Wednesday, September 6, 2023

"Visa And Mastercard Report That The Credit Card Crisis Nobody Thought Possible Is Already Upon Us"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 9/6/23
"Visa And Mastercard Report That The Credit Card 
Crisis Nobody Thought Possible Is Already Upon Us"

"Two of the world’s biggest credit card issuers, Visa and Mastercard, are warning about an impending credit card crisis, and consumers should be on high alert because fee hikes will start being introduced over the next 30 days. Both payment technology companies said they also intend to raise credit card fees paid by merchants every time they accept credit card purchases from their customers. A report published by the Wall Street Journal revealed that the fee increase will occur in October, right ahead of the hottest shopping season of the year. The timing of Visa and Mastercard’s decision is certainly going to impact the buying plans of many U.S. households during the holidays.

Experts with the Journal predict that a significant portion of the credit card fee hikes faced by retailers will likely be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In 2022, U.S. retailers paid nearly $94 billion to Visa and Mastercard in credit card fees. This figure almost tripled over the past decade, up from $33 billion in 2012. All of this comes at a very bad time for Americans, who have seen the cost of living in America shoot up in the past three years. In fact, in August, the number of Americans rolling their credit card debt from month to month became higher than the portion who pay their bill in full for the first time since this data started being tracked, according to a new survey by J.D. Power.

The global data and analytics firm found that 51% of credit card holders in the United States can’t pay off their entire balance each month. Right now, shoppers are using their cards for a lot of everyday purchases. Grocery shopping is the top purchase type that consumers say they are making with their credit cards. This is happening at a period when credit card interest rates are at 40-year highs. In the past few years, Americans have racked up a record-high amount of credit card debt, according to data released by the Federal Reserve.

"We've seen a huge increase in credit-card delinquencies," said Balbinder Singh Gill, assistant professor of finance at the Stevens Institute of Technology's School of Business in Hoboken, N.J. The professor says that with a 24% annual percentage rate on credit cards, becoming delinquent on credit card debt could push millions of low-income families into bankruptcy. "It's a very dangerous situation currently, especially for low-wage workers," Gill stressed.

Another red flag is that shoppers are turning to buy now, pay later services to be able to make ends meet. Usage surged 40% in the first two quarters of 2023, according to data from Adobe Analytics. In addition to soaring interest rates and student loan repayments, consumers are likely to rack up even more debt due to higher energy and electricity bills in the fall and winter as the cold weather kicks in and the cost of heating homes ratchets up.

At the end of the day, the credit card crisis is symptomatic of the tough decisions that struggling American households are having to make in 2023. People are having to choose between paying their credit card bills, their rent or buying groceries. And the fee hikes that will come into effect less than four weeks from now are going to financially hurt many families out there."
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Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula left of center, and colorful M20 on the right. The third, NGC 6559, is above M8, separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant.
The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlight. The colorful skyscape recorded with telescope and digital camera also includes one of Messier's open star clusters, M21, just above the Trifid.”
"When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged
in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams,
to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where
he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

- Walt Whitman

Chet Raymo, “The Sound And Fury”

“The Sound And Fury”
by Chet Raymo

“Once I mentioned here Himmler and Heydrich, two of Hitler's most terrible henchmen. A friend said to me: "If there's no afterlife, no heaven or hell, then those two diabolical creatures got away with it. Their fate was no different than that of any one of their victims, an innocent child perhaps." And, yes, if there is no God who dispenses final justice, then we are left with an aching feeling of irresolution, of virtue unrewarded, of vice unpunished. Heydrich was gunned down by partisan assassins, and Himmler committed suicide a few hours before his inevitable capture, both fates arguably less tragic than that of their victims. How much more satisfying to think that the two mass murderers will spend an eternity in hell, while their victims find bliss.

This may not be a logically consistent argument for the existence of God, but it is certainly compelling. My friend says: "If there's no afterlife, then it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Of course, this emotive argument for the existence of God is balanced by another argument against his existence – the problem of evil: How can a just and loving God allow the existence of a Himmler or Heydrich in the first place. Here the argument is not just emotional, but consists of a thorny contradiction.

It comes down, essentially, to head vs. heart- what we would like to be true with all of our heart, vs. what our head tells us is an unresolvable conundrum. So each of us decides: To follow our hearts and make the blind leap of faith, or to follow our heads and learn to live with the sound and the fury. For those of us who choose the second alternative, the relevant words are that distressing coda, "signifying nothing." Our task is one of signification, of finding a satisfying meaning this side of the grave.

For many of us, that means finding our place in the great cosmic unfolding, and of recognizing that our lives are not inconsequential, that by being here we jigger the trajectory of the universe in some way, no matter how small, and preferably for the good and just. Yes, we make a leap of faith too, I suppose - that love, justice, and creativity are virtues worth living for - but at least it is a leap of faith that is not into the unknown, does not embody logical contradiction, and is consistent with what we know to be true, or at least as true as we can make it.”

The Universe, "Life..."

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.
It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.
It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.
It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.
And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.
And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."
- The Universe

"Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends upon what we look for.
What we look for depends upon what we think.
What we think depends upon what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality."
- Gary Zukav

The Poet: W. H. Auden, “The More Loving One”

“The More Loving One”

“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.”

- W. H. Auden

"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

The Daily "Near You?"

Bound Brook, New Jersey, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Gerald Celente, "The CIA Is In Your Underwear!"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 9/6/23
"Judge Andrew Napolitano:
The CIA Is In Your Underwear!"
"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."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Warning - Bank Jugging Is Back"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly PM 9/6/23
"Warning - Bank Jugging Is Back"
"People are getting robbed leaving the bank.
 This is happening more and more each day. "
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Addison Wiggin, "Rapid Intensification"

"Rapid Intensification"
By Addison Wiggin

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.” - Leo Tolstoy

"In the August heat, Jennifer and I drove down the Western Shore of the Chesapeake, randomly looking at properties along the water, stopping for fried pickles and steamed shrimp at the Rumor Reel, a local’s marina in Pasadena, Maryland.

Nearby, down a charming single lane country road, we happened on a house for sale for $1.2 million. It sits on three quarters of an acre. What makes it interesting - and pricey - is the location. To the east the land sports a dock directly on the Chesapeake Bay. To the west lies another dock on a large inland lake, great for fishing and kayaking.

The house itself is a dump. Given you budget you’d raze the sad, forgotten structure and build a new one. What’s there now hasn’t been updated in probably 50 years. On the pond side, there’s a three car garage that would be perfect for a loft for visitors… or a bungalow in which to type words while the sun sets. Later in the day, when we showed a picture of the property to our 20-year old son, Augie, the first words out of his mouth were: “Dad, why? That place will be underwater in 10 years.” Heh. He’s not wrong. Somehow kids get stuff intuitively that takes a blunt strike to the cabeza for their elders to grasp.

The Chesapeake doesn’t often get direct hits from hurricanes. The last one, Isabel, whipped up the bay in September 2003. The storm surge alone reached 8 feet. That would be enough to soak our little abode up to the second floor. Looking at storm data going back to 1950, the Chesapeake gets several tropical storms a year with surges between 2-5 feet. Again, enough to flood the bungalow. Flood insurance alone will give you pause for owning and building on the land. There’s new construction on either piece of the plot with 10-12 foot stilts.

Last week, Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 in the Big Bend region of Florida. The storm surge it brought with it peaked at 16 feet. A surge like that would drown our sad shack along the Chesapeake. It would be completely underwater.

Idalia, since we’re on the subject, experienced what meteorologists call “rapid intensification” defined as an increase of at least 35 mph within a 24 hour period. Tuesday morning, Idalia was a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph sustained winds. By Wednesday, less than 24 hours later, it was a “monstrous” Category 4 with sustained winds of 130 mph.

The cause? This year, the average surface level of the Gulf is 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal - more than 1 degree higher than the previous record. As far as my armchair meteorological knowledge goes, warmer water helps storms intensify faster because it evaporates faster and rises more quickly. The more evaporating water rising, then cooling when it hits the atmosphere, the more quickly it fuels a nascent storm. Even after the storm began to weaken to a Cat 3, the storm surge was already barreling toward Keaton Beach, where the eye landed on August 30th.

It’s worth me making a short public service announcement here. Yes, I am dipping my toe in the hot water of the climate “debate.” Anyone who follows climate politics knows it’s not really a debate at all. As far as the United Nations is concerned “global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer” became a prominent issue in 1988.

Since that time, “global warming”, which didn’t work very well as a marketing term, morphed into the all-encompassing, and somehow more acceptable brand “climate change.” You won’t find a news report about Idalia on CNN, Fox, New York Times or any other mainstream source that doesn’t blame her rapid intensification, with mind-numbing lackadaisy, on climate change.

Could El Nino be causing rising surface level temperatures in the Gulf? Maybe it’s due to a natural cycle. It doesn’t matter… “climate change” is a useful term for journalists telling a story because it allows them to fill a gap in their research they know most people will just accept. Maybe I’m cynical. But anytime there’s such widespread acceptance of a term like that it makes me go “hmmmn.”

I’ve been fascinated by the topic since accompanying my friend John Englander, CEO of the Rising Seas Institute, to Greenland last year to see with my own two baby blues melting glaciers. They are, in fact, melting. You can see the evidence scraped along the fjords where the existing glaciers have receded.

The trip to look at glaciers and giant icebergs makes for a fun cultural excursion, as well as a scientifically educational one. The town where we camped is Illusiat, Greenland, home to the Inuit and generations of vikings. To get there you have to spend some time in either Copenhagen, Denmark or Reykjavik, Iceland. It’s a tad pricey, but I recommend it should you be looking for a mid-summer getaway in 2024. But you don’t need to go that far.

Across the Chesapeake from our ramshackle hut lies Smith Island. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the melting glaciers and loss of ice from Greenland ice sheets have contributed to the rapid sea-level rise in the Chesapeake. The bay has swallowed 3,300 acres of Smith Island since records started being kept in the 1800s. There remain only 900 acres of habitable land on the island. Ironically, prices for said land have been increasing and flood insurance is still available.

We’re expecting a friendly round of reader mail on the subject. Just using the words “climate change” is akin to yanking a two-foot bald-faced wasp nest out of a Japanese maple tree with your bare hands. (Yeah, we had one in our back yard until yesterday. We didn’t use our hands, but the metaphor fits.)

Our friend John Englander, has made it a life mission to educate people on the economic impacts of rising sea levels especially communities like Annapolis, MD. According to the Maryland state government, between 1957 and 1963 Annapolis averaged 4 “nuisance floods” a year. Between 2007 and 2013 that number had increased ten-fold to nearly 40.

Sea level rise is a thing. Warmer water in the Gulf is a thing. Whether it's naturally occurring or not, and what, if anything should be done about it, is where all the hand-wringing comes in. To be sure, like tracking Consumer Price Index (CPI) or monthly jobless claims… no matter how tortured the stats are by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)... the data moves markets.

During COP26, in November of 2021, former head of both the Bank of England and the Canadian central bank raised $130 trillion - that’s a ‘t’ - to enforce regulations for a Net-Zero 2050 agenda. What could go wrong? Let’s find out.

Our goal in breaching “climate change” is simple. It’s a political lightning rod and is the cause of all kinds of shenanigans in the global markets, not least of which is massive state-sponsored fraud. As such, we promise to keep our discussion focused on property, economics and financial forecasting. Send your comments and or questions, here."

"Mashi cho..."

"How It Really Is"

 

"Woke Military: How It Really Is"

"Woke: Military's New Transgender Treatment SPA"
"Yes, this is Real. Senior Airman Connell Explains the Military's 59th Medical Specialty Squadron THMEU otherwise known as the Transgender Duty Station for Treatment of Transgender Military Members. Article on Transgender Military Unit."
o
"Army Redefines 'Be All You Can Be'"
o
"FY 2023 Defense Funding Levels" "The 62nd annual NDAA supports a total of $857.9 billion in fiscal year 2023 funding for national defense. Within this topline, the legislation authorizes $816.7 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) and $30.3 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy (DOE)."

Don't you feel safer, Good Citizen? After all, you and I and all of us are paying for this. The Russian and Chinese militarys are laughing themselves into comas at the thought of fighting the US military. With good reasons...
- CP, Veteran, US Marine Corps

"Economic Market Snapshot 9/6/23"

Dan, I Allegedly, 9/6/23
"There’s No Chance of a Recession"
"Goldman Sachs has just issued a statement that there is no longer a risk of recession. It has dropped to only a 15% possibility. Utterly ridiculous. There are more layoffs across the country and businesses closing on a daily basis."
Comments here:
o
Fulll screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 9/6/23
"Massive Layoffs From T-Mobile, Goldman Sachs
 & More, Reporting Huge Job Cuts!"
"T-Mobile's announcement to slash 7% of its workforce, totaling around 5,000 jobs. The company's CEO, Michael Servent, unveiled this decision with a heavy heart, acknowledging the sweeping impact it would have on employees. This is more than just a layoff; it's a seismic shift in the company's structure. While T-Mobile's business strategies are evolving, these layoffs hit closer to home for employees who have dedicated years to the company's growth. The shockwaves reverberating through the workforce have raised questions about the economy's stability, forcing us to confront the unsettling truth – this isn't just a storm; it's a reckoning."
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o
The Economic Ninja, 9/6/23
"The Banks Worst Nightmare Happening Right Now!"
"Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Banking groups and more are not willing to take on Signature Bank Commercial Real Estate holdings. The CMBS market is imploding and it will get worse in the next couple of months."
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Bill Bonner, "Time Decays"

Prague Astronomical Tower
"Time Decays"
Taking the value of your money right along with it...
by Bill Bonner

"The Feds never back away from error."
~ Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Labor Day came and went…as it always does. But nowhere did we see anyone ask the question: which way is labor going? Up or down? How much does the working stiff earn today? How much did he earn 10, 20…50 years ago? Is he really making progress? And if not now – with the genius of the Fed and Wall Street at his back, enlightened politicians and activists to lead him forward, and the bright sun of American capitalism overhead – when?

Yesterday, we looked at “time prices” purporting to show that the average fellow now earns 5 times as much per hour as he did before 1980. Simple enough. You take a basket of key commodities – wheat, corn, iron ore – and you track the prices alongside wages. The conclusion, however, leaves us unsettled. It is out-of-tune with what we think we know…and what we think we see.

Capitalism’s Finest Hour: Adjusting for inflation is not as easy as it sounds, but according to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, “today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago.” And then, yesterday, came a new accounting, showing that “real wages have not risen since 1965.” Uh oh. That’s almost 60 years without a raise, during the period we thought was American capitalism’s finest hour. Which is it? Is the 40-year-old worker 5 times richer than his dad? Or dead even with him? Or worse?

One of the problems with the ‘time price’ theory is that it is pure theory. It is just an idea. In practice, people don’t buy baskets of their favorite commodities. They buy dinner, a house…a car. So, how much does it cost to buy these things?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of food has risen more than 3,000% over the last 100 years. And wages? The average hourly wage in 1923 was about 40 cents an hour. Today, it is $11 an hour, or about 2,600% more than it was. By this measure, the working man is poorer. What used to take him an hour to buy now takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

And his wheels? The Ford F series has served as the working man’s workhorse since it was first introduced in 1948. Brand, spanking new, the truck sold for $1,279 back then, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us is the equivalent of $13,836 today.

But where can you buy a new F-series Ford truck for $14,000 today? Nowhere. According to Edmonds, the base price is now over $47,000. In terms of hours worked, it will take the buyer three times as long to afford the new truck.

Time and Money: In practice, the average man can only afford it by going into debt. Trucks are scarce; but thanks to the aforementioned genius, credit is abundant. Now, the working man may never actually own a pickup truck. He merely rents it from Wall Street. Here’s Autoweek from 2020: "…an increasing percentage of trucks are being purchased by buyers taking advantage of loans as long as 84 months; incentives like deferred payments and 0% financing, meant to keep sales from completely collapsing, seem to be working even as unemployment skyrockets. Meanwhile, monthly payments and amounts financed for new vehicle purchases are increasing."

The ‘time-price’ economists would say, ‘yes…but it’s a better truck.’ And so it is. Technology advances. The components improve. ‘Extras’ become necessities. But it is still just a truck. And the same tech improvements that make it a better truck, logically, ought to have made it cheaper to produce. Instead, it is more expensive. In time as well as money.

And now, let’s look at housing. Here, the picture is less fogged by technological improvements. Today, you can buy a house built in 2023…or one built in 1923. One hundred years ago, a house would have cost you $3,200, according to US News. Statista puts the average house price today at $392,000. But what about the 1923 house, with few of the tech advances of the last 100 years? Progress continued. Wages advanced. The house remained more or less the same. It should be much cheaper, right?

John Q. Guarantor: New materials and new tools – plastic pipes, nail guns, fake wood – should have made new houses cheaper to build, too. But both – old and new – are much more expensive. Let’s see. We go to a website listing “old houses for sale.” We check the listings for Maryland, which we know fairly well. We eliminate any historic mansions or other outliers. We add up all of those available…we divide by the number of those for sale to get an average, and we get $571,000. Hmmm. More expensive, not less.

Old houses are supposed to be generally cheaper. They are out-of-style. And they usually have problems that need to be fixed. Faulty water heaters. Rotten fascia board. Bad wiring. Whatever. But with upgrades – new granite countertops, remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, refinished woodwork – let us assume that the cost of an old house is about the same as a new one. How do they compare to a house bought a hundred years ago?

At 40 cents an hour, a house in 1923 would have taken 8,000 hours of labor to acquire. The house today – assuming it is around $390,000, updates included – will cost 35,000 hours of work, or nearly 5 times as much. By these measures, labor had nothing to celebrate – neither this year…nor almost any year since 1923. Real wages have not even begun to keep up with real costs. What kind of economy is this…that presses a crown of inflation down on the working man’s head…and crucifies him on a cross of claptrap? What kind of government is it that leaves him poorer…year after year…and runs up a $33 trillion debt with his name as the guarantor? There must be more to the story. But what?"

Joel's Note: "Meanwhile, down at the “fin del mundo,” Argentina’s currency conflagration is burning white hot. Already at its highest rate in several decades, analysts predict the runaway peso could approach 200% annualized inflation by the end of this year. From Reuters: "The high inflation rate, which J.P. Morgan has forecast could hit 190% this year, has left four-in-10 people in poverty as prices have risen faster than wages, leading to a cost-of-living crisis and stoking anger on the streets. August monthly inflation is likely to top 10%, analysts say."

Predictably, the article goes on to trash the leading presidential candidate ahead of next month’s general elections, noting that Javier Milei, a self-described “libertarian,” is really just an “outsider radical.” Continued the once-relevant newswire…"[Milei] has pledged to dollarize the economy over time and shutter the central bank, blaming a "caste" of political elite for the economic crisis in boisterous tirades to cheering supporters who love his abrasive, no holds barred style."

One is left to wonder, therefore, if the choice remains between political elites and 200% inflation… or a “radical outsider” and a steadfastly dollarized economy…wouldn’t you take the greenbacks and run?

Friends down in the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, relay daily the challenges of doing business in a largely cash-only economy rapidly approaching hyperinflation velocity… especially when the largest bill (the 1,000 peso note) is now worth a measly $1.35…and falling, fast. Of course, if the “radical outsider” does accede to the Casa Rosada come October, those pesky pesos will be all the more fuel for the fire. We’ll be back on the Pampas in time for the scheduled bread and circuses. Watch this space for more…"
Prague Astronomical Clock

"Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 9/6/23"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/6/23
"Blackrock Warning: 'Economic Shocks Ahead'; 
Federal Budget Deficit Skyrocketing"
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o
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/6/23
"New Fed. Vice Chairman Will Help
 Destroy What's Left Of The USA"
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Musical Interlude: Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"

Full screen recommended.
Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"

Oh yeah, we're in the landslide alright...

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Redacted, "'Nuclear War Between U.S. and Russia is Inevitable' - Russian General"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 9/5/23
"'Nuclear War Between U.S. and Russia is Inevitable'
 - Russian General"
"Retired Major General Alexander Vladimirov, who wrote Russia's three volume book called the 'General Theory of War,' says the moment war broke out in Ukraine is the moment that nuclear war with the West became inevitable."
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"Ukraine 'Lost' 66,000 Troops, 7,600 Weapons In Counteroffensive; Big Reveal By Russia's Shoigu"

Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 9/5/23
"Ukraine 'Lost' 66,000 Troops, 7,600 Weapons In 
Counteroffensive; Big Reveal By Russia's Shoigu"
"The Russian defense minister claimed that Ukraine lost more than 66,000 soldiers and over 7,500 heavy weapons since the counteroffensive began in June this year. Sergei Shoigu added that despite this "colossal cost, Ukraine continues its operation" to woo its Western allies. His comments came during a meeting with Russian military leaders as the war grinds on."
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"Russian Typical (European) Shopping Mall: Europolis Rostokino"

Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell , 9/5/23
"Russian Typical (European) Shopping Mall:
 Europolis Rostokino"
"How does a Russian typical Shopping Mall look in 2023? Join me on a tour of Europolis Shopping Mall in Moscow, Russia. Europolis Rostokino originally opened as Golden Babylon, but changed its name to better fit with the large number of European stores opened in this mall."
Comments here:

"Target Products Will Face Massive Price Spike This Fall As CEO Warns About Crisis Ahead"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 9/5/23
"Target Products Will Face Massive Price Spike
 This Fall As CEO Warns About Crisis Ahead"

"Target’s products are going to get more expensive this fall. The company’s CEO is warning about tougher conditions for shoppers and also raising the alarm about the state of the U.S. economy. The retailer is one of the biggest general merchandise companies in America, and its household goods, groceries, and clothing are about to face some of the steepest price increases since 2019.

If you are a frequent shopper at other retail giants, you probably have noticed that Target’s prices are already notably higher. Even after offering deep discounts to get rid of inventory in 2022 and bearing a 90% profit drop, the company still had to pass higher supply chain costs to shoppers over the past year. And now, it is trying to stabilize its balance sheet by introducing significant price markups on thousands of products.

The Minneapolis retailer’s chief executive officer has issued a dire warning to U.S. consumers for the second half of the year. Brian Cornell said he expects rising interest rates, which makes credit cards more expensive to use, and higher prices on food and energy to continue to put a strain on shoppers. The big-box store chain missed sales expectations in the second quarter, and according to its latest earnings report, revenue also came lower than expected. Executives pointed to a growing economic malaise, and uncertainty from the restart of student loan repayments as some of the reasons for the deteriorating outlook for the months ahead. Despite falling sales volumes and a tighter environment for consumer spending, Target says it will have to continue hiking prices to improve profitability and meet its financial goals. Fiddelke noted that price increases are “always the last lever” the retailer pulls, but “external conditions led us to raise prices across a broad set of items in multiple categories,” he added.

Other retailers are doing the same. Home Depot, the nation's largest home improvement retailer, reported declining sales in its second-quarter earnings results. The company noted that it's seeing weak sales volumes in several big-ticket items like patio furniture and appliances. For that reason, it has decided to raise the price of smaller home-improvement items to offset its losses.

At this point, Target is considered as one of the highest-priced retailers of 2023. A Business Insider comparison between Target and other major retailers found that Target’s prices are on average 15% to 25% higher than some of its competitors. With consumers having to cover for the company's financial losses via higher prices, it's understandable why Wall Street isn't seeing a bright future for the retailer in the months ahead. Americans are sick and tired of price increases, and they are likely to search for better deals at other stores instead of going to Target. Even though the markups may help Target to boost revenue in the short term, it will hurt consumer confidence, and ultimately, do more harm than good to its bottom line in the long run. At a time when big retailers are facing a hightened risk of bankruptcy, Target should be actively considering better strategies to bolster its performance and avoid experiencing even more hardships in the future."
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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Remember Now"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Remember Now"

Musical Interlude: Deuter, “Black Velvet Flirt”

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, “Black Velvet Flirt”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The southern Milky Way appears spectacular in this composite image taken from Mangaia, the most southerly of the Cook Islands. Few sources of light pollution exist here, home to only 500 people.
The two bright stars at the Milky Way’s center are Alpha (left) and Beta Centauri. They point to Crux the Southern Cross. Near the horizon, two of the satellite galaxies of our Milky Way, the Small (left) and Large Magellanic Clouds are easy to spot.”

"If We Have No Idea..."

"If we have no idea what we believe in, we’ll go along with anything.
Truth takes courage. Courage to stand up for what we believe in.
Not necessarily in a confrontational way, but in a gentle yet firm way.
Like an oak tree, able to sway gently in the wind, but strongly rooted to the ground.”
- A.C. Ping

“I Can’t Wait For the Day When Life Finally Makes Sense”

“I Can’t Wait For the Day 
When Life Finally Makes Sense”
by Rania Naim

 “I can’t wait for the day when life finally makes sense, when we find the silver lining in every tragedy, when we learn the lesson from each mistake and when we understand why our hearts needed to get broken a few times to let love in.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we met the right people at the wrong time or the wrong people at the right time and why our lives didn’t align to bring us together. I wonder if it’s because they’re the wrong ones for us or because we still have a lot of growing up to do and we’re meant to be with someone who understand who we’re becoming not who we were.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand the lesson behind every struggle. Why we struggled to be successful, why we struggled to find love, why we struggled to reach our dreams and why we lost people who meant the world to us. I wonder if we needed these lessons to learn how to appreciate life and feel the pain of others or we just needed to learn that there is no living without suffering.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we had to hate ourselves to love ourselves, why we had to destroy ourselves to build ourselves up again and why we had to start over just before we got to the finish line. I wonder who saved us or who inspired us to save ourselves.

I wonder if we are meant to be reborn a few times so we can learn how to truly live. I want to know what triggered us to change and how we can no longer recognize who we used to be.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we keep falling for the wrong ones over and over again, why we can’t forget those who hurt us and why we sometimes can still forgive them and take them back. I want to understand how our hearts operate, how they function, how they move us to do things we would never do and lead us to places that we know we shouldn’t go to. I’m curious to know why we listen to it, why we follow it blindly like it never got us lost before, why we trust it even though it left us broken and why do we always go back to it for questions when it keeps giving us the wrong answers. I wonder if there will come a day when we stop listening to it and if we’ll ever be truly alive without it.

They say everything happens for a reason and I truly believe that, but I also want to know what this reason is and why it chose us. Why some reasons keep recurring and why some reasons leave us even more perplexed. I want to understand why we go through certain things, what’s the message behind it and what if we never respond to this message, what if we just ignore it and keep living, what will happen then? Will our lives get lost in translation? 

I can’t wait for the day that life makes sense – some days I understand why certain things happened and others I’m not so sure, but all I know is that somehow we’ll connect the dots and someday we’ll complete the puzzle, until then, we have to learn how to live our lives without trying to understand it and we have to learn how to be comfortable with the irony and uncertainty of life; otherwise we’ll lose our common sense trying to make sense of the life we’re living.”

"If Only..."

“How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us; there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown.”
- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"The Story Of Man"

“The sands of time blew into a storm of images... images in sequence to tell the truth! Glorious legends of revolutionaries, bound only by a desire to be true to themselves, and to hope! Parables of colliding worlds, of forbidden love, of enemies healing the wounds of circumstance! Projected myth of persecution through greed and selfishness... and the will to survive! The Will to survive! And to survive in the face of those who claim credit for your very existence! We survive not as pawns, but as agents of hope. Sometimes misunderstood, but always true to our story. The story of Man."
- Scott Morse

Vangelis, "Alpha"
This tune always made me think, despite ourselves, of the relentless
 March of Mankind across the ages towards our unknown destiny...

The Daily "Near You"

Metamora, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Curveballs..."

"Just when we think we figured things out, the universe throws us a curveball. So, we have to improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong."
- "Dr. Meredith Grey", "Grey's Anatomy"

"What In The World Is Wrong With This Country?"

"What In The World Is Wrong With This Country?"
by Michael Snyder

"Just when it seems like we can’t possibly go any lower, we always manage to top ourselves. In the old days, every once in a while I would come across a story that would make me shake my head in disbelief because it was just so absurd. Now it is happening on a daily basis. In this article I am going to share some examples with you. I realize that some of these things are difficult to believe, but all of them are true. Our country really is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes, and the pace of our national decline only seems to be accelerating. If we are not able to turn our cultural decay around, eventually we will not have a country at all.

Let me start with a new law which will go into effect in Illinois on January 1st. From that point forward, those guilty of second-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and arson will always be released without having to post any bail at all…"A new Illinois law took effect in January, doing away with the cash bail system in the state, meaning suspects charged with felonies, including second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and arson, will be released without bail.

The Counter Signal reports the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, also called the SAFE-T Act, would end cash bail and includes 12 non-detainable offenses, second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and arson without bail, as well as drug-induced homicide, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, intimidation, aggravated DUI, aggravated fleeing and eluding, drug offenses and threatening a public official."The law took effect on Jan. 1, 2023, and criminals charged with the crimes mentioned above will be released without bail.

How many hardened criminals do you think will actually show up for their trials? I am sure that there will be a few. Of course many of our “woke judges” are doing their very best to make sure that many violent criminals never pay the price for their crimes even if they do stand trial. In California, a judge recently granted a mistrial to one defendant just because he didn’t get a good night of sleep the night before…"A California judge, who hails from a powerful Democrat family who endorsed LA DA George Gascon, granted a mistrial for a man facing life in prison because he was sleepy. The alleged criminal apparently did not get a good night’s rest before the trial after spending the night in a cell without a bed or blanket."

Seriously? So now this violent criminal is back on the streets even though he pointed a gun in the face of a female fast food worker and threatened to blow her brains out…"Vamazae Elgin Banks, 24, appeared in court after threatening a McDonald’s worker with a gun before stealing less than $100. Court records accused Banks of telling the cashier at the fast food joint that he would kill her if she didn’t produce the cash quickly enough, allegedly telling her ‘hurry up or I’ll blow your brains out!’"

Our system of justice is systematically being destroyed. But many Americans simply don’t care because they are drugged out of their minds. The United States has the biggest problem with legal drugs on the entire planet, and it also has the biggest problem with illegal drugs on the entire planet. When I saw the following story, I thought that it perfectly summed up where we are as a nation today…"A speeding woman is accused of driving under the influence of cocaine and alcohol when she crashed into another car, killing its driver who was under the influence of methamphetamine, police said. Summer Butler, 37, faces charges of DUI resulting in death, reckless driving and being in possession of a controlled substance in connection with the fatal crash in January, court documents obtained by the 8 News Now I-Team said."

At this point, it seems like almost everyone is an addict, and that includes many of our government officials. Here is just one example…"A Louisiana state official was arrested for allegedly buying drugs from a drug dealer outside of a fast food chain on Tuesday. Bridgette Hull, 37, serves as the executive secretary for the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners. She was purchasing drugs from dealer Steven McCarthy, who was under surveillance, when a Louisiana Attorney General Office employee recognized him at a Livingston Parish restaurant. Hull was arrested onsite, but McCarthy fled the scene after back up was called – resulting in a pursuit. He later crashed into another car and was arrested."

If we would secure our borders, we could at least reduce the flow of illegal drugs into this country. But the Biden administration refuses to do that. And so the worst drug crisis in all of U.S. history will continue to escalate, and substances that are laced with fentanyl will continue to kill countless numbers of our young people

"San Diego and Imperial County comprise the epicenter of fentanyl drug trafficking in the United States, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which reported that seizures of fentanyl in San Diego were up 323% in FY2019-FY2021 and that fentanyl overdose deaths increased 2,375% in San Diego County between 2016 and 2021. “A decade ago, we didn’t even know about fentanyl, and now it’s a national crisis,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman. “The amount of fentanyl we are seizing at the border is staggering. The number of fentanyl seizures and fentanyl-related deaths in our district are unprecedented.”

If you are waiting for our national leaders to fix our growing problems, you are going to be waiting for a really, really long time. Every major decision they make seems to make things even worse, and the Biden administration keeps appointing extremely alarming individuals to top positions of power. In fact, Biden just appointed a “doctor” that is absolutely obsessed with pentagrams to be the National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator.

Meet Demetre Daskalakis: Demetre was appointed by Joe Biden to be the official White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Demetre proudly wears the official symbol of the Church of Satan: The Pentagram.
Joe Biden appointed a Satanist to the White House. 
pic.twitter.com/TiMPY29AtC - Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 8, 2022

Not cherry picking here. The Pentagram is proudly displayed in his *promotional* photos for a CDC appointment. It’s ubiquitous on his social media. Demetre has Pentagram tattoos. So it’s a fair question: Did Joe Biden appoint a Satanist? 
pic.twitter.com/471Fp3uKss - Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 8, 2022

Only a very small handful of conservatives objected to his appointment to such an important position.

What in the world is wrong with this country? Have we gone completely and totally nuts? Perhaps we have. At this point, close to one-fourth of all Democratic voters actually believe that men can get pregnant…"A poll conducted by WPA Intelligence has found that almost one quarter of Democratic voters believe that “some men can become pregnant.” Twenty-two percent of Democrats overall agreed with the statement. The poll also found that more women agreed with the statement, and an incredible 36 percent of white, college-educated female Democrats agreed."

We aren’t just in a state of decline. The truth is that we are in a very advanced state of decline and the clock is ticking. If you love this nation, what has happened to us should deeply sadden you. We were once the greatest country on the entire planet, but now we are rapidly being destroyed from within. Please wake up America, because time to do anything about all of this is quickly running out."
"We are in the process of creating, in sum, what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time in our history the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal."
- Carl Bernstein
And nobody gives a damn, nobody cares...
Yeah...well guess what...
Robert Palmer, "You're Gonna Get What's Coming"