Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, August 19, 2022
"Back to the USSA"
"Back to the USSA"
Welcome to the sovietization of an America we once knew...
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "We are overcome with gratitude. We might have been born any time. But we were born in 1948, when antibiotics saved our life. We grew up when living was cheap and easy… and what luck!...we were so poor we could only go in one direction – up.
Nor were we burdened by any of today’s confusions. Would we be better off identifying as a girl? The thought never crossed our minds. Did we have a grudge against our parents… did society let us down… should we blame someone else if we were unhappy? We didn’t know it was an option.
We went to school when the Rolling Stones and the Doors were rolling out hit songs… and when it was still possible to ‘work your way through’ college. We started a business with almost zero financing…and were able to earn enough money to be able to live comfortably.
And then, more good luck… along came the internet that allowed us to move overseas, expand our business and explore other places, people, and cultures in depth. And finally, here we are… wonder of wonders…in the 8th decade of our life.
Dumb and Dumber? And now, the feds and the educated elite are putting on such a great show… such a rollicking, frolicking display; every day is a laughfest! A great Carnival of Claptrap. A Jamboree of Jackassery. Just read the headlines:
"Why I Feel Guilty About Being A White Mother"
"How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol"
"At signing, Biden says IRA bill will fight climate change, …"
What a great world. What great fun! Yes… it’s a great time to be alive. Only… except… but… It’s too bad the feds are ruining it. Wait. How could that be? The federal government has been around for a long time. So have the two parties. They haven’t wrecked the country yet. Have they gotten dumber? More incompetent? More corrupt? Yes, they have.
Hey, Big Spenders! In our early career, the federal government was an obvious menace to civil society, progress and prosperity. But it seemed to be more or less under control. Yes, there were plenty of people who wanted to expand federal power and use it to realize their fantasies of a better world. But there were “conservatives” too – who were usually, or eventually, able to slow them down.
Senator Robert A. Taft, for example, led opposition to the New Deal. Ronald Reagan had decent conservative instincts but was hornswoggled by his own allies. Ron Paul continues to be a very lonely voice for restraint. But the old conservatives have largely disappeared; they’ve been replaced by war mongers, dumbbells and big spenders.
“So what’s the problem?” asks the naïve observer. “You say the feds are leading us to Hell in a handcart. But as a percentage of GDP, they’re no bigger a nuisance today than they were under Nixon or Reagan.” In 2019 the Federal Budget/GDP was 20% – almost the same as it was when Taft died in 1953. Then came the Covid Panic. The feds, from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders, pretended that the threat of the coronavirus was like the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Without conservatives to stop them, they went on a spending spree. Federal outlays rose to over 30% of GDP.
Back to the USSA: But that’s only part of the story. Federal regulations determine where and how resources are used too. And the effect is cumulative. George Washington University has a Regulatory Studies Center. It keeps track of “economically significant” regulations, which it defines as those having an impact of $100 billion or more.
When we were in our youthful prime during the Reagan years, the feds were promulgating about 20 of these regulations per year, with a total economic impact of at least $2 trillion. Today, Joe Biden’s team is on track to put forth 63 new regulations per year, with a total impact over $6 trillion. These regulatory edicts represent a huge, and largely unnoticed creep of federal power. If we average the intervening years at 40 per year, we can assume a total cost of $160 trillion, or more than 6 times today’s GDP, since 1980.
That is a measure of how much bossier and more wasteful the federal government has become. It also helps explain why growth rates and productivity have declined. For the first time in our lives, neither is positive. Both are going backwards.
In effect, the US economy has been Sovietized, shackled by central planning. As we see in the latest boondoggle – the Inflation Reduction Act – Washington hacks increasingly decide what kind of car you will drive… what kind of kitchen stove you will use… where and how you will live. And as in the Soviet experiment of 1917-1991, the results are grim. All we can do is laugh."
"The Worst Part..."
"People cry not because they are weak.
It's because they've been strong for too long."
- Johnny Depp
"Boats Are 50% Off - What’s Next?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 8/19/22:
"Boats Are 50% Off - What’s Next?"
"It is amazing that people are getting such tremendous deals on certain things. Right now we are seeing areas where boats are 50% off right now. We are seeing a tremendous deal on barbecue and leisure equipment as well. What will be on sale next?"
Comments here:
"I Heard a Silly Rumor – This Is the End"
Full screen recommended.
"I Heard a Silly Rumor – This Is the End"
by Phil Butler
"The end of civilization as we know it is at hand. Why more experts have not seized on the reality facing us is perplexing. It came to me like a bolt, the reason the current world order is pushing so hard for nuclear confrontation. The answer is right in front of us. Nuclear Winter.
I don’t need to rehash the craziness and diabolical machinations that have gone on over the past few years. The pandemic, the societal brain blistering that has caused, the lead-up proxy wars, ISIS, crazy presidents, pedophilia, and child sex changes, the Lolita Express, Hunter Biden, Ukraine. And, what about the very real problem of climate change, put into the brainwash blender so average Joe or Judy won’t know up from down? Then there's Bill Gates, population control, and one of Epstein’s chums owning most of America’s farmland. What about that?
Yeah. We are pretty much screwed. They just raided former President Trump’s home, and Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker Carlson, and other prominent conservatives are being labeled “traitors” to America for disagreeing. What's scarier is, it looks like the rest of us is next if you deal at all with social media. And, judging from the level of ignorance about the realities of a US/Russia nuclear confrontation, society is just dumb enough for a dystopian reset. A series of recent articles illustrate.
A USA Today story, and many others recently, have clued me to the two issues I just pointed out. First, it seems feasible that the screwed-up liberal order that got us in this global warming mess in the first place, seem determined to fix it with a perpetual cold front. Second, we’ve been brain battered, propagandized, and dumbed down so far we’re irredeemable. And they know it. Now, let me show you why.
A “new” study referenced in the USA Today story says Nuclear war between the US and Russia would leave 5 billion dead from hunger. The author of the study, a Rutgers University climate scientist named Lili Xia, tells us (again) how thousands of nuclear weapons being detonated will send megatons of ash into the stratosphere, blocking out the sun. This is not new science, and the language the scientist uses is for 8-year-olds or nincompoops. Here’s a snippet. “A large percent of the people will be starving… It’s really bad…. The reduced light, global cooling, and likely trade restrictions after nuclear wars would be a global catastrophe for food security.”
Yes, 12,000 modern nuclear weapons detonating would certainly block out the sun and cause famine, then disease, and maybe even a new Ice Age. The Rutgers charts in the study point to sea and soil temperatures dropping substantially. This would fix global warming but good. But “likely” trade restrictions after global thermonuclear war? This is 21st-century science, the big concern? What are these people smoking? I’ll get to Armageddon in a minute, but first, let me introduce the architects of this climate fix.
Okay, first, Bill Gates did not say the population should be controlled through vaccines. However, he is taking huge steps to prepare for the inevitable. This World Economic Forum story articulates his “warning,” and the Microsoft billionaire is America’s largest private landowner with almost 250,000 acres of farmland.
Now, let’s address what the real Armageddon will look like. I won’t take up your time here. This in-depth report from the height of the Cold War Era through 2003 tells us all we need to know. And if the Rutgers geniuses think their research paints a sad picture, by the time you get to the deep references Dr. Wm. Robert Johnston provides, you’ll realize how few people and animals on this Earth would survive.
These new researchers have made a horrible miscalculation. You see, by the end of the initial nuclear exchange, half the population of the world will be incinerated or blown to bits, and another ¼ will die from radiation and other injuries within weeks. Nothing will work, satellites won’t operate, there won’t be any economy, and the United Nations and most of our institutions will be gone. In the US, 5,800 warheads will have detonated, totaling 3,900 megatons. In Russia, nothing within 200 miles of Moscow will be left alive, not even bugs.
According to Dr. Johnston’s research/scenario, more than 200 nuclear warheads would render hundreds of thousands of kilometers lifeless, ruined, and utterly destroyed. Europe will be a mass open grave. Carnage will stretch from the currently undamaged Kyiv to the Pyrenees. Spain and Portugal may be the last strongholds of living souls. This MIT excerpt from the 2021 book “Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-First Century: A Citizen’s Guide” by Richard Wolfson and Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, substantiates Johnson’s previous research.
In 60 years, there will still be vast reaches of land that are unusable. Genetic defects will have shown up in a big percentage of the few hundred million who survived. New Zealand and Argentina will be world powers in this new dystopia. We’ll have the brave new world, that marvelous reset Schwab and the globalists have been stirring. Greta Thunberg and the climate alarmists will finally fall silent (one way or another).
And now, I leave you with the final words from our Rutgers genius, Professor Alan Robock, who co-authored the study with Lili Xia, which was aimed at the world’s zombified population. It’s a groundbreaking revelation: “The data tells us one thing: We must prevent a nuclear war from ever happening.” Duh! Well, it’s happening. It’s the only strategy of the elites that makes any sense."
○
Related:
Full screen recommended.
"Poseidon: Russian Underwater Drone That Can Sink Britain"
○
Full screen recommended.
"Russian TV threatens 'UK's nuclear annihilation
with giant radioactive tsunami & Satan-2 missiles'"
And humanity's just insane enough to do it...
"How Then..."
"How, then, shall we face the future? When the sailor is out on the ocean, when everything is changing all around him, when the waves are born and die, he does not stare down into the waves, because they are changing. He looks up at the stars. Why? Because they are faithful..."
- Soren Kierkegaard
○
Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
Jim Kunstler, "The Meaning of Incredible"
"The Meaning of Incredible"
by Jim Kunstler
"All week the CDC has been walking back one “guidance” after another. No more compulsory testing, no more contact tracing, no more social distancing, no more treating the unvaxxed differently than the vaxxed (though the “Joe Biden” regime still won’t allow unvaxxed travelers into the USA), no more vax mandates (except, apparently, for the U.S. military).
The CDC seems to think nobody will notice its crimes, and the crimes of its sister agencies, FDA, NIAID, NIH, (and the White House Task Force) if it strolls jauntily into the fall season whistling a happy a tune: Nevermind Covid anymore, la la la…. Did I say crimes? Yes, I did. As in gross violations of the law and the basic social contract.
They lied about their roles in the nefarious origins of SARS CoV-2. They conjured up - already had waiting, actually - dangerous genetic treatments masquerading as “vaccines” and then they faked the safety trials to rush them into use. They denied people proper, effective treatments with inexpensive drugs and killed them with ventilators and remdesivir - solely to maintain a fraudulent emergency use authorization (EUA) that shielded “vaccine” companies from lawsuits. Once the “vaccines’ were widely distributed - and forced upon many people with mandates - they confabulated and hid information about adverse reactions and deaths. They destroyed countless small businesses, livelihoods, households, and hindered children’s development with lockdowns. And they used both social and news media to censor their critics in direct violation of the first amendment. That’s all.
Oh, one more thing: they destroyed modern medicine. They will probably assist in the destruction of law, too, because the legal system will never be able to handle the volume of lawsuits against all parties involved in the Covid “vaccine” mass slaughter - including the corporations that forced their employees to get vaxxed and the pharma companies themselves, who will lose their EUA protections once their fraud is proven. And they will hasten the death of an already ailing financial system that can’t bear the wealth transfers implied in the foregoing (on top of the worst debt crisis in human history).
You think I exaggerate? We’re sailing into the flu season with millions of people whose immune systems are wrecked by multiple shots of mRNA novelty drugs. They are also susceptible to many viruses and bacteria which normally lurk in everybody’s bodily ecosystem, but would be controlled by otherwise healthy immune systems. Likewise, their hacked immune systems are no longer able to suppress cancers - many forms of which are already way up above normal statistical levels. Not to mention damage done to cardiovascular systems by spike proteins, which linger in human bodies for more than a year after “vaccine” shots, as well as neurological and brain damage.
Former Wall Street analyst Edward Dowd said yesterday (Aug 18) that a Society of Actuaries report just made public shows that a 20 percent uptick in excess deaths among working age people, which began with vaxx mandates in the fall of 2021, continued into the second quarter of 2022. Actuaries are the people who compile and analyze statistics for insurance companies.
So, all week the CDC has been walking-back one “guidance” after another. No more compulsory testing, no more contact-tracing, no more social distancing, no more treating the unvaxxed differently than the vaxxed (though the “Joe Biden” regime still won’t allow unvaxxed travelers into the USA), no more vaxx mandates (except, apparently, the US military). Oh, and they’ve conceded that their “vaccines” do not remain in the deltoid muscle, but actually leak all over the body. Note: whatever else the public health agencies are saying or doing right now, they are still promoting the mRNA vaccines, and lying about their safety and effectiveness - because if they told the truth, they would be completely discredited and surely subject to criminal prosecution. And they are still suppressing cheap and effective treatment protocols while promoting remdesivir and the useless (plus expensive) Paxlovid.
The CDC capped the week’s walk-back campaign by announcing a major overhaul of how the agency works. (The FDA and other public health entities made no such promises.) CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, fronting for other little-known federal bigwigs actually called in to clean-up after her, made the hilarious statement: “I look forward to working with the incredible people at CDC and our partners to realize the agency’s fullest potential to benefit the health and well-being of all Americans.” What a dim bulb. Does she know the definition of the word incredible? (Here it is: impossible to believe.)
Of course, the more sobering picture is that virtually all American institutions are now incredible, impossible to believe, starting from the top: “Joe Biden” as president. The executive branch of the government is being run by Barack Obama and a claque around him and is being run into the ground either on-purpose or out of astounding incompetence. Attorney General Merrick Garland flamboyantly disgraces the very idea of justice with Stalinesque political prosecutions. FBI Director Christopher Wray flouts every attempt to extract the truth about his agency’s operations, and at least half the country believes he’s turned it into a secret police operation like the Gestapo. The college presidents and deans have dishonored the idea of truth-seeking with their cowardly submission to Jacobin-Marxist maniacs and their program of anti-knowledge. And who, in America really trusts his doctor? (Not me. Mine is the “chief medical officer” of my network and he’s still pushing “vaccines.”)
We allowed this to happen. We tolerated this exorbitant abuse by runaway authorities-gone-criminal. We let them get away with their bullshit about “defending our democracy” when they are actively and visibly destroying it. Serious people must be seriously asking themselves: what will it take to stop them now?"
○
Related, highest recommendation:
Gregory Mannarino, "Critical Updates: No Guessing Required! How The 'Big Meltdown' Will Happen"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/19/22:
"Critical Updates: No Guessing Required!
How The 'Big Meltdown' Will Happen"
Comments here:
"Death Sentence by Starvation"
"Death Sentence by Starvation"
by Chris MacIntosh
"You can’t build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery"
- Norman Borlaug
"Trudeau pushes ahead on fertilizer reduction. The sales pitch by Trudeau is that by cutting nitrous oxide emissions the central planners will save the planet from assured annihilation. Like any ridiculous war, whereby the goal is so broadly defined so as to ensure a never ending and ultimately unwinnable war (see war on "terror" and the war on "hate speech" as prime examples), this one too has a fugazi aspect to it. The target now is "emissions from agricultural sources" and they intend to reduce these 30% by 2030. For agriculture, that means cutting applications of nitrogen fertilizer.
Let me be blunt. The inevitable consequence is mass starvation.
Farmers will find their businesses under intense pressure as they are forced to try to make ends meet while reducing productivity. This will see many fail. But fear not, their land will be purchased by the likes of Bill Gates, Blackrock, and the government via various "collective bodies," who will, via a complicit media, explain that this is needed "for the good of everyone," of course. The net result will be a catastrophic decline in the aggregate food supply, and people will starve. We’ll be told that "the old way wasn’t sustainable" and we’ll be offered synthetic lab grown isht that will be referred to incorrectly as food and specifically meat. It is neither and will, like high fructose corn syrup, further weaken and sicken people. A perpetual never ending cycle of dependent, mentally, and physically sick populace reliant on the technocrats for their very survival.
Nitrogen is THE most important nutrient for crops. The invention of synthetic nitrogen is what allowed humanity to grow from a population of under 2 billion to almost 8 billion within a century. No synthetic nitrogen means no food.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is generated as part of nitrogen fertilizer. The pointy shoes and their "sanctioned" experts have categorized N2O as an extremely potent greenhouse gas alongside methane. Why N2O and methane? Well, N2O hits directly at ALL crops and methane hits directly at all animals farmed. Every one of them. The hobgoblin of climate change is being used to obtain full and total control over the entire food industry. Quite a feat.
Canada is one of the major agricultural players globally. That means it’s an export powerhouse. But this isn’t possible without nitrogen fertilizer. Canada produces 8% of the world’s tradable wheat, 10% of tradable barley, and well over 50% of tradable canola.
Cut nitrogen usage by 30%, and you’re not going to simply see a consequent 30% reduction in Canada’s food supply. It doesn’t work like that. Cut 30% nitrogen usage and you have entire farm failures. Imagine any business where, for argument’s sake, your margins are 20% (they’re less in farming) and you see a 30% fall in production or something like that. You go out of business. 100% out of business. Poof! Gone! Some obviously will survive, but the production collapse is some figure north of 30%. And all that’s likely gone from the world market.
Global food insecurity is already rising rapidly. As we pointed out before COVID we were due a bull market in agricultural prices simply due to the energy component. Now, of course, it’s much, much worse. The world is staring down the barrel of a looming humanitarian catastrophe at a scale unseen since the mid-20th century.
The decision by Canadian and Dutch elites to restrict nitrogen usage is nothing less than a death sentence to millions globally to die of starvation. This self-righteous posturing by Canadian and Dutch WEF shills is about to create untold human suffering. The only positive out of this situation is that with each subsequent lockdown and disastrous policy initiated the populace will become angrier. Like every empire before it, this one, too, is likely to succumb under the weight of its own debts."
○
Related:
"Prices Are Getting Crazy At Target! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 8/19/22:
"Prices Are Getting Crazy At Target! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Target, and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
○
Related:
"SSI Payments: Why Will You Get A Double Payment In September?"
"SSI Payments:
Why Will You Get A Double Payment In September?"
by US News
"Those receiving Social Security Income (SSI) payments are set to get the first of two September payments in the next few weeks. There is a slight change to the normal scheduling of these payments purely down to how the days fall on the calendar. Many people in the USA will be receiving more than normal in September.
Usually, SSI payments are distributed at on the first of each month. However, October 1 falls on a weekend, meaning the payment will be moved up to September. Therefore, payments worth up to 841 dollars will be distributed on both September 1 and September 31, although keep in mind that the September 31 payment is really the one for October. December is another month this year that will get double payments, again based on how the dates fall with weekends and holidays.
Who is eligible for the double SSI payments in September? SSI payments are designed to help those who are aged 65 or older and those who are blind, disabled and have little to no income. Eligibility is also dependent on assets. In order to be considered eligible, individuals must not have more than 2,000 dollars in assets or 3,000 dollars for couples. Assets include life insurance policies with a face value of 1,500 dollars or less, a car, burial plots for you or immediate family members, up to 1,500 dollars in burial funds for you and up to 1,500 dollars in burial funds for your spouse, and the home or place you live.
What are the other Social Security benefits being paid out this September? Other benefits are being paid out to applicants on the 14th, 21st and 28th of the month depending on what day of the month their birthday falls on. Those born between the 1st and the 10th will be getting their payments first and then it moves onto those born between 11th and 20th, and then the rest on the 28th September. This makes it easier for the government to manage the payments."
○
Related:
○
How Much Will SSI Beneficiaries Get Now?
"In this video, we are discussing SSI, supplemental security income and how much beneficiaries could be receiving as a result of some newly released information. SSI is administered by the Social Security administration but it’s not technically Social Security benefits. However, SSI, supplemental security income also enjoys the annual raise to monthly benefits just like Social Security beneficiaries as a result of the annual cost of living adjustment otherwise represented as COLA raise. In this video we are discussing how much will SSI get? How much will supplemental security income get? How much will Social Security get? Will SSI get a raise? Will SSI get an increase? Will SSI get more? We are answering all these questions and discussing how much SSI, supplemental security income Beneficiaries could be receiving as a result of this new information that was just released in accordance with the cost of living adjustment."
○
Related:
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 8/19/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 8/19/22"
Trump Raid Coverup, Cheney Blowout, Inflation Increasing
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"It’s another phony investigation into everything Donald Trump to try to make up another fake crime. They are so scared Trump will take control of America again the Dem Deep State globalists are doing everything possible to try to derail President Trump. AG Merrick Garland does not want to even reveal the contents of the affidavit that allowed the FBI to ransack Trump’s personal Florida residence nearly 2 years after he moved out of the White House. Why the secrecy? They are simply making it all up as they go along - again. Shame on the DOJ, and double shame on the FBI for trying to frame Trump - again.
Liz Cheney is a registered Republican that says she voted with President Trump 93% of the time. I guess voting for Trump’s impeachment for yet another made up crime just does not count as disloyalty. Trump had the last laugh by supporting Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary for the only House seat in Wyoming. Hageman destroyed Cheney, and that marks the eighth House Republican who voted to impeach President Trump to be removed from office. Cheney now says she is going to run for President in 2024 - I know you are laughing, but it’s not a joke. It’s more like an embarrassing delusion for Cheney, who is now worth more than $30 million. That’s some strong savings with only a $174,000 a year Congressional job.
Enjoy the slightly lower gasoline prices while you can because all indications are inflation is coming back with a vengeance right along with some sort of market crash. How can both happen? It all hinges around the dollar remaining the world’s reserve currency. If Saudi Arabia (SA) ends up joining the so-called BRIC countries, you can kiss the US dollar good bye. That means SA will no longer sell its oil exclusively in dollars, and the dollar will tank because many will not need to have them to buy oil. Is this why the Fed is hell-bent on raising rates and fighting inflation? Is the Fed really just protecting the dollar? There is much more in the 59-minute newscast."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 8/19/22:
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Gregory Mannarino, "The Housing Bubble Is Cracking; Will A Nuclear Fallout "Accident" Be The Next Supercrisis?"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/18/22:
"The Housing Bubble Is Cracking;
Will A Nuclear Fallout "Accident" Be The Next Supercrisis?"
Comments here:
"37 Percent Of U.S. Farmers In The Western Half Of The Country Are Killing Their Own Crops"
Full screen recommended.
"37 Percent Of U.S. Farmers In The Western Half
Of The Country Are Killing Their Own Crops"
by Epic Economist
"Thousands upon thousands of U.S. farmers are killing their own crops while ranchers are still selling off their herds at a staggering pace as extreme weather conditions continue to wreak havoc all across the nation. As a result, food production in the U.S. is rapidly declining, and current supplies are getting increasingly tighter, which indicates that a food crisis is now brewing in the world's wealthiest country. In fact, all around the globe, agricultural production is going to be below expectations in 2022. Consequently, we will all be paying much more for food in 2023, and millions of people who live in critical areas will face hunger or be victimized by starvation in the coming months. In some parts of Africa, that's already happening, but Americans haven’t heard about this because the mainstream media isn't showing it on the news. That's why we've been extensively covering this rapidly growing global food crisis lately. This crisis is a really big deal, and it isn't just going to hit poverty-struck nations. Here in America, all of the food that is not being grown in 2022 will cause immense economic pain in 2023, and that's what we're going to expose today.
A new study published by The American Farm Bureau Federation on Tuesday revealed that all the states that produce almost half of the food we consume in the U.S. each year are now being absolutely devastated by the worst multi-year megadrought in 1,200 years. The organization also conducted a survey to know how U.S. farmers are faring during this drought, and their discoveries were extremely alarming. Farmers noted that this year’s dry weather conditions are taking a harder toll than last year’s, with 37% of them saying that “they are plowing through and killing existing crops that won’t reach maturity because of dry conditions.”
The same survey also exposed that ranchers are still being forced to sell off their cattle herds earlier than normal as water sources dry out and animal feed costs explode. In Texas, ranchers reported the largest reduction in herd size, down 50%, followed by New Mexico and Oregon at 43% and 41% respectively.
In Oklahoma, beef producers are warning that cheap ground beef is set to eventually top $50 per pound. Thanks to a shortage of hay and feed, skyrocketing prices for farming equipment, rising transport costs, and various other metrics, average beef prices are already about twice what they were in 2019. But could you imagine paying 50 dollars for a pound of ground beef?
Even now, industry executives are saying that U.S. consumers are seeking cheaper alternatives as meat prices go through the roof. On Monday, Tyson Foods CEO noted that “inflation-weary shoppers are pulling back on buying pricey steaks and switching to cheaper chicken at the grocery store”. The meat processing giant highlighted that “demand for chicken is extremely strong,” while demand for its higher-priced cuts of beef has softened. Unfortunately, our leaders are not taking this crisis seriously. A catastrophic global famine is coming, and it’s safe to say that it will turn the entire global economy upside down. At this point, the only thing we can do is to get prepared. So we hope that all of you are taking action while there is still time to do so."
Comments here:
"This Is A Giant Scam; Your Bank Account Is Bleeding; Stockpile Food Before Hyperinflation Hits"
Jeremiah Babe 8/18/22:
"This Is A Giant Scam; Your Bank Account Is Bleeding;
Stockpile Food Before Hyperinflation Hits"
Comments here:
"Rotten Eggs"
"Rotten Eggs"
by Addison Wiggin
"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the
ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair."
- Sam Ewing
“You must live in Chicken County, USA!” Dean C exclaims in response to yesterday’s missive. From Charles P: “Don’t know where you get your eggs but ours are $3.83 for a dozen medium and $6.99 for 18-carton of large at Walmart…”
Yesterday, I claimed that you can buy a carton of eggs for $1.83 in the U.S., according to the data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Oy. Excuse us for using an average number. So vehement was the rejection of the price of my eggs, I checked the BLS numbers. Here’s a chart from the “Egg Market News Report” (yes, that exists) published by the United States Department of Agriculture:
The BLS statistic ($1.83) is closer to the 3-Year Average. Point taken, in this year of bloating and penny-pinching… the price point is closer to our readers’ exclamations. It’s also closer to the real cost of the eggs in my own frigo.
Does it really matter? The consumer price index (CPI) that gets bandied about once a month by inflation-watchers… doesn’t include the price of eggs because it’s considered too volatile and throws off their neat and nifty “hedonic” pricing models. That pricing model also uses what’s known as the “replacement” model. If eggs get too expensive you’ll replace them with say, I don’t know, baby formula? (Not that you can get any of that either).
Alas, the CPI – ex food and energy – is the number used to push legislation and set Fed overnight rates. With Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act now signed into law, why, we wonder, are the markets still climbing this wall of worry? Heh.
Only in Orwell’s fevered mind can $737 billion in increased deficit spending be a cure for inflation… and the climate… and health care. And the deficit. This Statista chart is telling. It represents $4,286 trillion in government spending from just two pieces of legislation. Sigh.
The FOMC also uses the CPI, among other factors, to determine Fed policy. The minutes from the Fed’s July 26-27 meeting show that they intend to hike interest rates through the end of the year. The governors “emphasized a slowing in aggregate demand would play an important role in reducing inflation pressures," the minutes reveal.
Despite all that, consumer spending remains resilient. We might be “quiet quitting”, refusing to work at all, going broke or deeper in debt, but are we really going to stop buying eggs? We’ll have to check in – and double-check! – on the price of our eggs in a month. We’re curious if Fed rate hikes will slow the aggregate demand for unborn chicken offspring. In the meantime, while the summer doldrums continue to slow your roll, check out the latest Session on capitalism v. communism with Mark Moss and Aleks Svetski and their book "The UnCommunist Manifesto" on YouTube, by clicking here."
"From Chicken County USA, follow your bliss,"
Addison Wiggin
"Here Is Why 37 Percent Of U.S. Farmers In The Western Half Of The Country Are Killing Their Own Crops"
"Here Is Why 37 Percent Of U.S. Farmers In
The Western Half Of The Country Are Killing Their Own Crops"
by Michael Snyder
"Food doesn’t just magically show up at the grocery store. If farmers and ranchers do not produce it, we do not eat. I know that I have been writing about the rapidly growing global food crisis a lot lately, but that is because this really is a big deal. All over the globe, agricultural production is going to be below expectations in 2022. As a result, those of us that live in wealthy countries will pay much more for food in 2023, while many of those that live in poor countries will either deeply suffer or die. In fact, children are already dropping dead from starvation in large numbers in some parts of Africa, but most Americans haven’t heard about this because they aren’t showing it on the news.
Of course this isn’t just a crisis for poor countries on the other side of the planet. Here in the United States, the food that is not being grown in 2022 will cause immense economic pain in 2023. There are 17 western states that collectively produce almost half of our food, and right now those 17 states are being absolutely devastated by the worst multi-year megadrought in 1,200 years…
"The 17 states including and north of Texas, up along the Central Plains to North Dakota and west to California are vital to the U.S. agricultural sector, supporting nearly half of the nation’s $364 billion production by value. This includes 74% of beef cattle, responsible (in total) for 18% of U.S. agricultural production by value; 50% of dairy production, responsible (in total) for 11% of U.S. agricultural production by value, over 80% of wheat production by value and over 70% of vegetable, fruit and tree nut production by value. Drought conditions, which have persisted well into 2022, put production of these commodities at risk, along with the stability of farms, ranches and local economies reliant on crops, livestock and downstream products and services for income.
The American Farm Bureau Federation wanted to know how farmers in that half of the nation are faring during this drought, and so they conducted a survey. And what they discovered is extremely alarming. Here is one example…"This year’s drought conditions are taking a harder toll than last year’s, as 37% of farmers said they are plowing through and killing existing crops that won’t reach maturity because of dry conditions."
Do you understand what that is saying? 37 percent of all farmers in the western half of the country are killing their own crops because those crops won’t even reach maturity because of the endless drought. I was absolutely floored when I first saw that figure. And that same survey also found that staggering numbers of ranchers in some western states have been selling off their cattle…
"Farmers in Texas are being forced to sell off their cattle herds earlier than normal due to extreme drought — as water sources dry out and grass burns up. Farmers in the Lone Star state reported the largest reduction in herd size, down 50%, followed by New Mexico and Oregon at 43% and 41% respectively."
The cattle that are being slaughtered now are helping to stabilize short-term beef prices. But in the long run we will see a much smaller cattle population and far higher beef prices. In fact, some beef producers in Oklahoma are warning that “cheap ground beef could eventually top $50 per pound”…"Thanks to the unending economic symptoms of the pandemic and 2022’s inflation double-punch, average beef prices are currently about twice what they were in 2019. Add in the deepening widespread drought, a shortage of hay and feed, skyrocketing prices, transport costs, and various other metrics, some Southwest Oklahoma beef producers suggest cheap ground beef could eventually top $50 per pound." Could you imagine paying 50 dollars for a pound of ground beef?
Even now, we are being told that U.S. consumers are increasingly switching to chicken…"Inflation-weary shoppers are pulling back on buying pricey steaks and switching to cheaper chicken at the grocery store. Tyson (TSN), the meat processing giant, said Monday that “demand for chicken is extremely strong,” while demand for its higher-priced cuts of beef has softened."
Of course it isn’t just the United States that is moving into unprecedented territory. We just learned that there will be crop losses in France of up to 35 percent…"France’s fruit and vegetable crops have fallen by nearly 35% due to the extreme drought this summer, Jacques Rouchausse, president of the French national association of vegetable producers, Legumes de France, said on Tuesday. “We have losses on the yields. For the moment, we estimate that these losses are between 25% and 35 percent. We have to stress that if we want food sovereignty, if we want food security, we really have to find ways to continue producing on our territory,” Rouchausse said on air of Radio Franceinfo."
Yesterday, I discussed the fact that there will be crop losses in the UK of up to 50 percent in some cases. And in Italy, it is being reported that there will be crop losses of up to 80 percent in certain areas. As global food supplies get tighter and tighter, the wealthy countries will have enough money to import the food that they need.
But what will the poorer countries do? At this point, tens of millions of Africans are already dealing with severe food shortages…"Drought is gripping the Horn of Africa, leaving some 26 million people facing food shortages in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia over the next six months. More than 7 million livestock animals have already been wiped out. Across East Africa as a whole, some 50 million people are facing acute food insecurity."
This is a crisis that isn’t going away. Not too long ago, UN Secretary General António Guterres openly admitted that it is likely that there will be “multiple famines” in 2023…"In a video message to the meeting, UN chief António Guterres commended the partners for joining forces at what he called “this critical moment”, noting that the number of people who are severely food insecure has doubled in the last two years. “We face a real risk of multiple famines this year. And next year could be even worse. But we can avoid this catastrophe if we act now,” said Mr. Guterres."
Of course this is exactly what I have been saying for years. Global famine is coming. There is no way to avoid it, and it is going to turn the entire global economy upside down. When you know that a global famine is coming, the prudent thing to do is to get prepared. So I hope that all of you are taking action while there is still time to do so."
Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, "Col. Macgregor - Ukraine & Russia Latest"
Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, 8/18/22:
"Col. Macgregor - Ukraine & Russia Latest"
Comments here:
○
Related:
Musical Interlude: Rodney Atkins, "If You're Going Through Hell"
Rodney Atkins, "If You're Going Through Hell"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121211.html
"The Trick..."
"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. "
- Carlos Castaneda
"Why I Pick Up Trash At The Beach"
"Why I Pick Up Trash At The Beach"
by Ryan Holiday
"I have lived on a rural country road for many years. It is unpaved and unmaintained by the county or the state, lined with trees, and more frequently crossed by deer and jack rabbits than people. It’s a throwback to an older, simpler way of life. It’s also a throwback to a scene I’ve always remembered from "Mad Men," where Don Draper and his family finish their picnic and then nonchalantly throw all their trash into the grass below.
My experience walking and running and biking and driving on this road has been to witness the return of that attitude. People dump tires and old mattresses. They dump debris from construction sites. They dump beer bottles and candy wrappers. They dump illegal deer kills and for some inexplicable and alarming reason, a lot of dead dogs.
At first, this just pissed me off - especially because the nails kept giving me flats. It made me angry at humanity and the place that I lived. I tried calling the police and animal control and my local politicians—of course, they did nothing. I put up cameras which did nothing. I despaired about the climate and the future. I thought about moving.
But then one morning on my walk with my kids, a thought hit me that was both freeing and indicting. How many times do I have to walk past this litter, I thought, before I am complicit in its existence. Even if I moved to a place where this didn’t happen, I thought, it would still be happening here. Marcus Aurelius was right when he said that you can also commit injustice by doing nothing.
So I started cleaning it up. The tires went into the back of my truck - and I paid to have them properly recycled. I was down in the gullies by the side of the road picking up soda bottles and plastic bags. I tossed countless nails and screws into the trash. I have put on face masks and gloves and scooped up dead goats, a dead calf and dead dogs which I burned or took to the back of my ranch to decompose in a less disruptive place. I can’t say the experience was pleasurable, but it was empowering.
The Stoics would agree that the world can be ugly and awful and disappointing. They would just remind us that what we control is what we do about this. We control what difference we try to make. We control whether it makes us bitter or makes us better - whether we complain or just get to work.
But the ultimate reward came more recently, because we spent the last few weeks at the beach as a family. My kids were excited to play in the ocean and to build sand castles and have ice cream, of course. Yet they seemed to have the most fun running up and down the empty beach in the morning - unprompted by me - picking up trash left by the beach goers the day before and asking for my help lifting them up so they could put it in those paper bag trash cans that the county puts up every few hundred yards.
I posted about it on Instagram once and people showed me there was a whole hashtag of people doing this. It started with a viral Facebook post in 2019, which has 335,000 shares and 102,000 likes (and counting). A guy posted before and after photos with this caption: “Here is a new #challenge for all you bored teens. Take a photo of an area that needs some cleaning or maintenance, then take a photo after you have done something about it, and post it.”
The challenge spread globally thanks to the #TrashTag hashtag. You can see people cleaning up a beach in Mumbai, filling up dumpsters full of trash in Kansas City, and collecting garbage in Vietnam.
A Daily Stoic reader emailed me a little while back to tell me about how his picking up trash spread locally. In his townhome community, there’s a trash dumping problem. “It was driving me mad,” he wrote. He put up cameras to try to catch offenders. He stayed up late to see if he could run them off. Then he came across the video I made and instead of policing his area, he began cleaning it up. “I saw it rub off on some of my neighbors and family,” he said. And now, the number of neighbors picking up trash outnumbers the number of neighbors dumping trash.
The Stoics spoke of our “circles of concern.” Our first concern, they said, is our mind. But beyond this is our concern for our bodies then for our immediate family then our extended family. Like concentric rings, these circles were followed by our concern for our community, our city, our country, our empire, our world. The work of philosophy, the Stoics said, was to draw this outer concern inward, to learn how to care as much as possible for as many people as possible, to do as much good for them as possible.
There’s a sign by the track I run at in Austin, put there by the football player Hollywood Henderson (who paid for the track). It says, “Leave This Place Better Than You Found It.” To me, that’s a pretty good life philosophy. In things big and small (but mostly small). As Zeno said, “well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.” You don’t have to save the planet. You don’t have to save someone’s life. Can you just make things a little bit better?
There is a Mr. Rogers quote I love. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,” Rogers said, “my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” We decide what we look for in life - do we get mad at the people making the mess or do we look towards the people cleaning things up? We decide whether to despair or find hope and goodness. But I actually think we can go further. Do we decide to be one of the helpers? Do we decide to pick up the trash? Do we decide to leave this place a little better than we found it? That’s what makes the difference…and life better for everyone, but especially you."
The Poet: Theodore Roethke, "In a Dark Time"
"In a Dark Time"
"In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood-
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What’s madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks - is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is -
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind."
- Theodore Roethke
“7 Best Shakespeare Insults”
“7 Best Shakespeare Insults”
by The Huffington Post
"You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." Shakespeare employs this biting insult in "Macbeth" to establish the complete and utter repulsiveness of the three witches. Their "withered and wild" features cause Macbeth and Banquo to question if the sisters are even human beings.
"Methinks thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon you." In "All's Well That Ends Well," Lafeu hits infamous liar and coward Porolles with this blunt put-down after being finally fed up with his antics. Although, knowing Porolles and his mischievous ways, he probably deserved the jab.
"I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets." Beggars can't be choosers is the modern way of getting this point across, but Shakespeare's version is far more biting. "As You Like It" showcases Shakespeare's gift of saying the meanest of things in the most eloquent ways in this insult Rosalind doles out to Phebe.
"Thou art a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way." Possibly the most elaborate jab he has ever written, Shakespeare pulls out all the stops in "King Lear" when the Earl of Kent replies to Oswald's innocent question of, "What dost thou know me for?" with nearly every insult in the book. And if that verbal attack wasn't enough to put Oswald down, the Earl of Kent proceeds to physically beat him!
"I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands." In Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens," protagonist Timon and his least favorite dinner companion, Apemantus, insult each other to no end in a verbal smack-down that lasts half of the scene. While Apemantus tries to rally with comebacks as cruel as, "A plague on thee! Thou are too bad to curse," it seems Timon reigns supreme with this precise one-liner.
"Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!" This put-down was said by prostitute Doll Tearsheet, who was notorious for having a sharp tongue, to Pistol in Act II of "Henry IV Part II."
"Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood." King Lear calls his daughter, Regan, these terrible names only to revoke his insult and promise not to punish her. Regardless of how fast he apologizes to her for his spiteful words, it's still a grade-A insult.”
"Methinks thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon you." In "All's Well That Ends Well," Lafeu hits infamous liar and coward Porolles with this blunt put-down after being finally fed up with his antics. Although, knowing Porolles and his mischievous ways, he probably deserved the jab.
"I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets." Beggars can't be choosers is the modern way of getting this point across, but Shakespeare's version is far more biting. "As You Like It" showcases Shakespeare's gift of saying the meanest of things in the most eloquent ways in this insult Rosalind doles out to Phebe.
"Thou art a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way." Possibly the most elaborate jab he has ever written, Shakespeare pulls out all the stops in "King Lear" when the Earl of Kent replies to Oswald's innocent question of, "What dost thou know me for?" with nearly every insult in the book. And if that verbal attack wasn't enough to put Oswald down, the Earl of Kent proceeds to physically beat him!
"I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands." In Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens," protagonist Timon and his least favorite dinner companion, Apemantus, insult each other to no end in a verbal smack-down that lasts half of the scene. While Apemantus tries to rally with comebacks as cruel as, "A plague on thee! Thou are too bad to curse," it seems Timon reigns supreme with this precise one-liner.
"Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!" This put-down was said by prostitute Doll Tearsheet, who was notorious for having a sharp tongue, to Pistol in Act II of "Henry IV Part II."
"Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood." King Lear calls his daughter, Regan, these terrible names only to revoke his insult and promise not to punish her. Regardless of how fast he apologizes to her for his spiteful words, it's still a grade-A insult.”
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
"Banks Limiting Cash You Can Take Out and Cash Deposits"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 8/18/22:
"Banks Limiting Cash You Can Take Out and Cash Deposits"
We are seeing crazy limitations on banking right now used to be that you would get reported to the IRS and transactions over $10,000. Now the banks are just limiting the amount of cash that anybody can take out. What’s even crazier is there a limit in the amount of cash that you deposit into the bank."
Comments here:
"Why I Changed My Mind About Evil! (I Was Wrong)"
AwakenWithJP, 8/16/22:
"Why I Changed My Mind About Evil! (I Was Wrong)"
"One of the questions I get asked on a regular basis is why my mindset has changed on so many important, life-defining topics over the years from gun control, abortion, and so much more...Over the last few years, it has become so obvious to me that evil is a very real threat. The change from believing that evil was an abstract concept to recognizing its very real influence in the world has shifted how I see everything. Watch this new video to learn why I believe this and what I believe we free-thinkers can do about it! You can call me a delusional freedom-fighting, red-head if you want, but I'm confident that good will conquer evil when regular people like you and me wake up and take action. Stay free, JP"
We never discuss religion on this blog,
but all things considered, this is food for thought...
Pardon the commercial endorsement at the end.
We never allow ads here or sell anything, and never will.
"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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)