Jeremiah Babe, 9/14/22:
“FED Is Going To Crash The Housing Market;
Walmart Euphoria Could End; You Can’t Afford A Cellphone”
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Musical Interlude: Justin Hayward, "I Heard It"
Full screen recommended.
Justin Hayward, "I Heard It"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole.
Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), has been studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions."
The Poet: Charles Bukowski, “Mind and Heart”
“Mind and Heart”
“Unaccountably we are alone,
forever alone,
and it was meant to be
that way,
it was never meant
to be any other way -
and when the death struggle begins
the last thing I wish to see is
a ring of human faces
hovering over me -
better just my old friends,
the walls of my self,
let only them be there.
I have been alone but seldom lonely.
I have satisfied my thirst
at the well of my self
and that wine was good,
the best I ever had,
and tonight, sitting,
staring into the dark
I now finally understand
the dark and the
light and everything
in between.
Peace of mind and heart arrives
when we accept what is:
having been born into this strange life
we must accept
the wasted gamble of our days,
and take some satisfaction in
the pleasure of leaving it all behind.
Cry not for me.
Grieve not for me.
Read
what I’ve written
then forget it all.
Drink from the well
of your self and begin again.”
- Charles Bukowski
"Be That Thing..."
“In Rome just as America, in the forum just as on Facebook, there was the temptation to replace action with argument. To philosophize instead of living philosophically. Today, in a society obsessed with content, outrage, and drama, it’s even easier to get lost in the echo chamber of the debate of what’s “better.” We can have endless discussions about what’s right and wrong. What should we do in this hypothetical situation or that one? How can we encourage other people to be better? (We can even debate the meaning of the above line: “What’s a man? What’s the definition of good? Why doesn’t it mention women?”) Of course, this is all a distraction. If you want to try to make the world a slightly better place, there’s a lot you can do. But only one thing guarantees an impact. Step away from the argument. Dig yourself out of the rubble. Stop wasting time with how things should be, would be, could be. Be that thing.”
- Ryan Holiday
Gerald Celente, "Judge Andrew Napolitano: Monarchy And Fascism, It's The American Way"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, 9/14/22:
"Judge Andrew Napolitano:
Monarchy And Fascism, It's The American Way"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
○
"The "iron law of oligarchy" states that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations."
Freely download "The Iron Law Of Oligarchy", by Robert Michels, here:
Free Download: Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"
"I... don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him?"
"To shrug."
- Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
○
"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law - men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims - then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
An excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.
Full text of “Francisco’s Money Speech” is here:
Freely download "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, here:
Gregory Mannarino, "IMF Warns Of 'Debt Explosion' As The WH Celebrates The Inflation Reduction Act"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/14/22:
"IMF Warns Of 'Debt Explosion'
As The WH Celebrates The Inflation Reduction Act"
Comments here:
"Doug Casey on Class Warfare, "Eat the Rich" Sentiment, and What Happens Next"
"Doug Casey on Class Warfare,
"Eat the Rich" Sentiment, and What Happens Next"
by International Man
"International Man: Politicians looking for ways to finance their extravagant spending increasingly complain that the wealthy aren't paying their "fair share." It's a trend in motion that is accelerating. This rising anti-wealth sentiment seems to be taking the US into dangerous territory. Our friend Rick Rule once said, "Eat the rich? Prepare to starve." What is your take?
Doug Casey: Once upon a time, government apologists liked to say that the rich had to be taxed in order to help the poor. That's no longer the case. Nobody in America is starving. Even poor people have flat-screen TVs, air conditioning, and refrigerators. The poor live better than medieval royalty. What's going on is the institutionalization of envy, a terrible vice. It's different from jealousy.
Jealousy says, "You have something that I want. I want one too. Give it to me."
Envy says, "You have something that I want. If I can't have it, I'll destroy it, so you can't have it either." Envy is the moral flaw that underlies all socialist economic theories. Socialist feelings and morality underly the economic lies, race hatred, class hatred, sex antagonism, and political polarization tearing the US and the West apart. Envy and socialism have become secular religions. The country has been divided into two different and mutually antagonistic worldviews.
It's a question of what's right and wrong, what's good and evil. It's not a question of economics, about what's more productive. This is a much more serious division. It amounts to a religious war between the Left, who want to overthrow and transform society, and the Right, who want to more-or-less maintain traditional values, but lack any real ideology.
The Left is proposing all manner of outrageous, destructive, and genuinely stupid ideas. Free stuff for everybody. Not just food, shelter, schooling, and medical care provided at the expense of producers - which they've basically achieved. But now a guaranteed annual income. Everybody is supposed to get a thousand dollars a month, according to the silly twit and wannabe US president Andrew Yang. They won't have to do anything, just exist, presumably hanging out at Starbucks playing with their iPhones all day. They'll genuinely be what Yuval Noah Harari, the World Economic Forum's mincing court intellectual, has called a permanent class of useless eaters.
At some point, however, people who work, create, produce, and believe in traditional values will react. Maybe they'll explode in a violent counter-revolution. Maybe they'll quietly go on strike, as did Ayn Rand's heroes in "Atlas Shrugged." Or maybe they'll roll over and be transformed into serfs - which is what The elite would prefer and expect. But something wicked this way comes.
International Man: What do you make of the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents in the context of this trend?
Doug Casey: Those people aren't being recruited just to collect taxes, although that's absolutely one of the things that they will do. They will amount to a national police force, one that has a different mandate than the FBI, the ATF, the DEA, or other Praetorian agencies. The tax authorities have a right to look at any economic activity everywhere and anywhere.
As a moral issue, they'll try to turn nonpayment of tax on the part of producers into a crime against society. I shudder to think of the type of amoral creatures being recruited - at fat salaries and with immense powers - to investigate the lives of their countrymen. They'll be exactly analogous to Germany's Gestapo or Stasi.
These new IRS agents will have little to do with the poor. The poor are increasingly irrelevant, except for their votes. As it's been throughout history, the uneducated lower classes basically do hand-to-mouth labor. They're mainly interested in bread and circuses, and that's what they'll get. Their numbers are growing in this country for the first time.
The new IRS agents won't have much to do with the elite either; they can afford tax lawyers and accountants to fend them off. They'll take a few casualties for show and the sake of "fairness," but the elite are the main beneficiaries of the hundreds of billions of dollars that the government is pouring on society. This is all going to be paid for by the middle class, the people who actually produce and save.
These new IRS agents are a direct attack on the middle class. The elite hate the middle class and what they stand for - independence, stability, and traditional values. The fact that they're doubling the size of the tax police is truly extraordinary. As the economy continues to decline, you can expect class warfare - along with race and sex warfare - to increase.
As I explained last week, this is an important part of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Hundreds of billions of dollars that the government will spend through their Inflation Reduction Act will be financed - intentionally - by the creation of new dollars.
The reason why they say it's "inflation reduction" is because the same number of dollars will theoretically be taken out of society through taxes. The new dollars will be placed with the people and companies the government likes. They say it won't be inflationary because the same number of dollars will be taken out of the economy from people and companies that they don't approve of. So, theoretically, the net number of dollars in society will stay the same, and the general price level will stay the same because the money supply will stay the same.
That's their economic argument. But the moral argument is far more important. MMT allocates hundreds of billions to those the Left approves of and will take that much away from the middle class through taxes. It's diabolically clever. As I said, this amounts to a religious war because the people behind MMT are actually evil.
Unfortunately, "evil" is a word which has been discredited; people no longer take it seriously. It's been overused by emotional and often corrupt Bible thumpers, hell, and brimstone preachers. But evil really does exist. Evil is the intentional act of destroying something good.
International Man: With financial markets falling and the US dollar's purchasing power plummeting, many people are feeling poorer and are looking for someone to blame. What is your view on this dynamic and how it could affect the political situation?
Doug Casey: The speech Biden gave on September 1 was intended to be shocking and disturbing. It mimicked a scene out of V for Vendetta or 1984. They went out of their way to have Biden deliver it in Philadelphia, where the US was founded, and use red lighting against a dark background to fan emotions. These people are serious. Biden's words were full of hate and venom, calling out half the country as the enemy - the speech was unprecedented. It was a warning and an overt threat.
Look at the scene. The red background was over the top. Placing a couple of Marines in the background said, "I have power, and I'll use it against the enemy." Theatrics such as these are unprecedented. It amounted to a declaration of civil war. It was followed up by the outrageous raid on Trump's home and the FBI perp-walking about 50 of his prominent supporters, with dawn raids, in subsequent days.
These people truly want to overturn society. They're actually a reincarnation of the Jacobins and could turn out to be just as violent and dangerous. They're working to create an active environment of class warfare in the US. They've succeeded in fomenting race hatred, where people identify not as human beings but as people of color and anti-white. And sex warfare, wherein people are no longer either men or women - albeit a few with aberrations of varying degree - but as one or more of 50 or 60 genders.
These people hate the middle class, with their traditional cultural and religious values. This is why Trump is so popular and why they identify with him. It's not because many of his ideas are particularly good; he's essentially a populist with no philosophical center.
The elite and wannabe elitists hate Trump because he's a cultural traditionalist. These people want to overthrow traditional culture itself and eliminate the middle class. In the ideal world of the WEF types, the vast majority of people, the deplorables, would be serfs and the kulaks serving the nomenklatura ruling on the top, assisted by their apparatchiki.
I know it sounds outrageous, but that's what's on their minds. We've seen this before in history when Leftist intellectuals get control of real power, the apparatus of the State. They truly want to overturn the very basis of civilization. The Jacobins in revolutionary France, the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Nazis in Germany, the Maoists during China's Great Cultural Revolution, and the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. It can happen anywhere when conditions are right. It seems to be happening now in the US and other Western countries. Let's hope it blows over. But don't plan your life around that…
International Man: Historically, the size and power of the middle class made the US different from other countries. But now, the US middle class is shrinking and feeling squeezed. Where is this trend going, and what can the average middle-class person do about it?
Doug Casey: What was the average man supposed to do when the Jacobins brought out the guillotines in France in 1793? What should the average middle-class person have done in Russia in 1917? What should the average middle-class person have done in Germany in 1933? There's not much you can do when actual forces of evil are in control. There's very little that you can do except get out of Dodge.
Here in the US, we still have a large middle class. Many are fat, dumb, indoctrinated, or addicted to Prozac and Zoloft. But millions of others are, to coin a phrase, mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. The things we've been talking about could turn into a genuine civil war.
The recent global hysteria has inflicted a debilitating blow to an already fragile financial situation. It will soon cause significant economic, political, and social problems.What to do? Diversify your political jurisdictions. Don't roll over like a whipped dog; speak up, and resist. Maintain your ethics. Insulate yourself as best you can from evil and stupidity."
Bill Bonner, "The Ultimate Negative Feedback Loop"
"The Ultimate Negative Feedback Loop"
When "transitory" inflation just won't quit,
what's a Fed Head to do?
by Bill Bonner
"Inflation represents the ultimate negative feedback loop."
~ Milton Friedman
Youghal, Ireland - "The best war is the one you don’t fight. And the best inflation is the kind you never have. Yesterday’s 8.3% inflation print (which is how they describe it in the financial press) disappointed investors. They had their hearts set on a lower print. Because then, they reasoned, the Fed could go back to doing what it does best: inflating the economy.
Bloomberg: "Inflation Surprise Puts Onus on Fed to Hit Brakes Even Harder." "What started as a pandemic-driven supply shock has morphed into widespread inflation rooted just as much in resilient demand, underscored by unexpectedly high numbers that dashed hopes price gains were ebbing." We all need editors – at Bloomberg as well as everywhere else. What the writer was trying to say was that inflation may have begun as a pandemic-driven supply shock. But now, consumers keep buying and prices keep going up.
2+2 = ? Investors put 2 and 2 together. The Fed will be forced, they realized, to stick with its program of rate hikes. CNBC: "Dow tumbles 1,200 points for worst day since June 2020 after hot inflation report." "The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1,276.37 points, or 3.94%, to close at 31,104.97. The S&P 500 dropped 4.32% to 3,932.69, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 5.16% to end the day at 11,633.57."
But so far, the pain is limited. Stocks down, but not catastrophically. There are few bankruptcies. Mortgage rates are still below 6%. And as far as we know, only one corporate CFO has committed suicide. Business Insider: "The Bed Bath & Beyond CFO fell from the 18th floor on Friday, the NYPD confirmed to Insider."
The Fed is expected to raise its key rate by 75 basis points (0.75%) at its meeting next week, putting more pressure on debtors. Some people are urging the Fed to go easy, fearing – correctly – that they might drive the economy into a deeper recession. Others take the contrary view, also correct, that inflation is a bigger danger than recession and that the Fed will have to make the latter worse in order to stop the former. Bloomberg: "Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital is worried the Fed will choke off economic growth by raising interest rates too fast. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is among those saying the central bank needs to hike even faster to restore its credibility."
What to do? When our phone didn’t ring yesterday, we knew who wasn’t calling; Jerome Powell didn’t want our advice. But had we been asked, we would have given it to him straight: “Jay, buddy, you and your bunch of hopeless clowns created this mess. You dropped interest rates way too low and left them there for way too long. But you should never have been interfering with the credit markets in the first place…Jay… Jay… are you still there? Jay? The SOB hung up on me!”
Pobre Jay: The press this morning is showing photos of Jerome Powell. The poor man is under pressure. He thinks the current inflation is demand-driven. If he is to stop it, he will have to suppress demand by raising interest rates and sticking with his QT (quantitative tightening, in which the Fed shrinks its bond holdings).
He knows, too, that he is way behind the inflation curve. He was hoping that inflation would come down fast, so he could raise rates more gently. He might expect, for example, that inflation would fall to 4%... so that he could slide his rates up to 6% – and all would be hunky dory again. But inflation isn’t cooperating. It’s not dropping as fast as he had hoped. Normally, the Fed lends at positive rates (about 2% above inflation). To do so today would mean a Fed Funds rate over 10%. But the US has a pile of debt $90 trillion high. And every increase in interest rates shakes the ground on which it stands. It is only a matter of time until it falls over. The best debt crisis is the one you never have to face. Jerome Powell may not be so lucky."
"They Have Been Destroying Our Culture For Decades, And We Can See It Degenerating Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
"They Have Been Destroying Our Culture For Decades,
And We Can See It Degenerating Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
by Michael Snyder
"Our culture has been completely and utterly turned upside down. If Americans from 1776 could visit us today, they would be absolutely horrified. Everything that they considered to be good is now considered to be evil, and everything that they considered to be evil is now considered to be good. We may pay lip service to the Constitution that they gave us, but the truth is that we have completely rejected all of the values that were the bedrock of their society. As a result, our culture is rapidly degenerating and we can see evidence of this all around us.
Have you ever heard a politician say that “America is great because America is good”? At one time, that was actually true. But now our country has been taken over by people that are unashamedly evil. They control the education of our children, they control most of our news and entertainment, they run most of our large corporations, and they occupy most of the major positions of power in our largest cities. Sadly, they also completely dominate the halls of power in Washington. Over time, the American people allowed them to creep their way in, and now they are “the elite”. And they are literally destroying our culture.
Traditional American values have been banished to the remote fringes of our society, and they have been replaced by values that represent the exact opposite of what our society once believed. At this point, the elite have become so bold that they want to begin sexual indoctrination in kindergarten, they are attempting to normalize some of the most extreme forms of sexual deviancy imaginable, and they are pushing to set up vending machines “that will distribute drug supplies” even in very remote rural areas of the nation…
The Biden administration will be spending $3.6 million to set up vending machines in rural Kentucky that will distribute drug supplies as part of a project run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Our kiosk, or KyOSK (KY Outreach Service Kiosk), will be supplied with injection equipment, naloxone, fentanyl test strips, hygiene kits, condoms, and other supplies,” according to the project. The vending machines will allow drug users to procure items like syringes without having to come into contact with health experts. In addition to drug paraphernalia, the kiosks will also distribute “food kits, water, socks and gloves, feminine hygiene products, wound care, and resources/guides,” the National Institute on Drug Abuse told the Free Beacon:
"In our schools, reading, writing and arithmetic have been replaced by sex, drugs and political correctness. When many of our impressionable young kids finally become adults, they behave like wild animals because they have absolutely no moral foundation."
Over the weekend, there were brawls in stadiums all over the country as the NFL kicked off a new season. And if you visit your favorite local restaurant, there is also a chance that you might find yourself in the middle of a mass brawl…
A mass brawl broke out at the Mi Sueño restaurant in Providence, R.I. on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/VBjWCZsmZp
- Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 13, 2022
These days, the police often don’t even respond to such incidents because they are not deemed serious enough. But if you actually behead someone, that will be enough to get their attention…"A Northern California mother of two who was beheaded with a sword last week has been identified and the father of one of her children has been accused of committing the brutal murder. The family of 27-year-old Karina Castro has confirmed that she was beheaded on the street outside her home in broad daylight on Thursday by a man with a sword, KGO-TV reported. The man who police say killed her is 33-year-old Jose Raphael Solano Landaeta, the father of Castro’s 1-year-old daughter."
Could you picture something like that happening on American streets in 1776? Of course not. But these days even our wealthiest cities have been transformed into crime-ridden, drug infested hellholes. For example, just consider what has happened to San Francisco… The city is now famous for its depravity and decline. With multiple “poop tracking” apps to help residents avoid stepping in human fecal matter piled on the sidewalks as well as entire neighborhoods and street corners overrun with homeless people and Fentanyl addicts, it’s very hard for the city to play itself off as a destination of dreams (though they still try). Much like LA and the city of Portland, wherever the political left takes full control these are the kinds of unfortunate scenes you are likely to witness on a regular basis in San Francisco:
Full screen recommended.
Recent estimates project at least 20,000 homeless will reside in the city in 2022, and poverty levels will remain around 11.3% of the population. Previous homeless estimates date back to 2019, and surveys were skipped in 2020 due to the covid lockdowns. The Bay Area’s crime rates are FAR above the national average according to FBI stats, with property crime more than double that of the rest of the US.
Everywhere you look, the thin veneer of civilization that we all rely upon on a daily basis is disappearing. Our once civilized society has been replaced by one that is absolutely teeming with predators, addicts, perverts and serial criminals of various types. Sadly, the sentence above even describes the man currently residing in the White House and his family.
In such an environment, it is difficult for anyone to feel truly safe. When I came across the following story about the murder of a notorious rapper, I thought that it really summed up where we are as a society today…"Rapper PnB Rock posted a video to his Instagram showing off diamond chains just before being shot and killed in a robbery at a chicken eatery in Los Angeles after his girlfriend gave away their location by tagging it in a post.
The rapper, 30, was shot to death around 1 p.m. on Monday at a Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in south Los Angeles, police said, days after revealing he’d been the target of several recent failed robbery attempts. In the video posted to his Stories on his since-deleted Instagram, Rock is seen wearing a Louis Vuitton sweatshirt with massive diamond chains around his neck as he raps into the camera while driving around with his influencer girlfriend Stephanie Sibounheuang just before the fatal shooting."
In the days ahead, it won’t matter which side you are on. Everyone will be a target. Things didn’t have to turn out this way. If we would have clung to the values of our forefathers, our nation would be a far different place today. But instead we have consistently chosen wicked leaders that have put us on a course that leads to national suicide, and only a very small portion of the population is loudly objecting to this. If you love this country, what has happened to us should deeply, deeply sadden you. The elite thought that they were setting up their version of a “utopia”, but instead what they have given us is an endless nightmare."
"How Will Inflation Madness Affect the Markets?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/14/22:
"How Will Inflation Madness Affect the Markets?"
"Today I’m at the Waldorf Astoria in Laguna Niguel, California. I was lucky enough to run into Bob Kudla of Trade Genius Academy. We cover so much in regards to inflation, banking and Bob shares his expertise on the market."
Comments here:
"Reflect On What Happens..."
"Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age breakdown. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impassible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization - bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments - all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a secular winter. Don't think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted. "
- Strauss and Howe, "The Fourth Turning"
John Wilder, "Energy: We Need Everything. Now."
"Energy: We Need Everything. Now."
by John Wilder
"I remember way back in high school gym class when I was a freshman. One day we showed up in the gym and saw a roughly six-foot diameter ball in the middle of the gym floor, as if a majestic bird the size of Alec Baldwin had left an egg for us. That was new.
Coach said, “Welcome to Push Ball. Wilder and Jones, you two are captains. Pick your teams.” Jones and I were on the football team together, so we divvied up the rest of the boys. I think the girls were doing something like advanced couch-sitting that day. Coach followed up: “Here are the rules. No rules. If your team pushes the ball into the opposing team’s bleacher, you get a point.” Technically, that was a rule, but I decided not to argue.
Pretty quickly I divined that part of the point of Push Ball was to burn up a lot of energy on a game that was very hard to win. Probably “something, something teamwork blah blah blah”. But then I looked at the ball. It was filled with air, not Baldwin-DNA-soaked egg yolk, so it wasn’t all that heavy. But it was way too big for any one person to grab.
It wasn’t entirely smooth, though. There were laces. These laces were like those on a football, except the gap between the laces was big – big enough to slip my fingers through. I developed a plan. I told my guys, “It’s gonna get easy – we’re gonna win. When I say go, get in front of me and block.” As we played, I concentrated on rotating the laces towards me. When they were right there about shoulder height, I slipped my fingers in the gaps between the laces, and got a good hold.
“Now!” I yelled. With the leverage of the handhold, I could easily use the opposing team’s force to pop the ball back towards me, and up. And with the ball gone, my guys got in front and blocked. I ran, holding the absurdly large ball over my head with one hand and slammed it into the retracted bleachers causing the wood to reverberate under the mighty force, scoring the first point.
“THIS. IS. SPARTA!” I yelled. Okay, no I didn’t, it sounds way cooler to pretend that I did. And I sure as hell felt like Thor (not the fake Marvel® one) slamming his hammer and making the lightning crash. Our team really did high five. Coach blew his whistle. “Okay, we now have a rule. You can’t do that.”
Weirdly, this post is the second one about energy. In one sense, our world is like that game of push ball. We work to innovate and create breakthroughs to better use the energy we have. The number of cars are up in the country, but the miles per gallon are way up, too.
Government would love to take credit for it, but it’s really not the case. Sure the CAFE standards have led to higher mileage, but a lot of that is due to innovation that occurred outside of those standards. When I read that the Trans Am® in Smokey and the Bandit only produced 200 horsepower, I realized that most of the cars I own have more power under the hood, and get better mileage. I always wanted a car with a T-top like the Trans Am™ in high school, so my dates could have had more legroom. I was considerate that way.
We have become more efficient at using energy, and that’s great. But we find more uses for energy, too. If I lived in the same house today in 1977, right now there would be zero power usage outside of the fridge and the freezer. As it is, I’m watching a silly movie on a huge television while I type on a laptop with alarm clocks that don’t tick from springs winding down. I’m happy for that, because if the alarm clock would go tic-tic-tic all night, it would keep The Mrs. awake and she’d want to toc.
Is my house using a lot of energy? No, but there are a lot more devices in a home today using energy passively, like charging cell phones and security systems and “always on” televisions and computers and garage door openers on low power mode. Even industry is more efficient, generally, at using energy. Modern manufacturing plants are expert at using what would have been waste heat in all sorts of ways to save energy, which in turn saves money. I mean, don’t be an engineer if you’re not so hot in thermodynamics.
But at the base of all modern industry, energy is crucial. It is the ultimate leverage. One analyst noted that $20 billion in Russian natural gas was used by Germany to create $2 trillion in economic output. That’s stuff made. It’s amazing leverage – $1 in natural gas was the basis for creating $100 worth of added value. Germany would like to start a war, but the rule is that it’s three Reichs, and you’re out.
Energy is that important. And energy usage isn’t a linear progression – it has been exponential. The problem is that energy usage is growing nearly exponentially. If you look at any short-term graphs, it doesn’t quite show it, but here’s one that puts it in perspective. I got it at Our World in Data (LINK) and it’s reused by CC (LINK).
I think this one graph alone should be tattooed backward on the head of every Leftist who says BuT MUh ALtEnaTivE EneRgy. Eliminate oil, coal, and natural gas, and you have a world that, roughly, has as much energy as 1920.
The world population right now is 7.97 billion people. In 1920, the population was closer to 1.9 billion, which is roughly the number of people on a typical airplane nowadays. In 1920 electricity was only in 35% of homes. In the United States. Most people in the world in 1920 had no electrical power usage at all, heated their homes with firewood or coal, and only saw electrical lights at the picture show. Also, they were, sadly, almost sixty years too early to see Smokey and the Bandit.
Let’s go back to Germany (not the 1920 version) but today. Just $20 billion in natural gas costs $2 trillion in value added. Population is growing exponentially. Energy use is growing exponentially. We’re setting ridiculous ideas that we’ll be all-electric by 2030 by changing rules to limit innovation and declare winners. It’s like Coach not allowing innovation in Push Ball, but this time with real-world consequences.
But those electric cars. They’re powered by...what, exactly? Seriously, look at the chart. What? Nuclear we haven’t built? Solar which is so small it can’t be seen? Hydropower which is in decline because it can’t be built? Wind? I can’t see wind outside, and I also can barely see it on the chart.
Anyone, and I mean anyone who is not realizing that the Leftist energy pipe dream won’t lead to the greatest suffering that mankind has ever seen, even more than anything Global Warming® could ever cause, even more than both of the World Wars, combined, is deluded.
We need more innovation in energy, and we need it now, because the exponentials in energy use and population require investment to keep ahead of the game. Exponentials are funny that way, you have to be like Alice’s Red Queen and run faster and faster just to stay in place. The Leftists that want to bring it all down? They deserve to be put into a Push Ball filled with Alec Baldwin’s DNA-soaked yolk."
Gregory Mannarino, "It's Not Over! More Proof That The Economy Is Crashing Faster!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/14/22:
"It's Not Over!
More Proof That The Economy Is Crashing Faster!"
Comments here:
"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 9/14/22:
"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Walmart 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:
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "Get Your Affairs In Order, It's About To Get Ugly"
Canadian Prepper, 9/13/22:
"Get Your Affairs In Order, It's About To Get Ugly"
"Yep... SHTF likelihood approaches 90%."
Comments here:
"Energy Prices Soar 700% And Threaten To Push Businesses To The Brink Of Bankruptcy This Winter"
Full screen recommended.
"Energy Prices Soar 700% And Threaten To Push
Businesses To The Brink Of Bankruptcy This Winter"
by Epic Economy
"Energy supply chains are falling apart and the stakes couldn’t be higher. While consumers face soaring utility bills, energy-hungry industries are already in distress and cutting output, and now thousands of businesses are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy as explosive energy prices eat a larger share of their profits. Experts are warning that a catastrophe is coming this winter as unprecedented energy costs risk causing serious physical and financial damage to families, while triple-digit increases threaten to trigger mass business closures, and result in job losses and higher consumer prices.
If you think the worst of energy-driven inflation is already over, we have some unfortunate news for you. Americans are being increasingly exposed to a far more expensive and volatile natural gas market as geopolitical events continue to escalate on the other side of the globe. Already, more than 20 million American households have fallen behind on their electricity bills – but we haven’t even seen prices peaking just yet.
Right now, natural gas is at 14-year highs, with prices exploding over 500% since the fall of 2020. The gap between demand and supply is pushing grid operators to a breaking point, and conditions are expected to get even more extreme this winter. A new analysis published by Business Insider indicated that heat waves are expected to continue knocking out power across states for days on end. “That endangers millions who can't afford to cool down with a generator or a pool. A lack of power will also lead to widespread food spoilage as freezers and refrigerators shut down,” it noted.
According to data provided by Barclays researchers, utility bills in the U.S. could jump another 40% due to the global energy rally, Bloomberg reported. “These are very high prices and will not be affordable for many households,” emphasized Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. At the same time, the outlook for businesses is even scarier. A new survey released by the Federation of Small Businesses shows that companies have experienced on average a 424% rise in natural gas costs and a 349% increase in electricity so far this year. But some sectors are being particularly hard hit. Just as it happened during the health crisis, the hospitality sector is being pushed to the edge of a disaster once again. For the owners of the restaurant franchise Tiny Rebel, energy costs alone were up between 600% and 700% this year, CFO Hannah Williams said in a recent interview with CNBC.
Their company may not survive this winter, and thousands of others could face a similar fate. Many hotel owners and people from the food and drinks sector recently started to speak out about the crippling cost increases they are experiencing. For the managing director of the Frisco Group, businesses are facing a “mass extinction event” given that they can’t keep up with skyrocketing prices for everything. “Find a solution to this now or face restaurant closures,” she said during an interview with The Morning Advertiser.
Among those that survive, many will be forced to lay off thousands of workers, the consultancy said. Red Flag is warning that more than 75,000 larger companies that are high energy users are at risk of insolvency or are likely to lay off staff, in the UK. For the U.S., preliminary research shows that at least 50,000 businesses are on the line.
In other words, the energy crisis is reaching unimaginable proportions as we speak. Now, a wave of business bankruptcies and mass lay-offs is emerging on the horizon and families will experience another dark and painful winter as supplies dwindle. So if you can, stock up on batteries, candles, and non-perishables. Blackouts are coming, and even the world’s wealthiest nations won’t be spared."
"This Is Scariest Market In History And It's Gonna Get A Lot Scarier - FED Has Pulled The Plug"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/13/22:
"This Is Scariest Market In History And It's Gonna
Get A Lot Scarier - FED Has Pulled The Plug"
Comments here:
"August Inflation Shocks Expectations"
"August Inflation Shocks Expectations"
by Brian Maher
“U.S. Consumer Prices Blow Away Expectations, Rise For 27th Straight Month”... “The Hottest U.S. Inflation in 40 Years Shows Little Sign of Cooling Off”... "Stocks Tank After August Inflation Data”...There is but a sample of today’s fevered headlines.
The August Consumer Price Index (CPI) came issuing this morning. It revealed that consumer prices increased 0.1% since July. We might inform you that 47 of 50 polled economists “missed” - and to the downside. Yet we are in magnanimous spirits today. And so we will not.
They nonetheless forecast a 0.1% price fall from July… and got the 0.1% price rise instead. Rather than the 8% year-over-year inflation they projected, August year-over-year inflation came in at 8.3% Meantime, core CPI is the Federal Reserve's inflation metric of choice. It rinses out food and energy prices. Today’s report reveals that core CPI galloped 0.6% in August. The wiseacres forecast a mere 0.4% jog past July’s rate.
But Gas Prices Are Down! The foregoing presents an apparent conundrum: Energy prices push inflation up. Yet gasoline prices are in swift retreat - are they not? It is true, the data reveal they are. CPI’s energy component slipped 5% from July. That represents the largest backing-up since April 2020, when lockdowns entered force. The gasoline index, most notably and conspicuously, plunged 10.6% in August.
What then explains August’s inflationary gurgles? What resolves the conundrum? Zero Hedge:
"The big shock was the food index which increased 11.4% over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979, while the food at home index rose 13.5% the largest 12-month increase since the period ending March 1979."
These are the rising food prices the Federal Reserve looks away from… incidentally. You of course cannot look away from them. Your eyes leap from their sockets each time you sight the bill, gobsmacked and astonished. In all, 70% of the CPI bundle registered an August increase exceeding 4%.
When Will The Inflation Reduction Act Kick In? August shelter and rent leaped to 6.24% from July's 5.69%. Health insurance costs jumped 2.4% from July’s - and are up 24.3% on the year. Thus “transitory” inflation has taken on a sort of permanence. Bankrate’s Mark Hamrick gives the overall view: "The prices for necessities continue to fuel this fire, including shelter, food and medical care. The substantial decline in gasoline prices is noteworthy but doesn’t address the overall problem with inflation."
Adds Mr. Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analytics: "The core inflation numbers were hot across the board. The breadth of the strong price increases, from new vehicles to medical care services to rent growth, everything was up strongly. That was the most disconcerting aspect of the report."
Meantime, CNBC warns that today’s report challenges “the inflation narrative”: "For the better part of a year, the inflation narrative among many economists and policymakers was that it was essentially a food and fuel problem. Once supply chains eased and gas prices abated, the thinking went, that would help lower food costs and in turn ease price pressures across the economy. August’s consumer price index numbers, however, tested that narrative severely, with broadening increases indicating now that inflation could be more persistent and entrenched than previously thought."
Just so. How do you like it?
Falling Wages for 17 Consecutive Months: Are you keeping up? Alas you are not. Real wages declined for the 17th consecutive month in August. That is, your wilting paycheck has fetched you less and less for the 17th consecutive month. Thus inflation is a supremely skillful pickpocket. It is justly and aptly named the invisible thief. And it presently has you by the ear.
On such days as these we often consult Mr. John Williams’ ShadowStats site. That is because this fellow scatters the statistical fogs - the statistical fogs government throws up to conceal true inflation. Mr. Williams reveals that the true inflation rate far, far exceeds the official rate. Yet today our courage would not answer. We feared a true accounting would fluster us, wobble us and diminish our already diminished spirits. And so we stayed away.
Yet perhaps you are of an optimistic turn of mind. You are a glass half-full man and a silver lining-seeker. Here then is your half-full water glass and your silver edging: The costs of airline tickets, coffee - and fruit - declined last month. Yet there was no joy on Wall Street today…
A Vicious Thumping: The stock market took a vicious whaling, harpooned heavily by the report. The Dow Jones plummeted a harrowing 1,276 points on the day. The S&P 500 took a 177-point trouncing and the poor Nasdaq Composite hemorrhaged 632 points - a 5.16% defeat. Gold lost $28 - precisely - while Bitcoin lost $2,091, at writing at least.
Today’s report gave Wall Street a good reminder that it can stow all hopes of Federal Reserve clemency near term. Principal Global Investors chief global strategist Seema Shah: "Today’s inflation data cements a third consecutive 0.75% increase in the fed funds rate next week… core CPI is once again on the rise, confirming the very sticky nature of the U.S. inflation problem. Until the Fed can tame that beast, there is simply no room for a discussion on pivots or pauses."
This Shah claims today’s inflation data “cements” a third consecutive 0.75% rate hike. Yet could the Federal Reserve resort to action bolder yet? Might it elevate rates a full percentage point next week - by a thumping 1%? The market presently gives 32% odds of it. Yesterday it gave 0% odds.
Tightening Upon Tightening: Meantime, the odds of a 0.75% November hike leaped to 60% and the odds of a 1% December hike near 50%. Thus we discover that the federal funds rate may exceed 4% by year’s end. When we factor for the quantitative tightening presently underway, the Federal Reserve may squeeze markets plenty hard. Its quantitative easing may hack away $1 trillion from the balance sheet this year. Estimates are that a $1 trillion carving equals one percentage point of rate hikes.
The stock market - and the economy - may then confront a 5% effective rate before long. Neither can withstand a 5% rate… by our reckoning at least. Only one question remains: What is the breaking point? We do not know of course. No one truly does. Yet unless the gods are exceedingly and unfashionably kind, we will have our answer soon enough…"
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Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
Full screen recommended!
Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
"A Look to the Heavens"
From Sagittarius to Carina, the Milky Way Galaxy shines in this dark night sky above planet Earth’s lush island paradise of Mangaia. Familiar to denizens of the southern hemisphere, the gorgeous skyscape includes the bulging galactic center at the upper left and bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri just right of center. About 10 kilometers wide, volcanic Mangaia is the southernmost of the Cook Islands. Geologists estimate that at 18 million years old it is the oldest island in the Pacific Ocean.
Of course, the Milky Way is somewhat older, with the galaxy’s oldest stars estimated to be over 13 billion years old. (Editor’s note: This image holds the distinction of being selected as winner in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in the Earth and Space category.)“
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110924.html
Free Download: Jack London, "The Iron Heel"
"I know nothing that I may say can influence you. You have no souls to be influenced. You are spineless, flaccid things. You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats. You are lick-spittlers and panderers, the creatures of the Plutocracy."
- Jack London
Freely download "The Iron Heel", by Jack London, here:
Read online The Project Gutenberg eBook
of "The Iron Heel", by Jack London, here:
"Man's Nature..."
"Man has one name, and many more than two natures. But the essential
two are these: that he shall strive to impose order on chaos,
and that he shall strive to take advantage of chaos…
A third element of man's nature is this:
that he shall not understand what he is doing."
- John Brunner
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Winter of Listening"
"The Winter of Listening"
"No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own."
- David Whyte,
"The House of Belonging"
Gregory Mannarino, "Stock Market Nose Dives! No Accountability For The Fed, And Its About To Get Much Worse"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/13/22:
"Stock Market Nose Dives! No Accountability
For The Fed, And Its About To Get Much Worse"
Comments here:
○
Update at Market Close, 4 PM EST 9/13/22:
"My Own View..."
“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and
dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit.
I can’t prove it, but you can’t disprove it either.”
- Christopher Hitchens
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