"Brace For Stock Market Crash That Will Freak Americans Out"

Full screen recommended.

"Brace For Stock Market Crash That Will Freak Americans Out"

by Epic Economist

"The 2022 stock market crash is much worse than anyone realizes. Some call it a slow train wreck - which is not untrue, - but at the end of the day, there’s no stopping this disaster. A dramatic sell-off continues to pick up speed, sending indexes to bear market territory while bubbly stocks face a free-fall that only rivals the downturn witnessed during the dot-com bust. Investors are panicking as inflation continues to soar despite the Fed’s attempts to control it. This means that even higher interest rates are coming, and they will probably be announced at tomorrow’s FOMC meeting. This also means that even sharper losses are ahead, and in today’s video, we compiled some dire outlooks shared by Wall Street’s greatest minds.

Stock markets faced a broad-based sell-off this morning after a very disappointing May Consumer Price Index report was released on Friday, which showed that instead of getting better, inflation is still getting worse in the U.S. As of midday today, the S&P 500 was down 3.76%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down approximately 2.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged 4.19%.

The losses recorded since Friday reflect the depth of market disappointment with the CPI inflation data. In essence, this is a signal that the Federal Reserve will have to tighten policy even more aggressively to be able to contain inflation growth – which is very bad news for an overvalued stock market. At the same time, Bank of America’s Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett released a recent note to clients warning that the ongoing stock market crash is far worse than anyone realizes. In fact, BofA's Bull & Bear Indicator is at "extreme bearish" territory right now, and just shy off all-time lows.

Hartnett explains that a significant reversal in investors’ sentiment is taking place right now given that the inflation shock has become an undeniable reality. In the first quarter alone, natural gas prices shot up by 141%, gasoline prices rose 91%, oil went up by 61%, while wheat and corn surged by 39% and 30%, respectively. In his view, the rates shock triggered by the Fed is just beginning, and a massive slowdown in economic growth is also going to contribute to a stock market meltdown.

On a similar note, Salem Abraham, a 34-year market veteran says that a Great Depression-style stock-market crash and economic meltdown can't be ruled out for 2022, and a striking double-digit loss could wipe out a quarter of the market’s gains in a single day."I see this [downfall], and I'm just like, 'This is really nothing,'" Abraham said in an interview with Insider. "There's a way worse scenario than this. People have both a short memory and a lack of respect for history," he said.“We may just be setting up for a 25% drop in one day," Abraham predicts.

If that apocalyptic scenario plays out, it's not just rich investors who will get crushed. Worker pensions and college endowments would be wiped out if they're too heavily reliant on stocks, he alerted. Simply put, we may be on the verge of an economic catastrophe unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. Sooner than later the "house of cards" is coming down. The panic and the pain ahead won't end anytime soon, and they are going to be far greater than most Americans will be able to handle."

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets Meltdown"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/13/22:

"Markets Meltdown"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy, "Dolmen Ridge"

Gnomusy, "Dolmen Ridge"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Slide your telescope just east of the Lagoon Nebula to find this alluring field of view in the rich starfields of the constellation Sagittarius toward the central Milky Way. Of course the Lagoon nebula is also known as M8, the eighth object listed in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright nebulae and star clusters. 

Close on the sky but slightly fainter than M8, this complex of nebulae was left out of Messier's list though. It contains obscuring dust, striking red emission and blue reflection nebulae of star-forming region NGC 6559 at right. Like M8, NGC 6559 is located about 5,000 light-years away along the edge of a large molecular cloud. At that distance, this telescopic frame nearly 3 full moons wide would span about 130 light-years."

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

"I Would Rather Have..."

"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."

- Nadezhda Mandelstam

"The Ultimate Panacea is… [drumroll]"

"The Ultimate Panacea is… [drumroll]"

by Addison Wiggin

“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

"I’m completely aware that Hemingway’s quote is overused. But guess what? Panacea is Merriam-Webster’s word of the day. You’ll just have to suffer this lead. That’s not to say Ernest’s comment isn’t accurate. Or even more pointedly appropriate to our current time.

We concern ourselves with permanent ruin. Some of our colleagues call it a hobby. But we know some other folks who do the same. We first met James Howard Kunstler right after he published "The Long Emergency." He was talking about climate change mostly. But after speaking with him this past week, I gained a more nuanced view of his understanding. Climate change is a thing, but the long emergency is really our response to it. The same could be said of mass shootings.

Jim’s an interesting guy. He wrote for Rolling Stone for some time. Then went out on his own. I admire him for having the temerity to choose his own path. You’ll probably agree. Take a look:

“It's a hallucination du jour,” Jim tells me, “a hallucination of the moment. It's a figment. And that's exactly why so many people in the financial world are afraid of a real King Hell crash because they know if the bond market goes up in a vapor, our money's going to disappear. We're going to be in the most unbelievable deflationary depression that world history ever saw because the money is just going to rush out of here into a black hole. And it will, of course, take the equity markets down with it as that occurs." There’s more where that came from at the link above."

"Follow your bliss,"

- WigginSessions@email.5minforecast.com

"This Is The Motive..."

"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."

- Blaise Pascal

"It's Not the End of the World"

"It's Not the End of the World"

by Jeff Thomas

"Periodically, I’ll encounter someone who has read one of my essays and has decided not to pursue them further, stating, "You’re one of those ‘End of the world’ guys. I can’t be bothered reading the writings of someone who thinks we’re all doomed. I have a more positive outlook than that." In actual fact, I agree entirely with his latter two comments. I can’t be bothered reading the thoughts of a writer who says we’re all doomed, either. I, too, have a more positive outlook than that.

My one discrepancy with such comments is that I don’t by any means think that the present state of events will lead to the end of the world, as he assumes. But then, neither am I naïve enough to think that if I just hope for the best, the powers that be will cease to be parasitical and predatory out of sympathy for me. They will not.

For any serious student of history, one of the great realizations that occurs at some point is that governments are inherently controlling by nature. The more control they have, the more they desire and the more they pursue. After all, governments actually produce nothing. They exist solely upon what they can extract from the people they rule over. Therefore, their personal success is not measured by how well they serve their people, it’s measured by how much they can extract from the people. And so, it’s a given that all governments will pursue ever-greater levels of power over their minions up to and including the point of total dominance.

It should be said that, on rare occasions, a people will rise up and create a governmental system in which the rights of the individual are paramount. This was true in the creation of the Athenian Republic and the American Constitution, and even the British Magna Carta. However, these events are quite rare in history and, worse, as soon as they take place, those who gain power do their best to diminish the newly-gained freedoms. Such freedoms can almost never be destroyed quickly, but, over time and "by slow operations," as Thomas Jefferson was fond of saying, governments can be counted on to eventually destroy all freedoms.

We’re passing through a period in history in which the process of removing freedoms is nearing completion in many of the world’s foremost jurisdictions. The EU and US, in particular, are leading the way in this effort. Consequently, it shouldn’t be surprising that some predict "the end of the world." But, they couldn’t be more incorrect.

Surely, in 1789, the more productive people of France may have felt that the developing French Revolution would culminate in Armageddon. Similarly, in 1917, those who created prosperity in Russia may well have wanted to throw up their hands as the Bolsheviks seized power from the Romanovs.

Whenever a deterioration in rule is underway, as it is once again now, the observer has three choices:

Declare the End of the World: There are many people, worldwide, but particularly in the centers of the present deterioration – the EU and US – who feel that, since the situation in their home country is nearing collapse, the entire world must also be falling apart. This is not only a very myopic viewpoint, it’s also quite inaccurate. At any point in civilization in the past 2000 years or more, there have always been empires that were collapsing due to intolerable governmental dominance and there have always concurrently been alternative jurisdictions where the level of freedom was greater. In ancient Rome, when Diocletian devalued the currency, raised taxes, increased warfare and set price controls, those people who actually created the economy on a daily basis found themselves in the same boat as Europeans and Americans are finding themselves in, in the 21st century.

It may have seemed like the end of the world, but it was not. Enough producers left Rome and started over again in other locations. Those other locations eventually thrived as a result of the influx of productive people, while Rome atrophied.

Turn a Blind Eye: This is less dreary than the above approach, but it is nevertheless just as fruitless. It is, in fact, the most common of reactions – to just "hope for the best." It’s tempting to imagine that maybe the government will realize that they’re the only ones benefitting from the destruction of freedom and prosperity and they’ll feel bad and reverse the process. But this clearly will not happen. It’s also tempting to imagine that maybe it won’t get a whole lot worse and that life, although not all that good at present, might remain tolerable. Again, this is wishful thinking and the odds of it playing out in a positive way are slim indeed.

Accept the Truth, But Do Something About It: This, of course, is the hard one. Begin by recognizing the truth. If that truth is not palatable, study the situation carefully and, when a reasonably clear understanding has been reached, create an alternative. When governments enter the final decline stage, an alternative is not always easy to accept. It’s a bit like having a tooth pulled. You want to put it off, but the pain will only get worse if you delay. And so, you trundle off to the dentist unhappily, but, a few weeks after the extraction, you find yourself asking, "Why didn’t I do this sooner?"

To be sure, those who investigate and analyze the present socio-economic-political deterioration do indeed espouse a great deal of gloom, but this should not be confused with doom. In actual fact, the whole point of shining a light into the gloom is to avoid having it end in doom.

It should be said here that remaining in a country that is tumbling downhill socially, economically and politically is also not the end of the world. It is, however, true that the end result will not exactly be a happy one. If history repeats once again, it’s likely to be quite a miserable one.

Those who undertake the study of the present deterioration must, admittedly, address some pretty depressing eventualities and it would be far easier to just curl up on the sofa with a six-pack and watch the game, but the fact remains: unless the coming problems are investigated and an alternative found, those who sit on the sofa will become the victims of their own lethargy.

Sadly, we live in a period in history in which some of the nations that once held the greatest promise for the world are well on their way to becoming the most tyrannical. If by recognizing that fact, we can pursue better alternatives elsewhere on the globe, as people have done in previous eras. We may actually find that the field of daisies in the image above is still very much in existence, it’s just a bit further afield than it was in years gone by. And it is absolutely worthy of pursuit."

- internationalman.com

Bill Bonner, "Massacre on the Potomac"

"Massacre on the Potomac"

Dems face a day of reckoning in November as inflation bites down hard.

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "The native-born Irish do not pronounce the “th” sound. So, our telephone service, named “Three,” is called “Tree” by the locals. This linguistic quirk led American friends of ours, visiting a restaurant in Dublin and enjoying a ‘tree” course meal, to the following exchange:

Waiter: “Are you finished your second course?”

Americans: “Yes, thank you.”

Waiter: “Then I’ll bring out the t….”

Americans: “Wait. Stop. Don’t say it. It will take away our appetite.”

Consumers hate the ‘inflation tax.’ And the voters go a little sour and threaten to throw out the bums who caused it. Joe Biden’s approval rate is dropping. TownHall: "A new ABC/Ipsos poll found that Biden’s approval rating is sinking faster than the Titanic. When it comes to inflation, only 28 percent of voters approve of Biden’s job, with 71 percent disapproving."

And polls show the Democrats could be facing an electoral massacre in November. The “New American:” "An internal poll conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (first reported by startup political newsletter Punchbowl News and confirmed by The Hill) revealed that Democrats running for reelection in November are in deeper trouble than they originally thought. In a generic matchup between Republicans and Democrats, the generic Republican is beating the generic Democrat by eight percentage points, 47-39."

A second poll, commissioned by the Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) focused on districts where Biden won in 2020 by more than eight percentage points. Biden is now underwater in those districts by eight points and is dragging down the reelection prospects of Democrats in those districts, from likely to questionable.

Won’t the Democrats try to save themselves by coming down hard on inflation? That is the question left untouched on Friday, like the ‘third’ course, that we take up today. It’s the ‘Decision of the Century.’ Will they or won’t they? Yes or no? Up or down? Now or never.

So Much at Stake: We remind readers that this decision will probably determine the course of public events for decades ahead. If the Fed halts inflation and lets things return to normal, it will mean a crash on Wall Street… business failures… defaults… unemployment… depression and bankruptcies. But the misery will probably be over in a couple years.

If the Fed lets inflation continue, on the other hand, the consequences will be ambiguous at first… and then catastrophic, stretched out over many years of war, revolution, hunger, poverty, destitution and chaos. With so much at stake… and for the benefit of readers who weren’t paying attention… it’s worth backtracking and looking more closely.

We’ve seen that this is no ordinary business cycle inflation. Nor is it an event-driven ‘inflation shock,’ such as when the price of plywood goes up as a hurricane approaches or gasoline goes up because the Saudis turn off the taps.

If you have that kind of “inflation,” you count yourself lucky, because it corrects itself – usually quickly and effortlessly. As prices rise consumers consume less and producers produce more; problem solved. Price increases are just information. If the price of bananas rises, for example, it may mean that banana growers suffered a drought or a pest. Or, it may mean that people want more bananas. And when prices for everything go up, it tells us that we have a money problem. Our money is losing value. And Friday’s CPI ‘print’ showed no sign of a peak. Bloomberg:

US inflation accelerated to a fresh 40-year high in May, a sign that price pressures are becoming entrenched in the economy. That will likely push the Federal Reserve to extend an aggressive series of interest-rate hikes and adds to political problems for the White House and Democrats.

The consumer price index increased 8.6% from a year earlier in a broad-based advance, Labor Department data showed Friday. The widely followed inflation gauge rose 1% from a month earlier, topping all estimates.

Understated: That 8.6% number is a huge understatement. Prices for food, shelter, and fuel are rising much faster. As we saw last week, it takes an average working man twice as many hours on the job to fill his tank today as it did a half century ago. That was not the result of an accident… nor of a sudden shock. It was a systematic rip-off. Intentional. Premeditated. It was public policy. And now, it’s getting much worse.

The Fed ‘printed’ $8 trillion new dollars since 1999 – 10 times as much as it had since it was created in 1913. And it forced interest rates below the running rate of price increases. This gave people an incentive to borrow, speculate, and spend – further increasing the ‘inflation’ pressure.

The motive was not hard to spot. This new money fell like manna from heaven. Nobody ever saved it. Or earned it. The feds didn’t have to ask the taxpayers for it. Nor did they have to borrow it from savers. There was no need to say ‘please’ or ‘thank you.’ And they could spend it, just as though it was real. On wars. Transfers. Giveaways. Whatever.

But what now? The voters are angry. Can the feds continue with their inflation policy; can they get away with it? What will happen? Stay tuned..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

“I’m Only Human, After All”

“The acceptance of ambiguity implies more than the commonplace understanding that some good things and some bad things happen to us. It means that we know that good and evil are inextricably intermixed in human affairs; that they contain, and sometimes embrace, their opposites; that success may involve failure of a different kind, and failure may be a kind of triumph.” 

- Sydney J. Harris

And, of course, the universal and inevitable excuse…

“A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably

excuses himself to himself by saying, “I’m only human, after all.”

- Sydney J. Harris

○

○

I've always wondered...

Everyone says “Only human…” compared to what?

The Poet: Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”

“The Waking”

“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?

God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air,

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I learn by going where I have to go.”

- Theodore Roethke

"Not Such An Easy Business..."

“Over the years you get to see what a struggle life is for most people, how tough it is, how easy it is to be judgmental and criticize and stand outside of situations and impart your wisdom and judgment. But over the decades I've got more tolerant of people's flaws and mistakes. Everybody makes a lot of them. When you're younger you feel: "Hey, this person is evil" or "This person is a jerk" or stupid or "What's wrong with them?" Then you go through life and you think: "Well, it's not so easy." There's a lot of mystery and suffering and complication. Everybody's out there trying to do the best they can. And it's not such an easy business.”

- Woody Allen

"INFLATION: It’s Much Worse Than We Thought… But Wait Until This Little Monster Grows Up!" (Excerpt)

"INFLATION: It’s Much Worse Than We Thought… 

But Wait Until This Little Monster Grows Up!"

by David Haggith

Excerpt: "We could all be on the cusp of the most deadly inflation the world has ever experienced, due to a unique setup of global forces that have the power to accelerate that into happening in a surprisingly short amount of time. I’m going to tell you how that could happen more quickly than anyone appears to expect….

First, a short, fun documentary lesson because it is important to understand that - as easy as it is for anyone to foresee what I’m about to tell you - it is highly unlikely our leaders will see it coming. You can assess how likely they are to avert this developing disaster by seeing how well they saw the present inflation coming and averted that because that, too, was not hard to see coming for reasons I need not reiterate, having done so more than enough in the past:

They're laughing at us, this is planned for the "Great Reset". Timeline video with all of their quotes. Please retweet.

Sound ON pic.twitter.com/zYvHbFe5Hm

- Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) June 10, 2022

Follow the money: Consider how the inflation fuel the Fed has created for years through its record-high balance sheet will pass through global markets when people see the fuel is actually being siphoned off. When the Fed’s past money creation didn’t go into the hands of consumers, it didn’t create inflation, except in assets, where it did flow and built up beyond anything we’ve ever seen in a stored and intentional wealth effect. Whenever it moved from stocks to bonds, it only inflated the prices of bonds, increasing their value as assets.

Monetary expansion only creates inflation where the money flows. So, when the new money doesn’t flow to consumers, we don’t see consumer inflation. When it stayed in financial circles, it created inflation in financial circles where inflation was viewed as a desirable thing. When we did see some of the Fed’s inflated money supply finally flow directly to consumers through various kinds of stimulus programs doled out by the federal government during the Covidcrisis, we saw a lot of consumer inflation starting to build right away. That happened because the new money met a supply shortage head-on due to fewer people being able to work under lockdowns and then due to fewer people being willing to work after they built up their share from the government’s dole via Robinhood-style stock investments. Inflation suddenly went on a tear when that combination of events formed."

Please view this complete and highly recommended article here:

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"Do You Want..."

"Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?"

- Macklemore

The Daily "Near You?"

Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Too Often..."

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word,

a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,

all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

- Leo Buscaglia

"Bank Runs Have Started in China - Will They Come Here?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 6/13/22:

"Bank Runs Have Started in China - Will They Come Here?"

"China is experiencing bank runs. People cannot get to online banking and they cannot withdraw money from ATMs. Electronic payments are not going through, but the worst part is they’re allowing funds to be deposited into accounts that people cannot get access to."

"A Crisis Of Legitimacy"

"A Crisis Of Legitimacy"

by John Wilder

"I think one thing that has always been a feature of Americans is that we’ve had a healthy distrust for authority. The entire Revolutionary was because we didn’t trust the British to take our interests into account. We even used roosters to find British spies – a version of chicken-catch-a-Tory. Yet, just enough trust has existed to keep us going.

Mostly. Right now, however, there is a crisis brewing – a crisis of legitimacy. We see it everywhere, but I’ll start off with the worst: the “Presidency” of Joe Biden. The points that bear discussing are certainly well known to readers here:

• The “open” conspiracy to change laws to beat Trump,

• Evidence of ballot harvesting, and

• Evidence of counting “irregularities.”

Among a lot of other things. Heck, even Pa Wilder voted for Biden, which is something he’d never do if he’d still been alive.

The reaction of the Left is more of their politics as usual. Anything possible to distract and vilify the Right is in play. Any hint or even joke about the legitimacy of Biden’s electoral “victory” is shut down. Case in point, I made a joke about Biden’s victory being more in the counting than in the voting, and that podcast was immediately shut down by YouTube’s® A.I. (Shhh, don’t make fun of that A.I., it’s really self-conscious),

If they’re that sensitive, I know I’m over the target. The reason is that there is a mountain of evidence that shows fraud in the election, in just the right places and locations it would be needed (and would be possible) to swing the election to Biden.

Huh.

A robust and positive response would have been to participate as hard as possible to show Biden was legitimately elected. They would have taken the points brought up by (in many cases) non-partisan analysis showing the trickery. Nope. The Democrats looked for voter fraud just as hard as O.J. looked for “the real killer”.

I wonder could there be a parallel there, or if that could be the reason that a majority of the American people think Joe was falsely elected? Instead, they use the word “baseless” when they really mean “facts we really, really, want you to ignore.”

Hmmm.

If a phony election was enough to destroy the Republic, though, it would have failed long ago. Historically, there have been other elections that have been called into question: 1876 and 1960 were two big examples. But we survived both, even though Rutherford B. Hayes was called “His Fraudulency” for the rest of his life. Rutherford B. Hayes was a stunning success compared to Biden, serving one term where his most notable accomplishment was attempting to avoid inflation and keep the money supply sound, whereas Biden prints and spends money like a Pelosi drinks and drives.

That’s the second crisis of legitimacy – phony money. Again, none of this is new – I’ve written that our monetary policy appears to be less sound than the logic of a drunken 22-year-old rock star in a strip club in Vegas.

The phony money is, of course, only one component of the phony economy. For years now, pools of cash have kept up the appearance of value in home prices. Likewise, stock prices have been artificially pushed upward at the same time bond prices (and interest rates) were artificially kept downward. At some point (and, it’s looking like that point is very near, indeed) the stored energy caused by the distortions will cause the economy to snap. Because? Our economy is illegitimate.

What about the Uvalde police department: Who thinks that they’re legitimate now? But how many people are secretly asking, “if that happened in my town, what would our cops do?” and then thinking, “probably the same thing.” Where most people would expect cops to run in and, oh, save children, it’s not in their playbook. Really. Lots of police departments put as their number one priority “officer safety”. And courts have repeatedly backed the cops up – they have no duty to even try to save me, kids in a school, or you. How legitimate does that feel?

I could keep going all night, but sometime I have to sleep, so I’ll just bring up one more. We’re in a society where even the concept of “being a man” or “being a woman” is legitimate anymore. But even that is a symptom of a society where the basic values that have been consciously subverted at every opportunity – good is now bad, and vice versa. Truth is now despised while lies are celebrated.

To summarize our society is in deep jeopardy because we have:

• Illegitimate Politicians (especially the President),

• Illegitimate Money,

• An Illegitimate Economy, and

• Illegitimate Values.

This is the opposite of the formula to make a country work well. Civil strife combined with a collapsing economy, rising prices, and a collapsing social fabric sounds like a lot to take away from just a loss of legitimacy, but it’s not – for people to create a productive, free society, they have to have incentive, they have to have trust. They have to have legitimacy – they have to believe. To restore that? They have to have truth."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"Never, Ever Forget..."

"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."

- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls "

Jim Kunstler, "Proud of Yourselves?"

"Proud of Yourselves?"

by Jim Kunstler

"America has an eating disorder - have you noticed? - and a touch of the old sexual dysmorphia - am I a boy or a girl? - and has been caught in its room playing with razor blades. Ergo: America is a thirteen-year-old girl in need of some therapeutic assistance. Who will answer the call for help?

Here we are in the fat middle of Pride Month. Why is it, then, that the authorities have sent squadrons of drag queens out across the land like so many flying monkeys, flapping and shrieking from the candy-colored forests of Oz, to conduct “story hours” for children? Is America not sufficiently confused these days? Are drag queens really the best interlocutors for the doctrine of Diversity and Inclusion? Have we nothing better on offer to occupy childrens’ minds, say, learning to bake bread or build a bird-house? Practical skills they will need when the economy of Western Civ completes its disorienting descent out of Modern Times into the New Medieval?

Does anyone actually know what children think about a drag queen reading, say, "My Princess Boy" by Cheryl Kilodavis to a roomful of five-year-old boys and girls? I mean, apart from what the parents who take them there tell us their children think. (“They were enchanted!”) We know that the parents are pretending that this is a wholesome developmental exercise. And yet, let’s face it: is it not the whole point of being a drag queen to present a horrifying parody of an adult female human? Something like women-as-monsters?

Do any of the mommies who bring their children to the drag queen story hour present themselves in public as women the way the drag queens do? As, above all, sexually super-available? Would, say, the Palo Alto mommy of a five-year-old pause to twerk in the frozen food section of the supermarket on any given afternoon? In that context, what might be the reaction of other mommies shopping for hot pockets and Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby?

Five-year-old children generally have no idea what adult sexuality is about. Should perhaps their first exposure to a realm so fraught and complex that many adults do not understand it be the presentation of women as monsters? And why are the mommies so avid for their children to be introduced to sexuality this way? Are some of the children perceptive and astute enough to suspect that that drag queens on display are not really women? That, for instance, they might be… men? (A beard can be a give-away.) And might they take that thought a step or two further and ask themselves: why does this man want to pretend to be a monster-woman? Why doesn’t he want to be a daddy? Are mommies monsters? Can they turn into something like this when I’m not around? Are daddies who try to act like mommies monsters?

How exactly is a child supposed to process all of this? All on its own, without any inversions, distortions, and misconstructions, sex is difficult for some young humans to process. By the time they reach the threshold of puberty - say, age thirteen for girls - the onset of sexual development is so alarming that they attempt to starve their way out of it and cut themselves up.

Of course, we have not begun to probe what might animate a man to present himself to the world as a monstrous parody of a woman. Suffice it to say that such behavior suggests some complicated psychodynamics. And why, exactly, are they suddenly on-display so extravagantly now across the country, supposedly for the edification of children? I’ll you why: It’s not actually for the sake of the children. The children are just pawns in what is actually a national political psychodrama. Or rather, they are hostages.

What you’re seeing is the Party of Chaos sending a message to the rest of us - those who are not members of the Party of Chaos. The message is: we will take your children and destroy their minds, and pretend that it’s just another module of their education… and you will know, and we will know, and you will know that we know that this is just a malicious shuck-and-jive to humiliate you while we wreck the machinery of civilization, which we hate because it requires boundaries and norms to function.

And think of it: just days ago the FDA announced that it accepted Pfizer’s application for a Covid-19 vaccine for children between six months and five years old. That’s the same “safe and effective” vaccine they have been giving to the rest of you for over a year, which has produced adverse reactions and illnesses in rather striking numbers. Do you know why they did that? I’ll tell you why: to extend the emergency use authorization that shields Pfizer from legal liability for their mRNA vaccines. They are not content with wrecking civilization. They want to kill you and your children too."

- https://kunstler.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "WARNING: The Debt Market Implosion May Have Begun"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/13/22:

"WARNING: The Debt Market Implosion May Have Begun"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Live Markets updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data

"Black Monday: All Hell Breaks Loose As Stocks Plunge Into Bear Market, Curve Inverts, Cryptos Crater" (Excerpt)

"Black Monday: All Hell Breaks Loose As Stocks 

Plunge Into Bear Market, Curve Inverts, Cryptos Crater"

by Tyler Durden

Excerpt: "For all those claiming that stocks had priced in 3 (or more) 50bps (or more) rate hikes, we have some bad news. All hell is breaking loose on Monday, with futures tumbling (again) into bear market territory, sliding below the 20% technical cutoff from January's all time high of 3,856 and tumbling as low as 3,798.25 - taking out the May 10 intraday low of 3,810 - before reversing some modest gains. S&P 500 futures sank 2.5% and Nasdaq 100 contracts slid 3.1%, in a session that has seen virtually everything crash. Dow futures were down 567 points at of 730am ET.

The global selloff - which has dragged Asian and European markets to multi-month lows and which was sparked by a hotter than expected US CPI print which heaped pressure on the Federal Reserve to step up monetary tightening - accelerated on Monday as panicking traders now bet the Fed will raise rates by 175 bps by its September decision, implying two 50-bp moves and one hike of 75 bps, with Barclays and now Jefferies predicting such a move may even come this week. If that comes to pass it would be the first time since 1994 the Fed resorted to such a draconian measure.

The selling in stocks was matched only by the puke in Treasuries, as yields on 10-year US Treasuries reached 3.24%, the highest since October 2018, yet where 2Y yields sold off more, sending the 2s10s curve to invert again..."

Full lengthy, comprehensive article here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Live Market updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data

"Massive Products Missing At Target! This Is Not Good!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 6/13/22:

"Massive Products Missing At Target! This Is Not Good!"

"In today's vlog we are at Target, and are noticing a massive amount of missing products! We are also noticing 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:

"Food prices set to soar even MORE: Kraft, Tyson and McDonald’s 

owners say higher fuel, labor and ingredient costs will be passed on to customers"

That'd be you, Good Citizen...

"How It Really Is"

 

"We are One Crisis Away from System Collapse"

Canadian Prepper, 6/12/22:

"We are One Crisis Away from System Collapse"

"New wars are brewing and no one is talking about it."

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/12/22"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/12/22"

Updated as available.

Latest Market Analysis, Updated 6/10/22

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

June 10th to June 13th

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words.

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And now... The End Game...

"15 Facts That Prove That America Is In Deep, Deep Trouble"

Full screen recommended.

"15 Facts That Prove That America 

Is In Deep, Deep Trouble"

by Epic Economist

"Everywhere we look, we find more indications that the United States is in a lot of trouble. America's domestic supply chains have been broken, and disruptions continue to pile on, causing more shortages and exacerbating price increases all over the nation. Our system has never been so vulnerable to external interruptions, and experts say the U.S. is extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks at a time nearly all services and operations that make the economy run are heavily dependent on technology. With consumer prices over 8% higher than a year ago, growing affordability constraints are putting immense pressure on the finances of millions of American families, while household incomes remain stagnant. Despite Fed policies to tame inflation, consumer prices are going to remain elevated this year due to elevated due to the soaring costs of housing, energy, and food as the global commodity market faces shortages of energy supplies, raw materials, fertilizers, grains, and semiconductors.

To make things worse, our financial markets are starting to falter, with the stock market recording billions in losses week after week, and the housing market bubble on the verge of another disastrous burst. All of that is occurring at the same time as our geopolitical conflicts with other major economies continues to escalate. Many more problems continue to emerge with each passing day, and the things we just mentioned are not even half of the story. Wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, and heatwaves were among the 20 weather and climate disasters the United States has faced over the past 12 months. Those extreme weather events have resulted in $145 billion in damages in 2021 and victimized 688 people. Such disasters are becoming more frequent with each passing year, and it is being it is estimated that more than 100 million people in the U.S. will experience temperatures that are 20 to 30 degrees above average this summer.

On top of everything we’ve already mentioned, shall we add a diesel fuel shortage and a nationwide electricity shortage to the equation? We’re actually being warned that energy supplies are rapidly dwindling in America, and a shocking diesel shortage could begin this summer. That's why in today's video, we brought you a compilation of stats, forecasts and updated numbers about the issues our country is currently facing and the challenges we are about to face in the months ahead."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Gregory Mannarino, “Markets, A Look Ahead”

Gregory Mannarino, 6/12/22”

“Markets, A Look Ahead”

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Trevor Jones, "The Last of the Mohicans, Promentory"

Trevor Jones, 

"The Last of the Mohicans, Promentory"

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"The Last of the Mohicans" is a 1992 American epic historical drama film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. The soundtrack was a single disc and consisted of 16 tracks. The first 9 were written by Trevor Jones, the next 6 by Randy Edelman. The main theme of the movie is "Promentory", an orchestration of the tune "The Gael" by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean from his 1990 album "The Search."

Dougie MacLean, "The Gael Northwest"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole.

Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), has been studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200406.html

Chet Raymo, "Exile "

"Exile"

by Chet Raymo

 "Are we truly alone

With our physics and myths,

The stars no more

Than glittering dust,

With no one there

To hear our choral odes?"

"This is the ultimate question, the only question, asked here by the Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon. It is a poem of exile, from the ancient familiar, from the sustaining myth of rootedness, of centrality. A poem that the naturalist can relate to, we pilgrims of infinite spaces, of the overarching blank pages on which we write our own stories, our own scriptures, having none of divine pedigree.

Yes, we feel the ache of exile, we who grew up with the sustaining myths of immortality only to see them stripped away by the needy hands of fact. We scribble our choral odes. Who listens? We speak to each other. Is that enough? Having left the home we grew up in, we make do with where we find ourselves, gathering to ourselves the glittering dust of the here and now.

Are we truly alone? Mahon again:

 "If so, we can start

To ignore the silence

Of infinite space

And concentrate instead

on the infinity

Under our very noses -

The cry at the heart

Of the artichoke,

The gaiety of atoms."

Better to leave the blank page blank than fill it with sentimental hankerings for home, with those prayers of our childhood we repeated over and over until they became a hard, fast crust on the page. Incline our ear instead to the faint cry that issues from the world under our very noses, from there, the tomato plant on the window sill, the ink-dark crow that paces the grass beyond the panes, the clouds that heap on the horizon - the dizzy, ditzy dance of atoms and the glitterings of stars.

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com

"Like Butterflies..."

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever."

- Carl Sagan

The Poet: Wendell Berry, "Circles of Our Lives"

"Circles of Our Lives"

"Within the circles of our lives

we dance the circles of the years,

the circles of the seasons

within the circles of the years,

the cycles of the moon

within the circles of the seasons,

the circles of our reasons

within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,

changed, changing. Hands

join, unjoin in love and fear,

grief and joy. The circles turn,

each giving into each, into all.

Only music keeps us here,

each by all the others held.

In the hold of hands and eyes

we turn in pairs, that joining

joining each to all again.

And then we turn aside, alone,

out of the sunlight gone

into the darker circles of return."

- Wendell Berry

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"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."

- "Dead Poets Society"

"The Wise Woman's Stone"

"The Wise Woman's Stone"

Author Unknown

"A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."