"How Can Anyone Possibly Claim That The U.S. Economy Is Doing Well With All Of This Going On?"

"How Can Anyone Possibly Claim That The 

U.S. Economy Is Doing Well With All Of This Going On?"

by Michael Snyder

"How in the world can anybody possibly claim that the U.S. economy is in good shape? Honestly, I don’t see how anyone can make a rational argument that this is the case. Actually, the only people that seem to be trying to claim that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction are those in the upper tiers of the economic food chain. At this stage, those in the lower tiers of the economic food chain are very well aware of how much they are suffering. Poverty, homelessness and hunger are rapidly growing all over America right now. But if you still have plenty of money and those around you still have plenty of money, you may be wondering what all of the fuss is about. If you are one of those people, hopefully this article will be a wake up call for you.

Let’s start with the housing market. On Friday, we learned that sales of previously owned homes in December 2023 were 6.2 percent lower than they were in December 2022…"Sales of previously owned homes fell 1% in December compared with November to 3.78 million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were 6.2% lower than in December 2022, marking the lowest level since August 2010."

For 2023 as a whole, sales of previously owned homes were the lowest that we have seen in 28 years…"Home sales fell to their lowest level in 28 years in 2023 as soaring mortgage rates and red-hot prices dampened buyer demand. Figures from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) show sales of existing properties slid 19 percent last year to 4.09 million – their lowest level since 1995."

Can anyone out there come up with a way to put a positive spin on those numbers? I certainly can’t. Meanwhile, 2023 was a year when Americans got further behind on their credit card bills “in 49 of the 50 states”…"The number of people falling behind on their credit card bills increased in 49 of the 50 states last year, a sobering new report reveals. As inflation took its toll on household budgets, Americans in their millions became delinquent on credit card debt – with some states much more badly affected than others. According to analysis by WalletHub, the number of borrowers struggling to keep on track of their credit card bills has risen the fastest in Oregon. Between September 2022 and September 2023, delinquencies in the state soared by 51 percent." Delinquency rates on all forms of credit have been steadily rising from coast to coast. This will be an important trend to watch in 2024.

Meanwhile, large layoff announcements continue to pile up at a very frightening pace. For example, Macy’s just announced that it will be laying off a total of 2,350 workers…"Department store chain Macy’s is planning to lay off about 13% of its corporate staff and close five stores in an effort to trim costs and redirect spending to improve the customer experience. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Thursday, adding that the job cuts will total about 2,350 positions, or about 3.5% of Macy’s overall workforce excluding seasonal hires."

And Wayfair is telling us that somewhere around 1,650 of their workers will soon be hitting the bricks…"Wayfair is cutting 13% of its global workforce as the digital home goods retailer continues its efforts to trim down its structure, cut out layers of management and reduce costs after going “overboard” with corporate hiring during the Covid pandemic, it announced Friday. The company plans to lay off around 1,650 employees, including 19% of its corporate team, with a focus on people in management and leadership positions, Wayfair said."

I apologize in advance if there are some major layoff announcements that I miss in the days ahead. We are witnessing such a large tsunami of layoffs now that it is virtually impossible to keep up with them all.

On the west coast, employees of the Los Angeles Times are extremely upset about the “massive” layoffs that are reportedly coming…"With “massive” and “significant” layoffs coming soon, “the L.A. Times Guild announced a one-day walkout from both its L.A. and Washington D.C. offices this Friday,” reports TheWrap. Staffers are “abstaining from work for the entire day while also staging a rally. It’s the first union work stoppage in the newsroom’s history, according to the union, dating back to when it started printing in 1881.” This act of suicide is called the “Rally to Save Local Journalism” and took place Friday at noon.

And earlier I was stunned to learn that the entire staff of Sports Illustrated is being terminated…"Following through on a warning earlier this month, Authentic Brands Group has revoked Sports Illustrated‘s license to publish due to a missed payment. As a result of the move, the entire staff of the 70-year-old print and online publication was notified on Friday that their jobs were being eliminated. “We appreciate the work and efforts of everyone who has contributed to the SI brand and business,” SI operator The Arena Group wrote in a memo to employees that set off outrage on social media." Once upon a time, Sports Illustrated was a truly great magazine. Sadly, those days are long gone."

There is so much bad news these days. At this point the economic outlook is so troubling that even Google is getting ready to conduct yet another round of layoffs…"Google has laid off over a thousand employees across various departments since January 10th. CEO Sundar Pichai’s message is to brace for more cuts. “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” Pichai told all Google employees on Wednesday in an internal memo that was shared with me. “The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.” So far, those “tough choices” have included layoffs and reorganizations in Google’s hardware, ad sales, search, shopping, maps, policy, core engineering, and YouTube teams.

Of course what I have shared with you above is just a small sampling of what is really going on out there. For many more recent layoff announcements, please see my previous article entitled “Alert! Here Is A List Of 20 Large Companies That Have Just Decided To Conduct Mass Layoffs”.

Before I end this article, I wanted to update all of you on the horrifying stock market crash in China. Zero Hedge is reporting that Chinese stocks just experienced their “worst weekly loss since March 2023″…"Amid ‘snowball derivative liquidations‘, China’s stock market is falling faster than its population. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index crashed 6.5% this week – its worst weekly loss since March 2023 with Wednesday seeing the biggest daily loss since Oct 2022 as the index plummeted to key support levels around the Oct 2022 lows…

The phrase “snowball derivative liquidations” really got my attention, and a lot of you know why. I have been warning about the derivatives bubble in my books for over a decade. Derivatives are going to become a very hot topic the closer we get to a full-blown implosion of the global financial system. We are in far more trouble than most people realize. 2024 is going to be such a tumultuous year, but many of the “experts” will continue to insist that everything is “just fine” for as long as they can."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

o

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

o

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."

Jeremiah Babe, "Immigration Is Costing Billions, Hospitals Now Need Bailouts, Migrants Get Free Health Care"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/22/24

"Immigration Is Costing Billions, Hospitals Now 

Need Bailouts, Migrants Get Free Health Care"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

A Blues Musical Interlude: Foy Vance, "Make It Rain"

Foy Vance, "Make It Rain"

Musical Interlude: Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

Mecano, "Hijo de la Luna"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. 

 Click image for larger size.

Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131025.html

"Perhaps They Never Will..."

"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will."

- Rachel Carson

"The Chief Obstacle..."

"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race."

- Don Marquis

"In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves,

who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, 

though they are by no means respectable."

- Philip Stanhope

"Middle East War, 1/22/24"

Judge Andrew Napolitano, 1/22/24

"Ray McGovern: Neocons and Wider Middle East War"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/22/24

"Live! Expect Direct Airstrikes On Iran Soon"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Scott Ritter, 1/22/24

"Israel is LOSING its War 

and the IDF is Running Scared"

"Scott Ritter discusses Netanyahu's critical miscalculation in the ongoing war in Gaza and how it has doomed not just his political future but also the future of Israel itself."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Definition Of Hell..."

 

The Daily "Near You?"

Morriston, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Essential Readings, Economic Collapse"

○

"The 5 Stages of Economic Collapse”

by Dmitry Orlov

Excerpt: “Elizabeth Kübler-Ross defined the five stages of coming to terms with grief and tragedy as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and applied it quite successfully to various forms of catastrophic personal loss, such as death of a loved one, sudden end to one’s career, and so forth. Several thinkers, notably James Howard Kunstler and, more recently John Michael Greer, have pointed out that the Kübler-Ross model is also quite terrifyingly accurate in reflecting the process by which society as a whole (or at least the informed and thinking parts of it) is reconciling itself to the inevitability of a discontinuous future, with our institutions and life support systems undermined by a combination of resource depletion, catastrophic climate change, and political impotence.

But so far, little has been said specifically about the finer structure of these discontinuities. Instead, there is to be found continuum of subjective judgments, ranging from “a severe and prolonged recession” (the prediction we most often read in the financial press), to Kunstler’s evocative but unscientific-sounding “clusterf**k,” to the ever-popular “Collapse of Western Civilization,” painted with an ever-wider brush-stroke.

For those of us who have already gone through all of the emotional stages of reconciling ourselves to the prospect of social and economic upheaval, it might be helpful to have a more precise terminology that goes beyond such emotionally charged phrases. Defining a taxonomy of collapses might prove to be more than just an intellectual exercise: based on our abilities and circumstances, some of us may be able to specifically plan for a certain stage of collapse as a temporary, or even permanent, stopping point."

Please view this complete article here:

- https://coyoteprimeblog2.blogspot.com/

○

“The 12 Rules of Survival”

by Laurence Gonzales

Excerpt: “As a journalist, I’ve been writing about accidents for more than thirty years. In the last 15 or so years, I’ve concentrated on accidents in outdoor recreation, in an effort to understand who lives, who dies, and why. To my surprise, I found an eerie uniformity in the way people survive seemingly impossible circumstances. Decades and sometimes centuries apart, separated by culture, geography, race, language, and tradition, the most successful survivors–those who practice what I call “deep survival”– go through the same patterns of thought and behavior, the same transformation and spiritual discovery, in the course of keeping themselves alive.

Not only that but it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are surviving being lost in the wilderness or battling cancer, whether they’re struggling through divorce or facing a business catastrophe – the strategies remain the same. Survival should be thought of as a journey, a vision quest of the sort that Native Americans have had as a rite of passage for thousands of years. Once you’re past the precipitating event– you’re cast away at sea or told you have cancer– you have been enrolled in one of the oldest schools in history. Here are a few things I’ve learned that can help you pass the final exam."

Please view this complete article here:

- https://coyoteprimeblog2.blogspot.com/

○

"The Collapse Of Complex Societies"

"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."

Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here;

- https://ia600106.us.archive.org/

"Preparing For The Collapse Of Society"

"Preparing For The Collapse Of Society"

by Michael Snyder

"Are you convinced that we are headed for societal collapse? If so, you are definitely not alone. Survey after survey has shown that faith in all of our major institutions is dropping, and there is a growing consensus that very challenging times are ahead of us. Here in 2024, we will be facing the most chaotic election season in our entire history, multiple wars are erupting all over the planet, economic problems are rapidly growing, destructive natural disasters are becoming more frequent, global authorities are warning us to brace ourselves for the next pandemic, and our cities are being absolutely overwhelmed by endless waves of new migrants. The stage is set for a societal implosion of epic proportions, and many Americans are feverishly preparing for a coming collapse that they believe is inevitable.

For a long time, many people had faith that the government would be able to keep society stable, but now that has changed. In fact, one recent survey discovered that a whopping 71.2 percent of all Americans “have no faith in the U.S. government to save them or prevent a doomsday event”…"According to a survey of 6,200 Americans conducted by BonusFinder.com, 71.2 percent of Americans say they have no faith in the U.S. government to save them or prevent a doomsday event. Even more unnerving, many respondents believe Doomsday could come within the next year."

If you actually believe that the government will be there to rescue you when things really start hitting the fan, you are just being delusional. If it was equally divided up among the entire population, the emergency supplies that the government has on hand would last less than a day.

Many Americans are realizing that they will be forced to rely on themselves as society collapses, and so an increasing percentage of the population is spending significant money on emergency preparedness…"Last April, the financial-services firm Finder found that the number of Americans who said they’d recently spent money on emergency preparedness jumped from 20% in 2020 to 29% in 2023. They spent an average of $150 on items such as nonperishable food, medical supplies, and cases of water. Today you can’t turn on a streaming platform without catching recommendations for popular survivalist reality shows such as “Alone” or “Naked and Afraid,” and on social media, homesteading and disaster-prepping influencers have amassed millions of followers across various platforms."

Disaster preparedness is on the rise, in large part, because disasters are as well: from the supply-chain shortages caused by COVID-19 lockdowns to the climate crisis, from wars in Ukraine and Gaza to tech-driven loneliness, from runaway disinformation to intractable political polarization. More people are asking: Am I better off being hyperdependent on the global industrial economy? Would it be safer to grow my own food, store my own water, and not depend on complex systems I don’t understand?

I am glad that more people are waking up and getting prepared. But spending a couple hundred dollars on some emergency preparedness items simply is not going to be enough to survive what is eventually coming. In Missouri, one woman named Rowan MacKenzie has literally spent $90,000 to prepare her family for what she believes is ahead of us…"A woman who has built a doomsday bunker says the door will remain closed to anyone outside her home, including family. Rowan MacKenzie, from Missouri, who became a social media phenomenon after revealing she’s been prepping her home for 12 years, believes it’s necessary to prepare for the end of the world.

She previously hit the headlines after revealing she spent over $90,000 on her hidden bunker stockpile. The 38-year-old began stocking up her cupboards 13 years ago and initially, bought lifelong essentials, such as beans and rice, which she taught herself to preserve through trial and error." Do you agree with her approach? When things get really bad, will you shut your door to those that are requesting help?

Of course there are many that will just try to take whatever they need. Crime rates are already spiking all over the nation, and violent predators are seemingly everywhere. Earlier this week, Zero Hedge posted an excellent article about the vast hordes of psychopaths that are coming out of the woodwork these days…"Discussions on collapse often turn to signs and signals – The economy, politics and social tensions have become increasingly unstable for many years now, and much like adding more and more weight to a man standing on a frozen lake, eventually the ice is going to break. The question is, how do we know when that moment will be?

As cultural systems begins to dissolve due to political clashes and economic decline the real evil tends to slither out of the woodwork. It happens slowly at first, then all at once. A sure sign of accelerating collapse is the growing prevalence of psychopaths and psychopathic behavior in the open.

The US appears to have entered the middle stages of such a collapse with many sociopaths and psychopaths beginning to feel that they might be able to act out their worst impulses without consequences. They are beginning to test the waters to see what they can get away with."

Those paragraphs really resonated with me, because they are so true. I am sure that you have noticed the same thing. Evil is literally growing all around us, and the inmates are taking over the asylum. And I am entirely convinced that 2024 is going to be a historic turning point.

Are you ready for the tremendous chaos that is coming? If you have not figured out where you want to be located during the chaotic years that are ahead, that is the first thing that you need to do. Once you have settled on a location, then you need to store up enough food and supplies for yourself and for everyone that will be depending upon you for as long as you plan to stay alive. Of course you will also need to determine how you will protect all of your food and supplies as well.

This is not a game. The collapse of society really is coming, and most of the population will find themselves completely and utterly unprepared when it finally happens."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"‘I Cry Quietly’: A Soldier Describes the Toll of Russia’s War"

Full screen recommended.

"‘I Cry Quietly’: 

A Soldier Describes the Toll of Russia’s War"

"For Valentyn, a Ukrainian soldier in the Donetsk region, the war’s death toll is more than a statistic. He is tasked with moving wounded troops - and dead bodies - away from the front lines, often under Russian fire."

"Under Russian Fire, 

A Ukrainian Soldier Evacuates the Wounded"

By Yousur Al-Hlou and Masha Froliak

Near Kremmina, Ukraine - "The sound of artillery launching and landing along the front line punctures the stillness of the forest just a few miles away, where combat medics are waiting to receive the wounded. On the horizon, a military vehicle moves along a dusty road and screeches to a halt when it reaches the trees. A soldier named Valentyn parks it there for natural camouflage from Russian drones scouting for Ukrainian military positions.

A group of soldiers, visibly shaken, quickly unloads three bodies that have just been recovered from the front line, placing each one into a plastic body bag and zipping it closed. Their position was shelled and then attacked by a drone, they say. “They’re shooting at you from all sides. You turn, you run, they hit you, and it’s impossible to get away,” said Maksym, who survived the attack. “This is a big tragedy for us.” “One more body is left behind with the Russian soldiers,” he added.

While much of the world’s attention was fixated on the bloody urban battle taking place in Bakhmut, Russia’s campaign in eastern Ukraine was also raging in forests and fields about 50 miles north of the city, near Kreminna. Here, soldiers take positions in trenches surrounded by tall, slim trees, crouching to avoid the direct line of sight of their Russian enemies. “People say it’s harsh in Bakhmut,” said Valentyn, who joined the army seven months ago. “But it’s harsh here, too.”

For the past month, Valentyn has been stationed at this evacuation point, traveling back and forth to the front line almost daily to rescue wounded soldiers and recover the dead. His job requires him to drive directly toward Russian forces, and he has come under fire at times. “There is nothing good about it,” Valentyn said. “What is this war for?”

Ukrainian and Russian military officials have been reluctant to release data on casualties within their ranks, though the U.S. government and military experts estimate that both sides have suffered significant losses in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

For Valentyn, the work of responding to the casualties has been both grim and relentless. “There is blood everywhere,” he said, while cleaning it from his vehicle. “It has a smell. Especially fresh blood.” Bright red liquid trickled through his fingers as he rinsed out a bloodied cloth. He drained the cloth and used it again to wipe off the back seat. “It’s difficult to see young boys die,” Valentyn said. “Sometimes I cry quietly.”

In calmer moments when there is no one to evacuate, Valentyn travels deep into the forest to transport soldiers to and from the contact line, where Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are sometimes positioned just hundreds of meters apart. He said at least one group of soldiers couldn’t make it to their position because Russian troops had already taken it over.

“Every day is scary here,” said Viktor, a soldier who returned with Valentyn. “I feel constant anxiety, for our country and our lives.” His stoic face reflected the fear and horror known only to those who had witnessed the fight in the forest. “Those who haven’t been there will never understand.”

- https://www.nytimes.com/

"Why The Pentagon Is A Multi-Trillion Dollar Fraud"

"Why The Pentagon Is A Multi-Trillion Dollar Fraud"

by Scott Ritter

"Recently, the Pentagon admitted it couldn’t account for trillions of dollars of US taxpayer money, having failed a massive yearly audit for the sixth year running. The process consisted of the 29 sub-audits of the DoD’s various services, and only seven passed this year – no improvement over the last. These audits only began taking place in 2017, meaning that the Pentagon has never successfully passed one.

This year’s failure made some headlines, was commented upon briefly by the mainstream media, and then just as quickly forgotten by an American society accustomed to pouring money down the black hole of defense spending.

The defense budget of the United States is grotesquely large, its $877 billion dwarfing the $849 billion spent by the next ten nations with the largest defense expenditures. And yet, the Pentagon cannot fully account for the $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities it has accrued at US taxpayer expense, ostensibly in defense of the United States and its allies. As the Biden administration seeks $886 billion for next year’s defense budget (and Congress seems prepared to add an additional $80 billion to that amount), the apparent indifference of the American collective – government, media, and public – to how nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars will be spent speaks volumes about the overall bankrupt nature of the American establishment.

Audits, however, are an accountant’s trick, a series of numbers on a ledger which, for the average person, do not equate to reality. Americans have grown accustomed to seeing big numbers when it comes to defense spending, and as a result, we likewise expect big things from our military. But the fact is, the US defense establishment increasingly physically resembles the numbers on the ledgers the accountants have been trying to balance – it just doesn’t add up.

Despite spending some $2.3 trillion on a two-decade military misadventure in Afghanistan, the American people witnessed the ignominious retreat from that nation live on TV in August 2021. Likewise, a $758 billion investment in the 2003 invasion and subsequent decade-long occupation of Iraq went south when the US was compelled to withdraw in 2011– only to return in 2014 for another decade of chasing down ISIS, itself a manifestation of the failures of the original Iraqi venture. Overall, the US has spent more than $1.8 trillion on its 20-year nightmare in Iraq and Syria.

These numbers are mind-numbingly large – so large that they become meaningless to the average person. The US defense enterprise is so massive that it is literally a mission impossible to speak of balancing the books. The American people might be willing to shrug off an accounting error or two. But the defense budget equates to American military power and the perceptions of national worth that translate into notions of American exceptionalism.

The fact of the matter is that our cavalier approach to defense spending has resulted in fraud of a massive scale. The American people were sold a bill of goods – a military capable of projecting power world-wide to sustain the so-called “rules based international order” upon which the notion of American exceptionalism has been premised. As it turns out, the US military is as hollow as the numbers on the Pentagon ledgers. The American people have bought an apparatus that is incapable of fighting and winning a major war against any of the potential opponents arrayed against it. We failed to defeat Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban. And we are not able to defeat either China or Russia, let alone regional powers like North Korea and Iran. And yet we will simply continue to invest, in seemingly unquestioning fashion, into this enterprise, expecting somehow that a system that cannot pass an audit will somehow magically produce a different result despite the fact that we, the American people, are doing nothing to demand such a result.

In short, the defense budget is the equivalent of “pay-to-play,” in which the American people pay the US government to produce the results necessary to sustain their overinflated sense of self-worth.

We Americans have become so accustomed to being the biggest, baddest bully in the global arena that we assume that simply by pouring money into a system that had produced the desired results for more than seventy years that we could keep the good times rolling. But when you allocate money to a system that has been allowed to become conditioned to operate without accountability, don’t be surprised when the shiny mansion on the hill you thought you were buying turns out to be little more than a house of cards."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Meanwhile, The Russians and Chinese are no doubt 

hysterically laughing in utter and total ridicule and contempt...

Dan, I Allegedly, "Housing Chaos - No More Building Permits"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 1/22/24

"Housing Chaos - No More Building Permits"

"The city of Beverly Hills California has just announced that there will be no more new construction approved. This is because they have a problem with affordable housing. Judge you should disorder to shut it all down. No improvements, no room additions, nothing."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Jim Kunstler, "The Pipe-bomb Caper"

"The Pipe-bomb Caper"

by Jim Kunstler

“The FBI must come forward with the whole truth, immediately. If they will not, then Republicans have a duty to tear the FBI down to its foundation, and ensure that no government organization is allowed to amass this kind of power ever again.” - Charlie Kirk

"Kudos to Darren J. Beattie of Revolver News and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for doing the FBI’s work for the FBI, smoking out the role of law enforcement (including the FBI) in but one module of the J6 operation that turned a peaceful mass assembly of disgruntled voters into a riot in order to color it as an “insurrection” and so destroy opposition to the falsely-elected, tyrannically corrupt, and epically deranged regime fronted by the ghost-in-the-White House, “Joe Biden.”

Mr. Massie arranged to extract previously unseen video from the Capitol Police vaults showing the exceedingly strange behavior of various law-men in the minutes after one of their number reported a pipe-bomb beside a park bench, a few steps away from their parked vehicles, outside the DNC headquarters near the US Capitol building around one o’clock in the afternoon on J6/21, just around the time that a joint session of Congress would commence the entertainment of official complaints and objections to the certification of votes in the 2020 presidential election. Of course, that proceeding was disrupted by events outside and inside the US Capitol, and those many complaints and objections were never registered.

Below, courtesy of Thomas Massie, is the most damning and explosive J6 footage yet released. In my view this will end up demolishing the Regime's J6 narrative and with it a major pillar of Dem's 2024 strategy. You paying attention Kamala? pic.twitter.com/1LuNm6pGdB - Darren J. Beattie ? (@DarrenJBeattie) January 18, 2024

Two cars are shown parked blocking the driveway to the basement garage: a white Washington DC Metro Police SUV and a black Secret Service cruiser - because Veep Kamala Harris happened to be in the building at the time. A man with a backpack, later identified as a plainclothes Capitol Police officer, steps up first to the Metro car, then to the Secret Service cruiser, cueing minutes of slow milling-about by the officers in the two cars. Eventually several cops dawdle over to the bench to inspect what turns out to be a pipe-bomb planted in plain sight on the ground there. The video shows no effort to cordon-off the area or to stop cars or pedestrians (children) from entering the scene near the bomb.

Video (still photos above) from another closed-circuit camera outside the DNC from the night before J6 showed a different mysterious masked-and-hooded figure with a backpack loitering at that same bench, ostensibly planting the pipe-bomb. In three years, the FBI has been unable to identify or locate this character. That night video shows signs of tampering and the frame-rate is sub-standard. The video is time-stamped 17 hours before the police find the bomb around one o’clock the next day. Strangely, the timer fixed to the outside of the bomb turns out to be a one-hour egg-timer...as I said, planted seventeen hours before. How’s that supposed to work?

At 4:05 of the Massie video (top one from Mr. Beattie’s “X” feed), someone at DC Metro Police headquarters by remote control pans the closed-circuit camera toward the bench itself and zooms close-up (4:17) to the pipe-bomb (still photo above). Secret Service agents finally get out of their cruiser, amble over to look at the bench and the bomb, while kids are allowed to cross the street right in front of the bomb. Moments later, the SS agents pile back in their cruiser and pull out of the scene, leaving Kamala Harris inside the building with the bomb still planted. More DC Metro cars pull up to the scene, parking right in front of what would be the pipe-bomb’s blast zone. End of video.

Rather mysterious behavior, wouldn’t you say? Most particularly, nobody among all those LEOs shows any fear of the bomb going off, no effort to get out of the way. Were they a hundred percent sure it was a fake bomb? How would they know? You can assume there was some phone communication going on in those two cars. Did somebody call the FBI? Did the FBI tell the Secret Service agents, “Nah, don’t worry, it’s a dummy bomb.” How would the FBI know that? (Unless they arranged the whole caper.)

A number of commentators on “X” (Twitter) have remarked on the peculiar point that in three years since J6/21, Kamala Harris has barely uttered a peep about almost getting blown-up that day. You think she’d be blaring that from the steps of the Executive Office Building right into the microphones of NBC News and CNN - just as Liz Cheney, AOC, and Nancy Pelosi have been blubbering to the news media over their near-murder at the hands of J-Sixers, to fortify the “insurrection” narrative.

For three years the entire mainstream media showed zero interest in any facet of the pipe-bomb story - and let’s not forget, there was a second identical pipe-bomb planted at the RNC headquarters a two-minute walk away from the DNC. How come such strenuous lack of interest? You might hypothesize the obvious: that the media (and the blob regime they serve) don’t want anybody looking into the matter, or even becoming aware of it.

Here’s what you might suppose actually did happen: some person among the FBI, the Capitol Police, the Metro Police, or some other blob agency, planted those bombs (or, shall we say, those pipes with egg-timers fastened to them, because the police have never revealed what was inside them). They were originally intended to cause a police hullaballoo that would prompt an evacuation of Congress in order to disrupt the electoral vote certification and the objections entailed. But the bombs were not needed because Capitol Police and other LEOs on the scene at the Capitol itself had commenced lobbing flash-bang grenades and shooting rubber bullets into the crowd around one o’clock, while still other shadowy figures among the crowd, say, the character known as Ray Epps (“You need to go into the Capitol, into the Capitol”) instigated an invasion of the building, which even more successfully and colorfully drove out the senators and Congresspersons.

Thus, the “insurrection,” another long-running blob hoax that is now wobbling and unravelling, like RussiaGate and UkraineGate before it. What’s actually needed, in the immortal phrasing of Ray Epps, is an inquiry into the original House J6 Committee monkey business, and especially how chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) happened to order the destruction of all the committee’s accumulated evidence, including video of witness depositions and the transcripts.

The pipe bomb caper has come back to bite the blob on its gelatinous ass. What’s also needed are depositions from the Metro Police officers and the Secret Service agents who were in those two cars outside the DNC that day, explaining why they carried on the way they did. Are the authorities going to pretend now that they can’t find out who they are? Maybe FBI Director Chris Ray can shed some light on that in a House hearing room, or else go on the record that he can’t say because...reasons.

Meanwhile, it also happens that the US Supreme Court is about take up the matter of the janky federal law - the “Enron Law,” 18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c)(2), or “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant” - that was used to hang felony charges around the necks of hundreds of J6 protesters, who otherwise did little besides stroll around inside the Capitol taking selfies. The court’s decision is likely to vacate all those charges, as well as charges against presidential candidate Donald Trump similarly (and erroneously) cooked up by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The mills of justice turn slowly, but they grind exceeding fine..."

- https://kunstler.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "10 Year Yield Drops As US Continues To Strike Targets In Yemen, Biden Vows More"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/22/24

"10 Year Yield Drops As US Continues 

To Strike Targets In Yemen, Biden Vows More"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "What's In Our Food? Questioning Everything!"

Adventures With Danno, AM 1/22/24

"What's In Our Food? Questioning Everything!"

"People are questioning everything as we continue to find foreign objects in different food products. We discuss the many food recalls going on and why this is becoming such a problem."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/22/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/22/24"

○

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/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- 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

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

○

And now... The End Game...

o

Jeremiah Babe, "Get Ready For A Global Economic Meltdown"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/21/24

"Get Ready For A Global Economic Meltdown"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Thousands Of Bank Branches Are Shutting Down, Big Retailers Are Closing Thousands Of Stores!"

Full screen recommended.

The Atlantis Report, 1/21/24

"Thousands Of Bank Branches Are Shutting Down, 

Big Retailers Are Closing Thousands Of Stores!"

"In a time of economic turbulence, the government assures a soft landing but Americans find themselves grappling with the harsh realities of a shifting financial landscape. While U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paints a picture of economic optimism, the ground reality tells a different story. Rising inflation, soaring living costs, and bleak future expectations are converging to create a challenging environment for the average American."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Epic Economist, "20 Food Items That Will Skyrocket In Price In 2024"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 1/21/24

"20 Food Items That Will Skyrocket In Price In 2024"

"Do you want to be prepared for the future? Unfortunately, it looks like our wallets will be taking a hit in 2024. Get ready to say goodbye to your favorite affordable food items as we countdown the top 20 products that are predicted to have a major price increase due to inflation. From everyday essentials to indulgent treats, no food is safe from this impending financial doom. Don't wait until it's too late, watch this video and start stocking up on these items before they skyrocket in price. Your wallet will thank you later."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"

Full screen recommended.

Matt Simons, "After The Landslide"

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

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such group, Hickson 44, about 100 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 at the right, they are also known as Arp 316. 

The spiral in the upper left corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110829.html

"Don't Imagine..."

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for. Don't imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of any régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency."

- George Orwell

Travelling with Russell, "Russian Typical Shopping Mall: Do Sanctions Work?"

Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell, 1/21/24

"Russian Typical Shopping Mall: Do Sanctions Work?"

"Discover what the largest shopping Mall in Russia looks like. Do sanctions affect Russia, and how has the retail sector changed in Russia in the last 2 years? Discover what it's like inside AviaPark , the largest shopping mall in Russia."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Food Shortage Report, Massive Empty Shelves Situation"

Adventures With Danno, 1/21/24

"Food Shortage Report, Massive Empty Shelves Situation"

"Food shortage updates for winter of 2024, and an empty 

shelves situation at the grocery stores we need to be concerned about."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/