"Get Ready For Sweeping Supply Chain Shortages As Major Threats Emerge At Ports"

Full screen recommended.

"Get Ready For Sweeping Supply Chain Shortages

 As Major Threats Emerge At Ports"

by Epic Economist

"America’s supply chain is facing a series of threats. On both coasts, ports are rapidly getting overloaded, and ongoing rail and trucker strikes are likely to exacerbate disruptions and bring back empty shelves at grocery stores. U.S. consumers are already coping with the highest prices in four decades, but industry executives are saying that the nightmarish product shortages and price increases that have been causing lots of stress for millions of American families are here to stay, and those trends are going to continue to accelerate through the end of the year as U.S. ports face another turbulent shipping season.

Last week, one of the most respected supply chain executives came forward to warn the public that America’s supply chain won’t come back to what it was. Before the pandemic, we had probably one of the most efficient supply chains in history. Consumers were able to score those sweet deals from overseas, and grocers were able to keep the shelves stocked for much longer. Disruptions used to come and go. The system was resilient and adaptable. But over the past couple of years, everything has changed. And according to the CEO of FreightWaves, Craig Fuller, that supply chain is never coming back.

In a recent statement, Fuller said that says “the well-running supply chain that many of us took for granted; that gave us an economy of superabundance, is nothing but a memory at this point”. "I think the golden era is probably over," he stressed. And the latest chokepoints are being created by the twin threats of prolonged rail and trucker strikes just as ports on both coasts are starting to get overwhelmed again. For many involved in our domestic supply chains, the ongoing negotiations between dockworker unions and employees on the U.S. West Coast are causing a lot of anxiety and stress. “The supply chain already is in crisis. This is a huge disruption,” added Peter Friedmann, the executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.The double threat of road and rail strikes during the peak season comes at a critical moment. New data shows that congestion is growing at the country’s top two ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach.

On the other side of the coast, congestion has been brewing for many weeks too. It goes without saying that business owners are freaking out about this situation. A new poll released last week by QIMA found that 95 percent of U.S. companies felt the impact of port congestion in 2022, and at least two-thirds of them expect congestion to continue, or worsen, by the end of 2022. Americans will continue to see products disappearing from grocery shelves at a time of record consumer prices. Another factor aggravating product shortages is the higher cost of energy supplies. In fact, the President of the National Black Farmers Association, John Boyd Jr., noted that soaring gasoline and diesel prices are likely to break the U.S. vulnerable food supply chain.

He explained that “higher diesel prices impact farmers more than the average American as the farming industry relies on diesel for food harvesting and transport,” and reaffirmed that food storages remain a possibility for the coming months. For low and middle-income Americans, these supply chain bottlenecks are extremely concerning. Abusive food prices are regressive and particularly damaging to them.“This is a troubling time for all Americans. The current inflation acts like a tax on all of us, and it is hurting our quality of life,” Bakst stressed.

All evidence suggests that the stage is set for the total supply chain breakdown experts have been warning about for a long time, and the despair that our society will experience will be extremely severe.We hope that you’re getting prepared this summer for the challenging times that are ahead of us. The rest of the year is not going to be pleasant, and 2023 is going to be even worse."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Economy Getting Painful For Many - Millions Are One Event Away From A Financial Tragedy"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 7/25/22:

"Economy Getting Painful For Many - 

Millions Are One Event Away From A Financial Tragedy"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Kevin Kern, "Another Realm"

Kevin Kern, "Another Realm"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The Tarantula Nebula is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 180 thousand light-years away. The largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies, the cosmic arachnid sprawls across this spectacular composite view constructed with space- and ground-based image data.

Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are other star forming regions with young star clusters, filaments, and blown-out bubble-shaped clouds In fact, the frame includes the site of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A, at the lower right. The rich field of view spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons, in the southern constellation Dorado. But were the Tarantula Nebula closer, say 1,500 light-years distant like the local star forming Orion Nebula, it would take up half the sky."

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

"We Have Met The Enemy..."

 

Jim Kunstler, "The Wrecking Crew Will Be Overcome"

"The Wrecking Crew Will Be Overcome"

by Jim Kunstler

"We stumble into the horse latitudes of summer feeling trapped in the stillness. The heat disorders minds - and these are minds already scrambled by official propaganda. We are this close to a general recognition that the Covid vaccines were a deadly scam, even while Rochelle Walensky of the CDC keeps pushing boosters on TV and the entire public health bureaucracy stands by silently behind this murderous fakery. When their trials finally come, will they plead that they just didn’t know? How is that possible? (It’s not.)

The crisis of the vaccinated is coming and there won’t be any hiding it. Anyway, nobody expects actual news reporting out of the legacy media. It will get around through the alt.media for sure, and already is, but the real spread will proceed when all the everyday people see themselves and those around them get sick, and realize they have one thing in common: those vaxxes they submitted to. It’s already happening.

In keeping with the principles of mass formation psychosis, the maliciously insane people in charge of our nation’s affairs will expect you to swallow ever-greater absurdities to maintain their control (and protect themselves). But we’re way beyond the “women-with-penises” stage of the mind-f**kery program. Nobody with a functioning brain believes that bullshit anymore - except the people who run the California prison system. Next up, apparently, is a hot little war with Russia or China, a useful distraction from the systematic self-dismantling of Western Civ.

“Joe Biden” has sent troops from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to Europe, supposedly to “train” the NATO forces of Euroland. Is this some kind of bluff? Or does “Joe Biden” and Company imagine that they’ll pull off some blitzkrieg counter-offensive on-the-ground in Ukraine and recapture territory secured by Russia painfully since February? If we send troops into Ukraine proper, it would amount to a deliberate sacrifice of our supposedly best soldiers in a meat-grinder. Maybe the purpose is simply to further weaken the US military, humiliate NATO, and hasten the death of the West.

Of course, we have no real strategic national interest in Ukraine. We had no quarrel all the years that the Russian Soviets owned and operated it. We set in motion the current conflict by cooking up the 2014 color revolution. (There followed the fat years for Hunter Biden converting US aid money into revenue for his many shell corporations.) I doubt that a plurality of Americans will fall for another such stupid Hate Russia ploy. We’ve had enough pointless and costly foreign misadventures. This would be a war exceeding the unpopularity of Vietnam and could easily unleash widespread street protests. Only this time the Left will be pro-war and the Party of Chaos will send out its ragtag army of Antifa trannies to make the street protests bloodier. It will be seen for what it is: the ruling regime’s war on its own people. And it will be overcome.

Vying in the absurdity Olympics, the World Health Organization (WHO) just declared Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) - but only after the outfit’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, overruled a WHO committee that voted against such a move. Monkeypox, you understand, is a disease spread almost exclusively among the gay population, that is, men having sex with men, exchanging bodily fluids. Outbreaks have been keyed to gay orgies, especially during the recent June “Pride Month” festivities. Do you think it might be more appropriate for the WHO to issue an advisory against gay orgies?

But, really, it’s just another obvious power-grab, an attempt by the Schwabenklausian maniacs to push people around and wreck the economy in order to Build Back Better - that is, to orchestrate a program of severe digital social control for managing its depopulation event. The US Department of Defense (DOD) is now authorized under the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to administer a mandatory vaccine program, while the CDC has bought millions of doses of supposed monkeypox vaccine.

Knowing how deadly the Covid vaxxes were, do you really think that masses of Americans who happen to not engage in gay sex might line-up willingly for these new shots? I kind of doubt it. The idiotic war provocations, the renewed climate hysteria, and dishonest health scares are devices for postponing, cancelling, or screwing around with the US midterm election. If the Left loses the US Congress, then the globalists will lose their main weapon: the Party of Chaos. Meanwhile, Euroland leaders are already falling and whole governments over there will crash and burn in the months to come.

All of this is happening against the background of a wobbling financial system that is making life unaffordable for what’s left of the middle-classes. One way or another, they will be sharply motivated to rescue their own livelihoods and recreate a country under real rule-of-law in the service of liberty. We await “Joe Biden” and Company’s most desperate move: to turn off the Internet so that Americans won’t be able to communicate easily or remain informed about anything. Of course, if they try that, they’ll also destroy everything that is managed automatically by computers in this land and plunge America into battle against the demented bureaucracy that rules us."

- https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/

"The Frogs Will Boil Themselves"

"The Frogs Will Boil Themselves"

by Jeff Thomas

"There’s a well-known old fable that describes a frog being boiled alive. It states that if a frog is dropped in boiling water, it will hop out. But if it’s placed in lukewarm water, it will be comfortable. Then, if the heat is turned up slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be boiled to death. In political terms, this translates into a slow increase, say, the slow rise of taxation or the gradual removal of freedoms.

But there’s another way to boil the electorate of a country: have them become willing participants in their own demise. This method is a common practice in many countries, particularly the US. Americans have repeatedly been conned into begging for their second amendment rights to be diminished. The method is to make use of the media to shine a light on the horrific murder of innocents through the use of firearms.

In recent years, this effort has been ramped up through regular senseless massacres of people, particularly children, in public places, such as schools and movie theatres. Whether or not these incidents are actually created by the ruling elite is a moot point. What matters is that their proliferation has been extremely effective in providing the media will the fodder to repeatedly ask, "When is the Government going to make the possession of guns illegal so that the killing will stop?" Many citizens are wary of such suggestions, but countless others quickly take the bait and demand that the Government "do something."

Eventually, this becomes a point of pride for many citizens — a badge of righteousness — for standing up for those who have been victims. Through such efforts, the US constitution has slowly lost its ability to serve as a limitation to Government power. A proliferation of laws that redefine what the Constitution means has, over time, eviscerated the Constitution.

Not surprisingly, those who support this effort are largely liberal, which creates a backlash from those who are conservative and vehemently oppose any erosion of the Constitution. Those who are liberal may reinforce their beliefs by watching propaganda networks on television and regularly pump up the dangers of the Constitution. Likewise, conservatives have their propaganda network, which can be counted on to reinforce their views.

Whichever side Americans take on such issues, they would be wise to keep an eye out for what may be the next development in this wrangle. Those who dutifully watch the liberal "news" networks may soon see pundits despairing that the failings of the aging Constitution must be dealt with. It must be updated if it is to serve changing needs. After all, the Founding Fathers cannot be blamed that they didn’t foresee the existence of AK-47s. Surely, it falls to the present administration to "correct" the failings of the well-intentioned old document.

Conservatives, of course, are likely to be more cautious, but what we may see is for the pundits on their favored network to express frustration that the Left is seeking to erode traditional values and must, at some point be stopped, or the country will be destroyed. There can be no question that the Founding Fathers were correct — that unless the Constitution and its amendments are not clarified once and for all as to what they were meant to express, American liberty is at stake.

Americans, like citizens of most countries, love a good battle between good and evil. Every four years, a massive three-ring circus is staged in which the political leader is decided and both sports teams – Democrats and Republicans – go all out in seeking a victory on the playing field. However, in most cases, neither candidate is trustworthy or qualified for the job, but this is of no importance. The essence of the battle is not to select a wise and capable leader but to win. Similarly, once the populace has been wound up on both sides to believe that only a pitched battle can "re-establish the Constitution" or "modernize the Constitution," the battle shall be met.

At present, this eventuality may seem mere speculation. But then, the media campaign has not yet begun. At present, all that exists is pundits in the media bemoaning the injustice of the present situation. What is needed is the prediction of pundits that, whatever side an individual takes on the issue, his side is sure to win.

On the liberal side, social warriors must come out daily in the media with demands for change and the certainty of success once the battle has begun. On the conservative side, pundits need to guarantee that the battle will be won once and for all, but that the situation is in dire need of immediate attention, or all may be lost. The result will not be immediate, but, with repetition, eventually, the American people on both sides of the fence may well not only suggest, but demand that the matter be sorted.

At that point, the Government may announce that a Constitutional Review will be undertaken. It would not matter that most of those making the demand are the pundits on the media networks. What would be presented would be that "a majority of Americans demand that the review take place as soon as possible."

Although at the time, the propaganda may imply that the review will be focused on one part of the Constitution, such as the Second Amendment, Americans will soon discover that the entire document is up for grabs. Under the terms of the review, all facets of the Constitution may be questioned. Then what would the outcome be?

Each side will hope that their elected representatives will emerge as the heroes, but that is not how politics works. In truth, elected leaders do not seek to serve the public but to dominate them. Invariably, their recommendations for change will be whatever transfers greater power to themselves.

Both Democratic and Republican members will argue forcefully for the rights of the American citizen. However, in the end, a "compromise" shall be made — one in which the rights of the populace are diminished and the Government has new powers to allow it to bypass the electorate in the future. If this does occur, the public will, in effect, "boil themselves." They will have demanded that the Government act, and, when the dust has settled, each side will claim some sort of victory but will fail to understand that they have brought about their own loss of rights.

Economically, politically, and socially, the United States seems to be headed down a path that’s not only inconsistent with the founding principles of the country, but accelerating quickly toward boundless decay. It is hoped that, when the day comes that a Constitutional Review is proposed, Americans refuse to take the bait."

- internationalman.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Brisbane,Queensland, Australia. Thanks for stopping by!

"Prepare for a Big Week Financially - Banks and Tanks"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 7/25/22:

"Prepare for a Big Week Financially - Banks and Tanks"

"We have a huge week financially for us to look forward to you. Several companies will announce their earnings. We will get the feds decision on what they’re going to do with interest rates. How much will they raise them? And we’re going to get our GDP numbers to see if the fed will actually say that we are in a recession or not."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Meltdown: The Big Stock Market Crash Will Not Occur Until This Happens First!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/25/22:

"Meltdown: The Big Stock Market Crash 

Will Not Occur Until This Happens First!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"An Apocalypse Upon Us: How Much More Can We Take?"

Full screen recommended.

"An Apocalypse Upon Us: 

How Much More Can We Take?"

by David Haggith

"Trade wars, crashing stocks, bond blowouts, global recessions, rapidly plunging corporate earnings, the start of firings, a global energy crisis, collapsing cryptos, sliding housing markets, Covid, monkeypox, worldwide quarantines, government-mandated job terminations over forced experimental vaccines, soaring inflation, worldwide shortages, multinational involvement in a hot European-Russian war, sanctions, record heat waves, widespread, droughts, brownouts, blackouts, and burnouts, famines, political riots on the US Capitol steps, riots on the steps of other capitals under revolt, and racial riots in the streets. How much can we take?

I know: Let’s also rapidly raise interest rates and drain money supply, going into a recession, and then follow Larry Summer’s latest advice and hit everyone with tax increases to punish the populace for inflation during such distressed times. Then let’s declare new stringent measures for the new pox upon us, which has just been declared by WHO another global health emergency. That ought to pretty well destroy the tatters that remain of the global economy and of human psyches in time for the planned Great Reset!

Add to that children being taught they cannot tell if they are a boy or a girl, an ostensibly female Supreme Court justice celebrating being the first Black woman on the court even as she tells us “they” have no idea what a woman is, a sudden plethora of newly created genders with requirements to use newly created bastardized pronouns, people being fired if the don’t use those pronouns, and you add a level of social confusion and conflict heretofore unseen by humankind.

Then watch megacorps suck up all the housing with boundless all-cash bids no normal individual can compete against; add Bill Gates sucking up all the farmland that the Chinese don’t buy up, and you have a world where “you vill own nothing,” but vill you really be as happy with it as the Bondesque villain with the heavy Austrian accent named Klaus Schwab soothingly tells you, you will be?

The Great Reset is not a conspiracy theory. It’s an agenda.

pic.twitter.com/hw8CUE94pY

- James Melville (@JamesMelville) July 21, 2022

I watched that and wondered, “Is this one of those videos that interrupts all broadcasts on all the television channels of the world in a James-Bond movie when the secret nuclear moon base is ready to fire its lasers at all major cities if they don’t accept the new global despot’s agenda?” Someone needs to give Klaus a pretty white kitty to pet.

Then pile in the self-destruction of the Chinese economy under Xi’s Zero-Covid policy, and the rapid collapse of China’s own housing bubble and the questionable status of its banks, and heap on its threats of war against Taiwan, its dictatorial over-riding of the once-vibrant free market of Hong Kong, and its screw-the-doors-shut-on-your-apartment approach to enforcing Covid quarantines, and you have a major nation on the verge of civil war and international war at the same time. That’s a nation whose vibrant economy once helped pull the world through the last financial crisis, which is looking increasing like it will be having a “going out of business” sale sometime early in the present crises.

Then team the currencies of those badly flailing economies to try to create a new global trade currency in a currency war with the current global war currency to see if you can possibly spread total currency collapse of all currencies to the entire planet just in time for your launches of central-bank digital currencies aligning conveniently with the crash of many crypto currencies.

Add to that flaming chickens by the tens of millions, gassed and incinerated to stop the spread of an avian pandemic. Then throw into that flaming food-processing plants, just in case the shortage-by-sanctions-and-chickens plan wasn’t taking us quickly enough toward starvation. Then make sure you drive the majority of Dutch farmers out of business so they don’t compete with your clone-grown, meat-cell burgers. Clamp down on their use of fertilizers when you’ve also managed to more than double the price of fertilizers in order to drive as many farmers out of business as you can as quickly as you can.

With so many of these things naturally going so bad, you have to think our leaders who are doubling down on all of it with their forced closures of just about anything every time you turn around and austere mandates and constant divisiveness from the top (both Trump and Biden in the US) … these leaders must surely intend to inflame the populace of each nation as much as they possibly can. There are no peacemakers on any side. Just wedges and sledge hammers with which to pound them. These clowns either think people have an unlimited capacity to absorb more man-made, woman-made, they-made stress; or their minds are as fried as a fish in hell or they actually intend to push their societies into self-annihilation to solve the global population problem.

That’s enough for now. In my next Patron Post, I’ll be laying out where I see the world as likely heading in the remainder of this year into 2023 based on the kinds of crises that are now endlessly raining down upon us. I’m sure by the time I am ready to publish it this week, there will already be new black swans landing in everyone’s back yard to write about."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"Acceptance..."

"Acceptance is a crucial step forward for those who prefer the idea of living this life over simply existing within it. Accept all that you've said and what you've done, because you cannot change your past. Accept the idea of the unknown, because the future is the unknown waiting patiently to reveal itself. Accept the person you have become thus far in your journey, because you are the only person who will be there with you when you finish it. Do all of this so that you may never find yourself having to accept regret that haunts you at two a.m., leaving you sweaty and broken hearted. All you have is this minute; not this hour, or this day, or this year. Live in this minute so that you won't get stuck simply existing with your guilty past, or with nothing but anxiety for the future."

- Margaret E. Rise

"14 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Poised To Crash Really Hard During The Second Half Of 2022"

"14 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Poised To 

Crash Really Hard During The Second Half Of 2022"

by Michael Snyder

"It looks like we are going to get official confirmation that a recession has already begun when the GDP number for the second quarter comes out later this week. But that isn’t what we should be focusing on. Yes, things weren’t great during the first half of 2022, but they are going to be significantly worse during the second half. Small businesses are starting to fail all over the country, a housing crash of potentially epic proportions has started, layoffs are on the rise from coast to coast and economic activity is really slowing down all around us. So if you think that things are bad now, just wait, because they will soon be a whole lot more painful.

In recent days we have gotten more new numbers which seem to confirm that a major economic slowdown is upon us. The following are 14 signs that the U.S. economy is poised to crash really hard during the second half of 2022…

#1 One survey that was just released discovered that 35 percent of all small business owners in the U.S. “could not pay their rent in full or on time in June”.

#2 A different survey found that 51 percent of all small businesses owners in the U.S. believe that rising prices could “force them to close their businesses within the next six months”.

#3 It is being reported that 45 percent of all small businesses in the U.S. have already decided to freeze the hiring of new workers.

#4 Sales of previously owned homes dropped 5.4 percent during the month of June. That is now the fifth month in a row that we have seen a decline.

#5 In three-fourths of the metro areas that Redfin tracks, at least 25 percent of home sellers reduced their asking price during the month of June.

#6 Blackstone has prepared a war chest of $50 billion dollars so that it can scoop up depressed real estate all over the country after housing prices have crashed in the months ahead.

#7 The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits has risen to the highest level in eight months.

#8 Employment postings for software development jobs have dropped off by more than 12 percent during the past four weeks.

#9 The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for four months in a row.

#10 The S&P Global Flash U.S. PMI Composite Output Index just went negative for the very first time since the last recession.

#11 The latest number for the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in at -12.3, and that was much worse than what most experts were anticipating. Any reading below zero indicates contraction, and needless to say this reading was way below zero.

#12 Inflation continues to rage out of control even as economic activity in the U.S. significantly slows down. If you can believe it, the average price of a used vehicle in the United States has now risen to a whopping $33,341.

#13 The Atlanta Fed is now projecting that U.S. economic growth for the second quarter will come in at -1.6 percent. If it is ultimately confirmed that the U.S. economy has already been contracting for two quarters in a row, that would mean that we are officially in a recession right now.

#14 Thanks in part to the rapidly tanking economy, Joe Biden’s approval rating has plunged all the way down to 31 percent.

At this point, even the tech giants are extremely concerned about what is coming. For years, nothing could seem to quash the relentless optimism of the big tech companies, and their stocks soared to absolutely absurd heights. But now everything has changed as we head into the second half of this year. The following comes from the Washington Post…"Big Tech is bracing for an economic recession and an uncertain future. That, in turn, is triggering more economic angst.

The biggest tech firms, most of whom report quarterly earnings next week, have offered recent hints they are hunkering down. News of layoffs and hiring slowdowns have become commonplace across Silicon Valley. Start-ups are saying capital is drying up. Workers are being put on notice that businesses are changing."

I don’t remember ever seeing such pessimism from Silicon Valley. Incredibly, even the Biden administration is admitting that the economy is slowing down, but Janet Yellen insists that what we are witnessing is quite “appropriate” for a “healthy economy”…"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged Sunday that the U.S. is experiencing an economic “slowdown” but downplayed the potential for a recession, arguing that the country is in a period of “transition” following rapid economic growth. “The economy is slowing down,” Yellen said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” adding that a correction is “appropriate” for a healthy economy."

You can believe her if you want. But she also told us that inflation would be “transitory”, and we can all see how that prediction turned out.

Even though we are still only in the early stages of this new recession, lines are already getting really long at food banks all over the nation. The cost of living continues to soar to unprecedented heights, and this is hitting the poor harder than anyone.

In the months ahead, we should expect to see a tsunami of layoffs, stunning declines in housing prices, hordes of small businesses going under and a tremendous spike in the number of bankruptcies.

Needless to say, all of this will not be good for the financial markets either. The stage is clearly set for the sort of historic economic meltdown that I have been warning about for a long time, and the pain that our society will experience will be extremely severe. I hope that you are using this summer to get prepared for the difficult times that are ahead of us. The remainder of 2022 is not going to be pleasant, and 2023 is going to be even worse."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Ukraine: Needless Death And Misery"

"Ukraine: Needless Death And Misery"

by Jim Rickards

"The war in Ukraine is in its sixth month, and there’s no end in sight. Here’s what we know…Almost everything you heard about the war in Ukraine from U.S. media over the course of March, April and May was a lie. You heard that Putin was losing the war. You heard that Russians had poor training and low morale and were deserting in droves. You heard that Ukrainians were destroying Russian armor in large numbers to blunt the Russian advance. None of this was true. In fact, Russian troops have achieved major victories in Mariupol, Kherson, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and other key targets that control rivers, ports and junctions in Ukraine.

U.S. Willing to Fight Russia to the Last Ukrainian: This article isn’t about strategy and I don’t want to get too deeply into the weeds, but Russia’s next targets are Slovyansk and Bakhmut, which will consolidate Russia’s control over the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russia has also deployed anti-drone laser systems that have neutralized Ukraine’s ability to target Russian positions with drones. The endgame is the takeover of Odessa, which would give Russia control of 100% of Ukraine’s coastlines along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

A negotiated settlement that cedes Russian control over Crimea and the Russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine is probably the most realistic solution available to end the war. But the U.S. doesn’t want the war to end. Its plan is to wear Russia down through a protracted conflict, no matter how much the Ukrainian people suffer. The battlefield situation aside, the story is even worse from the U.S. perspective…

Blowback! Russia is not just winning the war on the ground. It’s winning the global financial and economic war launched by Biden and our European allies. Russia’s revenues from oil and natural gas exports are at all-time highs. The Russian ruble is much stronger today than it was when the war began. China and India are buying all the Russian oil that Europe is refusing to buy.

Meanwhile, the economies of the U.S. and the EU are in or very near to recession. Inflation is out of control in the West. Commodity shortages will lead quickly to food shortages and more empty shelves in supermarkets. Across the board, Biden’s economic sanctions have backfired and are hurting the U.S. and Europe far more than they are hurting Russia.

Not Pro-Russian, But Pro-Truth: I’ve been reporting honestly on the war since the beginning. My readers have not been misled by false reporting because I’ve been candid about the real impact of sanctions and Russia’s brutal but effective battlefield tactics. It’s not that I’m pro-Russian - I’m not. I’m pro-truth. And I don’t defend the Russian invasion in any way (although I do understand it).

Even Bloomberg and The New York Times are now starting to admit that the war is a lost cause for Ukraine and the U.S. economy is suffering from sanctions aimed at Russia. But it’s a little late for legacy media to get their story straight. What we know right now is the economic damage to the U.S. economy will get much worse before the economy gets better. Biden won’t stop the sanctions soon. That means the trashing of the U.S. economy will continue.

Meanwhile, Russia is “temporarily” shutting down the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline to Germany for repairs. Of course, the temporary shutdown may become permanent. It’s just more proof that U.S.-led sanctions only hurt the U.S. and Europe, not Russia.

Failed Sanctions Against Russia May Actually Lead to Other Wars: Here’s another potentially dangerous side effect of the failed sanctions campaign against Russia: Economic sanctions may now facilitate war instead of preventing or stopping it. Why? Because U.S. sanctions on Russia are a complete failure. Nations considering invasions that might have been deterred because of sanctions threats may now feel emboldened and that they can proceed with confidence. How this new dynamic plays out in hotspots like the Taiwan Strait remains to be seen. But it would be deeply ironic if sanctions actually encouraged China to move against Taiwan.

These are the sorts of issues that should be thoroughly thought through before action is taken. But our political leaders are incapable of thinking even one move ahead. The U.S. has already committed about $56 billion to assist Ukraine, which will likely turn out to be a very poor investment. But American taxpayers might be fleeced even more…

Give Us More Money! The prime minister of Ukraine has calmly asked an international conference for $750 billion of assistance to rebuild Ukraine after the war. Nice try. There are a few problems with this. First of all, there will be no Ukraine to rebuild, at least not in its current form.

Russia will take somewhere between a third and half the country and keep it. The parts that Russia is taking control of include the industrial nexus, the largest natural resource deposits and the most fertile land. Russia will be able to finance the reconstruction of their conquests using the very industrial capacity, mining and agricultural output they have captured. Russia will also control the ports and major rivers and will be able to tax the remainder of Ukraine for access. The gradual result will be a prosperous part of Ukraine controlled by Russia and a desperately poor part of Ukraine left to the corrupt oligarchs under Zelensky.

You’re on the Hook to Rebuild Ukraine: When asked how Ukraine will finance the $750 billion demanded, the prime minister said they could use assets seized from Russian oligarchs. But that’s ridiculous. There may be $5 billion or $10 billion in yachts and townhouses, but nothing close to $750 billion. The truth is that this money will be expected to come from the U.S. and the EU, either directly or indirectly through the World Bank and the IMF. In other words, you are going to pay for it one way or the other. Of course, most of the money would end up in the hands of corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs.

It’s unlikely much reconstruction will get done anyway because Ukraine has long been a money-laundering operation for the benefit of U.S. politicians including the Clintons, Bidens and Obamas. That’s something to bear in mind when your taxes start going up to “help” Ukraine."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Related, very highly recommended:

George Galloway, "Full Interview: Gonzalo Lira: Russians are

chewing through Ukraine lines and Zelensky’s position is untenable."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Escobar: "Welcome To NAM 2.0,

The End Of The 'Rules-Based International Order'"

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I assume you want to know the truth, right? How's your truth going now? Job going well? Mortgage and car payment current? Plenty of food? A full gas tank? Utility bills all paid? I'm happy you don't have a care in the world except sending $60 billion to "help" Ukraine. Such kind and generous people!

"Most Do Not Fully See..."

“Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.”

- M. Scott Peck

"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 "

"Stocking Up At Costco! We Bought Things! Is Membership Worth It?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno. 7/25/22:

"Stocking Up At Costco! We Bought Things! 

Is Membership Worth It?"

"In today's vlog we buy a membership to Costco, and are buying things! We shop around Costco showing what we think are the best deals that make the cost worth it! With grocery prices increasing do to inflation, and other reasons, we are traveling around to find the best sales, and deals, so you don't waste your money! It's getting rough out here with prices skyrocketing, and stores struggling to get in products."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/25/22"

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"Economic Market Snapshot 7/25/22"

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

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

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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 7/25/22

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

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

July 22nd to July 25th

- 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/

Job cuts and much more.

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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. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

"U.S Economy Is Already In Recession. You Just Don't Know It Yet - Peter Schiff"

Full screen recommended.

"U.S Economy Is Already In Recession. 

You Just Don't Know It Yet - Peter Schiff"

by The Atlantis Report

"Peter Schiff talks about the current state of U.S economy, which is already in recession. There is no way out, let's prepare for the worst!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"20 Depressing Facts About The Housing Crash That Never Seems To End"

Full screen recommended.

"20 Depressing Facts About The Housing 

Crash That Never Seems To End"

by Epic Economist

"The U.S. Housing Market Crash 2.0 has just begun – but the bad news never seems to end. Home prices today are the most expensive they've ever been, and many of those who would like to buy a home are finding it impossible to enter the market. In fact, according to a recent analysis, more than half of Americans have been completely priced out of the market at this point. Even affluent investors and big landlords are facing affodability issues as mortgage rates continue to soar. Meanwhile, home builders are suffering with rising construction costs and a declining number of contracts. Consequently, home sales are slowing down, price cuts are surging, mortgage applications are dropping, and the number of foreclosures is going through the roof. Sadly, there are a whole lot of indications that the housing market crash is going to get even worse in the months ahead.

Home prices have become so out-of-touch with reality that even some of America’s largest landlords started reducing home buying, according to Bloomberg. KKR & Co.'s My Community Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, Amherst Holdings, and other institutional buyers have slashed buying activity by more than 50%. Mynd Management, a real estate platform that helps investors find, buy, lease, manage, and sell residential investment properties, has advised institutional clients to dial back acquisitions and wait for housing prices to readjust to the interest rate shock. So if even institutional buyers who have millions of dollars at their disposal have paused buying due to affordability issues, how far will housing prices go before they finally fall?

In a separate report, Redfin researchers found that as recession rumors gain force, wealthy Americans are rushing to sell their luxury properties. However, sales of luxury homes, defined as those in the top 5 percent in price in a given area, collapsed by 18% over the past month, going down at an even faster rate than non-luxury home sales. On the other hand, housing affordability is set to worsen to levels last seen early in the financial crisis as rising mortgage rates compound high prices, a new S&P Global Ratings report has warned. “By the end of this year, mortgage payments will make up 28% of income for the typical first-time buyer -- the highest since the first quarter of 2007 -- assuming a 10% down payment,” S&P North American Chief Economist Beth Ann Bovino said in the report. Mortgages shouldn’t exceed 25% of income to be considered affordable, according to the guidelines of the National Association of Realtors.

The U.S. real estate industry is facing one disappointment after the other, and conditions will continue to deteriorate as the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates even more aggressively to contain inflation. We've been warned that a housing bubble burst would occur and that a day of reckoning would arrive. Now, it is here. And what we've seen so far is just the beginning. Another financial disaster is looming in the horizon, and it's only a matter of time before everything starts to crumble. For that reason, today, we compiled some alarming statistics everyone should know."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Prepping and Mass Layoffs. It’s Time to Get Ready"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 7/24/22:

"Prepping and Mass Layoffs. It’s Time to Get Ready"

"Another bank has a massive layoff and people need to take this seriously. It’s time to prep your household and your business for the coming problems. There will be massive shortages and you need to be ready for this. It’s time to get medication, water and food."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Warning: Governments are Stockpiling Food and Preparing for Total Collapse"

Canadian Prepper, 7/24/22:

"Warning: Governments are Stockpiling Food 

and Preparing for Total Collapse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

"Liquid Mind" (aka Chuck Wild) originally wrote this music to deal with the anxiety and stress of overwork and the serious illness of friends. The gentle ebb and flow of the music has an immediate "slowing down" effect, providing a serene escape from tension-filled days. Ideal for stress relief, falling asleep at night and to enhance meditative and therapeutic practices. There are few composers with as much love for slowness in their music as Wild. Chuck draws from classical and pop influences as varying as Beethoven and Brian Eno, Bartok and Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin and Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms."

- http://www.liquidmindmusic.com/

Musical Interlude: Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Is this what will become of our Milky Way Galaxy? Perhaps if we collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years, it might. Pictured below is NGC 7252, a jumble of stars created by a huge collision between two large galaxies. The collision will take hundreds of millions of years and so is effectively caught frozen in time in the image. The resulting pandemonium has been dubbed the Atoms-for-Peace galaxy because of its similarity to a cartoon of a large atom.

The above image was taken by the MPG/ESO 2.2 meter telescope in Chile. NGC 7252 spans about 600,000 light years and lies about 220 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius). Since the sideways velocity of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is presently unknown, no one really knows for sure if the Milky Way will ever collide with M31."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101116.html

The Poet: Fernando Pessoa, “I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I don’t know if the stars rule the world,

Or if Tarot or playing cards

Can reveal anything.

I don’t know if the rolling of dice

Can lead to any conclusion.

But I also don’t know

If anything is attained

By living the way most people do.

Yes, I don’t know

If I should believe in this daily rising sun

Whose authenticity no one can guarantee me,

Or if it would be better (because better or more convenient)

To believe in some other sun,

One that shines even at night,

Some profound incandescence of things,

Surpassing my understanding.

For now...

(Let’s take it slow)

For now

I have an absolutely secure grip on the stair-rail,

I secure it with my hand –

This rail that doesn’t belong to me

And that I lean on as I ascend...

Yes... I ascend...

I ascend to this:

I don’t know if the stars rule the world.”

- Fernando Pessoa

"The True Dream..."

“Maybe we accept the dream has become a nightmare. We tell ourselves that reality is better. We convince ourselves it’s better that we never dream at all. But, the strongest of us, the most determined of us, holds on to the dream or we find ourselves faced with a fresh dream we never considered. We wake to find ourselves, against all odds, feeling hopeful. And, if we’re lucky, we realize in the face of everything, in the face of life the true dream is being able to dream at all.”

- Dr. Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy"

"U.S. Moral Compass"

"Moral compass?!"

 Fool! Surely you jest... this is 'Murica!

Must Watch! "Car Repos Pile Up On Auto Auction Lots; We Are In A Full Blown Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 7/24/22:

"Car Repos Pile Up On Auto Auction Lots; 

We Are In A Full Blown Collapse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Streator, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Yet Now..."

“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”

- Arthur C. Clarke, “Glide Path”

"Reality Avoidance"

"Reality Avoidance"

by Morris Berman

"It’s quite amazing how the news is endlessly about filler, which is what I call it. Very little of this has anything to do with reality, which the Mainstream Media and the American people avoid like the plague. What then is real?

1. The empire is in decline; every day, life here gets a little bit worse; all our institutions are corrupt to varying degrees; and there is no turning this situation around.

2. A crucial factor in this decline and irreversibility is the low level of intelligence of the American people. Americans are not only dumb; they are positively antagonistic toward the life of the mind.

3. Relations of power and money determine practically everything. The 3 wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 50% of the population, and this tendency will get worse over time.

4. The value system of the country, and its citizens, is fundamentally wrong-headed. It amounts to little more than hustling, selfishness, narcissism, and a blatant disregard for anyone but oneself. There is a kind of cruelty, or violence, deep in the American soul; many foreign observers and writers have commented on this. Americans are bitter, depressed, and angry, and the country offers very little by way of community or empathy.

5. Along with this is the support of meaningless wars and imperial adventures on the part of most of the population. That we drone-murder unarmed civilians on a weekly basis is barely on the radar screen of the American mind. In essence, the nation has evolved into a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by mindless millions.

Most Americans hide from these depressing, even horrific, realities by what passes for ‘the news’, but also by means of alcohol, opioids, TV, cellphones, suicide, prescription drugs, workaholism, and spectator sports, to name but a few. This stuffing of the Void is probably our primary activity. In a word, we are eating ourselves alive, and only a tiny fraction of the population recognizes this."

- https://morrisberman.blogspot.com/