Saturday, February 5, 2022

"Knowing..."

“Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”
- Sue Monk Kidd

Streets of Philadelphia, “True Story, Winter, Feb. 5, 2022"

Full screen recommended.
Streets of Philadelphia, “True Story, Winter, Feb. 5, 2022"
Full screen recommended.
Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Friday, February 4, 2022

“California Passing Out Free Money? Jobs Report Scam; Amazon Won’t Save Economy; FED Mega Collapse”

Jeremiah Babe PM 2/4/22:
“California Passing Out Free Money? Jobs Report Scam; 
Amazon Won’t Save Economy; FED Mega Collapse”

Musical Interlude: Medwyn Goodall, “Eyes of Heaven”

Full screen mode recommended.
Medwyn Goodall, “Eyes of Heaven”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31 at left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy. This narrow- and wide-angle, multi-camera composite finds details of spiral structure in both, while the massive neighboring galaxies seem to be balanced in starry fields either side of bright Mirach, beta star in the constellation Andromeda. Mirach is just 200 light-years from the Sun. But M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is really 2.5 million light-years distant and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is also about 3 million light years away.


Although they look far apart, M31 and M33 are engaged in a gravitational struggle. In fact, radio astronomers have found indications of a bridge of neutral hydrogen gas that could connect the two, evidence of a closer encounter in the past. Based on measurements, gravitational simulations currently predict that the Milky Way, M31, and M33 will all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers, billions of years in the future.”
"Everything passes away- suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"
- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"

The Poet: Theodore Roethke, “The Return”

“The Return”

“Suddenly the window will open
and Mother will call,
it's time to come in.
The wall will part,
I will enter heaven in muddy shoes.
I will come to the table
and answer questions rudely.
I am all right, leave me
alone. Head in hand I
sit and sit. How can I tell them
about that long
and tangled way?
Here in heaven mothers
knit green scarves;
flies buzz.
Father dozes by the stove
after six days' labor.
No - surely I can't tell them
that people are at each
other's throats.”

- Theodore Roethke

"Life..."

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.
It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.
It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.
It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.
And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.
And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."
- The Universe

"Just Another Government Lie"

"Just Another Government Lie"
by Brian Maher

"On Wednesday we razzed economists for preposterously overguessing - by 481,000 - January private-sector payrolls. Today we must yank their whiskers once again. For they have mangled yet another forecast… and very nearly as badly. Only this time they erred 180 degrees the other way — to the downside.

The United States Department of Labor issued the January unemployment numbers this morning. A Dow Jones survey of economists had projected a January nonfarm payroll gain of 150,000. What did today’s report reveal? Today’s report revealed a January payroll gain not of 150,000 - but of 467,000 - a 317,000 surpassing of consensus guesses. Goldman Sachs had even divined a 250,000 net job loss… a 717,000 botching.

A Blowout: Mr. Cliff Hodge, chief investment officer with Cornerstone Wealth, thus gushes that: "The jobs report blew away expectations across the board. The headline number of 467,000 was multiples above expectations, wages came in hot and most importantly the labor force participation rate rose all during a period where Omicron cases spiked."

Adds a certain Andrew Hunter - senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics: "The 467,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in January is even stronger than it looks, as it came despite the spike in absenteeism driven by the Omicron virus wave… The headline gain appears to make a mockery of our fears that Omicron would weigh heavily on the payrolls figures…"

Just so. Yet are the blockbusting numbers truthful? Are they truly as they appear? Let us seize our sleuth’s kit. Let us step into our gumshoes. Let us hunt clues... in search of answers. But first, how did the stock market take this morning’s news?

It’s All About the Fed: Recall that sweet news on Main Street often goes down sour on Wall Street. And a “blowout” unemployment report would only affirm the Federal Reserve’s intentions to begin money-tightening in March. As notes Mr. Barry Gilbert, strategist with LPL Financial: "For markets, the jobs report is all about the Fed, and today’s upside surprises in both job creation and wage growth keep the Fed on track to begin raising rates in March and hike four or more times this year."

Thus stocks opened trading today with pursed lips, ensoured. The major averages gave off winces. By late morning stocks mounted a reversal, motored ahead by favorable earnings from Amazon. The Nasdaq Composite posted a 219-point gain on the day. The S&P, a 23-point gain. The Dow Jones lost courage late this afternoon, turning in a modest 21-point loss. Yet stocks did initially recoil from the unemployment numbers - and that is precisely the point.

Meantime, the 10-year Treasury yield leaped to 1.93% today. That is its highest level since August 2019… incidentally.

Why So Wrong? Yet to return to today’s unemployment numbers: How did economists so badly miss their mark? Recall, consensus undershot by 317,000. Goldman Sachs men undershot by a canyoning 717,000. Today’s 467,000 figure exceeded all 78 projections. HSBC came nearest to the mark at 225,000. Yet even that represents a 242,000 underguess.

Again, why the atrocious aiming - that is, why more atrocious than usual? Here is our clue: seasonal adjustments. Seasonal adjustments, as Investopedia explains them: "Are intended to smooth out aberrations in certain types of financial activity. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses seasonal adjustment to achieve a more accurate portrait of employment and unemployment levels in the United States. They do this by removing the influence of seasonal events, such as the holidays, weather events, school schedules and even the harvest period. These adjustments are estimates based on seasonal activity in previous years."

“Statistics in the Wrong Hands Are a Gun in the Wrong Hands”: Seasonal adjustments are intended to clarify, to distinguish signal from noise, to flatten seasonal bumps and variations. Yet in the hands of government number-torturers, they do not clarify. They put out fog. They obfuscate. A seasonal adjustment is - after all - a statistical technique. And statistics in the wrong hands are a gun in the wrong hands.

The government statisticians cannot demonstrate that January witnessed 467,000 fresh payrolls. They merely infer it; 467,000 is itself a guess based upon seasonal activity in previous years. In fact, the numbers men at SouthBay Research claim "there has never been a January seasonal adjustment of this magnitude."

Unadjusted Numbers: What if you “unadjust” the numbers? Zero Hedge: "Looking at just the December to January change we find that while the seasonally adjusted number rose by an impressive 467,000, the unadjusted number collapsed, tumbling from 150,349,000 to 147,525,000, a 2.8 million drop (as it tends to do every time the year shifts from December to January) meaning that the entire [change] in the January number - somewhere in the 3 million-plus range - is due to arbitrary adjustments overlaid on top of the data… If [you normalize] the January seasonal adjustment, the payrolls number is some 309,000 lower, or ends up being 166,000, right on top of expectations."

Did you catch it?: 309,000 fewer payrolls than trumpeted! At this point the answer to what is behind the massive January beat should be becoming clear: How did a 2.8 million actual drop in jobs translate into an adjusted 467,000? If you said seasonal, COVID and population control adjustments, you are right.

Time Discovers Truth: We cannot verify these or any other numbers. Yet we suspect - strongly - that 467,000 is a statistical mirage, a phantom, a chimera. It is the product of a vast seasonal misadjustment. It is no more authentic than a set of false teeth, a bald man’s toupee or a congressman’s handshake.

Yet we have come to expect little else in these our days. We have a vastly inauthentic stock market and a vastly inauthentic economy erected upon vastly inauthentic credit. Time discovers truth, argued the Roman philosopher Seneca so many centuries ago. We fear he was correct. But please, Lord, not in our lifetime."

"R.I.P. Fiat"

"R.I.P. Fiat"
A Monetary Memento Mori
by Bill Bonner

 "Where have all the currencies gone,
Long time passing.
Where have all the currencies gone,
Long time ago.
Where have all the currencies gone
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn
Oh when will we ever learn..."

~ "An Ode to Fallen Money"

Youghal, Ireland - "A new currency was born this week. Its sponsors traveled to Bethlehem for the occasion. The US SUN: "Mystery as gold cube worth $11.7million ‘pops up’ in NYC’s Central Park – and it has its own security guards. The cube, composed of 186 kilograms of pure 24-karat gold, was rolled out in front of a snowy Naumburg Bandshell at 5am in the morning surrounded by photographers and NYPD officers. The hollow gold block is the creation of 43-year-old German artist Niclas Castello, who has branded it the "Castello Cube."

And here is where it gets interesting: "The 410-pound work is not for sale but was used as publicity for the launch of accompanying cryptocurrency, the Castello Coin. With gold currently priced at $1,788 per ounce, it is worth up to $11.7 million if it were to be put up for sale."

But wait… “The cube can be seen as a sort of communiqué between an emerging 21st-century cultural ecosystem based on crypto and the ancient world where gold reigned supreme,” Viennese gallerist Lisa Kandlhofer added to ArtNet." The Castello Coin is being traded as $CAST and is trading at an initial price of $0.44. Is that cool, or what? We’ll find out.

To Axe and Rot: It costs almost nothing to launch a crypto coin… and nothing to add more of them. So, however much people buy the coin… it’s almost pure profit to the creator. Cool. But…but…the Germans must have a word for this… it’s the grim, uncontrollable need to look into the future… and weep. You see your new car… rusting away in a junkyard. You get a puppy… and see a cross on the edge of the garden where the old, faithful dog is buried. And that oak tree you just planted; you know it will eventually rot and fall to the woodsman’s axe.

Yes, we’re still cogitating about yesterday… today… and tomorrow. We have a smattering of information about yesterday. And today is all around us. But tomorrow? One day, we stayed up until after midnight to try to catch a glimpse of tomorrow. But there we were. Our eyes closed. The bell tolled 12 times; we counted them. And then, when we opened our eyes. And we missed it; it was already today again.

One of the problems with new forms of money is that tomorrow they are gone. You open your eyes, and they’re not there anymore. Hundreds – thousands – of new currencies have been born over the years. Now, they’re almost all dead. Sniff. Sniff. At least, let us bow our heads in remembrance of them.

DollarDaze.com did a study of 775 ‘fiat’ currencies. A ‘fiat’ currency is simply one that is declared – by decree – to be the lawful currency of a country by its rulers. It found that the average one had a life expectancy of just 27 years. Like the soldiers at Colleville-sur-Mer, they were cut down in the prime of life. And where are their graves? The assignats, the Chinese ‘flying money’, the French livre.. the French franc, the German Papiermark… the German Reichsmark… or just the plain old German Mark?

Unmarked! No widows grieve before them. No grandchildren come to see them. They are just forgotten. But let us not think of them moldering in dark graves. Let us try to remember them as they were… so happy, optimistic and lively. They lived yesterday, remember… when it was all upside. Downside always comes tomorrow.

How charming their money heaven must be… with so many hopeful currencies – the confederate ‘grayback,’… the Roman Denarius… the Mexican silver peso… the Moroccan Franc… the Romanian Silver Leu… the Maryland shilling… the 1924 Estonia marka… the Japanese oban… the Hungarian Bilpengoe… the Brazilian Crusado novo… the Argentine Austral… the Ukrainian Karbovanetz… the Serbian reformed dinar…

What fun they must have frolicking in their Valhalla… cavorting one with another… forever counting and exchanging – two to one… five to one… 50,000 to one… or like the Zimbabwe dollar… one hundred-trillion to one! And all totally worthless.

Staying Power: Many years ago, we came into possession of a display of defunct currencies. They hung on our office wall… a monetary memento mori… reminding us of the Way of All Paper. But wait… what about the cryptos? What about the newly minted Castello Coin? It is not paper. It is not a ‘fiat’ currency. It’s something new.

If gold represents 50 centuries of relative monetary stability in the ‘ancient world,’ will this new coin provide us with 5,000 years of purchasing power in the new ‘cultural ecosystem?’ Or should we prepare the black crepe and sympathy cards already, knowing that it will soon be gone? Already, more than a thousand cryptos have passed away. How long will the Castello Coin last? We don’t know. But our guess is that the golden cube will last a lot longer."

Gregory Mannarino, "The Single Key To The Coming Meltdown; One Thing, and One Thing Only"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/4/22:
"The Single Key To The Coming Meltdown; 
One Thing, and One Thing Only"

"35 Dirt Cheap Emergency Foods You Forgot To Buy Before The Imminent Economic Collapse"

Full screen recommended.
"35 Dirt Cheap Emergency Foods You Forgot 
To Buy Before The Imminent Economic Collapse"
by Epic Economist

"As the economic collapse accelerates, a massive food shortage is on the horizon, but most people don’t even know what’s coming next. With fertilizer prices going through the roof, farmers are simply giving up on their crops, and global food production is at perilously low levels right now.

Meanwhile, food prices are rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, with grain prices soaring 70% since 2020, and meat, poultry, and pork prices jumping by over 30% over the past year. Inflation is running at the highest level in over 40 years, and what we experienced so far is just the beginning. It seems that empty shelves are becoming the new normal in this country, which means that now is the time to start stockpiling supplies before we don’t find them anywhere anymore.

Stockpiling isn’t always easy and it can be quite expensive, that’s why today, we gathered a list of cheap foods you can start adding to your pantry. It’s essential to consider that we must look beyond the price tag. What we want is to make sure that our food supplies can give us the biggest bang for our buck. Survival foods are about calories and sustaining our bodies during extreme times. So we analyzed the cost per calorie and the versatility of each item.

Never forget that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. Check for more prepping advice on websites such as Ask A Prepper and Urban Survival Website. It can be incredibly helpful to learn from those who have been doing this for years. There are always more prepper tips and tricks you can learn to start your journey. Survivalism preparedness isn’t always easy, but with some guidance, you can get through it, you just need to take the first step.

Building your emergency stockpile can help you to avoid the chaos of an uncertain future. Find the best value for your money by buying high-calorie, nutrient-dense foods, and plenty of water. We never know when a new disaster or shortage will emerge. But we can know for sure that being prepared doesn’t hurt. Prices can vary depending on where you live, but you can always find great deals online.

The worst is yet to come, and global events are escalating by the day. Hunger crises are emerging in every corner of the globe, and the possibility of a worldwide famine seems to be gaining force as food manufacturing slows down and our supply chains persistently collapse. For that reason, you should check our 35 dirt cheap emergency foods to buy before the imminent economic collapse. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment section and your own experience with prepping."

The Daily "Near You?"

Argyle, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The US Dollar is Monopoly Money Wrapped in a Ponzi Scheme"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 2/4/22:
"The US Dollar is Monopoly Money Wrapped in a Ponzi Scheme"
"Things could not be worse. The US dollar is being printed at such a furious pace it has zero value. Why not step up and buy real estate on Parkplace with this Monopoly money? The 10 year yield is rising and we’re being told that we added more jobs last month. Shenanigans."

Gregory Mannarino, "Situation Critical: The 10-Year Yield Just Raised A "Yellow" Flag"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/4/22:
"Situation Critical: The 10-Year Yield Just Raised A "Yellow" Flag"

"Death Wish"

"Death Wish"
by Jim Kunstler

"Reality is the kryptonite of the Left, sapping its superpowers of coercion and persecution which - get this - are the only abilities it cares about. The Left only pretends to want to make the world a better place. It doesn’t care about governing, y’know, managing national affairs, and it wouldn’t know how - as no one has demonstrated better than “Joe Biden” and the shadowy wrecking crew running him behind the scenes. The Left actually just seeks to punish its adversaries, and it generates ever-new adversities and animosities in its quest to lay on more punishments, the more sadistic the better. Thus, the never-ending Covid-19 melodrama, which provides such an excellent excuse for torturing the populace. The Left’s motto: the beatings will continue until morale improves!

Reality is intruding now, though, with the help of its twin sister, Truth. Particular truths are emerging to fortify reality and weaken the Left’s efforts to beat-down the peoples of Western Civ. For instance, the implacable truth that the mRNA vaccines don’t work and that they gravely injure people. In the face of this obvious reality, government and corporations persist in their irrational campaigns to vaxx-up every last man-woman-and-child. Why, at this point, despite all the free Kit-Kat bars you could stuff down your craw, would any sane employee of the Hershey’s Chocolate empire opt for a vaxx that could make you stroke out at your desk? The ridiculous official answer, of course, is: to protect the already-vaccinated. Sshh-yeah, right…

Ditto, the unfortunate, put-upon citizens of Austria, such a tidy little country, too, and so hopelessly lost in its daze of mass formation psychosis. This week, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, the UK, and Ireland are dropping all Covid-19 restrictions and impositions, while Austria makes its vaxx mandate a national law. (How many Austrians are secretly studying Hungarian now?) The cognitive dissonance must be unbearable, like a kind of 5G-induced tinnitus that afflicts an entire population, making them want to bang their heads against the nearest wall.

Likewise, the absurd government of Canada, led by the clueless ponce Justin Trudeau, who refuses to take his patent-leather go-go boot off the neck of Canadian truckers. The truckers aren’t having it anymore, of course, and neither are the towing services that the government is trying to enlist to get rid of the truckers’ trucks. Meanwhile, the premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta provinces have thrown in the towel on Covid-19 restrictions, leaving Mr. Trudeau in his fortress-of-solitude, exact whereabouts unknown, desperately hurling objurgations at the “racists, Islamophobes, and transphobes” seeking to end his career as a turbaned, cross-dressing, blackface political entertainer.

And also likewise, the “progressive” sadists on the Loudoun County, VA, school board, who refuse to lift their cruel and stupid mask mandate on schoolchildren, despite Governor Glenn Youngkin’s recent executive order to cut it out. The school board sadists surely don’t care about the kids. Everybody from the Johns Hopkins Med School to The Atlantic magazine - to even the lost-in-space CDC - have admitted that wearing face-masks is pointless. Not to mention that Covid-19 has been reduced to the wimpy omicron variant, plus the truth that the incidence of serious illness in children from Covid-19 of any kind is near-zero. So, why keep the kids in masks? For the pleasure of making them miserable and flaunting their power over the kids’ parents. This is how the Left rolls.

Now, as a general proposition, you can bet that the reason the Left wants to keep the Covid-19 scare going as long as possible is in order to keep in place the “emergency” mail-in voting allowances that so easily enable ballot harvesting and other election frauds. Alas, the timing on this doesn’t look good for them. The rapid omicron up-spike has turned into a rapid down-spike. The goldurned thing is vanishing in the winter mist. By early March there may be no actual Covid on-the-scene… omigosh… and then what? The midterms are yet months away, and if there’s no emergency….

Well, I dunno. It’s not beyond imagining that the Left and its mysterious sponsors out there in the mythical matrix of sinister global interests will send yet another new coronavirus variant down the chute to keep the worldwide scare going so as to complete the ruin of Western Civ. It’d have to be a humdinger, though, something, say, that made folks bleed out of their ears, nostrils, and eye sockets - because otherwise, at this point, the people are done with lockdowns, forced vaxxes, mask mandates, green passes, and other social control nonsense, and would opt to just get on with what remains of normal life in this twilight of empire.

Looks like the backup plan is for “Joe Biden’s” geniuses in the foreign affairs and intel bureaucracy to start a war with Russia over Ukraine, our dearest ally in the whole wide world (not). Yesterday, State Department spox Ned Price floated up a raggedy balloon about Russia pulling a “false flag” stunt in Ukraine’s Donbass frontier to get things going. It sounded like he was just making shit up. And he was conspicuously short on details. “Our intel people something something, blah blah.” Skeptical reporters shot the balloon down with a few barbed remarks - the darn thing just zinged around the press room with the air rushing out and crashed on the spox’s podium - suggesting that even the news media is tired of its role in the controlled demolition of our country.

More likely, though, the financial scaffold of Late Modernity gives way under the burden of rackets and Ponzis it has been asked to support. This week, Facebook (a.k.a. Meta) scored the world record for biggest single-day market value drop ever, shedding $232-billion in capital losses. You go, Zuck! The Everything Bubble has achieved supernova scale and everybody knows she’s gonna blow as soon as Jay Powell lifts the Fed Funds rate twenty-five basis points. When that finally happens, things get realer than real and Truth comes marching in like the saints with bells on. It’ll be the Left’s Masque of the Red Death… ashes, ashes, all fall down.

The actual global economy itself - the thing that sends, you know, products from one place to another - is seizing up like the engine on a beater 1998 Buick Regal. Long about right now, lots of things are not going from point A to Point B, including stuff of a food nature. It’s starting to irk the home-folks. When all that goes south, you’ll hear no more about Covid-19, systemic racism, the patriarchy, the drag queen story hour, and all the other hobgoblins that infest the Left’s gospel garden of Wokery. The kryptonite is coming on hard. They are done… and for the moment we are stuck with them running the country."

"The Pretender’s Dilemma"

"The Pretender’s Dilemma"
by The Zman

"Critics of modern liberal democracy often repeat Juvenal’s line about the populace being pacified with bread and circuses. In the modern usage it means the public is easily bought off with free stuff and mindless entertainment. While the average guy is watching television sports and adding to his waistline, he does not care that the political class is looting the country. Just as long as he has a steady stream of new products, he is happy to abandon his duties as a citizen.

Juvenal had a different meaning, as he was writing in the second century. He was criticizing the Roman political class for their lack of heroism and virtue. They cared more for holding office than tackling the challenges of the day. They would corrupt the people with free grain and elaborate public spectacles, if that is what it took to win favor and gain power. The ruling class was mortgaging the civic virtue of Rome in order to get short term profit from the political system.

Of course, the culture of liberal democracy forbids the idea of a ruling class, so the blame must always fall on the people for the problems with the rulers. After all, the people picked the office holders. If they are unhappy with the choices, they should find new ones that they prefer. The civic religion of liberal democracy is like a spell cast on even the most jaded. It prevents them from accepting that there is not a democratic solution to the inherent defects of liberal democracy.

The irony is the cynical will often quote de Maistre and say that the people get the government they deserve. This is ironic in several ways. One is that de Maistre was no fan of democracy or popular government. He also meant that a people, as in a biologically connected people, will get the ruling class that reflects their temperament and talents, regardless of the system. This is something that no modern liberal democratic could possibly accept and remain a liberal democrat.

Putting that aside, the problem with the Juvenal quote is that bread and circuses is the only peaceful and predictable solution to the large society problem. Bringing large numbers of people together under a single ruler, whether it is the farce of democracy or the force of a despot, goes against man’s nature. Humans can only know and trust about 150 people at one time. Once a group breaks what is called the Dunbar number, no one person can know everyone well enough to trust them.

The solution long ago was a code, a set of rules for the group. A set of rules to govern relations between all people within the group solved this problem. The members did not have to trust one another or even know one another very well. They just had to trust that the rules made sense for the group and that the people enforcing the rules could be trusted to predictably enforce the rules. The proof of these two pillars of society would be the peace and prosperity of the group.

Of course, once you get to very large groups, like city-states and countries, you end up with lots of dissimilar people in the same society. A large group of related people will come with the habits of mind to make cooperation natural. Have a large diverse group of people and those habits of mind will inevitably conflict. This is the large society problem and we have just two solutions. One is a great mission to focus the public’s attention and the other is bread and circuses.

The great mission or crusade, like a war, comes with an expiry date. You can rally the most diverse and uncooperating people against some crisis. In a war, for example, people put aside their grievances to fight the common enemy. Yankee New England dropped their secession drive, for example, because of the War of 1812. The trouble is, people tire of war and every crisis losses its sense of urgency. Even the communists figured this out eventually.

This is the fork in the road the American ruling class faces now. The pretender Biden also adds the complication of being seen as illegitimate by most people. Many of those people may be glad Trump is gone, at least for now, but they also know that Biden has no business on the throne. He is just a shuffling corpse, animated by players operating in the shadows. Like all pretenders, Biden will be limited by the fact that the rest of the ruling class is looking to exploit him, rather than support him.

Compounding his dilemma is that the people who engineered his ascent to the throne want to start a new cold war with Russia and start a war with Iran. They also seek to impose the Chinese social model on Americans. Speech and movement will be sharply curtailed with the help of the corporate oligarchs. In other words, the new regime tilts heavily toward a holy crusade to rally the people, like a war against the virus and a war against Iran, rather than a new round of bread and circuses.

This is something that was overlooked in the Trump years. After eight years of the dreary preaching of Obama, Trump’s antics were a relief. His style was not everyone’s cup of tea, but he kept things lively. He also focused on the economy, which did rather well until the Covid panic. The stock market doubled in value during his time in office, which is something that matters a lot to people. In other words, Trump gave the people four years of bread and circuses.

Finally, the other dilemma for the Pretender Biden is that he will have Trump out there reminding people of how Biden got on the throne. In the old days, Biden’s first order of business would be to have Trump assassinated. By removing the old ruler, there was no chance for him to return to power. That’s unlikely to happen with Trump, although one cannot rule it out, so Biden will have to operate in the shadow of what many will view as the rightful President.

This is the dilemma facing the Pretender Biden. He cannot go for the bread and circuses route, as that would be a concession to the hated Trump. That means going along with the warmongers and scaremongers. The trouble there is that requires trust and exactly no one trusts a pretender. The only solution may be to forge ahead with a manufactured crisis like a war with Iran and hope the people are gullible enough to fall for it like they did in the Bush years."

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target! More Food Shortages!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, AM 2/4/22:
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target! More Food Shortages!"
"In today's vlog we are at Target with empty shelves everywhere! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a massive food shortage! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

"We Learn..."

"We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.
We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do;
and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.”
- Samuel Smiles

"Danger..."

“At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other, even more reasonable, says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger, since it is not a man’s power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events; and that it is therefore better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.”
- Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”
“All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper,
and the next – who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.”
- Sophoclese, “Philoctetes”
Free Downloads:
A little light reading from Tolstoy…
Freely download “War and Peace”, by Leo Tolstoy, here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600

Freely download “Seven Tragedies of Sophocles- Philoctetes” here:

"The U.S. Economy Just Took A Turn In A Very Ugly Direction"

"The U.S. Economy Just Took A Turn In A Very Ugly Direction"
by Michael Snyder

"That sure didn’t last long. Over the past two years, the U.S. government borrowed and spent trillions of dollars that we did not have, and the Federal Reserve unwisely pumped trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system. Of course all of that money was going to be a short-term help for the economy, but it was also going to make our long-term problems even worse. So what did we get in turn for mortgaging our future? Well, it turns out that we got a few months of economic stability, tremendous inflation, and the worst supply chain crisis in the history of the United States. And now the economy is slowing down again.

Of course inflation isn’t going anywhere, and so some pundits are suggesting that we are heading for a period of “stagflation” like we experienced under Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. If only that were true. Sadly, what we are eventually heading into will be far, far worse than anything that we went through in the 1970s.

But things weren’t supposed to turn in that direction so soon. The “sugar high” from all the money that was poured into the economy by our leaders was not supposed to wear off so quickly. But it apparently has, because Wednesday’s ADP report showed that 301,000 private sector jobs were lost during the month of January… "Omicron threw a wrench into America’s economy at the start of 2022: The US private sector lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in January, according to Wednesday’s ADP Employment Report. The loss of 301,000 private-sector positions came as a surprise to economists who had predicted businesses had added 207,000 jobs. It was also the first decline in the ADP report since December 2020."

Ouch. And PNC is projecting that Friday’s job report could show a total loss of 400,000 jobs last month… "PNC is possibly the most pessimistic voice on the Street, with a projection that nonfarm payrolls contracted by 400,000 in January, including a 350,000 decline in the private sector. The losses, Faucher said, “were likely due to a combination of factors,” most of them related to Covid. They include workers either dealing with their own virus infections, or having to take care of sick family members, parents who managed kids who were not being able to go to school, and weaker demand in pandemic-sensitive industries like bars, restaurants and hotels."

Under normal circumstances, this should not be happening. But it is. Right now, we are dealing with the most epic labor shortage in our entire history. There are “help wanted” signs all over the place, and companies all over America are literally hiring anyone with a pulse. In fact, we just learned that there were almost 11 million vacant jobs in December…"Reflecting a tightening labor market, vacancies rose to 10.92 million, well above the FactSet estimate for 10.28 million and an increase of 1.4% from November. The rate of job openings as a share of the labor force was unchanged at 6.8%."

So we have nearly 11 million vacant jobs, and the number of Americans that are employed is declining? That is nuts.

Of course the mainstream media will never tell you the truth. Millions of workers have seemingly “disappeared” from the system, and at this point we don’t even have enough able-bodied workers to do the basic tasks necessary to keep our economy functioning smoothly. This lack of able-bodied workers is the number one factor behind our horrifying supply chain crisis, but of course you won’t hear this from CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS or NBC.

Speaking of CNN, how many sickos and perverts did they actually have working there? For years they have been lecturing the rest of us about how to live our lives, but it turns out that there was an army of skeletons residing in their own closets.

Getting back to the economy, we now have way too much money chasing way too few goods and services. This has created a raging inflation crisis, and many American families are feeling severe financial pain. For example, rental prices increased by as much as 40 percent in some U.S. cities last year… "Rental prices across the country have been rising for months, but lately the increases have been sharper and more widespread, forcing millions of Americans to reassess their living situations.

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. And Americans expect rents will continue to rise – by about 10% this year – according to a report released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."

Large numbers of people have been forced out of their houses and apartments due to extremely steep rent increases. And heating costs continue to escalate dramatically as well. In fact, natural gas futures shot up 16 percent on Wednesday alone… "The latest spike will keep home heating costs for millions of Americans elevated, adding to a long list of inflationary headaches. Natural gas futures surged 16% Wednesday to close at $5.50 per million British thermal unit (BTU). That’s near the highest level since last November. Natural gas futures have spiked 55% since sinking to $3.56 on December 30."

Of course the price of food continues to rise aggressively as well. Earlier today my wife went to the store to pick up a few things, and she got into a conversation with the cashier about rising prices. The cashier told her that it seemed like just about everything was going up in price by about two dollars. Of course that was a wild exaggeration and not even close to accurate. But it is certainly true that we are now seeing price increases that can truly be described as “frightening”, and Americans from coast to coast are definitely starting to feel impact.

Meanwhile, the overall economy is really starting to slow down. At this point, the Atlanta Fed is projecting that the U.S. economy will only grow by 0.1 percent during the first quarter… "The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow gauge is currently tracking a first-quarter GDP gain of just 0.1%. “The economy is decelerating and downshifting,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis and former chief economist for the National Economic Council under then-President Donald Trump. “It’s not a recession, but it will be if the Fed tries to get too aggressive.”

So it appears that “stagflation” is already here. But like I said, this is just the beginning. What we have been through so far is just a preview of coming attractions, and the main event is definitely not going to be suitable for anyone with a weak stomach."
Related:

"How It Really Is"

 

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 2/4/22"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 2/4/22:
Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail, Canadian Truckers and META Tanks"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Evil is on the attack in our world, but “Fear Not,” it’s losing. Matthew 16:18 Christ said, “And I say also unto thee That thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This means evil shall not prevail against the followers of Christ, and right now, evil is getting its tail kicked. The covid scam has all but ended. Evil powers at CNN are fighting each other in an “evil hating on evil” theme. It’s another sign that evil knows the scam is up, and the evil demons pushing this crap are running for cover. The truck drivers and farmers in Canada are the boulders (not sprinkles) flattening the Covid cake. PM Justin Trudeau is in hiding because even he knows he’s finished.

Meanwhile, news keeps coming out proving over and over again that Covid is a scam, and the vax is a depopulation bioweapon. There should be serious jail time and public executions for the medical and pharmacy boards, Big Pharma, hospitals and government officials that pushed this depopulation event. They ignored all facts that said the vax was not effective and NOT safe, and it’s still NOT. This will be known as the biggest live and ongoing human experiment with gene altering mRNA in the history of the planet. NAZI doctor Joe Mengele would be proud of the enormity of the carnage now and in the not-so-distant future. It will also shamefully be known that the evil globalists denied life saving drugs to the public such as HCQ and Ivermectin simply to kill as many as possible and force them to take a worthless and damaging shot. There is no medical reason for depriving the public of life saving medication unless you simply want people to die.

Facebook, now known as META, fell on its face today. It is never going to be the same. It lost more money in one day than the equivalent of three General Motors total market cap. Remember what Charles Nenner said about a few tech companies holding up the markets? META was one he was referring to. Nenner would tell you to take some risk off the table he did."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
 stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 2/4/22:

After the Interview: Dr. Betsy Eads (one of the most popular guests of 2021) will be the guest for the Saturday Night Post. Dr. Eads has more revelations about the criminal activity in the Covid and Vax scams. Dr. Eads will reveal that there is now another way for these so-called vaccines (AKA) bioweapons to kill you. Hint: it involves injecting people with HIV. I kid you not.



Thursday, February 3, 2022

Gerald Celente, "Biden Beating War Drums. When All Else Fails, They Take You To War"

Full screen recommended. Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, PM 2/3/22:
"Biden Beating War Drums.
 When All Else Fails, They Take You To War"
"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."

Must Watch! "Stock Market Crushed, Amazon To The Rescue; Consumers Are Being Consumed; Texas Power Outage"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 2/3/22:
"Stock Market Crushed, Amazon To The Rescue; 
Consumers Are Being Consumed; Texas Power Outage"

"Johns Hopkins: Lockdowns Failed"; "Time for the Ruling Class to Resign"

"Johns Hopkins: Lockdowns Failed"
by Brian Maher

"We have it on excellent authority - the Johns Hopkins University - that “lockdowns” have proven grim failures of public policy. These jailings failed to “stop the spread.” They failed to preserve lives. They did… however… knock down economies. Based on exhaustive probing of 34 existing studies, Johns Hopkins crackerjacks concluded: We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality… More specifically… studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average."

That is, studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by two-tenths of one percent on average. The United States Centers for Disease Control reports the devil virus claimed 385,000 American lives in 2020 - the high season of lockdowns.

Assume for the moment the butcher’s bill is accurate. The virus claimed 385,000 American lives in 2020. Our rudimentary calculations reveal lockdowns thus preserved 770 lives… on average… from a population of 330 million.

Each human being is an individual treasure, fashioned in the image of the Almighty. Each death represents a private tragedy. And if we were among the unfortunate 770, of this you could be certain: We would file an extremely sharp post-mortem tort against the public health authorities. Yet does prudent public policy trample the most basic civil liberties… and wreck economies wholesale… to reduce mortality by two-tenths of one percent - on average? To ask the question is to answer the question. We can locate nothing in law or equity to defend these vicious policies.

And so we ask: What about those who perished because hospitals suspended treatments for other life-imperiling maladies?

What about those who succumbed to substance abuse and related “deaths of despair”?

What about the desperate self-killed who were deprived of their livelihoods?

Between May 2020 and April 2021, the United States recorded 100,306 fatal overdosings. That represents a 28.5% increase over the previous 12 months’ 78,056. They are not listed among the COVID dead. They are dead nonetheless - casualties of indirect fire. How many of the excess 22,250 overdosings resulted from lockups? We have no answer. Yet we hazard the number is handsome. Johns Hopkins: "These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best… While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded…"

But you ask: “Didn’t lockups prevent the virus from spreading? If you’re inside, how are you going to catch it?” To which the Johns Hopkins men respond: "[Shelter-in-place orders] may isolate an infected person at home with his/her family where he/she risks infecting family members with a higher viral load, causing more severe illness. But often, lockdowns have limited peoples’ access to safe (outdoor) places such as beaches, parks and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe (indoor) places."

We await Dr. Fauci’s rebuttal - if he can muster one. Researchers conclude: Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: Lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument." 

It is our sincere belief that lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument. Alas, we believe it likely that lockdowns will not be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument. After all, they are the handiwork of bureaucrats. And a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat…is a bureaucrat… forever and ever.

Below, Jeffrey Tucker shows you why it’s now time for the “ruling class” to resign. Read on."
"Time for the Ruling Class to Resign"
by Jeffrey Tucker

"If there is a historical precedent for the truckers’ revolt in Canada and the populist protests in so many other parts of the world, I would like to know what it is. It surely sets the record for convoy size, and it is historic for Canada. But there is much more going on here, something more fundamental. The two-year imposition of bio-fascist rule by diktat seems ever less tenable - the consent of the governed is being withdrawn - but what comes next seems unclear.

We now have two of the most restrictive “leaders” in the developed world (Justin Trudeau of Canada and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand) hiding in undisclosed locations, citing the need to quarantine following COVID exposure. Streets globally have filled up with people demanding an end to mandates and lockdowns, calling for accountability, pushing for resignations, denouncing privileged corporations and crying out for a recognition of basic freedoms and rights.

Note too that these movements are spontaneous and from “below.” They are populated mostly by the very workers whom governments shoved to face the pathogen two years ago, while the ruling class hid behind their laptops in their living rooms. It was the lockdowns that sharply divided the classes and the mandates that are imposing segregation. Now we are facing a modern allegory to the Peasants’ Revolt in the Middle Ages.

For a long time, the workers complied bravely but have been forced to accept medical shots they neither wanted nor believed they needed. And many are still being denied freedoms they took for granted only two years ago: their schools non-operational, businesses wrecked, places of entertainment closed or severely restricted.

People turn on the radios and televisions to listen to lectures by ruling-class elites who claim to be channeling the science that always ends in the same theme: The rulers are in charge and everyone else must comply, no matter what is asked of them. But then it became screamingly obvious to the world that none of it worked.

It was a gigantic flop and the sky-high cases of late 2021 in most parts of the world put a fine point on it. The leaders failed. It was all for naught. This clearly cannot continue. Something has to give. Something has to change, and this change probably will not wait for the next scheduled elections. What happens in the meantime? Where is this going?

We’ve seen what revolutions look like against monarchies (18th and 19th centuries), against colonial occupation, against totalitarian one-party states (1989–90) and against banana-republic strongmen (20th century). But what does revolution look like in developed democracies ruled by entrenched administrative states in which elected politicians serve as little more than veneer for bureaucracies?

In theory, the problem of government overreach in democracy is solved by elections. The argument made for such a system is that it allows for peaceful change of a ruling elite, and this is far less socially costly than war and revolution. There are many problems with matching theory and reality, among which that the people with the real power in the 21st century are not the people we elect but those who have gained their privileges through bureaucratic maneuvering and longevity.

There are many strange features of the last two years but one of them that stands out to me is how utterly undemocratic the trajectory of events has been. When they locked us down, for example, it was the decision of elected autocrats as advised by credentialled experts that were somehow sure that this path would make the virus go away (or something like that). When they imposed vaccination mandates, it was because they were sure that this was the right path for public health.

There were no polls. There was little if any input from legislatures at any level. Citizens weren’t asked. The wishes of small-business people were not solicited. It was as if everyone suddenly presumed that the whole country would operate on an administrative/dictatorship model and that the guidelines of health bureaucracies (with plans for lockdowns and that hardly anyone even knew existed) trumped all tradition, constitutions, restrictions on state power and public opinion generally. We all became their servants. This happened all over the world.

It suddenly became obvious to many people in the world that the systems of government we thought we had - responsive to the public, deferential to rights, controlled by courts - were no longer in place. The media acted like this is just the way things are supposed to be.

Lockdowns and mandates gave the unelected bureaucrats full power, not only over the one or two sectors they previously ruled but the whole of society and all of its functioning. They even controlled how many people we could have in our homes, whether our businesses could be open, whether we could worship with others and what precisely we were supposed to do with our own bodies.

Whatever happened to limits on power? The people who put together the systems of government in the 18th century that led to the most prosperous societies in the history of the world knew that restricting government was the key to a stable social order and growing economy. They gave us constitutions and the lists of rights and the courts enforced them.

But at some point in history, the ruling class figured out certain workarounds to these restrictions. The administrative state with permanent bureaucrats could achieve things that legislatures could not, so they were gradually unleashed under various pretexts (war, depression, terror threats, pandemics). Moreover, governments gradually learned to outsource their hegemonic ambitions to the biggest businesses in the private sector, who themselves benefit from increasing the costs of compliance.

The circle has been completed by enlisting Big Media into the mix, to broadcast the official line of the day and hurl insults at any dissidents within the population (“fringe,” etc.). This has created what we see in the 21st century: A toxic combination of Big Tech, Big Government, Big Media, all backed by various other industrial interests who benefit more from systems of control than they would from a free and competitive economy. Further, this cabal leveled a radical attack on civil society itself, closing churches, concerts, and civic groups.

We’ve been assured that government rule is untenable when it loses the consent of the governed. But what precisely is the mechanism by which the overlords in our time are effectively overthrown?

We’ve seen this in totalitarian states, in states with one-man rule, in states with unelected monarchies. But unless I’m missing something, we’ve not seen this in a developed democracy with an administrative state that holds the real power. We have scheduled elections but those are unhelpful when 1) elected leaders are not the real source of power, and 2) when the elections are too far in the distant future to deal with a present emergency.

One very easy and obvious path away from the current crisis is for the ruling class to admit error, repeal the mandates, and simply allow for common freedoms and rights for everyone. As easy as that sounds, this solution hits a hard wall when faced with ruling-class arrogance, trepidation, and the unwillingness to admit past errors for fear of what that will mean for their political legacies. For this reason, absolutely no one expects the likes of Trudeau, Ardern, or Biden to humbly apologize, admit that they were wrong, and beg the people’s forgiveness. On the contrary, everyone expects them to continue the game of pretend so long as they can get away with it.

What is the next step? My instincts tell me that we are about to discover the answer. Electoral realignment seems inevitable but what happens before then? The obvious answer to the current instability is mass resignations within the administrative state, among the class of politicians that gives it cover, as well as heads of media organs that have propagandized for them. In the name of peace, human rights, and the renewal of prosperity and trust, this needs to happen today. Bury the pride and do what’s right. Do it now while there is still time for the revolution to be velvet."

Gregory Mannarino, "A New Super-Tsunami Of Inflation Is Already On Its Way - Are You Ready For It?"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/3/22:
"A New Super-Tsunami Of Inflation Is Already On Its Way - 
Are You Ready For It?"

Musical Interlude: Ocarina, "Song Of Ocarina"

Full screen recommended.
Ocarina, "Song Of Ocarina"
"Song of Ocarina is the name of a 1991 song recorded by the musicians Jean-Philippe Audin and Diego Modena. It is entirely instrumental and is played on ocarina by Modena and cello by Audin. Released as first single from the album Ocarina, it achieved a huge success in France, topping the chart, and becoming in this country the first instrumental number-one hit."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest. Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant.
NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies. The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy. Visible in the above photograph is the active central nucleus, also known to be a bright source of X-rays and gamma rays.”

The Poet: Robert Frost, “Acceptance”

“Acceptance”

“When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened.
Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, ‘safe!’
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night be too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.”

- Robert Frost

"All We Really Need..."

"Causes do matter. And the world is changed by people who care deeply about causes,about things that matter. We don't have to be particularly smart or talented. We don't need a lot of money or education. All we really need is to be passionate about something important; something bigger than ourselves. And it's that commitment to a worthwhile cause that changes the world."
- Steve Goodier

"Find the things that matter, and hold on to them,
and fight for them, and refuse to let them go."
- Lauren Oliver

"England Raises Interest Rates - World Economy Weakens"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 2/3/22:
"England Raises Interest Rates - World Economy Weakens"
"Inflation is out of control. The bank of England has just raised interest rates half of a percent. This is designed to stop ballooning inflation. Job numbers are in and they are horrible. Trouble is on its way."

The Daily "Near You?"

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

"Upbeat Isochronic Tones Study Music - Deep Focus for Complex Tasks"

 
"Upbeat Isochronic Tones Study Music -
Deep Focus for Complex Tasks"
by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

"This is a high-intensity audio brainwave entrainment session, using isochronic tones. Listen to this when you need a strong burst of intense focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity. Listen to this track with your eyes open while doing the task/activity you want to focus on. Although headphones are not required you may find they produce a more intense effect, because they help to block out distracting external sounds."

Works for me...

"So Important..."

"Lifes impermanence, I realized, is what makes every
single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here.
It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted."
- Wes Moore