Monday, November 7, 2022

Jim Kunstler, "Low Down on the Showdown"

"Low Down on the Showdown"
by Jim Kunstler

"Threat to “our democracy?” The effrontery! In a fair and just world, the Democratic Party of Chaos would slouch into the donkey’s graveyard - but since when is the USA part of a fair and just world? Is there a more preposterous notion warbled across this troubled nation than the campaign mantra that “Joe Biden,” and the claque concealed behind him, are defending our democracy? What could be more self-evidently untrue?

Is censorship and abridging the First Amendment democratic? They haven’t been trying to finesse their ongoing assault on free speech. They abhor diversity of opinion, especially when it conflicts with their obvious efforts to wreck the country. Is siccing the dogs of the FBI and jailing their opponents outside due process of law democratic? Is ballot fraud democratic? Forced “vaccination”? I could go on (and often do), but you know exactly what they are doing: lying incessantly about everything, shoving lunatic narratives down your throat, turning reality inside-out and upside-down, and blowing up what’s left of American culture and economic life.

If what they’re doing is obvious, why they’re doing it isn’t. I have only two theories: Either 1) the Party of Chaos is acting in the interests of sinister forces outside our polity; or 2) They’re so far gone ethically and so deep in criminality carried out by so many persons and agencies in their service, that everything you see them do now is some attempt to cover-up their crimes or distract from their discovery.

The correct answer is probably both. One way or another, Davos money and influence worms its way through US institutions and works its wicked will, chewing up the structural supports of daily life. One obvious agent is George Soros, whose many NGOs operate at the fine-grained local level to elect district attorneys who won’t enforce the criminal statutes and state secretaries of state who won’t enforce election laws. Mr. Soros is also deeply implicated, through his Atlantic Council org, in the years-long program to destabilize Ukraine and light the fire for a completely avoidable world war. At least part of the time, George Soros lives in the US. Why his activities are not under investigation by the US Department of Justice probably answers your questions about his hidden influence at the higher levels of government.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft tycoon, circulates at the center of the evil nexus where US public health shakes hands with the drug companies. His money appears to be entangled in the biolab projects around the world engaged in weaponizing disease and then profiting from alleged “vaccines” to defeat it. The Covid-19 project went badly awry, especially the “vaccine” part. He’s been vocal about reducing the world’s population and now appears to have succeeded in helping to prompt a weird medical genocide.

Other supporting outside players range from the barely plausible Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum, which has implanted leaders and managers all over Western Civ inculcated in his Great Reset effort to wreck what’s left of industrial society and its cultural armature; to shadowy figures in European banking chattered about but never identified; to the CCP, which has gotten huge benefits from its relatively penny-ante investments in the Biden Family.

On the domestic scene, where covering-up skeins of manifold crimes sets the political tone, Christopher Wray of the FBI must lead the pack of paper-hangers. Under his leadership, beginning in 2017, the agency carried out most of its RussiaGate crimes against a sitting president and did absolutely nothing to investigate the blatant ballot fraud of 2020 that sealed the deal. Even under the shelter of “Joe Biden,” who Mr. Wray helped elect, and the stooge AG, Merrick Garland, damning information about FBI crimes continues to leak out of the woodwork via whistleblowers, while the agency behaves more and more like an American Gestapo.

All that desperation probably signals the chilling fear that a new Congress will start seriously asking questions about all this misconduct that could eventually lead to the right people going to jail. Special Counsel John Durham failed to gain convictions in this year’s trials of small-timers Sussmann and Danchenko, but he did manage to make public many salient original sins of the RussiaGate op in the process and, though 99.9 percent of observers think he’s done, I’d be willing to bet that more will be heard from Mr. Durham after the election, and not just some jive “report.”

Similarly in US public health, where the central figure in the Covid disaster, Dr. Anthony Fauci, seems to think that retirement will erect an invisible shield from prosecution around him - if he lives long enough. Dr. Fauci’s agile avoidance of giving testimony under oath may be at an end as Federal Judge Terry Doughty has compelled him to be deposed in the joint Missouri-Louisiana lawsuit alleging collusion between the government and tech companies in censoring free speech related to Covid and the “vaccines.”

Rochelle Walensky of the CDC has gone-to-ground for more than a week before the election while reports pile up of soaring all-causes deaths implicating the mRNA shots. Former NIH director Francis Collins lays low, Dr. Ralph Baric is bunkered-in and silent at the University of North Carolina, and scores of other high-up employees present-and-former at CDC, FDA, and other public health agencies must be nervous, if Congress flips, about having to account for what they did to their country. If it does flip….

And so, the midterm election plods to a climax on elephant feet. The shift in sentiment is palpable. Under normal circumstances, the prodigious, naked dishonesty of the Democratic Party of Chaos, and its many gratuitous insults to the voting public - such as the past year’s barrage of drag queen story hours - would lead to an extinction event for the Dems. Their desperation must be such that they will try anything now to stave off an election disaster, including any-and-all forms of ballot fraud. Look to the usual places: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona.

This time, of course, many observers are watching and they’ll know what to look for. The result could easily be an election the outcome of which won’t be accepted by either party, sparking an invitation to broad civil disorder. I’m not much of a praying man, but tomorrow I’ll get down on my knees for a few words with The Manager."

Bill Bonner, "The New Old Normal"

"The New Old Normal"
Are we seeing the end of cheap energy, 
cheap labor and cheap money?
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "An early dawn on the battlefield. Little by little, you make out the shapes in the distance – the sky, the horizon, the trees…then, smaller, less distinct…you see tanks, artillery…and the soldiers who are coming to kill you.

Last week, investors began to see what is headed their way. For most of the year, they have been in denial. Stocks go down; they buy the dip. And then, they go down again. But that only brings the same reflex. Their investment strategy was simple. BTFD, they say – “Buy the F…ing Dip.”

And so it came to pass that, once more, investors thought they heard the bugles blowing behind them. Jay Powell: “..the committee will ‘take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary `policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.” That was all they needed. It was the Fed coming to the rescue! Their blood up…confident that the Fed had their backs…and that this was the dip they were looking for. They went ‘over the top,’ charging the enemy with bayonets attached, and giving out their full-throated war-cry – BTFD.

It was then that Chairman Powell let them know: “You’re on your own,” he told them: “It is very premature to be thinking about pausing. People when they hear ‘lags’ think about a pause. It is very premature, in my view, to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hikes. We have a ways to go,” he said.

Three of These Things: The next three hours were the worst for a ‘Fed day’ (when the Fed makes its interest rate announcement) in history—especially for investors in the tech-heavy Nasdaq. And who can blame them? The only world they have known was remarkably prosperous…forgiving and safe. It was a world – roughly from 1980 to 2022 – that was marked by three extraordinary things.

First, the Chinese were giving us the cheapest labor ever.
Second, capitalists and innovators were giving us the cheapest energy ever.
Third, the Fed was giving us the cheapest credit in history.

It was those three things, and not the genius of the Fed jefes, nor the wizards of Silicon Valley, nor the know-it-alls in the White House that gave us 36,000 on the Dow, the “goldilocks economy,” and the “great moderation” of the pre-2022 economy. And now, things have changed so fundamentally that investors are forced to ask questions. ‘Where are we?’ they want to know.

Here at Bonner Private Research, the question mark is our most treasured punctuation. We use it on everything, like duct tape or WD40. We keep them in the back of the truck, along with the spare tire, the jack, and the bottle of whiskey; we never know when we might need them. Typically, question marks disappear when things go well. But when the fender falls off, you get out the duct tape.

How come productivity is falling? Why hasn’t this ‘transitory’ inflation transited? What the Hell was White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre trying to say?

Investors long for the good ol’ days. They keep waiting, hoping, dreaming of a Fed pivot. Each time, they bid up stocks…hoping that things will get ‘back to normal’ tootsweet. And each time, our old classmate, Chairman Powell, who must keep a photo of Paul Volcker on his desk, proves them wrong.

Mr. Powell meets Mr. Market: But a whole generation of Americans have never known ‘normal.’ And now that the curiously beneficent conditions of the last few decades, have deserted them, the new normal is terrifying.

As to the cheap labor, China is running out of it. The rush of some 500 million peasants into a modernizing, industrial economy was a “one off” event. There aren’t many peasants left; those that still live in Chinese villages are needed on the farms. Chinese labor is no longer dirt cheap. And the feds are working hard to discourage trade with China, anyway. Mr. Trump limited imports from China. Mr. Biden kept his tariffs in place.

Energy isn’t so cheap anymore either. Typically, oil prices go down when the dollar goes up. But today, the dollar is at a 20-year high…while oil is over $86 a barrel – up from under $20 in 2020. Nor is oil or gas likely to get much cheaper. Practically every major government in the Western world has threatened to put the producers out of business, while actively subsidizing their competition. The price of gasoline is already inching back up. And gas heating bills this winter are expected to be about 30% higher than last year.

And interest rates? For the moment, the Fed is raising them (making credit more expensive). Mr. Market is raising them too; he’s got to protect himself from inflation. Mortgage rates, for example, topped 7% last week. Between the two of them – Mr. Powell and Mr. Market – the price of credit is going up. And for better or for worse, the world of 1980-2022 is dead."

"Stock Up Now At Walmart! Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 11/7/22:
"Stock Up Now At Walmart! 
Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"
"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing that they are having a huge sale on holiday baking items this month! We are stocking up, and showing the best deals as we take you shopping with us. It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
By comparison:
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 11/7/22:
"Russian Supermarket After 9 Months of Sanctions"
"Let's take a look inside a Russian Supermarket after 9 months of ongoing Sanctions. How does the Russian Supermarket look inside now? Are the shelves full, did sanctions affect the daily shopping of Russians? Here's a EuroSpar Supermarket in Moscow during Sanctions."
Comments here:
- https://www.youtube.com/
Look at the area around the market, the buildings, cars, streets. Look at the people, how they're dressed and appear. Are they so different from you? Compare the supermarket, how does it compare to where you shop? Do you see empty shelves? What do you think about this?

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/7/22"

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/7/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
Your guide:
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/7f22:
"Debt Market Hair Trigger And Anything 
Can Set It Off - Be Prepared" 
Comments here:
Latest Market Analysis, Updated 11/7/22
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...

Col. Douglas Macgregor, "Ukraine Update: Dangerously Stupid"

Global Research, 11/7/22:
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 
"Ukraine Update:Dangerously Stupid"
Comments here:

"Briely..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm

“I often question my sanity. Occasionally, it replies.”

- Darynda Jones

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Musical Interlude: Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia")

Full screen recommended. A must!
Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia") 
(Live In London 2011)

Feel this in your soul...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This rock structure is not only surreal - it's real. The reason it's not more famous is that it is, perhaps, smaller than one might guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few meters. Even so, the King of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating example of an unusual type of rock structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer rock.
Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting for a suitably picturesque night behind a sky with few clouds, the foreground had to be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the background. After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the horizontal bar, the background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching overhead.”

"Life's Funny..."

"Life is painful and messed up. It gets complicated at the worst of times, and sometimes you have no idea where to go or what to do. Lots of times people just let themselves get lost, dropping into a wide open, huge abyss. But that's why we have to keep trying. We have to push through all that hurts us, work past all our memories that are haunting us. Sometimes the things that hurt us are the things that make us strongest. A life without experience, in my opinion, is no life at all. And that's why I tell everyone that, even when it hurts, never stop yourself from living."
- Alysha Speer

"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."
- Scott Turow

"Life's funny, chucklehead. You only get one and you don't want to throw it away. But you can't really live it at all unless you're willing to give it up for the things you love. If you're not at least willing to die for something - something that really matters - in the end you die for nothing."
- Andrew Klavan

"On The Verge Of The Worst Homelessness Crisis In The Entire History Of The United States"

"On The Verge Of The Worst Homelessness Crisis
 In The Entire History Of The United States"
by Michael Snyder

'If you live in a major urban area, you may have noticed that “tent cities” are starting to pop up all around you. The worst inflation crisis in decades has combined with the worst drug crisis that we have ever seen to create an unprecedented homelessness crisis. Every night, even more Americans join the rapidly growing “unsanctioned encampments” that are taking up more and more real estate in our largest cities. If things are this bad now, how many of our fellow citizens will be sleeping in the streets when economic conditions are much worse a year or two from today? We are supposed to be the greatest nation on the planet, but with each passing day even more tent cities are established. Our system is failing, and the widespread economic suffering that we are witnessing right now is truly difficult to comprehend.

Just look at what is happening in Sacramento. It is the capital of the California, and tent cities are being established all over the place. In fact, it is being reported that the number of homeless people in Sacramento has risen by nearly 70 percent just since 2019…"During the pandemic, the unhoused population has soared all over California, but the increase in Sacramento has been particularly stunning. The region has seen an almost 70% rise in homelessness since 2019, now counting more unhoused people than San Francisco."

Needless to say, absurd housing prices are one of the main reasons why so many people are being forced out into the cold streets…"The primary force behind the dramatic rise, according to the 2022 point-in-time count, is the high cost of housing. The median home price in the county has surpassed $500,000 and the median monthly rent is $2,774, up more than 5% from last year. Some studios downtown rent for $2,000 a month, said Crystal Sanchez, the president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, while thousands of people sleep outside."

Most middle class families can barely afford to pay $2,000 or more for housing each month. And those that are poor don’t stand a chance. Conditions are very similar up in Portland, Oregon. Housing prices have soared to insane levels, and homelessness is spreading like wildfire. At this point, Mayor Ted Wheeler says that there are “nearly 800 unsanctioned encampments” spread throughout the city…“Nearly 800 unsanctioned encampments spread out over the 146 square miles of the City of Portland,” Wheeler said. “Something needs to change.” But many Portlanders have lost faith in city leaders. In a recent poll conducted by The Oregonian, nearly 75 percent of Portland voters said the city is “on the wrong track.”

At this stage, it has pretty much gotten to a point where you simply cannot avoid the tent cities. Things are so bad right now that there is a possibility that the state of Oregon could actually elect a Republican governor in November…"The race for the governorship remains a tossup, with a new poll showing a narrow lead for the Republican candidate in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1982. Republican Christine Drazan leads Democrat Tina Kotek in the race, 44 to 41 per cent, according to a new Nelson Research poll, KOIN reported. That gives Drazan a 2-point lead in the RealClearPolitics polling average, having narrowly led in every poll this fall."

I thought that we would never see another Republican governor in that state. It looks like I might have been wrong about that.


Washington D.C. doesn’t have as many “unsanctioned encampments” as Portland does, but the New York Post is reporting that the number of tent cities in the capital of our nation has now grown to 120…"In the past two years, homeless encampments have exploded in Washington D.C., as both the city and federal governments lifted enforcement measures during the COVID-19 pandemic - and made it a no-brainer for itinerants to lay down roots by providing for their every need.

A tour by The Post of the district’s major tourist areas this week found at least 35 vagrants in residence at a National Park Service site two blocks from the White House; more than 20 in the green spaces surrounding the State Department complex; and five across the street from the infamous Watergate Hotel. And these sites accounted for less than 5 percent of the estimated 120 tent cities in Washington D.C. Over a decade ago, I worked in the heart of Washington. And during my entire time there, I didn’t see a single homeless person living in a tent. But now tent cities are all over the place.

Of course a rise in crime often comes along with an explosion in homelessness. In New York City, the rape of a female jogger by a homeless man with 25 prior arrests is making a lot of headlines this week…"Police said the victim was out by Pier 45, near West and Christopher Streets in the West Village, at around 5:30am, when the man, Carl Phanor, 29, grabbed her from behind and choked her until she passed out, the New York Post reports.

Phanor, who has 25 priors and who is wanted for at least two other sex crimes, then removed her clothes, raped her, and then fled the scene on a Citi Bike with her headphones, cell phone and wallet. The shaken victim was spotted by a fellow jogger, and first responders took her to a nearby hospital.

Sadly, the homeless population just continues to rise in New York City with each passing day. In fact, the problem has gotten so severe that the National Guard has now been called in to deal with the crisis…"New York City has called in the National Guard to deal with the rising migrant crisis that is overwhelming homeless shelters and facilities as staff are unable to cope with the surge. National Guard reservists are being deployed to help with day-to-day operations at many shelters, including managing the capacity, distributing food and helping out with staff shortages."

There are over 62,000 people currently living in New York City’s homeless shelters – close to 13,000 of which are migrants, according to the Department of Homeless Services. But this is just the beginning.  Over the next few years, I expect millions of Americans to lose their jobs. And the truth is that it is already starting to happen. Just today, we learned that Stripe will be laying off approximately 14 percent of their entire workforce…"Online payments giant Stripe is laying off roughly 14% of its staff, CEO Patrick Collison wrote in a memo to staff Thursday.

In the memo, Collison said the cuts were necessary amid rising inflation, fears of a looming recession, higher interest rates, energy shocks, tighter investment budgets and sparser startup funding. Taken together, these factors signal “that 2022 represents the beginning of a different economic climate,” he said."

Yes, as I detail in my brand new book, a “different economic climate” is definitely ahead of us. As economic conditions deteriorate, the number of tent cities will grow much larger. So the cold, hard reality of the matter is that our homelessness crisis is only going to intensify from this point forward. I know that may be difficult news to hear, but the truth is that these are difficult times."

"And It Speaks To You..."

And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you’re a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its continual burning. In the midst of the foulest decay and putrid savagery, this spark speaks to you of beauty, of human warmth and kindness, of goodness, of greatness, of heroism, of martyrdom, and it speaks to you of love.”
- Eldridge Cleaver

"Russia's 24 Hour Warning, Millions Evacuating! Diesel Collapse"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/6/22:
"Russia's 24 Hour Warning, Millions Evacuating! Diesel Collapse"
"Major events unfolding in the next 48 hours, looming diesel shortage and civil unrest, 3 million evacuation and major destabilizing refugee crisis, Russia warns to get out in 24 hours. Medicine shortages are mounting, Iran and Israel on brink of war, Korean peninsula getting more nukes. Things are hitting the fan in slow motion."
Comments here:
Douglas Macgregor, 11/6/22:
"Enraged Russians Nov 7"

The Daily "Near You?"

Calhoun City, Mississippi, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "The Journey”

“The Journey”

“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do -
determined to save
the only life you could save.”

- Mary Oliver

"There Comes A Time..."

"Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right." 
 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Ukraine's Descent Into Chaos"

Full screen recommended.
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 11/6/22:
"Ukraine's Descent Into Chaos"
"United States and worldwide Geopolitics analysis.
Russia-Ukraine conflict latest news update."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"A Special Moment..."

The Moody Blues, "This Is The Moment"
"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour."
- Winston Churchill

"Get Ready for Power Outages"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 11/6/22:
"Get Ready for Power Outages"
"There’s a special agency working on preparedness for power outages in the UK. This will come here as well. People need to plan on no power for up to seven days. Also, I found a great report on EV cars and how expensive they are to charge."
Comments here:

"I'm Preparing For A Massive Depression, You Should Too; Don't Ignore The Coming Food Crisis"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 11/6/22:
"I'm Preparing For A Massive Depression, You Should Too;
 Don't Ignore The Coming Food Crisis"
Comments here:

"Strange Prices At Target! This Is Crazy! Stock Up Now!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 11/6/22:
"Strange Prices At Target! This Is Crazy! Stock Up Now!"
"In today's vlog we are at Target and are noticing very strange prices! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and the empty shelves situation! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:

Gonzalo Lira, "The Oil Price Cap Idiocy"

Gonzalo Lira - Again:
"The Oil Price Cap Idiocy"
Comments here:

Greg Hunter, "There May Not Be a 2024 Election – Martin Armstrong"

"There May Not Be a 2024 Election – Martin Armstrong"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong says, “The cheating in the midterm election next week is going to be so great that it is almost impossible to make a prediction. In a fair midterm election, the Republicans would win the House and the Senate.”

So, what does his Socrates program see for next week? Armstrong, says, “It’s going to be tight, and the Republicans have a shot at taking the House. Technically, they should take the House and the Senate. I am just not sure. The corruption is so bad, it’s crazy. Pennsylvania sent out hundreds of thousands of ballots to people who are not documented or even American. I’ve gotten emails from people in Canada, they are getting mail-in ballots. They mailed them to Canada. Where this ends up, who knows? It’s just so corrupt, it is over the top. It doesn’t matter who wins. Nobody is going to accept this thing, and that is the problem.”

The cheating is going to be so in your face President Trump may not even be able to run for President two years from now. Armstrong contends, “We may not even have an election in 2024. It is not looking very good, and it’s probably because this election is not going to be accepted. When it is so over-the-top corrupt, what do you do for the next one? The United States will not exist after 2032. After 2028 and 2029, we are going to have to redesign a government from scratch. America is being destroyed. Republics always end in absolute corruption. We just saw the same thing happen in Brazil. They staged a major effort to take Bolsonaro out. This is a worldwide effort. They had to get rid of Trump. The other one who stood in their way is Bolsonaro. Then there is Putin (Russia) and Xi Jinping (China). I think you are going to have historians look back at this 50 years from now, and they will call this period ‘The Climate Change Wars’. They are trying to take down as much oil energy capacity as possible.”

Armstrong is still seeing very strong signals on domestic violence everywhere. Armstrong explains, “Our computer is showing it’s going to be a rocket launch for volatility and civil unrest next year.” Armstrong also contends there will be a major loss of confidence in government around the world. That means gold will start having big demand from big money. Armstrong also predicts, “The whole monetary system as we know it is collapsing. That was what the bond crisis in the UK was about.” There is much more in the 1-hour and 7-minute interview.

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

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Believe"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Believe"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

"It’s Just… Life."

“Bad things don’t happen to people because they deserve for them to happen. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s just… life. And no matter who we are, we have to take the hand we’re dealt, crappy though it may be, and try our very best to move forward anyway, to love anyway, to have hope anyway… to have faith that there’s a purpose to the journey we’re on.”
- Mia Sheridan

"Warning! Diesel Running Out Before Thanksgiving?"

Full screen recommended.
City Prepping, 11/5/22:
"Warning! Diesel Running Out Before Thanksgiving?"
"Diesel shortages are coming! We're hearing this a lot lately,
 but is it true? In this video, we'll do a deep dive to get to the truth."
Comments here:

"People Are Racing to Get Cash Out of the Bank"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 11/5/22:
"People Are Racing to Get Cash Out of the Bank"
"Bank of America has issued a warning that people are racing to get cash out of the bank. This is a sign of the Times. Wells Fargo is losing everything with their mortgage business."
Comments here:

"The Cruelest Joke Of All..."

“The smallest decisions made had such profound repercussions. One ten-minute wait could save a life… or end it. One wrong turn down the right street or one seemingly unimportant conversation, and everything was changed. It wasn’t right that each lifetime was defined, ruined, ended, and made by such seemingly innocuous details. A major life-threatening event should come with a flashing warning sign that either said ABANDON ALL HOPE or SAFETY AHEAD. It was the cruelest joke of all that no one could see the most vicious curves until they were over the edge, falling into the abyss below.”
- Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Daily "Near You?"

Commerce City, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Object Of Life..."

 

"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, it's not a choice but a calling. Sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter from the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monster without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss, into the laughing face of madness."
- Fox Mulder, "X-Files"

The Poet: May Sarton, “Now I Become Myself”

“Now I Become Myself”

“Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places,
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before —”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
or the end of the poem, is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move,
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the Sun!”

~ May Sarton,
 Collected Poems, 1930-1993

"Now..."

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”
~ Wendell Berry

"Delusions of Grandeur… Or Cloak of Modesty?"

"Delusions of Grandeur… Or Cloak of Modesty?"
By Bill Bonner

"A dear reader objects to our use of the “royal we”:

“Hello Bill, for the most part, I enjoy reading your Diary. However, I do find your use of the ‘royal we’ in all your writings very off-putting. Even though I’m Canadian, I despise the monarchy, and I’m sure that many in your great republic to the south share my feelings on this. Am I missing something? Has it already been explained, perhaps? If not, what is the rationale for this?”

The Queen uses the “royal we” to signify that she is not speaking for herself, but for the Crown… an institution that was around for hundreds of years before she was born and will, presumably, outlast her by hundreds more.

Here at the Diary, we do not use the “royal” we. We use the “common” we… a plebian, down-market, gutter kind of we, with no pretension to grandeur, nor even mediocrity.

For here we are, writing from a house we didn’t build… in a country that is not ours… wearing clothes we didn’t design… looking out on rain we didn’t cause… and passing along ideas that are not original. Even when we think we have had a new idea, we discover later that someone had the same idea 2,000 years ago.

Not one molecule in our body, thought in our brain, or feeling in our heart is of our own making. It would be vanity to use first-person singular; there is nothing singular about who we are or what we do.

No, we have neither scepter nor orb; all we have is a laptop computer.

We wear no royal purple. We favor brown and grey. We dress in dull colors so we may think in vivid ones.

We have no throne, no influence, no privilege, no position, and no armed guards to protect us.

We speak not for the Crown, but for all those common people who try to put two and two together… And we use “we” to recognize all those real thinkers whose ideas we have dragooned into our service… all those tortured poets whose songs we have misunderstood and misused…  all those clever people whose insights we have purloined and presented as if they were our own… all those scientists, statisticians, and economists whose numbers we have hijacked and abused… and all those generations that have come before us and – by bad luck, bad manners, and bad judgment – learned painful lessons so we might be spared from learning them again…

“We” speak for them all – as best as we can.

Time and Love: As time passes, the conceits of youth… the illusion of timelessness… the passions and competitions – to have the biggest bank account, the biggest car, the biggest house, the biggest muscles, and the biggest you-know-what – all get dropped along the way, like discarded pianos on the Oregon Trail. All that is left is the shriveled up, naked reality… of time, love… and death.

And “I”? Does it matter what “I” do? What “I” want? “I” am too small… too nothing… too ephemeral. “I” am here, but “I” will be gone soon… in a flash, vanished, like a lost civilization or a forgotten language. Not even I care what “I” think.

So let us at least speak for a group… not of royals, but of commoners… and use “we” in sympathy with all those sinners, geniuses, half-wits, saints, and jackasses that came before and will come after us…

Those who will delight in Heaven for reasons we will never understand… or cry in Hell for all eternity because they forgot to fill out their census form. Yes, let us speak for all those who feel most intensely and horribly the vacant truth… They are as meaningless as we are."