"I Am Done"

"I Am Done"

by OHMama

"I was born at the end of Gen X and the beginning of the Millennial Generation, and grew up in a middle class town. Life was good. Our home was modest but birthdays and Christmas were always generous, we went on yearly vacations, had 2 cars, and there was enough money for me to take dance classes and art lessons and be in Girl Scouts.

My 1940s born Dad raised me to be patriotic and proud, to love the war bird airplanes of his era as much as he does, and to respect our flag and our country as a sacred thing. I grew up thinking that being an American was the greatest gift a person could have. I grew up thinking that our country was as strong, and honest and true as my Dad. I grew up thinking I was free.

As an adult, I have witnessed the world I grew up in fall to ruin. I have watched as our currency and our economy have been shamelessly corrupted beyond redemption. Since we’ve been married, my husband and I TWICE had our meager investment savings gutted by the market that we were told to invest in, now that pensions no longer exist and we working stiffs are on our own. We will be working until we die, because the Social Security we’ve been forced to pay into has also been robbed from under us.

I have watched as our elected officials enter Congress as ordinary folks and leaves as multi millionaires. I have watched my blue collar husband get up at an ungodly hour every day and come home with an aching back that we pray will hold out long enough to get him to old age in one piece. Outside of shoes, socks and underwear, almost everything my family wears was bought used. We’ve been on one vacation in 12 years.

We don’t have cell phones, or cable, or any sort of streaming services, just a landline and internet. We hardly ever eat out. Our house is 1400 square feet, no air conditioning. I cook from scratch and I can and I garden and I raise chickens for eggs and meat and I moonlight selling things on Etsy. Still it is barely enough to pay the bills that go up every year while service quality and the longevity of goods goes down. What I just described is the life you can live on 60K a year without going into debt.

At last calculation, when you consider all of the federal, state and local taxes plus registration and user fees, Medicare and SS payroll taxes, almost a third of what my family earns is stolen by the govt each year. What’s left doesn’t go far, just enough to cover the basics and save a little for when the wolf howls at the door.

I watched as my family’s health insurance was gutted and destroyed. Our private market insurance, which we had to have because my husband’s employer is too small to have a group plan, was made illegal. We were left with the option of either buying an Obamacare plan with unaffordable deductibles and insanely ridiculous out of pocket maxes, or paying the very gov’t that destroyed our healthcare a fine for not buying the gov’t mandated plan that we cannot afford. We now have short term insurance that isn’t really insurance at all, and I live in fear of one of us getting injured or sick with anything I can’t fix from the medicine cabinet.

I have watched as education, which was already sketchy when I was a kid, became an all out joke of wholly unmathematical math, gold stars for all, and self-loathing anti-Americanism. My family has taken an enormous financial hit as I stay home to home school our child. At least she’ll be able to do old-fashioned math well enough to see how much they are screwing her. A silver lining to every cloud, I guess.

I’ve sat by and held my tongue as I was called deplorable and a bitter clinger and told that I didn’t build that. I’ve been called a racist and a xenophobe and a chump and even an “ugly folk.” I’ve been told that I have privilege, and that I have inherent bias because of my skin color, and that my beloved husband and father are part of a horrible patriarchy. Not one goddamn bit of that is true, but if I dare say anything about it, it will be used as evidence of my racism and white fragility.

Raised to be a Republican, I held my nose and voted for Bush, the Texas-talking blue blood from Connecticut who lied us into 2 wars and gave us the unpatriotic Patriot Act. I voted for McCain, the sociopathic neocon songbird “hero” that torpedoed the attempt to kill the Obamacare that’s killing my family financially. I held it again and voted for Romney, the vulture capitalist skunk that masquerades as a Republican while slithering over to the Democrat camp as often as they’ll tolerate his oily, loathsome presence.

And I voted for Trump, who, if he did nothing else, at least gave a resounding Bronx cheer to the richly deserving smug hypocrites of DC. Thank you for that Mr. President, on behalf of all of us nobodies. God bless you for it.

And now I have watched as people who hate me and mine and call for our destruction blatantly and openly stole the election and then gaslighted us and told us that it was honest and fair. I am watching as the GOP does NOTHING about it. They’re probably relieved that upstart Trump is gone so they can get back to their real jobs of lining their pockets and running interference for their corporate masters. I am watching as the media, in a manner that would make Stalin blush, is silencing anyone who dares question the legitimacy of this farce they call democracy. I know, it’s a republic, but I am so tired of explaining that to people I might as well give in and join them in ignorance.

I will not vote again; they’ve made it abundantly clear that my voice doesn’t matter. Whatever irrational, suicidal lunacy the nanny states thinks is best is what I’ll get. What it decided I need is a geriatric pedophile who shouldn’t be charged with anything more rigorous than choosing between tapioca and rice pudding at the old folks home, and a casting couch skank who rails against racism while being a descendant of slave owners.

I’m free to dismember a baby in my womb and kill it because “my body my choice”, but God help me if I won’t cover my face with a germ laden Linus-worthy security blanket or refuse let them inject genetically altering chemicals into my body or my child’s. I can be doxed, fired, shunned and destroyed for daring to venture that there are only 2 genders as proven by DNA, but a disease with a 99+% survival rate for most humans is a deadly pandemic worth murdering an economy over. Because science. Idiocracy is real, and we are living it. Dr. Lexus would be an improvement over Fauci.

I am done. Don’t ask me to pledge to the flag, or salute the troops, or shoot fireworks on the 4th. It’s a sick, twisted, heartbreaking joke, this bloated, unrecognizable corpse of a republic that once was ours.

I am not alone. Not sure how things continue to function when millions of citizens no longer feel any loyalty to or from the society they live in.

I was raised to be a lady, and ladies don’t curse, but f**k these motherf**kers to hell and back for what they’ve done to me, and mine, and my country. All we Joe Blow Americans ever wanted was a little patch of land to raise a family, a job to pay the bills, and at least some illusion of freedom, and even that was too much for these human parasites. They want it all,  mind, body and soul. Damn them. Damn them all."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"This is Getting Scary as The Fed Does Nothing - Food Shortages and Surging Oil Prices"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly PM 3/22/22:

"This is Getting Scary as The Fed Does Nothing - 

Food Shortages and Surging Oil Prices"

"The Fed has a plan to do nothing. They raise the interest-rate a quarter percent and expect that to fix everything as inflation ravages our Economy."

"How It Really Is"

 

"War To Blow US Food Prices Sky-High; 

Famine: Fertilizer Prices Hit Record High; 

Oil Likely To Remain Expensive"

"All Hell Will Break Loose For Humanity"

"All Hell Will Break Loose For Humanity"

By Egon von Greyerz

"We are now at the end of an era of economic and moral decadence in a debt infested world built on false values, fake money and abysmal leadership. All hell will break loose. The consequences will be fatal for the world.

There are eras in history which have produced great leaders and thinkers. But sadly, the current era has produced nothing of that kind. The end of an economic cycle produces no great leadership or statesmanship but only incompetent leaders. Looking at the Western world, the only notable statesman in the last few decades in my view is Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.

But political leaders are of course instruments of their time. Sadly times as the current don’t produce Superior Men. As Confucius said: “The Superior Man thinks always of virtue, the common man thinks of comfort.” It is the buildup of a massive debt mountain which has given the Western world a false comfort based on false values. As I have pointed out many times, the US has increased its debt every year since 1930, with a couple of minor exceptions in the 1950s and 1960s. The Clinton surpluses in the late 1990s were fake and in fact deficits.

In history, when there is undue economic pressure, starting wars is popular and often felt necessary. It is convenient to blame the war for the increasing debts. The Gold Standard was an excellent method for preventing governments to spend money they didn’t have. Since money couldn’t be printed at will, deficits then had to be financed by settling debts in physical gold.

The Gold Window Has Been “Temporarily” Closed For 50 Years: As Nixon in the late 1960s had to meet the US debts to France in gold, he decided in 1971 to close the gold window temporarily. He clearly didn’t want to hand all the US gold to de Gaulle. Over 50 years later that gold window is still temporarily closed with fatal consequences for the US and the world. The chart below shows the exponential growth of US debt since 1971. As we reach the final stages, the debt curve is explosive since 2019.

Creating debts of this magnitude is only possible without the discipline of gold backed currencies.

The Fat Lady Hasn't Sung Yet: But as I have explained before, the debt explosion is not finished until the fat lady sings. And sadly a lot will happen before she finally sings. Because like most economic eras, this one will finish with a number of spectacular events, many of which will take place concurrently.

Only a few months ago, Powell and Lagarde were singing from the same hymn sheet about transitory inflation. But as these Central Bank chiefs prove consistently, they are always wrong. For years they are trying to get inflation to two percent and then, all of a sudden, it is approaching 10% and they don’t understand what has hit them. They haven’t even understood that Keynesianism was dead before it started.

Even a monkey would understand that if you print $10s of trillions and keep interest rates at zero or negative for years, the end result will be spectacular inflation. Initially we saw unprecedented asset inflation in stocks, bonds and property but it was always clear that the exponential increase in money supply would eventually reach consumer prices.

The Perfect Storm: What is coming next is the inevitable perfect storm. A perfect storm means that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And that is not just obvious failures in many parts of society but also totally unforeseen consequences. Let’s just look at some of the obvious events that will take place in the next few years:

Financial Markets: Stocks have topped worldwide. The correction currently taking place is likely to end very soon in a devastating decline. Everyone will get slaughtered when hell breaks loose. Whether investors buy the dip or just hold on to their stocks, they won’t understand what has hit them. Just look at the chart below and the major falls starting in 1973, 1987, 1999, 2007 and 2020. They were all nail biters at the time, but today you can hardly discern many of them on the chart.

For decades every correction has recovered and reached new highs. But this time WILL BE DIFFERENT, although no one expects it! Stocks are likely to decline by 75-95% in real terms and not recover for years or maybe decades. Remember that in 1929, the Dow declined by 90% and that it took 25 years before it recovered in nominal terms. And this time the economic circumstances are exponentially worse.

Bonds have gone up for over 40 years and rates reached zero or negative. Rates have now turned up and we are likely to see interest rates reach at least the 1980 levels of 15-20% and probably higher in a hyperinflationary debt collapse. Many bonds will become worthless and more suitable for framing and hanging on the toilet wall as a reminder for future generations.

Credit markets will come under that same pressure as bond markets with defaulting borrowers, neither in a position to service the debt nor repay it.

Property markets have also reached extremes, fueled by cheap or free money and unlimited credit at very high leverage. In Europe mortgage rates are around 1%. These negligible and irresponsible financing costs have driven property prices to ridiculous and unsustainable levels. My first mortgage was in the UK. In 1973 the rate went up to 21% in a high inflation environment! Today, few borrowers could afford an increase to 3%, never mind 10% or 20% like in the 1970s.

As rates rise, it is absolutely certain that the residential and commercial property markets bubble will implode, leading to major defaults, very high vacancy rates and homelessness. Governments will initially subsidize these markets by endless money printing, but in the end that will fail too as money dies.

Derivatives are a major financial nuclear bomb that is likely to be a death knell for financial markets. As I wrote in a recent article “Chaos and the triumph of survival”, LINK global derivatives, primarily OTC (over the counter), are most likely in the $2+ quadrillion range. Every single financial instrument contains a derivative element with massive leverage.

Due to the current volatility in commodity markets, most large commodity trading firms as well as hedge funds are now exposed to margin calls. For example, many JP Morgan clients are currently under enormous stress in a massively over leveraged market. So if JP Morgan clients are under stress, this means that JPM and other banks will also be under pressure.

Remember that this is just the beginning of the crisis with more bad news unravelling on a daily basis. As the derivatives market blows up with counterparties failing, central banks will have to print quadrillions of worthless dollars, paving the way for massive hyperinflation.

Banks & Financial System will clearly be under tremendous pressure initially and eventually totally or partly fail as the above problems unravel.

Governments and central banks will obviously be powerless in this scenario. The rescue of the system in 2008 was just a temporary stay of execution. Global debt has trebled since early this century from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. But remember this is mostly fake money which has created false asset values standing on a foundation of quicksand.

All this is now about to collapse.

Not Just An Economic & Financial Storm, But Also Human Hell: The coming economic and financial crisis will have devastating effects on the world. Here are a few affected areas:

Commodity inflation is guaranteed. For years it has been clear that the long-term commodity cycle was bottoming and a massive surge in commodity prices would start. The cycle had already started to go up well before the Ukraine crisis, but it is fascinating how events fall into place in order to create the perfect storm. I covered some of this in my previous article “A Global Monetary & Monetary Inferno of Nuclear Proportions”.

Dollar collapse, together with most other currencies, is guaranteed. As money printing and inflation rises in an uncontrolled fashion, the dollar will quickly reach its intrinsic value of ZERO. Most currencies will follow but they will take turns.

Digital money is likely to be launched in coming years. But I don’t think that crypto currencies will play a major role except as a very speculative investment. More important will be CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) which will be another form of fiat money, but now digital. As all fiat money, CBDCs will be quickly debased by endless electronic printing.

WEF & Claus Schwab have got more prominence than they deserve. In my view they will lose whatever power they now have as financial asset values and their wealth implode. Thus, I don’t believe that their reset will happen or succeed. Governments might try resets but they will fail. The only real reset will be disorderly and as outlined above.

Unemployment will increase dramatically as world trade declines and the financial system comes under pressure. Many companies will perish.

Pension systems will fail, as the values of pension funds collapse.

Social security systems will not function as the governments run out of real money.

Human Hell breaking loose will sadly be felt by most people on earth as a consequence of the problems outlined above. And that is without a bigger nuclear war, which obviously would be fatal for the world.

Massive price increases, especially in food and energy combined with shortages, will hit everyone, both developing countries and the industrialized world. The consequences of food shortages and economic misery, combined with the failure of governments to function properly, will clearly lead to social unrest in many places, even civil war!

The War Is Not The Cause But A Very Grave Catalyst: The current financial and economic crisis was neither caused by Covid, nor by what is happening in Ukraine currently. The current crisis started with the problems in the banking system and the Repo market in Aug-Sep 2019 and then exacerbated by Covid in early 2020. The origin of the 2019 banking crisis is obviously the debt bonanza since 1971 and especially since 2006.

Also, the problems in commodity, especially food and energy markets, had already started before the war in Ukraine. But in a perfect storm, a number of very ugly catalysts will always occur at the worst possible time in order to trigger one worse crisis after the next.

No one knows how this war will end. The Western world is very badly informed about the state of the war since the media is biased pro West and anti Putin. But Putin is not likely to give up easily. Therefore, sadly the war will at best be local and protracted, and at worst lead to consequences which I won’t speculate on at this point.

For over 20 years I have written about the financial and economic problems that are about to hit the world. Most of the things are happening although I will willingly admit that matters have taken longer than I expected. The financial system was miraculously saved in 2008 which thus was a rehearsal. What will happen next will definitely be for real. What I have learnt is that we need to be patient since the end of an era and economic cycle doesn’t just happen because you can see all the signs. The process is long and arduous.

Governments and central banks are fighting with all the limited tools they have. But as fiat money has lost 97-99% of its value since 1971, this next time the current monetary system will die like it always has throughout history. Inflation and hyperinflation are likely to destroy most asset values in coming years and currencies will make that final move to ZERO.

Finally, what will hit the world in coming years will lead to tremendous suffering as all hell breaks loose, so helping family, friends and others is of extreme importance."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Important Updates: They Are Literally Trying To Destroy Us! Time To Take Every Action!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/22/22:

"Important Updates: They Are Literally Trying To Destroy Us! 

Time To Take Every Action!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

“The FED Is About To Crash The Markets And Economy; Buy Emergency Food Now”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 3/21/22:

“The FED Is About To Crash The Markets And Economy; 

Buy Emergency Food Now”

"The Death and Rebirth of Human Civilization is the Narrow Path to Awakening"

"The Death and Rebirth of Human Civilization

is the Narrow Path to Awakening"

by Mike Adams

"Unless there is cosmic intervention - which is always a possibility - it is now inescapable that anti-human globalists are going to escalate conflict into World War III and use that conflict to collapse human civilization on planet Earth. This would, of course, lead to the near-extermination of the human race and a planetary-scale genocide event. (Cosmic-level ethnic cleansing.)

Every player on the global stage - Putin, Biden, Xi, Zelensky, etc. - is being maneuvered into a World War III scenario that will be used to justify the use of nuclear weapons and the total global crackdown on free speech, financial liberty and the ability of civilians to own firearms.

It is now nearly 100% certain that the U.S. deep state will stage a false flag operation to justify its own escalation into this global nuclear war scenario. Those false flags could be one or more of the following: The intentional (NATO-created) detonation of a chemical facility in Ukraine, such as an ammonia storage facility, then labeling it a “chemical weapons” attack by Russia.

The engineered assassination of Joe Biden by operators dressed up to look like Russian soldiers, followed by global outrage against Russia and a mad dash into nuclear war. (This also aids the desperate Democrats in getting rid of old Joe before he embarrasses them even further…)

A large-scale false flag cyber attack on US financial institutions, resulting in an economic collapse and widespread chaos. A cyber attack could also target the US power grid and produce similar results.

In any of these scenarios, the US and NATO are certain to respond with rapid escalation into World War III - a war that inevitably escalates into a nuclear exchange of some kind.

Planetary-scale genocide of the human race: Regardless of the path that gets us there, it is clear that the demonic, anti-human globalists in charge of the world are engineering a planetary-scale ethnic cleansing to eliminate human civilization.

Over the next several years - unless they are stopped - they will drive the global population of humans down toward one billion remaining survivors. This will be achieved through a combination of vaccine genocide, nuclear war, mass starvation, biosphere collapse, 5G weaponization, weather weapons, financial collapse, cyber attacks and of course ongoing psychological trauma from the globalist-run corporate media. After several years of such attacks, humanity will face the very real possibility of planetary-scale extinction.

It is in that moment of facing imminent and permanent death that humanity will be offered a choice: Choose LIFE or choose DEATH.

LIFE represents divinity, love, God, personal liberty, freedom to speak, freedom to think, peace, abundance, free market economics, the freedom to travel, the freedom to run a small business, and so on. In other words, the complete opposite of neocons, Democrats, globalists, the WEF, central banks, Big Pharma, the abortion industry and so on.

DEATH means destruction, suffering, abortion, infanticide, child abuse, pedophilia, psychological trauma, media lies, bombs, missiles, government tyranny, censorship, control, lockdowns, masking, forced vaccinations, weaponized food scarcity, weaponized financial systems, endless money printing and authoritarian rule. In other words, everything the political Left stands for.

It is abundantly clear that Democrats and the ruling Left are all advocates of death. They are death cultists, and they revel in the idea of mass death and self-destruction. Most of these individuals are demon-infested Satanists who voted for Biden, who love to murder their own children and who demand absolute dictatorial control over everybody else.

As I explain in today’s podcast, most of those death cultists will die in the coming years. They have set their own deaths into motion via:

● Repeated injections of mRNA depopulation bioweapons (“vaccines”).

● Utter lack of any willingness to prepare for food shortages (they are “anti-preppers”).

● Utter obliviousness about the coming financial collapse (they have total trust in the dollar and central banks).

● Total disconnection from reality and a shocking inability to process real world observations in meaningful ways (they live in their artificial bubbles of media lies and propaganda).

● Complete dependence on the very system that is conspiring to eliminate them from the future of the human race. They actually TRUST the vaccine industry, the news media and the government.

The survivors of planetary genocide will possess the wisdom to make a new choice for the future of humanity: Because of the mass die-off of the oblivious death cult masses, at the moment of near-extinction of the human race, those with the most knowledge, wisdom and preparedness will be the remaining survivors who are offered a choice for the future of human civilization. The choice is simple: Choose to continue the current system of centralized control, authoritarian rule and the denial of God and then suffer permanent extinction…

or choose LIFE, happiness, decentralized societal structures, individual liberty, ecological sanity, local food production, etc., and enjoy a golden age of abundance and wisdom in alignment with God’s goals for life on Earth.

Importantly, we now realize that humanity is incapable of making this choice until faced with the moment of final extinction. As currently populated by oblivious, demon-infested masses, humanity is incapable of choosing life, sustainability, wisdom or God. Thus, the very future of human civilization can only be determined after the death cultists destroy themselves through their global schemes of World War III, mass starvation, global vaccine bioweapons and other similar, nefarious schemes.

Thus, we are all going to have to live through the near-total collapse of human civilization. There is no stopping it. We have passed the point of no return. There are not enough sane voices to bring us back from the brink right now, since the sane voices are drowned out by the demon-infested, psychopathic, oblivious masses who are begging for mass death and destruction. (Some of those voices are difficult to understand because they are still wearing masks…)"

- https://www.naturalnews.com/

In today’s Situation Update podcast, I offer a more detailed discussion of these critical points for the future of the human race: 

- Brighteon.com/8cb1a4d6-b2c4-45f8-8468-4f684b525ea5

Discover more information-packaged podcasts each day, along with special reports, interviews and emergency updates, at: 

- https://www.brighteon.com/channels/HRreport

"Chinese Lockdown Threatens 600% Freight Rates Spike As Panic Sweep Across Supply Chains"

Full screen recommended.

"Chinese Lockdown Threatens 600% Freight Rates 

Spike As Panic Sweep Across Supply Chains"

by Epic Economist

"In every link of the global supply chain, shipping problems are being severely aggravated. Freight rates are spinning out of control as ports remain extremely congested in the U.S. and China. And at the same time, rising transportation costs are worsening labor shortages and exacerbating delivery delays all around the world. The operational nightmare just keeps getting worse, and industry CEOs are alerting that consumers will be the ones paying for this unprecedented mess as retailers face a threatening dilemma: either paying higher shipping prices and passing along those increased costs to consumers or risk their business by letting shelves go empty.

The new round of lockdowns imposed by Chinese authorities is adding disruption on top of disruption to global supply chains and significantly worsening port congestion worldwide. The knock-on effects are already being felt in U.S. ports, where congestion continues to spread from the West coast to the East coast. Even though the restrictions are expected to be lifted this week, Project44 leaders argue that more slowdowns are likely to be felt worldwide in the days and weeks ahead.

As a result, hundreds of vessels are arriving all at once at U.S. ports while others have been unable to leave and make the return trip to China. Right now, the average shipping rate for a 40-foot container leaving Shanghai to Los Angeles is 125% higher than a year ago, sitting at nearly $12,000 per container, the Drewry World Container Index informed. And given that supply chain bottlenecks, including port congestion, are expected to linger and most operators have signed long-term charter contracts at high shipping rates, prices are likely to stay elevated throughout the whole year.

On top of that, the Russia-Ukraine crisis is also significantly impacting the flow of goods around the planet. Russian forces are cutting off entire shipping routes and shipping companies are suspending services, which is fueling even sharper freight rate hikes, supply chain firms said. Freight rates for a container ship have skyrocketed, with a spike from 157% to 591% since the conflict began, Alperin data shows.

The situation is triggering an even worse labor crunch. Considering that 198,123 of seafarers are Russian, while Ukraine accounts for 76,442, 15% of the world's seafarers come from the two countries, and with crew movement pretty much impossible out of both nations, shipping companies are having to extend these workers’ current contracts to fill any immediate gaps. But given that tensions between the two countries continue to rise, the work environment at these ships is becoming tense, too.

To make things worse, transportation problems on land are also compounding. In America, the CEO of Swint Logistics Group, is alerting that the rise in fuel prices will ultimately be passed on to the consumer as well. Over the past two weeks, the average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline shot up a staggering 79 cents to a record-setting $4.43 per gallon. For truck drivers running with diesel engines, the increase has been even more pronounced, climbing $1.18 over two weeks, to $5.20 a gallon. Diesel is now $2.11 more expensive than one year ago.

The increase is likely to raise our overall cost of living given that the vast majority of the products we buy get delivered by big trucks, which cost a lot more to operate. lIn view of all this, retailers are having to make a tough choice: either paying higher prices for transport and pass along those higher costs to their customers or risk seeing their inventories collapsing and their shelves empty.

At the end of the day, there isn’t much they can do since they operate on low-profit margins. Consumers have been facing blow after blow as global events lead to more dirsuptions in every aspect of our lives. And while leaders make decisions that end up resulting in a lot more financial instability in lives of millions of people, we become more and more vulnerable to a system that is designed to fail. One thing is certain: A gloomy future is awaiting us as the world collapses into chaos."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Expect Inflation To Skyrocket Faster Than Ever Before As The FED Continues To Sell The Lie"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/21/22:

"Alert! Expect Inflation To Skyrocket Faster Than Ever 

Before As The FED Continues To Sell The Lie"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

"Questions Warhawks Must Answer"

"Questions Warhawks Must Answer"

by Brian Maher

"We have lent a grave ear to the war coverage these past three weeks. And we have concluded Mr. Putin’s unfolding crimes are atrocious. All civilized men condemn them. And let the record reflect: We are with the civilized - even if we are not necessarily among the civilized.

Yet this war coverage has likewise left us confused… and puzzled. But why? Who can be confused or puzzled? Here you have Vladimir Putin, a mighty fee-fi-fo-fum, a berserker out of time, a 21st-century Hitler. That is, the year is not truly 2022. The year is rather 1938… and a madman is limbering his legs for a mighty romp. Cede him one Ukrainian inch today, we are informed, and he will seize a European mile tomorrow.

We Must Act Now! After Ukraine he will walk several yards into the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. He will next take galloping strides into Romania and Poland. A half-mile in, he will set his cap for the finish line - another half-mile distant - Germany and France. The wind to his back, he will soon finish his mile. He will break the tape at Calais. He will then swim the channel.

A new iron curtain will thus descend upon Europe. Not of communism, but of authoritarianism. And reactionism. Homosexuals will be jailed, all genders but two will be banned, mass immigration and multiculturalism will die the death. Orthodox Christianity will spread its suffocating nets across secular Europe.

There you have the prevailing Western consensus - Putin is Hitler - and Hitler is Putin. The two are one (yet the Russian vows to sweep “Nazis” from Ukraine). Thus Ukraine is the “ground zero” of civilization itself. Fight Putin now, when you can - or fight him tomorrow - when you cannot.

Does This Make Sense? Yet we confessed at the outset to a confusion. Where then is our confusion? It is here… The same doomsdayers who match Putin with Hitler…who shriek about Putin’s vast territorial hungers… at the same time chuckle at Russia’s military incompetence. The Russians are “bogged down” in Ukraine they tell us, stymied and halted. They field an unmotivated conscript army, lacking all martial spirit. Many of these Russian pitiables - if reports are accurate - abandon their vehicles and surrender themselves to the enemy. Moreover, these Russians lack fuel, they lack food, they lack ammunition. Thus the Russian bear is proving a lumbering doofus, an oafish brute mired in the Ukrainian muck. It has taken its bites of flesh, yes. But it is choking upon the portion. It cannot worry the thing down - and it may never get it down. Is this the army that will gulp Europe?

A Toy Economy: What is more, Russia boasts a toy economy unequal to the challenge. Mr. Paul De Grauwe, chair of European political economy for the European Institute of the London School of Economics: According to the International Monetary Fund, the country’s GDP amounted to $1.7 trillion in 2021. That is barely 10% of the European Union’s GDP, or roughly the combined output of Belgium ($620 billion) and the Netherlands ($1.1 trillion).

With such a small economy, Russia is hardly equipped to win a war against a country that is fighting its forces tooth and nail, let alone to occupy that country - and face a determined insurgency - for an extended period. Russia today spends some $62 billion annually (about 4% of its GDP) on its military. That’s just 8% of what the United States spends – and not nearly enough to sustain an intense and protracted war effort.

We must conclude that the Russian bear is a bear of paper, of tissue paper. Its growl constitutes a greater menace than its bite. And yet we are told - by the identical experts - that this is the roaring and mighty bear that will take aboard all of Europe once it digests Ukraine. Which is it? We request a square answer. We are not certain we will receive one.

Go Ahead, Keep Poking: We are further informed that prodding this dual-natured bear is reasonable policy. Mr. Putin has already warned of grave consequences for nations shoveling arms into Ukraine. Yet the United States and its European allies have already sent in arms, they argue - and the Russian has sat idle upon his hands.

Thus the United States and its European allies can keep ramming their stick against the bear. He desires war with the NATO powers no more than they desire war with him. They assure us fears of nuclear war are sheer hysteria. Vladimir will not play with his nuclear toys because he realizes the United States will play with its own. That is, he is “rational.” He will go so far - but no further.

What if Putin Isn’t Rational? Yet the very gentlemen who take their stand upon Mr. Putin’s rationality label him a “madman.” A “psychopath.” He is “unhinged.” A madman… by definition… is not rational. Nor is an unhinged psychopath rational. The Russian has already executed crimes against humanity, so-called. How can anyone know what a madman will do next? Is atomic warfare beyond him? We do not know. Nor, we hazard, do the experts.

Do we need a definitive answer? Perhaps it is best to stop poking this ursine beast. Perhaps it is best to let him exhaust himself in the present rumpus. Let him diminish himself. What did Monsieur Bonaparte say? "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." It appears Mr. Putin is making a mistake. Why interrupt him?

The 10 Rules of Propaganda: Yet many in the United States appear determined to interrupt him. Rather than stand paws off, they would engage. They are of course hot to rile and inflame the American people. And so they go on television and yell about Mr. Putin’s infinite barbarities… practice the dark arts of the propagandist.

Lord Arthur Ponsonby was a British diplomat and politician, dates 1871–1946. This cagey fellow identified 10 rules of propaganda. They are these:

1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.

2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.

3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil.

4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest.

5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes.

6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons.

7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big.

8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause.

9. Our cause is sacred.

10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.

Why Defend Those Who Won’t Defend Themselves? Now we ask: How many of these rules presently manifest themselves in the media - both broadcast and print? We can identify nine at a stroke. With some slight additional time, likely all 10. Rule No. 10 is presently having itself an inning.

Please understand: Propaganda is not necessarily false. It often weaves truth into its tapestry to trick the eye. Vladimir Putin may be an abomination among men, the hellcat of hellcats. Yet those against intervention are not necessarily traitors… Sen. Romney.

Besides, why should the United States place a nuclear gamble over Europe? We observed a recent poll indicating that substantial portions of European peoples would not defend their nations upon invasion. And so we ask: If Europeans decline to defend themselves against Mr. Putin… why should the United States?"

- dailyreckoning.com

Musical Interlude: Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What created this unusual planetary nebula? NGC 7027 is one of the smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped planetary nebulas known. Given its expansion rate, NGC 7027 first started expanding, as visible from Earth, about 600 years ago. For much of its history, the planetary nebula has been expelling shells, as seen in blue in the featured image. In modern times, though, for reasons unknown, it began ejecting gas and dust (seen in red) in specific directions that created a new pattern that seems to have four corners. These shells and patterns have been mapped in impressive detail by recent images from the Wide Field Camera 3 onboard the Hubble Space Telescope.

What lies at the nebula's center is unknown, with one hypothesis holding it to be a close binary star system where one star sheds gas onto an erratic disk orbiting the other star. NGC 7027, about 3,000 light years away, was first discovered in 1878 and can be seen with a standard backyard telescope toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200630.html

The Poet: Joy Harjo, “Remember”

“Remember”

“Remember the sky that you were born under,

know each of the star’s stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is. I met her

in a bar once in Iowa City.

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the

strongest point of time. Remember sundown

and the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled

to give you form and breath. You are evidence of

her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

Remember your father. He is your life also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are:

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth

brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their

tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,

listen to them. They are alive poems.

Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the

origin of this universe. I heard her singing Kiowa war

dance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.

Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.

Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you.

Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember that language comes from this.

Remember the dance that language is, that life is.

Remember.”

- Joy Harjo,

“How We Become Human”

Chet Raymo, "Why We Need Poets"

"Why We Need Poets"

by Chet Raymo

"The poet Jane Hirshfield referred in a poem to the number of atoms it takes to make a butterfly. Ten to the 24th power, I think she said. I thought I'd check it out. A typical butterfly might weigh about half a gram. The exact ratio of elements I don't know, but mostly hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Let's assume an atomic weight of ten for a typical atom; that is, an atom with ten nuclear particles (Hydrogen=1, carbon= 12, oxygen=16, and so on). A proton or neutron has a weight of about 1.6 X 10-24 grams. About 3 X 1022 atoms in a butterfly.

If I'm remembering Hirshfield's reference correctly (and I may not be), we are off by one or two orders of magnitude. No matter. It's a very big number. You want to make a butterfly? You will need 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. And every one in exactly the right place.

Now consider the miracle of metamorphosis. The caterpillar builds a chrysalis. Wraps itself up in its closet. And there, in the privacy of its self-sufficiency, it rearranges those arrangements of atoms. The caterpillar's six stumpy front feet are turned into the butterfly's slender legs. Four wings develop, as do reproductive organs. Chewing mouthparts become adapted for sucking. A crawling, insatiable, leaf-eater is transformed into a winged, sex-obsessed nectar sipper.

This is why we need poets. It's one thing to count atoms, or draw diagrams of the 22 amino acids, or suss out their sequence on the long chains that are the proteins. Or read out the genome that controls the machinery that turns a creeping leaf-cruncher into a winged angel. But all that biochemistry, as wonderful as it is, leaves the essential mystery intact. The hum. The unceasing hum that is life. The inextinguishable continuity. Sing, poets. Sing your hosannas."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

○

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"

- N.H. Kleinbaum, "Dead Poets Society"

The Poet: Langston Hughes, "Life is Fine "

"Life is Fine"

"I went down to the river,

I set down on the bank.

I tried to think but couldn't,

So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!

I came up twice and cried!

If that water hadn't a-been so cold

I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator

Sixteen floors above the ground.

I thought about my baby,

And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!

I stood there and I cried!

If it hadn't a-been so high

I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',

I guess I will live on.

I could've died for love -

But for livin' I was born.

Though you may hear me holler,

And you may see me cry -

I'll be dogged, sweet baby,

If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!"

- Langston Hughes

Peak Focus for Complex Tasks, Study Music with Beta Isochronic Tones"

Full screen recommended.

"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks,

Study Music with Beta Isochronic Tones"

Headphones are NOT required for this video.

by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

"Ambient peak focus music with low-intensity beta and alpha wave tones for clear focus. Listen to this when you need to maintain a high level focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity, especially if you're feeling stressed or under pressure. Helps to clear your mind of distraction and keep you in a relaxed, focused mental state. Includes low-intensity beta and alpha wave isochronic tones plus amplitude entrainment effects embedded into the music.

How does it work? This is a brainwave entrainment music track using isochronic tones combined with music. The music has also been embedded with amplitude entrainment effects, where the music is subtly distorted and vibrates in unison with the same frequency of the isochronic tones. This helps to add further strength to the entrainment effect. This brainwave entrainment session cycles through a frequency range of between 10Hz in Alpha, (which can help with memorization and learning), and up to 14Hz in the Beta range, (which will help with increasing focus and concentration)." 

○

If brainwave entrainment is a new concept for you,

there is information about it here:

- https://www.mindamend.com/

○

I use these daily, and suggest you do, too. This one is 

particularly excellent. We're fighting for our lives, folks, 

and I'll take any edge I can get. You should too...

- CP

"Bad Things Do Happen..."

"Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself." 

- Walter Anderson

"Insane - One-third of Americans Support Nuclear War With Russia"

"Insane - One-third of Americans Support 

Nuclear War With Russia"

by Mike Adams

"Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress via video link and implored the Legislative Branch to do more to help him save his country. While Zelenskyy did not ask for American boots on the ground, he did press for a “no-fly zone” or, in lieu of that, the transfer of Soviet-era fighter planes to his air force and additional anti-aircraft batteries, as well as additional offensive and defensive weapons. He got a standing ovation from attending American lawmakers, as well as a pledge for an additional aid package worth $200 million, bringing the total U.S. commitment to around $1 billion since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February.

But a growing number of Americans want their government to do more, even at the risk of provoking a nuclear exchange with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, according to a Pew Research survey released on the heels of Zelenskyy’s speech, more than one-third of Americans support action by the U.S. military even at the risk of nuclear war.

“New Pew poll on Ukraine war: Thirty-five percent of Americans support the US ‘taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.’ (62 percent oppose.),” The Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent Byron York wrote on Twitter noting the survey’s results.

New Pew poll on Ukraine war: Thirty-five percent of Americans support the US ‘taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.’ (62 percent oppose.) https://t.co/7TcpmEHkc7 pic.twitter.com/JsDoi2r09H

- Byron York (@ByronYork) March 16, 2022

“Roughly a third of Americans (32%) say that the United States is providing about the right amount of support to Ukraine as it fights to hold off the Russian invasion,” noted Pew Research in a report on the survey’s findings. A larger share – 42% – say the U.S. should be providing more support to Ukraine, while just 7% say it is providing too much support. About one-in-five (19%) say they are not sure,” the report continued.

However, virtually identical shares in both parties – 51% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and 50% of Democrats and Democratic leaners – regard the Russian invasion as a ‘major threat’ to U.S. interests,” Pew Research noted further. “New Pew poll on Ukraine war: Thirty-five percent of Americans support the US ‘taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.’ (62 percent oppose.),” The Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent Byron York wrote on Twitter noting the survey’s results.

While just one-third of respondents favored U.S. military action at the risk of a nuclear exchange, about the same number of Republicans and Democrats (36% of Republicans, 35% of Democrats) held that view. Also, a large majority favors allowing Ukrainian refugees into the U.S., though Democratic respondents favored that more than did Republicans (80% vs. 57%).

The survey also found that most Americans are paying attention to what’s going on in Ukraine and have been for months. “About seven-in-ten adults (69%) now report having read or heard a lot about the Russian invasion, compared with 23% who said they had read or heard a lot about Russia’s military buildup on its border with Ukraine in a January survey,” Pew Research noted. “Today, nearly identical shares of Republicans (70%) and Democrats (71%) say they have heard or read a lot about the invasion,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the war will have long-term - and devastating - implications for the entire planet, given that Russia and Ukraine account for nearly one-third of the world’s grain supplies. In addition, both are top fertilizer producers, and with Ukraine in flames and Western sanctions in place for Russia-produced goods, it is becoming clear that other countries that produce lots of food, like the United States, will suffer from decreased production at least this year and likely into next year as well.

The dearth of food production is coming at a time when food prices have been steadily rising for months in the age of Joe Biden and the leftist-induced global supply chain crisis following a year’s worth of pandemic lockdowns. The point is, the conflict in Ukraine will only compound the economic downturn that was already underway. Plan accordingly."

- https://www.naturalnews.com/

You know, every time I try to believe that people simply 

cannot be this willfully ignorant and stupid they prove me wrong...

We deserve what we get.

The Daily "Near You?"

Front Royal, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"This is a Controlled Demolition of the Economy - Everything Crumbles"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, 3/21/22:

"This is a Controlled Demolition of the Economy - 

Everything Crumbles"

"Nothing is working right. Inflation is completely out of control. The supply chains are broken door at affecting every industry. Farmers are stopping growing food because they can’t get fertilizer and cannot pay for the equipment that they need. This is a completely controlled demolition of the economy."

Bill Bonner, "A Permanent Ruin"

"A Permanent Ruin"

by Bill Bonner

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."

~ Ernest Hemingway

San Martin, Argentina - "And now we have both, inflation and war! Any dope could see that when you lend money at below the going rate of inflation… stymie output with regulations, shutdowns, tariffs, and waste trillions of dollars… and try to make up for lost production with printing press money – you are asking for trouble. We said so (ad nauseam) in these pages.

The Fed doesn’t have many responsibilities. Controlling inflation is right up there at Numero Uno. Yet, not only did it fail to see the inflation it was causing… and then misdiagnose it as ‘transitory’… now, it has no idea of how to get the cat back in the bag.

Baby steps of 25 basis points – from here to eternity – will never do it. The Fed will be following inflation, not leading it. But let us return to our subject from Friday. The question is not what, but who is really behind the US inflation, Covid Panic, and now hysteria over the war between Russia and its former satellite?

A Who’s Who of War: In modern warfare, as we saw last week, the generals get their medals and sinecures. Raytheon shareholders get higher stock prices. The empire’s whole military/industrial/surveillance/think tank/university/press complex becomes richer and more powerful. So, it is hardly surprising that this huge complex – about which Dwight Eisenhower warned us 60 years ago, and which has only gotten richer and more powerful since – would want to get the country steamed up for war.

But while the military/industrial/etc complex is extensive… it’s not the whole “who” that is behind the obsession with the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Who else? Here’s Foreign Affairs with a hint: "Putin’s War Is Fortifying the Democratic Alliance." Yes, dear reader… there’s more to this complex… and it’s not just in the USA.

Let’s begin with the natty question: isn’t a strong, healthy America enough? Wouldn’t our leaders do well to focus on that goal, rather than obsess over who mis-governs a country on the other side of the world? Practically every day brings new threats of ‘an attack on democracy.’ The January 6th riot at the Capitol… Trump’s ‘stolen election’ claims… attempts to control who votes (or how often) – and now the Russian assault on the Ukraine.

But what is it that makes a democracy…or a global ‘Democratic Alliance’… so superior… so desirable? Of course, we ‘democratic’ countries don’t invade smaller countries, do we? Well…never mind that one… But at least we don’t have a few rich people… and a lot of poor ones. Uh… maybe that doesn’t apply either.

How about free speech? We can say what we want in America – without fear of repercussions, right? But say the ‘wrong’ thing, and your career is over. Hmm… at least we don’t try to put truth tellers in prison, do we? But what about Ed Snowden and Julian Assange?

The bottom line is this, isn’t it: in our countries are democracies ‘the people’ decide the important issues, not the ruling elite? Oops again. In America, the president changes… the ruling party changes… but the “deep state’ rulers – the deciders, the influencers, the manipulators – remain the same. So do the key policies. From Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden there was a big ‘cultural’ shakeup each time… (a brouhaha led by the press)… but no real change of direction. The rich got richer. Spending increased. Debt rose. No agencies were eliminated. No programs ended. If any Deep State apparatchik lost his job… he just bided his time for the next administration!

Look, we’d be a damned fool to argue that there is no difference between Russia and the US and say, Iraq. But the differences are not always as clear and stark as we imagine.

Naming Names: The masses will go along with almost any Great Cause. They are the taxpayers… consumers… ‘cannon fodder’ for war… and ‘useful idiots’ for the whole elite agenda. Mob Man is always ready to back his leaders… and get up to mischief. Russians support Putin. Ukrainians support Zelensky. Americans support Biden. And Germans supported Hitler right up until the Soviets turned out the lights.

Taken into a private room… shown the facts… and all the money spent… all the programs… all the bureaucrats, do-gooders, spooks and paper pushers… and then handed his share of the bill, the average voter would surely recoil in horror. But he still wouldn’t feel qualified to cast judgment on any agency or program. Should the Air Force build a new plane? Should hedge funds be allowed to carry forward their losses? Which side should we back in Eurasia – those who speak Russian or those who speak Ukrainian? Those questions are beyond his ken. He is a follower, not a leader. Those questions are for the elite – the experts – to decide.

But now we are wondering about the leaders themselves. Are they all as incompetent as Jerome Powell? Who are they? What do they want? We promised to name names. And here’s one: Chelsea Clinton. She was never elected to anything. She has little expertise at anything, certainly not medicine. Nevertheless, she was recently in the news, after she found it deplorable that people (Joe Rogan was whom she had in mind) should be able to earn money by giving out opinions without prior approval from her and her co-censors.

Interesting, no? She is an influencer. She’s someone whose comments the media believe are worth passing on. She’s rich. She is one of the people ‘the people’ turn to for guidance. She’s one of them – the elite, who actually control, directly or indirectly, US public policy. So, let’s take a closer look at Ms. Clinton (aka Ms. Mezvinsky) tomorrow. Stay tuned..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

Jim Kunstler, "National Assisted Suicide"

"National Assisted Suicide"

by Jim Kunstler

"The defining moment last week in America’s ongoing mental health crisis was U Penn swimmer Lia Thomas’s record-setting win in the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle championship race. It was celebrated in the sports news as a thing - that is, an alleged feature of reality. Lia Thomas began “transitioning” in 2019 when “she” was a full-grown male human being, otherwise known as a “man,” and was already competing in men’s NCAA swimming events. One thing you can conclude from this is that the board of the NCAA is insane.

It’s not the only institution in our country that has lost its mind. Are you comfortable with that? Outside of certain fairy-tales involving naked emperors, there is but one greater instance of a people being so willingly insulted by falsehood, namely, the still-continuing campaign to “vaccinate” and “boost” the public against Covid-19 with a genetic cocktail that doesn’t work to prevent illness or transmission of disease and has already killed or injured many thousands of people.

Yet, they’re still out there pimping for the vaxxes: Rochelle Walensky of the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mary Basset (New York Commissioner of Public Health), and many other officials in other lands. This is a major part of the scripted suicide of the USA, along with the rest of Western Civ. Our government’s own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) now lists a total of 24,177 pericarditis and myocarditis cases for all of year 2021, and 11,829 cases for just January and February of 2022. Do you see an ominous trend there? Those are but two deadly conditions linked to the vaxxes; there are over a thousand more.

The deluded people getting boosted now are taking on-board additional toxic spike proteins to the ones they already acquired in the first two shots. Might one predict that quite a few of them will develop a horrifying array of bodily disorders and die or become disabled in the next two years? It might soon even get hard for the Woked-up, vaxxed-up, Trump-maddened “blue” multitudes to ignore the impending mass murder they have been subjected to.

Such an unappetizing prospect might account for America’s reckless poking of the Russian bear over the future of Ukraine, a distraction from the developing picture of national assisted suicide here at home. The prospect of World War Three is apparently more compelling than the emerging information that indicates the US government is killing off its own population, and lying its face off in the process.

“Joe Biden” and company might have prevented Russia’s “operation” there by simply reiterating what NATO itself had declared: that Ukraine would not be invited to join the alliance. But Ukraine has been a special client of the USA since 2014, when we changed-out a pain-in-the-ass government there. Since then, we’ve used Ukraine as an international money laundry, a proxy forward base for NATO, and, apparently, a place removed from the USA to set up bio-weapons labs when our own government called an at-home “moratorium” on gain-of-function research in 2014.

Part of the forward base activity in Ukraine since 2014 was the training and arming of the 600,000-troop Ukrainian army, one of the biggest armed forces in the world, which Russia now feels constrained to disarm and neutralize. How successful Russia might be in that endeavor, with an operational force of about 200,000, is the subject of a propaganda war being waged one level removed from the action on the ground.

The reality, as one might expect from such basic troop numbers, has been an onerous grind for the Russians. American javelin missiles have proven deadly to Russian tanks and armored vehicles. But, contrary to the narrative script of CNN and The New York Times, Russia is hardly “losing” the contest. Russian forces are in the process of kettling up Ukraine’s most potent units, the notorious Azov battalions, along the Donbass line in the east. There are a lot of them. They are surrounded, cut off from their central command, and now given the choice of surrendering or being slaughtered. For the moment, it is Ukraine’s choice.

For the Russians, this is, as they say, an existential matter, something they have faced before and understand the stakes of - think Napoleon and Hitler. The US has shown, at least, an exorbitant will to antagonize Russia using Ukraine. This, too, is yet more insanity. In Mr. Putin’s early years as head-of-state, Russia asked to join NATO, in Russia’s quest to be treated as a normal European nation after overcoming 75 years of Soviet insanity. Request rebuffed.

Twenty years later, and many instances of antagonism in the meantime, Russia had enough. It is doing something America no longer can do: establishing boundaries. Ukraine will not be used as a platform for further antagonisms. Our response: wreck the global economy starting with the international money system, and possibly bring on a world famine by destroying supply lines for fossil fuels and things made from them, such as fertilizer.

Our country is interested only in dissolving boundaries - geographical, as in our boundary with Mexico, behaviorally, as in the boundary between male and female, psychologically, as in the boundary between reality and fantasy, and existentially, as in being alive or dead. And now Russia, at considerable cost, has to literally teach the USA a lesson in the importance of boundaries. They are going to complete their operation in Ukraine and they’ll likely work-around the “sanctions” heaped on them. Their part of the world these days has all the production, a great many valuable commodities, and most of the world’s population.

Our part of the world seems bent on submitting to self-imposed tyranny and suicide. At least that has been the trend until now. Suddenly information is busting out from all angles penetrating and shattering the dome of unreality we’ve lived under for years. Yes, those vaxxes are killing a lot of people… yes, the Intel Community and the DNC overthrew the previous president… yes, every US Intel bigwig in the land lied to you about Hunter Biden’s laptop… yes, that laptop is crammed with hard evidence of bribery and, arguably, treason involving the current president… yes, the US economy is tanking because we’ve borrowed more money than we can ever pay back and we don’t produce enough stuff of value… and no, Russia is not “losing” in the Ukraine - rather, Russia is showing the commitment and fortitude of a nation interested in self-preservation. You think we might learn something from that?"

- https://kunstler.com/