Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Bill Bonner, "Revolt of the Masses"

"Revolt of the Masses"
A ‘time bomb’ is only useful if it blows up. And a crime must have a victim.
 People, not wanting to get blown up, seek shelter. 
This is the problem the Fed’s researchers were trying to solve.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "The most obvious narrative for future economic historians is probably something like this...In the early 21st century, politicians lost control of spending. Debt rose much faster than GDP. Then, inflation made it much harder for the Fed to continue ‘printing’ money. But as soon as inflation moderated, in 2024, it went back to its old habits - lowering interest rates and inducing more and more people to borrow and spend.

By then, lowering interest rates was no longer an option; it was a necessity. The feds needed low rates to finance and re-finance their runaway deficits. But investors became reluctant to lend more money to a borrower who was clearly going broke. Interest rates rose, and the only recourse was to ‘print’ money – trillions of it. The result was more inflation - the defining feature of the 2024-2034 period.

Pretty straightforward. Simple. Maybe too simple? ‘What are we missing,’ is the question we left you with yesterday. Today, we explore one possibility, coming to us in a startlingly candid research report published by the Minnesota Fed a few days ago. Entitled ‘The Unique Implementation of Permanent Primary Deficits’ the paper gives a hint of what the feds might have up their sleeves. You can read the report yourself. Or this handy summary from the authors (emphasis added is ours):

In an economy with incomplete markets and consumers who are sufficiently risk averse, we show that the government can uniquely implement a permanent primary deficit using nominal debt and continuous Markov strategies for primary deficits and payments to debtholders. But this result fails if there are also useless pieces of paper (bitcoin for short) that can be traded. If there is trade in bitcoin, then there is no continuous Markov strategy for the government that leads to unique implementation. Instead, there is a continuum of equilibria with distinct real allocations in which the price of bitcoin converges to zero.

And there is a balanced budget trap: continuous government policies designed for a permanent primary deficit cannot eliminate an alternative steady state in which r - g = 0 and the government is forced to balance its budget. A legal prohibition against bitcoin can restore unique implementation of permanent primary deficits, and so can a tax on bitcoin at the rate -(r - g) > 0.

Some background...The IMF reports that governments are creating a “$100 trillion fiscal time bomb.” When government bases its fiscal policy on large quantities of ‘printed’ money, the system becomes unstable. That is, there is no ‘Markov strategy’ that the feds can use to defuse the bomb. In plain English, if they continue printing more and more dollars, people will soon want no more dollars. They’ll look for alternatives. They will find Bitcoin, for example. And gold.

But before we see where this leads... let’s try to understand what inflation does for the feds and why it is so important. A ‘time bomb’ is only useful if it blows up. And a crime must have a victim. People, not wanting to get blown up, seek shelter. This is the problem the Fed’s researchers were trying to solve. Inflation is a form of theft. But it only ‘works’ as a federal policy so long as someone gets robbed. The feds ‘print money,’ pretend it is valuable, distribute it to people... who are then ripped off by it. In 1971, for example, a saver might have worked hard his entire career to lay aside $100,000. By 2024, his money would have been devalued by about 90%. In other words, he was cheated out of $90,000.

That’s why an inflationary system is unstable. People try to protect themselves. And if they succeed, the policy fails. Or, to put it differently, inflation is just an underhanded way to tax people. But it only works as long as someone ‘pays’ the tax.

So, let’s imagine a ‘revolt of the masses.’ Alert to the scam, and seeing more and more debt... and more and more ‘money printing’... consumers might switch to gold... or bitcoin, instead. Then, government is forced into the ‘balanced budget trap,’ because it can no longer borrow at reasonable rates... and no one wants its ‘printed’ currency.

This time a year ago, Argentina was almost there. People had gotten so fed up with inflation, and so savvy about how to avoid it, they were switching to dollars as fast as they could. Almost all substantial real estate prices were quoted in dollars, not in pesos. Machinery and equipment, most of it imported, was priced in dollars, too. On-line remote workers were paid in dollars…or Bitcoin. And cab drivers... waiters... and hairdressers, were happy to get dollars whenever they could. The elites were beginning to realize that they could no longer exploit the masses with inflation. Then, it was almost as if they wanted to lose the election and leave the mess to someone else to clean up.

And what about the US? The rich can easily switch out of dollar-dependent assets and into stock, commodity, gold, or property funds. But what about consumers? Could they just move to Bitcoin... and avoid the inflation tax? What’s to stop them? And then, would the feds be ‘trapped’ into balancing the budget? We’ll look more at that, tomorrow."

"Alert! Israeli General's Insane WW3 Warning; Russian Subs; Ukraine Nukes"

Canadian Prepper, 10/21/24
"Alert! Israeli General's Insane WW3 Warning; 
Russian Subs; Ukraine Nukes"
Comments here:

"This Is Horrific, The Worst Disaster I Have Ever Seen; Historic Devastation, Towns Wiped Out"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 10/21/24
"This Is Horrific, The Worst Disaster I Have Ever Seen; 
Historic Devastation, Towns Wiped Out"
Comments here:

Monday, October 21, 2024

Musical Interlude: Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

Full screen recommended.
Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about "5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But the red emission region roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its popular name.
Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, below and left of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Just too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost covers the area of a full moon in planet Earth's sky."

"Never Regret Anything..."

 

"The Political Party Illusion"

"The Political Party Illusion"
by Jeff Thomas

"It has been said that every great nation has its rise and fall; that its rise occurs as a result of the population (in general) becoming determined to work hard to create a better life, and that its fall occurs when the population becomes spoiled, then complacent and then finally, apathetic. Much of the First World has reached this latter stage, all (to varying degrees) at the same time. Unfortunately, from a historical standpoint, the period of apathy is almost invariably followed by a period of bondage – a marked social and economic decline in which the people of the nation become little more than serfs of the state that rules them.

While most readers would agree that this describes the First World in its present state, they would likely argue that this time around, bondage will not be the end result. While reason might tell them that this is exactly the predictable (and historical) outcome, the idea of bondage is too frightful to consider as being a possibility. While a few seem to be railing against this eventuality, the great majority simply open a beer and turn on the TV. A very comfortable form of apathy, but apathy just the same.

Feudalism, Past and Present: So, are there any differences this time around? I would say that there is one major difference, and that is that the packaging is more sophisticated.

In days of yore, the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men rode into your village and demanded what few silver pennies you may have earned recently. This was clearly a dictatorial government – one which was ruled by force, so that the people were clearly serfs and had no real say. Punishment was simple: If you did not pay, your hut was burned, your possessions confiscated, and you were thrown in prison to remain until the debt had been paid. (Nobles fared a bit better: In the 15th century an ancestor of mine, Lord James of Dartmouth, spent several months in the Tower of London until he could pay King Henry IV a sum of 2000 pounds, literally a "King’s ransom" – in spite of the fact that Lord James was said to have been a favorite of the King.)

Now, of course, things are entirely different. Today, the Sheriff does not ride into your village demanding your money. You are required to send it in yourself. If you fail to pay, your house is not burned. It is confiscated, along with your other possessions, and you face prison. Increasingly, people are ruled by force just as in the 15th century. But in spite of this, citizens of many First World countries still claim to have free elections – the last bastion of the democratic system.

The Democratic Process: The idea of the democratic process is that the people may elect their leaders and thus control their destiny. However, running for office is quite expensive, and this means finding donors. Understandably, anyone who provides a donation does not regard it as a gift. He seeks something in return. In national elections, this means very large donations, translating into very large compensations. Those who contribute the most (Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banks, the Military Industry, etc.) can demand quite a bit in return.

In any "democracy" that has been in existence for a long enough time, the relationship between donors and candidates has become circular; that is, after the candidate is elected, he repays the donor, by providing either tax dollars or rights to operate that others do not enjoy. Once the circular relationship is fully cemented for a period of time, the returns to the donor grow to far exceed the donations. As a result, voters are, unwittingly, actually paying the donors and the government to dominate their lives.

Not surprisingly, donors come to regard these tax dollar infusions as a regular source of revenue and seek to have them grow regularly. (If voters could understand this circular relationship, they would be less surprised when their legislators – whether they be conservative or liberal – consistently fail to diminish the government need for tax.) So we are left with the remaining advantage of democracy: the ability to vote for those who will protect our freedoms, as we see them.

The Two Party System: In the majority of First World countries, there are a host of political parties (America is a notable exception), each claiming to represent a specific point of view. Most of the parties are fringe parties, and voting generally comes down to the two main parties: liberal and conservative. Liberals claim to champion the social freedoms (gay rights, abortion, etc.) whilst trying to limit economic freedom. Conservatives claim to champion the precise opposite.

Most voters seem to see the system as alternating between the two parties. For example, first the liberals win and increase the social freedoms of the country. Then after awhile they are voted out and the conservatives have their turn, increasing the economic freedoms. Described in this way, it would seem that the "two-party system" provides an ideal balance, moving ever-forward with increased freedoms for all.

However, if this attractive image were the case, liberal voters would not be filled with disappointment at the end of a liberal term in which their social freedoms somehow had not increased. (Their party somehow "needed to compromise" with the evil conservatives.) However, if the liberal party was successful in diminishing economic freedoms, this distraction would serve to keep these voters loyal to the party.

At the end of a conservative term, it is the reverse. While their stated objectives for regained economic freedoms somehow failed to come to pass (again, "compromise" was somehow necessary), the leaders still managed to limit social freedoms in some way. (The Patriot Act in America is perhaps the most extraordinary example.)

What voters seem to miss is that, along the way, far from increasing one type of freedom under one party, then increasing the alternate type of freedom under the other, the net effect is the exact opposite. Under a liberal government, economic freedom is diminished, and under a conservative government, social freedom is diminished. Freedom, in general, therefore, ratchets downward with each term. It does seem that voters throughout the First World are beginning to recognize that they are getting short shrift no matter which party is in power, and that their country is headed inexorably downward (while the leaders seem to be doing rather well.)

Will the voters ultimately rebel? Will the minor demonstrations of discontent evident now in the First World escalate into something more organized and more violent? What do the politicians think is likely to happen? Whilst they are not commenting on the subject, we should be able to guess their predictions based upon their actions. If they plan to increase freedoms in the future, they would be providing a calming effect to the present frustrations. However, if their true goal is a return to a kind of modern serfdom, they would be preparing for it by increasing their controls, both economic and social. In much of the First World, the latter seems to be the intended direction. Nowhere is this more evident than in America, with the renewal of the Patriot Act, and with the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Modern Day Feudalism: As stated above, the main difference between the feudal system of five hundred years ago and the feudal system that is developing in the First World today is that the packaging is more sophisticated. Instead of having identifiable kings whom we may all hate, we have the distraction of two political teams that we may "choose" between. While we praise the good guys (our preferred political party) and hope that they will vanquish the bad guys (the opposing political party), they are in fact one and the same, and they both work for the kings."

The Daily "Near You?"

Ellijay, Georgia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Violence: The Starting Point Of Civilization"

"Violence: The Starting Point Of Civilization"
by John Wilder

"Violence is something that society has been built to avoid. Historically, violence has been much higher – I recently wrote about the Yanomami people and how half of their men died in combat up until recently. This is an ugly fact.

One of the myths that has been force-fed to us is that native peoples are nice and peaceful and reverent. I had heard that people like the Blackfoot tribe “used ever part” of the animals they killed. But that same tribe would kill them by making a herd stampede over a cliff, mashing themselves as they fell – it’s what’s called a “buffalo jump”. Yes, I imagine they used a lot of the buffalo, but I’m fairly certain that practice resulted in a lot of waste just by the sheer nature gravity and the rocks below. Likewise, the Aztecs were worse: they sacrificed 4,000 actual humans for one party in 1487.

Yet, now the world is much safer, though places like the United States are getting less safe by the day. Why? Not enough violence. At least, not enough violence in the right places.

While Western Civilization certainly didn’t start the idea of laws, they’ve been embraced wholeheartedly since laws work. Although the number of laws in our current system far exceeds the number we need for a functioning society, laws are still important. But laws are just words. Ultimately, enforcement of the law means that someone has to be willing to employ violence to follow up on the law, up to and including killing the violator. That’s where the sheer number of laws gets silly. Should we really face imprisonment for a broken taillight?

Yes, I know that’s not the penalty, but try not paying the fine and see what happens. Eventually, people with guns will come and put you in jail and if you resist, they will shoot you. The reason I think we should consider very carefully what laws we as a society have is that ultimately the threat of violence is what underpins them all. The Feds ended up putting dozens of people to death at Waco over novelty paperweights. That is, of course, a ludicrous overuse of force, done by bureaucrats so that they could justify their funding at the congressional level.

I think we can agree, though, that laws are necessary. And laws gain power through their enforcement. If a law isn’t enforced, it loses all of its power. If the penalty is too small, then the law will be ignored. As I read once, “If a law is only punishable by a fine, that means it’s legal for a price.” Likewise, if attempted murder is punishable by six months in the slammer (I recently read about a murderer who was out after that length of time for attempted murder), the penalty is less severe than the fifteen years that a man received in Iowa for burning a pride flag.

If there is no penalty for crossing the American border and then taking over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, why, people will do exactly that. And why stop at one apartment building? Martha Raddatz of ABC® seems to think that five is a perfectly acceptable number of apartment complexes to be taken over by criminal Venezuelan gangs.

This is the outcome of the propaganda that “violence is never the solution”. Violence, or the threat of violence is often the only solution to many problems. An example is if a thief is attempting to break into my house and do Heaven knows what. My answer isn’t to politely state that what the thief is trying to do violates the laws.

Nope. In order to protect my house and family, I may have to use violence at that point. Certainly, it will be a reluctant use, but the reason why homes don’t experience much burglary around here is because people have guns and burglars know that, and also know that juries around here are made of people just like me.

The law doesn’t keep houses in Modern Mayberry safe, the threat of violence keeps people safe. But all the world isn’t Modern Mayberry. Places like Chicago or Baltimore have ongoing violence levels that are at multi-decadal highs. Why? The criminals have gotten the message that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. And if someone tries to step in and protect citizens? Well, like the Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny, who restrained a potentially dangerous man in a way he thought would keep everyone safe, they’ll be put on trial. Yes, and the trial is expected to take six weeks. At $1,000 an hour for lawyers, that’s $40,000 a week. Or $240,000 for all six. Maybe he’s got a coupon?

Regardless of if Penny is found guilty or not, his trial sends the same message as New York has always sent to its citizens: you’re not allowed to protect yourselves. Criminals threatening violence have the upper hand. Just ask Bernie Goetz, who decided he refused to be a mugging victim again.

We’re at the point where the criminals will start using violence – not because they have any political objective, but just because no one is stopping them, and those who would attempt to stop them are punished very visibly.

The way forward is obvious. At some point, decent people will have no other place to flee, and will have to stand and fight. When I review history, the pattern is pretty clear that civilization does return, though it does take the reestablishment of violence to get us there, and probably a few more buffalo jumps.

And it’s been 200 years since the last organized buffalo jump, I hear. I guess that makes it a bison-tennial. And maybe Penny can get an Aztec lawyer – they get right to the heart of the problem."
Full screen recommended.
Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"
"A visual journey into mankind's favorite pastime throughout the ages."

There's just something profoundly wrong with the DNA...

"It Strikes Me..."

“It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can’t get out of, but I think this is very usual in life. There are people, particularly dumb people, who are in terrible trouble and never get out of it, because they’re not intelligent enough. It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry - or laugh.”
- Kurt Vonnegut

"Life Is An Illusion: Playing Your Part "

"Life Is An Illusion: Playing Your Part "
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"Having the wisdom to know that life is but a dream does not mean that we ignore living. As children, most of us sang that mesmerizing, wistful lullaby that ends with the words, 'Life is but a dream.' This is a classic example of a deep, sophisticated truth hiding, like an underground stream, in an unlikely place. It winds its way through our minds like a riddle or a Zen koan, coming up when we least expect it and asking that we consider its meaning. Many gurus and philosophers agree with this mysterious observation, saying that this world we perceive as real is actually an illusion, not unlike a film being projected on a screen. Most of us are so involved in the projection that we don't understand it for what it is. We are completely caught up in the illusion, imagining that we are in a life and death struggle and taking it very seriously.

The enlightened few, on the other hand, live their lives in the light of the awareness that what most of us perceive as reality is a passing fancy. As a result, they behave with detachment, compassion, and wisdom, while the rest of us struggle and writhe upon the stage in the play of our life. Having the wisdom to know that life is but a dream does not mean that we ignore it or don't do our best with the twists and turns of our fate. Rather, like an actress who plays her role fully even as she knows it's only a role, we engage in the unfolding drama, but with a little more freedom because we know that this is not the totality of who we are.

And life is more of an improvisation than it is like a play whose lines have already been written, whose end is already known. Like an improviser, we have choices to make and the more we embrace the illusionary quality of the performance, the lighter we can be on the planet, on others, and on ourselves. We can truly play with the shadows cast by the light of the projector, fully engaging without getting bogged down."
"We are game-playing, fun-having creatures, we are the otters of the universe. We cannot die, we cannot hurt ourselves any more than illusions on the screen can be hurt. But we can believe we're hurt, in whatever agonizing detail we want. We can believe we're victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck."
"Many lifetimes?", I asked.
"How many movies have you seen?"
"Oh."
"Films about living on this planet, about living on other planets; anything that's got space and time is all movie and all illusion," he said. "But for a while we can learn a huge amount and have a lot of fun with our illusions, can we not?"
- Richard Bach,
Moody Blues, "Land of Make-Believe"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Economic Market Snapshot 10/21/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 10/21/24"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
o
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Comprehensive, essential truth.
Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

Dan, I Allegedly, "We Are Running Out Of Money"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 10/21/24
"We Are Running Out Of Money"
"Hey everyone, it's Dan from I Allegedly, and today we're diving into a topic that's hitting home for many: the bleak truth about this shopping season. With money running out and consumer debt climbing, it’s shaping up to be a challenging few months. Retailers are feeling the squeeze, and experts are finally acknowledging the financial strain on everyday people. From hacking scandals to consumer debt traps, it's a wild ride. Please join our email list and follow us for real-time updates on this unfolding economic saga. We're talking about everything from consumer debt to the struggles of retailers, and even some shocking fraud stories that will make you double-check your bank statements. Don’t miss out on why experts are urging us to be cautious this season."
Comments here:

"Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For First Time In History - Thank You Kamala"

"Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For 
First Time In History - Thank You Kamala"
by I&I Editorial Board

"SUNNY HOSTIN: "Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?"
KAMALA HARRIS: "There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of - and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact."

"On Friday, the Treasury Department released a report showing the kind of impact Harris is talking about. If nothing else does, it should cost her the election. The latest monthly Treasury report shows spending and revenues for the full fiscal year 2024, which ended in September. Among the terrible results: The federal deficit topped $1.8 trillion in 2024 - the third highest in history and eclipsed only by the two COVID-19 panic spending years.

That’s not for lack of revenues, which were up by nearly half a trillion dollars this year. Spending under Biden-Harris this fiscal year climbed more than $617 billion – a 10% increase. But the real shocker is the explosive growth in interest payments on the national debt. These payments hit $882 billion in FY 2024, the Treasury report says. That’s a 35% jump from last year. And it’s $8 billion more than we spent on National Defense.
This marks the first time in our nation’s history that interest on the debt has exceeded defense spending. And the gap is on track to rapidly widen – with the government spending $200 billion more in interest than in protecting America from her enemies by 2029.

Why the massive run-up in interest costs? Blame Harris’ tie-breaking votes (something for which she routinely brags). Because of them, Biden-Harris added trillions in new spending at a time when the economy had already fully recovered from the COVID-19 panic. That sparked a huge increase in inflation, which in turn drove up interest rates. More debt and higher interest rates meant a sharp increase in the cost of financing that debt.
How do we know Biden and Harris are to blame? Before they took office, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected net interest payments for the next decade, based on the policies that Donald Trump had in place. The CBO said that, had Biden not spent us to the poorhouse, interest payments on the national debt this year would have been only $284 billion. (See chart above.) In other words, Harris and her tie-breaking votes are responsible for a 210% increase in interest costs this year alone.

What would Kamala Harris do about this terrible state of affairs if she were elected president? No one has bothered to ask her. But we do know that she wants to do exactly what she and Biden have already done: add trillions of dollars of inflationary spending, impose economically ruinous tax hikes, and pile on still more growth-killing regulations. Harris is right about one thing. It is time to turn the page - before it’s too late."

Jim Kunstler, "Surprise, Surprise!"

"Surprise, Surprise!"
by Jim Kunstler

"The left’s ideas have failed and failed spectacularly, 
and all they have left is cheating.”
- Elizabeth Nickson

"Of course, there’s no “pandemic” this time to cover for the trip that the Party of Chaos wants to lay on the country, no excuse for gross and glaring ballot f*ckery, for the days of anxious uncertainty following an election. Everybody and his uncle expect a gigantic tantrum to follow November 6 if Mr. Trump somehow overcomes the tide of bogus harvested votes, illegal alien votes, phantom overseas votes, voting machine swapped votes, lost-and-found votes, last-minute rafts of votes, and other products of the Marc Elias election sabotage machine.

I am not so sure that the tantrum will materialize. Despite the orgy of Orwellian language inversions you have been subjected to in recent years, and the bending of reality it induced, you will know a real insurrection if you see it. You already know the real reason the Democratic Party went insane: its crime spree against the citizens of this land was so obvious and outrageous that a thousand Beltway bureaucrats are now going crazy in fear of prosecution. The tantrum everyone expects them to provoke would be a real insurrection and they are liable to find themselves in even deeper trouble for resorting to it.

Crime is the whole reason for the Democrats’ desperation. There was no “policy” the past four years, only crime. The Covid operation was a mass murder. The open border was not something that just happened, like a spell of bad weather. It was a colossal racketeering operation. They worked it hard. “Joe Biden” paid dozens of NGO cut-outs to systematically jam more than ten million sketchy interlopers into the country, and then support them lavishly with cash payments when they got here.

The political prosecutions of AG Merrick Garland are gauche and lawless. The pervasive censorship by DHS and other agencies is an affront to our constitution. The transgender campaign is a malicious prank against American children (and their parents). Our CIA may be a party to the fentanyl crisis. The war in Ukraine is a failed resource-grab, unbelievably stupid in inception. “Joe Biden’s” empty treasury is writing trillions in IOUs to stealthily bail out the banks and jack-up the stock market. Everything about our government has become criminal and those responsible for it know they are bound for a reckoning now.

Will the Democrats’ Antifa street-army be allowed to terrorize the cities? I expect the remaining cops not de-funded in DC, New York, Chicago, and LA won’t hold back this time, no matter what mayors Muriel Bowser, Eric Adams, Brandon Johnson, and Karen Bass tell them to do. You will instead see the return of something that has been missing for years: a sense of duty to public safety and the common good. Won’t that be a surprise? And there will be nothing that the FBI can do about. It’s one thing to incite a riot among a mob of ordinary middle-aged folks moiling around the US Capitol. It’s another thing to try to subvert the police in carrying out their duties. New heroes will emerge and there will be no ambiguity about what happens.

Black Lives Matter had already been outed as a lowlife money-grubbing hustle. But the Democratic Party may no longer depend on its old “plantation” field-hands to stage mostly peaceful anarchy and arson if the election goes the wrong way for the masters. Forty years of pretending to be an oppositional culture hasn’t worked. It was just minstrelsy updated, when all was said and done. Too many black men are rising up to speak out in support of Donald Trump, and of one America, and of acting like men. They appear to be tired of self-stigmatizing as designated victims in the Woke-Jacobin DEI psychodrama. A new generation of black male leaders is emerging to replace embarrassing con artists like Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Ibram X. Kendi. It’s been a long time coming.

Will we ever know how Kamala Harris was put over on the Democratic Convention like the sale of a used car? How the rank-and-file delegates got swindled into nominating her by acclamation without any debate, without anyone else rising to object, anyone else offering up themselves for a vote? There wasn’t even smoke-filled room this time where the bosses actually haggled over who would front for them, not a minute of suspense, no process whatsoever. Kamala Harris was just pulled out of a hat, like a rabbit. And everybody involved knew she was a dud, a slow learner, inattentive, not well-educated, lazy, possibly high a lot of the time, self-medicating due to anxiety, insecurity, purposelessness.

It took four years for slightly more than half of America to see that our country’s fate was in the hands of villains wrecking the joint. It looks like their depredations are nearly over. The USA really does not want to gurgle down the drain of history. We’re not ready to roll over and die. We’re waking up from an induced coma, starting to remember who we are. That has been the weird lesson of 2024. Surprise, surprise!"
o
"Democrats Cheer As Lizzo Says: 
'Whole Country Be Like Detroit' If Kamala Wins"
By Tyler Durden

Excerpt, mercifully: Rapper 'Lizzo' boarded a private jet on Saturday ahead of a Kamala Harris campaign rally in Detroit, telling the less fortunate than her voters: "This is how a bad b*tch saves democracy. You ho's couldn't even spell democracy." Even before Lizzo arrived in America's most dangerous city, run by far-left Democrats for generations, she insulted everyone... 

Who the hell talks like that? Also, why a private jet if the imminent global warming disaster is so dire? "The elite, authoritarian democrats hate you. They hold you in contempt. Lizzo shows off her private jet as she heads to Detroit to campaign for Kamala Harris. “This is how a bad b*tch saves democracy. You ho’s couldn’t even spell democracy.” pic.twitter.com/ugDlSvkD4w
— David P. (@davidwhitley) October 19, 2024

It gets even better because, at the rally, Lizzo told the crowd: "I'm so proud to be from Detroit. They say if Kamala Harris wins, the whole country will be like Detroit." 
Full article here:

“This is how a bad b*tch saves democracy. 
You ho’s couldn’t even spell democracy.”

The fun just never ends, does it?

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Jeremiah Babe, "You Are Witnessing The End Of The U.S. Empire"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 10/20/24
"You Are Witnessing The End Of The U.S. Empire
A Bankrupt Nation Is Not A Prosperous Nation"
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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Even Now"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Even Now"

"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.”

Chet Raymo, "Exile "

"Exile"
by Chet Raymo

 "Are we truly alone
With our physics and myths,
The stars no more
Than glittering dust,
With no one there
To hear our choral odes?"

"This is the ultimate question, the only question, asked here by the Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon. It is a poem of exile, from the ancient familiar, from the sustaining myth of rootedness, of centrality. A poem that the naturalist can relate to, we pilgrims of infinite spaces, of the overarching blank pages on which we write our own stories, our own scriptures, having none of divine pedigree.

Yes, we feel the ache of exile, we who grew up with the sustaining myths of immortality only to see them stripped away by the needy hands of fact. We scribble our choral odes. Who listens? We speak to each other. Is that enough? Having left the home we grew up in, we make do with where we find ourselves, gathering to ourselves the glittering dust of the here and now. Are we truly alone? Mahon again:
 "If so, we can start
To ignore the silence
Of infinite space
And concentrate instead
on the infinity
Under our very noses -
The cry at the heart
Of the artichoke,
The gaiety of atoms."

Better to leave the blank page blank than fill it with sentimental hankerings for home, with those prayers of our childhood we repeated over and over until they became a hard, fast crust on the page. Incline our ear instead to the faint cry that issues from the world under our very noses, from there, the tomato plant on the window sill, the ink-dark crow that paces the grass beyond the panes, the clouds that heap on the horizon - the dizzy, ditzy dance of atoms and the glitterings of stars."
"I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...
- Olethros, in "Sandman"

"We Do Choose..."

"All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."
- Joseph Epstein
"George Harrison knew something most of us didn't and still don't: there is a reality beyond the material world and what we do here and how we treat others affects us eternally. As he sings in "Rising Sun":
"But in the rising sun you can feel your life begin,
Universe at play inside your DNA.
You're a billion years old today.
Oh the rising sun and the place it's coming from
Is inside of you and now your payment's overdue."
Lyrics here:
"Death twitches my ear. 'Live,' he says, 'I am coming.'"
~ Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

The Daily "Near You?"

Streator, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Only One Basic Human Right..."

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as 
you damn well please.  And with it comes the only basic 
human duty, the duty to take the consequences."
- P. J. O'Rourke

"And It Was Pointless..."

“And it was pointless… to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hardly have put them to worse. There was no recovering them now. You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell… for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is to go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”
- Charles Frazier

"Maybe..."

“We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble.”
- “Meredith Grey”, “Gray’s Anatomy”

"How It Really Is"

 
Oh, but no help for you, Good Citizen...

"Israel Collapsing: Iran, Hezbollah, Yemen, Iraq & Syria Crush IDF, US Army "

Danny Haiphong, 10/20/24
"Israel Collapsing: Iran, Hezbollah, 
Yemen, Iraq & Syria Crush IDF, US Army "
"Professor Mohammad Marandi joined the show to discuss how Israel and its US military partners are collapsing underneath the weight of their escalating all out war with Iran, and how regional players will play a decisive role in changing the calculus in West Asia once and for all. Watch this to obtain a perspective silenced by the Western media."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Democracy Now!, 10/16/24
"U.S. Surgeon & Palestinian Nurse:
 Israel Is Routinely Shooting Children in the Head in Gaza"
"As the official death toll in Gaza passes more than 42,400, the true number may be impossible to know until Israel's war is over. But medical workers who witnessed the carnage in Gaza's hospitals are speaking out. We speak with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa about his op-ed in The New York Times that features harrowing stories from dozens of healthcare workers and CT scans of children shot in the head or the left side of the chest. The Times called the corresponding images of the patients too graphic to publish. "I personally wish that Americans could see more of what it looks like when a child is shot in the head, when a child is flayed open by bombs," says Sidhwa. "I think it would make us think a little bit more about what we do in the world." We also speak with Palestinian nurse Rajaa Musleh, who worked at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. "I will never forget the dogs were eating the dead body inside Shifa Hospital at the front of the emergency department. This will be stuck on my mind for my whole life," says Musleh. "My message for the whole world: We are human beings. We are not numbers. We have the right to receive healthcare inside Gaza."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Tough Times Means Tough Decisions"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 10/20/24
"Tough Times Means Tough Decisions"
"We're diving into the massive layoffs happening at Meta and what that means for the tech world. As companies face tough times, they're making even tougher decisions. We'll explore how the tech industry is struggling with over-hiring and the impact on profitability. Plus, I'll share stories about other industries, from retail to automotive, facing similar challenges. Don't miss out on all the insights!"
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