Tuesday, August 20, 2024

"The Day Arrives: Putin Must Pull the Chain on Kyiv"

"The Day Arrives:
Putin Must Pull the Chain on Kyiv"
by Phil Butler

"It is time for Russia to fully mobilize against the nagging threat posed by the NATO-backed Ukrainian state. President Putin’s pragmatic approach to keeping NATO off Russia’s borders will undoubtedly be shifted given the recent Ukraine Army incursions at Kursk. Many of us suspected it would come to this. Russia must finally flush the Kyiv-NATO experiment down the tubes.

V.V. Putin and Job: Vladimir Putin is considered by most experts as the most sensible and realistic leader Russia has ever had. Furthermore, most honest experts consider him the only true statesman among a cadre of corporate-owned politicians in the Western world. However, pragmatic and logical actions do not exclude total war when a threat level reaches a threshold. And Washington playing coy about why Ukraine’s forces hit the flanks of Russia’s Karkov line and pushed across the border adds insult to injury. Injury to peace for all of Europe and the world.

The escalating situation on the Eurasian Steppe has a complexion now akin to every other attack on Russia since before The Great Game. Few recall the moment in history when the British Empire created a worldwide strategy to try and contain Russia. Given the U.S. role and the inclusion of a more unified Central Europe against all Russian interests, the strategies of the 19th century have been brought forward and magnified a hundredfold. In biblical history, the apostle James wrote about Job’s patience in helping believers during intense persecution. I do not think Russia’s president will allow his people to be persecuted any longer, even though he has shown the perseverance and humility of Job. Perhaps when the evildoers are smitten, Russia and Mr. Putin can forgive them. But not before the smiting. This all reminds me of another time.

This Great Game was a period of distrust, diplomatic intrigue, and regional wars like those we’ve seen in Georgia, Afghanistan, and now in Ukraine. Back then, the containment policy by the West never erupted in a full-scale war directly between Russian and British colonial forces. Later, however, the Brits, Americans, and Germans amped up the age-old obsessively with surrounding and dismantling Russia. The West created the situation and the conditions that led to Russia being forced to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. No study of the subject can result in any other conclusion. The point is that Russia has very few choices—and only one logical one. Ukraine must be decapitated and either partitioned or absorbed by Russia altogether.

Zelensky: A Curse On Humanity: I am sure this seemingly drastic strategy has crossed V.V. Putin’s desk a hundred times in the past few years. And I suspect his logic will now shift. The Biden White House, run by the elites who are the prodigies of the British/American empire (Money Empire), is now feigning innocence in the Kursk incursion. Biden also pretended America was reticent to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles from NATO states for attacks inside Russia. It’s ludicrous for anyone familiar with the situation! Nothing Ukraine’s Zelenskyy has done since his election has been undertaken without consent by his masters in London, New York, and Brussels.

Putin’s Russia must crush Zelensky by whatever means necessary. This is the only logical course of action in such a conflict. Zelensky told BBC and other media the other day that “Moscow must “feel” the consequences of its invasion of Ukraine.” The problem for President Putin is the need to put Russia on a complete war footing. Already, the Russian defence complex has been ramped up. Reservists and new enlistees are being added to Russia’s active duty forces. This actor in a clown suit, a mockery of Ukrainians and the world’s people, must be forced to heel in front of humanity. The end Sadaam Hussein and Gadaffi faced is probably too gentle for a person of this nature.

Looking briefly at the events leading up to the current crisis, we find one side playing by the old rules. For instance, France and Germany lying to the Russians and the world about the Minsk Accords is the milestone that best crystalizes what’s happening. When former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted the West was duping the Russians to reinforce Ukraine (via NATO), I’m sure Putin and others in Russia’s hierarchy believed the world would take notice. And the majority did. In the Middle East, across Asia, Latin America, and especially Africa, key people began to galvanize their understanding that the United States and its partners fully intend to rule the world completely. However, three-fourths of the planet’s population sits on the same side as Russia. The recent BRICS events tell us the multipolar system of world detente is upon us. And this is why Washington is prompting the Ukrainians into a suicide mission. It’s all or nothing, and unfortunately, Russia is now being forced into reacting like Israel would respond. By this, I mean, ‘if you kill one of ours, we will kill a hundred of yours.”

The Outer Reality: I guess I’ve studied Vladimir Putin as much as anyone. The thing that strikes me most about the man is his self-control. Unlike any other leader I can think of, Putin seems to be a person of what German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle termed “mindfullness,” or a deep concern for inner reality in all his dealings. Tolle discussed this when describing Christ’s teachings about turning the other cheek. He asserted that Christ used a parable to describe how we should deal with the world around us. For Putin, like America’s own Abraham Lincoln, I believe his inner reality has finally been shocked by the forces arrayed against him.

You see, this situation is about more than the survival of Russia. Russia is the centrepiece of an emerging multipolar world where no single nation will govern policy, economics, or resources. At least, this is the potential. Pitted against this is a cabal whose lineage and soul wreaks of medieval usurping of power and the degradation of everything and everyone it touches. For lack of a better term, let’s use the term “Technofeudalism”, created by Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis. He says that the tech giants have overthrown regular capitalism. And I would add that these tech giants were created by, and are controlled by, the old family ruling elites – or spawn of the age of The Great Game. Spawn is a strong word, I know, but as our world disintegrates and as these elites snatch at what’s left of our human legacy, logic dictates that we all become soldiers against tyranny.

Few people today understand that so-called “conspiracy theories” are as often as not accurate. Take Varoufakis’ term and consider that British writer and futurist H. G. Wells defined the term “new world order” as a synonym for establishing a technocratic world state and of a planned economy back in the 1940s. In the 1950s, German-born American banker James Warburg told the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that: “We shall have a world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest.”

And here we are. Vladimir Putin, perhaps the greatest statesman of our time, will be forced into rallying every resource opposed to the American hegemony in order even to mediate peace talks with this cabal of bloodletters. For my part, seeing North Korean, Chinese, Belarussian, and Iranian troops on the border alongside Russians would seal the issue, one way or another. Given the weight of such an unwinnable conflict, even Washington and London would have to take pause. The Kyiv experiment must be flushed out of the human laboratory. And I believe Mr. Putin knows it."

Adventures With Danno, "Very Frustrating Trip To Meijer!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 8/20/24
"Very Frustrating Trip To Meijer! 
This Was Absolutely Ridiculous & More Price Increases!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are noticing not only more price increases on groceries but also found a lot of trickery in some of the sale prices as well. It's getting rough out here as many families are struggling to put food on the table."
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o
Adventures with Danno, PM 8/20/24
"Is Walmart For Real? This Is Hard To Believe"
Walmart says they are lowering prices
 but are very vague on grocery price changes.
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Monday, August 19, 2024

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Russian General's WW3 Nuclear Warning From Kursk!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 8/19/24
"Alert! Russian General's WW3 Nuclear Warning From Kursk!"
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Jeremiah Babe, "Warning! American Food Is Becoming Dangerous; Democratic National Convention On High Alert"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/19/24
"Warning! American Food Is Becoming Dangerous; 
Democratic National Convention On High Alert"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Memories of an Angel"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Memories of an Angel"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What will become of our Sun? The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky - and visible toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars.
It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created."

Chet Raymo, “What Not to Believe”

“What Not to Believe”
by Chet Raymo

“In Stacy Schiff's biography of Cleopatra, I came across this epigraph from Euripides: "Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." I have no idea which of Euripides' plays the quote is from, but it strikes me as a suitable source for reflection. Credulity is the default state of a human life. Children are born to believe, to accept as true what they are told by adults. An innate credulity has survival value in a dangerous world. If a grown-up says "There are crocodiles in the river," it is probably best to stay out of the water.

Skepticism, on the other hand, must be learned. I was late in realizing that I didn't have to believe the received "truth." My best teacher was a somewhat older Panamanian secular Jew I went to graduate school with at UCLA. We took our brown-bag lunches together in the university's botanical garden, and spent the hour talking about physics, religion, and the "meaning of life."

Moises was the first person I had encountered after sixteen years of Catholic education who mentioned the word "skepticism." "Why do you believe that?" he would ask, and often I had no answer except that it was what my family and teachers told me was true. The idea that I might actually examine the basis for my beliefs was a rather new concept. In matters of religion, like almost everyone else in the world, I had embraced uncritically the faith story into which I was born.

And thus began my search for "a judicious sense of what not to believe." When later, as a teacher, I wrote a little column for each issue of the college newspaper, I called it "Under a Skeptical Star," from a line of the Scots poet/scholar William MacNeile Dixon: "If there be a skeptical star I was born under it, yet I have lived all my days in complete astonishment." A liberating sense of what not to believe opened the door to a vastly more interesting world whose diverse and astonishing riches I continue to explore to this day."

"What Are The Facts?"

“What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the un-guessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” 
- Robert A. Heinlein

“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.”
- Carl Sagan

And always remember...
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
 however improbable, must be the truth."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "Sherlock Holmes"

Hey, who lied and told you any of this was easy?

"Thanks To The Cost Of Living Crisis, U.S. Household Debt Has Soared To The Highest Level Ever Recorded"

"Thanks To The Cost Of Living Crisis, U.S. Household
 Debt Has Soared To The Highest Level Ever Recorded"
by Michael Snyder

"Our entire economy is fueled by debt. In fact, if going into more debt was suddenly banned the U.S. economy would instantly hit a brick wall. For the vast majority of us, our lifestyles simply cannot be funded by what we actually make. So we use debt to bridge the difference, and this has particularly been true during the cost of living crisis. Total household debt has now reached a grand total of 17.8 trillion dollars, and we continue to pile up more with no end in sight…

"A quarterly report published this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on household credit and debt found that between the first quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2024, credit card debt surged 48.1% while household debt - which includes mortgages and auto loans - rose by 21.6%. In dollar terms, credit card debt rose from $770 billion in early 2021 to $1.14 trillion in the most recent quarter, while household debt increased from $14.64 trillion to $17.8 trillion in the same period.

I did not realize that credit card debt had risen by more than 48 percent since the first quarter of 2021. That is extremely alarming, because it indicates that millions upon millions of households are literally living on the edge of financial disaster. And the fact that delinquency rates have been climbing just underscores how serious things have become…"Amid American households’ rising debt burdens, delinquency rates have grown as well. In the last 12 months, about 9.1% of credit card debt balances and 8% of auto loan balances moved into delinquency - the highest levels since early 2011 and the end of 2010, respectively."

The primary reason why U.S. households are racking up so much debt these days is because the cost of living crisis has made it very difficult to make ends meet. One voter that was interviewed by Fox News admitted that her money “went a lot further four years ago”… “My family’s income hasn’t changed, but our comfort level has significantly decreased,” stay-at-home mom and homeschool teacher Persson said. “Money went a lot further four years ago. We were able to cover our bills and still have money saved. The economy has plummeted with the current administration, and to add on to that, where I live in California, the cost of living is much higher. Additionally, 44% of the survey respondents said they aren’t making enough take-home pay to cover their daily expenses."

Did you catch that last sentence? Almost half of the entire nation is not “making enough take-home pay to cover their daily expenses” at this point. Wow. According to a recent survey that was conducted by CNN, the cost of living crisis is a major issue for approximately two-thirds of the country

"However, there are still times when the truth seeps out. CNN commissioned a well-constructed poll of about 2,000 random people to find out where they stand on personal finances. The headline number: nearly 40 percent of Americans are struggling to pay their bills. That is up from 28 percent from only three years ago, and a higher number than back in 2008–09, the period known as the Great Recession."

Two-thirds of people say that the number one issue they face is the cost of living and paying their bills. The typical American is spending nearly $1,000 more per month compared with three years ago just to pay living expenses. That is according to Moody’s, but it also fits with the intuition we all have."

This is why household debt levels have been exploding. Most people are just trying to find a way to make it from one month to another. Unfortunately, economic conditions are really starting to deteriorate and large employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation. For example, General Motors just announced that over 1,000 salaried employees will be getting the axe…

"General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally in its software and services division following a review to streamline the unit’s operations, CNBC has learned. The layoffs, including roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, come less than six months after leadership changes overseeing the operations, including former Apple executive Mike Abbott leaving the automaker after less than a year in March due to health reasons."

Considering all of the credit card debt that is being piled up, you would think that Mastercard would be doing well, but they have also decided to fire lots of workers…"Approximately 3% of Mastercard’s workforce are facing layoffs, with the payment services company slated to finish a “majority of the notifications” in the third quarter, the company said in a Friday statement to FOX Business."

Not to be outdone, Cisco has determined that it is time for “7% of the company’s workers” to hit the bricks…"Cisco is embarking on a restructuring to “allow it to invest in key growth opportunities and drive more efficiency in its business.” That effort will involve laying off 7% of the company’s workers, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing."

Last but not least, Intel has started the process of laying off approximately 15,000 workers: "Intel’s layoffs, announced Aug. 1, will result in some 15,000 employees losing their jobs. They will arise out of a “comprehensive reduction in spending” that the tech giant said it was pursuing to “resize and refocus.” The company aims to trim costs by $10 billion in 2025 through its overall cost-reduction plan."

This is just the beginning. A lot more layoffs are coming. So if you have a job that you greatly value, try to hold on to it with all your might. Meanwhile, we continue to get more economic numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is rapidly heading in the wrong direction. In fact, we just learned that the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has fallen for the 29th month in a row…"And now, we have US Leading Economic Indicators down for their 29th straight month – at a level worse than the trough of COVID lockdowns…"

How can anyone claim that our economy is moving in the right direction when our most important leading economic indicators have been falling for more than two years? Let’s be honest. Economic conditions are not good right now, and the outlook for the future is absolutely dismal. We have been living on a sugar high. We have accumulated the largest mountain of household debt in the history of the world, the largest mountain of business debt in the history of the world, and the largest mountain of government debt in the history of the world. Now all of those bubbles are starting to burst, and that means that a tremendous amount of pain is dead ahead."

Adventures with Danno, "Metal Wire Found In Perdue Chicken!"

Adventures with Danno, PM 8/19/24
"Metal Wire Found In Perdue Chicken!"
"Perdue chicken has recalled over 167,000 pounds of frozen, 
ready to eat chicken due to metal wiring being found in products."
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The Daily "Near You?"

Aurora, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

“Dreams and Obsessions”

“Dreams and Obsessions”
by Paulo Coelho

“Your theory about every person could reach everything in life is really optimistic. But if the person tried once and was despaired and disappointed what is he going to do?” - Antoine Rigal, Lyon, France

“There is sometimes a bit of confusion in regards to a passage in my book "The Alchemist": “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Some people sometimes want things that in the end won’t truly help them. Life is strange: the happier people can be, the unhappier they are. I have some friends that think they exist because they have “problems” to solve. Without “problems” they are nobody. The Universe is merely an echo of our desires, regardless of whether they are constructive or destructive ones.

One has to also keep in mind the difference between a dream and an obsession. I mention personal legend in "The Alchemist", and I wrote a book about obsession, "The Zahir". When you follow your personal legend, you walk your path and learn from it. The objective doesn’t blind you to the road that takes you there. On the other hand obsession is what prevents you from admiring the teachings of life. It’s like trying to get to your objective without passing through the challenges.

I realized that despite the fear and the bruises of life, one has to keep on fighting for one’s dream. As Borges said in his writings “there is no other virtue than being brave”. And one has to understand that being brave is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.”

The Poet: Mary Oliver, “October”

“October”

"There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.
A longing wells up in its throat
like a blossom
as it breathes slowly.

What does the world
mean to you if you can’t trust it
to go on shining when you’re
not there? and there’s
a tree, long-fallen; once
the bees flew to it, like a procession
of messengers, and filled it
with honey.

I said to the chickadee, singing his heart out in the
green pine tree:
little dazzler,
little song,
little mouthful.

The shape climbs up out of the curled grass. It
grunts into view. There is no measure
for the confidence at the bottom of its eyes-
there is no telling
the suppleness of its shoulders as it turns
and yawns.
Near the fallen tree
something- a leaf snapped loose
from the branch and fluttering down- tries to pull me
into its trap of attention.
It pulls me
into its trap of attention,
And when I turn again, the bear is gone.

Look, hasn’t my body already felt
like the body of a flower?
Look, I want to love this world
as thought it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive and know it.

Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything, not
the flowers, not the blackberries
brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink
from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees;
I won’t whisper my own name.

One morning
the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident,
and didn’t see me- and I thought:
so this is the world.
I’m not in it. It is beautiful."

- Mary Oliver

"Why You Should Pretend Today Is the End"

"Why You Should Pretend Today Is the End"
by Ryan Holiday

"What would the world look like if everyone lived like it was their last day on earth? Chaos. It might seem liberating but in truth would be quite terrible. Who would follow the law? Who would care about anyone but themselves? What would get done? At the end of that day, you’d be grateful the world was not ending.

It was not that kind of nightmare that philosophers envisioned when they encouraged their pupils to meditate on their mortality. Memento mori - the ancient practice to keep death in mind - was not designed to promote anarchy. Certainly it wasn’t a pass to forsake order or other people - to find an orgy to join somewhere before it’s too late.

Instead Memento mori was supposed to make things cleaner, simpler, well-ordered. The great Stoic Seneca wrote that we should “balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” An analogy might be a soldier about to leave on deployment. Not knowing whether they’ll return or not, what do they do? They get their affairs in order. They handle their business. They tell their children or their family that they love them. They don’t have time for quarreling or petty matters. And then in the morning they are ready to go - hoping to come back in one piece but prepared for the possibility that they might not.

Bud Day, the Air Force fighter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient who would spend over 5 years in the “Hanoi Hilton” as a POW with the Stoic James Stockdale, took the news that he would be deployed to Vietnam with order and discipline. He visited his father’s grave and made things right with his old man. In less than a week, he found a new home for his wife, a school for his young son, took them shopping and applied for the family’s first credit card. He put together a briefcase with their marriage license, his birth certificate, insurance policies, bank account numbers, even a list of the pallbearers he’d like at his funeral. He and his wife sat down and had a conversation about all the contingencies that might happen while he was gone, including what it would mean to go MIA. What happens if that happens she asked him? For this one, there was only one option - to pray for him.

But the rest of us? Do we live in such an orderly, prepared fashion? Of course not. We’re just taking things as they come. We’re like the character in Raymond Chandler’s "The Long Goodbye": “Mostly, I just kill time,” he says, “and it dies hard.”

What do we have to show for this time we kill? Rounds of golf, years spent at the office, time spent watching mediocre movies, a stack of mindless books we hardly remember reading, and maybe a garage full of toys. We have a list of places we’ve crossed off a travel bucket list. We have a bunch of meaningless obligations that we endured because we didn’t have strong enough priorities to say no. We are like this because we think we will live forever, because death is such an unpleasant thought that we refuse to think it.

“You can leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say,” Marcus Aurelius would remind himself. I carry a coin in my pocket with that saying on it (which I had minted at a century old mint in Minneapolis) so I can remember it. So I can touch this little piece of bronze and think memento mori and ask myself these questions:

If today was my last day before they shipped me off to the front, what would I do? How would I live? I’d have a list and I’d check those things off. I’d handle my business. I’d make time for my family - after I made sure they were taken care of in my absence. I wouldn’t make time for bullshit, I wouldn’t let other people impose on me. Not today. I’d see the cost too clearly. I’d be a little afraid, but I’d know I didn’t have a choice and so I’d proceed anyway.

One day we will get those orders - you’re shipping out tomorrow and not coming back. No one knows how much notice we’ll get either: a week, a year, five minutes, or none at all. It could come right now. It could happen before you get to the end of this article. Are you going to be proud of how you spent your time before that?

Don’t live each day as if the world is ending. That would be a disaster. Live your life as if you’re not sure whether your time on this earth is ending or not. Get your shit together. Handle what’s important. Take care of others. Enjoy yourself. Be at peace.”

"Acceptance..."

"Acceptance is a crucial step forward for those who prefer the idea of living this life over simply existing within it. Accept all that you've said and what you've done, because you cannot change your past. Accept the idea of the unknown, because the future is the unknown waiting patiently to reveal itself. Accept the person you have become thus far in your journey, because you are the only person who will be there with you when you finish it. Do all of this so that you may never find yourself having to accept regret that haunts you at two a.m., leaving you sweaty and broken hearted. All you have is this minute; not this hour, or this day, or this year. Live in this minute so that you won't get stuck simply existing with your guilty past, or with nothing but anxiety for the future."
- Margaret E. Rise

"The Only Time You Are Alive..."

"The country seems bigger, for you can see through the bare trees. There are times when the woods is absolutely still and quiet. The house holds warmth. A wet snow comes in the night and covers the ground and clings to the trees, making the whole world white. For a while in the morning the world is perfect and beautiful. You think you will never forget.

You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can't remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence.

But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive."
- Wendell Berry

Travelling with Russell, "I Went to Moscow's Most Beautiful Park: Krasnaya Presnya"

Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 8/19/24
"I Went to Moscow's Most Beautiful Park: Krasnaya Presnya"
"Join me for a wonderful afternoon in Krasnogvardeyskiye Prudy Park in the centre of Moscow, Russia. Krasnaya Presnya Park was founded in 1932 on the site of the Student's estate and is a monument of history and architecture."
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"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "Credit Lines Slashed! 94 Banks At Risk of a Bank Run"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 8/19/24
"Credit Lines Slashed! 94 Banks At Risk of a Bank Run"
"We dive deep into the brewing banking crisis as banks are slashing credit lines across the board. This alarming trend is affecting even the most reliable customers, like Jon from Ohio, who shared his shocking experience with me. As banks face increasing troubles, with more than 94 banks now at risk, it's crucial to stay informed and prepared. From credit cuts to banking layoffs and even real estate turmoil, these issues are impacting many lives. Join me as we unravel these financial challenges and discuss how to safeguard your finances. Sometimes lines are cut as much as 90% off. Plus, the list of banks in trouble has grown to 94."
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Free Download: "Forty Centuries of Failure: Price Controls, Debasement and Tyranny"

"Forty Centuries of Failure: 
Price Controls, Debasement and Tyranny"
by Mark E. Jeftovic

Excerpt: "It hasn’t worked once, so why would a politician go all-in on price controls now? August 15th was the anniversary of the infamous “Nixon Shock”, when excessive spending and trade deficits had governments on the ropes, as prices climbed relentlessly, inflation soared into the double digits, while economic growth stalled. In 1971 of that year, Nixon “temporarily” suspended convertibility of the US dollar for gold (still in effect), while simultaneously proclaiming a 90-day freeze on all wages and prices across the United States.

The stagflationary 70’s also saw Trudeau the 1st enact “The Anti-Inflation Act of 1975”, with his infamous “6 and 5” measures (a 6% cap on wage increases with a 5% cap on prices was supposed to put 1% back into the pocket of the peasants).

None of this worked, and as the lumpenpublic were mulched by higher prices and growing government, gold served as a barometer to it all – soaring from $35/oz at the time of the Nixon Shock to $850/oz in 1980 (that all-time high still won’t be exceeded in inflation adjusted terms until gold cracks about $2,580).

It took Paul Volcker to get inflation under control with double-digit interest rates – (when the news came that he had been elevated from President of the New York Fed under Gerald Ford to Chairman by Jimmy Carter, Volcker’s wife burst into tears).

Today, 50 years later with a monetary regime that makes the 70’s look austere, double-digit interest rates are simply not an option – we’ve just seen a 5-sigma event nearly blow up the global monetary system from the BoJ nudging interest rates from the zero bound to 25bps. With an unprecedented levels of monetary expansion and debt levels somewhere beyond nosebleed elevations, policy-makers and central bankers are trapped.

This is why we’re seeing a resurgence in popular rhetoric around the idea of price controls – everywhere from Jagmeet Singh here in Canada, who blames grocery store CEOs for inflation, to Dem nominee and incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, channeling him with promises of food price controls as part of her election campaign.

The definitive chronicle of price controls throughout recorded history comes to us by way of Robert L. Schuettinger and Eammon F. Butler’s “Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls” – or “How Not to Fight Inflation“. I could not for the life of me find my hard copy, but during the depths of the Global Financial Crisis, The Mises Institute saw the value in republishing it

“By special arrangement with the authors, the Mises Institute is thrilled to bring back this popular guide to ridiculous economic policy from the ancient world to modern times. This outstanding history illustrates the utter futility of fighting the market process through legislation. It always uses despotic measures to yield socially catastrophic results.”

It starts as far back as Urakagina of Lagash, a King of Sumeria in around 2350BC who came to power and overturned wage and price controls held in place by an unnamed line of despotic predecessors: “He began his rule by ending the burdens of excessive government regulations over the economy, including controls on wages and prices…"

An historian of this period tells us that from Urakagina, "We have one of the most precious and revealing documents in the history of man and his perennial and unrelenting struggle for freedom from tyranny and oppression." This document records a sweeping reform of a whole series of prevalent abuses, most of which could be traced to a ubiquitous and obnoxious bureaucracy …it is in this document that we find the word ‘freedom’ used for the first time in man’s recorded history; the word is ‘amargi’.“ It is somewhat telling to find that the word “freedom” was seemingly coined to describe the end of price controls."
Full article is here:

Freely download  “Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls” 
– or “How Not to Fight Inflation“ here:

Jim Kunstler, "Let The DNC Frolics Begin"

"Let The DNC Frolics Begin"
by Jim Kunstler

“We head to Chicago on a wave of euphoria, exuberance,
exultation, excitement and even, you might say, ecstasy.” 
- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

"Looking a little insurrection-ish at Chicago’s United Center all of a sudden as Illinois Governor Jabba the Pritzker orders a wall built around the perimeter to protect the Democratic Party from its very own basket of deplorables - the pro-Hamas, Antifa/BLM nose-ring-for-lunch bunch - with the state’s National Guard “on standby.” The New York Post and other news sources report 100,000 anti-Israel protesters migrating there to liven-up a convention that also has the potential to go off-script inside the arena - since the script was written by a handful of party mandarins, with the gamed consent of the convened delegates, who might be a little ticked off about the deal.

What the party needs most this week is a plausible aura that it is firmly in control of events, having pulled off coup-after-coup on its own rank-and-file. Most recently, Pelosi & friends passed the black spot to “Joe Biden.” (The easy way or the hard way.) He took the hint and dropped out. But then, how exactly did Veep Kamala get plugged into his slot? Five minutes prior, they were, like, yccchhhh, her? And then, two seconds later, somebody arranged a pre-convention Zoom call “virtual vote” of the delegates - like a Las Vegas David Copperfield magic trick - followed by “certification!” (By whom? Answer: the certifiers.) Badda bing, badda bang! Their “democracy” got rolled.

So, you can imagine that things might fly out of control in exact proportion to the Mandarins’ desperate need to seem legitimately in control - when they are just a clique of scared-stiff tyrants running scams on their own people - and the result looks like the Democrats’ certified metamorphosis into the Party of Chaos.

Why scared-stiff? Because of a long list of serious crimes against the American people over the past decade, various treasons committed under color-of-law, for which they fear prosecution and punishment if the wrong person gets elected.

Just in the normal course of things in Chicago, local ABC-7 News reports, “At least 23 shot, 5 fatally, in weekend gun violence across city” over the pre-convention weekend. You have to wonder whether this ordinary background lawlessness will wash over into the political turmoil certain to roil the streets. Lootin’, anyone? Businesses in the downtown “Loop” district have boarded up their windows. As if a measly sheet of plywood can keep them out.

I happened to be at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, more in the role of a larval journalist than an activist, but right there in the action. I drove to Chicago from upstate New York with my college pal Bill Murphy in his beater Rambler - the car with reclining seats you could sleep on! (We did, in various parking lots.) Prior to the event, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, JFK’s brother, an avowed anti-war candidate, marched methodically through the primaries collecting delegates, giving hope to the vast Baby Boomer college demographic that he would end the stupid war in Vietnam and the military draft with it. When he got shot in the head at the Ambassador Hotel June 5, the night he won the California primary, everything changed.

The then-mandarins of the party looked to cram in the pro-war veep Hubert Humphrey to run against Richard Nixon. Left on the battlefield were two anti-war knights, Minnesota Senator Eugene (“Clean Gene”) McCarthy, a cranky poet without much fight in him, and George McGovern, a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time prairie socialist from the nowhere state of South Dakota. You might be amazed to hear that the mainstream media of the day was against the war, and pretty hostile to the political establishment that ran things from President Lyndon Johnson on down to Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago - with the CIA and FBI lurking darkly in their shadows, busy assassinating folks. Walter Cronkite had a shit-fit on-the-air watching Mayor Daley’s thugs push around network journalists (esp. Dan Rather) working the convention floor. The party emerged from the convention in a very bad odor. Humphrey lost in November.

Daley and his police were a rough bunch, and treated the hippie mobs in Grant Park and down on Michigan Avenue quite harshly, with tear gas and billy-clubs. The National Guard was poised visibly on the roof of the Art Institute with rifles trained down at the hippies below. Things got pretty yeasty. It’s a wonder nobody got killed. The party went ahead and nominated Humphrey with ruthless efficiency. In the end, the 1968 convention riots were an act of futility. The ’68 convention was the public debut of the organism that we call the blob today - the Deep State in action. And it was the twinkling-out of hippie idealism. The Vietnam War ran another seven years until it ended ignominiously under Gerald Ford, followed by disco, inflation, and the offshoring of US industry.

This time around, the news media has been fully absorbed into the blob, doing all its bidding, like the blob’s personal Chat GPT, while the blob itself has grown to be a larger and more potent governing entity than the flimsy scaffold of elected officials who front for it. But the Democratic Party has faltered badly in its years’ long efforts to cover for the blob, mainly by lying to the American people about everything. Running “Joe Biden” in 2020 was a dishonest act of desperation that only worked with a rigged election and then prosecuting anyone who attempted to complain. The party knew that “JB” was a mental phantom four years ago, and they had the effrontery to try running him again in ’24, until ol’ “Joe” made it impossible with his demented public behavior.

They also know that Kamala Harris is an empty vessel with a drinking problem, but they’ve desperately pulled out all the stops to make her appear legitimate. Her performance the past three weeks has not exactly been reassuring. Her running mate, Governor Walz, comes off straight-up insane. Why would they now not attempt to dump them with the same bad faith they installed them?

Gawd knows what mayhem might rock the streets outside the United Center. Recent years of degenerate USA life have produced a youth cohort with a staggering rate of mental illness. You’ve already seen plenty of how dark Antifa can get with its murderous trans cadres itching for action. But you’ve also got to wonder how the formal speeches by the party nabobs will go over? Might there be any booing of the elite? How will the crowd greet Mrs. Pelosi, the party’s consiglieri who arranged things as they are now? What on earth can Hillary Clinton say about the nominee she openly loathes? Will Bill Clinton, painted as a sexual predator by the Me-Too caucus, get a love-bath or a cold-shoulder? How false will the party’s unity seem? Will surprise motions arise from the floor to change-up the pre-scripted program? There are many more ways for things to go wrong this week than the simple dynamics that were in-play fifty-six years ago in Chicago."
o
And how could we forget this, courtesy of the DNC?
10/19/16 - "Madonna is pledging to perform oral sex on voters who cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton. The pop queen, known for her shocking antics, made the remark Tuesday while opening for comedian Amy Schumer in New York. “If you vote for Hillary Clinton,” Madonna told the crowd at Madison Square Garden, “I will give you a blow job.” “And I’m good,” the 58-year-old “Like a Virgin” singer, an outspoken supporter of the Democratic presidential nominee, said to cheers from the audience. “I’m not a tool. I take my time,” Madonna boasted." https://thehill.com/
And somewhere, Willie Brown smiles and marvels at it all...

Bill Bonner, "Stupid Is As Stupid Does"

"Stupid Is As Stupid Does"
Everyone with any brains at all must be able to see that the 
costs always end up on the least expert, least informed, 
least protected group in the country - the public.
by Bill Bonner

"Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much
 the Government is spending, because that is the true tax."
- Milton Friedman

Poitou, France - "The last few days have brought the usual election-year claptrap. On Thursday, the press began warming up the audience for Kamala Harris, who was supposed to release her first important proposals. CBS: "Harris is expected to announce that she will make tackling inflation a "Day One" priority, as well as outline a plan to lower costs for middle class families, take on corporate-price gouging and an overall focus on lowering costs for Americans, according to details shared by Harris-Walz campaign officials."

Bloomberg: "Harris to Propose $25,000 Assistance for First-Time Homeowners." "Vice President Kamala Harris will propose offering as much as $25,000 for first-time homeowners as part of an economic policy rollout Friday, a tacit acknowledgment that voter angst over rising housing costs poses one of the biggest political challenges to her presidential campaign."

When the proposals finally appeared, they were a tired-out mixture of price controls, an ’innovation fund’ and debt forgiveness. The cost of these giveaways, says Ms. Harris, will be paid by taxes on the rich and powerful. These, of course, are the same elites who control the Democratic Party, Congress, and the tax system.

So, more than likely, the expense will not be met by higher taxes, but instead be added to the national debt... and eventually paid by the people whose costs Ms. Harris claims to be bringing down. Already on the books are $35 trillion in bribes, boondoggles and balderdash; why not add a few billion more?

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to offer his own nonsense. The Donald: “A tariff is a tax on a foreign country, that’s the way it is, whether you like it or not. A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax on us.’ No, no, no…It’s a tax on a country that’s ripping us off and stealing our jobs. And it’s a tax that doesn’t affect our country.”

The Trump Administration hit China with tariffs back in 2018. Then, the Biden Team kept them in place. How did they work out? USA Today: "The Tax Foundation analysis found the tariffs together add up to $79 billion, which theoretically leads to an additional $625 in taxes for the average U.S. household. The Tax Foundation also argues the tariffs have had an overall negative impact on the US economy, by raising prices, and reducing output and employment."

But Mr. Trump is now proposing more of them. He even claimed that he would do away with the income tax - replacing it with taxes on imports. The Peterson Institute looked carefully: "The costs from Trump’s proposed new tariffs will be nearly five times those caused by the Trump tariff shocks through late 2019, generating additional costs to consumers from this channel alone of about $500bn per year... The average hit to a middle-income household would be $1,700 a year. The poorest 50 per cent of households, who tend to spend a bigger proportion of their earnings, will see their disposable income dented by an average of 3.5 per cent."

All of this just makes us wonder: is it the candidates who are stupid... the voters... or both? When the government spends money, somebody has got to pay for it. Everybody wants to believe that someone else will pick up the tab - the rich, corporations, foreigners. But everyone with any brains at all must be able to see that the costs always end up on the least expert, least informed, least protected group in the country - the public, especially the part of the public that hasn’t been born yet.

Neither candidate suggests doing the one and only thing that will actually reduce costs for middle class families - cutting back on the government itself. Instead, both propose new programs to expand its reach. It’s a scam. And they’re both in on it."

"The Passing of American Exceptionalism: How We Became Like All the Other Nations"

"The Passing of American Exceptionalism: 
How We Became Like All the Other Nations"
By Paul Rosenberg

"Once upon a time there really was an American exceptionalism and America was a light unto the world. That exceptionalism was a long way from perfect (looking for perfection in a mass of humans is silly), but it was legitimate.

Alas, that was long ago. People who say that American exceptionalism still exists may have good intentions, but they don’t understand what it was. Others, with less noble intentions, promote the idea to whip up support. Telling people to praise themselves is always a big seller.

Exceptional Means “Not Like the Others”: A Bible passage that has always stuck in my mind is I Samuel, Chapter 8. In it, the Israelites, then living in a tribal anarchy, go to Samuel the prophet and tell him to appoint a king for them. Samuel warns them profusely not to ask this (“Your king will take your children away, take your crops, you’ll cry out for relief,” and so on), but they wouldn’t listen. “No!” they said, “We will have a king over us and be like the other nations.” In other words, they threw away their exceptionalism and became like everyone else.

This is what happened to the United States - it became just like Britain and France and Germany. It became like all the nations ‘round about. And that’s the precise opposite of “exceptional.”

Thinking about this directly and not through the rose-colored lenses of flattering political talk, we see this:The Dutch and the Brits created central banking, and the US followed right along.The Germans created social welfare, and the US followed right along.They tax income; we tax income.They regulate private commerce; we regulate private commerce.They built massive armies and conducted foreign wars; the US did the same and now exceeds them all. We could, of course, extend this list for many pages. Any difference between the US and the rest of the “developed nations” is now minimal.

Americans like to claim people like Patrick Henry and Sam Adams as their great founders, but what those men believed no longer matters in American life… nor does the founding philosophy of John Locke. The US is now like the nations ‘round about - and that, by definition, means that it is not exceptional.

It Was Exceptional at the Beginning: As I say, once upon a time, America was exceptional. It was wildly different from the other nations. The uppity American commoners claimed that their rights were above kings and parliaments. The other nations said that they were spitting on both tradition and order, and that they were crazy.

Here’s how Thomas Jefferson saw the fruits of his revolution: "All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them …"

In Jefferson’s time, Americans faced no direct taxation (income tax, sales tax, etc.) and no armies of bureaucrats. That changed a long time ago, however, and Americans are now saddled just like everyone else… and saddled far worse than they would have been under the old English system.

George Washington said this in his farewell address: "Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded…"

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. Nowadays, we have almost nothing but the above. In fact, entangling alliances are looked to as the essential guarantor of safety. So we have exactly the opposite of exceptionalism, and precisely the opposite of what George Washington wanted.

What Washington and the others believed was that the United States would be different - that it would be a haven for actual freedom in the world. Here’s Washington again: "I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong."

And here’s Sam Adams, writing in 1770: "This little part of the world - a land, until recently happy in its obscurity - the asylum, to which patriots were accustomed to make their peaceful retreat." These men were creating something separate, something apart, something radically different from the usual machinery of government.

How It Happened: American exceptionalism failed steadily. Some of the key moments were these:

1790: Alexander Hamilton’s bank and his ripoff of the revolutionary war soldiers. Hamilton trashed the monetary system prescribed in the Constitution (silver and gold coin) and replaced it with a massively manipulable bank. He sold this plan by corrupting a great number of congressmen, enriching them through a massive ripoff of Revolutionary War soldiers. It was a large, dirty affair.

1798: The Alien and Sedition Acts. In the name of national security, the Federalists, under Hamilton’s influence, gave the president power to deport anyone he wished (after he first branded them as “dangerous”) and restricted any speech that criticized the government.

Because of these laws and other political manipulations, the election of 1800 - in which Thomas Jefferson was elected - was called a “second American revolution.” (One of Jefferson’s first acts as president was to pardon people in jail from the Sedition Act.) To illustrate the depth of this change, here’s what Alexander Hamilton said during the election: "If Mr. Pinckney [Jefferson’s opponent] is not elected, a revolution will be the consequence, and within four years I will lose my head or be the leader of a triumphant army."

1850-1865: I’m not going to go through details on the Civil War, but it’s crucial to understand that all three branches of the national government supported slavery until the end of the war. Furthermore, slavery ended peacefully for England, France, and the rest of the West. Only in the US was there a dreadful war.

1898: The Spanish-American War. This is when the US went Big Military.

1913: The life the old republic was squeezed out in 1913. The ban on direct taxation was removed, the power of the states to control Washington, DC was handed to political parties, and the dollar was handed to a banking cartel.

Bringing Democracy to the World? It’s very odd to hear people try to tie American exceptionalism to “bringing democracy to the world,” since that was no part of the American difference at all. The American founders were crystal clear that they were building a republic, not a democracy. Here’s John Adams on the subject: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Once, but Not Now: The original American exceptionalism was about individual self-determination. It was clearly not about cradle-to-grave control, administered by two interlocked cabals in the capital city. Once, America was truly different: People lived as they wished and barely saw the government. They had rights that government couldn’t touch, not just in propaganda, but in real life. Now, America is the same as all the other nations and government is God. Personal sovereignty has been outlawed.

There are still a few currents from the early days running through American hearts, and I pray that they continue. But to pretend that American exceptionalism exists on any level beyond that is mere propaganda… catchy lies that encourage us to praise ourselves."