"Incredible: The Complete Destruction Of America’s Institutions Accelerates"

"Incredible: The Complete Destruction Of 

America’s Institutions Accelerates"

by Jim Kunstler

"We’re witnessing the destruction of every institution in the land and nobody knows how to stop it… The CDC seems to think nobody will notice its crimes, and the crimes of its sister agencies, FDA, NIAID, NIH, (and the White House Task Force) if it strolls jauntily into the fall season whistling a happy a tune: Nevermind Covid anymore, la la la… Did I say crimes? Yes, I did. As in gross violations of the law and the basic social contract.

They lied about their roles in the nefarious origins of SARS CoV-2. They conjured up - already had waiting, actually - dangerous genetic treatments masquerading as “vaccines” and then they faked the safety trials to rush them into use. They denied people proper, effective treatments with inexpensive drugs and killed them with ventilators and remdesivir - solely to maintain a fraudulent emergency use authorization (EUA) that shielded “vaccine” companies from lawsuits.

Once the “vaccines’ were widely distributed - and forced upon many people with mandates - they confabulated and hid information about adverse reactions and deaths. They destroyed countless small businesses, livelihoods, households, and hindered children’s development with lockdowns. And they used both social and news media to censor their critics in direct violation of the first amendment. That’s all.

Oh, one more thing: they destroyed modern medicine. They will probably assist in the destruction of law, too, because the legal system will never be able to handle the volume of lawsuits against all parties involved in the Covid “vaccine” mass slaughter - including the corporations that forced their employees to get vaxxed and the pharma companies themselves, who will lose their EUA protections once their fraud is proven. And they will hasten the death of an already ailing financial system that can’t bear the wealth transfers implied in the foregoing (on top of the worst debt crisis in human history).

You think I exaggerate? We’re sailing into the flu season with millions of people whose immune systems are wrecked by multiple shots of mRNA novelty drugs. They are also susceptible to many viruses and bacteria which normally lurk in everybody’s bodily ecosystem, but would be controlled by otherwise healthy immune systems. Likewise, their hacked immune systems are no longer able to suppress cancers - many forms of which are already way up above normal statistical levels. Not to mention damage done to cardiovascular systems by spike proteins, which linger in human bodies for more than a year after “vaccine” shots, as well as neurological and brain damage.

Former Wall Street analyst Edward Dowd said on August 18 that a Society of Actuaries report just made public shows that a 20 percent uptick in excess deaths among working age people, which began with vaxx mandates in the fall of 2021, continued into the second quarter of 2022. Actuaries are the people who compile and analyze statistics for insurance companies.

So, the last few weeks the CDC has been walking-back one “guidance” after another. No more compulsory testing, no more contact-tracing, no more social distancing, no more treating the unvaxxed differently than the vaxxed (though the “Joe Biden” regime still won’t allow unvaxxed travelers into the USA), no more vaxx mandates (except, apparently, the US military). Oh, and they’ve conceded that their “vaccines” do not remain in the deltoid muscle, but actually leak all over the body. Note: whatever else the public health agencies are saying or doing right now, they are still promoting the mRNA vaccines, and lying about their safety and effectiveness - because if they told the truth, they would be completely discredited and surely subject to criminal prosecution. And they are still suppressing cheap and effective treatment protocols while promoting remdesivir and the useless (plus expensive) Paxlovid.

The CDC capped the walk-back campaign by announcing a major overhaul of how the agency works. (The FDA and other public health entities made no such promises.) CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, fronting for other little-known federal bigwigs actually called in to clean-up after her, made the hilarious statement: “I look forward to working with the incredible people at CDC and our partners to realize the agency’s fullest potential to benefit the health and well-being of all Americans.” What a dim bulb. Does she know the definition of the word incredible? (Here it is: impossible to believe.)

Of course, the more sobering picture is that virtually all American institutions are now incredible, impossible to believe, starting from the top: “Joe Biden” as president. The executive branch of the government is being run by Barack Obama and a claque around him and is being run into the ground either on-purpose or out of astounding incompetence. Attorney General Merrick Garland flamboyantly disgraces the very idea of justice with Stalinesque political prosecutions. FBI Director Christopher Wray flouts every attempt to extract the truth about his agency’s operations, and at least half the country believes he’s turned it into a secret police operation like the Gestapo.

The college presidents and deans have dishonored the idea of truth-seeking with their cowardly submission to Jacobin-Marxist maniacs and their program of anti-knowledge. And who, in America really trusts his doctor? (Not me. Mine is the “chief medical officer” of my network and he’s still pushing “vaccines.”)

We allowed this to happen. We tolerated this exorbitant abuse by runaway authorities-gone-criminal. We let them get away with their bullshit about “defending our democracy” when they are actively and visibly destroying it. Serious people must be seriously asking themselves: what will it take to stop them now?"

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.

"How It Really Is, And Will Be For A Long, Long time"

 

Greg Hunter, "Era of Fake Money is Gone – Egon von Greyerz"

"Era of Fake Money is Gone – Egon von Greyerz"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Financial and precious metals expert Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a former Swiss banker and financial expert that says massive money printing and huge amounts of unpayable debt will lead to a monster financial meltdown soon. EvG says, “I did forecast that the stock market is going to fall at this particular point. The 1,000-point drop on the DOW last Friday came right on cue. Fundamentally, the markets should have crashed a long time ago. It appears clear to me we are going to see a 30% or so fall in the markets in the next one to two months. That’s the first fall, but that’s just the beginning. Markets will fall, in real terms, by 90% to 95% in the coming years. That’s not going to happen overnight, but if it does happen overnight, then all bets are off and there will be a total disaster. The world is going to shut down. Then there will be some extra money printing and people will be optimistic for a while. 

There is no money anymore because the money that is printed will make zero difference. There will be nothing that will drive the world forward. All the decisions on top of the with energy, climate change, sanctions, etcetera, will mean it all will crash a lot faster. The world is going to see a collapse that it has never seen before in history, and there is absolutely no remedy for that. They are not going to be able to do anything. Everybody who is not in power is going to promise something that they can’t deliver. When they get into power, they will be thrown out because they couldn’t deliver. So, the era of Shangri-la and money printing and saving the world by fake money - that era is totally gone.”

EvG goes on to say, “I am not a prophet of doom and gloom, but it may sound like it. I am just someone who just looks at risk. This is why I got into gold 20 years ago. Gold was the best solution to a risk situation in the financial world. We almost had a collapse in 2008, and it was patched up temporarily. This time they won’t succeed. We have a situation nobody can solve. Initially, there will be money printing, but adding new debt to pay old debt is not a great solution to the problem. 

 I don’t think there will be any orderly reset at all. At some point, there will be an implosion of the system. There has to be. You have to remember when the debt collapses, all the assets that were supported by this debt will collapse. You will have an implosion of values, I expect 90% plus. Stocks crashed in 1929 to 1932 by 90%. The risk back then and the magnitude of the problems then were nothing compared to what we have today. Remember, today it’s global, and it’s every single country in the world. It’s everywhere, and no one can escape what’s coming.”

In closing, EvG says, “Gold never goes up in price. Gold maintains stable purchasing power, and that’s why it is such a wonderful commodity and asset.” EvG likes silver, too, but he says be careful because it will be more volatile than gold." There is much more in the 37-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz

 of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com.

- https://rumble.com/

"20 Things The Middle Class Can't Afford Anymore"

Full screen recommended.

"20 Things The Middle Class Can't Afford Anymore"

by Epic Economist

"The U.S. middle class is losing ground financially, and in today's video, we're going to expose a list of things middle-income workers can no longer afford. We're living through the most severe cost of living crisis in history, and Americans are seeing their purchasing power evaporate at a breathtaking speed. Even those who used to have some sense of financial security are now having to make some difficult choices and opt between putting food on their tables, paying utility bills, or seeking medical care. Today, middle-earners do not have the same economic stability their parents had back in the day. They continue to struggle with rising costs of education, entertainment, energy, groceries, and everyday necessities while real wage growth stagnates. With each passing month, living conditions continue to worsen for this group.

Right now, millions of Americans are still struggling to afford a basic middle-class life. Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. The share of middle-income Americans who say their incomes aren't keeping up with their cost of living has jumped 16 percentage points since December 2020, rising to 75% in June 2022, Primerica found. With tight budgets, middle-class families are having to cut back on their spending on name-brand items. In July alone, retail sales data shows a 28% decline in the purchase of brand name items as middle-income shoppers scramble to afford simple luxuries of life.

The middle-class debt load is growing much faster than their incomes, leaving workers struggling to make ends meet each month. According to a Money-Zine analysis, "back in 1980, the consumer debt per person was $1,540, which was 7.3% of the average household income of $21,100. In 2022, consumer debt climbed to $58,604 per person, which was almost 60% of the average household income of $97,026. This means debt increased nearly 500% faster than income from 1980 through 2022."

 Having a financial cushion to fall back on is essential to ensure economic security, but as the cost of living soars, fewer middle-class workers can afford to put some money aside for emergencies. A Bankrate poll found that only one in seven middle-class households have at least six months of emergency savings. Over 25% of them have no emergency savings at all, and the remaining households have a small to moderate amount of savings, but not enough to cover six months of expenses.

In theory, middle-class earners differ from low-income earners because they don’t live paycheck to paycheck. But in reality, over 60% of the U.S. population, or approximately, 157 million adults, are currently living in a hand-to-mouth situation. In other words, middle-class Americans are just as financially burdened as low-income Americans, with around two-thirds, or 67%, unable to cover an unexpected $400 expense. New estimates suggest that around one-quarter of the U.S. population is already spending more than ten percent of their net income on energy. People from households that exceed this ten-per cent threshold are considered to be in the "energy poor" group, experts note. Last year, less than 10% of the population faced energy poverty. But over the past 12 months, the proportion of energy poor has risen by more than fifteen percentage points. Economists observe that high energy prices no longer only burden households with low incomes. This is going to be a very bitter winter for many middle-class families out there. Large swathes of our society are already facing massive amounts of financial pain. But as global events accelerate, it's safe to say that the worst is yet to come."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Canadian Prepper, "State Of Emergency, Grid Down"

Canadian Prepper, 9/1/22:

"State Of Emergency, Grid Down"

"Get ready to feel the burn this weekend!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"In Memoriam"

"In Memoriam"

by Brian Maher

"We learn that former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev has gone over the rainbow. When a man of historical note clears out, a fellow tends to reflect upon his deeds… and of days past. Today is one such occasion.

Mr. Gorbachev was of course the final premier of the Soviet Union. He did not tear down that wall - as the American president, Reagan, had exhorted him to do in 1987. Yet he did not prevent the walled-in from tearing it down in 1989. At least partly due to Mr. Gorbachev’s passivity, the Cold War closed out with the figurative whimper rather than the literal bang.

Heady days, those were. It was the very end of history, argued Harvard man Francis Fukuyama. Liberal democracy had buried communism… the precise negation of Mr. Khrushchev’s forecast decades prior. Jefferson would displace Lenin. Smith would displace Marx. Warful swords would go beating into peaceful and productive plowshares.

Do you remember it? The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Moscow as 1990 closed. Hundreds and hundreds stood waiting in line. Was there a grander symbol of communist vanquishment and defeat? Thus the Russian people would discover at last the high glories of political and economic freedom.

Now scroll 30 years ahead to the present day…Russia is an oligarchy annually voted the most corrupt - or second-most corrupt - nation in Europe. (Would you care to hazard its competition for first place?) It is kinged by a 21st-century czar labeled variously as “thug,” “dictator” or “terrorist.” There are other terms less flattering yet.

Russian aircraft and submarines once again menace American territorial borders while American aircraft and submarines menace Russian territorial borders… as during the long twilight Cold War struggle. Russia has invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine while the United States delivers lethal aid to force Russia out. Direct confrontation between the United States and Russia remains a lingering possibility. To heap Pelion upon Ossa… McDonald’s has vacated Russia entirely.

We may conclude that the United States won the war — but not the peace. Who would have forecast it three decades prior? A cynical yet historically minded few perhaps. They understood well that history has no end. They understood that history is not a roadway terminating in a democratic and capitalistic El Dorado… or any El Dorado at all. It is more a ceaseless clashing of power, interest and commonly - arms.

The question of course… is what went wrong? We are sophisticated enough to recognize the complexity of events, the vast interplay of whirling dynamics. Yet we are simple enough to cling to one grand theory. In our simplistic view the United States should have quit the NATO alliance once its rival alliance disbanded. Yet the United States expanded the NATO alliance eastward - despite pledges to Russia that it would not.

Here is “isolationist” Patrick Buchanan, writing in 1999: "If the United States has one overriding national security interest in the new century, it is to avoid collisions with great nuclear powers like Russia. By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a 21st-century confrontation. Europe’s sick man of today is going to get well. When Russia does, it will proclaim its own Monroe Doctrine.

And when that day comes, America will face a hellish dilemma: Risk confrontation with a nuclear-armed Russia determined to re-create its old sphere of influence, or renege on solemn commitments and see NATO collapse." Mr. Buchanan gazed into a crystal ball far clearer than most. And so here we are.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen,” lamented 19th-century poet John Greenleaf Whittier… “The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" And so today we reflect upon Mr. Gorbachev’s legacy and the newly formed Cold War ice that had melted decades ago. “Peace and friendship,” we say: “It might have been!”...

Below, Jeffrey Tucker reflects upon the “good old days of the Cold War,” and what went wrong. Read on."

"The Good Old Days of the Cold War"

By Jeffrey Tucker

"The death of Mikhail Gorbachev unleashed a wave of nostalgia for simpler and better times. That’s odd, isn’t it? Not so much. The freedom revolution did not turn out as planned. The world never became normal and peaceful as promised. And today, we can only look back on the 1980s with affection for better times.

Back in the day, in the midst of the Cold War, we had an overwhelming sense of the world being held hostage and on the verge of a global nuclear war that could wipe out humanity as we knew it. One wrong move, one bad piece of intelligence, and boom the world would go up in fire and smoke. The stakes were so high! It was not just about stopping the end of life on the planet. It was about an epic struggle between freedom (the U.S.) and tyrannical communism (the Soviet Union).

In our political landscape, much of American politics turned on whether it was wise to risk peace alongside a Soviet victory or go for a full vanquishing of evil from the planet. The battle over communism defined the lives of many generations. Everything seemed so clear in those days. We were the good guys and they were the bad guys. We had to spy, fight, build up the military, fund the freedom fighters and generally be strong in the face of godless evil.

Ronald Reagan was just the champion that freedom needed in those days. He called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” It drove the left nuts and cheered the base. Then one odd day in 1987, he and Gorbachev met and decided that they would together rid the world of nuclear weapons. They were giddy about the idea and the whole world went into shock and amazement.

Gorbachev gained a victory at home – he ruled a poor and restless population sick of the nonsense – that encouraged him to seek more reforms, which only fed the appetite for more reform. Reagan served two terms and left office. Then dramatic change hit the world from 1989–90. The Soviet Empire fell apart, gradually at first and then all at once. Gorbachev became the country’s last leader as Soviet communism became plain-old Russian autocracy over time. The world could now be free!

During this period I met Israeli historian Martin van Creveld. He was a scholar on war and terrorism. He held a usual view. He believed that the end of the Cold War was a disaster. He said the world would never be as peaceful as it was when two superpowers faced off with nuclear arsenals. He described it as the perfect game for peace and prosperity. Neither would ever risk using the weapons but the prospect alone made states more cautious than they otherwise would be. In fact, in his view, this nuclear standoff made the world as good as it could be given the circumstances. He dreaded what might happen once one of the two powers disappeared.

I simply could not accept that position. That’s because I bought all the propaganda that this was really about a victory for peace and freedom. With the Soviet Union gone, the U.S. could now safely return to its natural and constitutional status as a peaceful commercial republic, friendship with all and entangling alliances with none. I was all in on the idea that we had finally reached the end of history: We would have freedom and democracy forever now that we knew that those systems were the best systems.

In those days, many on the left and right in American politics were screaming for normalcy. But there was a huge problem. The U.S. had built up a massive intelligence/military/industrial machinery that had no intention of just closing up shop. It needed a new rationale. It needed a new enemy. It needed some new scary thing.

If the U.S. could not find an enemy, it needed to make one. China in those days wasn’t quite right for enemization, so the U.S. looked to old allies that could be betrayed and demonized. George H.W. Bush decided that Manuel Noriega was a bad money launderer and drug dealer and had to go. The U.S. military made it happen.

Good show! What else? In the Middle East, Iraq was becoming annoying. So George H.W. Bush seized on a border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait, portraying the tiny country as a victim of the big oppressor next door. He would have to intervene militarily.

Now, to be sure, this was not about the U.S. going on some wild new imperial crusade. No no. It was really about punishing aggression just this one time so that the entire world would learn forevermore never to disturb borders again. It was a brief war for peace. It was two weeks to flatten the curve… wait, wrong war. It was two weeks to make the world safe for democracy.

Thus began what became a 25-year occupation. Just two days ago, the palace in Baghdad was ransacked yet again. This once civilized country that attracted the best and brightest students from the whole region is in utter shambles. This is what the U.S. did.

And that was just the start. The U.S., incredibly, replicated Soviet-style occupation in Afghanistan and ended up staying even longer. This was following the 9/11 attacks carried out as a retaliation against U.S. actions in Iraq and the disputed borders of Israel. The Department of Homeland Security came into being and Americans lost vast freedoms.

As for NATO itself, it never went away following the end of the Cold War but rather became another tool of provocation that the U.S. could use to poke its enemies. It was too much for Russia, which decided to settle scores in Ukraine, thus provoking U.S. and European sanctions that are driving the price of energy up for everyone but Russia.

The U.S. victory in the Cold War was massively and tragically misspent. Instead of doing a victory lap for freedom and constitutional government - that’s what we believe was the whole damn point - the U.S. went on a global crusade. Whole peoples suffered but we hardly felt it at all here at home. Life was good. The carnage abroad was all abstract.

With lockdowns and the current political and economic chaos, the global empire has come home to oppress us all in the most personal possible way. We now read tales of life in the Soviet Union and we recognize it all too well. We read 1984 by George Orwell and recognize it in our own experience. Ah for the days of a smiling Reagan and Gorby! Together they decided to end the hell of the Cold War. We had no idea just how good we had it."

- dailyreckoning.com

"Get Ready, Everything Will Collapse; Middle Class Going Homeless; Fake Money Won't Save Markets"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/1/22:

"Get Ready, Everything Will Collapse; 

Middle Class Going Homeless; Fake Money Won't Save Markets"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "A Warning: Be Ready For The World As We Know It To Change Dramatically"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/1/22:

"A Warning: Be Ready For The World 

As We Know It To Change Dramatically"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, “Courting the Moon”

Full screen recommended.

2002, “Courting the Moon”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides.

Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Recent predictions hold that our Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130825.html

Free Download: Mark Twain, 'Letters From the Earth'"

"Mark Twain's 'Letters From the Earth'"

by Wikipedia

“Letters from the Earth” is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters. Initially, his daughter, Clara Clemens, objected to its publication in March 1939, probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion, claiming it presented a "distorted" view of her father. Henry Nash Smith helped change her position in 1960. Clara explained her change of heart in 1962 saying that "Mark Twain belonged to the world" and that public opinion had become more tolerant. She was also influenced to release the papers due to her annoyance with Soviet propaganda charges that her father's ideas were being suppressed in the United States. The papers were edited in 1939 by Bernard DeVoto. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. The title story consists of eleven letters written by the archangel Satan to archangels, Gabriel and Michael, about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man's religions. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man.

Textual references make clear that sections, at least, of “Letters from the Earth” were written shortly before his death in April 1910. (For instance, Letter VII, in discussing the ravages of hookworm, refers to the $1,000,000 gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help eradicate the disease – a gift that was announced on October 28, 1909, less than six months before Twain's death.)"

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_from_the_Earth

○

Excerpt: "Letters From the Earth"
by Mark Twain

"This is a strange place, an extraordinary place, and interesting. There is nothing resembling it at home. The people are all insane, the other animals are all insane, the earth is insane, Nature itself is insane. Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at is worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. Yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the "noblest work of God." This is the truth I am telling you. And this is not a new idea with him, he has talked it through all the ages, and believed it. Believed it, and found nobody among all his race to laugh at it.

Moreover - if I may put another strain upon you - he thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance. I must put one more strain upon you: he thinks he is going to heaven!"

Freely download "Letters From the Earth", by Mark Twain, here: 

- https://faculty.mtsac.edu/jmcfaul/

"Our Planet..."

"We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds;

our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Someone Once Told Me..."

"Someone once told me that time is a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, that reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we live it. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Gerald Celente, "Roundtable: The Case For Peace In Ukraine"

Full screen recommended.

Gerald Celente, 9/1/22:

"Roundtable: The Case For Peace In Ukraine"

"Gerald Celente, the publisher of The Trends Journal and founder of Occupy Peace, held a ‘Peace & Freedom Rally’ in Kingston, N.Y., with some of the finest minds in the peace movement.

Prior to the rally, Celente held a roundtable discussion that gives an intimate and privileged perspective into the argument for peace that is banned in the mainstream media. Celente was joined by Judge Andrew Napolitano, the former chief legal analyst for Fox News; Phil Giraldi, the former CIA operative; Gary Null, the host at Progressive Radio Network; and Scott Ritter, an ex-weapons inspector for the UN.

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."

- https://trendsresearch.com

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Darkness Falls"

"Darkness Falls"

"Darkness falls upon Humanity

and faces become terrible things

that wanted more than there was.

All our days are marked with

unexpected affronts - 

some disastrous, others less so,

but the process is

wearing and continuous.

Attrition rules.

Most give way,

leaving empty spaces

where people should be.

And now,

as we ready to self-destruct,

there is very little left to kill,

which makes the tragedy

less and more,

much, much more."

- Charles Bukowski

The Daily "Near You?"

Valley Center, Kansas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Must View! "You Have to Buy an Electric Car That You Can’t Charge", And Much More

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, 9/1/22:

"You Have to Buy an Electric Car That You Can’t Charge"

"The global energy crisis is taking its toll on everyone. Restaurants cannot afford to pay the electric bill. We are seeing warnings from around the world that this is going to get much worse before it gets better."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Life You Have Left..."

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.

Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”

~ Leo Babauta

○

“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

To be or not to be.

Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice.

Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume

and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?"

- Chuck Palahniuk

○

"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,

who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"

- Stephen Levine

"What Would You Do If You Had To Go Through The Economic Horrors Of 2008 Again?

"What Would You Do If You Had To Go 

Through The Economic Horrors Of 2008 Again?" 

(Spoiler Alert: The Next Economic Crisis Has Already Begun)

by Michael Snyder

"If you knew for certain that we were about to plunge into another massive economic downturn like we experienced during the “Great Recession”, how would you respond? The events of the second half of 2008 took almost everyone by surprise, and the vast majority of the population was completely unprepared for what happened next. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and that meant that they were suddenly unable to pay their bills. Countless households got behind on their mortgages and rent payments, and we witnessed a dramatic spike in foreclosures and evictions. I wish that we would never have to see such suffering again, but unfortunately it is already starting to happen right in front of our eyes.

The Biden administration keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is in good condition, but if that is the case why are so many large companies now laying off workers? On Wednesday, we learned that Snap Inc. will be laying off approximately 20 percent of their entire global workforce…"Snap Inc., the parent company of the popular app Snapchat, announced plans to lay off some 20% of its more than 6,400 global employees. The news will impact the jobs of more than 1,200 staffers at the tech giant, and comes as broader economic conditions have deteriorated in recent months amid rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s interest rates hikes. The recent market downturn has especially pummeled the tech sector, where news of hiring freezes, layoffs, and other cost-cutting measures have dominated headlines for months."

Of course it isn’t just the tech industry that is getting monkey-hammered these days. It was also just announced that Bed Bath & Beyond will be permanently closing 150 stores and will be getting rid of about 20 percent of their corporate employees…"Bed Bath & Beyond is in deep turmoil. The company is trying to rescue itself and stay out of bankruptcy by shrinking. The chain said Wednesday that it will lay off approximately 20% of corporate employees, close around 150 stores and slash several of its in-house home goods’ brands. Crucially, the company also said it secured more than $500 million in financing to shore up its ailing financial straits."

Normally, retailers wait until after the lucrative holiday season before announcing store closings. So this move seems highly unusual. Sadly, this is all part of a “layoff tsunami” that has now started. As I discussed the other day, approximately half of all U.S. companies anticipate that they will be eliminating jobs over the next 12 months. Needless to say, a “tsunami of layoffs” is only going to accelerate the new housing crash that we are now witnessing.

Last week, total mortgage application volume was 63 percent lower than it was during the same week in 2021…"After falling back earlier this month, mortgage rates began rising sharply again to the highest level since mid-July. That caused mortgage demand to pull back even further. Total mortgage application volume fell 3.7% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 63% lower than the same week one year ago."

63 percent! What a catastrophe. And many other recent numbers confirm the fact that we are now past the peak of the housing bubble and are now on the way down…"Sales volume of existing homes plunged by 20% from a year ago across the US, and by 31% in California, and by 41% in San Diego. Median prices in the West have begun to drop, and in the San Francisco Bay Area fell below year-ago-levels, including by 8% in San Francisco. Sales of new houses plunged by nearly 30% year-over-year across the US, and in the West by 50%, as the supply of new houses has exploded to 11 months, the highest since the peak of Housing Bust 1. And big institutional buyers have started to pull out of this market because they don’t want to overpay. This has been going on for months."

Home prices have only just begun to drop. They could potentially go down a lot further, because soaring mortgage rates have put home ownership out of reach for a huge chunk of the population at this point. What we really need is for the Federal Reserve to stop hiking interest rates. But Fed officials have already told us that they aren’t going to do that. So the housing crash that we are currently experiencing is only going to get worse.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of renters are getting behind on their rent payments. In fact, it is being reported that 3.8 million renters believe that it is likely that they will be evicted within the next two months…"For the first time ever, the median rent in the U.S. topped $2,000 a month in June - and the increases show no sign of stopping. Those rising rents mean that households representing a total of 8.5 million people were behind on their rent at the end of August, according to Census Bureau figures. And 3.8 million of those renters say they’re somewhat or very likely to be evicted in the next two months."

If things are this bad already, what will conditions look like once millions more Americans have lost their jobs? Just like we saw in 2008, huge numbers of evictions and foreclosures are on the horizon, and the middle class is going to be absolutely eviscerated by this crisis.

Last time around, the Fed was able to reduce the severity of the crisis by pushing interest rates to the floor and by pumping trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. This time around they are unlikely to implement such measures because they are deathly afraid of causing even more inflation. So the stage is set for an economic meltdown of absolutely epic proportions, and there is no hero that is going to come riding to the rescue.

We are about to experience the consequences of literally decades of exceedingly foolish decisions. Enjoy the rest of the summer while you still can, because the U.S. economy is only going to go downhill from here."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

○

Horror indeed...

- https://www.thelayoff.com/

Check the current list of recent user layoff related 

comments, questions, rumors and messages here:

- https://www.thelayoff.com/last-25.php

"How It Really Is"

"What this country needs... what this great land of ours needs is something to happen to it. Something ferocious and tragic, like what happened to Jericho or the cities of the plain - something terrible I mean, son, so that when the people have been through hellfire and the crucible, and have suffered agony enough and grief, they'll be people again, human beings, not a bunch of smug contented cows rooting at the trough."

- William Styron, "Set This House On Fire"

Bill Bonner, "America On The Verge?"

"America on the Verge?"

Could a housing collapse drag the economy

 from recession into... something far worse?

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Here’s the Daily Mail with the latest lurid headline: "Is America on the verge of a house price collapse? Prices could crash by up to 20% and homes are overvalued by as much as 72%, expert warns."

Boise, Idaho; Charlotte, North Carolina and Austin, Texas were the three most overvalued areas in the United States, according to Moody's Analytics Moody's found that found that 183 of the nation's 413 largest regional housing markets are 'overvalued' by more than 25 percent If a recession hits, house prices in those 183 regions could plummet by as much as 20 percent, Moody's predicted

If there is not a recession, they will still fall 10-15 percent, the analysts believe - echoing other experts. The housing inventory is at its highest level since April 2009, as sellers struggle to get rid of their property because mortgages have become more expensive.

Last week, investors were surprised by the forthright and clear-headed tone of Jerome Powell’s remarks from Jackson Hole. It almost seemed as though the Fed jefe had come to his senses: "The successful Volcker disinflation in the early 1980s followed multiple failed attempts to lower inflation over the previous 15 years. A lengthy period of very restrictive monetary policy was ultimately needed to stem the high inflation and start the process of getting inflation down to the low and stable levels that were the norm until the spring of last year. Our aim is to avoid that outcome by acting with resolve now.."

Powell is telling us – loud and clear – that he intends to ‘pull a Volcker.’ That is what we expected him to say. And we still don’t believe it.

Buckle Down: When push comes to shove, we predict, the Fed will buckle under demands to ‘pivot’ towards a looser monetary policy. But that is still somewhere in the future; today, we look at where ‘shove’ might be.

Remember, it’s ‘inflate or die.’ Since the 1990s, the markets – and the economy – have been under the spell of the Fed’s voodoo economics. It inflated everything – with its ultra-low interest rates for ultra-long periods. Now, with consumer prices rising uncomfortably, the Fed is forced to position itself as a steadfast, almost heroic, inflation fighter.

That is a fairly easy role for Powell et al; for now, they can fight inflation without taking casualties. Employment is still high. Stocks are still high. Interest rates are still low, with the 10-year Treasury bond yielding only 3.2% (more than 5% below the CPI). And houses are still selling near their peak prices.

So far… so good. But there’s $90 trillion in debt to reckon with. Raise the average carrying cost (interest rate) by a single percentage point and the cost to debtors is an extra $900 billion a year. As we mentioned on Monday, while the Fed’s balance sheet is coming down (the Fed is buying fewer bonds… aka QT, quantitative tightening), it is still lending to member banks at rates far below consumer price inflation. This is essentially ‘inflationary,’ since it encourages people to borrow. It is only by getting lending rates above the level of consumer price hikes that the Fed can control inflation.

At today’s 8.5% CPI (More lies, see here for true 17% inflation rate. - CP) that would mean interest rates around 10%. And if applied to all the debt outstanding that would cost the economy $9 trillion per year – or more than a third of total GDP. Not going to happen.

But what can happen is that the Fed’s gradually increasing interest rates will put the economy into a deeper recession. Then, people stop buying; businesses fail; jobs are lost; and prices fall. Most likely, we’ll see the two converge – rising rates from the Fed coming up to meet falling consumer prices – leaving us with positive (above zero after inflation) interest rates. But wait… there’s more.

Ropes in Their Hands: The Fed is also stepping up its QT program, re-absorbing much of the liquidity it put out into the economy. It will be extinguishing nearly $100 billion per month, beginning this month. Instead of buying bonds, in other words, the Fed will be selling them (or letting existing bond holding expire).

And here is where the battle against inflation becomes a fight for survival. It’s where the pain really begins… and where the Fed begins to fear for its own safety. Because, if the Fed isn’t buying US bonds, who will? And if fewer buyers appear at the Treasury bond auctions, bond prices will fall… and bond yields will rise. And as Treasury yields go up, mortgage rates will go up too. And soon, there will be mobs forming – on line, or on Pennsylvania Avenue, of homeowners, stockholders, politicians, the media – with ropes in their hands and Jay Powell in their sights.

Without the Fed there to buy up bonds (providing more cash and credit… more ‘liquidity’) borrowers will have to depend on real savers. But the savings rate has been going down since the Covid panic and now stands around 5% – or less than $1 trillion per year. The US government is still running deficits and expects to borrow more than $1 trillion in FY 2022.

You can do the math as well as we can. If all of the available savings are gobbled up by the federal government, private corporations, local governments, and mortgage lenders will be starved for credit. What we are going to see is something we haven’t seen for many years – a bidding war, not for houses… not for meme stocks… not for gas… but for scarce credit. In effect, the Fed is doing to the US credit market what the Russians are doing to the European gas market – cutting off supplies. The price is going to go up. Mortgage rates will go up. Housing prices will go down… and the whole economy will tip into a deeper recession. Then we will see what stuff Jay Powell is really made of."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Prepare Yourselves! It's Happening Now"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/1/22:

"Prepare Yourselves! It's Happening Now, 

The 10-Year Yield Is Spiking, The MMRI Is Markedly Higher"

- https://traderschoice.net/about-traders-choice/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Wise Man Once Said...

“A wise man once said you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it. What he meant is nothing comes without a price. So before you go into battle, you better decide how much you’re willing to lose. Too often, going after what feels good means letting go of what you know is right, and letting someone in means abandoning the walls you’ve spent a lifetime building. Of course, the toughest sacrifices are the ones we don’t see coming, when we don’t have time to come up with a strategy to pick a side or to measure the potential loss. When that happens, when the battle chooses us and not the other way around, that’s when the sacrifice can turn out to be more than we can bear.”

- “Dr. Meredith Grey”, “Grey’s Anatomy"

"Death Sentence by Starvation"

"Death Sentence by Starvation"

by Chris McIntosh

“You can’t build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.”

- Norman Borlaug

"Trudeau pushes ahead on fertilizer reduction. The sales pitch by Trudeau is that by cutting nitrous oxide emissions the central planners will save the planet from assured annihilation. Like any ridiculous war, whereby the goal is so broadly defined so as to ensure a never ending and ultimately unwinnable war (see war on “terror” and the war on “hate speech” as prime examples), this one too has a fugazi aspect to it. The target now is “emissions from agricultural sources” and they intend to reduce these 30% by 2030. For agriculture, that means cutting applications of nitrogen fertilizer.

Let me be blunt. The inevitable consequence is mass starvation.

Farmers will find their businesses under intense pressure as they are forced to try to make ends meet while reducing productivity. This will see many fail. But fear not, their land will be purchased by the likes of Bill Gates, Blackrock, and the government via various “collective bodies,” who will, via a complicit media, explain that this is needed “for the good of everyone,” of course. The net result will be a catastrophic decline in the aggregate food supply, and people will starve. We’ll be told that “the old way wasn’t sustainable” and we’ll be offered synthetic lab grown isht that will be referred to incorrectly as food and specifically meat. It is neither and will, like high fructose corn syrup, further weaken and sicken people. A perpetual never ending cycle of dependent, mentally, and physically sick populace reliant on the technocrats for their very survival.

Nitrogen is THE most important nutrient for crops. The invention of synthetic nitrogen is what allowed humanity to grow from a population of under 2 billion to almost 8 billion within a century. No synthetic nitrogen means no food.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is generated as part of nitrogen fertilizer. The pointy shoes and their “sanctioned” experts have categorized N2O as an extremely potent greenhouse gas alongside methane. Why N2O and methane? Well, N2O hits directly at ALL crops and methane hits directly at all animals farmed. Every one of them. The hobgoblin of climate change is being used to obtain full and total control over the entire food industry. Quite a feat.

Canada is one of the major agricultural players globally. That means it’s an export powerhouse. But this isn’t possible without nitrogen fertilizer. Canada produces 8% of the world’s tradable wheat, 10% of tradable barley, and well over 50% of tradable canola.

Cut nitrogen usage by 30%, and you’re not going to simply see a consequent 30% reduction in Canada’s food supply. It doesn’t work like that. Cut 30% nitrogen usage and you have entire farm failures. Imagine any business where, for argument’s sake, your margins are 20% (they’re less in farming) and you see a 30% fall in production or something like that. You go out of business. 100% out of business. Poof! Gone! Some obviously will survive, but the production collapse is some figure north of 30%. And all that’s likely gone from the world market. Global food insecurity is already rising rapidly.

As we pointed out before COVID we were due a bull market in agricultural prices simply due to the energy component. Now, of course, it’s much, much worse. The world is staring down the barrel of a looming humanitarian catastrophe at a scale unseen since the mid-20th century.

The decision by Canadian and Dutch elites to restrict nitrogen usage is nothing less than a death sentence to millions globally to die of starvation. This self-righteous posturing by Canadian and Dutch WEF shills is about to create untold human suffering. The only positive out of this situation is that with each subsequent lockdown and disastrous policy initiated the populace will become angrier. Like every empire before it, this one, too, is likely to succumb under the weight of its own debts."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Stocking Up At Kroger! Get It Before It's Gone! More Price Increases!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 9/1/22:

"Stocking Up At Kroger! Get It Before It's Gone! 

More Price Increases!"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing massive price increases, and are prepping for the future! 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/

○

Related:

"Worse Than Couple Years Ago:" Food Bank 

Demand Spikes As Inflation Wrecks Households"

"Panic Sweeps Across Energy Supply Chains As China Aggressively Reselling Russian Gas"

Full screen recommended.

"Panic Sweeps Across Energy Supply Chains As

 China Aggressively Reselling Russian Gas"

by Epic Economist

"The world is going through the most severe shortage of energy supplies that we have ever seen in modern times. The imbalance between supply and demand is pushing prices to absolutely astonishing levels, and sending many major economies to the edge of a disaster. Natural gas supplies, in particular, are shrinking all across the U.S. and Europe after Russia’s aggression on Ukraine resulted in a series of western sanctions on Russian exports. But while western nations suffer from energy scarcity, and populations face energy poverty, the Kremlin and Beijing continue to profit with record-high prices. In fact, a new report reveals that China is now aggressively reselling Russian liquified natural gas to energy-strapped countries in Europe and all over the world, effectively circumventing sanctions and helping to boost costs up 700% in some places. A rush for energy is now here, and the supply shock is likely to only get worse from this point on.

Over the past three months alone, China spent $18.9 billion on Russian oil, gas, and coal, almost double the amount a year earlier, the latest customs data show. Meanwhile, India spent $5.1 billion in the same period, more than five times the value of a year ago. That’s an additional $13 billion in revenue from both countries compared to the same months in 2021.

Although Europe continues to reject Russian energy exports, Sinopec data shows that China has been reselling Russian liquefied natural gas shipments to European countries. ZeroHedge experts noted yesterday that “China has been quietly reselling Russian LNG to the one place that desperately needs it more than anything: Europe - and of course, it is charging a kidney's worth of markups in the process.”

Make no mistake: all of these "excess" energy supplies were soured in part or in whole in Russia, but since it has been "tolled" in China, it is no longer Russian. It is instead being branded as Chinese LNG, they exposed. The main problem is that as soon as economic activity bounces back in China, the situation will quickly reverse, and Beijing will no longer resell Russian gas to keep Europe warm during the coming winter.

At the end of the day, what the West has done was to make energy more expensive and scarce to itself while remaining primarily reliant on the exports of the country it now wants to ban. Worse even, is the fact that Europe could buy these supplies for less than half the price that it is paying right now. Instead, it has to pay 6 to 7 times more just to virtue signal to the world that it won't fund Putin's regime when in reality it is paying extra to both Xi and to Putin, who are both collecting a premium price thanks to the overall market scarcity.

It’s no wonder why European authorities are rushing to fill storage reserves so there’s enough gas to meet household heating and industrial needs over the northern winter. With European wholesale natural gas, coal, and CO2 prices near all-time highs, Europeans are facing a real threat of energy poverty, one which may in fact last for many years. In Germany, electricity prices have risen by a staggering 720% from the beginning of the year. This is a seismic energy supply shock that is destabilizing the entire West. The social, economic, and political fabric of the U.S. and Europe has never been so vulnerable to external disruptions. And once again, we, the consumers, are the ones who were left to deal with a myriad of terrible repercussions."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Canadian Prepper, "This Keeps Me Up At Night..."

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 8/31/22:

"This Keeps Me Up At Night..."

"If you think it can't get bad here you may want to watch this video."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Stock Market Crippled by Liquidity Crisis - You Are Not Prepared For What's About To Hit"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/31/22:

"Stock Market Crippled by Liquidity Crisis -

 You Are Not Prepared For What's About To Hit"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Millions of Americans To Be Evicted From Their Homes As Economic Collapse Accelerates"

"Millions of Americans To Be Evicted 

From Their Homes As Economic Collapse Accelerates"

by Mike Adams

Excerpt: "The collapse is now accelerating by the day. Earlier this week, we learned that one in six US households is behind on paying their electric bills (and electricity isn’t even expensive in the states compared to all of Western Europe, where people in France are paying $1 per kWh and going broke). Now, we’re learning that as many as 3.8 million American renters could face eviction in the next two months (see StrangeSounds.org) because they can’t keep up with rent payments, which now average over $2,000/month in America.

Thanks to the disastrous economic policies of the illegitimate Biden regime that staged a ballot-stuffing election insurrection to steal the presidency, the American people are suffering like never before, fending off skyrocketing inflation (at nearly 20% once you include food, fuel and energy), rising food prices, still-high fuel prices (diesel just went back up over $5/gallon today), and unaffordable rent and housing.

More and more Americans, it turns out, are going to have to choose between housing and food, meaning millions of new people will be homeless and / or starving before year’s end… all while Biden and the Democrats claims that Republicans are “a threat to democracy.”

Get the full article and podcast in today's feature story here:

- https://www.naturalnews.com/

"Something Like Reverence..."

“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”

- Scott Russell Sanders

"World War Next" (Excerpt), Part I

"World War Next" (Excerpt), Part I

by Contemplations on the Tree of Woe

Excerpt: "War is coming. Maybe not this month, maybe not this year, but it’s coming. The Pax American has ended. The men and women who remember the horror of World War II are long gone. The taboo on violence has been lifted. War is coming. You can disagree, but I have a ham radio set up at my desk, and when the missiles start to fly, I will radio you to say “I told you so.” (Leave your callsign in the comments.)

If war comes, will the US prevail? Our national mythology holds that we’re always the good guys and the good guys always win. But war is the province of blood, steel, risk, and grit, not myth. The United States has not faced a hot war against a peer adversary in 77 years. It has not faced a hot war against a peer adversary capable of attacking its home soil in 157 years. Since that time, we have grown in population and gross domestic product, but we have also deindustrialized and offshored much of the capability that once made us “the Arsenal of Democracy.” In that same time, a new adversary has arisen, the first we have ever faced that has a larger population and economy than us.

Let’s explore what the next world war might look like, if the US, China, and Russia come to blows. This is a complex topic, so it might end up a multi-part series."

Please view the complete Part I of this article here:

- https://treeofwoe.substack.com/

Please view the complete Part II of this article here:

- https://treeofwoe.substack.com/