Thursday, September 8, 2022

The Poet: Rolf Jacobsen, "When They Sleep"

"When They Sleep"

"All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
God, teach me the language of sleep."

- Rolf Jacobsen,
"The Roads Have Come To An End Now"

"How Russia Fights A War"

"How Russia Fights A War"
by Andrei, The Saker

"Some very basic stuff about Russian defenses in the SMO. Yesterday I posted a short SITREP about the Ukrainian offensive on Balakleia. And, sure enough, there are 72 comments on this already! Many of them show a total misunderstanding of the nature of the SMO (it was a mistake for me to post a map which, obviously, most people cannot make sense of!). So all I propose to do today is to explain something really basic about the concept of defense (in reality defensive operations are much more complex!).

First, this how Hollywood and the mainstream media present defense: you stand and fight, and if the enemy overruns your defensive position, you lost. The reality could not be further from this silly notion.

For one thing, the USA never fought a real war, never mind a defensive one. As for the Europeans, they are used to the kind of terrain you would have in central Europe, i.e. a terrain with a lot of geographical and topological features which favor a dug in static defense. For example, I did my basic training in an electronic warfare unit which was mostly deployed in the Swiss mountains and I can tell you that a single mountain infantry company (in some extreme cases even a well prepared platoon!) can fully lock a narrow valley or a pass against an entire mechanized/armored battalion (especially if that mountain infantry is supported by well concealed – mountains are ideal for that – and powerful long range artillery!).

 Much of Europe is what is called “mixed terrain” that is to say a mix of fields, forests, small town and villages, many rivers (often with steep banks and rapid currents), bigger and stronger regional towns, etc. etc. etc. In that terrain you are naturally inclined to make the best use of these features and hold on to good defensive positions. In fact, in this kind of terrain it is often impossible to deploy a full mechanized/tank brigade or division (they are too big!) and you are simply forced to fight mostly infantry battles with smaller subunits.

The Ukraine is totally different. The eastern Ukraine, the Donbass, has a lot of small towns, and this is why the Ukrainians dug in and hold towns like Avdeevka. However, once you leave that more heavily populated line of towns and villages, you mostly have open steppe with a few rivers and scattered forests, many of them pretty small. This is why only small Ukronazi units can hide in these small forests, their bigger units mostly hide inside towns and cities, basically using the local civilians as “human shields” and since these Nazis hate the local “separs” anyway – they have no illusions about the real sympathies of most Ukrainians in the south and east – they don’t care at all if scores of civilians die in Russian strikes! In fact, in a recent video Gonzalo Lira, who is currently in Kharkov, stated that since most of the anti-Russian locals are under no illusion about the inevitable outcome, they have long left Kharkov, hence the SBU’s “hunt” for “separs” and other “pigdogs” and “biomaterial” amongst the remaining population. Yet another reason for the Russian to do everything humanly possible to avoid civilian casualties!

So in the case of warfare in the Ukraine, I think that it is helpful to think of it as “a land version of a naval battle” which centers not on the control of this or that wave, but on destroying the enemy forces while not getting destroyed yourself.

The next thing which I need to bring up is force concentrations. The war in the Ukraine is more similar to soccer in which attackers and defenders fight each other all over the field than to US football in which there is a clear line of scrimmage and where everything is about “conquering” more terrain or advancing downfield. This means that there are always temporarily unoccupied “grey zones” (think of them as parts of the soccer field which happen to be empty but which could quickly become a “combat area” if a pass is made there and two players will fight each other for control of the ball). Just these two facts very strongly suggest that a mobile defense is the way to go on such terrain. These are generalizations, of course, but by and large they apply.

Next, when you have enough manpower, you normally would organize your defense into two, more rarely three, defensive echelons so if the enemy breaks through the first line, he is faced with a second line of defense and his flanks are potentially exposed to envelopment from all sides. And just to make sure that your defenses hold, it is recommended to have a reserve force behind the 2nd line of defense ready to “plug” any “holes” and/or to be used in a counter-attack (and if things go well, this reserve for can be used as a maneuver group to counter-attack). With a few crucial exceptions, this is not the case in the Ukraine, especially not for the Russian forces who are roughly at a 1:3 numerical disadvantage. This 1:3 figure is misleading, because it ignores the kind of force ratios which can be achieved locally.

Conversely, the Russians have an advantage in 1) firepower 2) maneuverability (they can move under the protection of Russian airpower and artillery, which the Ukrainians cannot) 3) logistics 4) reach (the Russians can strike even in the far western Ukraine 5) C3ISR 6) morale and 7) training.

There is another rule of thumb which should not be taken as dogma, but which is still helpful to keep in mind: a successful attack often requires a 3:1 advantage for the attacking side. This ratio can go up to 6:1 and even higher in strongly built cities. Since the Russians already have an overall 1:3 DIS-advantage in manpower, it is quite possible that in specific segments of the front, that disadvantage might locally peak at even much worse ratios, yet another argument for the Russians to first grind down Ukronazi forces, if needed by conceding terrain, before engaging in any counter-attack/counter-offensive. And this is why:

All these Russian advantages all dictate a flexible, mobile, defensive strategy to counter Ukrainian attacks. In other words, it would be absolutely INSANE for Russians to try to hold a static defensive line at all cost just to prevent the Ukronazis to claim yet another “immense victory”. So, keeping this in might, let’s revisit the Ukrainian “counter-offensives”, bullet style.

These supposed “counter-offensives” were announced weeks in advance (which the Russians noticed). Then the Ukrainians began by sustained artillery strikes to weaken the Russian defenses (and, thereby, indicate again to the Russians where they planned to attack). Then the Ukrainians concentrated large forces (which the Russians saw, of course) and then threw them all into a (relatively) mass assault on what they believed were the weakest spots in the Russian defenses.

This is what happened north of Kherson and this is what is happening just north of Balakleia now. And it will happen again on other parts of the immense frontline. And, each time, the Russians will resist if/when possible, but they will quickly concede terrain and fall back if pressed hard, not only to save Russian lives (why waste them for a few trenches or buildings??) and to “pull in” the Ukrainians into a network of mobile defenses.

So how does a mobile defense work? Basically, it uses the Russian advantages (firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale and training) to save as many Russian lives as possible while killing as many Ukrainian soldiers are possible. Why? Because while terrain can always be re-conquered, dead soldiers cannot be resurrected.

So let me repeat this again: the Russians retreating before a determined Ukrainian attack is not the exception in this war, it is the rule. So we should EXPECT the Russians to do that every time the Ukrainians launch a mass assault and sends entire battalions into the Russian meat grinder.

Some have suggested that this is bad tactic since it gives Kiev a good PSYOP/PR opportunity. To this I will reply two things: Kiev does not need anything anchored in reality to declare “heroic victories”, they can literally take a photo in the “grey zone”, then quickly run away and present that as a huge victory (they did just that a few days ago)

Russian commanders will not sacrifice Russian soldiers for a short lived PR victory. That would be both immoral and totally self-defeating.

Think of the Russian advantages for a second (again: firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale and training) and realize that they are all dependent on the Russian ability to fight against the Ukronazis with lower manpower which, in turn, should suggest to you that the single most precious element of the Russian warfighting machine is the Russian solider: if the Russians tried to emulate Ukrainian “tactics” (i.e., throwing as much meat in the meatgrinder as available) they would quickly run out of the required manpower which, in turn, would create both military and political problems for the Kremlin.

And now, a flashback of sorts. Remember when before the Russian SMO many observers including myself said that Russia would not invade the Ukraine simply because the Russians didn't have the kind of numbers needed to invade the Ukraine? Well, this was true then and this is STILL true! The SMO is not a regular combined arms operation and the Russian STILL do not have the kind of manpower to “occupy the Ukraine”. However, what the Russians did is the following:

First, they gave the US/NATO (not the clowns in Kiev) and ultimatum which they knew the West would reject.

Next, they basically destroyed the Ukrainian military as a coherent whole and broke it up into smaller, uncoordinated forces. Oh sure, after a week or so, the Ukrainians still had a few aircraft left, plenty of subunits (brigades and below), some air defenses, etc. but what they lost is the ability to use all these resources as part of a single plan!

Then the Russian began slowly and methodically grinding down the huge Ukrainian force in the Donbass (that is the force whose attack the Russians preempted). They pushed hard along the coast creating a southern front which the Ukrainians had to protect, tying down Ukrainian forces (which are still terrified by a possible Russian land and amphibious assault towards Nikolaev and Odessa).

And now they are basically waiting for the Ukrainians to come to them instead of going after the Ukrainians. Oh sure, when possible, the Russians will push forward, but they will concede terrain if/when needed.

Which leaves one last parameter: time. Banderastan is a bloody mess, a failed state, a country which is turning into a horror show run by a mix of local Nazis and US Neocons (what an ugly pair these two make!). Western governments, ALL OF THEM, are in really bad shape, all the western economies have gone over the edge and are now falling into a recession and even into a full scale de-industrialization. The biggest western power, the USA, is run by a brain-dead old man, a former call-girl and with a Neocon ruling class which is absolutely terrified of the upcoming elections.

In sharp contrast, the Russian economy’s contraction will be in the 2% range by the end of the year, Putin is as popular as ever, as is Mishustin, the vast majority of Russians fully support the SMO and the Russian economy (a real economy, not a FIRE based one!) is flush with money and has the support of most of the planet.

So whose side is time on? I think that the answer is obvious. So the full list of Russian advantages should also include time: firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale, training and time. [Sidebar: right now there is still plenty of forest and foliage in the Ukraine, but with the winter coming, this “green” cover will become very thin, making it even harder to hide for the Ukrainian forces! That is also one more reason why the Russians are now mostly waiting.]

Remember how “Ze” spoke of a “million soldiers army”? Well, that is nonsense, of course, but it shows one thing: “Ze” feels that his biggest advantage is to thrown tens and even hundred of thousands of soldiers in suicidal attacks. As for the West, it poured so much money, manpower and hardware into the country that many western leaders now complain that their countries have now compromised their own reserves of weapon systems. The US alone is spending $228 million dollars PER DAY on the Ukrainian fiasco. In sharp contrast, Putin is now openly saying that the SMO has been “beneficial” for Russia!

Apparently, “Ze” and his Neocon masters want to try to “drown the Russian military in Ukrainian blood“. If you sincerely believe that this is a winning strategy, please contact me as I have some super bridges to sell you for very cheap prices. 🙂

Having said all that, if the next time the Russians retreat for a few kilometers you want to either freak out and declare that “all is lost” or proclaim with great gravitas that “Russia is losing the war”, by all means, feel free to do so. I will just ignore these claims simply because, frankly, I am sick and tired of repeating the same truisms over and over and over again, especially when plenty of “commentators” don’t even bother reading what I wrote, they just want to flood the comments section with their talking points!

If you rather trust Girkin-Strelkov or Arestovich that is fine by me as long as you don’t have to parrot their nonsense in the comments section which I consider as “deliberate pollution of the comments section”. That will get you banned and, once we have the “comments for signed-up commentators only” thing ready, I will simply remove you from the approved list.

Anyway, that is all I had to say for right now. I hope that the above has been helpful (though I am under no illusions: as I said, trolls don’t even bother reading what I write, they just need to populate the comments section with their slogans)."
Hat tip to Stucky at The Burning Platform for this material.

The Daily "Near You?"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thanks for stopping by!

'I Don't Believe..."

"I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”
- Tennessee Williams

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! Not Good! This Is Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 9/8/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! Not Good! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Aldi, 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:

"The Time of Economic Abundance is Over"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/8/22:
"The Time of Economic Abundance is Over"
"More and more people are affected by inflation. Interest rates are going up. There’s a lack of energy around the world. The prices are going to be sky high over the course of the next six months. "
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Goldman Sachs Warns Of Severe Drop In Real Estate Prices... Could Be A Black Swan"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/8/22:
"Alert! Goldman Sachs Warns Of Severe Drop In 
Real Estate Prices... Could Be A Black Swan"
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Renewable Faith"

"Renewable Faith"
Testing mankind's eternal belief in fake money, 
green energy and political hubris...
by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - "The West became very rich by ‘printing’ money to buy many more consumer goods than the value of the output made warranted. But that ability to ‘print’ arose from unique circumstances of low inflation - that was, in turn, enabled by cheap exports coming from Russia and China. Naturally, the West crucially doesn’t want the low inflation paradigm to end, but in this conflicted era where commodities, factories, and fleets of ships are dominated by states (Russia and China) that are in conflict with the West, the low inflation world has reached its end."
~ Alistair Crooke

"Thoughts, like viruses, pass from person to person; some succumb, some recover, some are barely affected at all. And then, when enough people get the bug, they are likely to do something crazy. Not just individually, but collectively.

In the 13th century, the Christian ‘West’ allowed as many as 60,000 of its children to embark on a suicidal crusade to the Holy Lands. The idea – according to traditional accounts – was that two groups… one from France and the other from Germany… would march to the Mediterranean (begging for food along the way) and there, with the Grace of God upon them, the sea would part. We can imagine their disappointment when the water failed to cooperate. What happened next is subject to dispute. But it was long believed that many were loaded onto ships and sold in the slave markets of North Africa.

You will say: ‘What morons!’ But was the Childrens’ Crusade so much more benighted than today’s great campaigns? After all, the Moors in the Holy Land represented a ‘clear and present’ danger to Christendom’s most sacred sites. And the children; perhaps innocence would succeed where hardened warriors had failed?

Solar Fossil Fuel: History is festooned with such wild tales. The purge of protestants from France… the purge of Jews from Europe…the purge of muslims from India and Armenians from Anatolia – all were bloody disasters, and most were catastrophes for the perps as well as the victims. They left millions of corpses… millions of refugees… broken families, broken countries and broken societies.

And now, ‘western’ civilization undertakes its most ambitious purges ever – to bleed out racism, sexism and inequality… (it has apparently given up the fight against poverty and drugs)…and to rid the world of fossil fuel. Janet Yellen, America’s Treasury Secretary, and former head of the Fed, will take up this last challenge today. The Hill: "Yellen will vow to ‘rid’ US from ‘dependence on fossil fuels’ in Detroit speech."

"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will call out the fossil fuel industry in a Thursday speech on the Biden administration’s economic agenda to be delivered in Detroit, Mich., where oil and gas companies have long held influence in the U.S. auto manufacturing sector. The visit to Detroit comes on the heels of the Democrats’ passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes $14.2 billion worth of subsidies for electric vehicles meant to wean the auto industry off of gasoline in an effort to reduce U.S. transportation emissions that are contributing to a rise in global temperatures."

As they say on TV: ‘What could go wrong?’ We don’t know. But if 15% of our power is generated, as claimed, from “renewable” sources, that means that 6.8 billion people depend 100% on the energy from the sun, condensed over millions of years into ‘fossil’ fuels. And while governments have encouraged the use of more ‘green energy’ – putting up windmills all over Europe – most of the energy in the Old World still comes from oil, gas and coal. So, with that as prologue, let’s look at what is already going wrong, right now, in Europe.

Childlike Faith: First, most Old World countries went with childlike faith for the ‘lockdown strategy’ when the Covid hit. It was obvious from the early reports coming from Italy in February 2020, that lockdowns were unnecessary. The disease targeted the old and the weak – not the general population. The average age of death from Covid was little different from the average age of death without the Covid. In other words, it posed a considerable risk to some people, but little to most people.

These initial findings were confirmed two years later, when the ultimate infection and death rates were little different between those countries (or US states) with strict lockdowns… and those that were more relaxed about it. Lockdowns produced nothing but inconvenience and financial losses. And those collateral damages are piling up. Look at how our children (the ones who were never at risk from the Covid) pay the cost. Here’s just one that came to our ‘inbox’ yesterday. The World Bank:

"This generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures, according to a new report published today by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The new projection reveals that the impact is more severe than previously thought, and far exceeds the $10 trillion estimates released in 2020."

Years before the Covid, European economies were already deeply infected with central bank jackassery. Interest rates went below zero in Denmark in 2012… and then, the European Central Bank (ECB) followed.

Three-Legged Race: Even now, with double digit inflation in many places in Europe, ECB interest rates have only just risen – to zero! The inflation rate in Estonia is 23%. Europe-wide it is 9.8%. This leaves the ECB real rate at nearly MINUS 10% (in the US, the Fed Funds rate subtracted from the CPI gives us a real rate of MINUS 6%).

Like Americans, Europeans only have two feet. But they found a way to shoot themselves in a third one. When the Russo-Ukrainian conflict broke out, they could have gone either way… or sensibly ignored the whole thing. Instead, they chose to make an enemy out of the country that delivers their fuel. Along with their fellow naifs in America, they sent money and weapons to the Ukraine and applied sanctions to Russia.

Joe Biden led off the madness when – by Executive Order! – he banned the importation of Russian energy into the United States. Then, Europeans jumped into that woebegone crusade with all three feet. They could not ban Russian energy; they needed it. Instead, they joined US sanctions against all manner of Russian goods and services… and seized Russian assets – even the yachts and chic apartments of Russia’s oligarchs – while hoping that the gas would keep coming. ‘Russia needs the money,’ they said to themselves. But last week, the Russians said ‘nyet.’ Playtime is over. No more gas."
"What's next? Stay tuned..."
Related:

"How It Really Is"

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

"This Winter, Europe Plunges Into 'The New Dark Ages'”

"This Winter, Europe Plunges Into 'The New Dark Ages'”
by Michael Snyder

"Could you imagine being sent to prison for three years if you dared to set your thermostat above 66 degrees Fahrenheit? As you will see below, this is a proposed regulation that is actually being considered in a major European country right now. If you have not been paying much attention to what is happening in Europe, you need to wake up. Natural gas in Europe is seven times more expensive than it was early last year, and that is because of the war in Ukraine. Over the past few decades, the Europeans foolishly allowed themselves to become extremely dependent on gas from Russia. In fact, more than 55 percent of the natural gas that Germany uses normally comes from Russia. But now the war has changed everything, and Europe is facing an extremely harsh winter of severe shortages, mandatory rationing and absolutely insane heating bills.

Things are going to get very cold and very dark all over Europe in the months ahead, and those Europeans that choose to rebel against the new restrictions that are being implemented could literally find themselves in prison…"Switzerland is considering jailing anyone who heats their rooms above 19C for up to three years if the country is forced to ration gas due to the Ukraine war. The country could also give fines to those who violate the proposed new regulations. Speaking to Blick, Markus Sporndli, who is a spokesman for the Federal Department of Finance, explained that the rate for fines on a daily basis could start at 30 Swiss Francs (£26)."

19 degrees Celsius is just 66 degrees Fahrenheit. If you live in Europe, prepare to dress very warmly this winter. Some may be anticipating that they will just use portable radiant heaters to keep things toasty, but apparently using such heaters “would not be allowed” under the new regulations that Switzerland is considering…"Blick also reported that radiant heaters would not be allowed and saunas and swimming pools would have to stay cold."

This is serious. We have never seen anything like this before, and the longer the war in Ukraine stretches on the worse the energy crisis in Europe will become.

An end to the era of cheap energy also means that a severe economic slowdown is in the cards, and this is already starting to show up in the numbers…"Europe is showing signs of heading into a recession as multiple economic surveys show the region’s services and manufacturing sectors slowing down while a large number of the continent’s citizens are struggling to cope with rising prices. The S&P Global Eurozone Composite Output Index fell to an 18-month low in August at 48.9, according to a Sept. 5 news release (pdf). The eurozone private sector “moved further into contractionary territory” in August. Both services and manufacturing output fell for the month."

Of course what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning. Things are likely to get really bad this winter. In fact, German Economic Minister Robert Habeck has publicly admitted that some parts of the German economy will “simply stop producing for the time being”. Wow. And the truth is that this is already starting to happen

"In yet another truly astonishing announcement that demonstrates the desperation of this hour, German steelmaker ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steel production facilities in Europe, has shuttered operations due to high energy prices. (See their announcement here, in German.) “With gas and electricity prices increasing tenfold within just a few months, we are no longer competitive in a market that is 25% supplied by imports,” said CEO Reiner Blaschek."

This comes after announced closures of aluminum smelters, copper smelters and ammonia production plants over the last few weeks. Ammonia - necessary for fertilizer - is now 70% offline in the EU. Many more factories will be forced to shut down in the coming months. Deeply alarmed by what is taking place, 40 CEOs from Europe’s metals industry have jointly issued an open letter in which they warn that their companies are facing an “existential threat to our future”…

"Ahead of Friday’s emergency summit, the business leaders of Europe’s non-ferrous metals industry are writing together to raise the alarm about Europe’s worsening energy crisis and its existential threat to our future. Our sector has already been forced to make unprecedented curtailments in the last 12 months. We are deeply concerned that the winter ahead could deliver a decisive blow to many of our operations, and we call on EU and Member State leaders to take emergency action to preserve their strategic electricity-intensive industries and prevent permanent job losses.

50% of the EU’s aluminium and zinc capacity has already been forced offline due to the power crisis, as well as significant curtailments in silicon and ferroalloys production and further impacts felt across copper and nickel sectors. In the last month, several companies have had to announce indefinite closures and many more are on the brink ahead of a life-or-death winter for many operations. Producers face electricity and gas costs over ten times higher than last year, far exceeding the sales price for their products. We know from experience that once a plant is closed it very often becomes a permanent situation, as re-opening implies significant uncertainty and cost."

This is what an economic collapse looks like. Things are already so bad that scientists are even considering shutting down the Large Hadron Collider…"Europe’s energy crisis is being felt by everyone – including the scientists working deep underground in Switzerland at the Large Hadron Collider. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, is even considering taking its particle accelerators offline. This is due to the accelerators’ high energy demands, and the organization’s desire to keep the region’s electricity grid stable."

So at least one good thing could potentially come out of this crisis. But overall, the months ahead are going to be an immensely uncomfortable time for Europe. As conditions become tougher and tougher, ordinary Europeans are going to become angrier and angrier. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is openly admitting that there will be “civil unrest”, but he insists that Europeans must make sacrifices in order to support the war in Ukraine…"Vladimir Putin’s ‘energy blackmail’ over Europe could lead to ‘civil unrest’ this winter, the NATO Secretary General has warned. Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that winter ‘will be hard’ as ‘families and businesses feel the crunch of soaring energy prices and costs of living’ in the coming months. Writing in the Financial Times, the boss of the Western security alliance said that it is worth paying the price to support Ukraine."

Eventually, there will be tremendous civil unrest in major cities in the United States as well. We are still only in the very early stages of this new global energy crisis, and it is going to turn all of our lives upside down.

Meanwhile, we are also plunging into a horrific global food crisis. As I detailed a few days ago, even the head of the UN is admitting that there will be “multiple famines” in 2023. Life as we know it is about to change.

Right now, all eyes are on Europe because things are starting to get really crazy over there. Europe is going to descend into “the new Dark Ages” this winter, and the entire world will experience extreme pain as a result."

Canadian Prepper, "This Needs To Be Said"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/7/22:
"This Needs To Be Said"
Comments here:
Video in question:

"Brace For Blackouts As 75,000 Left Without Power In California Due To Record 'Demand Response Event'"

Full screen recommended.
"Brace For Blackouts As 75,000 Left Without Power 
In California Due To Record 'Demand Response Event'"
by Epic Economist

"Record-breaking temperatures sparked historic power demands in California yesterday, pushing the electrical grid to a breaking point and making rolling blackouts increasingly likely. Thousands of Californians already faced power outages and many more could go powerless this week as authorities warn about an ongoing power grid emergency. At least half a million households were given notice to prepare for the worst-case scenario and remain at risk of experiencing energy supply shortages. The state’s grid operator is urging consumers to turn off lights, curb air conditioners and shut off power-hungry appliances after almost a week of extraordinary stress on electricity infrastructure. Meanwhile, prices are reaching insane levels, compounding pain for families and businesses.

CAISO predicts demand could reach another all-time high this week as homes and businesses turn their thermostats down to escape triple-digit temperatures. On Tuesday, CAISO CEO Elliot Mainzer reiterated the need for power rationing: "We need a reduction in energy use that is two or three times greater than what we've seen so far as this historic heat wave continues to intensify,” he said, adding that more "blackouts are imminent". With blistering temperatures hitting 93% of the state, things are only likely to get worse.

Since Monday, at least 75,000 Californians were left without power, and many more remain at risk of energy supply shortages. The current heat wave began in the last week of August, and it is considered a remarkable event due to its ferocity and duration. The prospect of rolling outages underscores how grids all across the nation have become vulnerable in the face of extreme weather as they transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. California has aggressively shut down power plants in recent years, which made the state increasingly dependent on solar farms that go powerless late in the day just as electricity demand peaks.

What’s happening in California right now is just a hint of what is going to happen all across the country in the next few months. Across the U.S., energy prices have spiked to the highest level in nearly 15 years, which led roughly 20 million American households to fall behind on paying their utility bills, meaning millions of Americans are potentially facing power shut-offs in the hottest stretch of the summer.

For low-income families – those whose income falls below 200% of the supplemental poverty measure,– nearly 77% of those who can’t pay the bills are working full time, and yet, they cannot keep pace with the rising costs of everything. For businesses, the outlook has been nightmarish, too. The increase in energy prices is driving operational costs to soar and profit margins to shrink. Insolvency experts at Red Flag Alert consultancy estimate that more than 50,000 businesses in the U.S. are at risk of closing down because of the massive increase in energy costs.

“Companies that were previously profitable are now sustaining heavy losses and among those that can survive the rise in energy bills many will have to make job cuts”, the firm, which monitors businesses’ financial health, noted. In some places, they went up seven to eight times higher than the historical norm. For James Green, who runs Flamingos Coffee House and has seen his company's energy bill going from $1,500 to around $10,000, “this is a mass extinction event for many businesses like mine”. "That's more expensive than our wage bill. That's just catastrophic," he said.

In other words, businesses, consumers, and the U.S. economy are reaching a breaking point due to the accelerating energy crisis. It’s safe to say that global events will continue to escalate, making the situation even more difficult in the months ahead. We’re about to confront the stark reality of a collapsing energy system, and it won’t be easy, so enjoy the rest of the summer while you still can, because things are only going to go downhill from here."

"Sell My Car Now; Home ATM Has Been Shut Down; Global Food Crisis Hits Home, Prepare Now. Buy Food Now"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/7/22:
"Sell My Car Now; Home ATM Has Been Shut Down; 
Global Food Crisis Hits Home, Prepare Now. Buy Food Now"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Peter Gabriel (Feat. Kate Bush), "Don't Give Up"

Full screen recommended.
Peter Gabriel (Feat. Kate Bush), "Don't Give Up"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.
Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”

"Three Months Until Impact"; "Headed Into a Hurricane"

"Three Months Until Impact"
by Brian Maher

"Here in the mid-Atlantic summer’s fever is broken - at least for the moment. The temperature is fair, the sky is slate and a refrigerating breeze rustles the leaves. Thus our thoughts turn to pending autumn. What does this autumn hold in store, economically? We do not know of course. Yet we observe some straws swaying in the breeze…

The Federal Reserve’s Atlanta outpost presently forecasts 1.4% third-quarter economic growth. Merely one week ago it had forecast 2.6% economic growth. We anticipate further revisions - negative revisions - before quarter’s end next month.

Consider: Inflation has consumers by the snout. Real wages are in steady decline as inflation outpaces nominal wages - and by lots. Consumers are tucking into savings to merely stand still. Savings levels, incidentally, hover at five-year depths… as credit card usage runs to 20-year heights. That is, consumers are plunging ever deeper into debt.

Meantime, the Federal Reserve has taken to the warpath. It has been elevating interest rates since March - frantically - and working down its balance sheet since June. Markets presently give 90% odds of a 75-basis-point rate increase this month, incidentally. As the thunder lags the lightning and the cannon’s boom lags the cannonball… the economic slump lags the rate hike. By how much time? By nine months - on average. Thus you can expect the March increase to announce its presence in December.

The subsequent increases will roll in with the same nine-month delay. Mr. Lance Roberts of Real Investment Advice: "As the Fed continues to hike rates, each hike takes roughly nine months to work its way through the economic system. Therefore, the rate hikes from March 2022 won’t show up in the economic data until December. Likewise, the Fed’s subsequent and more aggressive rate hikes won’t be fully reflected in the economic data until early to mid-2023. As the Fed hikes at subsequent meetings, those hikes will continue to compound their effect on a highly leveraged consumer with little savings through higher living costs… the consumer is exceptionally unprepared for such an outcome."

We must agree. The consumer is exceptionally unprepared for such an outcome. “Permabear” Peter Schiff likewise agrees. Here he nods his head, violently, in agreement: "Because of the Fed, everybody is leveraged to the hilt. The economy has never been this leveraged and never been this dependent on the cheap money that the Federal Reserve is now taking away. So we’re going to go through the mother of all economic withdrawals as the Fed is weaning us from this monetary heroin…

Because [the Fed] left monetary policy so loose for so long and allowed the economy to get so leveraged, allowed inflation to get this out of control… fighting inflation is [not just] going to cause a recession. It’s going to cause a financial crisis. There is no way around that."

Just so. Yet we are not half so convinced Mr. Schiff is correct. It is true that the Federal Reserve is tightening at a gallop. It is also true that the Federal Reserve is a gang of Wrong Way Charlies that cannot tell A from B at the price of their souls. Yet we believe the Federal Reserve lacks the resolve to see things through. It will throw up the sponge long before it has inflation licked. Wall Street will demand it. And Wall Street will get it.

Here is our forecast: Sometime next year the Federal Reserve will turn 180 degrees around with rate cuts and - in all likelihood - renewed quantitative easing. The Federal Reserve has a tiger by the tail - a tiger of its own creation. And it cannot afford to let go. That time has long passed. The evil cycle will resume… easing… tightening… easing… tightening… world without end…Madness without end.

Below, Jeffrey Tucker addresses Jamie Dimon’s recent claim that the U.S. economy is headed into “a hurricane.” Is it? Read on."
"Headed Into a Hurricane"
By Jeffrey Tucker

"The recent jobs report was the usual unimpressive combination of low unemployment and low labor participation. But the spin doctors got to work right away to tell the world that things are finally getting back to normal. Oh sure. That’s an improvement over last month and the depth of lockdowns. What they don’t tell you is that you have to go back to September 1977 to find the most recent rate that low. Isn’t it amazing how journalists are so quick to adapt to the new weirdness and stop calling it out?

Wall Street wasn’t buying it, and the markets very quickly hit the skids. It’s not even clear why. Some days it just seems like financial markets are looking for any excuse to issue sell orders. Or maybe it had something to do with Jamie Dimon’s recent incredible prediction, that the U.S. economy is headed into a hurricane. Yikes.

Many things are fundamentally broken and are not being fixed. I’m increasingly convinced that this labor shortage is really about more than early retirement, moms leaving the workforce and temporary dislocations. It’s more serious than that. It is a reflection of population demoralization, the draining of ambition, the diminished confidence in the future and the growing unwillingness on the part of all classes of people to make the necessary sacrifices to build a good life.

Back to basics for a moment. The natural state of humanity is one of grueling poverty and short life. Digging out of that more requires intelligence, sacrifice, long-term thinking and a vision of progress. Once that catches hold, growth and wealth make an appearance as if by magic, followed by capital investment, expanded division of labor and more complex production structures.

All that requires the cultivation of the bourgeois ethos, backed by sound money and a reliable rule of law. You can’t have a gang of thugs wandering around pillaging people’s wealth and expect people to keep investing and working to build a prosperous society. When all of that is in place, beautiful things can happen. If it doesn’t come together, societies never really get off the ground. There are thousands of examples around the world of societies large and small that never got it together to generate that thing we call progress.

We’ve taken it all for granted for a very long time, operating under the assumption that nothing could break the glorious things we’ve built together. Then arrogance took hold. Elites started hammering at the system in multiple ways at once. They dismantled trade relationships. They mucked with the money. They spent like crazy, running up debts that are impossible to pay. Then finally they locked down economic life in the name of virus control.

We are living through the effects of that, the dominant one of which is the decline of the culture of the bourgeoisie. Instead of work, we get sloth. Instead of saving we get into debt. Instead of investment and the future, we are just getting by. The energy and confidence in the future we’ve long taken for granted are all being fundamentally challenged.

My own view: This accounts for the labor problem, more than any other factor. There is some kind of symbolic poetry to the Biden administration’s massive attack on fossil fuels and coal because it shows that energy itself is being undermined in fundamental ways.

I was digging through price data this morning and found an incredible thing. The category called transportation is now moving up at 22% year over year. That’s just an incredible figure in a country that has prided itself on stable energy prices for decades. Who is the culprit? It’s almost everything really. It includes gas, plane tickets, shipping costs, natural resource costs, new and used car prices and more. But the margin of increase right now is being driven by a surprising source: coal. Stockpiles are getting low and inflation is eating it all away.

Here is the coal price chart.
That’s pretty ugly, but look at the percentage increase year over year.
That hockey stick you see at the end there is a 43.5% increase. In coal! It just so happens that the Biden administration is a hater of coal. I’m increasingly of the view that all of this is deliberate. These crazy people actually believe that they can harm traditional energy sources enough to the point that they can somehow goad civilization into adopting their preferred “renewable” sources of energy like wind and solar but the whole thing is ridiculous. They are going to drive us all back to the Stone Age if they keep this up.

Let’s revisit Jamie Dimon’s forecast. He says that the combination of inflation, war with Russia and Fed tightening is going to create a hurricane. We’ve talked that much about the war. The critical issue here is not the war but the response to the war (just as with the virus).

The financial and trade sanctions against Putin have proven that he can weather just fine. The main parties hurt are in Europe and North America. We are paying a heavy price, not just now, but for years to come.

This much is for certain: The smart money is preparing for a storm. That involves a completely different strategy from the index-fund magic of the last 30 years. The performers are going to be the particular companies that specialize in particular sectors under deep distress now, including and especially commodities, housing and infrastructure technology necessary to keep the appearance of civilization alive.

Meanwhile, the Fed has no idea what it’s doing. The interest rate increases are cooling off money expansion but that might be entirely because the economy is slowing through lending restrictions, particularly as they affect housing.

Beyond that, they have no real means to sop up the $6 trillion-plus in new liquidity that they dumped on the markets between March 2020 and March 2022. They know that this new money has to make its way through the system through larger prices. They further know that prices in general are NOT going to go down. At best, they will in general settle down to a more reasonable rate of increase. All told, 15% of the purchasing power of the dollar has been stolen in a mere 2½ years. That’s something we’ve not seen in 40 years but probably not really since the latter days of the American Revolution.

This much everyone knows for certain. The Biden administration will do nothing helpful to stave off the coming disaster. Their only plan, so far as I can see, is to take your guns and inject your kids with a serum. Is it any wonder that the job approval of that Biden has reached new lows? It’s not even clear that he cares that much."

Ed. note: "In Jim Rickards’ 2011 book "Currency Wars" he warned that the U.S. was engaged in a special type of economic war. And that these wars: "Degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation and actual violence as the scramble for resources leads to invasion and war. The historical precedents are sobering… Some version of the worst-case scenario is almost inevitable."

Now with Putin invading Ukraine… Rising tensions with China…Inflation, recession, supply chain issues and the potential for greater violence breaking out all over the world… It seems as if Jim’s worst fears are coming true."

Gregory Mannarino, "Meltdown: Fed Admits That The Economy Is In Free-Fall And Will Get Far Worse!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/7/22:
"Meltdown: Fed Admits That The Economy 
Is In Free-Fall And Will Get Far Worse!"
Comments here:

"Doug Casey on the Controlled Demolition of Food and Energy Supplies"

"Doug Casey on the Controlled Demolition
of Food and Energy Supplies"
by International Man

"International Man: Russia is one of the largest producers of fertilizer in the world, and tensions with the US and EU are disrupting supplies. In addition, it seems there is a deliberate effort to sabotage the global agriculture industry. For example, in the Netherlands, the government is restricting the use of nitrogen fertilizer under the ridiculous pretext that it's needed to combat so-called "climate change." Dutch farmers have protested the measures because they believe they will destroy their livelihoods and cause food shortages. In Canada, the Trudeau government has announced a similar policy. Other governments will likely follow. What's your take on this? Is this a deliberate plan to disrupt food supplies?

Doug Casey: This meme has been circulating, along with three related ones, for a couple of years. It's as if the world's governments decided to unleash the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Pestilence, War, Famine, and Conquest). The Covid hysteria and subsequent Vax mania can stand in for Pestilence. The US proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine has every chance of getting much worse. Vastly higher commodity prices caused by central bank inflation and State dictates will cause famine in poor countries. As for the Fourth Horseman, Conquest? That's best translated as State Power. Kings and rulers, of course, but it evidences itself as socialism and authoritarianism today. We're in for tough times. The Four Horsemen are saddling up.

But let's look at Famine. Few people realize that before the Industrial Revolution, which only started in the 19th C, the world was perennially on the edge of mass starvation. Privation and hunger were normal. Hobbes was accurate when he said that life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." The Industrial Revolution, powered by coal and then oil, changed the nature of life itself. Food has become abundant and is now, by far, at the cheapest levels in history. That may be changing. Basic commodities like wheat, soybeans, and corn have doubled in the last couple of years - incomes haven't. I doubt this is just a cyclical self-adjusting fluctuation. It's much more serious.

So what's going on? What's the deeper cause behind it? The great Covid hysteria was the catalyst that put WEF's "Great Reset" in motion. Even though the flu itself turned out to be a big nothing, it brought on a collapse in economic activity. The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, a place few think about, seemed to lead the way. Its rulers decided to make it the most ESG-compliant country in the world at the very time tourism collapsed because of the pandemic hysteria. The government banned imported fertilizers in 2021, and production of tea and rice collapsed 50%. Sri Lanka made the news because of the depths of its self-caused disaster. I wonder, since Sri Lanka is an island with a very authoritarian government, whether this was an experiment to see what happens if you cut off all fertilizers and create an agricultural crisis in a country. Does it sound crazy? I think it's a real question. It's crazy—but it's exactly what happened.

Is it possible that the world's elite have decided, among themselves, that the world has too many people and that too many of them are what the WEF's court intellectual, Yuval Noah Harari, has called "useless mouths"? With few exceptions, all the world's leaders are members of the World Economic Forum. They all have common interests, share the same elitist/collectivist philosophy, promote each other, and have a common party line.

The elite are to blame for the problems that we have now, the release of the Four Horsemen. This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is just a recognition of the fact that birds of a feather flock together. And once members of the elite become internationally influential or control a government, they become a "class."

I hate to sound Marxist talking about class interests, but it's true. The people who run most governments are much more loyal to their class - the international elite - than they are to their constituents or their countrymen. They think alike. They went to the same schools, they go to the same clubs, read the same books, go to the same conferences, have the same worldview, and become friends with each other. They're influenced by the same influencers. So what's going on right now is not just an accident.

International Man: The Biden regime recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It aims to reduce inflation by creating more inflation. A large part of this Orwellian spending bill includes an astronomical $369 billion for boondoggles related to "climate change." What do you think about this?

Doug Casey: The names of legislation in today's Orwellian world will do just the opposite of what it says it will do. The trillions of government spending we've seen in the last few years is the practical application of what is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). It came out from under a rock as a meme a couple of years ago. But it never really caught on, perhaps because the theory itself is so outrageous and radical.

The "Inflation Reduction Act" is the practical application of MMT. What does it mean? It means that the hundreds of billions of dollars that the Biden regime has authorized itself to spend will go in through the top of the funnel. It will all go to people that they favor, the projects they favor, and the ideas they favor. A giant amount of money is being given to the elite and people who toe the line.

But how is this immense giveaway supposed to reduce inflation, theoretically? MMT says that the government can counter the effects of the money supply increase by taking it back out of the economy through taxes. But who's going to pay those taxes? Elements of the society that are not in favor. People that they consider to be unnecessary, politically unreliable, or deplorable.

In today's world, taxes are paid mainly by members of the middle class. People in the lower classes don't pay income taxes. Taxes are somewhat irrelevant to people in the upper classes - apart from the fact that they're the ones who'll get most of the new MMT money. It's the middle class who will be taxed to withdraw the money that comes in the top of the funnel.

The theory is that the $400 billion the bill authorizes will go into society where the elite say. Then $400 billion will be withdrawn through taxes from the middle classes, aided by 87,000 new IRS agents. That's exactly what they're going to do, and that's exactly what MMT intends.

The State puts money in at the top, in "smart" places, and they extract money from the economy from places, and people that they don't think are worthy. It's a catastrophically dangerous way for the government to totally capture and manipulate the economy. That's what the perversely named Inflation Reduction Act is really about. And they'll do it without making it seem that way. It's diabolically clever.

International Man: The US government has been draining its strategic petroleum reserves in a big way recently. At the same time, the Biden Administration has made it difficult for oil and gas producers in the US. What is going on here?

Doug Casey: In the first place, I'm opposed to any strategic petroleum reserve run by the US government. Apart from the fact it amounts to the government speculating in commodities, it gives lots of extra power to the State and the bureaucrats who control it. Adequate petroleum reserves are something the market could, should, and would do - if we had an unrestrained free market. Which we don't.

Entrepreneurs, oil companies, and private speculators are immeasurably better at figuring out if oil will be in shortage or if it will be in glut. The government's debasement of the dollar is hurting the average guy, but the average guy votes. And he idiotically blames inflation on the oil producers - the very companies that are fighting the effects of inflation.

Of course, the Bidenistas want oil as low as possible before the election. They'll paint themselves as the good guys and oil producers as the bad guys. They're trying to reduce the effects of inflation by making oil more available. But once the reserve is gone, what's going to happen?

The elite absolutely hate fossil fuels. They hate coal, oil, gas, and uranium because they've empowered the common man since the start of the Industrial Revolution. They don't want to see more energy produced, they want to see energy conserved, then allocated ideologically, not economically. But the free market, not them, should decide if it makes sense to conserve energy or not. They hate the fossil fuel industry and want to direct capital towards so-called green technologies, basically solar and windmills.

As I've said many times before, there is nothing wrong with these so-called alternative forms of energy production in select places and at certain times. But as a source of mass power generation, they make no sense at all. They're a disaster in the making and totally inappropriate for a prosperous industrial economy. These idiots are playing with fire on a global scale.

The climate change agenda is another form of psychological mass control. The more fear and hysteria the elite create, the more control they have. The brainwashed hoi polloi will beg for a strongman with promises to set everything right.

The fact is that there are many, many decades of oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power available. New technologies will eventually replace most of them, much as the internal combustion engine replaced the horse and electricity replaced wood 100 years ago. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones, and the fossil fuel age won't end because we run our fossil fuels. But trying to force these things for political and ideological reasons runs a genuine chance of collapsing the economy completely.

International Man: The European Union is similarly instituting self-destructive policies threatening to destroy its food and energy security. It seems Western governments are deliberately sabotaging their economies. What is really going on here?

Doug Casey: It's like watching the controlled demolition of a building right before your very eyes. These people have declared war on Western Civilization. Releasing the Four Horsemen could bring on what amounts to a new Dark Age.

The global elite really do think they're different, better, and wiser than the plebs. They've become so bold that they're actually explaining what they're doing. They believe in authoritarianism because they believe they're the ones that should be on top. They don't understand economics, history, science, or technology—but they like being on top.

They're trying to justify what they're doing. They want to look smart by saying, "Well, we're going to be in for some unavoidably tough times. We're going to have some cold winters. We're going to have some food shortages." I suppose they can spin it, so they look wise for having seen these things in advance and predicting them—but it's fairly easy to predict something that you cause.

This is about the continuing collapse of Western Civilization, which these people see as an evil thing. At this point, the US is the last real bastion of Western Civilization. But Jacobins now control the apparatus of the State in the US, and they're not going to let go of power easily.

Western Europe has totally rolled over. It's totally controlled by socialist ideology. So we can expect more controls, more laws, more regulations as we move into the gigantic financial and economic crisis that's right around the corner. It's no longer in some theoretical future. It could be in a matter of weeks or months.

International Man: What can the average person do to protect themselves - and their money- from the consequences of these destructive measures?

Doug Casey: As the Greater Depression deepens, the average guy is going to clamor for somebody to solve his problems. The public will demand more controls. About half the country voted for the Bidenistas, and in Biden's recent speech, he practically declared war on the other half of the country. It's as if Biden has decided he, too, wants to be a War President, like the criminally stupid Baby Bush. Except Biden may wind up being a Civil War President.

What can you do about it? One possibility is that you can simply not play the game. As Timothy Leary said in a different context, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Perhaps you can imitate the Amish, but I don't think they'll leave anyone alone; at best, you'll be left behind. Or perhaps you can be like Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind" and get out of the way of stupid people.

One thing seems certain: we're facing a major turning point in world history. It's really serious. What's going to happen in particular? What are the elite going to do, and what is the public going to do in response? It's a complex guessing game, like predicting the next turn of a kaleidoscope.

My bets at the moment are on commodities, in general. They're very cheap relative to all other financial assets. There will be shortages because of what the elites are doing with things like ESG and DEI and their general attitudes towards business, private capital, and entrepreneurship. Pay heed to the French expression sauve qui peut - let he who can save himself. That's the situation as we move into increasing economic, financial, political, and social chaos."
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The Daily "Near You?"

Muncie, Indiana, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Each Must Decide For Himself..."

Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
- Mark Twain

"12 Things Suggest That the Economy is About to Crash"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/7/22:
"12 Things Suggest That the Economy is About to Crash"
"The warning signs are all around us. No matter what you believe you have to take a look at these 12 reasons that the economy is in much worse shape than we’ve been told."
Comments here:

George Carlin, "The Big Club"

Full screen recommended.
Very strong language alert!
George Carlin, "The Big Club"
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
Rude, crude and absolutely, undeniably true...
Full screen recommended.
Very strong language alert!
George Carlin,
"Life Is Worth Losing - Dumb Americans"