Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/29/22:
"They Are Breeding Us Like Rats To Consume,
Only To Kill Us Off"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, September 29, 2022
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/29/22"
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/29/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 9/29/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
"Market Hope Crushed Today; Carmax Collapse; Real Estate Crash Trending"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/29/22:
"Market Hope Crushed Today; Carmax Collapse;
Real Estate Crash Trending"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Trends in The News"
VERY strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 9/29/29:
"Trends in The News"
"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:
"This Cycle Of Retaliation Between The U.S. And Russia Will Ultimately Lead To Nuclear War"
"This Cycle Of Retaliation Between The U.S.
And Russia Will Ultimately Lead To Nuclear War"
by Michael Snyder
"For the good of humanity, this has got to stop. The United States and Russia both keep raising the stakes, and if we keep repeating this cycle it will end with a nuclear war that could ultimately result in billions of deaths. Unfortunately, leaders on both sides do not seem interested in peace at this point. The votes that Russia just conducted in four disputed territories were inevitably going to raise tensions even higher. Of course the western powers have been greatly escalating matters themselves. Over the past couple of months, NATO has gotten far more deeply involved in the conflict in Ukraine, and now the war is starting to spread beyond Ukrainian borders.
Everyone agrees that the damage caused to the Nord Stream pipeline system was an act of sabotage. As I discussed yesterday, an explosion that registered 1.9 on the Richter scale was followed by a second explosion that registered 2.3 on the Richter scale. These explosions were absolutely huge, and that suggests that this was a military operation.
Many in the western world are blaming Russia for the sabotage, but why would they blow up pipelines that they spent so much time and energy constructing and that have enabled them to make giant mountains of money selling natural gas to Europe? The Russians have already been punishing the Europeans by restricting the flow of gas through those pipelines. There was certainly no need to blow them up. If it is ultimately proven that the Russians did this, it would be one of the stupidest geopolitical moves that I have ever seen.
Of course there is someone else that could have done it. On Friday, September 23rd the following statement was posted on the official White House website…"The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine. Russia’s referenda are a sham – a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force in flagrant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter. We will work with our allies and partners to impose additional swift and severe economic costs on Russia. The United States stands with our partners around the world – and with every nation that respects the core tenets of the UN charter – in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia will announce. We will continue to support the Ukrainian people and provide them with security assistance to help them defend themselves as they courageously resist Russia’s invasion."
So Joe Biden promised to impose “swift and severe economic costs on Russia” on Friday, and then on Monday both Nord Stream pipelines were blown up. And by now you have probably already heard that Joe Biden threatened to attack the Nord Stream pipeline system before the war in Ukraine even started…
Pres. Biden: “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Reporter: “But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany’s control?”
Biden: “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”
Biden had obviously been discussing this option with his advisers, and one of those advisers named Victoria Nuland also made a similar threat prior to the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict… “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
Some enterprising reporter needs to ask the Biden administration if they were responsible for the sabotage. Of course they will probably deny it even if they ordered the attack. But it is interesting to note that the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group entered the Baltic Sea in early September…"The Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) with the embarked 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) concluded two successful training events with the Swedish Armed Forces and Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG) 1 while operating in the Baltic Sea, Sept. 4, 2022."
Unfortunately, the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group didn’t leave the Baltic Sea area right away. In fact, it is being reported that this task force didn’t actually leave the Baltic Sea until a few days ago…"The Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) have departed the Baltic Sea and are in the English Channel. The ARG includes USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), USS Arlington (LPD-24) and USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44). Kearsarge and Gunston Hall completed port calls in Gdynia and Gdansk, respectively, last week."
This would have given them plenty of time to plant explosives on the Nord Stream pipeline system if they were inclined to do so. In addition, we have learned that the U.S. Navy was testing “the latest advancements in unmanned underwater vehicle mine hunting technology” in the Baltic Sea during the month of June…"A significant focus of BALTOPS every year is the demonstration of NATO mine hunting capabilities, and this year the U.S. Navy continues to use the exercise as an opportunity to test emerging technology, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Public Affairs said June 14.
In support of BALTOPS, U.S. Navy 6th Fleet partnered with U.S. Navy research and warfare centers to bring the latest advancements in unmanned underwater vehicle mine hunting technology to the Baltic Sea to demonstrate the vehicle’s effectiveness in operational scenarios. Experimentation was conducted off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark, with participants from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and Mine Warfare Readiness and Effectiveness Measuring all under the direction of U.S. 6th Fleet Task Force 68."
Our Navy seems to have spent a lot of time in the Baltic Sea lately, eh? Needless to say, the Russians are very angry about what has happened, and they have called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council…“Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with sabotage against two lines of the Nord Stream. We expect it to be held tomorrow,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, one of Russia’s top representatives at the U.N., wrote on his Telegram channel, according to a translation."
Shortly after issuing the statement early Wednesday, the French delegation to the U.N. confirmed to him that a meeting would indeed take place on Friday – a tacit acknowledgement of the panic that the explosions and subsequent leaks have caused. It will be very interesting to see what transpires at that meeting.
Let us hope that the truth about all of this eventually comes out. But even more, let us hope that cooler heads start to prevail and that leaders on both sides start to push for peace. Because if both sides continue to hammer one another, at some point someone is going to cross a line that can never be uncrossed. We are steamrolling toward nuclear war, and once the missiles start flying our world will never be the same again.
So I am not ashamed to say that I am pro-peace. Nuclear war is a fate that is too horrible for words, but with each passing day our leaders are dragging us ever closer to such a conflict."
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Related:
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Do we really want to do this?
"It Just Happened Again at the Bank"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/29/22:
"It Just Happened Again at the Bank"
"It just keeps happening again and again. Banks are limiting the amount of money that you can take out. Now we’re told the bank just doesn’t even have cash."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! It's Already Unraveling!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/29/22:
"Alert! It's Already Unraveling!"
Comments here:
"Stocking Up At Kroger! Checking Prices, And Showing Ways To Save Money!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 9/29/22:
"Stocking Up At Kroger! Checking Prices,
And Showing Ways To Save Money!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are stocking up on some deals as prices seem to be constantly on the rise! This is not good as we are seeing massive price increases, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "Buckle Up! 'Only One Way This War Ends', With D. Pyne"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/28/22:
"Buckle Up! 'Only One Way This War Ends',
With D. Pyne"
"I talk to a real nuclear weapons expert about the state of things."
Comments here:
"Many Retailers Facing Collapse As Hard Times Are Coming"
Full screen recommended.
"Many Retailers Facing Collapse As Hard Times Are Coming"
by Epic Economist
"The situation doesn’t look good at all for a large number of U.S. retailers. New research found that over a quarter of retailers in America could be a few months away from going bankrupt, and many are already facing collapse due to severe supply chain disruptions that are causing shortages of consumer favorites, massive inventory gluts of products that aren’t selling, and price imbalances that have been threatening their profits. According to industry insiders, we are set to see a wave of retail bankruptcies before year’s end as problems continue to pile up and consumer spending keeps going down.!
A new survey found that more than 25% of U.S. retailers are at risk of going broke in the next three months due to worsening supply chain issues. Even as the busiest shopping season of the year for retailers is right at the corner, a sharp drop in consumer spending and changing consumer habits are taking a heavy toll on their profit margins. Demand planning software, Bright, conducted a survey in August that found 85% of U.S. retailers have been hit by supply chain disruptions in the last year. At the same time, almost half of e-commerce retailers, including Amazon, have experienced stockouts, resulting in sales losses.
The crisis is getting so critical that 26% of respondents said they were in danger of running out of cash if conditions do not improve soon – a major threat to their survival. The survey also found that shortages of highly demanded goods, including groceries, electronics, and clothes were the biggest problem, experienced by 68% of respondents. Other challenges included soaring shipping prices, suffered by 64% of firms, extended delivery times for essential products, mentioned by 54% of them; suppliers facing selling out of stock, noted by 46%, and higher costs of raw materials, affecting 40% of companies.
Very recently, several big-box retailers, including the world’s largest retail chain, Walmart, announced the cancellation of billions of dollars in orders, plans to hike prices of consumer favorites and hinted that lay-offs are on the horizon. A few weeks ago, customers could see signs placed on Walmart shelves asking for comprehension about stockouts of meat and fresh produce caused by “supply chain problems beyond our control”, the company said.
According to CNBC, the entire U.S. retail industry is set to face a massive wave of bankruptcies this year following a monthslong slowdown in restructuring activity. Industry insiders are warning about an increase in the number of distressed retailers, “as ballooning prices dent demand for certain goods, stores contend with bloated inventory levels and a recession looms,” it reported.
At this point, restructuring experts say they’re preparing for more trouble across the industry as the all-important holiday season approaches. “We have potentially a perfect storm brewing,” stressed Sally Henry, a professor of law at Texas Tech Law School and former partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in retail bankruptcies.”
As other retailers follow similar measures, profits are set to take a deep dive in the near term, warned Joseph Malfitano, founder of turnaround and restructuring firm Malfitano Partners. “And when a retailer’s profit margins shrink as its inventories are reappraised - a routine practice in the industry - those inventories won’t be worth as much. A company’s borrowing base could fall as a result,” he explained.
All of this means that the upcoming holiday season may not be an opportunity for retailers to break even on profits, but actually mark a make-or-break moment for companies that are already struggling to survive. Another chapter of the retail apocalypse is unfolding right as we speak, and all evidence shows that disaster is on the horizon."
"We Are In Deep Trouble; Markets Soar As Central Bank Bails Out Home Owners And Pension"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/28/22:
"We Are In Deep Trouble; Markets Soar As
Central Bank Bails Out Home Owners And Pension"
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "USA Issues Major Warning to Get Out Now"
Canadian Prepper, 9/28/22:
"USA Issues Major Warning to Get Out Now"
"New info about the pipeline incident and USA has warned its citizens to get out now. The Canadian government has also warned hockey players to leave Russia immediately. Was the pipeline incident a cyber related incident? It has happened before. Gas Prices Are Rising Again!"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023 this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this remarkable image shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star.
The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The bright blue portion of the Iris Nebula is about six light-years across.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120929.html
"Maybe..."
"Maybe we're not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be a human. Maybe, we're thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe, we're thankful for the things we'll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate. "
- "Grey's Anatomy "
Gregory Mannarino, "A Global Currency Crisis/Meltdown Is A Lock!"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/28/22:
"A Global Currency Crisis/Meltdown Is A Lock!
This Is What You Need To Know Now"
Comments here:
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
by International Man
"International Man: The decline of Western Civilization is on a lot of people’s minds. Let’s talk about this trend.
Doug Casey: Western Civilization has its origins in ancient Greece. It’s unique among the world’s civilizations in putting the individual - as opposed to the collective - in a central position. It enshrined logic and rational thought - as opposed to mysticism and superstition - as the way to deal with the world. It’s because of this that we have science, technology, great literature and art, capitalism, personal freedom, the concept of progress, and much, much more. In fact, almost everything worth having in the material world is due to Western Civilization.
Ayn Rand once said "East minus West equals zero." I think she went a bit too far, as a rhetorical device, but she was essentially right. When you look at what the world’s other civilizations have brought to the party, at least over the last 2,500 years, it’s trivial. I lived in the Orient for years. There are many things I love about it - martial arts, yoga, and the cuisine among them. But all the progress they’ve made is due to adopting the fruits of the West.
International Man: There are so many things degrading Western Civilization. Where do we begin?
Doug Casey: It’s been said, correctly, that a civilization always collapses from within. World War 1, in 1914, signaled the start of the long collapse of Western Civilization. Of course, termites were already eating away at the foundations, with the writings of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It’s been on an accelerating downward path ever since, even though technology and science have been improving at a quantum pace. They are, however, like delayed action flywheels, operating on stored energy and accumulated capital. Without capital, intellectual freedom, and entrepreneurialism, science and technology will slow down. I’m optimistic we’ll make it to Kurzweil’s Singularity, but there are no guarantees.
Things also changed with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Before that, the US used gold coinage for money. "The dollar" was just a name for 1/20th of an ounce of gold. That is what the dollar was. Paper dollars were just receipts for gold on deposit in the Treasury. The income tax, enacted the same year, threw more sand in the gears of civilization. The world was much freer before the events of 1913 and 1914, which acted to put the State at the center of everything.
The Fed and the income tax are both disastrous and unnecessary things, enemies of the common man in every way. Unfortunately, people have come to believe they’re fixtures in the cosmic firmament. They’re the main reasons - there are many other reasons, though, unfortunately - why the average American’s standard of living has been dropping since the early 1970s. In fact, were it not for these things, and the immense amount of capital destroyed during the numerous wars of the last 100 years, I expect we’d have already colonized the moon and Mars. Among many other things.
But I want to re-emphasize that the science, the technology, and all the wonderful toys we have are not the essence of Western Civilization. They’re consequences of individualism, capitalism, rational thought, and personal freedom. It’s critical not to confuse cause and effect.
International Man: You mentioned that the average American’s standard of living has dropped since the early 1970s. This is directly related to the US government abandoning the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been able to debase the US dollar without limit. I think the dollar’s transformation into a purely fiat currency has eroded the rule of law and morality in the US. It’s similar to what happened in the Roman Empire after it started debasing its currency. What do you think, Doug?
Doug Casey: All the world’s governments and central banks share a common philosophy, which drives these policies. They believe that you create economic activity by stimulating demand, and you stimulate demand by printing money. And, of course, it’s true, in a way. Roughly the same way a counterfeiter can stimulate a local economy.
Unfortunately, they ignore that, and completely ignore that the way a person or a society becomes wealthy is by producing more than they consume and saving the difference. That difference, savings, is how you create capital. Without capital you’re reduced to subsistence, scratching at the earth with a stick. These people think that by inflating - which is to say destroying - the currency, they can create prosperity. But what they’re really doing, is destroying capital: When you destroy the value of the currency, that discourages people from saving it. And when people don’t save, they can’t build capital, and the vicious cycle goes on.
This is destructive for civilization itself, in both the long term and the short term. The more paper money, the more credit, they create, the more society focuses on finance, as opposed to production. It’s why there are many times more people studying finance than science. The focus is increasingly on speculation, not production. Financial engineering, not mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering. And lots of laws and regulations to keep the unstable structure from collapsing.
What keeps a truly civil society together isn’t laws, regulations, and police. It’s peer pressure, social opprobrium, moral approbation, and your reputation. These are the four elements that keep things together. Western Civilization is built on voluntarism. But, as the State grows, that’s being replaced by coercion in every aspect of society. There are regulations on the most obscure areas of life. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in his book, the average American commits three felonies a day. Whether he’s caught and prosecuted is a subject of luck and the arbitrary will of some functionary. That’s antithetical to the core values of Western Civilization.
International Man: Speaking of ancient civilizations like Rome, interest rates are just coming off the the lowest levels they’ve been in 5,000 years of recorded history. Trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds trade at negative yields. Of course, this couldn’t happen in a free market. It’s only possible because of central bank manipulation. How will artificially low interest rates affect the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: It’s really, really serious. I previously thought it was metaphysically impossible to have negative interest rates but, in the Bizarro World central banks have created, it’s happened.
Negative interest rates discourage saving. Once again, saving is what builds capital. Without capital you wind up as an empty shell - Rome in 450 A.D., or Detroit today - lots of wonderful but empty buildings and no economic activity. Worse, it forces people to desperately put their money in all manner of idiotic speculations in an effort to stay ahead of inflation. They wind up chasing the bubbles the funny money creates.
Let me re-emphasize something: in order for science and technology to advance you need capital. Where does capital come from? It comes from people producing more than they consume and saving the difference. Debt, on the other hand, means you’re living above your means. You’re either consuming the capital others have saved, or you’re mortgaging your future.
Zero and negative interest rate policies, and the creation of money out of nowhere, are actually destructive of civilization itself. It makes the average guy feel that he’s not in control of his own destiny. He starts believing that the State, or luck, or Allah will provide for him. That attitude is typical of people from backward parts of the world - not Western Civilization.
International Man: What does it say about the economy and society that people work so hard to interpret what officials from the Federal Reserve and other central banks say?
Doug Casey: It’s a shameful waste of time. They remind me of primitives seeking the counsel of witch doctors. One hundred years ago, the richest people in the country - the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and such - made their money creating industries that actually made stuff. Now, the richest people in the country just shuffle money around. They get rich because they’re close to the government and the hydrant of currency materialized by the Federal Reserve. I’d say it’s a sign that society in the US has become quite degraded.
The world revolves much less around actual production, but around guessing the direction of financial markets. Negative interest rates are creating bubbles, and will eventually result in an economic collapse.
International Man: Negative interest rates are essentially a tax on savings. A lot of people would rather pull their money out of the bank and stuff it under a mattress than suffer that sting. The economic central planners know this. It’s why they’re using negative interest rates to ramp up the War on Cash - the push to eliminate paper currency and create a cashless society.
The banking system is very fragile. Banks don’t hold much paper cash. It’s mostly digital bytes on a computer. If people start withdrawing paper money en masse, it won’t take much to bring the whole system down. Their solution is to make accessing cash harder, and in some cases, illegal. That’s why the economic witch doctors at Harvard are pounding the table to get rid of the $100 bill. Take France, for example. It’s now illegal to make cash transactions over €1,000 without documenting them properly.
Negative interest rates have turbocharged the War on Cash. If the central planners win this war, it would be the final deathblow to financial privacy. How does this all relate to the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: I believe the next step in their idiotic plan is to abolish cash. Decades ago they got rid of gold coinage, which used to circulate day to day in people’s pockets. Then they got rid of silver coinage. Now, they’re planning to get rid of cash altogether. So you won’t even have euros or dollars or pounds in your wallet anymore, or if you do, it will only be very small denominations. Everything else is going to have to be done through electronic payment processing.
This is a huge disaster for the average person: absolutely everything that you buy or sell, other than perhaps a candy bar or a hamburger, is going to have to go through the banking system. Thus, the government will be able to monitor every transaction and payment. Financial privacy, even what’s left of it today, will literally cease to exist.
Privacy is one of the big differences between a civilized society and a primitive society. In a primitive society, in your little dirt hut village, anybody can look through your window or pull back the flap on your tent. You have no privacy. Everybody can hear everything; see anything. This was one of the marvelous things about Western Civilization - privacy was valued, and respected. But that concept, like so many others, is on its way out…
International Man: You’ve mentioned before that language and words provide important clues to the collapse of Western Civilization. How so?
Doug Casey: Many of the words you hear, especially on television and other media, are confused, conflated, or completely misused. Many recent changes in the way words are used are corrupting the language. As George Orwell liked to point out, to control language is to control thought. The corruption of language is adding to the corruption of civilization itself. This is not a trivial factor in the degradation of Western Civilization.
Words - their exact meanings, and how they’re used are critically important. If you don’t mean what you say and say what you mean, then it’s impossible to communicate accurately. Forget about transmitting philosophical concepts.
Take for example shareholders and stakeholders. We all know that a shareholder actually owns a share in a company, but have you noticed that over the last generation shareholders have become less important than stakeholders? Even though stakeholders are just hangers-on, employees, or people who are looking to get in on a shakedown. But everybody slavishly acknowledges, "Yes, we’ve got to look out for the stakeholders." Where did that concept come from? It’s a recent creation, but Boobus americanus seems to think it was carved in stone at the country’s founding.
We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, "A pox upon stakeholders." If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders."
Editor’s Note: This is going to be the most turbulent decade in US history…The 2020s will be more dangerous than the 1930s, the 1940s, and even the 1860s. That's because severe crises are brewing on multiple fronts and converging. The whole system will have a complete reset, and soon. It could be the BIGGEST thing since the founding of the USA."
"Stack Your Firewood"
"Stack Your Firewood"
by Addison Wiggin
“For me it was just red wine in my mouth and a pile of firewood.”
- Jack Kerouac
"When politics lead the real economy, we are all doomed. If you haven’t been watching, there’s an international whodunnit taking place. Pundits the world over are playing armchair detective. Here are my three cents. (Aside: You can write to me about your opinions on the War in Europe here: WigginSessions@5minforecast.com)
Step one: The Incident: The Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea has sprung a leak. You can see it mapped out below:
The deeply muffled explosive gun… Get it?
(Source: Guardian, Swedish National Seismic Network)
Step two: The Accusation: The Swedes, Danes and Germans all believe the leaks are an act of sabotage. Seismologists in Sweden heard two distinct blasts shortly before the leaks were sighted on the sea surface.
Step three: The “Whodunnit?” What’s the motive? Who benefits? Russians? Germans? Americans? Sean Ring of the Rude Awakening does an excellent job of tracing the motives back to their actors. Even if some of it may be conjecture, Ring’s musings are worth a read. (Hint: Sean leans heavily in favor of some covert op from the Americans. Think Tom Clancy novel meets Dr Strangelove.)
Let’s say it is sabotage and more than just a media kerfuffle. If the Nordstream accident does prove to be an act of sabotage, then the incident also represents yet another escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, you’ve got Germany, Denmark and Sweden directly involved. Their lights will be shut off without an infusion of LNG from the US. Finland, by extension, has already been sucked into the mix, as several hundred thousand Russians flee Putin’s draft by crossing the land bridge that connects the two countries.
This Russian exodus rhymes with other events in history. It was before my time… but I grew up with stories of Americans fleeing to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. The Russians fleeing their own version of “the draft” may be dashing headlong into a nightmare winter in Europe. “By the close of this year in Europe,” Bill Bonner said in our most recent Session, “they're expecting a very, very bad winter because people don't have gas.” We published these comments three weeks before the pipelines were damaged. The incident only inflames the conflict.
“They don't have energy,” Bill says, speaking to us from Ouzilly, his home four hours south of Paris. “The price of electricity in Europe today, and I'm right here, is priced as though oil were trading at $1,000 a barrel. That's pretty darn expensive.” Bonner continues: "Prices that high push a lot of people out. So we're looking at – it depends on how bad the winter is – we’re looking at a lot of people being shut out in the cold. Where this goes, I don't know. But it wouldn't be the first time in history that it results in a major catastrophe."
Energy crises have a way of leaking out into other kinds of crises. Our whole economy in the United States runs on diesel fuel. Trucks deliver stuff, and trucks run on diesel fuel. Trucks run on diesel fuel to deliver bread and milk, everything else that we eat. If there were a big crisis in diesel fuel, the shortages, all of a sudden. During the Pandemic we got a front row seat on how supply shortages can happen; how geopolitical mayhem can work its way into your life.
In response, to get our heads out of the Whodunnit and the finger-pointing… well, we can take care of ourselves. In New Hampshire, where I grew up, we still heat with firewood. Gathering and curing the wood is a several year process. It requires foresight, wherewithal… a little bit of luck – the same traits you need to make it through a deep freeze in the markets. So it goes..."
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Related:
"Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage"
Full, highly recommended article here:
Video here:
"Oh! Had I The Ability..."
"Oh! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."
“I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued.”
- Frederick Douglass
"You’ve Just Been Robbed!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/28/22:
"You’ve Just Been Robbed!"
"The Fed is doing so much to make it look like they are trying to help. All they’re doing is playing the classic game of chicken when it comes to the markets. This is a big fake out and we’re going to lose big time."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! The Bank Of England Capitulates! Re-Starts Quantitative Easing"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/28/22:
"Alert! The Bank Of England Capitulates!
Re-Starts Quantitative Easing"
Comments here:
"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies"
"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies"
by Chris Floyd
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies. One of the hardest things to accept is that the reality of our world is buried under so many layers of official deception and well-cultivated public ignorance about our history and our political system. Even if you break through somehow, momentarily, and hold up a fragment of the truth, most people have no context for dealing with it. It's like a bolt from the blue, they can't process the information. And so the sea of lies closes over us again, and again, and again. And yet the reality of our future appears on the horizon, denial be damned, an irresistible tsunami of destruction, changing all our lives forever.
These are the facts, and they can't be altered. But how to respond to this catastrophe? Shall we weep, moan, rend our garments, cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes? Shall we sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of republics? Shall we cower in the shadows and sing glamorous dirges for the Lost Cause, for vanished glories and broken dreams?
Or shall we come out fighting, unbowed, heads high, laughing fools to scorn, rejecting at every turn the moral authority of murderers and thieves to rule our lives, determine our reality, act in our name? Let's dispense with lamentation - give not a single moment to that emotional indulgence - and get right back to work, more determined than ever to bear down harder, dig deeper and excavate the radioactive nuggets of truth still glowing beneath the slag-heap of ruin.
Let's fight, let's reject, let's resist - without violence, the weapon of the stupid, the hormonal secretion of evolutionary backsliders in thrall to the chemical soup in their heads, dull primitives dressing up their ape-lust for power with scraps of religion, philosophy and cant. Let's fight these pathetic, malfunctioning wretches who lay their hands on our world and rape it like beasts in a mindless rut. Fight them with the truths we find, exposing their crimes and deadly hypocrisies to the people they've suckered, perverted and betrayed.
This is not an insurmountable task, no matter how impervious the Machine - that monstrous conglomeration of judicial bagmen, Congressional rubber stamps, psychopathic media moguls, dopehead radio ranters, sex-crazed theocrats, war profiteers, think-tank bleaters, Wall Street sharks, oilmen, Moonies, and woman-haters - might appear at the moment.
I don't know what else we can do, except to keep on telling as much of the truth as we can find, to anyone who will listen: reclaiming reality, fragment by fragment, one person at a time. It's an endless task- maybe a hopeless task- but the alternative is a surrender to the worst elements in our society- and in ourselves. It's worth the fight. Let's take it on. In the words of the old spiritual, let us be in no ways tired. The road back to sanity starts now."
"Flirtin’ With Disaster, And By Disaster, I Mean Nuclear War"
"Flirtin’ With Disaster, And By Disaster, I Mean Nuclear War"
by John Wilder
"The big story in the news is the hurricane about to hit Florida. If it were about to hit Detroit or Baltimore, it might add a few billion in value to those cities, but alas, it looks like it might create damage beyond anything ever seen by man – it might muss Tom Brady’s hair. It also reminded me that I’m hungry, since I accidentally typed “burricane” twice before I got it right – my mind must be on burritos. Or maybe it’s prophecy – that a hurricane-sized burrito will hit Tampa? That’s (the hurricane, not the burrito) the story in the news, however, I think the much bigger story is buried. Or it was buried.
Russia makes most of its money by shipping natural gas, oil, fertilizer, and wheat out to the world. It imports tracksuits, cell phones, and gold chains. As I’ve covered before, what Russia imports is silly, but what it exports is crucial. The cheapest way, by far, to export oil is in the hair of a Russian or Italian. But they don’t do so well at moving natural gas, so people build big holes called pipelines.
Really, that’s all a pipeline is. It’s a hole. As tempting as it is, I’m not going to make a Kamala Harris joke. And you can bury it like they do most places, you can put it on stilts like they did in Alaska, or you can even have it under the sea.
As the Europeans have come under more political pressure to stop adding CO2 to the atmosphere, they’ve moved away from coal. They’d like to move to entirely renewable energy sources, but last I heard those only exist in sufficient supply to power a technological civilization in the dreams that Greta Thunberg had in the womb as her mother engaged in one too many vodkas while riding rollercoasters on sleeping pills.
No, in 2022 Europe is powered by fossil fuels. Sure, there are some renewables, and the French built a lot of nuclear power plants. But the desire for power has increased exponentially to keep up with civilizational growth. Concentrated energy is also a multiplier, it allows a person or a company or a nation to do far more. With natural gas, a German factory can build all the Volkswagens® and bratwurst and lederhosen that the world needs. Without it? The production is (if they’re lucky) one percent of the powered production.
Russia was the biggest single supplier of natural gas to Europe, providing 45% of the needs. Nord Stream© was one such pipeline, and it took the route of going on the seabed from Russia to Germany. Why? One reason was that it avoided having to pay Poland, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries that never visit this blog for “transit rights” through those countries. For example, if Russia wanted to send gas through Ukraine (natural gas, not sarin) then Russia would have to pay Ukraine for the right to do so.
As such, the Poles and the Ukrainians hated Nord Stream®. But, it was successful. And the Germans loved it. Besides Austrians in the 1930s, what can all Germans agree on? That they like the Nord Stream© and Nord Stream II ™ projects. It lowers the price of energy for them, and makes it less likely that they’ll be held hostage by the Poles (hint, the Poles are still a bit miffed at the Germans and the Russians). The Ukrainians hated it most of all, since it looked like those projects alone would end up costing them over $4 billion dollars a year in transit fees, and it also lowers their political power to hold Russia hostage at the expense of European countries.
That brings us close to today. The United States has always opposed any of the Nord Stream projects. Why? First, if Europe is divided, the United States has one less group to be concerned with on the world stage. Almost as bad as a united Europe is Germany and Russia on good terms. Combine Germany’s economic powerhouse with Russia’s raw materials? That’s a threat that gives the State Department bad dreams.
This probably explains 90% of what went on in Ukraine, and the other 10% involves Hunter. Could Biden have de-escalated the conflict? With one phone call, yes. But it’s going now, and there reaches a point where even I’m concerned – and that’s the crippling (it can be fixed, but how bad is the damage?) of Nord Stream™ I and Nord Stream® II.
Why would the United States do that? Well, the biggest reason (that I can think of) is that it makes it so that Germany can’t back out of the sanctions when winter gets cold and prices start to be amazingly high and there just happens to be this nice, big straw filled with natural gas that they could suck on all day to be warm.
How do we know that people knew this was going to happen? Well, there are reports the CIA told Germany an attack was imminent. And there’s this little matter of the British pound collapsing right before the incident. And, there’s the little matter that an explosive was found next to the original Nord Stream© not too long after Russia took Crimea back in 2014. The detonation wire was cut, so whoever was getting ready to blow up the pipe had changed their mind (cough) Obama (cough). The fact that this happened even before we know the results of the Russian referendum?
Do I think that Germans will freeze to death? Probably not many. They may clear-cut forests, they may shut down industry for February and March, and they might make it against the law to heat your house in any way other than having a chubby girl in corduroy pants rub her thighs together as a space heater. On an economic scale, Frequent Commenter Ricky noted, it might devastate Germany’s economy even more than 9/11 did ours.
But now they can’t pick up the phone and call Putin and say, “We miss heat. Er, you. Please turn it back on. Here are rubles.” That option is gone, and that’s why I’m certain that it wasn’t the Russians who did this: why destroy your best bargaining chip? And, no, it’s not shoddy Russian construction – the companies that made the pipe and built the line are the best in the world, not Yuri’s Pipeline By Mail Company.
So the United States did it. Biden even told us that he was going to do it. I’m not sure he remembers he did it, but he did. It’s even on video, and he looks rather lucid (for Biden) during the speech. https://wilderwealthywise.com/
The thing that scares me is this: if I were Russia, I’d take this as a rules expansion pack: undersea pipelines are now fair game. And the ones that feed Europe from Norway are mighty vulnerable. This, more than anything, just ups the level of tension and ensures that what started as a property dispute keeps escalating. And escalating. And escalating. And one thing I learned from Tom Clancy movies?
Hmm. Good advice. I’ll even add this bit: Frequent Commenter Ricky also noted that I get to be the first person to make fun of the next stage in escalation toward a nuclear war. So, I’ve got that going for me."
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Related:
"Shopping At Target! Rising Prices, And Some Empty Shelves!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 9/28/22:
"Shopping At Target! Rising Prices, And Some Empty Shelves!"
"In today's vlog we are at Target, 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!"
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