Wednesday, June 29, 2022

"A Message From the Hopi Elders"

"A Message From the Hopi Elders"

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.
Here are the things that must be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river,
keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personal. Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for!"

- Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi Nation

"You Are Not Alone"

"You Are Not Alone"
by Chris MacIntosh

"Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone."
- Kurt Vonnegut

"To all my friends out there who know what’s really going on…To all my conspiracy theorist friends…Yes, sometimes it’s a curse and not always a blessing to be awake. Awakening is the most liberating, alienating, excruciating, empowering, lonely, confusing, freeing, frightening, expansive journey. If you find yourself struggling as you try to process all this insanity, you are not alone. No one talks about the darkness that accompanies awakening, or the GRIEF.

Not only grieving the life and illusions you once had but the realization that almost everything you thought you once knew, is a LIE. The beliefs you’ve held, people you’ve trusted, principles you were taught - ALL LIES. Shattering illusions is RARELY an enjoyable experience. There is a considerable amount of discomfort that comes with growth and the grieving process doesn’t stop there.

With these newfound realizations, you then find yourself grieving all over again. Grieving the loss of many relationships with people who just don’t “get it”. Feeling alone; being ridiculed and shamed, not only by the masses but for many of you, your very own family and friends too. Feeling like you no longer have much in common with the people you are surrounded by.

Struggling with carrying on bullsh*t, shallow conversations that lack substance with those who are still fast asleep. Even feeling disconnected from your entire support system because they can’t see what you see. Some even grieve the loss of their ignorance- because “ignorance is bliss” and reality is harsh. Awakening can be a lonely road and you will often find yourself journeying alone.

There is no way to sugarcoat it - Awakening to the realities of this world is brutal. It will have you running through the entire gamut of human emotions. You have to master the art of diving down the darkest of rabbit holes only to come out and still function in daily life, and that’s a skill people don’t talk about enough. Some of you are struggling with feeling disconnected from family and friends, it’s as though they exist in another world.

Please know you are not alone, and not only are you not alone, you have an entire tribe standing with you. We may be separated by miles, but we are DEEPLY connected; in purpose and in spirit."
"When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absolutely nothing about you."
- Maria Popova

"Inflation..."

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires [the so-called wealthy "Elite" - CP], become 'profiteers,' who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie [the nearly dead middle class - CP], whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat [the always impoverished poor - CP].

As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery [Wall Street - CP].

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

"How It Really Is"

 

"Warren Buffett Wants His Entire $96 Billion Fortune Spent in 10 Years"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 6/29/22:
"Warren Buffett Wants His Entire 
$96 Billion Fortune Spent in 10 Years"
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Sex, Lies and Ticker Tapes"

"Sex, Lies and Ticker Tapes"
Two US presidents, the Queen's son 
and Bill Gates board the Lolita Express...
by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Poor Ghislaine Maxwell. The woman got a 20-year sentence yesterday, for ‘sex trafficking.’ The subject matter is far beyond the scope of our mission here at Bonner Private Research. But we aim to connect the dots and Ms. Maxwell’s trial is one of the most flagrant examples of NOT connecting dots that we’ve ever seen.

Nowhere in the mainstream press did we ever see a reporter, a lawyer, a judge – anyone – making any effort to get to the bottom of it. Where did Jeffrey Epstein get his money? Why was he flying Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew… and many others… back and forth, in his own private jet, to Florida, Europe or ‘Orgy Island,’ his getaway in the Virgin Islands? The plane was a huge Boeing 727. On it, Bill Clinton was a passenger 26 times, according to press reports. Donald Trump was on-board 7 times. What was Epstein up to? Why would he spend so much time and money befriending – and putting in compromising positions – America’s former and future presidents?

Ms. Maxwell’s father, the British press lord Robert Maxwell, was allegedly a spy for Israel. When he died, apparently falling from his yacht, the ‘Lady Ghislaine,’ he was given a lavish funeral in Jerusalem. Among the many ‘it’s a small world’ dots left unconnected was this gem: reciting the Kaddish at the funeral was none other than the stepfather of America’s current Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

Let’s see. Two US presidents. The son of the Queen of England. Bill Gates. The US Secretary of State. Nobody wants to connect those dots! The Epstein Affair was reported as a salacious sex scandal. End of story.

Dot… Dot… Dot… But there’s always more to the story. Only part of it is ‘fit to print.’ Any news item that interferes with the preferred narrative never makes it to prime time. A story that portrays the Russians as bad guys and the Ukrainians as noble heros, for example, is quickly slapped on the front page. It doesn’t even matter if it is true… or even plausible. But where are the stories about the puppies rescued by Russian troops… the Russian victories… the destroyed Ukrainian tanks? You won’t find them.

So too with a whole range of mainstream themes – climate change, diversity, white supremacy, disease control. News coverage must fit neatly into a tidy narrative. Reports that don’t fit in the box – or the elite don’t want you to hear – are silenced.

The trouble – in the financial world – is that markets won’t shut up. They keep bringing more dots to connect. And the dots can’t be ignored. Forbes: "Dow Plunges Nearly 500 Points, Recession Fears Resume As Consumer Confidence Hits New Low." "Stocks fell for a second day in a row on Tuesday as markets failed to build on last week’s strong rebound from 2022 lows, with investors once again selling off shares amid looming recession fears and new economic data showing that consumer confidence plunged to a 16-month low."

The Fed giveth. Mr. Market taketh away. Prices go up. Prices go down. And yesterday brought more signs that the first wave of ‘inflation’ is rolling over. CBSNews: "U.S. gas prices continue to decline as oil costs fall." "American motorists are getting a measure of relief at the gas pump, with the cost of filling up sliding for a second consecutive week as oil prices tumble. The national average on Tuesday stood at $4.88 for a gallon of regular, down nearly 9 cents from a week ago, according to AAA. Worries about the rising risk of a global recession has reduced demand for oil, with the price of crude falling to around $107 a barrel from $110 last week, the travel club noted in a news release on Monday."

And here’s Fox News: "During an interview on "Mornings with Maria," Tuesday, market expert Dominick Tavella said that the economy is ‘definitively' slowing down and that consumers are pulling back on spending. "We used to have 10 or 15 people bidding on houses,” said Tavella. “Now it's down to two or three people bidding on houses. So it's clearly starting to have an effect in the economy. The economy's definitively slowing down, whether it's the Fed or higher energy prices.”

USA Today adds: "Several companies, including Netflix, Microsoft and PayPal, rolled out layoffs and hiring freezes, anticipating a downturn in the economy."

And the Financial Times warns of a “pan-Atlantic recession: "Economists on both sides of the Atlantic told the Financial Times they had become increasingly pessimistic after the Federal Reserve’s jumbo rate rise to counter soaring inflation, and as concerns mounted over the security of European gas supplies this winter as Russia reduces exports. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said the balance had “tipped” in favour of an economic contraction next year in the US and Europe. “What used to be a rising risk has now turned into the base case."

We may never know what actually happened in the Epstein Affair. But the dots will come together in the financial world, whether we like it or not. Stay tuned."

"'Doomsday Document' Predicted Food Shortages Two Years Ago" (Excerpt)

"'Doomsday Document' Predicted Food
 Shortages Two Years Ago"
by Dr. Joseph Mercola

"It was called 'Reset the Table' and it's all about the upcoming food shortages, including how they plan to wipe out the meat industry in favor of fake foods. Are you prepared? Find out what you must do to survive against the upcoming onslaught.

Excerpt: "Story At-A-Glance:
• We’re told looming food shortages are primarily the result of climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Yet in July 2020, The Rockefeller Foundation had already predicted it, and was calling for a revamp of the food system as a whole to address it

• “Reset the Table: Meeting the Moment to Transform the U.S. Food System,” published by The Rockefeller Foundation July 28, 2020, describes how the COVID pandemic caused “a hunger and nutrition crisis” in the U.S. “unlike any this country has seen in generations”

• According to The Rockefeller Foundation, the pandemic revealed deep problems in the U.S. food system that need to be “reset.” “Reset the Table” was published just one month after the World Economic Forum (WEF) officially announced its plans for a “Great Reset,” and many of the contributors to the Foundation’s paper are WEF members

• While the report stresses the need for “healthy diets” and “sustainable” food production, the words “natural,” “organic” or “grass fed” are absent, so that’s not what they’re referring to

• The WEF has, for years, promoted the idea that insects should be recognized as a healthy, sustainable protein alternative that can save the environment and solve world hunger."
Please view this complete article here:
About Dr. Mercola:
Related:
Peak Prosperity, 6/28/22:
"The Great Reset is Coming for You"

"The Economy – At Seneca’s Cliff?"

"The Economy – At Seneca’s Cliff?"
by John Wilder

"I have written before about Ugo Bardi’s (Living Italian Economist) theory that he called Seneca’s Cliff. Seneca’s Cliff is a restatement of something Seneca (Dead Roman Dude) philosophized about. It was a simple idea: stuff gets built only slowly. But when it comes down? It comes down all at once, like falling off of a cliff, hence Bardi calling it Seneca’s Cliff.

A house is a good example of Seneca’s Cliff. A house is built over time – in most cases it takes several months to build one. But if there’s a fire, that same house can be burned to the ground in a manner of minutes. There are exceptions, of course: in a Mexican neighborhood in Canada, the house might be saved by a hose, eh.

So, that’s Seneca’s Cliff. I wrote about it myself back in the day, when I was trying to write a novel. It started, “The world had been a web . . .” This is a metaphor that has always stuck with me – the web of interconnections required to maintain society as we know it.

The world is a web. As I write this, I’m writing it on a laptop that was built halfway around the world, with components and materials sourced on nearly every continent. Dude, I got a Dell®, but the Dell™ came from everywhere.

When everything works, that’s great. People communicate with each other through price and supply and demand and produce things like computers and cars and wedding rings and beer and PEZ® and the burrito that Amber Heard ate before she left a “grumpy” in the bed. Unfortunately, we’ve been working at a world that’s based in efficiency, too. Efficiency is nice if you’re a company that’s trying to put together a lot of iPads® or Funko Pops©, but in reality efficiency sucks.

Why do you have two lungs? Two kidneys? Two bellybuttons? Because those are really, really important. I have a buddy who lost 90% of his lung capacity in one lung due to the flu back in ’92. Guess what? He conducts a full life like it never happened. He coached a wrestling team, and rides bicycles long distances.

When something is important, you don’t want an efficient system, you want an inefficient system. This is why the water department can make more water than it needs to. But our global systems, at the top level, are efficient. We don’t produce 10% extra oil. We don’t have that capacity. In spring and fall we generally have plenty of excess electricity generation, but tell me how summer looks? Lots of spare capacity?

No, not so much. Sure, there are substitutes for lots of things – we can have Wheaties® instead of Rice Krispies™. But in the end, we have to produce enough food to feed 7.96 billion people, and enough energy to grow the food and move it from place to place as well as make clothes and iPods© and pantyhose.

But this means that we’re in a world where there is simply less food because there is less energy, and also because war took out production of a significant amount. This was added to by the Biden sanctions on Russia. They are strange sanctions, indeed. So far their result is that it actually resulted in more cash going to Russia every month. Oh, higher prices on energy mainly to Europe and the United States. The shortages we’re seeing now in food, which will soon become much worse will have an even larger impact.

It has already created stress in the developed world. But in fragile places, like most of the Middle East and all of Africa, food prices will increase to the point where many of the poorer governments will simply cease to exist as the revolutions start. The last time this happened, mass migration into Europe was the result. It’s possible that this time, violence will be exported to Europe, as well.

These are the conclusions if things go well, based on where we are now. From everything I’ve seen, we’re not on the trajectory of things going well. The capital markets are slowly failing in the West. Why? All the spending from the decision to print all the cash to paper over the previous holes in the economy that were caused from all the cash printed to paper over the holes before that is a game we can’t play anymore. The holes are too big. The delicate web that keeps goods moving is stressed now, and strands are missing, putting a greater strain on the whole web. 

 It took hundreds of years to build up this economy. How fast will it fall down Seneca’s Cliff?"

Gregory Mannarino, "US Economy Contracts More Than Expected! Really? Duh!!!!!!! Wow"

Your guide...
Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/29/22:
"US Economy Contracts More Than Expected! 
Really? Duh!!!!!!! Wow"
Comments here:

"Massive Price Increases At Dollar General! This Is Crazy! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, AM 6/29/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Dollar General!
 This Is Crazy! What's Next?"
Comments here:

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

"California Passing Out Free Money Fueling More Inflation; Home Prices Drop As Homebuyers Disappear"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/28/22:
"California Passing Out Free Money Fueling More Inflation;
 Home Prices Drop As Homebuyers Disappear"
Comments here:

"When We Have Time..."

“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”
- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha

"Brace For A Sweeping Housing Bubble Burst As Rent And Home Prices Face Dramatic Crash"

Full screen recommended.
"Brace For A Sweeping Housing Bubble Burst 
As Rent And Home Prices Face Dramatic Crash"
by Epic Economist

"The U.S. housing bubble has finally burst, and real estate experts are warning that from ‘coast to coast,’ property values are set to face a sizable crash. Following the massive drop in home builder stocks last week, and lower-than-expected demand for mortgages in May, the housing market collapse is being aggravated by the dramatic surge in interest rates, which are fueling fears that a recession may be near. Affordability is only getting worse, and renters are suffering, too. This month, the median listed rent for a one-bedroom apartment rose above $2,000 for the first time ever. At this point, millions are already behind on their rent payments, and according to a new Bloomberg report, a tidal wave of evictions has begun.

In a backdrop of soaring mortgage rates, and rising treasury yields and borrowing costs, potential homebuyers are facing the most expensive housing prices on record. But as U.S. consumers grapple with higher prices for food, gas, and energy, roughly 19 million prospective buyers have been priced out of the market since January, according to a BlackKnight analysis of Fannie Mae data. And the softening demand has started to deflate the housing bubble much quicker than expected.

Housing starts in May dropped by 14.4% and given that mortgage rates are hovering around the 6% mark, it doesn’t seem likely that the demand will climb back up to where it was a year ago. As prices become too out of reach for many Americans, homes that would typically receive a couple of dozen offers last year aren’t getting a single offer anymore. Over the past two years, the median home price has jumped by 44%, now sitting above the $400,000 mark. In May, home prices surged for the 124th consecutive month, and when higher mortgage rates are added into that equation, the median pay for a median home has actually increased by a shocking 50%.

Rents are skyrocketing, too, causing overall housing affordability to collapse at its fastest rate on record and resulting in a lot of pain for financially drained renters. In the first three months of 2022, a period when the rental market typically cools, apartment occupancy actually hit an all-time high of an extraordinary 97.6%. Asking rents for new leases climbed 15.2% nationally, and far more than that in many places. And this month, the median listed rent for an available one-bedroom apartment rose above $2,000 a month for the first time in U.S. history.

These rent hikes are effectively serving as evictions by landlords who know very well that their tenants will likely have to move as a result, enabling them to rent out the newly vacant units to new tenants at significantly higher rates. According to a new Bloomberg report, more than eight million Americans are behind on rent payments and at risk of facing eviction in the next couple of months. The latest data shows that a tidal wave of evictions is underway. The Princeton University Eviction Lab shows that eviction filings have already surpassed pre-pandemic levels, shooting up by 80% in March and another 47% in May.

Meanwhile, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, Mark Zandi, is warning that the U.S. housing market is on the verge of a “coast to coast” price crash. In short, home price growth can't outrun income growth forever. And given that a smaller share of Americans can afford to buy a home in this environment, and sellers have already started to slash property prices, the 2021 housing boom has seemingly come full circle ending in a historic burst this year. A lot more volatility is coming for the U.S. housing market. This is just a hint of the devastating downturn that's approaching - the 2022 housing market crash has just begun!"
Comments here:

Canadian Prepper, "Insane! Russia WILL Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons"

Canadian Prepper, 6/28/22:
"Insane! Russia WILL Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons"
"Every indicator points towards a major escalation involving the use of low yield tactical nuclear weapons. When it happens there will be worldwide panic. NATO readies 300,000 troops, Russian Cruise missile stockpiles being depleted, Kyiv threatens Crimea, Lithuania hit with major cyberattack, Blockade of Russian outpost in Svalbard, Russia threatens WW3 over Crimean Threats, UK tells troops to prepare for War with Russia."
Comments here:

Gerald Celente, "Peace? How Dare You? US And NATO Want War!"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal, 6/28/22:5
Very Strong Language Alert!
"Peace? How Dare You? US And NATO Want War!"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”

Full screen recommended.
Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Grand design spiral galaxy Messier 99 looks majestic on a truly cosmic scale. This recently processed full galaxy portrait stretches over 70,000 light-years across M99. The sharp view is a combination of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared image data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
About 50 million light-years distant toward the well-groomed constellation Coma Bernices, the face-on spiral is a member of the nearby Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Also cataloged as NGC 4254, a close encounter with another Virgo cluster member has likely influenced the shape of its well-defined, blue spiral arms."
"Everything passes away - suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"
- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"

The Poet: W. H. Auden, “The More Loving One”

“The More Loving One”

“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.”

- W. H. Auden

"The Crisis Of Competence"

"The Crisis Of Competence"
by The Zman

"One of the subtexts to the current war in the Ukraine is the fact that the West has been wrong about every aspect of the conflict. None of the predictions about the actual fighting have been correct. Even the propaganda has been hilariously wrong, often making the West look foolish. The economic response, which was supposed to be a fatal blow to Russia, has gone horribly wrong. Europe now faces an unprecedented energy shortage this fall and winter.

The bulk of the blame lies at the feet of the neoconservatives running foreign policy for the Global American Empire. The same cast of characters who were horrifically wrong about Iraq and Afghanistan in the Bush years have managed to turn a regional issue into a global disaster. London and Brussels, along with the provincials occupying legacy positions in national government share blame as well. They enthusiastically went along with a war plan that had no chance to succeed.

The degree of wrongness is a thing of beauty, when you can look at it from a purely objective point of view. Rolling dice, flipping coins or pulling policy ideas out of a hat would have had a better result. One could be forgiven for thinking that maybe this series of errors is somehow deliberate. Maybe that ridiculous bald guy from the World Economic Forum really is a super villain. The masters of the universe are setting the West ablaze so they can build back better.

The question that should be pondered is why has everything gone so terribly long for the collective West? One reason is competence. The Global American Empire is led by a man who barely knows where he is most of the time. In his prime, Joe Biden was known as an affable moron. In his dotage, he is a confused and incompetent old man unable to perform his duties. His handlers give him stage instructions for basic things like where and when to sit.

Biden is the bit of the iceberg we see. There is a whole apparatus around him that was instrumental in getting him into office. The Washington political community thought a dementia patient was better than Trump. That says nothing about Trump and everything about the people who engineered Biden’s ascension. People forget that the Democratic Party had to rig its own primary to get Biden the nomination. They never stopped to think what this would mean after the election.

Of course, this degree of incompetence is made possible by a political culture that is defensive, isolated and insulated. They picked Biden because he was the safest option to get rid of Trump. Biden’s primary appeal to the political class was that he was a vegetable they could move around however they pleased. Biden and his family were simply happy to fill the role and play their part. He also provided the best chance of liberating the city from the scourge of Trump people.

That decision gets to the insularity of the political class, not just in Washington, but across the collective West. These are people without any understanding of the societies over which they rule. When you look at the resumes of these people, the common feature is no experience in the dreaded private sector. Politics has been their life since they were adults. In fact, we have reached a point where private sector experience raises suspicion in the political class.

These are people who simply have no idea how things work. They just take for granted that things work. Like the heirs of a family business, the political class has spent their life in a system without ever having to think about how it came into being. The system of power they command is a permanent feature of life. The only variable is who will have control of the institutions of power. That is politics, the game of verbal chess which picks the winners and losers in the system.

Therein lies the other cause of this unfolding disaster. The West is a collection of people who deal in words exclusively. They have never done anything, other than talk about making other people do things. Nancy Pelosi has been in Washington for eighty years and there is no single physical thing she can point to, other than her ten-thousand-dollar freezer, as a product of her political career. When she is dead, the next wave will wash away her footprints in the sand and she will be forgotten.

On the other side of this fight is a different system, one that is the result of people doing things and rising in the ranks as a consequence. Putin is a man who had to navigate a world where failure meant prison or death. When that world collapsed, he had to navigate a world of chaos. When he gained power, he then had to impose order, often taking on powerful oligarchs backed by Western interests. Putin and his ruling circle are a collection of men who do things, not just talk about things.

Six months ago, the West was prepared to give the Russians a good tongue lashing, cancel her from the internet and de-platform her from the financial system. On the other side, the Russians prepared to fight a war against a well-armed and prepared enemy in Ukraine and a well-armed and prepared West on the world stage. One side was ready for a battle of words while the other side was ready for a battle of actions. It turns out that words count for a lot less than actions.

All civilizations have periods of incompetence. The Russians suffered through the Gorbachev and Yeltsin periods. The difference for the West is that the system has been selecting for bourgeois obsequiousness for a long time. The reason Washington is run by fossils is the next in line is much worse than the geezers. Mitch McConnell knows something about running the party. Kevin McCarthy was selected because no one in power worried that he would be a challenge.

The crisis of the West is that it is now run by a managerial class that was selected for being the teacher’s pet, ticking the right box on a form and making sure to never utter a discouraging word around the boss. It is why presidents have been increasingly ridiculous since the Cold War. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden are all mileposts in the decline of competence. Next up is Kamala Harris, an absurd manifestation of a system that selects against competence."

"The Joke..."

"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."
- Scott Turow

The Daily "Near You?"

Frankfurt Am Main, Hessen, Germany. Thanks for stopping by!

"Just Paddling While The Empire Burns"

"Just Paddling While The Empire Burns"
by Jim Quinn

"The phrase “fiddling while Rome burns” is an intriguing idiom, referencing the great fire which ravaged Rome for six days in 64 A.D. and the legend that Nero, one of the most sadistic, decadent, and cruel rulers of all-time, instead of taking action to stop the fire, played his lyre while composing a song about Rome’s destruction. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Rome while watching the city burn but it’s likely this was just a myth.

The fire destroyed seventy percent of the city and left half the population homeless. There are those who believe Nero set the fire on purpose, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens. Being a soulless autocrat at heart, Nero did what all feckless politicians do, he blamed the Christians (an obscure religious sect at the time) for the fire and had many arrested and executed.

Whether this story is true or just a parable, the messages are pertinent throughout history, and never more so than now. Occupying one’s time doing inconsequential things while a catastrophic event is underway is the ultimate in leadership failure. Focusing on trivial matters while your people are suffering during a time of crisis is the mark of an ineffectual irresponsible leader or one whose true purpose is to burn down society so it can be “built back better” in the form of a communist totalitarian state ruled by a globalist elite cabal.

One cannot ignore the parallels to our American empire in flames as Biden, the hordes of hyena politicians in Washington DC, their captured corporate propaganda media mouthpieces, central banker fiat printing enablers, and the Davos billionaire cadre are attempting a controlled burn of our world, but it has become a conflagration destined to rage out of control and consume the planet in flames.

We are most certainly living in a time of crisis, as this Fourth Turning hastens towards our rendezvous with destiny. Not only is the American empire burning in an abstract sense, but once the ANTIFA, BLM and pro-abortion terrorist groups (all funded by Soros and Gates) hit the streets, the country is literally burning. The chaos, havoc, violence, and vitriol are all being engineered by the puppeteers/invisible government who control the minds of the masses through media manipulation, non-stop propaganda, technological deceit, and social indoctrination through government schooling. It was succinctly described by Edward Bernays nearly a century ago and has been perfected by those in governing the world today.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays – "Propaganda" (1928) pp. 9–10
I wonder if the people of Rome were as baffled by their emperor’s total disregard for their well-being and safety as their city burned to the ground as the minority of critical thinking Americans are today watching Biden, his Obama handlers, and their toadies in congress systematically burn our once great republic to the ground. There is no doubt Biden is an incompetent, low IQ, hapless, dementia ridden, racist, pedophile, but what is happening in this country and across the globe is not due to incompetence, but a purposeful destruction of all productive structures, small businesses, Constitutional rights, and societal norms, in order to implement a totalitarian techno-gulag across the world run by a global elite of billionaires and their evil apparatchiks.

A crucial aspect of this New World Order is a massive depopulation of the planet to the desired number of serfs needed to do the slave labor necessary to keep the overlords in luxury and splendor. Private jets, yachts and fenced luxurious 25 bathroom mansions with private armed security for them. The serfs will own nothing, eat bugs, and be happy, or be swiftly terminated, since guns will have been outlawed. Our nation is beset by traitors within.
The pockets of firestorms swirling out of control across the world, purposely ignited by those running the show, makes it difficult to distinguish between fires detonated as distractions and the real inferno destined to reduce the world to ashes. Everything roiling the world over the last twenty-seven months has been initiated and/or utilized by the ruling oligarchs to implement their master plan of “building back better” after they burn the world to the ground. Even the distractions are designed to further their agenda. The latest distraction being the Supreme Court ruling on abortion.

The lunatic left is rioting and protesting in left wing cities where they can murder an unborn child any time they want, while woke corporations’ virtue signal, and insane females have mental breakdowns on Tik Tok. It gives the left-wing media something to scream about other than the January 6 “insurrection” hearings that no one watched. Pride month is nothing but a giant distraction, where drag queens, teachers grooming children, and transgender bullshit are jammed down our throats while corporations attempt to capitalize on the worship of abnormality to increase their profits. The government has achieved the goal put forth by William Casey in 1981."
Please view this complete article here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Economy: Prepare For A Worst Case Scenario; Bank Of America Warns!"

Gregory Mannarino, 6/28/22:
"Economy: Prepare For A Worst Case Scenario; 
Bank Of America Warns!"

Gonzalo Lira, "Russian Default Hurts The West - Not Russia"

 Gonzalo Lira,PM 6/28/22:
"Russian Default Hurts The West - Not Russia"

"More Stimulus Checks Are Coming In California- No Matter How Bad Things Are"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 6/28/22:
"More Stimulus Checks Are Coming In California-
No Matter How Bad Things Are"
"Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. The state of California and other states have offered more stimulus checks. They are calling these inflation checks right now."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

Gas prices 6/28/22:
- https://gasprices.aaa.com/

"Strange Prices At Meijer! More Empty Shelves!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 6/28/22:
"Strange Prices At Meijer! More Empty Shelves!"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Gregory Mannarino, "Critical Updates! What You Must Know Now. Expect Years Of Sky High Prices"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/28/22:
"Critical Updates! What You Must Know Now. 
Expect Years Of Sky High Prices"

“The Return of Industrial Warfare” (Excerpt)

“The Return of Industrial Warfare”
Can the West still provide the arsenal of democracy?
by Alex Vershinin

Excerpt: "The war in Ukraine has proven that the age of industrial warfare is still here. The massive consumption of equipment, vehicles and ammunition requires a large-scale industrial base for resupply – quantity still has a quality of its own. The mass scale combat has pitted 250,000 Ukrainian soldiers, together with 450,000 recently mobilized citizen soldiers against about 200,000 Russian and separatist troops. The effort to arm, feed and supply these armies is a monumental task. Ammunition resupply is particularly onerous. For Ukraine, compounding this task are Russian deep fires capabilities, which target Ukrainian military industry and transportation networks throughout the depth of the country. The Russian army has also suffered from Ukrainian cross-border attacks and acts of sabotage, but at a smaller scale. The rate of ammunition and equipment consumption in Ukraine can only be sustained by a large-scale industrial base.

This reality should be a concrete warning to Western countries, who have scaled down military industrial capacity and sacrificed scale and effectiveness for efficiency. This strategy relies on flawed assumptions about the future of war, and has been influenced by both the bureaucratic culture in Western governments and the legacy of low-intensity conflicts. Currently, the West may not have the industrial capacity to fight a large-scale war. If the US government is planning to once again become the arsenal of democracy, then the existing capabilities of the US military-industrial base and the core assumptions that have driven its development need to be re-examined.

Estimating Ammo Consumption: There is no exact ammunition consumption data available for the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Neither government publishes data, but an estimate of Russian ammunition consumption can be calculated using the official fire missions data provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense during its daily briefing.

Number of Russian Daily Fire Missions, 19–31 May:
Date Fire Missions

31 710
30 710
29 717
28 542
27 499
26 526
25 490
24 684
23 688
22 700
21 735
20 251
19 356
Average 585.2308

Although these numbers mix tactical rockets with conventional, hard-shell artillery, it is not unreasonable to assume that a third of these missions were fired by rocket troops because they form a third of a motorized rifle brigade’s artillery force, with two other battalions being tube artillery. This suggests 390 daily missions fired by tube artillery. Each tube artillery strike is conducted by a battery of six guns total. However, combat and maintenance breakdowns are likely to reduce this number to four. With four guns per battery and four rounds per gun, the tube artillery fires about 6,240 rounds per day. We can estimate an additional 15% wastage for rounds that were set on the ground but abandoned when the battery moved in a hurry, rounds destroyed by Ukrainian strikes on ammunition dumps, or rounds fired but not reported to higher command levels. This number comes up to 7,176 artillery rounds a day. It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Defense only reports fire missions by forces of the Russian Federation. These do not include formations from the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist republics, which are treated as different countries. The numbers are not perfect, but even if they are off by 50%, it still does not change the overall logistics challenge."
Please view this complete article here:
Hat tip to Gonzalo Lira for referring this material.
Related:

Gonzalo Lira, "The Sitzkrieg We’re In"

Gonzalo Lira, 6/28/22:
"The Sitzkrieg We’re In"
"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"
Comments here:
My only other social media: - https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968

Monday, June 27, 2022

"NATO Is Going To War! Ex-CIA Just Warned Me About What's Coming... Prepare Now"

Canadian Prepper, 6/27/22:
"NATO Is Going To War! Ex-CIA Just Warned
 Me About What's Coming...Prepare Now"
"I just had a two and half hour call with a former CIA agent and nuclear weapons specialist. The situation is far worse than our leaders are telling us. What happens next is going to catch everyone off guard."

"30 Stats To Show To Anyone That Does Not Believe The Middle Class Is Being Destroyed"

Full screen recommended.
"30 Stats To Show To Anyone That Does Not
 Believe The Middle Class Is Being Destroyed"
by Epic Economist

"If you know someone that still doesn't believe the U.S. middle class is literally falling apart, show them this video because by the end of it, they will probably have a different opinion. Overall, the long-term trends that have been eviscerating the middle class just continued to accelerate in the past few years. The percentage of middle-class jobs has significantly shrunk while the wealth of the typical American household has fallen precipitously. Homes are still the main asset class helping American families climb the income ladder, however, the rate of homeownership has been steadily declining as housing costs exploded all across the country. Now, we're seeing millions of middle-class households struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. And yet, the decline of the U.S. middle-class is a crisis we're not properly paying attention to.

Inflation has actually been squeezing the middle class for decades, but official numbers mask this reality. For instance, everyday expenses for middle- and low-income families rose 40% beyond what the Consumer Price Index would indicate, more than wiping out a middle-income worker’s gains. Another example of this is that between 2001 and 2020, rents shot up by 150%, at the same time, the official measure of housing costs only grew by a mere 54%. As housing prices soar, middle-class households with median annual incomes of $100,000 can only purchase homes in 36% of the country’s markets whose value is below $428,700 – and that’s assuming they already have a 20% down payment on hand. This also means that the middle class is now locked out of 64% of housing markets, BlackKnight data shows.

The skyrocketing prices of fuel, food, housing, and other necessities are extremely disconcerting to Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. Despite recent wage gains, 64% of the entire population was living paycheck to paycheck in March, meaning that over two-thirds of Americans reportedly said they had “little or nothing left at the end of the month after expenses," according to a LendingClub survey. Even rich people are living paycheck to paycheck. LendingClub reported that more than one-third, or 36%, of paycheck-to-paycheck consumers in the U.S. earn at least $250,000, suggesting that inflation is affecting how Americans of all income levels handle their budgets.

According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, 62% percent of middle-class Americans are worried about not having enough for retirement. Tyler Bond, the institute’s ​​research manager said that the US "can no longer afford retirement". A new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security found that the tax breaks designed to encourage Americans’ retirement savings disproportionately benefit high-income households and do little to assist middle-class families.

There are so many families out there facing financial hardships right now. So many husbands and wives constantly fighting with one another about money without even understanding that the position they're at right now is the result of decades of terrible decisions made by our so-called leaders. Without the middle-class, America loses its foundation. And as this group gets smaller and smaller, poverty is gradually spreading across the nation.

That's why today, we compiled 30 statistics that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class in America is being systematically destroyed."

"If You Don't Hold Your Money You Will Lose It; Prepare For Massive Economic Slowdown"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/27/22:
"If You Don't Hold Your Money You Will Lose It;
 Prepare For Massive Economic Slowdown"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Crisis Situation: There Is Not Enough Debt In The System! (You Are Not Supposed To Know This)"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/27/22:
"Crisis Situation: There Is Not Enough Debt In The System! 
(You Are Not Supposed To Know This)"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Neil H, "Candlelight Dreams"

Neil H, "Candlelight Dreams"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are less than 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age.
There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope are about 100,000 of M72's stars. M72, which spans about 50 light years and lies about 50,000 light years away, can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius).”

The Poet: Thomas Centolella, "Splendor"

"Splendor"

"One day it's the clouds,
one day the mountains.
One day the latest bloom of roses-
the pure monochromes, the dazzling hybrids-
inspiration for the cathedral's round windows.
Every now and then there's the splendor of thought:
the singular idea and its brilliant retinue-
words, cadence, point of view,
little gold arrows flitting between the lines.
And too the splendor of no thought at all:
hands lying calmly in the lap,
or swinging a six iron with effortless tempo.
More often than not splendor is the star we orbit
without a second thought,
especially as it arrives and departs.
One day it's the blue glassy bay,
one day the night and its array of jewels,
visible and invisible.
Sometimes it's the warm clarity
of a face that finds your face
and doesn't turn away.
Sometimes a kindness, unexpected,
that will radiate farther than you might imagine.
One day it's the entire day itself,
each hour foregoing its number and name,
its cumbersome clothes,
a day that says come as you are,
large enough for fear and doubt,
with room to spare: the most secret
wish, the deepest, the darkest,
turned inside out."

- Thomas Centolella