"Unbelievable"

"Unbelievable"

by Brian Maher

"We encourage professional economists to embrace a more scientific forecasting regimen. For instance: the formulaic reading of tea leaves, tarot cards, bird entrails and the zodiac signs. That is because their present instrumentalities of economic divination are botched beyond hopeThe occult sciences could only enhance their prognostications. They certainly would not injure them. Today furnishes additional evidence of economic malpractice… A Bloomberg survey of economists had forecast that the United States economy would add some 180,000 private payrolls last month. What did we learn today? Wrong by 481,000

Payrolls processing outfit ADP informs us that the United States economy failed to add 180,000 private payrolls last month… or 18,000… or 180… or even one lone private payroll. Not only did the United States economy fail to add one lone January payroll. It in fact subtracted 301,000 private payrolls. That is correct: 301,000 came off the private payrolls in January — a 481,000 bungling by these Wrong Way Charlies.

Take a rifle in hand. Strike out for the nearest barn. Stand 11 feet from one of its two broad sides. Aim dead center… and yank the trigger. To your dismay and astoundment, you discover that you have missed the target entirely. Your bullet has spared the barn but murdered a distant window. Now you have the magnitude of the misfire.

Why Have Experts at All? What accounts for January’s Himalayan miss? Mr. Gus Faucher, chief U.S. economist with PNC: "The January drop in employment is another reminder that the economy will not fully return to normal until the pandemic is over… [The losses] were likely due to a combination of factors [most of them COVID-related]."

Just so. But is the virus a sudden menace? It is not. The Omicron variant has had us by the ear for months and months. Shouldn’t an economic expert have worked it into his formulae — and forecast a reduced number? If he had, he and his fellows may not have erred by 481,000 January payrolls. Not for the first time we ask: Why have experts at all?

Watch out for Friday’s Numbers: This Friday the United States Department of Labor will issue its January nonfarm payrolls data. Another survey of economists — Dow Jones in this instance — divinates a payrolls gain of 150,000. We bet high that these economists will likewise munch crow. We expect an approximate mirroring of the atrocious ADP data. Goldman Sachs, incidentally, forecasts a 250,000 falling off.

Yet the stock market was up and away today — for the fourth consecutive day. The Dow Jones bounded 224 points, the S&P 500 42 points, the Nasdaq Composite 71 points of its own. The Russell 2000 — contrarily — lost 21 points today, or slightly over 1%. This we note because many consider the Russell 2000 a truer economic barometer than the Dow Jones or S&P.

Falling Yields, Rising Stocks: Meantime, the 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 1.76% today. It scaled 1.82% late last week. Incidentally — or not incidentally — the stock market has gone up as the 10-year yield has come down. Growth stocks such as Alphabet and Apple tend to wither under higher interest rates. They also tend to blossom under lower interest rates. Growth stocks have led the way up these past several days.

CNBC: "Big Tech names, which led the market sell-off in January, have been key drivers of the three-day rebound as investors refocused their attention on earnings season, after mega-cap tech companies continued reporting strong quarterly results and forward guidance."

Adds Mr. Jim Paulsen, Leuthold Group chief investment strategist: "People are starting to decide that maybe last Monday’s low was the low for the correction. We’ve had good reminders that fundamentals are good with earnings reports, they started with financials but have gotten a lot better since."

Perhaps. Perhaps. But could markets have leaped today partly because of January’s job losses?

Bad News for Main Street, Good News for Wall Street: Recall: Negative news for Main Street often equals positive news for Wall Street. It means the Federal Reserve may keep its fingers on the liquidity taps. You are of course aware of the Federal Reserve’s conundrum. Its monetary deliriums since last spring have blown combustible fluid into every asset going — stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, real estate. This “everything bubble” enclosure requires additional fluids, additional kerosene, to remain aloft. Absent a continual pumping in, gravity works its wicked will. The thing will fall back down to solid earth, where it will come to terrible grief.

Yet inflation is on the stretch. It has begun to menace. But the Federal Reserve must keep it on a tether. Hence Mr. Powell’s dilemma.

Repealing the “Fed Put”? Mr. Michael Lebovitz of Real Investment Advice: "Liquidity is the lifeline of markets, and the Fed, directly and indirectly, manages its flow via QE and zero rates. With inflation raging, the pandemic subsiding and economic activity normalizing, the Fed is keen to start reducing liquidity via higher interest rates and reductions in its balance sheet. The purpose of normalizing monetary policy is to bring inflation down. However, the removal of said liquidity could prove problematic for stock prices, especially if done more aggressively than expected."

This Lebovitz fellow wonders if Powell will repeal the “Fed put.” For years investors have relied upon the Federal Reserve’s heroic rescues. They continue to expect this Fed put will set aright any substantial discombobulation. But are they in for disappointment? Lebovitz: "Broadly speaking, [Powell’s] confidence level in managing inflation has fallen sharply. At times he appeared shaken by the high and persistent level of inflation. In prior meetings, he brushed off inflation as transitory and purely a function of COVID and related supply line problems. The arrogance in the Fed’s ability to manage inflation has vanished…"

More telling, he seems disturbed by the trend higher in prices. It appears he fears the trend is more potent than expected, thus will not be as easy to reverse… "For the first time, Powell seems to reflect on how damaging inflation is and its detrimental impact on lower-income classes. It appears that political pressure from the president and members of Congress are influencing his view on inflation and its harmful effects."

Not a Threat to Financial Stability: Inflation’s detrimental impact on lower-income classes has worked opposite effects on the higher-income classes. It is these classes that adventure their money in the stock market. They have profited mightily. Yet Mr. Powell may finally let them dangle from their own hooks, without further coddles. In Powell’s very very words: "So asset prices are somewhat elevated, and they reflect a high-risk appetite and that sort of thing. I don’t really think asset prices themselves represent a significant threat to financial stability, and that’s because households are in [as] good shape financially than they have been. Businesses are in good shape financially. Defaults on business loans are low and that kind of thing. The banks are highly capitalized with high liquidity and quite resilient and strong."

Translated into good, hard English: The Federal Reserve is prepared to let the stock market take a severe stagger. Inflation is its greater concern. It will intervene eventually. But only once the market careens at violent velocities and it tires of Wall Street’s whines and whinges. Yet that day is likely distant. Have you the stomach to endure the interim tumults?"

- dailyreckoning.com

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), “Dolmen Ridge”

Gnomusy (David Caballero), “Dolmen Ridge”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“From Sagittarius to Carina, the Milky Way Galaxy shines in this dark night sky above planet Earth’s lush island paradise of Mangaia. Familiar to denizens of the southern hemisphere, the gorgeous skyscape includes the bulging galactic center at the upper left and bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri just right of center. About 10 kilometers wide, volcanic Mangaia is the southernmost of the Cook Islands. Geologists estimate that at 18 million years old it is the oldest island in the Pacific Ocean.

Of course, the Milky Way is somewhat older, with the galaxy’s oldest stars estimated to be over 13 billion years old. (Editor’s note: This image holds the distinction of being selected as winner in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in the Earth and Space category.)“

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110924.html

"Planned Shortage Of Everything! Supply Shortages And Global Food Crisis 2022 Accelerates"

Full screen recommended.

"Planned Shortage Of Everything! 

Supply Shortages And Global Food Crisis 2022 Accelerates"

by Epic Economist

"We should all start to watch closely the global events that are rapidly escalating because what we’re about to experience is something we have never been through since the beginning of modern times. We’re on the verge of a devastating global food crisis, but we aren’t hearing much noise about it.

The U.S. mainstream media is largely ignoring that story. They’ll probably wait until things have gotten out of control to start reporting what industry experts and economists have been warning for a long time. If this crisis gets the population by surprise, people will not be able to get ready in advance, and consequently, they will become increasingly more reliant on governments that have no intention to actually help them. That’s why this news should be on the front pages all over the country and all over the world. This is going to impact the lives of every man, woman, and child on the entire planet.

Food industry insiders are warning that global fertilizer prices have tripled, and this is going to severely disrupt food production all over the globe. Some experts have been sounding the alarm since late last year. For instance, back in November, one European CEO came forward to warn about the effects of higher fertilizer and energy prices on the global food supply chain.

Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO and president of the Oslo-based fertilizer company Yara International, said in an interview that the world was on the cusp of “a dramatic shortfall in food production as rising energy prices cascade through global agriculture”.“I want to say this loud and clear right now, that we risk a very low crop in the next harvest,” the CEO of the Norwegian fertilizer giant has said. “I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis.”

Holsether explains that a food crisis is imminent because the cost to produce a ton of ammonia -- a key ingredient in synthetic fertilizer that increases crop yields – has gotten almost ten times higher. “To produce a ton of ammonia last summer was $110,” he said. “And now it’s $1,000. So it’s just incredible.”

Holsether highlights that many small farmers can't afford the higher costs, “which will reduce what they can produce and diminish crop sizes”. As a result, that will hurt food security all over the world, at a time when access to food is already under threat from the health crisis and climate change, including widespread drought.

The CEO says that even Yara is not able to absorb the costs of such a dramatic spike in energy and ammonia prices. For that reason, since the last year, the company has been curtailing its ammonia production by as much as 40% due to those higher expenses. Other major producers have followed the same move. Decreasing ammonia production will reduce the supply of fertilizer even further and make it significantly more expensive this year, which is going to undermine global food production.

“The delayed effects of the energy crisis on food security could mimic the chip shortage crisis,” Holsether added. "That's all linked to factories being shut down in March, April, and May of last year, and we're reaping the consequences of that now. But if we get the equivalent to the food system… not having food is not annoying, that's a matter of life or death," he stressed.

Unfortunately, as scientists and economists have been repeatedly warning over the past decade, due to climate change the worldwide energy crisis we’re witnessing right now is only going to get worse – which means we have a huge mess on our hands.

Many of us don’t know that a tragic hunger crisis is already accelerating in many parts of Africa. More than 20 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa are already on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Programme. And that number is likely to surge even further as rising gas prices help to drive up fertilizers costs, squeezing supply at a time food plants are being shuttered all over the globe since many producers have reintroduced export restrictions. This is just the beginning. Soon, this crisis will get to a point where there won’t be enough food for the entire global population. The only question left is what are we going to do?"

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

Gregory Mannarino, "Understanding The "Grand Finale Meltdown." A MASSIVE Movement Of Cash From One Place To Another"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/2/22:

"Understanding The "Grand Finale Meltdown." 

A MASSIVE Movement Of Cash From One Place To Another"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Celente and the Judge, "Bring Back Freedom, No Taxation Without Representation"

Celente and the Judge,

"Bring Back Freedom, No Taxation Without Representation"

"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/

"Doug Casey on the Likelihood of a Military Conflict Over Ukraine"

"Doug Casey on the Likelihood

of a Military Conflict Over Ukraine"

by International Man

"International Man: Recently, the Biden administration threatened Russia over Ukraine. What's really going on? Is the US government toying with the prospect of war with Russia over Ukraine?

Doug Casey: Over thousands of years of history, governments have always threatened each other with war. It's a good part of what they do to justify their existence, and it's been said, correctly, that war is the health of the state. Nothing has changed in that regard.

The main reason that the US government is beating the war drums is that war has always been a distraction from domestic problems. Create a foreign enemy on whom to blame domestic problems, and it will reliably divert the news cycle from things you don't want the hoi polloi to hear or talk about. A real or fabricated foreign enemy unites the public. The further the economy and the society deteriorate, the more war-mongering we'll hear from Washington.

It's especially perverse in that anything that happens between Russia and Ukraine is of zero relevance to the US. Ukraine is a backwater. It's as illogical for the US to stick its nose into that hornet's nest as to get involved in any of dozens of African revolts, coups, and border wars. I'm surprised the Jacobins in the Biden administration haven't, for instance, gotten involved in Ethiopia's ongoing civil war too. Most people are completely unaware of it—which is actually a good thing in the current environment.

International Man: The mainstream media has reported that Russia could be planning to invade Ukraine. What do you make of this?

Doug Casey: The part of the Ukraine in question is called the Donbas. It's occupied about 70% by Russians and 30% by Ukrainians, as is Crimea. Theoretically, nation-states are all about the ethnicity of their residents. When there's more than one significant ethnic group in a nation-state, it's best described as an empire. Forcing different ethnicities into one country is analogous to putting tigers, cows, snakes, and birds into one cage together. In any event, these areas have been part of Russia for about 200 years since the Russians took them from the Ottomans.

Nikita Krushchev, a Ukrainian, arbitrarily transferred Crimea from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 to help cement his USSR leadership position in the turbulent time after Stalin's death. It should be recognized that the very word "Ukraine" comes from the old Slavic term for borderland. It's an area where borders have always been ill-defined and fluid. The place is more of a concept than a real country; it was only recognized as a country with the creation of the USSR. Until recently, the place was called "The Ukraine" in recognition of its amorphous status—although that term is no longer politically correct.

The idea of the US maintaining Ukraine's territorial integrity is borderline insane. The US can't even maintain its own border integrity. Apparently, just in the last year, 2 million illegal foreign migrants have crossed into the US, with more on the way. This whole thing is ridiculous and fabricated.

Will the Russians invade Ukraine? There's been a low-intensity war on the Ukraine/Donbas border since 2014. The way I read it is that the two Oblasts that compose Donbas have wanted to secede from Ukraine since the so-called Orange Revolution was fomented by the US. The government in Kiev wants to keep them in. The Russians are informally aiding the secession. The internal politics of Ukraine are too murky and corrupt for an outsider to understand. I'll just say the Russians are on the right side of the dispute—something you're never, ever, supposed to say. But any power, anywhere, that backs a secession movement is almost always on the moral high ground.

The ideal solution, I think, is for Donbas to become an independent country. Of course, the West would never recognize that since Russia is in favor of it. Crimea should be recognized as part of Russia, partly because of its history but also because it's where the Russians have their Black Sea fleet. In the world of realpolitik, no way will they give up Sebastopol.

Americans have notoriously short memories, but they might ask themselves whether it's not best to let the locals just fight it out. For instance, the Israelis took the Golan Heights away from Syria in 1967. Would it be wise to get involved now to change things? Probably not. The French and the Germans have disputed who gets to tax Alsace-Lorraine for centuries. Should the US butt in with soldiers if that heats up again?

The Russians won't invade Ukraine itself. Only the lame-brained Biden administration can even imagine something so stupid. The place is a net liability. We no longer live in the days when an invasion let conquerors loot a place of its gold, cattle, women, and artwork. At most, the Russkies want to solidify the Donbas/Ukraine border. The chances of their trying to occupy the whole country are about zero. All they could hope to get from it is a possible guerrilla war, not to mention sanctions and possibly a hot war with the West.

Of course, anything is possible because the Putin regime is actually failing. It's propped up mainly by high oil and other commodity prices—much as the old USSR was.

Putin served a useful purpose for Russia early on, when it needed a strong man to rally around and "Make Russia Great Again," as it were. Income taxes were slashed to about 10%; financial markets started, lots of companies and property were privatized, and much more. Putin handled the transition from a completely dysfunctional and criminal socialist regime to something that's a reasonable facsimile of a normal country. And he did it without wholesale bloodshed.

But it's degenerated from a chaotic free-for-all into a giant concrete-bound kleptocracy, where Putin is perhaps the richest oligarch in the world. At this point, he probably suffers from paranoia, with nobody he can trust. This happens to all dictators. He's isolated from everything. I suspect things are getting unstable, both in his personal life and Russia as a whole.

The important thing to remember here is that Russia itself isn't a threat to anybody. It's really nothing but a gas station with an attached gun store in the middle of a wheat field. The paranoia all dictators suffer from makes Putin somewhat dangerous should the Russian economy collapse. But with oil high, and going higher, along with the prices of other commodities they export, there's no immediate danger. The idea of Russia rolling over Western Europe is ridiculous from every point of view.

International Man: How serious could a military move by Russia or the US be?

Doug Casey: Any war can escalate because one thing can lead to another. War is unpredictable by its nature. However, it's important to remember that the average people in any country—whether we're talking about Russia, Ukraine, or the US—don't want war. They just want to live their personal lives and increase their standard of living. They have enough problems just dealing with their families. Forget about the death and mass destruction of a war. The Russians understand that better than anyone—with the possible exception of the Germans. The effete neocon warmongers in Washington—not so much. With few exceptions, the only reason people get involved in war is because their government beats the war drums, exciting the more naïve and stupid of their subjects.

If Biden and Putin get involved in some type of war, it's because they're acting like a couple of barons in feudal days. I promise you the average American can't even find Donbas or Crimea on a map and knows zero about them. His congressman only knows what his aides and party chieftains tell him. Nobody is allowed to say it, but the charade underlines the fact that democracy itself is a sham.

Democracy is not the rule of the people because the people don't want war. Only its leaders ever do. Washington may yet foment one. Biden's vested interest in Ukraine likely comes from the many millions of dollars he and his degraded son Hunter stole from the place. Or maybe Kiev is holding some form of blackmail over his head. Although Kiev doesn't want a real war in Donbas. They'd lose. And certainly not with Russia. I suspect Kiev will just have to acknowledge Donbas and Crimea aren't part of Ukraine and let them go. That's how this will likely end.

International Man: Ukraine shares a border with the EU and with Russia. How do you think Russia perceives US involvement right in its backyard?

Doug Casey: It's very reasonable on the part of the Russians to want the US out of Ukraine for the same reasons the US wanted Russia out of Cuba during the 60s. How would the US like it if Russian troops were in Canada or Mexico today? Although once again, I'd argue that Russia is a complete non-threat. To make the analogy realistic, we can substitute China for Russia. No country wants an aggressive foreign power right on its border. And the US government, with its giant military budget, combat troops in numerous countries, and the CIA everywhere, is a real danger.

International Man: What do you make of the US efforts to incorporate Ukraine into NATO?

Doug Casey: It's absolutely insane in every way. First of all, NATO should have been abolished in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell. What is NATO there for? Who's it defending against? Certainly not Russia, which is a paper tiger at best. NATO's existence is a provocation, serving no useful purpose. NATO is a self-maintaining bureaucracy; its interests are actually at odds with the people of Western Europe.

Apart from that, Ukraine brings nothing but liabilities to either the EU or NATO. The European NATO members understand that and don't want Ukraine in. It's funny, actually. If the US provokes a war over Donbas, they'll probably only get places like Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Haiti to join it, in exchange for the customary bribes, so the invasion force can be called a "coalition of the willing."

The colors of the map on the wall have been running since Day One, and that will continue. Some countries are more real and more stable than others. The idea of trying to maintain the artificial borders of Ukraine, which is just an ethnic area, is ridiculous and dangerous. But of course, some Americans think that it's important to act "tough." It's really just evidence that the US government has become completely unprincipled and out of control. It's thrashing around like a giant dinosaur in its death throes.

There are a dozen areas in the world where the US Government might decide to be "tough" for some arbitrary reason. It just makes us look ridiculous when we're already a failing state. Acting tough when your country is literally falling apart gives real dimension to the concept of stupidity."

- service@internationalman.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Bucklin, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Welcome to Mt. Debtmore"

"Welcome to Mt. Debtmore"

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "Did you hear about the farmer that gave his farm to his children? He got done for child abuse!" ~ A Dear Reader

"This just in. USA Today: "Sound the alarm: National debt hits $30 trillion as economists warn of impact for Americans. The national debt surpassed $30 trillion for the first time Tuesday, fueled in part by the coronavirus pandemic and what economists describe as years of unsustainable government spending that could have long-term consequences for every American.

The federal government now owes $23.5 trillion in debt to creditors and another $6.5 trillion to itself. Debt to creditors soared by $1.5 trillion over the last year alone, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization focused on addressing the country’s fiscal challenges. “It does not make sense as a society to simply spend more than we take in on a permanent and growing basis,” said Michael A. Peterson, the group’s chief executive officer. “What that essentially does is place the burden onto our future and onto the next generation.”

Globally, the situation is no better. The borrow-and-spend spree of the 21st century has led to worldwide debt of $300 trillion – more than 3 times world GDP.

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. This week we are wondering about the connection. Without yesterday, today wouldn’t be the same. And when we climb onto the bathroom scales tomorrow, is it today’s pudding the needle will detect?

Without two decades of jackass policies, America wouldn’t be facing $30 trillion worth of ‘national’ debt. George W. Bush’s nonsense ‘war on terror’ cost some $8 trillion. Then, when Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke rescued Wall Street’s bonuses in 2008-2009, they added another $8 trillion to the debt. In 2020, along came the COVID crisis. Stocks fell. The feds panicked, and another $8 trillion in debt was piled on, making the rich richer than ever.

Welcome to Mt. Debtmore!

Thanks to the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates, they’ve added a total of $24 trillion to federal debt since 1999. The low rates also made borrowing more attractive to the rest of the economy. So, now – in addition to the stinking federal pile – we have a $56 trillion mountain of household and corporate debt. A trillion here. A trillion there. Pretty soon, you’ve got a real Everest of trouble.

But what a jolly time it was. Building shining new democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Boosting up the stock market to record new highs. Buying back stock. Bidding up jokey cryptos and cool NFTs to millions of dollars. Squeezing the old-timers in meme stocks and watching geezers like Buffett plod along while the whiz kids raced to fast fortunes. Handing out loans that didn’t need to be repaid… and giving out tax credits and stimmie checks to people who didn’t pay any taxes in the first place. Whee!

And probably the most fun of all – listening to the melancholics warn of ‘bubbles’ and ‘debt’… What were they worried about? The money was free, for Pete’s sake. You could borrow all you wanted – at less than the inflation rate.

Alas, that was yesterday. And today, even the New York Times is beginning to add two plus two: “Either the United States can continue to run big deficits and skate along with no harm done or it’s at risk of losing investors’ confidence and having to pay higher interest rates on its debt which would suppress economic growth.” The ‘either-or’ outlined by the NYT is a fantasy. There’s an ‘or’ but no ‘either.’ Skating along while adding more and more debt is not a possibility. Not for long.

Lost in Fiscal Space: “My reading of the evidence,” continues Peter Coy in the Old Gray Lady, “is that the huge increase in federal debt incurred during and after the past two recessions – those of 2007-09 and 2020 – has used up a lot of the ‘fiscal space’ the United States once had. In other words, the federal government is closer to the tipping point where big increases in debt finally start to become a real problem and interest rates rise.”

Mr. Coy had just come from an online annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations, which includes the American Economic Association as well as the American Finance Association. The question on the table was roughly “when do we have so much debt that the system breaks down.” The answer, paraphrasing Mr. Coy’s summary of the proceedings, is ‘probably tomorrow.’

Causes have effects. Actions have consequences. Borrow too much today and your credit score goes down tomorrow. Then, if you’re able to borrow at all, you’ll have to pay a higher interest rate. And with $86 trillion outstanding, even very small increases in interest rates (carrying costs) can be devastating.

A real ‘normal’ interest rate is, say, 3%. With consumer prices rising at a 6% rate, that would mean a nominal rate of 9%. If the entire debt had to be refinanced at 9%, it would cost about a third of annual GDP. Obviously, normal is not going to happen. (Tomorrow, we’ll look at what is likely to happen.)

‘Fiscal space’ is another way of describing how much rope a country needs to hang itself. When the borrowing capacity of the government – the ‘fiscal space’ – is exhausted, the borrowing must stop or the consequence is bankruptcy. ‘Debt doyenne’ Carmen Reinhart who, along with Ken Rogoff studied 800 years of public debt history, puts it like this: "Adverse debt dynamics sooner or later come back to bite you. Actions always smile. But consequences have teeth."

Tune in tomorrow for more."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"Truth Or Covid?" (Excerpt)

"Truth Or Covid?" (Excerpt)

by Michael Lesher

"Remember the good old days at the beginning of the COVID coup – before the new dogmas started to tangle themselves into self-contradictory knots? Back then, if you wanted to know what to think, the Infallible Ones always had simple answers.

What was the enemy? A virus called SARS-CoV-2. Where did it come from? Chinese bats and pangolins. When would it end? After a few weeks of “lockdown” and the introduction of “vaccines.” How did you protect yourself from it in the meantime? By isolating yourself at home, wearing a muzzle, obsessively washing your hands, leaving your shoes outside the door, avoiding other human beings, scrubbing the walls and counters – above all, by obeying whatever orders the Infallible Ones gave you.

And if you didn’t obey? You would die.

But “oh, what a tangled web we weave,” as the poet said, “when first we practice to deceive.” The Infallible Ones’ teachings were soon mired in baffling inconsistencies. A “few weeks” of lockdown gave way to months, which in turn gave way to threats of recurring confinements whenever the authorities deemed it expedient. Summertime assurances of the “success” of the national incarceration – which had upended the health care system, educationally crippled a generation of children, and tossed away the livelihoods of millions of innocent people, though the Infallible Ones seldom mentioned any of that – were succeeded by “expert” scoldings to the effect that we Americans had been too selfish to be confined at all.

When randomized clinical trials proved that face masks were useless, the Infallible Ones told us to wear two masks instead of one. When the Infallible Ones abandoned the canard of “asymptomatic transmission” – after it had fulfilled its function of stoking public hysteria – they adopted the equally silly canard that “the unvaccinated” were unique breeding grounds for viral mutations.

Even the virus itself, which the Infallible Ones had originally pronounced so unique, became the very opposite of unique as the Infallible Ones translated it into an ever-enlarging ensemble of similar viral “strains” in which new ones appeared just often enough to offset the gains supposedly made by the “vaccines.”

And meanwhile – most important of all – what was supposed to be a temporary suspension of constitutional government became a “new normal”; the law, or what had always been the law, turned out to be as obsolete as the idea of dealing with an infectious disease by giving medical treatment to the genuinely sick. In the world of the “new normal,” anyone who mentioned “civil rights” was hustled off social media and into First Amendment limbo. Democracy was mocked as a reactionary’s pipe dream – when it was mentioned at all.

That’s the record, in brief, of the past two years. And if we have learned anything from this cavalcade of deceit, it is, or should be, that the COVID coup is fundamentally not about medicine or science. It is not about inflated “case” rates or jiggered statistics or fake news or the pseudo-studies circulated by propaganda outfits like the World Health Organization or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yes, all those things have figured in the derangement of constitutional democracy that has characterized the COVID coup. But at bottom it’s not about any of them.

The real nature of the campaign is at once simpler and far more dangerous. What we’re experiencing is an attack on the very foundation of ordered liberty, an assault that is already in the process of submerging democracies beneath what the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called a “permanent ‘state of exception.’” To put it bluntly: our ruling classes, in one country after another, have effectively switched off their nations’ constitutions and the whole set of civil liberties that are supposed to accompany them – not by formally abolishing them, mind you, but by adopting the extra-legal mechanisms of a “state of emergency” in place of normal constitutional procedures, with the result that the ordinary rules of democracy and the rights of individuals have, for most practical purposes, been indefinitely suspended."

Please view this complete, highly recommended article here:

- https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/truth-or-covid/

Gregory Mannarino, "Crash Cycle - The US Economy Is 100% Done; Critical Must Know Now Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/2/22:

"Crash Cycle - The US Economy Is 100% Done; 

Critical Must Know Now Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Are We Being Scammed - The Fed Will Never Raise Rates"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, AM 2/2/22:

"Are We Being Scammed - The Fed Will Never Raise Rates"

"This is a joke. We are being told how great the economy is one day and the next day we see reality. Manufacturing is dropping off. The job numbers are horrible. The supply chain mess has not been fixed yet. The Fed will never raise interest rate."

"Putin And Biden Are Playing A Very Dangerous Game Of Chicken. So What Happens If Neither One Backs Down?"

"Putin And Biden Are Playing A Very Dangerous 

Game Of Chicken. So What Happens If Neither One Backs Down?"

by Michael Snyder

"The United States and Russia are on a collision course. Unfortunately, the guys running the show in both countries are not exactly sane, and they deeply, deeply distrust one another. So what happens when a bunch of lunatics decide to play a game of chicken with the fate of the entire world at stake? Unfortunately, it appears that we are about to find out.

When Donald Trump was still in the White House, both the United States and Russia pretty much respected the status quo. But once Joe Biden took power, things changed dramatically. Over the past year, the Biden administration has provoked the Russians over and over again, and it became clear that there would be a major effort to add Ukraine to NATO.

The Biden administration assumed that they could push the Russians around without any consequences. But instead, the Russians sent more than 100,000 troops to the border with Ukraine. It is the largest Russian military mobilization since World War II, and it is clearly meant as a threat. The Russians are most definitely threatening to invade Ukraine, and they are assuming that this will motivate the Biden administration and other western leaders to negotiate.

But Biden and other western leaders are not blinking. They are absolutely determined not to give the Russians anything that they want, even if the requests are reasonable. What this means is that Biden and other western leaders have decided to call Vladimir Putin’s bluff. Okay, so what happens if Putin is not bluffing?

On Monday, we witnessed a very angry exchange between the U.S. and Russia during a UN Security Council meeting… "Russia accused the West on Monday of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow’s troop buildup near its southern neighbor. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia’s growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders was “the largest mobilization” in Europe in decades, adding that there has been a spike in cyberattacks and Russian disinformation."

And then on Tuesday, Putin publicly warned that Russian security concerns are being completely ignored… ‘We are carefully analyzing the written responses received from the United States and NATO,’ Putin said Tuesday during a press conference with Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban. ‘But it is already clear that fundamental Russian concerns ended up being ignored,’ he lamented. ‘We did not see adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding the prevention of NATO expansion, the refusal to deploy strike facilities near Russia’s borders, and the return of the bloc’s military infrastructure in Europe to the state in 1997.’

This crisis could be over tomorrow if Biden and other western leaders agreed not to put western missiles in Ukraine and to not admit Ukraine as a member of NATO. Just like we didn’t want Russian missiles in Cuba in the 1960s, the Russians don’t want NATO missiles in Ukraine now. Unfortunately, Biden’s foreign policy team has decided that it simply cannot give Russia anything that it wants, and so there will be no deal.

And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki just compared Putin to a “fox” on top of a henhouse… "White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki slammed Russia for trying to turn the rhetoric around and express they’re worried about a threat coming from Ukraine – especially if it were to join NATO. ‘When the fox is screaming from the top of the henhouse that he’s scared of the chickens, which is essentially what they’re doing, that fear isn’t recorded as a statement of fact,’ Psaki said during her daily briefing Tuesday."

The Biden administration is not taking the Russians seriously. But they should. We are now closer to war with Russia than we have been since the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s, and at this point even a small error could cause a horrifying global conflict to erupt.

With each passing day, even more Russian forces move into the border zone. For example, we just learned that two more battalions of Spetsnaz soldiers “are being moved to the Belarus-Ukraine border”… "Two battalions of crack Russian Spetsnaz soldiers are being moved to the Belarus-Ukraine border, stoking fears of an imminent invasion on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Those commandos will be joining 5,000 Spetsnaz troops that are already there… They will join another another 5,000 Spetsnaz commandos already in position, according to Western military experts, who warn they could form the spearhead of a much larger force estimated at around 80,000 soldiers, including Russian and Belarus regulars."

Unlike the “woke” special forces in the United States, Spetsnaz forces are incredibly good at what they do. Not too many that have gotten into a firefight with them have lived to tell about it.

We have also learned that Russia and Belarus will be conducting “major war games” in the border region in the middle of this month… "Major war games will then be conducted from February 10 and will see Russian and Belarusian units engage in a 10-day simulation of the ‘interception and suppression of foreign military aggression and counter-terrorism operations’ in what Shoygu dubbed ‘The Allied Resolve of 2022’. Shoygu did not specify how many troops would take part in the war games, but Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. believes Russia will post up to 30,000 troops in Belarus by early February."

It appears that the Biden administration is dead set against any sort of a deal with the Russians, and so now Putin has a decision to make. Will he be the sane one and back down?

Meanwhile, we are being told that Iran is just “weeks” away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb… "In the long list of foreign crises between which President Biden and his administration are bouncing, Iran has not gotten as much play in recent weeks in light of the deteriorating situation in Europe between Russian forces and the people of Ukraine. But according to a senior State Department official, Iran is continuing to move along with its nuclear ambitions and is now “weeks, not months” away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb." One way or another, a war between Israel and Iran is going to begin. And once that war erupts, the Middle East will never be the same again.

We are right on the precipice of so many military conflicts that we have been warned about for years. If global leaders were sane, they would be working as hard as they can to try to prevent World War III from happening. Unfortunately, sanity is in very short supply among global leaders these days, and every man, woman and child on the entire planet will suffer as a result."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"That's Where It All Begins..."

"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"

Gerald Celente, "Keep On Trucking'! Mandate Freedom!"

Full screen recommended.

Gerald Celente, PM 2/1/22:

"Keep On Trucking'! Mandate Freedom!"

"'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."

"Fourth Turning 2022 – Bad Moon Rising" (Part Three)

"Fourth Turning 2022 – Bad Moon Rising" (Part Three)

by Jim Quinn

In Part One & Part Two of this article I laid out how those in power have used the power of propaganda and the psychology of fear to weaponize a flu to further their Great Reset agenda, while ensuring an economic and financial collapse through the issuance of trillions in unpayable bad debt. In Part Three of this article, I will examine how the civic decay in our society, created by the ruling class, will coalesce into a bloody firestorm of death and destruction during the remaining years of this Fourth Turning.

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” - George Orwell, "1984"

“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.” - George Orwell, "1984"

There had been a theory discussed a few years ago regarding the nature of Fourth Turnings alternating between externally focused and internally focused. It is more about the key drivers, as all Fourth Turnings are impacted by domestic and foreign influences. Even though the sample size is small, this Fourth Turning appears to be following the alternating pattern. The American Revolution was driven by conflict with a foreign power (Great Britain), with another foreign power (France) tipping the scales in favor of the patriots. The Civil War was almost entirely a domestic internal conflict, with Great Britain not fully supporting the Confederacy, and tipping the scales in favor of the North. The Great Depression was created by global central bank machinations, with World War II almost entirely fought on foreign soil, leaving the U.S. as the unchallenged leader of the free world after 1945."

Please view the complete, very highly recommended article here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Investing In The Rigged Stock Market; Football More Important Than Your Economy; American Broke"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 2/1/22:

"Investing In The Rigged Stock Market;

 Football More Important Than Your Economy; Americans Broke"

"Supply Chain Crisis Threatens To Trigger Massive Bankruptcies: Six Months Until Businesses Fail"

Full screen recommended.

"Supply Chain Crisis Threatens To Trigger Massive Bankruptcies: 

Six Months Until Businesses Fail"

by Epic Economist

There’s nothing normal about the “new normal”. The survival of hundreds of thousands of American businesses is on the line as the supply chain crisis impacts their operations while a series of other problems, including staffing shortages and the new wave of virus cases, are crushing expectations of a sustained recovery. Many Americans are just now realizing that empty shelves are going to stay with us for a while. We’re witnessing shortages of electronics, appliances, clothing, vehicles, and even food. Empty shelves are sweeping across the nation as grocers struggle to get their goods delivered. At the same time, everything is getting more expensive, and if we think the latest price hikes are simply absurd, for business owners, who have been absorbing most of those increased costs, profit margins are so low right now, many of them are nearing bankruptcy.

Supply chain disruptions are happening in every corner of the industry, and this is pushing the cost of manufacturing, shipping, transportation, and labor to extraordinary levels. Even worse, industry executives are saying that these bottlenecks aren’t likely to be resolved until 2023. While shortages have a major impact on the lives of consumers, businesses, big and small, are withstanding the worst of the disruptions. Sectors such as hospitality – and especially restaurants, which run on narrow profit margins, – are having to cope with a sizable collapse in revenue due to higher operating costs.

There’s essentially no way around it: if companies want to get their goods, they have to pay these insanely high rates. According to the Drewry World Container Index, the rate to move a 40-foot container from Rotterdam to New York faced a US$6,214 increase this month and has jumped 208 percent compared to the same time last year. The Shanghai-Long Beach route has seen an even sharper increase, going up an additional US$13,500 this month, and 283 percent from last year. Prices are also climbing because the annual pace of inflation hit over 7 percent last month, the largest gain in the consumer price index recorded in nearly four decades.

Food shortages are also driving prices to surge, with meat, bacon, and poultry rising almost 30 percent. For restaurant owners, this has been a total nightmare. A new poll conducted by Alignable found that approximately 3.1 million businesses in the U.S. have been severely hurt by supply chain issues. From those, at least 498,000 small businesses will not be able to stay open for six more months if revenue continues to go down. The poll shows that the emergence of a new virus variant in January has caused a 43% to 31% revenue loss for U.S. small businesses. The new restrictions contributed to the aggravation of supply chain backlogs, labor issues, and inflation, it noted.

While our leaders insist that the breakdown of our supply chains is “temporary”, and it will fade away eventually, economic analysts David Dayen and Rakeen Mabud noted that “almost none of these stories will explain how these shortages and price hikes were also brought to life through bad public policy coupled with decades of corporate greed.” Unfortunately, more turbulence is on the horizon because thousands of truck drivers went on a strike this week complaining about movement restrictions, poor working conditions, and low pay. George Sofianos, who runs a distribution business says that "disaster might be the right word in terms of staff shortages". The United States is experiencing a shortage of more than 80,000 truck drivers, according to the American Trucking Associations. And at least 40,000 truckers are threatening to quit their jobs if conditions do not improve.

Given that about 72% of America’s freight transport moves by trucks – from the vegetables we put on our dinner table to the gas pump in our vehicles – this situation is “more critical than ever,” Sofianos added. It’s safe to say that struggling businesses will be the hardest hit by the truck drivers’ strike. Every day of delay is a day of lost revenue business owners will never make it up, They can always try, but they never do, Sofianos continued. The pain never ends. The instability of our supply chains will continue to breed vulnerability for consumers, for workers, for businesses, and for our economy. We’re in the middle of a very complex crisis that is threatening our entire system like never before. The outlook isn’t very reassuring. As supply chain problems compound, we could potentially be on the verge of another massive wave of bankruptcies and lay-offs. But many of us don’t even realize the perfect storm that seems to be forming to take us back to a nightmarish economic scenario."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

"The Moral of the Story"

"The Moral of the Story"

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland..."As Mick, our old stone-mason pal, put it, one stone leads to the next one. And it’s always the next stone you have to worry about. Here’s the Washington Post, with the latest news: “Kiara Age moved in less than a year ago and now it’s time to move again: Rent on her two-bedroom apartment in Henderson, Nevada, is rising 23 percent to nearly $1,600 a month, making it impossibly out of reach for the single mother.

Age makes $15 an hour working from home as a medical biller while also caring for her 1-year-old son, because she can’t afford child care. By the time she pays rent - which takes up more than half of her salary - and buys groceries, there’s little left over. “I am trying to figure out what I can do,” said Age, 32, who also has an 8-year-old daughter. “Rent is so high that I can’t afford anything.” Yes, dear reader, as all flesh sooner or later discovers: tomorrow is when the hangovers, bills, and regrets appear.

Double Whammy: And here’s an old Diary Dictum: tomorrow doesn’t always bring the future you want or expect; more often, it brings the future you deserve. Poor Ms. Age is the victim of two bad situations - one, of her own making… the other made by America’s elite. Now, she is trying to lay her stone on a very rough patch of wall. Taking care of children is difficult enough for a well-united couple, working on it together. Trying to take care of two children alone while also working to support them at a $15-an-hour job seems like asking for trouble.

Nowhere does the Post dare to mention that the poor woman was in a tough bind already. Her apartment already cost her about $1,300 a month. $15 an hour is only about $2,500 a month… which meant that the apartment was already taking half her earnings.

So… her lifestyle choices might be considered, ‘mistake #1.’ But wait. They won’t tell you this in the mainstream media; it would be ‘blaming the victim,’ they say; ‘dreadful, middle-class moralizing!’ “Lie down with dogs and you will get up with fleas,” say the old-timers. “Fix the roof when the sun is shining,” is their advice. “Leave a rake, upturned in the yard, and you are bound to step on it,“ they add.

Poor Ms. Age’s foot hurts. Alas, that’s how the world works. There’s always a ‘moral to the story’ and you ignore it at your peril.

Supply, meet Demand: Then, there’s ‘mistake #2’… According to the Washington Post, rents are rising 40% in Austin, Texas, 35% in New York, and 29% in Orlando. Where did that inflation come from? Nowhere? On the supply side… Didn’t the Trump government declare a ‘state of emergency’ in March 2020? Didn’t local governments ‘lock down’ much of their economies? Didn’t health authorities create a panic, in which even young healthy people – who were never in any real danger from the COVID – cowered in their houses?

And on the demand side… During that time – when houses weren’t being built – didn’t the feds also add $5 trillion to the Fed’s balance sheet… and $12 trillion to America’s national debt – sending out ‘stimmie’ checks and PPP giveaway ‘loans?’ And didn’t the money supply – as measured by the Fed’s “M2” – go up 38% since the close of 2019?

And what would you expect? As night follows day… and as politicians betray their voters – what could be more predictable? What might be the moral of this story?

Inflation, of course. The Washington Post continues: Average rents rose 14% last year, to $1,877 a month, with cities like Austin, New York and Miami notching increases of as much as 40%, according to real estate firm Redfin. Nowhere in the article is there a single word about how the feds caused the housing price inflation. Yesterday seems to only exist as a place to showcase evils the old-timers never thought of – inequality and racism.

As for tomorrow, not to worry… the Biden Team is on the case. It will salve the hurts of the homeless with… what else… more of other peoples’ money. And it will divert and distract the public from the real cause: ‘Are you homeless? Of course, it’s not your fault. And it’s not our fault either. It’s the fault of those awful racists!’

Biden has appointed a political hack and racism monger to head up its homelessness initiatives. Bloomberg: "Jeff Olivet will serve as the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, an office that coordinates the work of 19 federal agencies to address the housing crisis.

Olivet is the cofounder of an anti-racist consultancy, Racial Equity Partners. He is also the former chief executive officer of the Center for Social Innovation (now C4 Innovations), a company that provides training and technical guidance for housing groups and social providers to confront racism and other systemic issues. Olivet has experience working directly with homeless people as a street outreach worker, case manager and housing coordinator."

Will there be consequences? Of course. But maybe not those the Biden administration hoped for."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"The Government’s Kill Switch for Your Car, Your Freedoms and Your Life"

"The Government’s Kill Switch for Your Car,

 Your Freedoms and Your Life"

by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead

“A psychotic world we live in. The madmen are in power.”

- Philip K. Dick, "The Man in the High Castle"

"If we haven’t learned by now, we should beware of anything the government insists is for our own good. Take the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Given the deteriorating state of the nation’s infrastructure (aging highways and bridges, outdated railways and airports, etc.), which have been neglected for years in order to fund America’s endless wars abroad, it would seem like an obvious and long overdue fix.

Yet there’s a catch. There’s always a catch. Tucked into the whopping $1 trillion bipartisan spending bill is a provision requiring automakers to prescribe a “federal motor vehicle safety standard for advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology, and for other purposes.”

As expected, the details are disconcertingly vague, which leaves the government with a wide berth to sow the seeds of mischief and mayhem. For instance, nowhere does the legislation indicate how such a so-called “kill switch” would work, what constitutes a driver who is “impaired,” and what “other purposes” might warrant the government using such a backdoor kill switch.

These “vehicle kill switches” may be sold to the public as a safety measure aimed at keeping drunk drivers off the roads, but they will quickly become a convenient tool in the hands of government agents to put the government in the driver’s seat while rendering null and void the Constitution’s requirements of privacy and its prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Indeed, when you think about it, these vehicle kill switches are a perfect metaphor for the government’s efforts to not only take control of our cars but also our freedoms and our lives. For too long, we have been captive passengers in a driverless car controlled by the government, losing more and more of our privacy and autonomy the further down the road we go.

Just think of all the ways in which the government has been empowered to dictate what we say, do and think; where we go; with whom we associate; how we raise our families; how we live our lives; what we consume; how we spend our money; how we protect ourselves and our loved ones; and to what extent our rights as individuals can be displaced for the sake of the so-called greater good.

In this way, we have arrived, way ahead of schedule, into the dystopian future dreamed up by such science fiction writers as George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick.

In keeping with Dick’s darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state - which became the basis for Steven Spielberg’s futuristic thriller "Minority Report", which was released 20 years ago- we have been imprisoned in a world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control.

"Minority Report" is set in the year 2054, but it could just as well have taken place in 2022.

Incredibly, as the various nascent technologies employed and shared by the government and corporations alike - facial recognition, iris scanners, massive databases, behavior prediction software, and so on - are incorporated into a complex, interwoven cyber network aimed at tracking our movements, predicting our thoughts and controlling our behavior, Spielberg’s unnerving vision of the future is fast becoming our reality.

Both worlds - our present-day reality and Minority Report’s celluloid vision of the future - are characterized by widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, fusion centers, driverless cars, voice-controlled homes, facial recognition systems, cybugs and drones, and predictive policing (pre-crime) aimed at capturing would-be criminals before they can do any damage.

Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Government agents listen in on our telephone calls and read our emails. Political correctness - a philosophy that discourages diversity - has become a guiding principle of modern society. The courts have shredded the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. In fact, SWAT teams battering down doors without search warrants and FBI agents acting as a secret police that investigate dissenting citizens are common occurrences in contemporary America.

We are increasingly ruled by multi-corporations wedded to the police state. Much of the population is either hooked on illegal drugs or ones prescribed by doctors. And bodily privacy and integrity has been utterly eviscerated by a prevailing view that Americans have no rights over what happens to their bodies during an encounter with government officials, who are allowed to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.

We’re on the losing end of a technological revolution that has already taken hostage our computers, our phones, our finances, our entertainment, our shopping, our appliances, and now, our cars. As if the government wasn’t already able to track our movements on the nation’s highways and byways by way of satellites, GPS devices, and real-time traffic cameras, performance data recorders, black box recorders and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications will monitor our vehicle’s speed, direction, location, gear selection, brake force, the number of miles traveled and seatbelts use, and transmit this data to other drivers, including the police.

In this Brave New World, there is no communication not spied upon, no movement untracked, no thought unheard. In other words, there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Herded along by drones, smart phones, GPS devices, smart TVs, social media, smart meters, surveillance cameras, facial recognition software, online banking, license plate readers and driverless cars, we are quickly approaching a point of singularity with the interconnected technological metaverse that is life in the American police state.

Every new piece of technologically-enabled gadget we acquire and technologically -boobytrapped legislation that Congress enacts pulls us that much deeper into the sticky snare.

These vehicle kill switches are yet another Trojan Horse: sold to us as safety measures for the sake of the greater good, all the while poised to wreak havoc on what little shreds of autonomy we have left.

As I make clear in my book "Battlefield America: The War on the American People" and in its fictional counterpart "The Erik Blair Diaries", we’re hurtling down a one-way road at mind-boggling speeds to a destination not of our choosing, the terrain is getting more treacherous by the minute, and we’ve passed all the exit ramps. From this point forward, there is no turning back, and the signpost ahead reads “Danger.” Time to buckle up your seatbelts, folks. We’re in for a bumpy ride."

- https://www.rutherford.org/

Gregory Mannarino, "By Design: The US Economy Continues To Collapse, And FED Easy Money Will Not Stop It"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/1/22:

"By Design: The US Economy Continues To Collapse, 

And FED Easy Money Will Not Stop It"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Memory of the Sky"

 

2002, "Memory of the Sky"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This false-color composite image views the nearby stellar nursery using data from the Herschel Space Observatory's panoramic exploration of interstellar clouds along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel's far infrared detectors record the emission from the region's cold dust directly.

The famous pillars are included near the center of the scene. While the central group of hot young stars is not apparent at these infrared wavelengths, the stars' radiation and winds carve the shapes within the interstellar clouds. Scattered white spots are denser knots of gas and dust, clumps of material collapsing to form new stars. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160728.html

Chet Raymo, "The Meaning Of Life"

"The Meaning Of Life"

by Chet Raymo

"There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself."

– Erich Fromm

"I had heard from a high-school student in the midwest who had read my book 'Skeptics and True Believers,' in which, as you may know, I take to task all forms of faith that lack an empirical basis, including astrology and supernaturalist religion. He writes: "Are we just meaningless beasts roaming a meaningless Earth with the sole purpose of popping out babies so we can raise them to live longer, more meaningless lives?"

A good question, the best question. What we have learned about our place on Earth does indeed suggest that we are beasts, related even in our DNA and molecular chemistry to other animals. And, yes, the driving purpose of all animal life would seem to be "popping out babies." But our uniquely complex human brains allow us to be more than beasts, more than baby-poppers. As far as we know, humans are the most complex thing in the universe, and in our desire to gain reliable knowledge of the universe the universe becomes conscious of itself.

As for myself, I don't need stars or gods to give my life meaning. I work at meaning every day, in the love of family and friends, in caring for my own little pieces of the Earth, in art, in science, and in making myself conscious of the mystery and beauty - and terror - of the cosmos.

"Or is there a possibility that there may be more?" asks my midwestern correspondent. Yes, there is almost certainly more to existence than what we have yet learned. Just think how much more we know than did our pre-scientific ancestors. But that still greater knowledge will have to wait for minds other than my own. My children and grandchildren will know far more than I, and in that growing human storehouse of reliable knowledge I hope they will find some greater measure of meaning.

In the meantime, I attend to the fox that sometimes walks across my windowsill, the morning glory seedlings that reach achingly for the sun, and the moon that hangs like a great milky eye in the sky. Francis Bacon said that what a man would like to be true, he preferentially believes. That's a mistake I try to avoid. I choose instead to believe what my senses tell me to be palpably true."

- http://www.sciencemusings.com/