The Poet: Henry Austin Dobson, “The Paradox Of Time”

“The Paradox Of Time”

“Time goes, you say? Ah no! 

Alas, Time stays, we go; 

Or else, were this not so, 

What need to chain the hours, 

For Youth were always ours? 

Time goes, you say? – ah no! 

Ours is the eyes’ deceit 

Of men whose flying feet 

Lead through some landscape low; 

We pass, and think we see 

The earth’s fixed surface flee - 

Alas, Time stays, – we go! 

Once in the days of old, 

Your locks were curling gold, 

And mine had shamed the crow. 

Now, in the self-same stage, 

We’ve reached the silver age; 

Time goes, you say? – ah no! 

Once, when my voice was strong, 

I filled the woods with song 

To praise your ‘rose’ and ‘snow’; 

My bird, that sang, is dead; 

Where are your roses fled? 

Alas, Time stays, – we go! 

See, in what traversed ways, 

What backward Fate delays 

The hopes we used to know; 

Where are our old desires? 

Ah, where those vanished fires? 

Time goes, you say? – ah no! 

How far, how far, O Sweet, 

The past behind our feet 

Lies in the even-glow! 

Now, on the forward way, 

Let us fold hands, and pray; 

Alas, Time stays, – we go!”

- Henry Austin Dobson

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“Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen? To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed? But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?”

- Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, “The X-Files”

Paulo Coelho, "The Dead Man Who Wore Pajamas "

"The Dead Man Who Wore Pajamas"

by Paulo Coelho

"I remember reading a piece of news on the Internet that a man was found dead in Tokyo on 10 June 2004, dressed in his pajamas. So what? I imagine that most people who die wearing their pajamas either a) died in their sleep, which is a blessing, or b) were in the company of their relatives or on a hospital bed, death did not come quickly, so they all had time to grow used to the undesirable one, as Brazilian poet Manuel Bandeira called it. The news goes on: when he died, he was in his room. So, the hospital hypothesis is out and we are left with just the possibility that he died in his sleep, without suffering any, without even realizing that he would not see the light of day. But there is still another possibility: assault followed by death.

Those who have visited Tokyo know that the gigantic city is at the same time one of the safest places in the world. I remember once stopping to eat with my editors before taking a trip to the interior of Japan all our suitcases were in sight on the rear seat of the car. Immediately I said that it was very dangerous, someone was sure to come along, see all those bags and make off with our clothes, documents and so on. My editor just smiled and told me not to worry, he knew of no such incident in all his long years of life (in fact, nothing happened to our suitcases, although I kept tense all through dinner).

But to return to our dead man in pajamas: there was no sign of struggle, violence or anything of the sort. In an interview, a Metropolitan Police officer stated that it was almost certainly a case of a sudden heart attack. So the hypothesis of homicide was also eliminated. The body had been found by workers of a construction company on the second floor of a building in a housing complex that was about to be torn down. Everything led to the idea that the dead man in the pajamas, unable to find anywhere to live in one of the most densely and expensive cities in the world, had simply decided to settle where he did not have to pay any rent.

And now for the tragic part of the story: our dead man was only a skeleton dressed in pajamas. At his side was an open newspaper dated 20 February 1984; a calendar on the table nearby gave the same date. In other words, he had been there for twenty years. And nobody had noticed his absence.The man was identified as a former employee of the company that had built the housing complex, where he had moved to in the early 80s soon after his divorce. He was just over fifty years on the day that all of a sudden, reading the newspaper, he left this world.

His ex-wife never sought for him. It was discovered that the company where he worked had gone bankrupt right after the building had been finished, since no apartment was sold, and so they did not find it odd that the man never turned up for his daily activities. His friends were looked up, and they put his disappearance down to the fact that he had borrowed some money and could not pay it back.

The news ends informing us that the mortal remains were delivered to the ex-wife. I finished reading the article and wondered at the last sentence: the ex-wife was still alive, and for twenty years had not even looked up her husband. What must have gone through her head? That he no longer loved her, that he had decided to remove her for ever from his life? That he had met another woman and disappeared without a trace? That life is like that, once the divorce procedures are over there is no point in carrying on a relationship that has been legally terminated. I imagine what she must have felt upon finding out the fate of the man with whom she had shared a good part of her life.

Then I thought of the dead man in his pajamas, of solitude so utter and abysmal that for twenty years nobody in this whole wide world had realized that he had simply disappeared without leaving a trace. And my conclusion is that worse than feeling hunger and thirst, worse than being jobless, suffering for love, in despair over some defeat, worse than all this is to feel that nobody, absolutely nobody in this world, cares for us. Let us at this moment say a quiet prayer for this man and let us offer him our thanks for making us reflect on how important our friends are." 

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Holly, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Vax Deadliest Fraud in History"

"CV19 Vax Deadliest Fraud in History"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Wall Street money manager Edward Dowd has made billions of dollars for companies such as Black Rock picking good businesses with good products. He can also spot a fraud, and Dowd says Pfizer simply made up the research that said it’s CV19 vaccine was safe and effective. According to Dowd, it was neither safe or effective. Dowd says, “The data was garbage. As far as I am concerned, they made up the data. It was garbage.” 

Dowd thinks the CV19 injections will be the deadliest fraud in history. Dowd explains, “This is something we have never seen in the history of our country and the history of the world for that matter. We have a product (CV19 Vax) that is so fraudulent and so deadly from an acute basis and kills you right away, but the long-term implications of this health impact we don’t know yet. It’s looking grim. This is going to be with us for decades. This is going to change the face of the world. We have to try to control the outcome because people are going to try to take advantage of this and spin it and turn it into the ‘great reset.’ We are not going to allow the ‘great reset’ to happen. If it happens, it’s going to happen under our power, and we are going to take control and not some nameless elites that say I am going to own nothing and eat bugs.”

Some people say the perpetrators of the deadly vax fraud are going to get away with it. Dowd says not a chance and explains, “The problem with this fraud is it is a bridge too far. 220 million Americans took the vax (at least one shot). Three million Americans are disabled, and it’s probably higher, and those disabilities are going to continue to grow. The economic impact, the young working age men and women dying in their families and the psychological effects show this is not your run of the mill financial fraud. This is a different kind of fraud, and this is a trust issue. It violated trust on so many levels that the politicians are going to turn on these people at some point. These things don’t end until the elite pay a personal price, and that’s where we are headed. Some of these people are going to pay a very personal price. I don’t wish that on them, and this is why they need to come forward and start whistleblowing so they can be protected in jails. These crimes are so difficult to hide that there will be that kind of action. If you look at the story of Marie Antoinette and the saying “Let them eat cake,” the French Revolution did not end well for the elites. The consciousness is rising in this country at an alarming fast rate...”

How does Dowd know we have passed an inflection point? Dowd says, “In October, November and December of last year, people all over the media, celebrities and people I knew were saying the unvaccinated are the problem and they need to be put in camps. Well, that chatter has disappeared. They have not apologized for that, but doubts are starting to enter people’s minds. It’s like the stages of grief. The first one is denial, then anger, then depression and then acceptance. We are in the denial/anger stage. We are still in the denial part, but we are quickly approaching anger.”

In the economy and what’s coming, Dowd points out, “What’s going on is we are basically at the end of the super bubble. We are going to have to have a new economic system and what’s going on is the collapse of that. The defaults are coming, and they are going to start in other countries first and make their way here. It’s going to be a disaster, and we are going to see a huge amount of defaults, bankruptcies and collapse of the economy. 99.9% of the world does not know the social contract has been broken. What does that mean? It means all the entitlements, social security, the pensions, and there are a lot in Europe, they are gone. They are not going to get paid. That’s the bottom line.” There is much more in the 50 min. interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

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Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he as he goes 

One-on-One with money manager and investment expert Edward Dowd:

- https://rumble.com/

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Related:

"Pfizer CEO at WEF: 

'By 2023 we will reduce the world population by 50%'”

"The current world population is 8.0 billion as of June 2022 according

 to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer."

- https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

So, they intend  to "reduce the number of people in the world by 50% by 2023."

4 BILLION people "reduced"? Tell me any other possible explanation for this...

- CP

"I Hope..."

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.”

- Bertrand Russell

Must Watch! Gonzalo Lira, "What Russia Has To Do After Russia Wins"

Full screen recommended.

Gonzalo Lira, 6/8/22:

"What Russia Has To Do After Russia Wins"

○

Related:

"What Are the Prospects for Peace?"

Bill Bonner, "Neuter or Bobbit?"

"Neuter or Bobbit?"

Either the Fed controls inflation... or inflation controls the Fed

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "What ought to happen does happen… but you can go broke waiting for it. Inflation is happening, as it should. The feds inflated the money system. And consumers are now reeling from price increases. We’re just waiting to find out what happens next. In a broad-brush way, there are really only two possibilities. Either the Fed controls inflation... or inflation controls the Fed. Either it neuters inflation…or inflation ‘Bobbits’ the Fed.

As we’ve been describing, inflation ought to be self-correcting. Higher prices should motivate producers and discourage consumers. People should drive less. Buy less. They should stay at home and turn the lights off. Prices ought to come down. But ‘don’t hold your breath,’ was Janet Yellen’s message yesterday: “I do expect inflation to remain high, although I very much hope it will be coming down now." Ms. Yellen has a remarkable ability not to notice what’s really going on. We will only know that inflation is on its way out, for sure, when she tells us it is eternal.

Money We Can Trust: In the meantime, let’s try to figure out which way it will go: who will end up singing in a high-pitched, ‘castrati’ voice? The Fed? Or its inflation?

Governments use ‘printing press money’ the way a pickpocket uses his fingers. It gives them access to money that they oughtn’t have. With it, they finance programs and giveaways that neither taxpayers nor lenders would willingly pay for. Naturally, they want to keep the racket going as long as possible.

But inflation is the worst form of taxation. It strangles the goose even before it lays its golden egg. An economy needs money it can trust. High rates of inflation make business, investment and even consumer decisions much more difficult. Few people are willing to make long-term, wealth-creating investments when price increases appear to be ‘out of control.’ Factories don’t get built. Highways aren’t repaired. Innovations and improvements don’t happen. People get poorer.

Prices in the US are rising at an official rate over 8%. The things people really care about – food, shelter, fuel – are going up much faster. A Fox News headline: Gas prices climb 5 cents overnight; Americans are paying nearly $2 more from just one year ago. The national average gas price climbed five cents Monday night into Tuesday and 10 cents since Saturday, now hitting a record $4.92 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.

Redfin says house prices were up 15%. And the FAO says food prices worldwide are up 60% over the last two years. So what ought to happen next? Let’s look more closely at how it works.

As Bust Follows Boom: Some inflation is a natural by-product of the business cycle. In boom times, demand goes up… and prices with them. Then comes the bust and prices go back down. And sometimes prices move up simply because demand goes up or supply goes down. The approach of a hurricane, for example, has a stimulating effect on sales of generators; plywood prices rise. Likewise, Covid lockdowns, war and sanctions, too, play a role in today’s price increases.

But there’s something else at work… something more sinister and less responsive to the natural feedback loops of an honest economy. It is something that was underway long before the Covid Panic or the Russo-Ukrainian war. It is intentional… self-inflicted… a feature of US fiscal and monetary policy… and by extension… a mashup of the world’s monetary system.

As long as the feds keep their policies in place, we should continue to see rising prices. In fact, inflation should get worse. That’s what ought to happen too. Because, natural business cycle inflation is self-correcting… wars end…and hurricanes move on. But premeditated inflation is self-intensifying.

That is, as prices rise, purchasing power goes down. Then, ‘inflation’ takes on a life of its own. People must have more money just to maintain their standards of living. Businesses, investors and the government become accustomed to having more and more money. As prices rise, they need more money to stay in the same place. If more money is not forthcoming, sales fall… prices drop… and a recession takes hold – all the things the authorities are so eager to avoid. That’s the ‘inflate or die,’ trap we’ve been describing. Once you start inflating, you have to inflate more or the inflation-dependent economy dies.

The Strongest Recovery Never: What’s more, when people come to see that inflation is not going away, they get used to it. They become eager to get rid of their money as soon as possible. Instead of saving money, they spend it quickly, before it loses more of its value. This increases the ‘velocity’ of money, which in turn increases the rate of price increases.

‘Inflation expectations’ are even harder to control than inflation itself. It’s why a central bank, wishing to reduce inflation, must ‘get ahead of it.’ It must show that it is serious, by tightening up more than expected. That is what Paul Volcker did in 1980… raising the Fed’s key lending rate to a breathtaking 20% – nearly 700 basis points ABOVE the consumer price inflation number. For reference, the current Fed’s lending rate is about 700 basis points BELOW the CPI. ‘Nuff said,’ as Howard Ruff used to put it.

Neither is the White House serious about reducing inflation. It is the “strongest recovery in modern history,” say Biden et al. “We’re in a good position to really take on inflation,” added the White House press secretary yesterday. But the federal deficit is still on track to exceed $1 trillion this year. If you can’t balance the budget in the ‘strongest recovery’ ever… when can you? Never. And if you don’t get serious about tightening monetary policy when the CPI is over 8%, when will you? The answer is simple – when you can’t do anything else. Stay tuned."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

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Joel’s Note: "In the meantime, you might wish to assuage any concerns you have over the state of the economy with some reassuring words from your commander in chief. Here he is, completely in touch with the plight of the American worker…

Can you feel that, Dear Reader? That undeniable economic vitality? Never mind the price at the pump or the 40-yr high inflation or the violence in your cities or the moral decay you see all around you… read POTUS’s lips: “most robust recovery in modern history.” And then remember what George Orwell wrote in 1984, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

"How It Really Is"

"Shocking New Home Construction Booming As Home Buyers Disappear; Worst Time To Buy A House"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 6/8/22:

"Shocking New Home Construction Booming As Home

 Buyers Disappear; Worst Time To Buy A House"

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Related:

• "Housing Demand Is Imploding"

• "Mortgage Applications Crash To 22-Year-Low 

As Monthly Payments Rocket Higher"

"It’s Going to be a Bleak Summer - More Banks Issue Warnings"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 6/8/22:

"It’s Going to be a Bleak Summer - 

More Banks Issue Warnings"

"We keep getting warnings from different banks about how bad the economy is. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and even the World Bank is telling us that global growth is shrinking. This will be a bleak summer."

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Meijer! This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 6/8/22:

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Meijer! 

This Is Crazy! What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and are noticing Empty Shelves Everywhere! We are also noticing ridiculous price increases, and a major food shortage! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

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Related:

"'The Summer Of Starvation': 

Soaring Fertilizer Prices Unleash Chaos, Hunger Worldwide"

Gregory Mannarino, "Middle Class Extinction Accelerating; Homelessness Exploding"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/8/22:

"Middle Class Extinction Accelerating; 

Homelessness Exploding"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Our Economy: At The Jagged Edge"

"Our Economy: At The Jagged Edge"

by John Wilder

"Systems work within certain limits. Let’s take...the Earth. The Earth is absolutely filled with life. It’s nearly everywhere, and in abundance, unless a particular bit of life has secrets about the Clintons. Let’s just look at a single variable of the system that supports life: temperature.

All things being equal, if the Earth was as hot as Venus is, the zone where life (if it was based on the need for water, of course) would be pretty small. Likewise, Mars would have a smaller envelope – it’s too cold – and water would be frozen most of the time. Sure, life is technically possible in both locations, but it will never thrive like it has for a huge chunk of the Earth’s history. And that’s just one variable impacting a complex system.

There are many ways to configure an economy. Most of the ones that work really well are decentralized for most things. No one tells a farmer in Nebraska what or when to plant. The farmer chooses, based on what he thinks he can sell. No one tells PEZ® to make a Yosemite Sam™ PEZ© dispenser. But why wouldn’t they make a Yosemite Sam® PEZ® dispenser? Duh.

Most of the time, this system is pretty closely coupled. The world doesn’t have years of surplus of, say, food just sitting around – with billions of people, I know someone would eat the Ding Dongs® and Pop Tarts™ first and then there wouldn’t be any for me. I mean, it certainly looks like Nic Cage could make an infinite amount of movies since the word, “no” isn’t in his vocabulary, but even he has limits to his Nic Cage-ness.

I think we’re close to the limits of the system that’s given us prosperity as we know it. Yup, that’s a sobering thought. Here are a few data points: This one hit me fairly hard (from Vox Day’s place – there’s more at the LINK):

"I own a small trucking company, and this is what the fuel crisis is doing to our country… Today I filled up my truck to deliver products that help keep our country fed. When I filled up my truck, it cost me $1,149.50. This is ONE truck, for ONE day of fuel. I own three. So for one day of operation, it’s costing me $3,448.50. (Yes, we use a full tank of fuel every single day, sometimes more than 1 tank per day).

My trucks generally run 5-6 days a week, so we’ll just estimate on the low side and say five. That’s $17,242.50. Last week was over $20k for ONE week, that I have to pay out of my pocket to try and keep not only my children fed, but those of my employees, and our country.

Mark my words, we are on a downhill slide to the worst recession our country has ever seen. Trucking companies are going under left and right. (Literally hundreds weekly.) If you’re not aware, what you’re wearing, what you’re eating, what you’re living in, what you’re driving, what you’re reading this on, was delivered by a truck."

That’s sobering. All the beer comes on trucks, so it could be literally sobering. What else have we seen?

• Baby Formula Shortages

• Rising Violence, Well, Everywhere

• Short Tempers

• Shortages of Basic Repair Parts For Vehicles

These have some consequences. Big ones. People are pulling back on frills, in a hurry. A very good restaurant in Modern Mayberry just shut down. Forever. The owners threw in the towel. Rising prices led to fewer customers...customers feeling pinched can always cook their own food at home as a quick way to save a few bucks. I opened my browser (which thinks I live hundreds of miles away from Modern Mayberry) and saw the same exact story a few hundred miles away on the same day our local hangout closed – another, distant, beloved local restaurant shutting down in a town I've never been to.

Why are dining customers feeling the pinch? Let’s just talk a single variable: fuel. By my calculations, the rising cost of fuel is draining $2.3 billion dollars a day, every day from the economy. That’s not quite a trillion dollars a year, but fuel is priced into everything. Divide the rough annual cost of just the increase and I came up with almost $2,800. Per person. Multiplied by a family of four, and that’s about $11,000 a year per family. If the average family makes $69,000 a year, just the increase in fuel prices is about 16% of their annual income. Sure, lots of that isn’t direct to the family, but it gets priced into every single thing they buy.

That’s stark, especially because it’s only a single variable. Increased interest rates will be hitting soon, along with all of the financial pressures that will bring. And, of course, there will be more things as this crisis cascades.

Here’s another data point. I pulled into McDonald’s® and asked for a McSausage McMuffin with McEgg®. Don’t judge me! They’re tasty! “Sorry, we’re all out. We do have sausage biscuits left.” “Okay. I’ll take one.” Not my favorite, but, whatever. “Okay, that’ll be $6.50.” It was just as they put up their lunch menu, so I hadn’t seen the price. Six fifty? For a sausage patty, some not great scrambled eggs, a slice of cheese, and a biscuit? And it wasn’t what I wanted in the first place? I noped out of that. First time I’ve canceled a drive-through order that I can recall, but I didn’t need the sandwich $6.50 worth. I drove out of the line and off on my way. Good thing it wasn’t an Amish McDonald’s® - I hear they don’t have outlets.

Our economic systems are certainly out of balance. Badly. We’re at the edge of a cliff, and I have the feeling that things will soon be changing, and quickly. Be prepared for a change in temperature."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com

Gerald Celente, "Top 5 Ways To Spread Monkeypox: CNN, BBC, NPR, NBC, NYT"

Full screen recommended.

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal" 6/7/22:

"Top 5 Ways To Spread Monkeypox: 

CNN, BBC, NPR, NBC, NYT"

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

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"Energy Supply Chains Face Worst Crisis In Five Decades As Extensive Shortages Push Prices To Explode"

Full screen recommended.

"Energy Supply Chains Face Worst Crisis In Five 

Decades As Extensive Shortages Push Prices To Explode"

by Epic Economist

"What happens to a country that doesn’t have enough energy supplies? Well, it seems that we’re about to find that out the hard way. The U.S. energy supply shortage is sparking the worst shortfall of fuels in over 50 years. Most of our refineries are already running at almost full capacity and won’t be able to ramp up operations and the processing of key oil products to meet the rising demand this summer. Fuel prices have already jumped by 40% since the start of the year, and market strategists are alerting that consumers may see another 40% spike by August. A widespread shortage of fuels is threatening to throw this country into disorder, collapse domestic production, send the price of everything that requires transportation through the roof, and result in demand destruction and nationwide rationing of diesel and other oil products as the imbalance between supply and demand continues to grow.

In the U.S., drivers are already feeling the pain of skyrocketing prices at the pump. Since the beginning of 2022, gasoline prices have been soaring nationwide, and today, they broke another shocking record. American motorists are now paying a nationwide average of $4.91 per gallon, according to the latest data provided by AAA. Since January, the national average surged by 40%. It is also well above last year’s level of $3.04 per gallon. Analysts predict that the $5-per-gallon average will become the norm by the Fourth of July holiday as demand is expected to increase even further while supply remains tight.

In fact, according to analysts at JPMorgan, California’s $6-per-gallon average could ripple across the country by the end of the summer. “There is a real risk the price could reach $6+ a gallon by August,” said Natasha Kaneva, the head of global oil and commodities research at JPMorgan, adding that prices could go up by an additional of nearly 40% in the coming months. “With expectations of strong driving demand, US retail price could surge another 37% by August,” the expert forecasted. “The only way that gas doesn’t reach $6 per gallon is if demand drops due to the sky-high prices,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a separate report.

The worst part is that even though most consumers are already struggling with the rising cost of filling up their car tanks, what they really should be worried about is the price of diesel. The entire U.S. economy runs on diesel. Diesel prices reach another record today of $5.68 per gallon, marking the highest level they’ve ever been in the U.S. since the government began tracking them, and prices will likely go even higher this summer not only because of the demand but also because forecasters are predicting that this year will see an above-average number of hurricanes, which can idle refineries for days.

This means that just about everything will become more expensive. Right now, refineries in the Northeast are already running at 95% capacity, and industry executives are warning that the only option to keep diesel supplies from completely running out this summer is a nationwide ration of the fuel. Apart from that, for prices to finally go down, the economy will likely have to go through what economists call demand destruction, which is when the price of something gets so high that people stop buying it because they can’t afford it anymore.

That consequently leads to less demand and more supply, and ultimately, lower prices. There are already signs that demand destruction is happening, and in some parts of the Northeast, diesel rationing has already begun. Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of time before these issues hit national proportions, and as drivers, truckers, and ocean carriers start to rush for more energy supplies, chaos will soon descend upon America – again."

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Adiemus, “Adiemus”

Full screen recommended.

Adiemus, “Adiemus”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140828.html

"Two Possibilities Exist..."

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the 

Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

"I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life.

It's just been too intelligent to come here."

- Arthur C. Clarke

"There Is Always The Hope..."

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”

- Inga Muscio

The Daily "Near You?"

Vail, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Putin Should Send Biden 'Thank You' Note"

"Putin Should Send Biden 'Thank You' Note"

by Jim Rickards

"I’ve said from the start that Russia will win the kinetic war in Ukraine and the global financial war as well. That doesn’t mean I’m pro-Russian or condone Putin’s invasion. It’s just my objective analysis based on the facts.

Of course, winning is a subjective term in both contexts. As applied to the kinetic war, winning does not mean a complete conquest of Ukraine. That was never Putin’s goal. It means Russia will control the Donbas region in the south and east and the coastline of Ukraine, including the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Russia has already secured a land bridge from Russian territory to Crimea and likely plans to extend its coastwise control to Odessa.

Russia’s occupation of Snake Island gives it de facto control of Black Sea access to Ukraine already. Russia also occupies Kherson, which controls access to the Dnieper River in central Ukraine, which is the main access to the sea from the capital Kyiv.

What Good Are Weapons if There’s Nobody Left to Use Them? None of this has been easy. It has been slow, brutal and costly. But Russia is not losing militarily, no matter how many videos you may see of destroyed Russian tanks. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy is now admitting that he’s losing up to 100 men a day, with many more wounded. The actual figures are probably significantly higher. The U.S. and its allies can send all the advanced weapons they want to Ukraine, but given Ukrainian casualty rates there won't be anyone on the front lines left to use them.

Then there are the economic sanctions…

Biden Should Send Putin a “Thank You” Note: On the financial front, Russia is making $25 billion per month in oil and natural gas sales due in large part to higher world prices as a result of economic sanctions. Efforts to seize assets such as yachts and townhouses from Russian oligarchs also play into Putin’s hands because he had tried for over a decade to clip the oligarchs’ wings. The fact is Putin despises the oligarchs. Putin's base of power is the military, intelligence services and the Orthodox Church. The U.S. and its allies are actually doing Putin's dirty work for him by going after the oligarchs.

Russia has also captured 55 million tons of coal in the Donbass region of Ukraine, which gives Russia added leverage when it comes to sanctions related to oil and natural gas.

Europe Has Few Options: The G7 climate and environmental ministers recently met in Berlin and agreed to phase out the use of coal. That sounds like a worthy goal from the perspective of climate alarmists. The problem is that most of the EU (with the exception of France) has already phased out their use of nuclear power.

At the same time, steps are being taken to ban exports of oil and natural gas from Russia to Europe because of the war in Ukraine. If you eliminate nuclear and coal, and curtail oil and natural gas, what’s left to power the homes and factories of Europe? The ministers claim that they will arrange substitutes for the Russian oil and gas. But there aren’t any.

Qatari natural gas is mostly pre-sold to China. U.S. natural gas output has been knee-capped by Biden administration limitations on leasing and fracking. U.S. oil output is also declining for the same reasons. The U.S. has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of oil and natural gas in the past two years, so it cannot practically be a source for Europe. None of this does any harm to Russia, which will simply sell its oil and gas output to China at world prices.

Green Fantasies: The G7 and EU have a fantasy that they can substitute wind and solar power for the oil, gas and coal that they are scaling back. The problem is that wind turbines and solar panels are expensive and not scalable. They depend on enormous battery farms to store power and those batteries make the entire plan even more expensive. It’s also impossible to run a modern power grid on wind and solar alone because those sources are intermittent. There’s no solar power at night or on cloudy days, and there’s no wind power when the wind’s not blowing. Wind and solar can supplement other energy sources on the grid, but they cannot power the grid on their own.

This leads back to oil and natural gas (or coal), which the G7 has just agreed to do without. None of this makes sense. There are no ready substitute supplies of oil and natural gas. Wind and solar cannot power the grid. Europe’s choices will be rationing and blackouts, not a green new deal. The worst case is that the EU and G7 actually move forward with these nonsensical and unnecessary plans, in which case Europe will freeze in the dark next winter.

The U.S. Tells Africa to Starve: Meanwhile, many major trading partners of Russia have remained neutral in the war including China, India and Brazil, which gives Russia many outlets for its exports of strategic materials and energy and imports of manufactured goods. It also looks like Russia nicked $150 billion of plutonium from Ukraine's nuclear power plants. Plutonium runs about $6,000 per gram and the Russians got 30 tons. That leaves Russia with a nice profit in the sanction war. With respect to grain exports, Russia has destroyed a major Ukrainian grain export terminal in Mykolaiv that plays a crucial role in global grain distribution. But after the West seized the assets of the Central Bank of Russia, what did you expect?

Putin doesn't play patty-cake. This is war and he plays to win.

The U.S. is warning African nations not to buy Russian grain seized from Ukraine. But if the Africans don't buy it, their people will starve. Talk is cheap, while starvation focuses the mind. They'll buy the grain. Why wouldn’t they? Mark this as another failure for mindless U.S. sanctions. In all, Russia will be OK.

Still, investors who believe the western and Ukrainian propaganda amplified by legacy media such as the New York Times and Washington Post are being badly misled. The war could be ended through a negotiated settlement that addresses Russia’s security concerns, while still maintaining Ukraine’s independence. But the U.S. and its allies want the fighting to drag along as much as possible in order to weaken Russia militarily. They’re willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to do so."

- dailyreckoning.com

○

Related:

"Situation Update, June 6, 2022 - Biden Provokes Putin To Strike USA,

 NATO Cities With New Long-Range Weapons"

"Curious..."

Curious how often you humans manage to

obtain that which you do not want."

- Mr. Spock

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert: World Bank Warns. Goldman Sachs Warns. Bank Of America Warns"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/7/22:

"Alert: World Bank Warns. 

Goldman Sachs Warns. Bank Of America Warns"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Related:

"JP Morgan Warns an Economic Storm is Coming"

Bill Bonner, "The Eye of the Storm"

"The Eye of the Storm"

That feeling you get when you know the worst is yet to come...

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Elon Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the future. Jamie Dimon says he thinks a ‘hurricane” is coming… We imagine it is all swirling around in his brain – the Fed’s ‘tightening cycle’… soaring gasoline and diesel fuel prices… federal deficits out the wazoo… war… sanctions… God knows what else.

Already, Americans – especially those who live in trailers – are putting up plywood and checking their toilet paper supply. The LA Times: "Americans at the low end of the income spectrum are once again struggling to make ends meet. A confluence of factors - the expiration of federal stimulus checks and surging inflation on staples such as gas and food - is driving an even bigger wedge between the haves and have-nots. Although wealthier shoppers continue to splurge, low-income shoppers have pulled back faster than expected in the last two months. They’re focusing on necessities while turning to cheaper items or less-expensive stores. And they’re buying only a little at a time."

And, of course… there’s “The Great Baby Formula Crisis”. Charlie Bilello: "Baby formula shortage continues to worsen, with 74% of stores across America out-of-stock (a year ago the rate was less than 5%). 10 US states now have out-of-stocks rates that are 90% or higher, including the most populous state (California). Hopefully, measures taken to increase supply will soon take effect, as 75% of babies use some formula by 6 months of age."

Don’t worry, Charlie. Babies grow up. Then, they’re able to eat hamburgers.

This Wicked World: As we explored yesterday, most problems are self-correcting – including inflation. The cure for high prices, in an honest world, is high prices. Price increases inhibit buying… which means less demand. They also motivate producers to bring more product to market, which means more supply. This is the opposite of what causes inflation. The result should be de-flation. But is that what “ought to happen?” Well, yes.

But it is not an honest world we live in. It is a wicked one. And one in which the deciders – the ruling caste – seem to have an almost miraculous stupidity. If they were weathermen, you wouldn’t want to rely on them for their forecasts. “Hey, Lael” says Jerome Powell to one of the other Fed governors, “Look at this. What’s that big mass of clouds out off the coast?” “I don’t know, Jerry. Looks like they’re wheeling around a calm spot in the center. And headed for Boca Raton.” “Probably nothing… let’s put it into the model; see what it says.” A few minutes later…“Just what I thought. It says… well… just another sunny day in South Florida.”

Mo’ Money: Even in an honest economy there are booms and busts, prices increase and decrease. But the storm on the horizon is not a normal weather event. Instead, it’s what you get when you print $8 trillion…. and then stifle output with regulations, sanctions, shut-downs, and phony interest rates. More money. Fewer goods and services. What ought to happen is inflation, a tempest of price increases and shortages.

The Fed, meanwhile, is packing its picnic basket. Its ‘baby step’ rate increases measure only a half a percentage point each. Even if they did this every quarter, it would take nearly 4 years before their key lending rate pulled even with inflation.

We predict that the storm will hit long before that happens. Even if the Fed really were in inflation-fighting mode, it would still take stiff measures – and time – for the storm to pass. MarketWatch: "Investors may be in for a rude surprise: History shows inflation can take years to return to normal even when the Fed hikes interest rates above 10% That risk was highlighted on Thursday by BofA Securities strategists Vadim Iaralov, Howard Du and others, who point to the period between 1974 and 1988 as the most comparable time in which the annual headline U.S. consumer-price index was rising at a pace similar to the U.S.’s pandemic era of 2019-2022.

In 1980, with the Fed’s main policy rate target already above 10% for most of that year, the annual headline CPI, also in double digits, still did not fall back below 3% after 36 months “even on the back of unprecedented rate hikes enacted by Fed Chairman Paul Volcker,” they said."

Out of Control: What really ‘ought’ to happen? It will only be clear after it has happened. In the meantime, we guess: The persistence of inflation… at perhaps even higher levels… is likely to stiffen the Fed’s backbone. Fed governors won’t want to let inflation get ‘out of control.’ They will express their determination to bring down inflation. And some people will take them seriously.

Investors will panic. Businesses will pull back. Households will hunker down. Prices will fall! Like Elon Musk, they will have a ‘super bad feeling’… which will lead to the hurricane Jamie Dimon fears. And then, hallelujah… the Fed governors will be spared. No need to hike rates, after all. No need to endure the wrath of a desperate nation. No need to try to undo what they have done. If they are lucky, they may even be able to retire in the eye of the storm… before the wind knocks them down."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

○

Related:

"What We're About to Experience is Something We Haven't Seen in 100 Years"

"Will the Fed Still Raise Interest Rates? Target Issues Dire Retail Warning"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 6/7/22:

"Will the Fed Still Raise Interest Rates? 

Target Issues Dire Retail Warning"

"People are very depressed right now that they cannot live the lifestyle that they used to just a few years ago. Instead of taking financial responsibility people are trying to borrow themselves out of depression. Will Interest Rates continue to go up?"

"Survive The Food Apocalypse; We Are In the Biggest Bubble; Kiss The Housing Market Goodbye"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/7/22:

"Survive The Food Apocalypse; We Are In the Biggest Bubble; 

Kiss The Housing Market Goodbye"

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 6/7/22:

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target!

 This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

"In today's vlog we are at Target, and are noticing Empty Shelves Everywhere! We are also noticing ridiculous price increases, and a major food shortage! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

'How It Really Is"

 

Canadian Prepper, "National Emergency Declared in USA!"

Canadian Prepper, 6/6/22:

"National Emergency Declared in USA!"

"Biden declares a national emergency, Putin makes aggressive threats towards west to date, I predict a major escalation within 3 months and the price of gas just hit another record today."

"We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities"

Full screen recommended.

"We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus 

Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities"

by Epic Economist

"The United States is facing another mass exodus as social and economic conditions continue to deteriorate in our major cities. In recent weeks, we’ve also witnessed several tragedies taking place in America. At his point, the truth is that almost all of our major cities are coming apart at the seams, and this is motivating more people than ever to look for a fresh start somewhere else. Over the past two years, millions of people have relocated to smaller, safer, more affordable areas across the country, and as the summer begins, migration trends are accelerating once again. Recent surveys show that millions more Americans are planning to move this year. Families are seeking regions with more modest costs of living where they can run away from the chaos of large urban areas and raise their children peacefully. However, instead of finding the comfort that they were looking for, many are being shocked about just how expensive everything has become virtually everywhere in the U.S.

In modern American history, we have never seen such a persistent mass exodus away from our major cities. Government officials and the media try to reduce this phenomenon by saying that this is all temporary. They’ve been also blaming the health crisis for this surge in mass migration, but now that cases have been put under control, it is clear that the pandemic wasn’t the main nor the only catalyst for this change. Americans are still moving in large numbers.

The events of the past two years have only accelerated an already existing trend in which people smaller towns and suburbs with warmer climates, cheaper homes, less density of population, lower offense rates, and lower taxes. But with so many families looking to move, this trend is helping to push prices in desirable areas to insane heights.

That goes against the primary goal of many of these families, who have been financially strained by soaring living expenses for over 24 months. Right now, more and more Americans are desperately looking for more affordable places to live in. Americans are desperately seeking more affordable places to live in. But whenever they go, they end up sparking new inflation hotspots. Put it simply, inflation is still so high that nobody is able to away from rising prices in the U.S.

According to truck rental company Penske, amongst the top moving destinations are Phoenix, Houston, Charlotte, Denver, San Antonio, and Austin. “The relationship between migration and inflation has strengthened significantly as more people relocate from expensive cities to more affordable areas,” Redfin analysts wrote in a recent report.

In some parts of the country, it has become almost impossible to find a decent affordable home to either rent or buy. The United States doesn’t have enough homes families can afford, and we’re still in the middle of a historic housing shortage. If you currently live in an urban area and you are planning about relocating, you should probably make a decision rapidly. Summer is almost here, economic conditions are going to continue to worsen, and much more social turbulence is coming.

It is clear now that the U.S. economy is a complete and total disaster, and countless Americans are getting deeply alarmed about the near future of our country because they can see that our society is literally melting down all around us, and they want to get somewhere safe while they still can. Times are changing fast. Soon, life in the United States will never be the same again."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Bond Yields Are Rising Globally; Food And Energy Inflation Is Surging"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/6/22:

"Bond Yields Are Rising Globally; 

Food And Energy Inflation Is Surging"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Have you contemplated your home galaxy lately? If your sky looked like this, perhaps you'd contemplate it more often! The featured picture is actually a composite of two images taken from the same location in south Brazil and with the same camera - but a few hours apart. The person in the image - also the astrophotographer - has much to see in the Milky Way Galaxy above.

Click image for larger size.

The central band of our home Galaxy stretches diagonally up from the lower left. This band is dotted with spectacular sights including dark nebular filaments, bright blue stars, and red nebulas. Millions of fainter and redder stars fill in the deep Galactic background. To the lower right of the Milky Way are the colorful gas and dust clouds of Rho Ophiuchi, featuring the bright orange star Antares. On this night, just above and to the right of Antares was the bright planet Jupiter. The sky is so old and so familiar that humanity has formulated many stories about it, some of which inspired this very picture."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191015.html

"The Trick..."

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,

or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”

- Carlos Castaneda

Gonzalo Lira, "Economics and Epistemic Viciousness"

Gonzalo Lira, 6/6/22:

"Economics and Epistemic Viciousness"

"Because I've lost access to all my accounts and channels to the SBU (Ukraine's secret police), I don't have any way to promote my content - so please be so kind as to share this video with anyone whom you think might learn something." - GL

My only other social media: - https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968

The Daily "Near You?"

Troy, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Truth..."

 

"Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity.

Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities.

Outlawed by all governments everywhere.

Possession is normally punishable by death."

- John Gilmore

A comment: According to statistics compiled by the UN, by the time the sun rises tomorrow morning 30,000 children world wide will have died overnight from malnutrition, disease, lack of potable water, and lack of basic medical care. That's every night, all year long, 30,000 children dying because no one cared. Trillions of dollars wasted on insane wars, economies destroyed by psychopathic greed, the environment dying in front of our eyes, and no one cares. No wonder Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described humanity as, "Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts." 

The "instincts of beasts" is evident for all to see... sometimes all this wears me down, and I look around, hoping to see the "aspirations of angels," hoping desperately that we can somehow awaken from the madness crushing us all, that together we can still rise above the despair and hopelessness and make a better world, where no child dies from hunger, where wars are a distant memory, where everyone can live full, dignified and honorable lives in peace. An impossible, hopeless struggle? Perhaps, but how dare we call ourselves "Human" if we don't try to make that vision real, in any way we can, no matter the price? A dream, you say? Yes, that's all it is... but without those dreams, those aspirations, all that's left is the "instincts of beasts", and we all see very clearly what those have brought this world to... - CP

"Walmart Shelves Are Stacked With Survival Supplies; Food Storage Worth More Than Gold; PPP Fraud"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 6/6/22:

"Walmart Shelves Are Stacked With Survival Supplies; 

Food Storage Worth More Than Gold; PPP Fraud"

"What is a Black Swan Event? Can You Prepare For It?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 6/6/22:

"What is a Black Swan Event? Can You Prepare For It?"

"What is a Black Swan Event? We keep hearing this term being thrown around and it’s very definable. We have had black swans happen in history and they have huge ramifications on the economy. Can you prepare for a Black Swan? I cover it all here."

"The 'Super Bad' Paradox"

When the tide goes out…

"The 'Super Bad' Paradox"

Elon Musk's "uneasy feeling" and why the "super bad"

 is part and parcel of the "super good...

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland -  "We never know what will happen. All we know is what ought to happen. Elon Musk, bless his heart, has a “super bad feeling” about the months ahead. So do we. Something bad ought to happen. But bad things are sometimes good things. Musk explained the paradox two weeks ago. Referring to the unhappy part of the business cycle, he said: “Yes, but this is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long….”

“Some bankruptcies need to happen. Also, all the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard...“Companies that are inherently negative cash flow (ie value destroyers) need to die, so that they stop consuming resources.” It is annoying when no-account, money-losing companies stay in business, like a spoiled trust fund wastrel, squandering his family’s fortune. It’s painful to watch. And it’s a pleasure to see the kid run out of money. And it would be nice to see people get back to work in a ‘normal’ 9-to-6 kind of way, too.

The Turning Tide: But the world doesn’t put on its show for our entertainment. And it doesn’t make it easy to understand the plot. Yes, things happen that ought to happen. But not always what you want, or when you expect, or how you think it should go. We’ve spent years waiting for a major stock market correction, for example. By our reckoning, stock prices ought to get cut in half before we can be confident of a genuine new bull market. And we have our ‘I told you so’s at-the-ready.

Remember, beneath the chop of up and down stock price movement are deep tides. By our reckoning, stocks go up for decades. Then, the tide turns… and for decades the ‘primary trend’ is down. We wait for a low – when you can buy all 30 Dow stocks for the equivalent of 5 ounces of gold or less – then, we will be reasonably sure the tide is ready to flow again.

In the meantime, the years go by… and imagine our disappointment! It is like being a lifeguard in a wading pool. Eventually the water rushes in. And toes no longer touch the bottom. That is what ought to happen. But when?

Inflation is a political phenomenon. The feds spend money they don’t have… and can’t raise by honest taxation or borrowing. So, they call upon the Fed to ‘print’ more money. From 1999 to the present, for example, the Fed created more than $8 trillion new dollars. It used them to buy bonds, thereby driving up bond prices and pushing down bond yields.

Had they not done so, the credit market would have reacted to the feds’ borrowing in the traditional way. Interest rates would have gone up as the biggest pig at the trough gobbled up more and more of the world’s savings.

Filling in the Details: This is known as “crowding out,” when the government leaves little available credit for businesses and households. It is also, usually, the beginning of an economic downturn; interest rates rise and it becomes harder for people to borrow. Businesses cancel new projects. Households delay remodeling the kitchen or taking a vacation. Things slow down, taking the pressure off of the credit markets.

The government gets whacked by the feedback loop too. Tax receipts go down. And its interest costs go up. It, too, must cut back. Left alone, in other words, when the government spends too much money the system self-corrects. What ought to happen does happen. The boom gives way to a bust. But in the 21st Century, the Fed intervened repeatedly, and with a heavier hand each time. It ‘printed’ ten times as much money as it had from the day of its founding until the end of the 20th century. And it pushed down interest rates to levels never before seen.

What would happen next? Nobody knew for certain. But sensible people have had a ‘super bad feeling’ for years. ‘There must be some price to pay for counterfeiting money and rigging the credit markets,’ say the sages. ‘If not, everyone would do it… all the time.’ The two obvious consequences: more debt and more inflation. The details are being filled in now.

America’s debt burden grew by more than $50 trillion this century… to a total of more than $88 trillion, including households, businesses and the government. And inflation? Who could have seen that coming? And now, what ought to happen? Higher prices ought to bring more output. More output ought to lower prices. Inflation ought to go back whence it came. Those bad feelings ought to go away. Will they? Stay tuned..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com