power needed to understand the entanglement of supply chains exceeds our logic comprehension.

Even though most of us have a notion of how supply chains operate, only a few people in the world truly understand how elaborate, extensive and vulnerable they really are. That's why Rickards breaks down this complex explanation into a simple example to show us why one single failure can lead to a cascade of disruptions and cause unimaginable damages. Let's picture a single loaf of bread. For that loaf of bread to arrive at the store, a truck driver has to pick it up from the bakery. The bakery needs one or more suppliers to get all of the ingredients needed to make the bread. The ovens used to bake it and the packing used to wrap it when it's ready are also an essential part of the process that allows you to bring that loaf of bread home.

The manufacturer of the oven also needs its own supply chain to provide him with steel, tempered glass, semiconductors, electrical circuits, and other materials needed to build his product. The ovens can be handcrafted or mass-produced in a factory that requires production lines or manufacturing cells to assembly the product. For its part, the factory also needs its own supply chain of electricity, natural gas, heating, ventilation systems, and qualified labor to make its entire operation work. So the store that sells the bread needs only the receiver of a product that required numerous supply chains to exist. Every store requires warehouses or back rooms to keep their inventory, as well as loading docks, forklifts and conveyor belts to move their merchandise from truck to shelf

Now imagine all of the other items available at grocery stores: fresh produce, fruits, meat, pork, fish, poultry, canned goods, dairy, drinks, spices, and so on. Each of them requires the operations of several supply chains to be produced, processed, packed and transported to finally get to store shelves. Things are much more entangled than they seem.

The main turning point for the supply chain was the just-in-time model of production. The big problem is that the just-in-time model has made the whole system extremely fragile. One single disruption can compromise the operations of the entire global supply chain. The system is simply not prepared to handle external shocks. But those shocks are happening on an everyday basis. The health crisis, the Ever Given accident, trade conflicts, port shutdowns, financial swings and many more factors can weigh upon the system. That's why supply chains have collapsed.

The bottom line, as Rickards concludes, is that if the supply chains collapse, the economy starts to collapse as well. Every item, product, and service that keeps our economy running requires a series of supply chains to exist. And when the economy starts to fall apart, our social order begins to fall to pieces just as well. And the price to pay for social disorder is far higher than any savings the just-in-time model can offer. Sadly, our leaders are failing to assess the severity of this situation, and we are already feeling the impact of broken supply chains and a slumping economy. The global supply chain crisis is far from over. And the chaos that is about to emerge goes far beyond our imagination."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

"Exactly Which Dystopian Novel Are We Living In?"

"Exactly Which Dystopian Novel Are We Living In?"

by Tyler Durden

"There’s a debate going on among the disaffected/terrified over which dystopian novel we’re now living in. As John Rubino remarks, some point to social media addiction and designer drugs to suggest "Brave New World." Others see mass surveillance and pandemic lockdowns as putting us squarely in "1984". Still others cite online censorship and cancel culture as favoring "Fahrenheit 451".

Each of these opinions seems valid, which is confusing. A prisoner should know the shape of their cell. So it’s a relief to find out that someone (not sure who) has settled the argument by creating the following Venn diagram (Tweeted by our friend David Morgan).

Turns out we’re not in a single dystopian novel. We’re in all of them simultaneously."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"We Know..."

"We know they are lying, they know they are lying,

 they know we know they are lying,

 we know they know we know they are lying, 

but, they are still lying."

- Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "East Of The Full Moon"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "East Of The Full Moon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.

Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121211.html

"Only One Basic Human Right..."

"There is only one basic human right, 

the right to do as you damn well please.

And with it comes the only basic human duty,

 the duty to take the consequences."

- P. J. O'Rourke