"Empire of Debt"

"Empire of Debt"

How inflation is tearing the social fabric

 and crushing America's middle class.

by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

"In America, all the restraint, inhibition, and modesty of the Old Republic has been blown away by the prevailing winds of the new empire. In its place has emerged a vainglorious system of conceit, deceit, debt and delusion."

~ "Empire of Debt", by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin

Dublin, Ireland - In our opinion, we have clearly reached a turning point. Trouble is, the authorities may not turn. They need to turn away from money-printing, deficits, and expensive overseas meddling. Typically, the ruling class can’t do it. These things increase their wealth and power; they don’t want to give them up. Instead, they use tricks, disguises, and brute force to keep the racket going…all the way to the disastrous end. Will this time be different? We’ll see…

A Tear in the Fabric: In the great boom 2009-2022, anything seemed possible. Money grew on trees. And trees all got the Fed’s Miracle-Gro. It could be used to pay for pointless wars… ‘investments’ that didn’t pay off…deficits…zombies – you name it. No more. Inflation changes everything. It raises prices. And higher prices make consumers unhappy… and make voters restless. The ‘social fabric’ wrinkles…then rips.

Here’s the latest from Bloomberg: "More Young Adults Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck in the US." "The share of young people who struggle to cover everyday bills jumped from a year ago, while that of seniors living paycheck to paycheck leveled off, according to a report. Almost two-thirds of adult Gen Zs — people who are 26 and younger — were living paycheck to paycheck in March, an 8-percentage-point increase from a year earlier."

We have previously seen how inflation damages the middle class. The poor have their inflation-adjusted handouts. The rich have their inflation-boosted financial assets. The middle class has neither. All it has is its time — which it sells by the hour. Inflation depreciates time. Long term investments aren’t made. Long-term bonds get marked down. And real wages per hour have been falling for the last two years.

Others’ Expense: Meanwhile, inflation increases house prices. But a home is not a financial asset. Families can’t ‘cash out;’ they have to live somewhere. All they can do is borrow against the ‘equity.’ And then they are trapped; they will need low interest rates to refinance – or lose their homes.

In countries with severe inflation, the middle class gets squeezed so hard it vanishes. Venezuela…Argentina…Zimbabwe – as inflation rates go up, the middle class sinks into poverty. That’s why democracy is incompatible with inflation. The many poor are dependent on government handouts; they are easily bamboozled and bribed. And the elite get to be good at it. They become ‘extractive,’ that is, they use their skills and power to make themselves rich at others’ expense.

An honest democracy needs a free, informed middle class. It needs a yeoman class – people who own their own farms and houses…who pay the taxes…who are ready to protect the homeland…and vote independently. So, look what’s happening. Statistica reports: "America's Middle Class Is Shrinking."

While middle class Americans remain the biggest income group by number of people, the same can't be said of the aggregate income earned by them. From 1970 to 2021, the share of U.S. aggregate income earned by the middle class shrunk massively, from formerly 62 percent to just 42 percent. During the same time, aggregate earnings by high income Americans increased from 29 percent to 50 percent…"

The disappearance of the middle class corresponds with another of the great conceits we can no longer afford: an empire. We wrote a book about it almost 2 decades ago: “Empire of Debt,” we called it. The book, written with Addison Wiggin, was a best-seller. We were right about a number of things. So, the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has asked for an update. Our book was written in 2005. Then, US debt was $13 trillion, 60% of GDP. Today, it’s $32 trillion, 120% of GDP.

Stumblin’ and Bumblin’: One of the features of the Roman Empire was that it destroyed the middle class – the people whose blood, sweat, and taxes had built the empire. It was these people who picked up their fathers’ swords and defended Rome when it seemed ready to fall to Hannibal, for example. It was they who filled the ranks after the disastrous battle of Cannae, 216 BC, in which Rome lost 50,000 to 70,000 soldiers…and again, after three entire legions were massacred in the Teutoburg forest in 9AD.

And how did the empire reward them? It brought in thousands of slaves. And soon, the small freeholders couldn’t compete with huge latifundia, farmed by slaves. And then, the government inflated their money and raised taxes. They sold their daughters to keep up. And then, they sold themselves into slavery But at least the empire was profitable!

The gist of our book is that though the US has been in the empire racket for more than a 100 years, it has never gotten the hang of it. It extends its power…it offers protection to nations who obey, war and sanctions to those who don’t. The trouble is, it loses the wars…and loses money on the whole enterprise.

The idea of an empire is that you conquer…steal…and then demand tribute. It’s supposed to be at least self-financing…and usually profitable. But the US stumbles and bumbles. It has the expense of conquering…then the expense of governing…and the extra cost of “building a democracy.” But where’s the pay-off? Where are the slaves? The booty? The tribute? What is going on? And what does it mean for America’s middle class? Tune in tomorrow…"

Joel’s Note: "Remember wily ol’ Willie Sutton, who used to rob banks dressed as a mailman? When asked by the FBI why he chose to rob banks he replied, simply: ”Because that’s where the money is.” It’s a simple enough insight… and one not lost on rapacious governments around the world, including that of the current, reigning Empire of Debt. For most prosperous economies, the bulk of the wealth rests in a vibrant, robust middle class. If you’re in the business of robbing, that’s where you’d be looking. (The rich have too many connections… the poor too few possessions.)

Unsurprising, then, that the middle class has shrunk considerably over the past half century, as governments local, state and federal have feasted on their wealth and toil. According to data collected by Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans occupying the middle class fell from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021. The percentage of Americans in both the lower and upper income brackets both increased over the same period.

Stubbornly “non-transitory” inflation doesn’t help the average man on the street, either. Here’s Fortune Magazine: "Inflation is wreaking havoc on the American middle class and 8 out of 10 say they are spending their savings just to get by. One group of Americans has particularly suffered: middle-income families, who have had to stop saving as much or tap into their past savings to get by, financial services company Primerica found in a survey. An overwhelming 82% of middle-income households have cut down on the amount of money they’re savings or reached into existing savings to make up for the shortfall in their incomes in the last three months of 2022 due to the higher cost of living.

A recent Gallup poll suggested that a majority of middle-income Americans now expect the next generation’s standard of living to be lower than their own. CNBC: "Now, 59% of middle-income Americans - or those making between $40,000 and $100,000, according to Gallup - said it is very or somewhat unlikely that today’s young adults will have a better life than their parents compared to only 48% of those with annual household incomes under $40,000 who feel that way."

In other words, relying on the government to safeguard your savings is a bit like asking ol’ Willie Sutton to keep an eye on the bank. They’ll happily do the job… just don’t expect anything in the vault when you get back!"

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"Bye Bye Banks"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 5/1/23

"Bye Bye Banks"

"With the latest bank failures, things are only escalating to the downside. It is anticipated that there are 200 banks that have $2 trillion in losses that they’re hiding."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"The System Is Starting To Unravel At A 

Pace That Is Absolutely Breathtaking"

"Expensive Trip To Aldi! Grocery Prices Are Getting Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 5/1/23

"Expensive Trip To Aldi! 

Grocery Prices Are Getting Ridiculous!"

"In today's vlog we are at Aldi, and we are continuing to see price increases on groceries! With it getting harder and harder to put food on the table, we are seeking out cheaper options, and trying to get more creative with meals. Later in this video we also do a taste test on some new Aldi products!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "The Entire System Is Breaking!

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/1/23

"The Entire System Is Breaking! 

And It's A Set Up For What Is Coming - Be Ready"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"First Republic Bank Collapses, Third Major US Bank 

to Crash as JPMorgan Acquires Bank’s Assets"

Jim Kunstler, "Econ 101, a Fable"

"Econ 101, a Fable"

By Jim Kunstler

“Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.” - Thomas Sowell

"Historians of the future, poaching ‘possum snouts in sorrel sauce over their campfires, will trace the fall of Western Civ in the 2020s to the dissolving hallucination that was called the financial economy. It was a phantom parasitical organism that thrived on the back of a real economy based on making-and-doing things derived from the natural world, turbo-charged by fossil fuels.

The orgy of making-and-doing went on for two-hundred-plus years. Even with cyclical “recessions,” the making-and-doing always increased in the aggregate, while its products got ever more plentiful, elaborate, and complex. The phantom financial parasite clinging to its back got used to this “growth” and it, too, developed ever more ingenious ways to suck the life out of its host organism, until it became a greater entity than the host itself, breaking its back.

The whole of this chapter in the long-running human project had strange effects on human minds that had not changed much since the late days of hunting and gathering. After the first hundred years of fossil fuel plentitude, humans had a hard time telling the difference between the host and the parasite. Both of them seemed to thrive equally. The real economy produced food and useful things and the financial economy produced money, which could buy food and useful things.

People made things incessantly, especially better and better tools and engines. That allowed people to grow more food and make more useful things that provided comfort and convenience. The financial economy made more and more money. It also produced myriad new ways for money to represent itself. At first, these things such as stocks and bonds (ownerships and loans-at-interest) were firmly attached to activities in the real economy - that is, they were sucked directly out of the host’s makings-and-doings.

Later on, the things which represented money became more numerous and more detached from real makings-and-doings, more abstract, more based on promises, hopes, and wishes than on things derived from nature. That is to say, these newer representations of money tended ever more to a realm of the unreal. After a while, it became very hard to tell the difference between money-things that were real and unreal. The financial economy furnished plenty of mystification to blend the two. This confusion prompted plenty of fraud, a brisk commerce in unreality that produced winners and losers.

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, of course. As the fossil fuel supply drew closer to its end and further from the long, happy middle time of plenty, the business model for making-and-doing started to shudder and crack. It didn’t fall apart all at once, but it put many makers-and-doers out of business. They stopped making-and-doing. By then, the financial economy was a colossal phantom parasite that dwarfed its host. It was burdened with so much unreality, so many workings dissociated from nature, that it could no longer pretend to be anything but a phantom.

To keep the host alive, it upchucked some of what it had sucked out of the host, adulterated with money based on unreal promises, hopes, and dreams. This turned more and more into a spewage of money so debased by broken promises, hopes, and dreams that making-and-doing just about stopped altogether. That is when the phantom parasite of finance began to dissolve and humans began to regard it as an hallucination that had gone away, dissolved into mist. What remained were a lot humans embedded in nature.

And that is the place where the humans of Western Civ find themselves in the 2020s. Western Civ was the first region of the world that tapped into the fossil fuel orgy and it is now the first region exiting this phase of history. Even when the financial hallucination melts into air there will be a lot of real things around that were made before the great age of making-and-doing stopped.

Humans are ingenious animals, enterprising and resilient, though there will surely be fewer of us around. These fewer humans will likely be healthier, working more directly in nature and no longer compromised by the pernicious by-products of all the bygone making-and-doing. We will figure out how to use the left-over useful things to get food out of nature and keep making other useful things. The new making-and-doing will happen at nothing like the former pitch or scale. It may represent a time-out from the lost experience of the old, ever more elaborate and complex makings-and-doings. After a while, humans may discover a new way to get more out of nature. Or maybe not.

In the meantime, lodged as we are in the present, in the moment of this epochal transition, anxiety besets many millions of minds. Not a few minds have grown disordered watching all this go on around them, dreading the journey from one disposition of things to the next. Some have made themselves obnoxious. Let them do what they will until they tire themselves out. Keep your own well-ordered minds on the tasks ahead, your own makings and doings within the bounds of what is real. Take some time out to make some music. There are still plenty of good instruments around, and you can always sing. Put a meal together with your friends and loved ones and sing out. It’s all right, Ma, Bob sang out long ago, 'It’s life and life only.'*"

- https://kunstler.com/

o

* Bob Dylan, 

"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

"Darkness at the break of noon

Shadows even the silver spoon

The handmade blade, the child's balloon

Eclipses both the sun and moon

To understand you know too soon

There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn

Suicide remarks are torn

From the fools gold mouthpiece

The hollow horn plays wasted words

Proved to warn

That he not busy being born

Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door

You follow, find yourself at war

Watch waterfalls of pity roar

You feel to moan but unlike before

You discover

That you'd just be

One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear

A foreign sound to you ear

It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall

Private reasons great or small

Can be seen in the eyes of those that call

To make all that should be killed to crawl

While others say don't hate nothing at all

Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark

As human gods aim for their marks

Made everything from toy guns that sparks

To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark

It's easy to see without looking too far

That not much

Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates

Teachers teach that knowledge waits

Can lead to hundred-dollar plates

Goodness hides behind its gates

But even the President of the United States

Sometimes must have

To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged

It's only people's games that you got to dodge

And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you

Into thinking you're the one

That can do what's never been done

That can win what's never been won

Meantime life outside goes on

All around you.

You loose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand without nobody near

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear

That somebody thinks

They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit

Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy

Insure you not to quit

To keep it in your mind and not forget

That it is not he or she or them or it

That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules

For the wise men and the fools

I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority

That they do not respect in any degree

Who despite their jobs, their destinies

Speak jealously of them that are free

Cultivate their flowers to be

Nothing more than something

They invest in.

While some on principles baptized

To strict party platforms ties

Social clubs in drag disguise

Outsiders they can freely criticize

Tell nothing except who to idolize

And then say God Bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire

Gargles in the rat race choir

Bent out of shape from society's pliers

Cares not to come up any higher

But rather get you down in the hole

That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault

On anyone that lives in a vault

But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges, watch people in pairs

Limited in sex, they dare

To push fake morals, insult and stare

While money doesn't talk, it swears

Obscenity, who really cares

Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see

With a killer's pride, security

It blows the minds most bitterly

For them that think death's honesty

Won't fall upon them naturally

Life sometimes

Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards

False gods, I scuff

At pettiness which plays so rough

Walk upside-down inside handcuffs

Kick my legs to crash it off

Say okay, I have had enough

What else can you show me ?

And if my thought-dreams could been seen

They'd probably put my head in a guillotine

But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only."

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/1/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/1/23"

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

○

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

○

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

○

A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

○

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."

○

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"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...

"Emergency Bank Seizure Won't Stop Banking Meltdown; Insiders Dumping Stocks"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/30/23

"Emergency Bank Seizure Won't Stop Banking Meltdown; 

Insiders Dumping Stocks"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Deep Still Blue"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Deep Still Blue"

Musical Interlude: Flash And The Pan, "Hey, St. Peter"

Flash And The Pan, "Hey, St. Peter"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the left is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the right is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. 

About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180129.html

The Poet: Robert Frost, “Acceptance”

“Acceptance”

“When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud

And goes down burning into the gulf below,

No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud

At what has happened.

Birds, at least must know

It is the change to darkness in the sky.

Murmuring something quiet in her breast,

One bird begins to close a faded eye;

Or overtaken too far from his nest,

Hurrying low above the grove, some waif

Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.

At most he thinks or twitters softly, ‘safe!’

Now let the night be dark for all of me.

Let the night be too dark for me to see

Into the future. Let what will be, be.”

- Robert Frost

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land. 

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

o

“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art.

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

The Daily "Near You?"

East Dubuque, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"If Something Cannot Go On Forever, It Will Stop" (Excerpt)

"If Something Cannot Go On Forever, It Will Stop"

So let's try to figure out what "stop" might mean in the real world.

by Bill Quick

Excerpt: "Herb Stein created his famous “law” as a useful analytical tool for approaching potentially harmful long-running economic trends, primarily to make the point that government intervention might not be necessary since, if a particular trend is not supported by existing realities, it will eventually collapse on its own. In a way, it is an economics version of the Oliver Wendell Holmes’ tale of the "One Hoss Shay."

"The parson was working his Sunday's text,-

Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed

At what the - Moses - was coming next.

All at once the horse stood still,

Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill.

First a shiver, and then a thrill,

Then something decidedly like a spill, - 

And the parson was sitting upon a rock,

At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house-clock, -

Just the hour of the Earthquake-shock!

What do you think the parson found,

When he got up and stared around?

The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,

As if it had been to the mill and ground!

You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,

How it went to pieces all at once, -

All at once, and nothing first, -

Just as bubbles do when they burst.

End of the wonderful one-hoss shay."

Logic is logic. That's all I say. This “shay” had been built throughout with the finest materials available, and each part lasted just as long as the others…until they all turned to dust at the same moment, leaving the man who depended upon the shay flat-assed on the ground, wondering what had happened.

Keep all this in mind while we consider a seemingly unrelated subject. I am an aficionado of cyclical theories of history, many of which are discussed in this excellent piece by Alexander Macris, "The Wisdom of Naram-Sim." Let’s concentrate on just one of them for the moment, because it is currently serving as my own map through todays confusing and perilous times:

A more recent cyclical theory of history is Strauss-Howe generational theory. According to Strauss and Howe, historical events occur in 80-year cycles, each marked by four turnings of a generation (20 years). Strauss-Howe theory has given rise to the oft-discussed concept of the Fourth Turning. Strauss-Howe theory is based on the idea that each generation of human beings predictably differs from the prior generation based on the conditions of its upbringing. Put bluntly, a new crisis occurs when the generation that remembered the last crisis dies off and a new generation that has known only good times take the wheel of the ship of state.

The concept is often summarized using the famous quote by author G. Michael Hopf in his book "Those Who Remain:"

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times.

Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.”

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

- https://billquick.substack.com/

"These Will Be Half Off"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 4/30/23

"These Will Be Half Off"

"It is absolutely unbelievable to think about how the economy has fallen so far. I have talked about boats being half off and cars being half off. The next thing that will follow this pattern will be motorcycles."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"It's Not the End of the World"

"It's Not the End of the World"

by Jeff Thomas

"Periodically, I’ll encounter someone who has read one of my essays and has decided not to pursue them further, stating, "You’re one of those ‘End of the world’ guys. I can’t be bothered reading the writings of someone who thinks we’re all doomed. I have a more positive outlook than that." In actual fact, I agree entirely with his latter two comments. I can’t be bothered reading the thoughts of a writer who says we’re all doomed, either. I, too, have a more positive outlook than that.

My one discrepancy with such comments is that I don’t by any means think that the present state of events will lead to the end of the world, as he assumes. But then, neither am I naïve enough to think that if I just hope for the best, the powers that be will cease to be parasitical and predatory out of sympathy for me. They will not.

For any serious student of history, one of the great realizations that occurs at some point is that governments are inherently controlling by nature. The more control they have, the more they desire and the more they pursue. After all, governments actually produce nothing. They exist solely upon what they can extract from the people they rule over. Therefore, their personal success is not measured by how well they serve their people, it’s measured by how much they can extract from the people. And so, it’s a given that all governments will pursue ever-greater levels of power over their minions up to and including the point of total dominance.

It should be said that, on rare occasions, a people will rise up and create a governmental system in which the rights of the individual are paramount. This was true in the creation of the Athenian Republic and the American Constitution, and even the British Magna Carta. However, these events are quite rare in history and, worse, as soon as they take place, those who gain power do their best to diminish the newly-gained freedoms. Such freedoms can almost never be destroyed quickly, but, over time and "by slow operations," as Thomas Jefferson was fond of saying, governments can be counted on to eventually destroy all freedoms.

We’re passing through a period in history in which the process of removing freedoms is nearing completion in many of the world’s foremost jurisdictions. The EU and US, in particular, are leading the way in this effort. Consequently, it shouldn’t be surprising that some predict "the end of the world." But, they couldn’t be more incorrect.

Surely, in 1789, the more productive people of France may have felt that the developing French Revolution would culminate in Armageddon. Similarly, in 1917, those who created prosperity in Russia may well have wanted to throw up their hands as the Bolsheviks seized power from the Romanovs.

Whenever a deterioration in rule is underway, as it is once again now, the observer has three choices:

Declare the End of the World: There are many people, worldwide, but particularly in the centers of the present deterioration – the EU and US – who feel that, since the situation in their home country is nearing collapse, the entire world must also be falling apart. This is not only a very myopic viewpoint, it’s also quite inaccurate. At any point in civilization in the past 2000 years or more, there have always been empires that were collapsing due to intolerable governmental dominance and there have always concurrently been alternative jurisdictions where the level of freedom was greater. In ancient Rome, when Diocletian devalued the currency, raised taxes, increased warfare and set price controls, those people who actually created the economy on a daily basis found themselves in the same boat as Europeans and Americans are finding themselves in, in the 21st century.

It may have seemed like the end of the world, but it was not. Enough producers left Rome and started over again in other locations. Those other locations eventually thrived as a result of the influx of productive people, while Rome atrophied.

Turn a Blind Eye: This is less dreary than the above approach, but it is nevertheless just as fruitless. It is, in fact, the most common of reactions – to just "hope for the best." It’s tempting to imagine that maybe the government will realize that they’re the only ones benefitting from the destruction of freedom and prosperity and they’ll feel bad and reverse the process. But this clearly will not happen. It’s also tempting to imagine that maybe it won’t get a whole lot worse and that life, although not all that good at present, might remain tolerable. Again, this is wishful thinking and the odds of it playing out in a positive way are slim indeed.

Accept the Truth, But Do Something About It: This, of course, is the hard one. Begin by recognizing the truth. If that truth is not palatable, study the situation carefully and, when a reasonably clear understanding has been reached, create an alternative. When governments enter the final decline stage, an alternative is not always easy to accept. It’s a bit like having a tooth pulled. You want to put it off, but the pain will only get worse if you delay. And so, you trundle off to the dentist unhappily, but, a few weeks after the extraction, you find yourself asking, "Why didn’t I do this sooner?"

To be sure, those who investigate and analyze the present socio-economic-political deterioration do indeed espouse a great deal of gloom, but this should not be confused with doom. In actual fact, the whole point of shining a light into the gloom is to avoid having it end in doom.

It should be said here that remaining in a country that is tumbling downhill socially, economically and politically is also not the end of the world. It is, however, true that the end result will not exactly be a happy one. If history repeats once again, it’s likely to be quite a miserable one.

Those who undertake the study of the present deterioration must, admittedly, address some pretty depressing eventualities and it would be far easier to just curl up on the sofa with a six-pack and watch the game, but the fact remains: unless the coming problems are investigated and an alternative found, those who sit on the sofa will become the victims of their own lethargy.

Sadly, we live in a period in history in which some of the nations that once held the greatest promise for the world are well on their way to becoming the most tyrannical. If by recognizing that fact, we can pursue better alternatives elsewhere on the globe, as people have done in previous eras. We may actually find that the field of daisies in the image above is still very much in existence, it’s just a bit further afield than it was in years gone by. And it is absolutely worthy of pursuit."

- internationalman.com

"On These Faces..."

“The barbarian hopes, and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.“

- Hilaire Belloco

"Twilight of the European Peoples"

"Twilight of the European Peoples"

by Fred Reed

"Living in Latin America, and having spent much of my working life in Asia, as well as many years in the Potomac Rome, I now watch with considerable care the portentous and rapid currents of change in the world. I suppose the news business is an addiction. Perhaps there should be a twelve-step program. Yet there is much to watch. We are seeing the end of the age of European dominion. It is quite a show.

Europe and its overweening child, America, had quite a run, of about five centuries. Britain eventually conquered most of the world with the lesser Eurocountries grabbing the rest in lesser predation. The British collapsed consequent to the European habit of constant warfare, and now America, moribund but unaware, waits to drown under the rising Asian tide.

Yet Washington, or much of it, seems not to notice. It breathes, as it has for decades, a curious imperial self-assurance, a calm certitude that the sun can never set on the best of all possible countries. We are born to rule, the attitude says, smug, parental, impenetrably condescending and hubristic. Yet the sky darkens. The Euro-Americans again eat themselves, this time with Americans using Europeans and Ukrainians to attack Russia. NATO girds its loins for war with China, Washington threatens invasion of Mexico. This will not end well, but it will end soon.

Few in the enchanted city seem to take this seriously, or seriously enough. Asia awakes. Not just China, but Asia – lands with many times the population, many times the educable brains, and economies surging as if someone had pushed a button. Yet in the Sacred City, provincial lawyers posing as congressmen evince the class sense of superiority, the same belief in their divine right to instruct, to command, to rule.

A wag once described Washington as a federal conclave surrounded on all sides by reality. In this there is much truth. It is a city isolated from what it doesn’t want to know, wallowing in its supposed indispensability and unaware of how much of the world wants, and intends, to dispense with it.

The dispensing-with goes apace, mortal but not spectacular. From David P. Goldman of Asia Times: “Central Asian countries increased imports from China in March by 55% over the year-earlier month, beating the 35% jump in Chinese shipments to Southeast Asia reported previously. There’s another geopolitical consequence of China’s export prowess in Central and Southeast Asia: China’s exports to the Global South and BRICS countries in March reached a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $1.6 trillion a year. That’s nearly four times China’s exports to the United States and more than the combined total of China’s exports to the US, Europe and Japan. That represents a geopolitical point of no return of sorts, the moment when China’s economic dependence on the United States in particular and developed markets in general slipped behind its economic standing in the developing world.”

The European show is over, the curtain beginning to fall, and people get up to leave the theater. Yet in Washington they still talk of America as a shining city on a hill, not an Anglo favela. The center of gravity of economy, technology, science, and finance moves eastward

Why this quietly demented confidence? Many of those in power are now long in the tooth, as am I. We grew up in an age not now easily imagined, but one that still shapes the behavior of many. When we were children, America had just won the war. The country was supreme. As we were relentlessly told, it was the strongest, most free, good, fair, and scientifically potent country the world had ever seen. Much of this was true. Much wasn’t. In school every morning we recited the pledge of allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer. Prosperity reigned. When Superman jumped from a window with a great whooshing, he was described as, “A strange visitor from another planet, fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” which we were encouraged to regard as coextensive.

I am not being cute, not parodying. We believed it, deeply and without examination. We were not fools. The evidence was there. Airliners, moon landings, hydrogen bombs, automotive supremacy, the greatest economy. Other countries existed, at the edges of consciousness, but didn’t amount to much. Europe was quaint, a place for the rich to visit. The Chinese were funny little yellow people who made pencils and toys and talked funny, but weren’t good for much else. Mexicans? "Oh Cisco! Oh Pancho!" There was no crime. You could leave your bike anywhere and it would be there when you came back. Sanity was rampant. No massacres in school. We thought we were on to something. And were. Then, yes, but now is not then.

That is how Biden, Bolton, Pompeo, Bush II, Buchanan, and recent forerunners grew up. It proved fertile ground for the belief that America is exceptional, invincible, immortal, and should rule the world. Americans did not doubt, and largely do not doubt, our moral superiority and thus our duty to instruct others on proper international behavior, on a democracy we do not have, and on managing their economies in a manner beneficial to us. This, believe me, is doctrine in much of Washington.

Another source of belief in America’s godlike powers is that the country has not been in a war dangerous to itself since 1865. To Americans, war is something we do to strange little countries on the other side of the world where US forces bomb defenseless peasants. The military is in fact not very good, but that is another and long subject. Nothing bad ever happens to the homeland. Thus military leaders blandly say that in a war with China, America would conduct deep strikes on command centers far within China. We are allowed to bomb them, but not vice versa. Of course China has submarine-launched cruise missiles that could make scrap of the Pentagon and carrion of most of those in it. We are not used to this, enemies who can hit back. Nor can Washington imagine, say, a shattering Tsushima Strait naval defeat near Taiwan. And so Pentagon generals blandly speak of war with China in 1925, as if it were a minor house-cleaning with an assured outcome.

And so in a decade or two the European Epoch comes to a close, whether with bang or whimper, who knows, but it ends. America will accelerate its decline by spending furiously on the military while allowing the country to fail internally. As sometimes happens in imperial demise, both the US and the Old Continent suffer heavy immigration from populations of other civilizations. The economies approach collapse. That entrancing sound in the distance? It’s the Fat Lady singing."

- https://fredoneverything.org/

"How It Really Is"

 

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Bioweapon Vax is Not Genocide, It’s Extinction"

"CV19 Bioweapon Vax is Not Genocide, It’s Extinction"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Karen Kingston is a biotech analyst and former Pfizer employee who understands complicated medical and biological contracts. Kingston also understands what it takes to make or defend a legal case against Big Pharma. She has years of experience on multiple levels. Kingston contends you do not need new laws to stop the CV19 mRNA technology. Everybody simply needs to understand the CV19 vax and the mRNA technology are proven bioweapons. The data shows millions have been disabled or murdered by the CV19 bioweapon/vax so far. Is it going to get worse? Kingston says, “Unfortunately, it is going to get worse. The worst is yet to come. The FDA did have to prove that these were safe. Based on the information that they had in October and November of 2020, they should have never moved forward with the trials. So, they broke the law. They knew it would cause all these disabilities and deaths. I predicted a 25% myocarditis rate in July of 2021. I have heard experts say we may be looking at 100% if they got two or three shots. So, it’s going to get bad.”

Big Pharma and government are allowing mRNA technology (the same deadly bioweapon in the CV19 injections) to be put into the entire food supply. Kingston contends this is to turn humans into trans-humans in something called “Directed Evolution.” Kingston explains, “Directed Evolution is forcing the evolution of humans to merge with DNA from reptiles, insects and artificial intelligence. It’s the bio-digital merger. This is what this is, and there are multi-trillion dollar industries around this. There is a whole bio-data division in DARPA in the U.S. military. It is about merging the bio-digital with humans.”

Many have been calling the CV19 bioweapon/vax that features technology poison such as graphene as a genocide. Kingston contends it is far more than that. Kingston says, “This is not for the benefit of humanity. This is going to lead to our extinction. I just do not know why people do not understand that.”

Kingston demonstrates the electromagnetic properties of mRNA on a beef steak. The quarter she uses sticks to a part of the meat where the mRNA had assembled because the mRNA creates a magnetic field. (All patents Kingston has reviewed prove, without a doubt, mRNA is an electromagnetic device.) Kingston says there is no need to pass new laws to stop evil Big Pharma, government and food producers from putting this in our food. mRNA is a bioweapon, and it is illegal to put this in anyone’s food. Kingston says, “It’s not that you want informed consent about mRNA technology in your food, every state has laws on the books where weapons of biowarfare cannot contaminate the food supply. I think what is most important is that we seize these mRNA injections. Once we seize the shots and we get legal custody of that to show American citizens and global citizens what the technology is in the shots, then we can start shutting it down around the globe. Not just in the ‘vaccine’ market, but show this is what is being put into our food supply and why all of this needs to stop.”

Kingston contends the FDA and CDC knew early on mRNA CV19 bioweapon injections were going to cause a long list of serious debilitating and deadly diseases. They continue to push the mRNA bioweapon on every aspect of our lives with no end in sight. Kingston predicts by 2030, there will be 200 million disabled or murdered Americans by mRNA and CV19 bioweapon/vax injections.” There is much more in the 1-hour and 4-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with renowned biotech analyst Karen Kingston as she gives an update on the bioweapon mRNA injections and why they need to be stopped. 

- https://rumble.com/

To look at some of the data and documents on the CV19 bioweapon/vax containing deadly mRNA that proves it is a bioweapon and a psyop released on an unsuspecting public, go to the kingstonreport@substack.com.

God have mercy on you if you've taken this shot...

"US Just Sent Nuclear Response Team; Apocalyptic Scene In Crimea; Poland Ejects Russia"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 4/29/23

"US Just Sent Nuclear Response Team;

 Apocalyptic Scene In Crimea; Poland Ejects Russia"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Yanni, “The Storm”

Full screen recommended.

Yanni, “The Storm”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was recently taken in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch.

The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130422.html

"We Do Choose..."

"All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."

- Joseph Epstein

○

"George Harrison knew something most of us didn't and still don't: there is a reality beyond the material world and what we do here and how we treat others affects us eternally. As he sings in "Rising Sun":

"But in the rising sun you can feel your life begin,

Universe at play inside your DNA.

You're a billion years old today.

Oh the rising sun and the place it's coming from

Is inside of you and now your payment's overdue."

Lyrics here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

○

"Death twitches my ear. 'Live," he says, 'I am coming.'"

~Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

The Poet: David Whyte, "Sweet Darkness"

"Sweet Darkness"

"When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb tonight.

The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.

You must learn one thing: the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness

to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you."

- David Whyte,

"House of Belonging"