"The Price Of Eggs Is Up 47% As Food Costs In The US Spiral Out Of Control"

"The Price Of Eggs Is Up 47% As Food Costs

In The US Spiral Out Of Control"

by Michael Snyder

"Now they are trying to convince us that dramatically higher prices are good news. Are you kidding me? Our standard of living is being systematically destroyed, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day. The government just announced that in July the consumer price index was 8.5 percent higher than it was the previous July. Of course many have challenged the value of the inflation numbers that the government is giving us because the way inflation is calculated has been changed many times over the years. As John Williams of shadowstats.com has pointed out, if the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980 it would be far higher than anything that we experienced during the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s. You can spin that any way that you want, but it is still a raging national crisis.

Yes, energy prices in the U.S. have fallen a bit, and many Americans are very thankful for that. This reprieve won’t last indefinitely, and so don’t celebrate too much. Meanwhile, food costs continue to spiral out of control… “The food index increased 10.9 percent over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979,” BLS said.

Some grocery store items have seen prices rise even faster, though. “The food at home index rose 13.1 percent over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending March 1979,” BLS said. “The index for other food at home rose 15.8 percent and the index for cereals and bakery products increased 15.0 percent over the year. The remaining major grocery store food groups posted increases ranging from 9.3 percent (fruits and vegetables) to 14.9 percent (dairy and related products).”

Those numbers are absolutely abysmal. I am sure that you have noticed that prices are going up when you visit the grocery store. Personally, I still remember the days when I could fill up an entire shopping cart full of food for just 25 dollars. What will 25 dollars get you today?

In the old days, eggs were always a fairly inexpensive option, but the government is telling us that the price of eggs has risen 47 percent over the past year…"Inflation is wreaking havoc on breakfast, with egg prices at grocery stores soaring a whopping 47% in July over last year, according to retail analytics firm Information Resources Inc." 47 percent! That is nuts. Of course the bird flu pandemic that has killed tens of millions of our chickens is the primary reason for that price spike.

As I detailed a few days ago, a number of major problems have combined to create a “perfect storm” for global food production. The war in Ukraine, skyrocketing fertilizer prices and extremely bizarre weather patterns are just some of the reasons why global food supplies are getting tighter and tighter. So the truth is that food inflation is not going away any time soon. In fact, I expect global food prices to be substantially higher in 2023 because food production all over the planet will be way below expectations in the months ahead.

We could handle rising prices if our paychecks were going up just as fast. Needless to say, that isn’t happening. As Zero Hedge has pointed out, real average weekly earnings are “now down 16 straight months as inflation eats away at any wage gains”. So even the highly manipulated numbers that the government is giving us show that our standard of living has been falling for 16 months in a row. Ouch.

In the months ahead, I expect this trend to accelerate. It is being projected that heating costs are going to greatly accelerate all over the western world, and that is certainly not going to help matters. This will be particularly true over in Europe. Becoming so dependent on Russian natural gas was a very foolish thing to do, and now the war in Ukraine has changed everything.

For example, over in the UK it is being projected that absurdly high heating bills will push a significant proportion of the population into financial hardship this winter. The following comes from CNN…Nearly one third of households in the United Kingdom will face poverty this winter after paying energy bills that are set to soar again in January, campaigners say. About 10.5 million households will be in fuel poverty for the first three months of next year, according to estimates from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC) published on Tuesday - meaning that their income after paying for energy will fall below the poverty line."

The UK is supposed to be one of the wealthiest nations on the entire planet. But thanks to the war in Ukraine, household energy bills are about to soar to absolutely unprecedented heights…"The predictions are based on new estimates from research firm Cornwall Insight, also published Tuesday, which show that the average household energy bill is expected to hit £3,582 ($4,335) a year from October, and £4,266 ($5,163) from January - equating to about £355 ($430) a month."

If the war in Ukraine is causing this much pain, what will happen to global energy markets when Iran and Israel go to war? And what will happen when the United States goes to war with China? I keep trying to sound the alarm, because it is just a matter of time until those conflicts also erupt.

Meanwhile, food production all over the planet will continue to be ravaged by drought, floods, crippling fertilizer costs and persistent global supply chain problems. Our leaders told us that inflation would just be “transitory”, but that turned out to be totally false. Now they are telling us that next year will be better. You can believe that if you want. But right now global food production is being hit by major crisis after major crisis, and as a result food prices are likely to continue their upward spiral for quite some time to come."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Related:

"Let Them Eat Bugs"

And folks, they're serious about this...

"Another Bank Warning - Get Ready for a Credit Freeze"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 8/11/22:

"Another Bank Warning - Get Ready for a Credit Freeze"

"Bank of America issues another credit warning. They see that the average consumer is paying more in rent and living expenses. They are borrowing more money than ever just to get by. Bank is concerned about overnight lending between banks. There could be a potential credit freeze and lock up."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Strange Prices At Kroger! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 8/11/22:

"Strange Prices At Kroger! This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Grocery Prices Rise At Fastest Pace In 43 Years!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/11/22:

"Grocery Prices Rise At Fastest Pace In 43 Years!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

○

Related:

"Astonishing Charts from New York Fed Show the Dire Straits of 

U.S. Consumers During the 2008 Crash and Its Aftermath - Versus Today"

Bill Bonner, "Sudden and Violent Pains"

"Sudden and Violent Pains"

Plus, has inflation finally "peaked"... is it time to go 

swimming naked... or is there more to the story?

by Bill Bonner

“Only when the tide goes out do you get to see who’s swimming naked."

- Warren Buffett

Poitou, France - “Our swimming pool is so hot you can’t get in it,” says our neighbor, Pierre. “I’ve never seen it like that.” Europe is suffering another heat wave. The only two comparable heat waves in recent history came in 2003 and 1947. We were here for the 2003 event. We recall that the French held their heads in shame afterwards. Because, 15,000 elderly people died, many of whom probably would have been saved if caring relatives had made sure they had enough water to drink… and perhaps a cooling bath.

Here in the countryside, no one has air conditioning. But you don’t really need it. You just have to learn to live with a week or two of intense heat. First, you close your shutters during the morning. And close the windows. And the curtains. Thus do you keep the interior of the house relatively cool until evening. Then, in the middle of the day, when the heat is at its height, you go down to the river and jump in. The river water, generally protected from the sun by overhanging trees, is cool and refreshing. Back in 2003, the children’s grandmother would accompany them to the river and sit on the bank reading as they frolicked in the water. And one day…

More to the Story: We interrupt that story to bring the news. The Inflation Reduction Act has not even been passed yet. But it’s already producing positive results. Associated Press: "US inflation slows from a 40-year peak but remains high."

"WASHINGTON (AP) - Falling gas prices gave Americans a slight break from the pain of high inflation last month, though overall price increases slowed only modestly from the four-decade high that was reached in June. Consumer prices jumped 8.5% in July compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, down from a 9.1% year-over-year jump in June. On a monthly basis, prices were unchanged from June to July, the smallest such rise in more than two years."

Does this mean the worst is over? Is that all there was to it? Oh, dear reader, don’t be silly. There’s always ‘more to it. Fuel costs came down. Reuters reports this morning that “US gasoline prices fall below $4 for the first time since March.” But while gas went down, food prices rose by more than 10%... the most since 1979. And rents are still going up, so much that a group of rent activists has asked the feds to declare yet another emergency! Productivity is down too… which means there will be fewer goods and services to buy. And labor costs are up, which means they will be more expensive. But the recession will reduce demand, so prices will fall!

What to make of it? Only in Hell does the heat last forever. Everywhere else, it comes and goes. High prices bring lower prices… boom follows bust… and after a credit-fueled bubble comes a debt-driven depression. With yesterday’s bump up, the Nasdaq is now 20% above its recent low… stocks all over the globe are rallying… and the futures market suggests that today will be a good day for stocks too. Meanwhile, down by the water…

A Sight to Behold: “I couldn’t believe it,” said the 85-year-old grandmother from Maryland, after returning from the river. “A very handsome man came down to the river near where I was sitting. He looked like something you would see on the cover of a romance novel, perhaps named Fabian, with long, dark hair. And then, he took off all his clothes. I was so shocked, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. It must have looked as though I was staring; because I was. And then, he got into the river. I couldn’t wait ‘til he came out again,” she added with a twinkle in her eye.

Unlike the heat in Maryland, here the nights are cool. So, after the sun sets, you open the curtains, the windows and the shutters; the night air can cool down your house. It’s rare that it is so hot at night that it is uncomfortable.

In Paris, however, it is a different story. The pavement and concrete heat up during the day. It is hot at night too… as the masonry gives up its heat slowly. “Global warming” says the press. We need to do something about it. Should we buy an electric car? Should we pay more for solar powered electricity… eat only locally-grown produce… turn the thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer? If we do these things, will it be cooler in the summer? Will Pierre be able to enjoy his pool again? That’s the hypothesis…!

“Sudden and Violent Pains”: But wait. What about the Great Heat of 1757? Yes, there were heat waves even before humans discovered fossil fuels. On July 14, 1757, Paris nearly hit 100 degrees F. That was the hottest the city had been since 1659. And before that, there was the heat wave of 1540. How reliable the weather records from so long ago are… we don’t know. But hot weather in the summer is nothing new. In July 1757, Horace Walpole went for a walk in his garden and wrote: “I thought I should have died of it.”

Dr. John Huxham noticed the effects on the body, writing that the heat “caused haemorrhages from several parts of the body,” and “sudden and violent pains of the head, and vertigo, profuse sweats, great debility and oppression of the spirits.” “There were putrid fevers in great abundance,” he added.

But finally, after so many generations, humans are getting control of things. The Fed has the upper hand against inflation. And the feds will soon be setting the planet’s thermostat to the desired temperature. Yes, with carrot and stick, the feds will drive the economy towards lower carbon emissions… leading to cooler summers. And if that actually happens, it will be one for the record books.

No other grand program, run by the government, has ever achieved anything but misery. Not the Crusades. Not the war to ‘Make the World Safe for Democracy.’ Not Prohibition. Not the Germans’ quest for ‘living room’ nor the Soviets’ promise to create a ‘paradise for the working class.’ And not America’s ‘War on Terror.’ No ‘Great Society’ emerged from LBJ’s meddles. And after Trump’s claims to make America ‘Great Again,’ the country is worse than ever. Instead, every promise is broken. And every ambitious scheme ends in failure. We doubt the Great Transition will be an exception."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"A Very Dangerous Economy Printing Money To Lower Inflation? Prices Of Everything Soaring; Housing"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/10/22:

"A Very Dangerous Economy Printing Money To Lower Inflation? 

Prices Of Everything Soaring; Housing"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

Full screen recommended.

Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31 at left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy. This narrow- and wide-angle, multi-camera composite finds details of spiral structure in both, while the massive neighboring galaxies seem to be balanced in starry fields either side of bright Mirach, beta star in the constellation Andromeda. Mirach is just 200 light-years from the Sun. But M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is really 2.5 million light-years distant and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is also about 3 million light years away.

Although they look far apart, M31 and M33 are engaged in a gravitational struggle. In fact, radio astronomers have found indications of a bridge of neutral hydrogen gas that could connect the two, evidence of a closer encounter in the past. Based on measurements, gravitational simulations currently predict that the Milky Way, M31, and M33 will all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers, billions of years in the future.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150926.html

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"Everything passes away - suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"

- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"

"In Three Words..."

 

"30 Facts That Prove Ranchers Are Panic Selling Millions Of Cattle As The Food Supply Chain Collapses"

Full screen recommended.

"30 Facts That Prove Ranchers Are Panic Selling 

Millions Of Cattle As The Food Supply Chain Collapses"

by Epic Economist

"U.S. ranchers are in panic mode. As drought conditions worsen, the lives of millions of cattle are hanging by a thread. That's why thousands of ranchers from all across the country are selling off cattle in unprecedented numbers before more animals are victimized by the extreme weather conditions. Over the past few years, the cost of raising livestock in the U.S. has absolutely exploded, and many farmers are being pushed to the edge of a financial abyss due to the soaring costs of feed, fertilizers, fuel, and farming equipment at a time their herds are being slashed by a shortage of grass and water. The situation is creating serious imbalances in the U.S. food supply chain, with executives warning that meat prices are about to go through the roof given that the U.S. beef cow herd continues to shrink. This problem is rapidly reaching crisis levels, but most people don't even know this is happening.

James Mitchell, an extension livestock economist for the Division of Agriculture, exposed that from January to June, total beef cow slaughter in the U.S. is at its highest level since 1996. “If you look at the number of head slaughtered as a percentage of the January 1 inventory, that’s 5.3 percent of available cows in the U.S. That would be confirmation that we’re seeing people sell off their herd, are culling, or are digging deeper into their herds to cull more cattle. Drought is pressing some hard decisions for people,” Mitchell said.

Farmers are also coping with expensive prices for fertilizer. Record-high natural gas prices have pushed up the cost of nitrogen-based fertilizers such as ammonia, which jumped from about $700 a tonne in August to more than $1,600 in May. The price of potash, rich in potassium, has also hit records above $1,100 a tonne as sanctions curtail supplies from Russia.

Texas farmer, Amador Guerrero, revealed that a calf normally sells for $400 to $800 at auction. But last Wednesday, he watched his calf sell for $70. With so many ranchers selling off cattle, the market is flooded and the price for cows is crashing. This situation is pushing farmers to the edge of a financial abyss. Missouri farmer, Kevin Lawson, who directs extension activities in the 25-county Ozark District, an area heavy in cattle, doesn’t mince words about what he has seen: “We’re on the edge of a disaster,” he emphasized.

The U.S. food supply chain is in a very vulnerable position. The decline in meat production is coming at a time when food prices are 12% higher than they were a year ago. In short, tighter supplies of highly demanded products such as beef are going to result in even higher prices at the stores. At this moment, grocery shortages are already becoming increasingly more extensive across the nation, and it's safe to say that once people realizing this is going on, things are going to very chaotic very quickly. If you can, buy lots of food and store it some place safe because prices will not be lower than they are right now, and challenging times are definately ahead. For that reason, today we compiled 30 statistics that expose the shocking selloff of millions of cattle and reveal why the coming meat shortages are going to be far worse than most Americans are anticipating. Don’t forget to share this list and share your thoughts in the comment section down below!"

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Welcome to the Totalitarian State of America"

Full screen recommended.

Gerald Celente, "The Trends Journal", 8/10/22:

"Welcome to the Totalitarian State of America"

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

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"What Keeps You Going..."

"What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'"

- Barbara Kingsolver

Judge Napolitano, "Washington’s Assassination Bureau"

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 8/10/22:

"Washington’s Assassination Bureau"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

It never ends, and never will...

The Daily "Near You?"

Sherman, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Greg Hunter, "Trump Raid Deathblow to Democracy – Martin Armstrong"

"Trump Raid Deathblow to Democracy – Martin Armstrong"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Last month, legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong said the time to prepare is now for the chaos that is coming in 2023. The destabilization of America has been kicked into high gear early with the FBI raid on President Trump’s Florida home this week. Armstrong explains, “This really is unprecedented. In the United States, we are supposed to have civilized transfer of power. That’s all coming to an end. I am not being dramatic here. From a legal perspective, this is completely unprecedented. The danger of this is once they have done this, if the Republicans are ever allowed to get back into power, they would only end up doing the same thing to the Democrats. It’s striking a real deathblow to the very idea of a democracy. We are not, at least we were not until today, someplace like Guatemala where you throw the opposition in jail, kill them or whatever you do. This is what’s going on. They are so afraid of Trump running in 2024 that this is just over the top. Once they did this, there is no end.”

Armstrong says the Democrats are in “dire straits” at the polls – and they know it. Armstrong thinks the Trump raid by the FBI is an act of desperation, and it will “backfire,” but that’s not the only play in the Democrat playbook for the midterms in November. Armstrong says, “I have been warned that the Democrats have been maneuvering, and the reason they are allowing all the illegal aliens to come in is they intend to allow them to vote. You already had the Justice Department go after one state that said you had to prove you are an American to vote, and they filed a suit against them saying that they violated their civil rights. At that stage of the game, hey, all of Europe, Australia, everybody should just send in a vote.”

Armstrong’s says forget what the mainstream polls are saying about voter support for Democrats and Joe Biden because the real numbers are much lower than the public is told. Armstrong’s “Socrates” computer program shows Joe Biden has just 12% of support in America. Maybe this is why Democrats are desperate and realize they have to cheat and break the law to stay in power. It’s not going to get any better, and the entire world is in the same sinking boat. Armstrong says, “We basically are sitting here in the middle of the collapse of Western civilization. It’s socialism that is collapsing because these people have done nothing but borrow money to bribe them to vote for them. There is no way to pay it back, and they had no intention of paying it back. Europe is, just forget it. You have emerging markets collapsing around the world because to sell their debt, they had to put it into dollars. Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Pakistan, Argentina are falling apart on a global scale.”

Armstrong thinks the dollar will be strong for now and not to expect a collapse in the USA anytime soon because America will be the last man standing. That said, Armstrong does see the possibility of a “stock market collapse in September.” Armstrong is also “worried about civil war or extreme civil unrest in 2023 in America.” Armstrong is seeing a “world war coming in 2024 or after.”

Armstrong also said, “My computer warns that there may not even be an election in America in 2024. It’s reaching that critical period. So, this raid on Trump is like throwing down the gauntlet. Everything is gone.” There is much more in the nearly 53-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong, cycle expert and author of the upcoming new book “The Plot to Seize Russia, Manufacturing World War III”.

- https://rumble.com/

"Inflation Shocker - Lower Than Expected - Complete Nonsense"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 8/10/22:

"Inflation Shocker - Lower Than Expected - 

Complete Nonsense"

"The inflation numbers are in. No matter what you purchase you see that prices are not going down. They’re trying to convince us that the current rate of inflation is flat. What do you think inflation is at?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

A Must View! "The Day America Dies"

"The Day America Dies"

by Dan Denning

"Our founder, Bill Bonner, has given out only three major warnings during his half-century career. This is his fourth. It may be his most important. We’ve organized this presentation so Bill’s warning can reach a wider audience. You may see it elsewhere on the Internet. or even YouTube. And some of our colleagues in the publishing industry have asked if they can share it with their readers.

As one of our long-standing or current readers, you’ll be familiar with the key points in this message. But for many, these ideas and forecast will come as a shock. Why? For our kids, it will be a very different America

What Bill sees now could be the worst crisis ever to hit the US…a combination of incompetence…out-of-control inflation…a stock market crash…a wipeout in the bond market…under-investment in the industries that we depend on…along with a horrendous power outage – followed by riots and revolution.

Bill’s presentation is called ‘The Day America Dies.’ He’s organized it into 16 chapters -designed to introduce unaware Americans to the threats they face to their wealth and liberty. He also introduces new readers to some our basic strategies for preserving and protecting what you have.

Feel free to watch the presentation if you like. Or share it with someone you think could benefit from it. We wanted to make you aware of its existence before it reaches a wider audience. And explain why we decided it was so important to release it now."

Please view "The Day America Dies" here:

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

A must view! This cannot be recommended highly enough...

"Strike Three"

"Strike Three"

Real wages... GDP... and now real productivity,

 all down, down and down...

by Bill Bonner

Ouzilly, France - "And so… the strike-out is complete…

Strike one: real wages are going down…

Strike two: real GDP is going down (US in recession)…

Strike three: Real productivity is going down….

And you’re out!

Breitbart: "U.S. Labor Productivity Suffers Biggest Crash Ever Recorded, Labor Costs Soar Most Since 1982." "The productivity of the business sector fell 2.5 percent compared with a year ago, the largest decline ever recorded in data going back to the first quarter of 1948, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. The decline comes from a 1.5 increase in economic output and a 4.1 percent increase in total hours worked.

Productivity declined at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 percent in the second quarter. That’s a less rapid decline than the 7.6 percent contraction recorded in the first three months of the year but slightly below economist expectations for a 4.5 percent decline.

Unit labor costs jumped 10.8 percent in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting a 5.7-percent increase in hourly compensation and a 4.6-percent decrease in productivity. Economists had forecast labor costs to be up by 9.3 percent. In the first quarter, unit labor costs were up 12.6 percent."

How do you like that? Mighty Casey, the USA, has struck out.

Three Strikes, No Balls: From the year we were born until now, productivity could be counted on to increase. And productivity, more than any other single measure, tracks our wealth. There are only 24 hours in a day… from the day man first stood on two legs until today, the length of a day has not increased by a single minute. We are wealthy inasmuch as we are able to use those minutes to produce goods and services. The more output – goods and services – per minute, the richer we are. But now, the time goes by and we have less and less to show for it. In a typical hour, we just can’t produce as many goods and services as we did last year.

How did that happen? Did masons forget how to mix their mortar? Did machinists forget how to bend their steel? How about accountants; did they forget how to add and subtract? We doubt it.

More likely, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act… along with countless other acts of petty insult or grand larceny…. America’s “hard working families” can hardly work at all. They have too many laws, regulations, taxes and jackass rules to work around. And they have the feds misleading them with phony price signals and stimmie checks. But of all the Fed’s many crackpot schemes, lowering interest rates to discourage savers was probably the most harmful. Savings allow us to invest in new factories, new machines, and new output. It is savings, in other words, that makes us more productive… and richer.

As savings went down so did serious capital investment. Instead of spending years building real, profit-making businesses, for example, entrepreneurs wanted to create overnight ‘start-ups’ that they could quickly unload on leveraged speculators. Less money was spent on new plant and equipment… and more on share buybacks, Mergers & Acquisitions, and other payouts to the rich. Why bother with the risk and hassle of long term business investment when you can borrow below the rate of consumer price inflation and jack up your stock price… or, like Michael Saylor, buy a crypto that was going to the moon?

The result was predictable. And now it is here. And we wonder…What will they think? After the confusion and ambiguity have lifted, like morning fog by the hot sun of time…will our descendants, 30 generations later, see us more clearly? How will they judge us? What will they say about us? We shudder to think…

Wikipedia: Year 3000: “Three things generally spelled doom for human societies – government, war, and inflation. And by the 21st century, all three were working against the United States of America and its global empire. Its government had become obese and incompetent. Its war mongers sought conflict. And its economic leaders promoted inflation as a way to keep the money flowing to themselves and their pet projects.

General, later President, Dwight Eisenhower had warned Americans about the ‘unwarranted power’ of what he called the ‘military, industrial complex.’ (MIC) in 1961. Forty years later, the MIC was running the country… and ruining it. It wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. But the press asked no questions. And neither party dared oppose it. Then, the MIC so provoked and taunted its rivals – assassinating foreign leaders, seizing money and assets without even pretending ‘due process of law,’ trying to shut them out of the world financial system completely – that Russia, China, India, Iran, Brazil and many other countries finally joined forces to defend the world from US tyranny.

By this time, too, the source of America’s power – its free economy – had been substantially hobbled. Altogether, presidents Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden wasted $24 trillion on wars, deficits and boondoggles. In addition, the two scourges of economic growth – inflation and central planning – had been unleashed and allowed to run wild. In the 21st century, the world economy still depended on fossil fuel. Yet the US government was forcing industry to convert to more expensive “alternative” energy. Taxes were raised on the still-productive sectors, while subsidies, handouts, and unrepayable loans were given to the unproductive ones. By 2022, wasteful spending, along with extremely foolish policies from the central bank, brought growth to a halt; the slide into poverty had begun.

Corruption, chaos, civil unrest, inflation, poverty, recession, and war – that was the history of the period from 2022 to 2036.

Finally, an attack by state-of-the-art Chinese drones, from forward bases in Brazil, in 2037, devastated America’s military installations, sank its ships, and led the US to beg for peace. In the Treaty of Shanghai the following year, the US was occupied by Chinese troops. It agreed, also, to disarm what was left of its military and disband its two war-seeking political parties. In this manner was the peace and prosperity of the world restored.”

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"Can't You See..."

"Can't you see that the courage to risk, to dare, to toss that gold coin up in the air over and over again, win or lose, is what makes humans human? They are fragile, doomed creatures, blinder than worms yet braver than the gods."

 - Jennifer Donnelly, "Stepsister"

"Shall We Play A Game?"

“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”

- "War Games"

"This is the "lesson" scene from the movie "War Games" where we learn that the only way to win in Nuclear War is not to play.

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the 1983 science fiction thriller, "WarGames." In the film, all of the United States nuclear launch capabilities is given to a computer called “Joshua” or WOPR, which stands for War Operation Plan Response. It is programmed to consistently run military simulations to concoct the best plan of an attack if nuclear retaliation is needed. David Lightman (played by Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into Joshua and causes the computer to think that the Soviet Union has launched missiles at the United States.

The quote comes from the very end of the film. David forces Joshuat o play tic-tac-toe against itself in the attempt to make it understand the concept of mutually assured destruction. As Joshua obtains the final launch code, it runs through all the possible scenarios in an attempt to find a winning plan. After cycling through all of them and not finding one where anyone survives, the machine delivers the quote."

○

"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." 

- David Ormsby-Gore

"Defense Experts Game Out US-China War Over Taiwan; Dalio Warns Escalations 'Very Dangerous'" (Excerpt)

"Defense Experts Game Out US-China War Over Taiwan;

 Dalio Warns Escalations 'Very Dangerous'" (Excerpt)

by Tyler Durden

Excerpt: "A group of American defense experts operating out of a 5th floor suite in Washington DC have been mapping out a hypothetical war between the United States and China over Taiwan. "The results are showing that under most - though not all - scenarios, Taiwan can repel an invasion," said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which has been simulating various war scenarios. "However, the cost will be very high to the Taiwanese infrastructure and economy and to US forces in the Pacific."

"In sessions that will run through September, retired US generals and Navy officers and former Pentagon officials hunch like chess players over tabletops along with analysts from the CSIS think tank. They move forces depicted as blue and red boxes and small wooden squares over maps of the Western Pacific and Taiwan. The results will be released to the public in December." - Bloomberg

The base assumption is that China invades Taiwan to force unification, which the US responds to with its military. Another assumption (that's 'far from certain') is that Japan would grant 'expanded rights' to use US bases on its territory - but wouldn't intervene directly unless Japanese land is attacked.

Nuclear weapons are not part of the scenarios, and the weapons used in the simulation are the most likely to be deployed based on current capabilities of the nations involved.

News of the war game simulations come as China began test-firing missiles in recent days following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) visit to Taiwan.So far, 18 of 22 rounds of the simulation to date have resulted in Chinese missiles sinking a large part of the US and Japanese surface fleet, and would destroy "hundreds of aircraft on the ground," according to Cancian, a former White House defense budget analyst and retired US Marine.

"However, allied air and naval counterattacks hammer the exposed Chinese amphibious and surface fleet, eventually sinking about 150 ships," he added. "The reason for the high US losses is that the United States cannot conduct a systematic campaign to take down Chinese defenses before moving in close," Cancian continued. "The United States must send forces to attack the Chinese fleet, especially the amphibious ships, before establishing air or maritime superiority. To get a sense of the scale of the losses, in our last game iteration, the United States lost over 900 fighter/attack aircraft in a four-week conflict. That’s about half the Navy and Air Force inventory."

View this complete article here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"Unfortunately..."

“They say if you don't know your history, you're 

doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, most Americans 

can't even figure out what's going on in the present.”

- Thor Benson

“All this had happened before, perhaps a million times, and because of this was doomed. There was no ordinary future any more, only this ecstatic tormented terrified present. The future had passed through the present like a sword. We were already, even eye to eye and lip to lip, deep in the horrors to come.”

- Iris Murdoch, "The Black Prince"

And they don't care or want to know...

"Trump: The Symbol and Symptom of the End"

"Trump: The Symbol and Symptom of the End"

by John Wilder

"Wednesday is usual the “wealthy” part of Wilder, Wealthy and Wise. Why? Because it starts with W. Duh. But I can’t this week. I normally like to talk to the deeper issues, the longer trends, and those timeless aspects of the human condition. There is more than a little evidence that we’ve been, in one way or another, been two sides fighting for thousands of years across a gulf between two factions. One is open, and the wellspring of Western Civilization.

The other is one that, for lack of a better allusion, is best represented by the worst aspects of Rudyard Kipling’s poem "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (reprinted at the end of this, because it’s old enough that Disney® doesn’t own it, it’s wonderful, and it’s True) – that implacable urge to move away from those values that emphasize what is Good, Beautiful, Right and True to placate what Kipling called “The Gods of the Marketplace”. It is a battle that provides humanity amazing wealth, meaning, and prosperity when The Gods of the Copybook Headings win. Spoiler alert: The Gods of the Copybook Headings always win.

One signpost in the road downward is the raid on Donald Trump. The word that people are using is “unprecedented” and they’re using it for a reason. It is unprecedented. As I went upstairs a moment ago, the news on the radio was insisting that Joe Biden had “no idea” what was going to happen. The Mrs. remarked, well, it starts with “Bull”. You get the idea. If Biden didn’t know about this, then the system is horribly broken. If he did, the system is horribly corrupt.

Do I believe a former president should be above the law? I certainly do not. But unless the FBI® found a dead stripper or a live boy in the safe, it ain’t enough. As much as the Clintons were corrupt and literally stole items out of the White House, there was no real push to have them arrested. Sure, Bill was impeached, and sure, because he perjured himself he could no longer practice law. That was about it.

And I’m okay with that. Even Nixon, who took part in a conspiracy and looked like, well, Nixon, was pardoned. Why? Because Nixon was politically neutered and could never take part in the public sphere again in any consequential manner. He was humiliated enough that the Left could enjoy it. Bill was humiliated, but (unlike Nixon) was he decided he’d try to bilk millions (and bimbos) out of those that wanted to buy influence with his political machine.

It is clear that every president since (and certainly including!) FDR has likely committed multiple felonies in office. It’s our system. Some, because they were not good guys. Some simply because there are more felonies on the books than hairs that were implanted in Biden’s head. The Federal way is now the way that the Soviets liked it – as Lavrenty Beria, former head of the Soviet NKVD and GULAG architect extraordinaire said, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”

Now, Trump. In every case during his presidency, he has been the boogie man for the Left – the man that gives them I accidently killed John Wick’s dog-level night sweats. Why? I’m not sure. Even though he couldn’t build a wall, Trump certainly upset the apple cart. Perhaps his singular achievement as president was to return the Supreme Court into a court that could actually read the Constitution in plain English again. The Constitution was written the way it was, for common men. It was written that way so that nearly every man in the United States could read it and understand the plain language. I mean, today they’d do it with angry cat memes, but you get the picture.

Given hundreds of years, the language was buried in a stream of emanations and penumbras such that what was clearly the written language of the Constitution became ignored in favor of piles of case law that in some cases twisted the original meaning nearly 180°. The Fourteenth Amendment, so beloved by the Left, turned a series of prohibitions on Federal activity into a prohibition on activity by the Several States.

Why is this important? Because it became a weapon of the statists, of those that would become globalists to use as a club so that the centralized government that the Founders feared could be put in place. Now every Federal law could be pushed into the Several States with impunity. Horrible Federal bureaucracies could be put in place. I remember reading that OSHA (which regulates workplace safety) was challenged in court by a company in Maine.

The company in Maine argued that they only worked in Maine, digging a hole for people who lived in Maine, in Maine. What business was it of a Federal Administration that sounds like the noise I make when a cigar ash hits my bare chest? Why did anyone care that the Maine hole didn’t match what a government rule written in Washington D.C. said? The Federal prosecutor didn’t even refute the argument. The administrative (not Constitutional) judge in this case ruled against the guy from Maine, since the judge said, “they have a phone and use the mail” so they’re engaged in interstate commerce.

Really. It’s a nonsense ruling, like you’d see in Alice in Wonderland but involving people who hated their lives but who were just “doing their job”. In 2022, for the first time in my life, this sort of nonsensical reasoning is being challenged at the Supreme Court level.

And they hate Trump for it. They hate him with every fiber of their being, even more than they hate Vladimir Putler or people who don’t take the vaxx or people who would deny teachers the right to indoctrinate kindergarteners into the world of S&M. They hate it more than they hate people who won’t kill their babies. For that, Trump must be punished.

Is it rational? Not at all. They’re willing to destroy the Republic for that, because they want to destroy the Republic anyway. There are those on the Right that are accelerationists: anything that brings on the actual shooting war with the Left should be embraced. On the Left, there are accelerationists, too. Anything that can pull down another statue, anything that can pervert another value, anything that can make the legacy of the United States die is to be saluted. Really. They hate it so very much, and Trump has been an inconvenient speedbump along the way.

So, their most fervent fantasy is Trump in an orange jumpsuit, whereas the most fervent fantasy of the Right was Hillary being an impotent drunk wine aunt staring from the outside in at a party she could never be a part of. Sure, the crowds at the Trump rally chanted “Lock Her Up” but what they really wanted was her humiliation. The Right got it, and then some.

Perhaps that was what drove them over the edge into insanity. Again, they want the destruction of the United States, so, they’re cool with that. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. I’m not really sure what bizarre fantasy plays in their heads as they contemplate the collapsing economic system and the utter lack of any shared goals or morality. Perhaps it’s a rainbow, though I doubt they’ll understand that the only actual consequence that they can really have is one that will lead to. But Rudyard Kipling understood it, every bit of it.

"The Gods of the Copybook Headings"

by Rudyard Kipling

"As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,

I make my proper protestations to the Gods of the Market-Place.

Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall.

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn.

That water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision, and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;

But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come

That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.

They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.

So we worshiped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.

They swore, if we gave them our weapons,

 that the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 'Stick to the Devil you know.'

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life

(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 'The Wages of Sin is Death/'

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selective Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 'If you don't work you die.'

The Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four--

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man--

There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:--

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!"

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/author/jwilder/

○

Related:

• "Taibbi: Welcome To The Third World"

• "Deep State's 'Next Step Will Be Assassination' After Trump Raid,

 Warns Former NYC Police Commissioner"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 8/10/22:

"Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club!

This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog we are at Sam's Club, 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:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "SHockER! More Fake Data And Stocks Are Poised To Take Off!

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/10/22:

"SHockER! More Fake Data And Stocks Are Poised To Take Off!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Shipping Prices Shot Up 1,000% As Port Congestion And Container Shortage Collapse Supply Chains"

Full screen recommended.

"Shipping Prices Shot Up 1,000% As Port Congestion 

And Container Shortage Collapse Supply Chains"

by Epic Economist

"As congestion continues to get worse at both coasts, U.S. companies are now paying the most expensive prices to move goods around ever recorded. Industry executives are seeing a 1,000% spike in shipping container prices as the backlog of empty containers keeps growing at major U.S. ports. Recent surveys show that pessimism is growing across the board, with an overwhelming majority of business owners reporting supply chain disruptions, shipping delays, and increased volatility in their operations. To make things worse, new data shows that hundreds of containerships are headed to the U.S., meaning that the chaos at ports has only just begun.

Global shipping giant Maersk is predicting this year’s annual profits to reach $31 billion, a $10 billion increase from its January forecast. But many across the industry are accusing shipping companies of 'profiteering' and contributing further to the crippling cost of living crisis. Each year, the Danish firm typically moves 12 million containers around the globe. But over the past couple of years, the company has raised prices from around $2,600 per container to between $26,000 and $30,000 today. That massive spike has fueled inflation and widespread consumer price increases that have continued to squeeze the budgets of millions of American households in recent months.

According to Nick Glynn, from the Buy it Direct Group, shipping firms are “acting like a cartel”. In a recent statement, he noted that “the extraordinary costs for a single container are directly hitting businesses and consumers”: “If you go back to 2019, the price of moving a 40ft container was less than $2,500. During Covid this went up over 1,000% percent, reaching $26,000. This has a significant impact on the cost of goods.” But even though shippers say that shipping and freight companies are price gouging, the firms cite worsening port congestion as the main reason for the sharp price hikes.

The situation at ports is getting critical again. Windward data shows that from March-June 2022, container vessels undertook 800 voyages from China to US ports, representing a capacity for 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units. Right now, there are 212 container vessels currently en route to a U.S. port, according to the firm’s analysis.

Congestion is no longer a problem exclusively seen at West Coast ports. “The port congestion situation has morphed from primarily impacting the West Coast to where it has shown up on all coastal ranges,” as noted by Blue Alpha Capital founder John McCown in a new research report. “The present port system is not in a position to accommodate the geometric growth on the foreseeable horizon. Containers can’t be endlessly stacked ever higher in existing terminals,” he added. As of Thursday morning last week, there were 153 container ships waiting for a berth off East and Gulf Coast ports.

This month marks the beginning of the traditional peak season in ocean shipping, which means that the current backlog of containers at the ports will only increase congestion and add wait time for incoming vessels. It also means that shipping prices could go even higher and that businesses haven’t seen the worst of supply chain disruptions just yet.

With all that said, it’s no wonder why an overwhelming majority of 97% of manufacturing companies in the United States reported that they are experiencing “significant disruption” in their direct supply chains. Those who are anxiously hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel and some relief from the current state of shipping and freight prices are probably out of luck. At least, that’s what the industry executives expect. Although the specifics vary slightly in how long they think rising container prices and port congestion will persist, pessimism is still spreading across all sectors.

End consumers will be facing more painful price increases in the months ahead and inflation probably hasn’t peaked yet. The system is gradually falling apart, and Americans will confront the repercussions of the ongoing supply chain collapse sooner than they think."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Gerald Celente, "That's All Folks!"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal,

"That's All Folks!"

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

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Get Food Preps Now, We Are Heading For Trouble; Qualified Homebuyers Going Extinct; Bank Bail-ins"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/9/22:

"Get Food Preps Now, We Are Heading For Trouble; 

Qualified Homebuyers Going Extinct; Bank Bail-ins"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Why Did They Really Raid Trump’s Estate?"; "Will We Reclaim Our Freedom?"

"Why Did They Really Raid Trump’s Estate?"

by Jeffrey Tucker

"The FBI has raided Donald Trump’s home in Florida and opened a private safe, hanging around for hours looking for classified material that might or might not be there. They were likely looking for items that Trump believed he had declassified - the president can do this with anything - but is still holding in his possession. Top officials of the National Archives, the DOJ and the FBI believed otherwise and thus sought the search warrant. If The New York Times is correct, then this is really about state secrets. Trump wanted them public. Others inside the deep-state machinery disagreed.

The scene in Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, gives rise to images from societies without law and constitutions, places where regimes are merely juntas seeking plunder and revenge. In this case, the problem is complicated by a mass administrative state apparatus that lives outside the democratic process. “Aides to President Biden,” reports the Times, “said they were stunned by the development and learned of it from Twitter.” This is likely true. But it gives rise to the more fundamental question: Who is actually running the government?

If we didn’t before realize the extent of the multivariate crisis gathering all around us, now is the time. It’s a time for analysis and understanding. It’s also the time to make a decision concerning what we are all going to do about it.

Even those of us who are not fans of Trump - I wrote one of the first articles from 2015 warning against his ideological leanings, which later became a full book - see the deeper implications. The betting odds favor him for the presidency in 2024. Someone somewhere wants to make this impossible. So all the forces of the administrative state - the actual rulers of this country - have coalesced around crushing him and his legacy, Soviet-like.

In the background of all of this is the real struggle that will define American politics for years to come. Two weeks before he left office in 2021, Trump issued an executive order that would have put a major dent in the power of the administrative state in this country, taking the first steps toward returning government to the people after a century in which it gradually slipped away. In some people’s view, this is intolerable.

Trump, for all his failings, among which was green-lighting the lockdowns that started this social and economic crisis, has become over time a symbol of resistance. The raiding of his private home sends a message about who is in charge. It’s a warning for everyone. An intimidation tactic. We are used to this but we should not become so.

Biden has once again declared a national emergency in the name of virus control. Such a declaration effectively enshrines the permanent bureaucracy to rule the country at all levels in whatever ways they desire, at least until courts stop them. The extension of the declaration hardly made the news.

Have we forgotten what normalcy is? It was only three years ago. Yes, there were political arguments and enormous problems but it still felt like a nation of laws with a government subject to the people. Already, there was something in the air in mid-March 2020, something that suggested that everything was changed. Governments all over the world dared to do the unthinkable, partly under the influence that it happened in the U.S., and under a Republican administration.

Countless millions found themselves locked in their homes. The churches were forcibly closed. Businesses and schools too. You know the story. It was not only a sweeping use of state power without precedent. It foreshadowed dark times ahead. Here we are 2½ years later and the state is on the march in ways we never imagined possible three years ago. The raiding of Trump’s home is but a sign and symbol: None of our homes is safe. And they haven’t been for years now. Can we reclaim our liberty?"

○

"Will We Reclaim Our Freedom?"

By Jeffrey Tucker

"Even now, in the land of the free, people are being pressured to accept the shot or get fired. We all have unvaccinated friends who want to visit us but cannot because the U.S. government blocks them. Our health authorities have only expressed regret in one area: for not having locked down more. And they are creating a bureaucratic machinery to make doing so next time more ferocious and better enforced. All of this is taking place without a scrap of evidence that any of it makes any scientific and/or medical sense. The scientists who resist have been canceled. Only one view is permitted to ascend. Everyone with doubt is being marginalized and silenced.

Congress itself became addicted to authorizing trillions in spending, and they keep doing it again and again. This adds pressure on the Federal Reserve to enter the markets and buy the resulting debt with freshly printed money just as rates are being pushed up to clean up its disastrous balance sheet. No one knows, least of all the Fed, how long this grueling inflation will continue but regardless, the damage is done.

The labor markets, despite the propaganda from the White House, reveal alarming weakness. Fewer full-time jobs. More part-time jobs. More people with two jobs. And fewer workers overall, as labor-market participation and worker/population ratios fall and fall.

Not only have these markets not recovered from lockdowns. The trends are getting worse, with fully 1 million dropped out completely from the labor force since March 2022, which is highly suggestive of a demoralized workforce lacking in ambition and hope for the future. Wages and salaries in real terms are falling more than the nominal rates can cover. There is a debate about whether we are in a recession because the GDP has fallen for two straight quarters. But looking at the broad trends, there can be no mistaking what is happening.

American prosperity is fundamentally threatened. The relationship between freedom and prosperity is one of the most well-established truths in economic literature. It should not be surprising that both decline in tandem. Complain too much and you will find yourself without a voice on social media. The tech companies developed a deep relationship with the administrative state over the last two years, corresponding with each other, sharing insights, making enemies lists and silencing dissidents of all sorts.

Clearly, the lockdowns did not achieve the goal, as the virus came and has gradually become endemic regardless of external interventions including mass vaccination mandates. What they did do was test society’s tolerance for despotism. Tragically, they got away with it all, much more easily than most of us might have expected.

Even now, even though the ruling class has never been less popular with the public, too many have adapted to the new normal. It’s like the frog in the pot of water, becoming acclimated to the gradually rising temperature. For many people, this is by necessity: What, after all, can anyone really do when freedom is slipping away and even core functioning of civilization (safe streets, vibrant cities, class mobility) is something we can no longer take for granted?

Let history record that lockdowns triggered this. All of it. Yes, there were problems before but they seemed within the realm of fixable. There appeared to be in the old days (three years ago) some relationship between public opinion and regime priorities. That was blown away with lockdowns. Now it is no longer clear whether and to what extent public opinion matters at all to the masters and commanders of our societies. They are leading us to ever greater crises and yet we feel powerless to do anything about it.

In the most incredible of ironies, it was Trump himself, now targeted for destruction by the bureaucrats he sought to control, who enabled this in the dreadful year of 2020. Realizing but never admitting his error, he flipped in the other direction late in the season, arguing for openness and normalcy. But it was too late. He already lost control, as Deborah Birx’s book makes clear. The deep state that he had loathed needed to prove its hegemony. This raid on his own home underscores the point.

One read of history is that such times lead inexorably to the forward march of tyranny. Certainly interwar political history teaches us this. The crisis in Germany began in an economic crisis that cried out for a strongman, but Germany was hardly alone in this. The same inexorable push toward centralization and against freedom took place the world over in those horrible years: Spain, Italy, France, China, the U.S. Read the popular and scholarly literature from the early 1930s: Freedom and democracy were out and central planning was in. I read all of this in college and was grateful that those days were gone forever.

We are so much more enlightened now! How wrong I was. The same themes are back again today as entrenched elites clamor to hold on to power regardless of public opinion. In the 1930s, the extremist political left threatened many countries and the extremist political right arrived to prevent that from happening and then erected their own despotisms, always under the cover of emergency. It became a kind of civil war between two opposing camps with their own plans for people’s lives. Freedom was lost in the struggle.

We had hoped those days were long behind us. But the allure of power has proven too tempting for the worst among us. We are all watching as all the things we love - the way of life that many generations have fought to protect - are being swept away. And it is happening with not nearly enough explanation or protest.

These are not the most terrifying times in history but they are among the most terrifying in our lifetimes in the West. Where are the parties and movements that defend freedom as a first principle? Where are the successors to Voltaire, Locke, Goethe, Paine and Jefferson, among the many great thinkers who sacrificed so much for the liberal vision of a social order in which people manage their own lives?

Such people are here, many of them producing articles, books and podcasts to get around the opinion cartel being built by censors public and private. What difference can they make and how? This much is true: What man has made man can unmake and make something new: a new Magna Carta, whether formal or de facto. The urgency has never been more intense. A state without an acquiescing populace is powerless in the end. But not without struggle. And that struggle is ultimately an intellectual one. It’s about what we believe and what kind of society we want to live in.

Our prayer today should be for freedom above all else, a society and a world in which powerful elites do not rule the rest of us and forever fight amongst themselves for the right to do so, with the people deployed as fodder in their struggles, and while hope and prosperity slip ever deeper into memory.

These are very dangerous times, with a toxic mix as backdrop: a growing economic crisis, a spitefully supercilious ruling class and a vengeful administrative state determined to crush all enemies before it. Something has got to give.

May the USA defy the historical odds, find its way back to simple liberty and begin to restore what has been lost so dramatically and so quickly. Otherwise, all truth will be declared a state secret and our homes will never be safe from invasion."

- dailyreckoning.com