.jpeg)
.jpeg)
"Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."
- Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, in English "Juvenal"
"Take away my bread and circuses and all I have left is my pitchfork..."
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, September 6, 2024
"Homo Credulus"
"Homo Credulus"
by Joel Bowman
"Man: He’ll go along with just about anything. Given the right circumstances…a little programming…and enough time for it all to marinate in his soft, mammalian brain… there is almost nothing Homo Credulus will not learn to embrace. Don’t believe us?
Take a look at the historical record; you’ll soon wonder how we ever got this far. Sure, you’ll discover gizmos and flying contraptions, art and agriculture, music and mathematics. You’ll witness spectacular scientific breakthroughs, the number “0” and a man’s footprint on the moon. You’ll also find automobiles with so many cup holders, you won’t know where to holster your oversized 7/11 Big Gulp.
But you’ll also scratch your head. Perhaps you’ll even weep. And if you think hard enough, you’ll put a few things to serious question…“Central banks?” “Modern democracy?” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show?” How has mankind survived such atrocities? Self inflicted, no less! And why, moreover, does he rush so earnestly to repeat and replay his worst mistakes? (Ellen has been on air since 2003!) Don’t be too hard on yourself, Dear Reader. After all, repetition is nothing new…
You’ll recall that it was the Greeks who first gave the world democracy – from the Greek, dēmokratía, literally “Rule by ‘People’”. (And yes, it was those very same Greeks who put their own beloved Socrates to death, by a majority vote of 361-140.) Today, democracy is a cherished tenet of “the West.” It is woven into the civic religion, sewn into the social fabric. Men march off eagerly to fight for it, to proselytize it, and to die in forgotten ditches defending it.
At least, that’s what they believe they’re doing. As usual, the poor saps have been duped. Herewith, a little historical context…The phrase “Making the world safe for democracy” was actually a marketing slogan, coined back in the 1910s, as a way to sell “The Great War” to America. Weary from their own disastrous Civil War just a few decades earlier, in which hundreds of thousands of (mostly) young men gave up the ghost, Americans were mostly inward looking at the time. That is to say, they wanted little to do with what they largely saw as a “European affair.”
Polls might have indicated no appetite for battle, but the nation’s politicians were nonetheless starved for military misadventure. They sensed big profits abroad, both in manufacturing armaments and making onerous bank loans to foreign lands. Sure, “the nation” would have to fill tank and trench with warm young bodies, but very few soldiers would carry senatorial surnames along with their rifles. And so, after a public relations campaign of truly epic proportions, America marched off to war, wrapped in the delusion they had freshly been sold.
Eddie Bernays, the man who coined the phrase and, thus, peddled the war to America, made a fortune for his efforts. He was even invited by Woodrow Wilson to attend the Paris Peace Conference, in 1919, as a show of gratitude for his services. There, Bernays learned the full impact of his “democracy” slogan. An obviously bright fellow, the surreal experience caused him to think. If people will line up to kill one another under the influence of a mere marketing campaign they could surely be convinced to do, say and buy just about anything!
Bernays was right. In fact, he wrote a series of books, detailing his insights. They included "Crystallizing Public Opinion" (1923), "A Public Relations Counsel" (1927) and a neat little number titled "Propaganda" (1928), in which Bernays laid out the blueprint for mass social and psychological manipulation. The collected works went on to become a huge success, and the favorite of none other than Joseph Goebbles, Reich Minister for Propaganda in Nazi Germany between 1933-45.
Bernays himself, writing in his 1965 autobiography, recalls a dinner at home in 1933 where… "Karl von Wiegand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Wiegand his propaganda library, the best Wiegand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Wiegand, was using my book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. […] Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign."
It is indeed chilling to think of such a heinous undertaking as being engineered, blueprinted, premeditated and carried out according to some kind of script. And yet, there it is, in Bernays’ own words, the “Father of Propaganda.” Having acquired somewhat of a tainted reputation-by-association, propaganda, itself, underwent a “strategic rebranding” after WWII. But make no mistake, the very same métier thrives to this day, under the more socially palatable designation, “Public Relations.” Still, a ruse by any other name…
“Could we be so stupid again?” wonders the gentle reader. “Might the mob still be swayed by what Charles Mackay termed ‘extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds?’” Why, of course! That’s the nature of the mob! Whether in love, finance, politics or any other matter, man is wont to be convinced, assured, persuaded, often against his own best interests. Few are the absurdities in which he will not take refuge, invest his hard-earned capital or squander his morality. All he needs is a good story, something to arrest his imagination and cauterize his capacity for reason. A distraction from his lonely, quotidian existence. That, and a few crumbs to pass his lips.
The Roman poet, Juvenal, recognized as much when he mocked the panem et circenses (bread and circuses) stratagem almost two millennia ago. In his "Satire X", he referred to the Annona (a kind of grain dole) and the famous circus games, held in the Colosseum and elsewhere, as designed to keep the unthinking population fed and happy.
Look around you today, Dear Reader. What do you see, two millennia later, in the Year of Their Lord, 2024 AD? We’ve got reality television and stadium sports matches, food stamp programs and an Everest of transfer payments, we’ve had mask mandates at schools and the whole pretense of safety and security, there’s $35 trillion in national debt and government spending out the wazoo., plus a collapsing workforce, an opioid epidemic (out-killing COVID-19 in < 65s) and Whoopi Goldberg in the sin bin...
And behind it all, the greatest bread and circuses show ever: modern representative democracy. Now, as then, the show goes on!"
Freely download "Satire X", by Juvenal, here:
"How It Really Is"
"Cause and effect: In California, home of big tech, minimum wage is raised so much, that fast food joints can’t afford to hire low wage workers (primarily teens, in their first job). So, expedited development of robotics capabilities for automated fast food joints happens. Being developed in the same state that has raised minimum wages to $20 an hour. Planned?"
Bill Bonner, "Boy Meets Girl"
"Boy Meets Girl"
"In an honest money system, people earn money by providing goods and services
often, labor) to others. So, the more they earn, the more ‘things’ they produce."
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "The secret, dear reader, is the money itself. Real money comes from output, not from the feds’ printing presses. As we keep saying, when the money goes, everything goes. So today we wonder why….
Federal debt was 32% of GDP under Jimmy Carter. Now it is 125% of GDP. So what? The total value of the stock market (Wilshire 5000) was about 40% of GDP during the Carter years. Now it is almost 200%. Why not? But it’s not enough just to look at the numbers. The data is meaningless without context. What we are looking for is patterns. And analogies.
If you say, the current market capitalization/ GDP ratio is 191%, the number is meaningless…until you add the context. Then you see a pattern. And you can make an analogy ‘Oh…this is like 1999…or 2021…’ Now you can guess that there may have been things going on back then that are analogous to what is going on now. And at least you can make a plausible forecast about what happens next. You have a pattern.
Here’s another one. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Boy and girl get married. They have more boys and girls.How often has that happened? Billions of times. So, a boy meets a girl today. They fall in love. Will they marry and have children? We don’t know. But we wouldn’t bet against it.
And stocks? For the last 100 years, the typical stock has sold for between 12 and 15 times its company earnings. Why not 30 times? Or only 2 times? And why does Buffett believe the stock market should worth only about 100% of GDP…and not 200%? And total debt? It averaged only about 30% of GDP during the Carter years. Today, it is three times as high. What’s wrong with that?
Natural things have natural limits. Tomika Itooka is the world’s oldest living person. She is only 116 years old. Not 300 years old. And financial indicators, such as debt and market prices, have their limits too. Because they do not exist in a world of numbers alone. They are part of a system, more like a living thing than a theoretical, numerical notation. Ultimately, debt, GDP, and prices - all represent real things. And those real things are weighed out, measured, valued …in money.
To make a long story short, in an honest money system, people earn money by providing goods and services (often, labor) to others. So, the more they earn, the more ‘things’ they produce. Prices tend to be stable. No inflation – neither of consumer prices nor of the stock market. Nor of debt. That’s why price levels in 1913 were not much different from what they were 100 years before.
But wait. People can borrow money in an honest money system too. Can’t they lend too much? Can’t debt still get out of hand? Unlikely. Because borrowed money comes from savings. And savings must be earned before they can be lent out. So, credit represents goods or services that already exist.
In a dishonest system, on the other hand, the feds ‘print’ more money and lend it out at artificially low interest rates. No additional goods or services are added. Then, prices rise with the increase in the money supply. People who own assets get richer as asset prices rise. People who don’t own assets – in the large, ‘working class’ – get poorer as the things they buy become more expensive. And the whole system gets distorted and enfeebled by false money signals.
Want a financial history of the US from a guy standing on one leg? That was it. The US money system was fairly honest. Then, it became progressively more dishonest in three major steps -- the creation of the Fed in 1913, the introduction of fake, credit-based dollars in 1971, and then the Fed’s active manipulation of interest rates, post-1987. And now, the very rich are richer than ever. Debt is approaching $100 trillion. Stocks have never been more expensive. And we await the reckoning. Already, since 1913, the dollar has lost 98% of its value. In the years ahead it will lose the rest. Stay tuned."
Jim Kunstler, "Ghosts in the Machine"
"Ghosts in the Machine"
by Jim Kunstler
“The lies then and now are mind boggling. The people who continue to lap up the lies are beyond reach. The poison unleashed into the population will be with us a long time.”
- Edward Dowd
"How is it that our country turned into some kind of theme park spook ride, a cheesy-looking haunted house of programmed frights, howling holograms, phantoms with their hair on fire, doors slamming open on glimpses of hell, ill-winds and foul odors, climaxing in a tableau vivant of death-in-life never ending?
I’m sure that this will surprise you, but you can choose to be sane. How? You take care of your business conscientiously; you steer in the direction of what is true and away from what is false; you find purpose in your existence by discovering your talents and using them in ways that do not bring harm to other people; you seek the company of kindred spirits...love the one you’re with...work hard so you can rest easy... express your gratitude for being here. That’s a start.
If you prefer being insane, there’s always the current incarnation of the Democratic Party, dedicated to gaslighting the nation into ruin. Of course, at this point - the point of extreme desperation - the Dems are just running interference for the distraught intel-Globalist blob. The blob’s agenda has been thwarted, overwhelmed by runaway debt and drinking too much of its own propaganda Kool-aid. A great deal of that has entailed the commission of crimes, which always implies the possibility of having to pay for them.
Russia is about to roll up on what’s left of Ukraine. Our State Department neocon division thought it was wicked-smart to start a little action there in 2014, to provoke Russia into a ruinous war against NATO (the game: “Let’s You and Him Fight”) in order, theoretically, to wreck Russia and depose Mr. Putin. Didn’t work. Do you know why? I will tell you (it’s really simple): Russia’s leadership is more intelligent than ours, and far less psychopathic. They perceived correctly that we were only wrecking ourselves.
Ten years later, the Ukraine caper draws to a humiliating end for our neocons, and a ruinous end for NATO and the EU. So far this year, it appears that “Joe Biden’s” party has ceased paying attention to Ukraine. The pretty yellow and blue flags have all but disappeared - except in Massachusetts, we noticed, the most highly “educated” and most deeply insane state in the union. I’ll be interested in how Kamala Harris explains our Ukraine war policy in Tuesday’s presidential debate. Defending democracy, I suppose.
The governments of the major EU nations stupidly followed the bidding of America’s psychopathic neocons and now they ‘ll have to answer for it as their people awake to the destruction of the EU nations’ economies. Early elections will be called and globalist stooges will be swept away. The turmoil will rhyme with the chaos of 1848, a year of revolution. NATO, finding itself not just purposeless but toxic to Europe’s well-being, must dissolve as members on the periphery withdraw, some seeking to join the BRICs economic bloc. Germany, France, and the UK get sucked helplessly into a new great depression and social turmoil as they contend with many millions of hostile migrants.
Here in America, you can already hear the fake anguished cry of “Russia, Russia, Russia” echoing out of Merrick Garland’s fake Justice Department. We’re to understand that the Russians are coming for our election - more gaslight - when it’s actually the Democratic party, led surreptitiously by its lawfare cadres, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, et al. Their many courtroom pranks have failed against Mr. Trump. Judge Chutkan was bloviating in the DC federal court this week to generate a little heat on MSNBC, but her case has a wooden stake through its heart and Xs where its eyes used to be.
Up in New York, Judge Juan Merchan pretends to wrassle with whether or not to start Civil War Two by remanding Mr. Trump to Rikers Island on September 18 (I doubt that happens). In the event, though, I believe Mr. Trump might simply say, “No thank you,” and go about his business running for president. That would be a counter-prank I’d be eager to see. Who gets in the act then? Federal marshals? The FBI (ha!)? The Supreme Court term begins the first Monday in October. They could have something to say about the steaming pile of horseshit that was Alvin Bragg’s and Mathew Colangelo’s case. (Also, Weissmann’s, Eisen’s, Monaco’s, and McCord’s.)
Gawd knows where things might stand after next Tuesday’s great debate. The rules are pretty stringent. No candidates questioning each other. No audience. No confab with staff during commercial breaks. The mute buttons will be on. Without her “I’m speaking” routine, Ms. Harris has... zotz. All Mr. Trump really has to do is be polite for 90-minutes.
More than a few people, meanwhile, are beginning to ask who is running the country, since “Joe Biden” is mostly off-duty, beaching it, not attending cabinet meetings, and probably not being consulted on any number of matters being carried out in his name. Are you comforted to know that the US government is on auto-pilot, a colossal, menacing machine run by ghosts?"
Travelling with Russell, "I Went To Russia's First Weapons Shopping Mall"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 9/6/24
"I Went To Russia's First Weapons Shopping Mall"
"Take a look inside Russia's first-ever weapons shopping mall. The Babylon Mall is a new space in Moscow, with an area of more than 1000 m2. This mall is the first weapons center in Russia. What is sold inside, what can you buy and how simple is it to buy a weapon in Russia?"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "People Are Broke - The Dollar Store Meltdown!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 9/6/24
"People Are Broke -
The Dollar Store Meltdown!"
"We're diving into a hidden crisis - the Dollar Store Meltdown! With people feeling more broke than ever, even the go-to bargain spots like Dollar Tree are seeing a massive drop in sales. The CFO admits they can't stop this decline, and it's affecting everyone, from cheap shampoo to your favorite toothpaste deals. And yes, they're closing 1,000 stores! Catch all the details and more in today's video."
Comments here:
Thursday, September 5, 2024
"Evictions Break Records in Phoenix, A Housing and Food Crisis is Brewing"
Full screen recommended.
ThisisJohnWilliams, 9/5/24
"Evictions Break Records in Phoenix,
A Housing and Food Crisis is Brewing"
Comments here:
"Credit Crisis Hits Hard As 50 Million Americans Abandon Creditors!"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 9/5/24
"Credit Crisis Hits Hard As 50 Million
Americans Abandon Creditors!"
"The United States is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis, with up to 50 million Americans defaulting on their debts. This has triggered significant disruption in the nation’s credit system, causing widespread economic instability. Lenders are scrambling to contain the fallout, while consumers are overwhelmed by growing debt. Although the American economy has weathered numerous challenges in recent years, the current credit crisis stands out as the most severe. With more than 50 million people halting payments to creditors, the situation has progressed from early warnings to a full-scale emergency. As consumer debt surges, the impact is becoming painfully clear."
Comments here:
Jeremiah Babe, "WTF?! Military Soldiers In New York Hotels; Look Around, Everything Is Closing"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/5/24
"WTF?! Military Soldiers In New York Hotels;
Look Around, Everything Is Closing"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Markets Remain Volatile As Dragflation Ramps Up"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 9/5/24
"Markets Remain Volatile As Dragflation Ramps Up"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”
The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"
"Courage"
"It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out."
~ Anne Sexton
"Our Dilemma..."
"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time;
what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. "
- Sydney J. Harris
"When We Have Time..."
“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”
- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
○
“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha
"The Final Depressing Chapters For The Late, Great U.S. Economy"
"The Final Depressing Chapters For
The Late, Great U.S. Economy"
by Michael Snyder
"It is incredibly sad to watch the U.S. economy slowly but surely come apart at the seams all around us. For most of our history, the rest of the world marveled at our economic performance, and that is because we embraced economic values that led to great blessing. In recent decades, we have abandoned those values, but we were able to maintain a very high standard of living by going into unprecedented amounts of debt. Our leaders were able to keep the game going for longer than a lot of people thought, but now we have entered the final depressing chapters for the late, great U.S. economy, and we can see evidence of this all around us. If you doubt this, just look at all of the businesses that are going bankrupt. Last week, I discussed the fact that for the year ending June 30th, the number of business bankruptcy filings was up more than 40 percent compared to the previous 12 months. There is no way that the Biden administration can manipulate this number. Either a business filed for bankruptcy or it didn’t, and right now we are seeing a spike of historic significance.
On Sunday, CNBC published an article that listed ten prominent restaurant chains that have filed for bankruptcy this year…
-Roti
-Buca di Beppo
-World of Beer
-Rubio’s
-Melt Bar & Grilled
-Kuma’s Corner
-Red Lobster
-Tijuana Flats
-Sticky’s Finger Joint
-Boxer Ramen
We really are in the midst of a “restaurant apocalypse”, and more of our favorite eateries are getting into trouble with each passing day. For example, a large number of KFC locations just suddenly shut down in the Midwest…"Dozens of KFC locations owned by one franchisee have abruptly closed across the Midwest. Up to 25 restaurants owned by major fast food franchisee EYM Chicken have shut in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, according to reports. The closure of several locations in Wisconsin will lead to nearly 100 employees being laid off, according to local media WKOW 27 News."
At one time, KFC was such a wonderful American success story. But now KFC restaurants are becoming an endangered species. There used to be one about an hour from where I live, but that one has been shut down too. If you still have a KFC in your community, you should visit it while you still can.
Meanwhile, we just learned that a chain of gas stations and convenience stores in the Midwest has also abruptly shut down…"The gas station and convenience store sector has faced distress in recent years marked by bankruptcy filings and store closings. The Store convenience stores and gas stations, owned by Team Schierl Cos., in July 2024 was forced to shut down all operations of its 25 locations in Michigan and Wisconsin after its landlord Mountain Express Oil Co. filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in August 2023, Convenience Store News reported."
Whatever is happening to the economy right now, it seems to be hitting the Midwest particularly hard. At the rate that things are going, I think that it won’t be too long before even more communities in the Midwest resemble the nightmare that Gary, Indiana has become…"Gary, Indiana – best known as the birthplace of Michael Jackson – is home to the highest abandoned home rate in the nation at 31.41 percent, according to analysis from 247WallSt. The data found that the population has staggeringly dropped by 18.2 percent from 2010 to 2020, with a population around 67,000."
We also continue to see more signs of trouble in the banking industry. According to the Daily Mail, the U.S. lost 41 more bank branches in just one recent two week period…"Major banks have closed 41 branches in just two weeks as the shift toward online banking continues. Major banks such as Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo were among those shuttering locations." When the economy is booming, banks tend to open up lots of new branches. What we are witnessing now is the opposite of that.
Of course lots of retail stores are being permanently shut down as well. Thousands of store closings have already been announced in 2024, and now Big Lots has raised the number of stores that it is likely to close “to a maximum of 315”…"In the first quarter, the discount retailer said its net sales for the three-month period declined 10.2% year-over-year to $1 billion. For all of 2023, net sales were $4.72 billion, a 13.6% decrease compared with the prior year. More recently, in an Aug. 2 filing, the company told investors that it had upped the number of permitted store closings to a maximum of 315 as part of late July amendments to a credit agreement and term loan facility. That marked a 165-store increase from the 150 previously permitted. There were nearly 1,400 Big Lots stores in the U.S. as of the first quarter. The discount retailer’s locations sell home goods, furniture, seasonal decorations and other products."
Sadly, this really is the beginning of the end for Big Lots, because it won’t be able to survive much longer. Rite Aid is another major chain that is in serious peril. They have already closed hundreds of stores, but that hasn’t helped much…"Another retail casualty this year has been the sudden bankruptcy of Rite Aid, leaving hundreds of stores empty in states such as Michigan and Ohio after closing up to 500 stores nationally. In its filing, the company said it expected its losses would increase significantly in the past quarter, following a loss of $750 million between March 2022 and March 2023 and another $307 million in the second quarter this year. The last quarterly report filed by Rite Aid was in June, when they had only $135.5 million of cash to work with, combined with $3.3 billion in long-term debt."
Needless to say, Rite Aid is far from alone. All over the nation, once thriving businesses are being boarded up. U.S. consumers simply do not have the same level of discretionary income that they once did. The cost of living crisis has hit most Americans really hard, and at this point the vast majority of the population can no longer afford to purchase an average home. These days most Americans are desperately trying to find a way to scrape by from month to month, and so there just isn’t a lot of room for discretionary spending.
Economic conditions are not good right now, but what is this country going to look like once they take a dramatic turn for the worse? You might want to think about that, because what we are experiencing at this moment is going to look like rip-roaring prosperity compared to what is eventually coming."
"Is Kamala Very, Very Afraid?"
"Is Kamala Very, Very Afraid?"
by Jim Kunstler
“On many subjects important to public life today, vast numbers of people know
the truth, and yet the official channels of information sharing are reluctant to admit it.”
- Jeffrey Tucker
"You might wonder, as I do, whether Kamala Harris can even stay in the race until November 5. Based on her grim appearance in last week’s “interview” with Dana Bash, slumped at the table of a crummy Georgia café under poor lighting, her trademark cackle suppressed, she looked psychologically wilted. Don’t be surprised if late this week she “catches Covid” and asks to “postpone” the September 10 debate with Mr. Trump.
Consider the depressing reality of her situation, lately cloaked by the farcical “joy” motif put out by her party’s campaign spin doctors: First, the cabal running the White House bum-rushed “Joe Biden” out of the campaign, just hooked him offstage like a broke-down vaudevillian annoying the audience with his tired antics. Then, the same gang buffaloed Kamala onto center stage by some mystical process that disregarded her lack of preparation, her proven unpopularity in the 2020 primaries, and her near-invisibility in 3.5 years as veep.
For a couple of weeks her head must have been spinning with sheer intoxication at the amazing turn of events. Who wouldn’t be amazed to find him or herself unexpectedly selected to run for president? But now, post the artificial hoopla of the convention, the dread steals in. If she was previously used to self-medicating with chardonnay during the irksome veep years, imagine the pressure now on those campaign bus trips.
She has a lot to be afraid of. She’s not nimble of mind in the spotlight, and she knows it. When she tries to riff on anything off-the-cuff, all that comes out are laughable tautologies. She really doesn’t know much about the world, even about simple geography, certainly not the complex interplay of national interests. Her economic notions are a kind of Frappuccino® of processed Marxian sludge from the Berkeley cafés. If exposed regularly to even friendly reporters, she’d ignite howling embarrassment for herself (and the party). And, after all, there’s her record, including hundreds of videos on the Internet showing plainly the crazy policies she supports and now has to pretend to dissociate from.
Lurking behind her is not only the American intel blob of dark forces and sinister figures, but an international blob made up of malevolent groups within and throughout Western Civ, clearly working to bring it down - the Eurocrats wrecking their own countries’ agriculture and their industrial economies while jailing their opponents for thought crimes; the WEFers pushing the demented climate change agenda and ruinous migrant invasions; the bankers looking to seize the “collateral” (property, chattels, investment portfolios) of a billion everyday citizens when the bond Ponzi scheme blows up, as it must; the WHO steered by Bill Gates seeking to inject unsafe vaccines into everybody in order to greatly and quickly reduce the population; the Soros NGO legions working to subvert the public interest here, there, and everywhere; the NATO warmongers trying like hell to start World War Three. Kamala Harris surely understands - if she understands anything - that she has become their chosen pawn, and is at their mercy (they have none).
She should be afraid especially of the American blob. That combine of higher-ups in the CIA, the DOD, the FBI, the DHS, the State Department, and Gawd knows how many lesser-known agencies and “black op” back offices, knows that it is in great danger if Mr. Trump happens to get elected (despite their best efforts to rig things). After all the trips laid on him, all the way up to attempted assassination, you can be sure that Mr. Trump will be coming after the cabal for committing real and serious crimes. They are running scared now. Despite all the power seemingly at their command, nothing has availed so far - not lawfare, not bullets - to stop Mr. Trump’s implacable march back into the Oval Office, where he could possibly succeed in turning the USA back into a functioning republic
Poor Kamala Harris is the blob’s wholly inadequate instrument to fend off this fate. If she continues to perform badly, the blob might not hesitate to try getting rid of her. That may be the blob’s last chance of stopping the election from happening altogether. The nation has never been in the predicament of having the head of a ticket resign or die in the homestretch of an election campaign. There is no provision in the Constitution for it because there are no provisions in the Constitution for political parties per se. It would all be a kind of improv.
And then, of course, America would be stuck with the unfit and incapable “Joe Biden,” heading the government, at least until something else can be worked out. Maybe that working out would just be the final stage of the coup that has been in motion, really, since 2016 when John Brennan, Barack Obama, and James Comey attempted to oust Mr. Trump with RussiaGate. Some kind of “interim commission” might be formed to “solve” the problem of the cancelled election. They’ll look for someone with “proven ability” to serve as provisional president — maybe, someone who has already been president... say, Mr. Obama. Voila and fait accompli! If he finds himself appointed rather than elected, he would not be in defiance of the 22nd Amendment. Okay, now try re-thinking how scared Kamala Harris must be."
Free Download: Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"
"I... don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him?"
"To shrug."
- Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
o
"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law - men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims - then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
An excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.
Full text of “Francisco’s Money Speech” is here:
Freely download "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, here:
"What Happened to American Labor?"
"What Happened to American Labor?"
by Brian Maher
"This we learn from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: "American productivity has increased 62% since 1979." But average real hourly pay (adjusted for inflation, that is) has scarcely increased 17% across the same space. That is, productivity has run 3.5 laps around wages since 1979. Thus the average American worker finds himself a hamster upon a wheel… jogging largely in place.
Here our co-founder Bill Bonner reduces to concrete the abstract plight of the American worker: "In 1971, you could buy a new Ford F-150 for $2,500. At $4 an hour, it took 625 hours to buy the truck. Today’s model costs $30,000, and the average hourly wage is $26. So the wage earner has to work for 1,154 hours to get a standard F-150. Put another way, he has to sell almost twice as much of his time to get a set of wheels."
But it is not only the F-150 owner who has lost the value of his dearest commodity - time: "You can do the same calculation for housing. An average man paid about $24,000 for the average house in 1971. Today, he pays $371,000. Priced in time, the house cost 6,000 hours in 1971 and 14,269 hours today… It takes more than seven years of work for the average guy to buy the average house today – four years more than it took in 1971." Is it a coincidence that Mr. Bonner selects the year 1971 to draw a contrast? It is no coincidence whatsoever.
The Fiat Dollar and Globalization: In August 1971, old Nixon slammed shut the gold window… and lowered the shade. The gold standard was a mere rump in its dying days. It nonetheless kept the balance of trade in a range. A nation running a persistent trade deficit risked depleting its gold stocks. The unbacked dollar - the ersatz dollar - removed all checks.
America no longer had to produce goods to exchange for other goods… or fear for its gold. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat,” Genesis instructs us. Under the new dollar standard, America could eat by the sweat of foreign brows - without perspiring one bead of its own. Scraps of paper, rolling off an over-labored printing press, were its primary production. Ream upon ream went abroad in exchange for goods - real goods.
The international division of labor was suddenly opened to the world’s sweating and heaving masses. Many were peasants from the labor-rich fields of China. They entered the factories in their millions, each toiling for one dollar per day. Perhaps two. The competition depressed average American wages - wages that have never recovered. Meantime, the past decade has only deepened existing trends…
The Sparrows Go Hungry: The trickle-down theory of economic progress argues you must first feed the horses in order to feed the sparrows. It contains much justice - poor men do not open businesses. They do not provide employment. They put no bread in mouths. But the Federal Reserve’s stable hands have overfed the horses. Since the pandemic started, they have been shoveling in oats at a frantic and delirious rate. And the sparrows have scratched along on the leavings.
Those earning $1 million or more have captured 63% of all capital gains this past decade. But the Main Street economy has rubbed along at a lilting 2.1% annual pace. Never has the gap between the stock market and the economy stretched so broadly as today. Is there a way out of the maze? Yes, argue the technologists…
The Promise of Technology: They insist automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will soon catapult the economic system into vastly more productive realms. By 2030 alone, they project (at least before the pandemic) it could yield an additional almost $16 trillion to global GDP. They further claim 40–50% of human occupations will be subject to automation over the next 15–20 years.
These occupations are not limited to trucking, taxi driving, manufacturing and construction. To these, we must add white-collared jobs in law, finance, medicine, accounting, etc. What would become of the attorney at law, we wonder - and the human helmsman of the ambulance he chases? In truth, we are unconvinced automation will proceed at the rollicking gallop its drummers project. But suspend all assumption for the moment… and drive on to the inevitable question: What happens when robots acquire the brains to perform nearly all human labor?
Creative Destruction: Economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) shoved the term “creative destruction” into general circulation. For Schumpeter, capitalism was the “perennial gale” of creative destruction. Capitalism blows away the old and inefficient. It hauls in the new and improved. Because of capitalism’s perennial gale, today’s serf lives more royally than yesteryear’s king.
Explains economist Richard Rahn of the Cato Institute: "The average low-income American, who makes $25,000 per year, lives in a home that has air conditioning, a color TV and a dishwasher, owns an automobile and eats more calories than he should from an immense variety of food.
Louis XIV lived in constant fear of dying from smallpox and many other diseases that are now cured quickly by antibiotics. His palace at Versailles had 700 rooms but no bathrooms (hence he rarely bathed), and no central heating or air conditioning."
Here is progress itself. All because capitalism’s creative gales flattened all before it. Capitalism’s obvious glories are why most notice the “creative” side of the ledger sheet. But what about the equally critical “destruction” side?
The Destructive Side of Capitalism: Innovation and technology have always allowed humans to mine fresh sources of productive employment. The 19th-century farmer became the 20th-century factory worker… became the 21st-century computer programmer.
Now introduce an omnipotent robot…A robotic brute that can drive home a rivet is one thing by itself. But a genius robot that could do anything a human can do - yet better - is another entirely. This robot would tower above the human as the human towers above the beasts of the field. An Aristotle, a da Vinci, an Einstein would be pygmies next to it.
What human ability would lie beyond this unnatural beast? Artistic expression, perhaps? A 900-IQ robot might run its circles around the human antique, you say. But it could not appreciate beauty - much less express it. The robot is all brains, that is… but no heart, no soul. The kingdom of the arts belongs to man and man alone. Well, please introduce yourself to AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist)…
Will the Next Mozart Be a Computer? AIVA is a computerized composer. Programmers drummed into its ears the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and other colossi of the classical canon. AIVA teased out their tricks… and taught itself to compose original music based upon them. Its outpourings are indistinguishable from a carbon-based professional’s. They have been featured in cinematic soundtracks. Advertisements. And computer games. Will the next Mozart be a computer?
Not even the oldest profession is safe from robotic invasion - but let it pass for now. What about technology’s impact on the general community?
Winners and Losers: Schumpeter’s creatively destructive gales tear apart the social fabric …Capitalism puts out its tongue at tradition. It yanks the roots out of communities. It swings the human being around hairpin turns of social and technological change… like a lad on a carnival ride. Within a generation, the centuries-old farming community has given over to the assembly line and the punch clock. A generation later, the factory goes dark as creative destruction blows the jobs clear to China… or Vietnam… or wherever labor is cheapest.
Americans must often rip up their families to follow the jobs - thus, they can sink little root in the local topsoil. Meantime, advancing technology makes today’s job obsolete tomorrow. Not all the displaced can take up new lines. Many are simply left behind, broken… and can never catch up.
Capitalism, Progress, Must Advance: We are heart and soul for capitalism. We do not believe a superior system exists. And as political theorist Kenneth Minogue has noted: “Capitalism is what people do when you leave them alone.” We are for leaving people alone… and for being left alone. Hence we are for capitalism.
The river of progress must carry forward. Do you reject progress?
Then you must believe the man who tamed fire should himself burn eternally… that the inventor of the wheel should be broken upon the very same wheel… That Franklin should have fried in an electric chair for discovering electricity… that Ford should have been flattened by his auto… that Salk should sulk in endless miseries for scotching polio.
If this is what you believe, please drive on. But let us recognize: The advancing river of progress sometimes takes the human note with it. And not all change is progress. Within cold and lifeless economic data, behind dense forests of statistics, exist living human beings with beating hearts. And many with broken hearts. To these, our fellow Americans - to all who hew the nation’s wood and draw its water - we hoist an acknowledging toast."
"Chastity In A Whorehouse..."
"People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?"
- H. L. Mencken
"How It Really Is"
"Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people
who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it ."
- Laurence Peter
Adventures With Danno, "A Very Confusing Trip Tp Kroger! Up & Down Prices Everywhere!"
Adventures With Danno, AM 9/5/24
"A Very Confusing Trip Tp Kroger!
Up & Down Prices Everywhere!"
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Dead On Target! We Are Under Attack, Truth Is Our Weapon!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/5/24
"Dead On Target! We Are Under Attack,
Truth Is Our Weapon!"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Crime Does Not Pay - Porch Pirates Panic"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 9/5/24
"Crime Does Not Pay - Porch Pirates Panic"
"Today we're diving into Florida's groundbreaking crime law that's shaking things up! With new measures targeting shoplifters and porch pirates, Florida is laying down the law hard. Find out how Governor DeSantis is setting a new standard with penalties that could land offenders 5, 15, or even 30 years behind bars. Crime doesn't pay, and Florida's not messing around!"
Comments here:
"World War III Prelude, 9/5/24"
Canadian Prepper, 9/5/24
"Alert! They May Shut Us Down Soon;
Nuke Bombers Moving To Alert Status; Ukraine Preps End Game"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 9/5/24
"'Entire Europe Will Burn...':
Putin's Nuclear Warning To Ukraine Over Nuke Plant Plots"
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a stark warning to Ukraine and its Western allies, emphasizing the potential for a global disaster if attacks on Russian nuclear plants continue. Putin specifically referenced a recent attempted drone attack on the Kursk plant by Ukraine and cautioned that a retaliatory response could have catastrophic consequences for Europe."
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 9/5/24
"LtCOL. Tony Shaffer: Is Ukraine Near Its End?"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 9/5/24
"'Be Ready...': Russia Gets 190,000 New Soldiers
As Ukraine Struggles To Find Troops For Frontline"
"As Ukraine reallocates troops from the frontline to Kursk, Russia is experiencing a significant morale boost with increasing numbers of people signing contracts with the Russian military. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted a growing willingness among Russians to join the military amid the ongoing conflict, which he attributed to successful economic measures aimed at streamlining the enlistment process. Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev reported that around 190,000 Russians have signed contracts since the beginning of 2024."
Comments here:
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Jeremiah Babe, "It's Game Over For Dollar Stores, On Borrowed Time"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/4/24
"It's Game Over For Dollar Stores,
On Borrowed Time"
Comments here:
o
Musical Interlude: The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line"
The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)