Jeremiah Babe, 8/4/22:
"Prepare For Credit Freeze, Credit Cards Will Be Shut Down;
Walmart Firing People; Insiders Dump Stock"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Atmospheres"
Full screen recommended.
Be kind to yourself, relax and enjoy this...
Deuter, "Atmospheres"
00:00 ⋄ Uno
05:45 ⋄ Deux
11:58 ⋄ Drei
18:27 ⋄ Four
25:15 ⋄ Cinque
31:58 ⋄ Sei
36:33 ⋄ Sieben
42:22 ⋄ Huit
50:55 ⋄ Nine
57:27 ⋄ Dieci
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms.
It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole."
The Poet: Henry Austin Dobson, “The Paradox Of Time"
“Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen? To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed? But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?”
- Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, “The X-Files”
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“The Paradox Of Time"
“Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go;
Or else, were this not so,
What need to chain the hours,
For Youth were always ours?
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
Ours is the eyes’ deceit
Of men whose flying feet
Lead through some landscape low;
We pass, and think we see
The earth’s fixed surface flee;
Alas, Time stays, – we go!
Once in the days of old,
Your locks were curling gold,
And mine had shamed the crow.
Now, in the self-same stage,
We’ve reached the silver age;
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
Once, when my voice was strong,
I filled the woods with song
To praise your ‘rose’ and ‘snow’;
My bird, that sang, is dead;
Where are your roses fled?
Alas, Time stays, – we go!
See, in what traversed ways,
What backward Fate delays
The hopes we used to know;
Where are our old desires?
Ah, where those vanished fires?
Time goes, you say? – ah no!
How far, how far, O Sweet,
The past behind our feet
Lies in the even-glow!
Now, on the forward way,
Let us fold hands, and pray;
Alas, Time stays, – we go!”
- Henry Austin Dobson
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Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
"And There Are Times..."
"If the sun is shining, stand in it - yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to - because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered. What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life, and there are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms. "
- Jeanette Winterson
Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet: Freedom”
“Freedom”
"And an orator said, “Speak to us of Freedom.”
And he (the prophet) answered:
" At city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself
and worship your own freedom, Even as slaves humble themselves before
a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Aye, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have
seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even
the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you,
and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your
nights without a want and a grief, But rather when these things
girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights
unless you break the chains
which you at the dawn of your understanding
have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains,
though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that
you may become free? If it is an unjust law you would abolish,
that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing
the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone,
see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud,
but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off,
that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel,
the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace,
the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more,
the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters
becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom."
- Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet: Freedom”
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Freely download "The Prophet", by Kahlil Gibran, here:
"Still, Sometimes..."
“The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can’t pretend we haven’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still, sometimes, we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug, until we can’t anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant: That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst, most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of never trying.”
- “Meredith”, “Grey’s Anatomy”
"The Choice..."
"Except for totally impulsive or psychotic behavior, every human
decision comes down to the choice between two alternatives."
- Jeff Duntemann
"It’s Happening: Here Is A List Of 11 Big Companies That Have Announced Layoffs Within The Last 2 Weeks"
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"It’s Happening: Here Is A List Of 11 Big Companies
That Have Announced Layoffs Within The Last 2 Weeks"
by Michael Snyder
"When the economy slows down, layoffs inevitably happen. We witnessed this on a very large scale in 2008 and 2009, and now it is happening again. U.S. economic numbers are rapidly getting worse, and companies all across America don’t want to get caught with bloated payrolls as we plunge into a recession. As you will see below, many of the firms that are laying off workers are either in the real estate industry or the tech industry. Those are two industries that were on the leading edge of the “boom times”, and now it appears that they will also be on the bleeding edge as the economy crashes.
It is always a tragedy whenever any hard working American is forced out of a job. Unfortunately, what we are witnessing right now is just the beginning. The following is a list of 11 big companies that have announced layoffs within the last 2 weeks…
#1 Ultratec Inc. says that it will be laying off more than 600 workers.
#2 Electric truck maker Rivian will be laying off approximately 840 workers.
#3 7-Eleven has announced that it will be eliminating 880 corporate jobs.
#4 Shopify is laying off about 1,000 people.
#5 Vimeo says that it will be eliminating 6 percent of its current workforce.
#6 Redfin will be reducing the size of its workforce by 8 percent.
#7 Compass will be reducing the size of its workforce by 10 percent.
#8 RE/MAX will be reducing the size of its workforce by 17 percent.
#9 Robinhood will be reducing the size of its workforce by 23 percent.
#10 It is being reported that Ford “is preparing to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in the coming weeks”.
#11 Geico has closed every single one of their offices in the state of California, and that will result in vast numbers of workers losing their jobs…"GEICO, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, reportedly closed all 38 of it’s California offices on Monday, resulting in hundreds of workers being laid off.
According to the company, GEICO would not be leaving outright, and will still be offering policies directly online, with all insurance functions continuing as normal. Buying directly through agents by phone, however, will not be possible. “We continue to write policies in California, and we remain available through our direct channels for the more than 2.18 million California customers presently insured with us,” said GEICO in a statement on Monday."
On top of everything else, Amazon has announced that it reduced the size of its workforce by approximately 100,000 workers in just one quarter…"With recession fears mounting - and inflation, the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic taking a toll - many tech companies are rethinking their staffing needs, with some of them instituting hiring freezes, rescinding offers and making rounds of layoffs."
Amazon.com Inc. was one of the latest companies to discuss its belt-tightening efforts this week. During its quarterly earnings call Thursday, the e-commerce giant said it’s been adding jobs at the slowest rate since 2019. After relying on attrition to winnow its staff, Amazon now has about 100,000 fewer employees than in the previous quarter. You could fill up two very large football stadiums with 100,000 workers. Eventually, this wave of job losses will become a tsunami, and millions of Americans will suddenly find that they are unable to continue paying their bills.
Meanwhile, our new housing crash is starting to pick up speed as well. In fact, we just witnessed an absolutely massive spike in the number of Americans that are searching for the term “sell my home fast” on Google…"Within hours of the latest GDP report on Thursday, which raised fears that the United States could be entering a recession, online search volume for “sell my home fast” spiked a whopping 2,750%. Shortly after the Commerce Department released the report on July 28, revealing that the economy showed negative growth for a second straight quarter - shrinking by an annual pace of 0.9% - home sellers hoping for higher housing prices to continue are now concerned."
Just like in 2008 and 2009, a lot of Americans that bought near the peak of the market are going to end up underwater on their homes. We didn’t learn from history, and so now we are repeating it. And things are going to get worse and worse for the housing market as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates.
Of course it isn’t just the U.S. that is going to be suffering in the months ahead. The whole planet appears to be heading for a major downturn, and one of the largest shipping companies in the entire world has just confirmed that global economic activity is really starting to slow down…"AP Moller-Maersk on Wednesday predicted a slowdown in global shipping container demand this year amid weakening consumer confidence and supply chain congestion. The Danish shipping and logistics company - one of the world’s largest and a broad barometer for global trade - said it loaded 7.4% fewer containers onto ships in the second quarter when compared to the same period in 2021, prompting it to revise the full-year outlook for its container business."
Europe is being hit harder than just about anywhere else. Many of the numbers that are coming out of Europe are surprisingly bad, and now thanks to the war in Ukraine they are bracing for an extremely cold and bitter winter…"Germany’s presidential palace in Berlin is no longer lit at night, the city of Hanover is turning off warm water in the showers of its pools and gyms, and municipalities across the country are preparing heating havens to keep people safe from the cold. And that’s just the beginning of a crisis that will ripple across Europe.
It might still be the height of summer, but Germany has little time to lose to avert an energy shortage this winter that would be unprecedented for a developed nation. Much of Europe is feeling the strain from Russia’s squeeze on natural gas deliveries, yet no other country is as exposed as the region’s biggest economy, where nearly half the homes rely on the fuel for heating."
We haven’t seen anything like this in Europe since World War II. In Spain, they have already resorted to extreme measures as they desperately attempt to conserve energy…"Responding to Europe’s energy crisis, Spain has controversially banned air conditioning from dropping below 27°C (80.6°F) in the summer. The new government decree, which applies to a whole host of public buildings as well as shops, hotels and other venues, will also stop heating from being raised above 19°C during the winter. “The rules will be mandatory in all public and commercial buildings, including bars, cinemas, theaters, airports and train stations,” reports EuroNews."
I am stunned by many of the things that I see in the news every day. And things are only going to get worse as time rolls along. Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and instead of reversing course our leaders continue to take us down the exact same road. So we shall reap what we have sown, and it appears that there is an enormous amount of pain on the horizon."
"How It Really Is"
"When you're born in this world you get a ticket to the freak show.
When you're born in America, you get a front row seat."
- George Carlin
"Astonishing Stupidity Abounds"
Astonishing stupidity abounds...
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Related:
And why should this concern you, Good Citizen? Because politicians money whores like this total idiot Pelosi will get us into a war with China (and Russia) that inevitably becomes nuclear, and that you'll care about, very briefly...
Bill Bonner, "Model Lives Matter"
"Model Lives Matter"
Statistically speaking,
the fed's Inflation Reduction Act is 93.281% balderdash.
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "We came back to Ireland last night, flying from Dulles directly to Dublin. Dulles Airport was strangely quiet… as if everyone knew it was about to be bombed by terrorists – everyone but us. But no bomb went off. Instead, it was much like the old days. Few people wore masks. There were no long delays. The Homeland Security crew were even polite. A fluke? A trend? We don’t know.
Yesterday, we looked at the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act, IRA. What the heck is it? An attempt to control the world’s temperature? An effort to reduce deficits and inflation? Is it meant to save lives… increase GDP… boost jobs? Or is it just another Democratic Party giveaway to favored groups and artful lobbyists?
Robbery, Flimflam and Jackassery: Yahoo!News focused on the environmental angle: "Climate change bill would cut U.S. air pollution deaths by up to 3,900 per year, study finds." "The budget reconciliation bill that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., agreed to with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could save up to 3,900 lives per year by 2030, thanks to reduced air pollution, according to a new study from the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. The bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), contains $369 billion in spending to address climate change over 10 years, in addition to other provisions, including closing tax loopholes and holding down the rate of increase in the cost of prescription medication."
But wait, there’s more…. “The IRA provisions could also generate enormous public health and jobs benefits,” the report states. In addition to preventing between 3,700 and 3,900 premature deaths from air pollution in 2030, Energy Innovation found it would lead to a net increase of up to 1.5 million jobs in 2030 and increase the United States' gross domestic product by 0.84% to 0.88% in 2030."
What kind of morons do they take us for? This grab bag of boondoggles will increase US GDP by 0.84% eight years from now? It will save 3,700 to 3,900 lives? Really? The technocratic precision is breathtakingly absurd. There is no way on Earth to predict the effect of this collection of robbery, flimflam and jackassery on our $24 trillion economy… 8 years in the future. And to 2 decimal points! If passed, it will be doctored up, interpreted… bent and persuaded to suit the people in control of it. And then… it will run into the real world. Like an invasion of Russia… no Great Campaign ever survives the initial shock.
Politically Correct Hypotheticals: The number of saved lives, too, is screaming claptrap. There again, the nonsense mounts on stilts… with a projection that the “low” estimate for Black lives saved is 0.14%. The ‘high’ estimate is 0.14%. And yet the ‘moderate’ estimate is 0.13%. (We’re as puzzled as you are. But if the math is curious, at least the numbers are politically correct; 0.02% more Black lives are saved than White lives!)
How can democracy function with such gobbledygook dressed up like ‘science?’ What’s a poor voter to think? How can he think at all? But no matter. Here come the heavies… five former treasury secretaries… throwing their weight behind the IRA. Business Insider: The former treasury secretaries backing the proposal are:
• Larry Summers, who served under President Bill Clinton
• Robert Rubin, who served under President Bill Clinton
• Hank Paulson, who served under President George W. Bush
• Tim Geithner, who served under President Barack Obama
• Jacob Lew, who served under President Barack Obama
That does it for us. If they’re for it, we’re agin’ it. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, looked at the tax angle, renaming the bill “The Schumer-Manchin Tax Increase on Everyone.” The Journal says the bill will make Americans poorer. Of course, making people poorer is the effect (but not the intention) of almost all federal legislation. The feds take from the many (thus making them poorer) and give to the few (making them richer.) Result: most people are poorer. All the other promises, projections and estimates for the IRA will fail. Poverty will triumph.
Joel’s Note: Digging a little deeper into the Energy Innovation “report” (it’s only 8 pages; you can review it here), we discover some more startlingly precise assertions. For instance, did you know that reduced air pollution in the modeled scenarios – that is, harmful particulate matter in the planet’s atmosphere… 8 years from now – could lead to “99,000 to 100,000 avoided asthma attacks, and 405,000 to 417,000 avoided lost workdays.”
Hmm… surely “workdays” are good for an economy, right? And what kind of sadistic nut is pro asthma attacks? Ah, but what constitutes a “workday,” you wonder? Performed by who and at what cost? Public or private? Worthwhile or not? Buggy whip maker or rocket scientist? Prostitute or politician? Dear reader, if you have to ask, it’s probably because you’re one of those America-hating asthma attack lovers!
As for the hypothetical “lives saved,” the typically indolent press crudely rounded the numbers off. The Energy Innovation team were far more exacting in their pretense to knowledge. Indeed, when it comes to “avoided premature mortalities in the year 2030,” the IRA will save between 3,731 (on the low end) and 3,894 souls (on the high end).
And yes, before you ask, all possible variables have been taken into account, including the known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Why, at a mere $189,487,179.487 per “avoided premature mortality,” being against the IRA is practically tantamount to being against democracy itself. For shame!"
Gregory Mannarino, "Warning: The Debt Market Is Unstable, Look For Central Banks To Inflate Even More"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/4/22:
"Warning: The Debt Market Is Unstable,
Look For Central Banks To Inflate Even More"
Comments here:
"Summer Slow Down of 2022 - Experts Say Inflation Could Hit 18%"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/4/22:
"Summer Slow Down of 2022 -
Experts Say Inflation Could Hit 18%"
"There’s so much going on around the world. It doesn’t matter what kind of industry you’re in because everything is slowing down right now. People are spending less money on gasoline because they’re not traveling. The restaurants are slow and people are not spending the money they did even two years ago."
Comments here:
"A Very Stressful Shopping Trip To Kroger! Massive Price Increases!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 8/4/22:
"A Very Stressful Shopping Trip To Kroger!
Massive Price Increases!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing massive 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!"
Comments here:
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
"Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide As Food Distribution Systems Break Down"
Full screen recommended.
"Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide
As Food Distribution Systems Break Down"
by Epic Economist
"We’re starting to see store shelves emptying at a stunning pace once again, and millions of Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated because they can’t get their hands on needed supplies. Many people blame “hoarders” for the current mess, but the truth is that this problem is much more complicated than it seems. All of a sudden, our grocery stores are being flooded with unexpected traffic, and many people are buying far more than usual in anticipation of coming shortages. However, our food distribution systems were not designed to handle this sort of demand surge, and things are really starting to get crazy out there.
With vast stretches of the food industry facing shortages, normal economic activity has come to a standstill, and it is going to become increasingly difficult for our warehouses to meet the demand that grocery stores are putting on them. At the same time, our farmers are facing critical problems of their own. A recent CNBC report reveals that “a blistering heat wave has stunted crop growth in the Midwest. Now, the U.S. food supply chain is dealing with another blow to a vulnerable farm economy, sending crop and livestock prices to soar and raising concerns about worsening labor shortages.”
Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt told reporter Emma Newburger that “we’ve stopped saying it can’t get worse”, and he says that the ongoing food system breakdown looks like it could be “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Of course, this comes at a time when the economy is entering another historic downturn and unemployment rates are ticking back up. Without any money coming in, many people are already turning to alternative sources of help in order to feed themselves and their families.
With inflation at a 40-year high, many are looking for aid for the first time and food banks are already struggling to meet demand. A Fox News report uncovered that hundreds of families were lined up in cars outside St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, last week.
The food bank said its main distribution center provided packages to 4,271 families during the third week in June. That number marks a nearly 80% increase over the same week in 2021. Distribution by California's Alameda County Community Food Bank has also risen this summer and Texas' Houston Food Bank now gives out an average of 610,000 pounds. In Southern California, the Los Angeles bank gave away around 30 million pounds of food during the first three months of this year, far more than the 22 million pounds passed out during the first quarter of 2020. And it is also being reported that the number of people coming for free meals on Skid Row in Los Angeles has tripled since the same time last year.
Sadly, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what we will see in the months ahead. Food is only going to get more expensive from here on out, and supply chain disruptions are only going to make our food systems more vulnerable.
An Urban Institute survey found that 1 in 6 adults relied on charitable food, a share that was still above pre-pandemic levels. Low-income households feel rising prices the most because they spend a far greater share of their income on necessities. Food alone makes up nearly a third of their budget, on average.
Desperate people have been running to the grocery stores to stock up on essential supplies only to find that purchasing limits are being put back in place. A new “panic buying” wave is emerging on the horizon, and it is probably only a matter of time before many stores start running out of food staples. We have reached a major turning point in our history, and things are only going to get crazier."
Comments here:
"IRS Shakedown, They Plan On Taking Your Money; Economic Retaliation Coming; Rate Hikes Not Slowing"
Jeremiah Babe, 8/3/22:
"IRS Shakedown, They Plan On Taking Your Money;
Economic Retaliation Coming; Rate Hikes Not Slowing"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"
Full screen mode recommended.
Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).
Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”
The Universe
“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”
“Good on you,”
The Universe
“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
"Not Much Mental Distance..."
“A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing his ways. He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't afford to admit - no matter how often he's reminded of it - that every day of his life takes him farther and farther down a blind alley. Very few toads in this world are Prince Charmings in disguise. Most are simply toads, and they are going to stay that way. Toads don't make laws or change any basic structures, but one or two rooty insights can work powerful changes in the way they get through life. A toad who believes he got a raw deal before he even knew who was dealing will usually be sympathetic to the mean, vindictive ignorance that colors the Hell's Angels' view of humanity. There is not much mental distance between a feeling of having been screwed and the ethic of total retaliation, or at least the random revenge that comes with outraging the public decency.”
- Hunter S. Thompson
"Now We Know What It’s like To Live Among Lunatics"
"Now We Know What It’s like To Live Among Lunatics"
by Mark Oshinskie
"From 1965-71, CBS aired a sitcom entitled "Green Acres." The show’s protagonist, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was an NYC lawyer who bought a farm and, several years ahead of the zeitgeist, went back to the land. In Hooterville, his adopted domicile, Oliver wears a three-piece suit while he rides his tractor and is surrounded by hicks, hucksters and bumbling bureaucrats. The show portrays this naive romantic’s daily encounters with the loony locals and his ingenuous, Hungarian immigrant, incongruously glamorous, reluctant farm wife, Lisa, who’s also a very bad cook. Every interaction ends with Oliver exasperated by the ludicrous statements or conduct of those in his new sphere.
I remember this surrealistic show as having been quite funny. Seeing other people at wit’s end is often amusing. But living through Coronamania put me at wit’s end. I didn’t fear The Ro for one minute. Having developed, over time, some working knowledge of Biology, Systems Ecology and human health, and being skeptical about media and government, the viral threat seemed to me way overblown from Day 1.
I doubt I was ever infected, though one February, 2020 afternoon I felt a little funny, took a nap and thereafter had an otherwise unexplained dry cough for a week. At that time, I might have tested 40 cycle PCR positive for Covid. But then, so did tangerines.
Nor did I ever directly know anyone who died from Covid. Among the many hundreds of people I know, only five knew a purported Covid decedent; each ostensible victim was very old and/or very baseline unhealthy. This anecdotal evidence mirrored the obvious, and biologically unsurprising, statistical trend, which the media conveniently ignored. The public also lost sight of Covid’s demographically clear risk profile.
Not a single thing happened in March, 2020, or in the ensuing 28 months, to make me rethink my initial perception that the virus presented functionally zero risk to anyone healthy, under 70. Even the vast majority of the old, overweight or immuno-compromised were very likely to survive a virus that the media histrionically portrayed and that many, including Trump, wrongly considered “The Plague.”
It later became known - but was grossly underreported - that many of the ostensible Covid deaths were falsely attributed to Covid because of perverse CARES Act financial incentives to hospitals; that treatment protocols caused many deaths; and that inexpensive, alternative early treatments or self-care delivered far better outcomes than did the protocols that hospitals commonly applied.
From the outset, I foresaw high costs - economic, social and psychological - to shuttering society. I directly experienced some of those consequences: the boredom, the lost life experiences and lost savings, via federal spending-driven inflation. Many - especially younger - people I know suffered far more than I did. It was obvious that the purported public health benefits of locking down, masking, testing and taking much-hyped jabs wouldn’t justify these human costs. A February 2, 2022 Johns Hopkins study resolutely confirmed this hypothesis.
Yet, for me and others, the hardest part of the past 28 months has been being surrounded by so many people so deeply out of touch with reality. For 28 months, I’ve/we’ve felt like Oliver Wendell Douglas in Hooterville. Without the laugh track. We could discuss at length whether The Gods Must Be Crazy. But without question - and I’m not trying to be funny - we learned that many people around us are.
And badly misinformed to boot. So many people vastly overstated Coronavirus peril. Forty-one percent of Democrats thought that over 50% of the infected ended up in the hospital, while another 28 percent of Democrats put that figure between 20% and 49%. The real number was between 1%-5%. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats polled believed that 10% of those infected, died; many thought 30% of the infected, died. The real infection fatality rate was well under 1%. Another poll revealed that many Democrats - including some I knew - believed the virus had killed 10% of all Americans, i.e., 33 million people. Think briefly about what that would look like.
The misled also naively overrated human ability to stop viral transmission. And they knew nothing about the statistical chicanery applied to death tolls, case counts and vaxx outcomes. The shots’ benefits were egregiously oversold and the injections’ injuries have been systematically hidden. Emerging data show that the jabs raise, not lower, the risk of infection and death. Despite all of the prior hype and support for the shots - and mandates - the long-term “vaccine” safety picture may get very ugly.
I was vexed by such pervasive ignorance, fear, gullibility, dishonesty and hucksterism. It came, non-stop, from all directions: government, TV, newspapers, radio, the Net, Pharma, people in the street, neighbors, college students, employers, friends and family - though thankfully, with some notable exceptions, like my wife, two siblings, two in-laws, two cousins and the astute, though “uneducated” Mexican immigrants with whom I work. And unlike watching Green Acres, I couldn’t turn off the craziness around me after a half hour had passed. Soon after seeing the first wave of fearmongering, I blacked out all of the mainstream sources of (actual) misinformation. But I inevitably had to deal with or watch many irrationally fearful people.
Instead of the Green Acres’ characters’ amiable goofiness, the people to whom I expressed my Coronamania critique reacted with misplaced, oft-angry certainty that this was a terrible crisis that threatened everyone, that non-maskers caused it and non-vaxxers perpetuated it. Those with the least factual knowledge were the Covid interventions’ biggest backers.
As you did, I repeatedly heard people anxiously recite soundbites learned from the media, such as: “We’re all in this together!” “It’s a novel virus!” “We’re living through history!” “This is serious. My friend’s (87 year-old) father-in-law died from it!” “I’m following ‘CDC protocols’ to ‘flatten the curve’/’stop the spread!’” “If it only saves one life!”
“I won’t meet you for an outdoor dinner when you pass through my state because you’re from New Jersey and infections there are ‘spiking.’” (People loved that word; it sounded scientifically sophisticated, up-to-the-minute and scary). “Why should I listen to you? You’re not an MD!”
Later, dozens of people - including three MDs who expressly pulled rank - assured me that the shots were: “really good!”, “safe and effective,” “a technological marvel” and that “they’ll make this all go away,” that “everyone needed to take them” and that those who refused to inject were “selfish and endangered others.”
Etc. LOL. The derisive kind. Tens of millions hid at home and ate delivered food. They wore masks while walking or driving alone, even after taking the “vaxxes” in which they so strongly believed.
Day after day, week after week, month after month for 28 months, I heard people invoke the shibboleth, and parrot the mantra: “Pandemic!” Uttering this magic word was intended to justify any disruption of normal life, to excuse the failure to fulfill a wide range of personal responsibilities and to foreclose any reasonable discussion/dissent that might support the conclusion that the orchestrated, opportunistic overreaction to a respiratory virus was a complete, avoidable, government and media-made meltdown.
I saw all of the Pandemanium dogma as lies. Time has proven me right; statements that caused Medium.com to de-platform me have turned out to be undeniably true. After 18 months of Vaxx Fascism, hucksters like Fauci and Birx have finally admitted that the vaxxes don’t stop the spread. The White House now admits what I and many others said in March, 2020: widespread infection can’t be thwarted.
What will they admit next? Throughout the past 28 months, most people with whom I came into contact believed more strongly in the “experts” Corona falsehoods than they believed in anything else. It was pathetic and maddening.
Astoundingly, after all this time and all of the lockdown/mask/testing/jab failure, some of the brainwashed still cling to the notion that a respiratory virus that nearly everyone survives remains a serious threat, and that all should mask, test and boost up. Even those who have belatedly perceived the folly of these interventions won’t admit that their alarmism has been groundless, and extremely harmful.
Instead of enduring this epic episode of mass psychosis, I might have preferred that some natural disaster had hit my area. Of course, unlike Covid, a natural disaster would have killed vital people. I would have hated that. A natural disaster would also have disrupted communities and lives, and cost individuals and society a lot of resources. But even combining the strongest hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and forest fires ever to hit the US would have caused far less disruption than has the anthropogenic overreaction to an infection that most people experience as a cold.
At least the occurrence and effects of a heat wave/drought (as we are now having, and which impairs my efforts to grow food at my parched, formerly Green, Acres), an earthquake or a hurricane would have been objectively undeniable and unavoidable. I could have understood and shared other peoples’ grief and dread and respected their judgment. I could have exchanged spoken reason with them and not have been expected to validate panic and to go along with an ever-changing set of plainly ridiculous “mitigation” measures.
It would have made far more sense to do things like hand out food and water and rebuild flattened buildings than it did to test and trace. Who conceived and funded the 70 plus-billion-dollar testing debacle and the other CARES Act political plums? How many humans could have been fed and housed with the trillions wasted on “Covid Relief?”
In contrast to Coronamania, natural disaster damage would have would have been of limited geographic extent and duration. Instead of feeling Covid-based alienation from unhinged others, mutually experiencing a natural disaster would have inspired a sense of solidarity with my countrymen. (I grew up in a neighborhood that flooded most years; families riding rowboats down streets gushing mudwater). I’d have been far less pessimistic about our collective future than I’ve been for the past 28 months.
Since Day 1, the whole thing has felt to me like a PsyOp against both the fearful and the sane. Those who effected it broke a lot of people. But the Hootervillians couldn’t break Oliver Wendell Douglas. And the Coronamaniacs won’t break me."
"As Americans..."
''As Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?''
- Dave Barry
"We Are Living In The Worst Financial Crisis In The History Of The World"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 8/3/22:
"We Are Living In The Worst Financial Crisis In The History Of The World"
"Gerald Celente warns about the coming collapse,
we are living in the worst financial crisis, geopolitical and societal crisis."
Comments here:
"Real Estate is in a Recession - Brace for Layoffs"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/3/22"
"Real Estate is in a Recession - Brace for Layoffs"
"We are seeing more real estate listings than we have seen in the last 12 years. June is the month that everything turn in real estate. More people dropped the price of their homes in June than they did in the last 20 years. Real estate foreclosure starts are up 250% right now. Layoffs are happening now at a record pace."
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "Col. Douglas Macgregor: Ukraine-Russia Latest"
"Col. Douglas Macgregor: Ukraine-Russia Latest"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom,
"Russia strikes areas in northern Ukraine while
Ukraine counterattacks in the south."
Comments here:
"The US Cannot Realistically Defend Taiwan"
"The US Cannot Realistically Defend Taiwan"
by Chris Black
"Reanimated corpse Pelosi becomes highest ranked US official to visit Taiwan. Just like with the Ukraine-Russia situation, Taiwan is part of the Chinese empire for hundreds of years, its population is 99% ethnic Chinese, and, most importantly, the country is thousands of miles away from the US, which makes logistics in case of China invades quasi-impossible.
Basically, you cannot fight China on its own turf, short of using nuclear weapons. The Chinese army in 2022 is not the Chinese army in the nineties. Any military expert can tell you that the Chinese military is incapable of being used offensively. It is specifically designed to quickly repel a US attack on its soil or immediate surroundings.
So the US engaging China in the South China Sea means attacking them where they are the strongest. They will sink every aircraft carrier to the bottom of the ocean.
No, the U.S. cannot defend Taiwan. End your delusions please.
- Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) August 2, 2022
Also, what the media doesn’t tell you is that a big chunk of the Taiwanese population wants reunification with China. The same thing is basically happening with Ukraine, with Eastern Ukraine being basically 90% ethnic Russian and looking to reunify with Russia.
These people are lying to you on purpose in the most absurd possible ways, telling you that Taiwan is somehow a separate country than China. I’m not really surprised that Nancy didn’t announce the Taiwan visit and then went anyway. Or at least, I shouldn’t be surprised.
This is a joke government. This administration and DEMs are worried about drag shows and pronouns with our military and then this drunk goes and screws around with China? We own this however, as anyone who voted for this drunk is crazy. We need term limits, stop congress trading in stocks, address post service lobbying, stop family lobbying “Hunter” etc.
Committee positions in Congress also need to be addressed; sorry, but Nancy can’t sit on that committee for 20 years and RINO’s and DEMs can’t be allowed to own committee appointments like they do today. None of this will really happen though, we can’t even get accurate fair elections. The people who run the USA regime have enjoyed world hegemony since 1989, which means they consider every corner of the globe within their “sphere of influence” (which is, hypocritically, a concept officially rejected by NATO).
Ukraine is to Russia as Mexico is to USA, and Puerto Rico is to USA as Taiwan is to China. USA wouldn’t like Russian or Chinese activity in Puerto Rico or Mexico for the same reason Russia/China don’t like USA right up in their sh*t. The difference is, the people who run the USA regime still think of themselves as global hegemon in a unipolar world.
Russia calling NATO’s bluff is an indication the people who run USA are losing their world hegemonic status and we are transitioning to a multipolar world. Nancy Pelosi is trying to assert that old unipolar energy and say “not so fast.” Bottom line, if they really wanted to send Nancy to invade, they could have just announced it. Instead, they refused to announce it – then sent her jet on a bizarre course, flying all the way around the Philippines for no reason. I’ve never seen anything remotely similar to this situation. These people just invent new confounding behavior patterns daily. No good. No good."
○
Related:
Bill Bonner, "A Phony Façade"
"A Phony Façade"
Amid soaring debt and falling income,
the feds propose a $739 billion dollar lie.
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "With 100 million Americans under heat advisory, President Biden promises executive action." ~ A headline at Deseret News.
We’ve been following what we believe is the crack-up of American family finance. Real wages are falling. Mortgage rates are rising. House prices are beginning to go down. The NY Fed Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit adds detail: "Household Debt Rises to $16.15 Trillion Amid Growth in Housing and Non-Housing Balances." "Mortgage balances - the largest component of household debt - climbed $207 billion and stood at $11.39 trillion as of June 30. Credit card balances saw their largest year-over-year percentage increase in more than twenty years, while aggregate limits on cards marked their largest increase in over ten years."
And here’s the latest from UPI: "Job openings plunge in June to lowest level since 2021." "The biggest drop in available jobs was in retail with 343,000 fewer openings in June. Larger companies also offered fewer jobs, while the number of jobs offered by smaller employers went up."
Unable to refinance at lower and lower rates… Unable to get a ‘cash-out’ mortgage loan… Unable to earn enough to keep up with inflation…how does a family keep its head above water? It cuts back on spending. Which is why Walmart and other retailers are reporting fewer sales… and rising inventories. And it’s why the US economy is in recession.
Fantasies and Foolishness: Normally, the Fed might toss out some life preservers – in the form of lower interest rates. But not his time. The Fed is trapped. It is ‘inflate or die.’ And for now, the Fed will let businesses and households die. Meanwhile, it’s been a hot summer. People are calling on the president to take action.
What action can an executive take? Can he command the wind to give us a gentle breeze? Can he order the clouds to shade us from the sun? No? We didn’t think so. But maybe he can reduce inflation?
Reading the news is like wading into a swamp. You don’t know what’s under the surface. And soon you are up to your neck in fantasies and foolishness… with deadly snakes nipping at your fingers. The cause, we believe, is a cynical collusion between government, academics and the media. One makes news. The others egg it on… and lie about it to the masses.
And so it came to pass last week, the Democratic Establishment unveiled legislation supposedly designed to help “hard working American families” and advertised as the “Inflation Reduction Act.” We admire bald-faced lying as much as anyone. If we could get away with it, we’d probably do it too.
Still, it is shocking how brazenly dishonest the feds can be. The deal struck between Senators Manchin and Schumer could be honestly described in many different ways. It is a pot-pourri of graft, corruption, giveaways, bribes, waste… counterproductive tax increases… green energy boondoggles… subsidies to pill poppers… a few billion here… and a few billion there…all $739 billion dollars worth!
Potemkin Production: There must be hundreds of possible ways to describe it fairly. But “inflation reduction” is not one of them. Nor will the bill help the typical household, add jobs, save lives, reduce deficits (by 2027!) or increase GDP, as supporters allege.
Prices are determined by balancing the supply of money (demand) against the goods and services it is meant to buy (supply). When government uses money for jackass purposes, it reduces supply. Naturally, prices rise. Richard Vigilante explains: "Inflation is 'always and everywhere' a result of the government constricting and displacing the real economy with its Potemkin version of phony production, phony work, and the phony money they pay for it."
Second, subsidizing ‘green’ power, is inherently inflationary. Green power is more expensive (otherwise, it wouldn’t need subsidies). More costly energy leads to higher prices for just about everything else. Says Vigilante: "The energy will appear affordable only because it will be paid for twice, once by taxpayers and once by consumers."
Of course, that is the discreet charm of the ruling class. It gets to lie, cheat, and steal without ever having to say it’s sorry. But the glory of the IRA is that it manages to pack so much mendacity into a single piece of legislation. Will the bill reduce inflation? No. Increase GDP? Not a chance. Reduce deficits? Almost certainly not. Will it add jobs? Not in a meaningful way. (You can always hire people to dig ditches and fill them up again.) Will it save lives? More likely, it will cost lives. For all the ‘pollution’ caused by the industrial age, life expectancies have INCREASED from under 40 years to over 80 years. Raising the cost of energy will make people poorer and probably reduce life spans too."
Joel’s Note: BPR’s resident macro analyst, Mr. Dan Denning, sent on this handy chart yesterday afternoon, depicting the rising total debt balance for American households. Take a look…
Among the contributors to the rising debt levels were, mortgage balances, up $207 billion during Q2, 2022; credit card balances, up $46 billion since the first quarter; and auto loan balances, up $33 billion in Q2. “Other” balances - which include retail cards and other consumer loans, were up $25 billion. Meanwhile, outstanding student loans stand at a whopping $1.59 trillion. As you can see, when it comes to the bedrock of America’s economic woes, it’s debt, debt and more debt… all the way down."
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