Oh yeah it is...
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, December 30, 2022
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 12/30/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 12/30/22"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"President Donald Trump doubled down on his pro vax stance in a new interview this week. It looks like Trump has waded into the vax quicksand, and it’s going to take him under if he doesn’t pull out soon. Even though host Wayne Root is firmly anti-CV19 vax, Trump told him the CV19 bioweapon/vax is a “miracle of modern science” and “saved millions of lives.” Donald Trump cannot back up the claim this bioweapon saved “millions of lives” because bioweapons are designed to maim and kill. That is exactly what this CV19 injection has done and is still doing. Sticking to his guns on the bioweapon passed off as a vaccine is so far afoul of the injury and death data is disturbing for a man who wants to be President again. Before it’s over, I predict President Trump will have to do an about face on the vax. I hope he does not wait too long. With the overwhelming negative scientific evidence on the CV19 bioweapon, I am surprised Trump has not already done so. What good are Trump’s policies if nobody is left alive to enjoy them in 2025? Repent Donald Trump.
Elon Musk has taken a wrecking ball to Twitter censorship when he took over as CEO. Now, Musk is tweeting out “Gain-of-Function” with the word “bioweapon.” Musk is saying the CV19 infection was a bioweapon in clear terms. Do you think Musk has been watching Karen Kingston on USAWatchdog? Kingston is calling out everything CV19 from “infection to injection” and saying, “It’s all a lie.” Data and documents show CV19 is, in fact, a man-made military bioweapon. There is no virus, according to biotech analyst Kingston. It’s just lipid nanoparticles or a “biohybrid microrobot.” This is what the Big Pharma patents say, and everybody at the top knows CV19 from “infection to injection” is a bioweapon.
We have so many “wars and rumors of wars” going on today around the world that the prediction from Jesus, more than 2,000 years ago, is looking more and more like a prophesy coming true. The Pentagon is threatening to kill Putin, according to the Russians. Ukraine is a war with no end in sight, Iran is threatening to nuke Israel, and China is threatening Taiwan on a regular basis. These are just to name a few of the “wars and rumors of wars” happening now. There is much more in the 47 min. newscast."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the final Weekly News Wrap-Up of 2022.
Thursday, December 29, 2022
"It's A Mess, Ain't It..."
Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?"
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: "Well, if it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."
Apologies to "No Country For Old Men"
Oh, the mess is here alright...and you ain't seen nothin' yet...
Brace for impact.
And if they act like this over a TV,
what happens when there's no food?
Stipendium peccati mors est...
Robert Palmer,
"You're Gonna Get What's Coming"
"2023 Predictions: The End of Everything"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/29/22:
"2023 Predictions: The End of Everything"
"Predictions for 2023 from conflict, economics,
pandemic, civil unrest, energy crises and much more!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Be Awakened: Jim Rickards,
"The Worst Crash in Human History Has Begun
"Many Retailers Falling Apart As Store Closings Continue To Soar"
Full screen recommended.
"Many Retailers Falling Apart As
Store Closings Continue To Soar"
by Epic Economist
"A large number of retailers are in serious trouble and they are at risk of falling apart early in 2023 due to the weakest holiday sales seen since the financial crisis, as well as soaring levels of debt, bloated inventories, and changing consumer patterns amid the ongoing recession. Many factors are forcing even popular brands, including CVS, Rite Aid, Family Dollar, Best Buy, and more, to start shutting down stores to manage their operational costs as economic conditions continue to worsen. According to a new survey, almost three-quarters of U.S. retailers are planning to hike prices due to the effect of supply chain problems and inflationary pressures on their balance sheets. Industry analysts say that a new wave of mass store closings and bankruptcies is already on the horizon, and 2023 will likely be a decisive year for the entire sector as the brick-and-mortar landscape gets increasingly emptier.
Never before in history, so many stores have disappeared in such a short period of time. From January 2020 to December 2022, over 10,220 retail stores have been permanently shut down as the sector faced the toughest conditions since 2008. Even before the pandemic, the retail industry was facing incredible volatility due to billions of dollars in real estate debt and the emergence of giant e-commerce platforms that offered everything consumers need through the convenience of a simple click.
In 2022, the cost of living crisis that financially strained millions of Americans led to slower sales and the resurrection of value as part of the purpose of consumption. Even wealthy households started flocking to Walmart and Aldi in order to make ends meet. To regain profitability, several popular brands started cutting jobs and other costs as well as closing several locations where foot traffic was declining precipitously.
According to an analysis released by Yahoo, many big names in the industry may not make it to 2023. At the same time, an overwhelming number of retail chains revealed plans to increase their prices next year due to higher operational costs spurred by supply chain issues and inflation. A survey conducted by GetResponse found that 72% of U.S. retailers will hike prices and pass on increased costs to their customers in 2023.
Roughly 89% of retailers have been facing ever-rising supply chain costs. “Hence, they might not have any choice but to increase prices because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them continue to turn a profit,” the researchers noted. Even more alarmingly, 52% of retailers reported that sales have drastically dropped in the second half of 2022.
A significant rise in the number of distressed retailers beginning in early 2023 is expected, the expert adds, considering that ballooning prices are likely to dent demand for certain goods, and stores contend with bloated inventory levels as a recession continues to unfold. “We have potentially a perfect storm brewing,” said Sally Henry, a professor of law at Texas Tech Law School and former partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a massive uptick in retail bankruptcies.”
It’s safe to say that only a minority of retail companies will report satisfactory results this season. Even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is warning businesses that sales growth will not come organically when consumer spending goes down, especially during a recession, so the outlook isn’t very promising. The retail apocalypse enters yet another year, and its effects threaten to be incredibly devastating for us all."
"Everything is Broken, You Get What You Deserve"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 12/29/22:
"Everything is Broken, You Get What You Deserve"
Comments here:
"Warning From Ed Dowd: 7,500 Americans Are Killed Or Disabled Each Day"
"Warning From Ed Dowd: 7,500 Americans
Are Killed Or Disabled Each Day"
By Mike Adams
"Ed Dowd, author of "Cause Unknown" (available at BrighteonBooks.com and other book resellers) joined me for an interview last night to share updated - and slightly horrifying - numbers about post-vaccine excess fatalities and excess disability claims.
The short version of that conversation is that each day in America, there are about 2,500 excess deaths and 5,000 excess disability victims due to covid-19 vaccines. This means, on average, about 7,500 Americans are removed from the potential labor pool each day.
One of the more startling realizations in all this is that the United States of America is suffering the early stages of a "decivilization" event, not merely a temporary bump in the road. That term refers to the dismantling of the critical, complex pillars of a modern advanced civilization, rendering it unable to function.
Ed Dowd calls this the "glacial Mad Max" scenario: It's going to get very bad but not all at once. The slow, steady erosion of the pillars of civilization will become increasingly apparent over time as another 2.7 million people are killed or disabled by the vaccines each year." Get the full story and podcast here:
“Every High Civilization Decays by Forgetting Obvious Things”
“Every High Civilization Decays by Forgetting Obvious Things”
By Brian Maher
"The United States is a country that looks forward far more than it looks backward. In many ways, this is a positive aspect of American life. But in focusing so intensely on the way ahead, it risks forgetting how it arrived at its present location. Below, we argue that it may be time to remember. Read on.
“Every high civilization” - wrote Chesterton - “decays by forgetting obvious things.” We begin to suspect American civilization is down with a hard amnesia. It has forgotten such obvious things... we fear it is decaying beyond hope. It has forgotten, for example, that: The free lunch has no existence…A nation hopelessly indebted is a nation hopelessly enchained…Money and wealth are not synonyms…Savings form the granite foundations of wealth...And a man must produce before he can consume.
The True Drivers of Economic Growth: Mr. John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets: "Savings and investment, not consumption, are the true drivers of economic growth. Entrepreneurs cannot innovate, and companies can’t grow or be founded without savings first. There’s no getting around this truth…"
Just don’t expect to hear this simple truth from most any economist. Deep believers in the religion that is consumption, they can’t see that the latter is the easy part. That what really powers growth is the capacity to save the fruits of one’s production so that workers can produce (and ultimately consume) even more. It is obvious. Yet it is forgotten. Nonetheless… as the gentleman states… “There’s no getting around this truth.” Let us recall, then - we believe it is necessary - Say’s law…
Supply Creates Its Own Demand: Say’s law is the iron law of economics demonstrating that supply creates its own demand. “Products are paid for with products,” argued Jean-Baptiste Say over two centuries ago. His law has yet to be overturned, despite the fevered efforts of Lord Keynes and his countless disciples who even today burn incense at his altar.
Consider: One man produces bread. Another produces shoes. Let us assume the baker bakes a baker’s dozen - 13 loaves of bread. Three of them go upon his dinner table, then into his family’s bellies, consumed. The remaining 10 loaves represent his savings. He can hold them out against other goods he needs… shoes in our little example.
Meantime, the cobbler cobbles together 13 pairs of shoes. He places one new pair upon his blistered and aching feet. He places two additional pairs upon his children’s growing feet. This fellow “consumes” three pairs of shoes, that is. The remaining 10 constitute his savings. Like our baker, he can exchange his shoes - his savings - for other goods he requires. In our example he requires bread.
The Illusory Veil of Money: Each exchanges money to fetch him his goods - direct barter is primitive. But lean in for a closer examination. Squint your eyes a bit. Concentrate your attention. You will now see the transaction in its true aspect. You will see that money merely throws an illusory veil across the exchange. You will see that the baker ultimately purchases his shoes with the bread he has baked and that the cobbler ultimately purchases his bread with the shoes he has cobbled.
Concludes Monsieur Say: Money performs but a momentary function in this double exchange; and when the transaction is finally closed, it will always be found that one kind of commodity has been exchanged for another. We must conclude that there can be no excess of savings. Savings equal stored wealth. To argue that savings injure society is to argue that wealth injures society. Only an Ivy League economist can argue it. And savings spring from production as the fruit springs from the seed.
Outlawing Say’s Law: Yet the consumptionists would turn Say’s law upon its head. They sob not about a lack of production but a “lack of demand.” They insist that government race the printing press to make the shortage good, to furnish the lack. But no new production accompanies the blitz of money. The additional money merely chases the existing stock of goods. It represents the attempted outlawing of Say’s law. That is, the money-printers place the wagon cart of consumption before the draft horse of production. Yet the horse must go in front. The cart does not tug the horse. Consider the thought experiment of another 18th-century thinker David Hume…
False Wealth and True Wealth: Imagine a benevolent fairy slips money into all the nation’s pockets overnight. And so the money supply doubles at a stroke. Is this nation doubly rich? Alas, it is not doubly rich. The money supply has been doubled, yes. The nation’s pockets are doubly deep. Men feel flush and are eager to spend. But no additional goods have entered existence. Where is the gain - except in prices?
Explains the late “Austrian” economist Murray Rothbard: "What makes us rich is an abundance of goods, and what limits that abundance is a scarcity of resources: namely land, labor and capital. Multiplying coin will not whisk these resources into being. We may feel twice as rich for the moment, but clearly all we are doing is diluting the money supply. As the public rushes out to spend its newfound wealth, prices will, very roughly, double - or at least rise until the demand is satisfied, and money no longer bids against itself for the existing goods." There you have the wisdom of classical economics — the forgotten wisdom of classical economics. We would refresh the memory.
Savings Equal Investment: And as we would remind the consumptionists: There can be no investment without savings, as there can be no bread without grain. Again, Rothbard: "Savings and investment are indissolubly linked. It is impossible to encourage one and discourage the other. Aside from bank credit, investments can come from no other source than savings… In order to invest resources in the future, he must first restrict his consumption and save funds. This restricting is his savings, and so saving and investment are always equivalent. The two terms may be used almost interchangeably."
The more accumulated savings in the economy, the more potential investment - a nice point to put somewhere. An economy built atop a sturdy foundation of savings is therefore a rugged economy, a durable economy. No passing gale will knock it over.
Saving Is Spending: And as we have argued before…When society saves, it is not eliminating consumption. It is merely delaying it. It is a future bird in a future hand. The demand that is supposedly lost is not lost at all. It is simply shifted away from the present… and toward the bountiful future. Today’s savings are therefore tomorrow’s spending, tomorrow’s consumption. By reducing consumption today… society consumes more tomorrow. By increasing consumption today, society consumes less tomorrow. It devours the seed corn.
Or according to Henry Hazlitt, author of the classic Economics in One Lesson: “Saving, in short, in the modern world, is only another form of spending.” More from whom: "From time immemorial proverbial wisdom has taught the virtues of saving, and warned against the consequences of prodigality and waste. We have forgotten this immemorial proverbial wisdom. Yet it echoes deep within the heart, it echoes deep within the soul." It is time to remember…"
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Realms of Splendor"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Realms of Splendor"
Simply beautiful...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR23, on the image left. Additionally, the winds and radiation from a small cluster of stars, NGC 3324, have sculpted a 35 light year cavity on the upper right, with its right side appearing as a recognizable face in profile.
This region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the famous Chilean poet. Together, these interstellar clouds lie about 8,000 light-years away in the Great Carina Nebula, a complex stellar neighborhood harboring numerous clouds of gas and dust rich with imagination inspiring shapes. The featured telescopic view captures these nebulae's characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue hues of the popular Hubble Palette."
Chet Raymo, "Starlight"
"Starlight"
by Chet Raymo
"Poor Calvin is overwhelmed with the vastness of the cosmos and no small dose of existential angst. He is not the first, of course. Most famously the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wailed his own despair: "I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing and which know nothing of me. I am terrified...The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me."
"All We Really Need..."
"Causes do matter. And the world is changed by people who care deeply about causes,about things that matter. We don't have to be particularly smart or talented. We don't need a lot of money or education. All we really need is to be passionate about something important; something bigger than ourselves. And it's that commitment to a worthwhile cause that changes the world."
- Steve Goodier
"Find the things that matter, and hold on to them,
and fight for them, and refuse to let them go."
- Lauren Oliver
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "Lead"
"Lead"
"Here is a story to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter the loons came to our harbor and died,
one by one, of nothing we could see.
A friend told me of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one just where that is.
The next morning this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world."
- Mary Oliver
A friend told me of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one just where that is.
The next morning this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world."
- Mary Oliver
“6 Steps to Release Your Fear and Feel Peaceful”
“6 Steps to Release Your Fear and Feel Peaceful”
by Nicolas Perrin
by Nicolas Perrin
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”
~ Mary Catherine Bateson
~ Mary Catherine Bateson
“It was a balmy spring morning and I started my day as per usual, but I soon realized that my mind was entertaining fearful thoughts about my financial insecurity. With many new ventures within the seedling stage, my income flow was erratic and unpredictable, while my financial responsibilities were consistent and guaranteed. At the time I ignored these thoughts as “petty,” like a parent dismissing a crying child after a mild fall on the pavement.
What I didn’t realize was that my mind wanted to entertain these fear-based thoughts like a Hollywood blockbuster, and as you may know, what you focus on expands. Before I knew it, my body was in a state of complete anxiety and fear. I literally felt my cognitive and creative centers shutting down. I felt completely powerless, a hostage to my own mind. My body felt paralyzed, and I felt disconnected from my talents and gifts. I felt separate, isolated, and vulnerable. I became a victim of the fear. In this moment I realized the powerful impact thoughts can have on how we feel, mentally and physically. Here is what unfolded through me, and the lessons I treasured from this experience.
Fear is a closed energy, referred to as inverted faith. Fear exists when we do not trust our connection to the infinite part of who we are and buy into a story about what’s unfolding in our life. The emotions we feel are created from the thoughts that we choose to focus on, consciously or unconsciously. The emotions act as markers to let us know if we are focusing on expansive, empowering thoughts or fearful, limiting thoughts.
If I were to relate this in a story, it may be like a pilot believing he no longer had any guidance or support from the airport control tower in a large storm, and no instruments on board to detect if he was on a collision course with another airplane. If the control tower represents the infinite part of who we are, which always knows what’s best for us, it can be understandable why the pilot with no other guidance except for his own eye sight would be fearful of the situation at hand. An alarm on the plane beeping at the pilot would represent the emotions. The alarm’s purpose is to get the attention of the pilot so he can focus and realize he is off the path. Once our emotions start to take a grip of our physical body, what can we do to move from a state of limitation and fear into an open, tranquil, peaceful state?
1. Come back to the present moment. The first step is to bring your awareness to the present moment. To do this, take three deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your mouth. After the air has filled your lungs and you’ve felt your stomach rise, exhale through your mouth by forcing the air through your teeth, as if you were hissing out loud. This detoxifies your body from the heavy emotions you’re experiencing and brings you back into the present moment. When I do this, I place my awareness into my feet so I am in a feeling space within my body, rather than being in my mind, entertaining the stories that swirl around with vigor, like a dangerous hurricane. Imagine that all your emotions are in a large sludge bucket. This breathing technique will empty the bucket out so you are empty and free.
2. Put things in perspective. Now that you are present, acknowledge the experience and ask yourself this question: “What is the worst case scenario that can happen to me?” Once we can accept this and realize we will be okay if that happens, we are free from the fear. When I realized I’d blown things out of proportion with my fears, I was able to detach from the story and put things into perspective. I like to imagine that in every moment I have two wolves I can feed (per the Native American myth): the fear wolf or the love wolf. The one that gets stronger and wins is the one I feed.
3. Become an observer of your thoughts. What has served me well in moments like this is to say, “I’m not these thoughts. I’m not these emotions. I’m not this body. I’m an infinite being having a human experience.” In saying this, we immediately detach from the story and allow ourselves the choice of suffering or to become the observer. Imagine that your life is represented in a book, and the story you are living out comes from the words on the page. We can change the words of the story at any point in time.
4. Change your experience. The fourth step is to place your awareness and your right hand on the heart center, which is located near the sternum. Close your eyes, take three deep breaths, and make the following command: “I am now connected to the infinite part of who I am, which already knows how to be whole and complete. I take full responsibility and accountability for this creation, I recognize how it has served me, and I am now ready to let it go. I command that the fear energy be transmuted into unconditional love now. Thank you. It is now done.” This process is incredibly empowering. We allow ourselves the opportunity to experience being our own inner master and a co-creator of our reality.
5. Prevent your mind from sabotaging you. Visualize a stone being thrown into a pond. Observe the ripples it creates when it enters the water. This is to simply distract your mind and allow the process to unfold without doubt or self-sabotage. It is only our mind that can interfere with our own healing.
6. Be grateful. Express gratitude and appreciation for the integration and healing you have received.
The key to happiness is awareness. When we become aware that our mind is wandering, we can gently bring it back to the present moment. It’s only in the present moment that we are empowered and can consciously choose the thoughts we engage with. The thoughts we focus on will determine where our energy flows, and thus what is created in our life. Each thought has a vibration, which is reflected by the feeling we experience in our body. To be able to move from a fear-based experience to an open, peaceful experience we must first take full responsibility and accountability that on some level we created the experience, and nobody else is to blame. The choice is truly ours. Do we choose to experience a fearful, limited life or do we choose a happy joyful life?
The key to happiness is awareness. When we become aware that our mind is wandering, we can gently bring it back to the present moment. It’s only in the present moment that we are empowered and can consciously choose the thoughts we engage with. The thoughts we focus on will determine where our energy flows, and thus what is created in our life. Each thought has a vibration, which is reflected by the feeling we experience in our body. To be able to move from a fear-based experience to an open, peaceful experience we must first take full responsibility and accountability that on some level we created the experience, and nobody else is to blame. The choice is truly ours. Do we choose to experience a fearful, limited life or do we choose a happy joyful life?
- http://tinybuddha.com/
"Ice Age – Coming Rapidly"
Full screen recommended
"Ice Age – Coming Rapidly"
by Martin Armstrong
"With Ice Ages, we find a similar pattern of cyclical pattern formations as we do in markets. About 2.6 million years ago, that is when the Earth entered the Pleistocene period. This was marked by an interesting cyclical pattern whereby there were these deep ice ages that came at regular 43,000-year intervals. Then about 1 million years ago, the Earth entered what is known as the Mid-Pleistocene transition period. It was here where these ice age cycles suddenly expanded from 43,000-year intervals to nearly 100,000-year cycles. The last one was about 11,000 years ago. This is not referring to the Mini-Ice Age of the 1600s.
What we do know is that there were tiny changes in Earth’s orbit. These events are known as Milankovitch cycles. They are believed to have driven the planet in and out of these ice ages. However, it is also now assumed that these Milankovitch cycles have not correlated to the sudden jump in nearly doubling the Ice Age cycle length.
Preliminary data from Antarctic Ice Core saw a transition from glacial to interglacial conditions about 430,000 years ago which is known as (Termination V). This transition into the present interglacial period needs to be looked at from intensity using our Energy Models. Scientists look at the magnitude of change in temperatures and greenhouse gases. What seems to be overlooked is the cycle of these warming periods. The interglacial stage following Termination V was quite long running the course of about 28,000 years compared to the 12,000 years period so far in the present interglacial period.
What this is warning is that an Ice Age is not entirely out of the question post-2032. I am awaiting access to the data from the 2.7 million-year core and then run it through Socrates to see if we are indeed going to see a 12,000-year interval or a doubling effect. What does appear to be likely, which explains the frozen animals in Siberia, is that we can see an Ice Age hit within less than 10 years."
o
Planetary related:
"Never Be A Spectator..."
"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."
- Christopher Hitchens
"The Real Estate Crash is Here"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 12/29/22:
"The Real Estate Crash is Here"
"This is getting ridiculous. We are seeing real estate sales drop to their lowest level in decades. Now we are also learning that home builders are completing the houses and not selling them. They are renting them out. "
Comments here:
"Price Increases At Kroger! Prepare Yourself! Stock Up! What's Coming!?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/29/22:
"Price Increases At Kroger!
Prepare Yourself! Stock Up! What's Coming!?"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing price increases on groceries, and a lot of empty shelves! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and the empty shelves situation! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
“In These Downbeat Times..."
“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot live in the twenty-first century at each other’s throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation - and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.”
- Cornel West
"The West's Military Defeat and Strategic Failure in Ukraine"
"The West's Military Defeat and Strategic Failure in Ukraine"
Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, 12/29/22:
"Your home for analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United states and the world. Geopolitics. No ego descriptions. No small talk. Straight to the point. Calls with the relevant analysis only. On the other side of the line is Michael V."
Comments here:
"Scientists: Doomsday Clock is Almost at Midnight"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/28/22:
"Scientists: Doomsday Clock is Almost at Midnight"
Comments here:
"I Know One Thing..."
"Happily men don't realize how stupid they are, or half the world would commit suicide. Knowledge is a will-of-the-wisp, fluttering ever out of the traveller's reach; and a weary journey must be endured before it is even seen. It is only when a man knows a good deal that he discovers how unfathomable is his ignorance. The man who knows nothing is satisfied that there is nothing to know, consequently that he knows everything; and you may more easily persuade him that the moon is made of green cheese than that he is not omniscient."
- W. Somerset Maugham
○
“It takes considerable knowledge just to
realize the extent of your own ignorance.”
- Thomas Sowell
"Energy: The Big Picture"
"Energy: The Big Picture"
by John Wilder
"The most fundamental economic and political choice of our lives is energy. I phrased that intentionally – the impacts of the energy we use as a society are economic. Energy has been political since the 1930s, at the very least.
The idea of energy might be economic and political, but the reality is pure physics. There is no law that Congress can pass that can create more energy – only allow that which exists to be used. And there is no amount of money that can be printed to that can make energy appear where none exists.
Some Leftists say truth is subjective, but let them try to pretend that their house at -40°F is actually 70°F. I guess that you could say that they’re trans-comfortable? No. They’re frozen. Reality is like that. And energy is like that, too. Unlike monetary policy or laws, energy doesn’t care what people want. The story of energy, though, is the story of human culture.
Energy has been a part of human life since the first waggling finger (thank you, Rudyard, original poem below) burned itself on a fire. Meat tastes good, but tastes better once it has been cooked. It also heated the caves and tents that early man lived in. It was the original killer app – I can guarantee that at some point, a fire in a cabin or tent or cave saved someone who was your direct ancestor.
In the form of crude wood fires, energy did a few things for people, helping to tan skins, cure meats, harden wood, and eventually fuel fires that made the first man-made metals and ceramics. The demand was low, but the impacts were huge. Food, clothing, weapons, and the basis of civilization. You can’t have beer unless you have a beer bottle, right?
Romans used it even more – they had central heating in their villas in Roman Britain, heated baths, and used it in lots of other ways I’m too lazy to look up. One hint: those Roman shields and swords didn’t make themselves. And the iron nails in Jerusalem, circa 32 A.D.? Yeah, those required energy as well.
Romans were amazing at using energy, but most of the energy they used was human; they didn’t exactly have outboard motors on their ships. It was wind or oars. The Romans used fire, but the real energy source for Empire was animal and human. That source of energy was totally renewable – people are born every day, and they eat food that is raised every year. There are huge implications to this: slave labor was the original renewable energy. Oops! That’s not politically correct, though the World Economic Forum® did take notes.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, people continued to innovate. That’s what we do. Dams provided water power for mills. Mills could grind grain, or they could operate pumps to pull water out of mines. And wind? Windmills could use wind to mill. Duh. It’s in the name.
All of that was a necessary predecessor to the real powerhouse: steam. Sure, steam-powered toys had been created 2,000 years earlier, but steam power was needed because of the mines that were needed to get the metals to manufacture electric guitars and iPads® back in the 1600s. Or whatever they did with them. Maybe banjos?
The Industrial Revolution came almost entirely based on the use of energy. The developments in the 1800s changed everything. Transport? Trains. Communications? Telegraphs. Cool products? Factories. Navy? Fast steamships. This is a wickedly small set of examples – the availability of energy changed everything. But at this point, the energy mix changed. Prior, it was mostly wood. Now it was the age of coal and steel.
The biggest change it created was the ability to have a metric butt-ton of additional people. Energy changed agriculture and changed food distribution. After the Haber-Bosch process allowed for the fixing of nitrogen for increased plant yields (which required another metric butt-ton of energy) but this changed the demand. Coal was still pretty nifty, but it was no longer enough. Now was the age of oil.
Cars were required to move products. Gas was required for fertilizer, and heating and chemical products. The result of all of this was amazing – an explosion of the numbers of people living on Earth like never before, even in places that could never support them.
Wars were fought over energy. Why did the Germans fight at Stalingrad? Because they were trying to secure oil. There was no hybrid-panzer. The Allies won because there were lakes of oil underneath Texas, mountains of iron ore in Minnesota, and marksmen from Georgia. The biggest contributor? The oil. Without it, the Shermans don’t sherm, the Mustangs won’t must, and the carrier fleet are amusing, odd-shaped coral reefs. Oil won World War II. If the Germans had the reserves of Texas under Bavaria, Stalin would have been a minor footnote in history after 1942.
Oil was pretty plentiful as geologists wend around the world hunting for it after 1945. It was found in the wastelands of the Arctic, the scorching deserts of Saudi Arabia, and on the coast of California. Really, anywhere where people don’t want to live in 2022.
The lakes of oil in Texas weren’t infinite. In 1973, Texas removed controls on production. The straws weren’t dry, but the abundance was done. The Arabs also decided that, perhaps, oil was now (for the second time since 1943) the most potent weapon in the world besides nuclear bombs and Leftism was unleashed. The oil embargo showed how much the world depended on oil to make Big Macs™ and G.I. Joes©. One oil shock (combined with Nixon’s taking the United States off the gold standard) was enough to send the economy into the stagflation of the 1970s.
Oil is why the Cold War ended. Star Wars was an important initiative, but the bigger cause of the failure of the Soviet Union was that Reagan convinced the Saudis to pump oil like it was free. The Soviet economy, dependent on oil revenue to keep their machine going? Done. Oil killed the two out of three of the great empires of the twentieth century.
That brings us to today. Almost all of the growth in oil production since 2008 was based on fracking. The previous pools of oil were still producing, but the oil companies had to go farther and farther afield, such as deep water miles deep in places like the Gulf of Mexico. Places where getting the oil was expensive – it’s not like we found another several billion barrels in the backyard behind the garden shed. Regular places where oil was were drying up. A game changer was needed. Something different.
Fracking was different. It was difficult, required new technologies, and grew by a factor of ten in only ten years, making the United States a net energy exporter for the first time since before John Kennedy did an afternoon drive in Texas.
Oil is an amazing fuel, and I bathe in sweet, sweet gasoline every night. But to meet the needs of the world, the struggle is difficult. Cheap energy takes huge investment, but that’s not all. It requires the energy source to be there. Our energy has been cheap since about 1920 or so. The idea that it will be cheap forever is magical thinking, unless oil is infinite (it is not). Our choice on energy isn’t economic, it’s based on physics.
And, with everything I’ve read, the physics of alternative energy solutions, especially the “renewable” ones that are touted based on political reasons, result in the energy cost doubling (at least) and that’s after the investment of trillions of dollars to build the necessary energy production facilities and infrastructure. This will likely be the subject of future posts.
I hate to break the Christmas spirit, but it is the single most important question facing humanity today. When the price of energy is low, freedom is high. When the price of energy is high? Oh, yeah. Slavery.
As promised, here’s Kipling, "Gods of the Copybook Headings":
"As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall.
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn.
That water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision, and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas
while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither clud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;
But they always caught up with our progress,
and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield,
or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshiped the Gods of the Market Who
promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming,
They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons,
that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed
They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
'Stick to the Devil you know.'
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
'The Wages of Sin is Death.'
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selective Peter to pay for collective Paul.
But, though we had plenty of money,
there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
'If you don't work you die.'
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled,
and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled
and began to believe it was true,
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four -
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings
limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man -
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began: -
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!"
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
"The “Mega-Bubbles” Have Started To Burst, And That Could Mean Unprecedented Financial Chaos Is Ahead"
"The “Mega-Bubbles” Have Started To Burst,
And That Could Mean Unprecedented Financial Chaos Is Ahead"
by Michael Snyder
"The Federal Reserve giveth, and the Federal Reserve taketh away. In a desperate attempt to help the U.S. economy recover from the horrific economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates all the way to the floor and kept them at or near the floor until 2022. During that same time period, the Fed also created trillions of dollars out of thin air and pumped it into the financial system. All of this new money had to go somewhere, and it created colossal financial bubbles that were unlike anything we had ever seen before. There were a few voices that were warning that all of this foolishness would end very badly, but those voices were mostly drowned out by those that were super happy that asset values were absolutely exploding. The Fed had essentially created the ultimate “get rich quick scheme”, and countless Americans were more than happy to take advantage of it.
But in 2022 inflation started to become exceedingly painful, and the Federal Reserve went into panic mode. The flow of free money stopped, and the Federal Reserve began to aggressively hike interest rates. Everyone knew that this sudden change of course by the Fed would crash the housing market, and that is precisely what is happening. In fact, even the Wall Street Journal is now admitting that we are facing “a housing slump as severe, by some metrics, as that of 2007-09”…
"The Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases have brought on a housing slump as severe, by some metrics, as that of 2007-09, inflicting pain on prospective buyers, homeowners, builders and other industries linked to real estate."
For the Fed, this is a feature, not a bug: Slumping housing could help deliver the lower economic activity and inflation that the Fed wants in the coming year. Home sales have been falling month after month, and it is being projected that they could soon fall below the levels that we witnessed during the last housing crash…"Sales of existing homes fell in November for a record 10th straight month. Economists at Fannie Mae and Goldman Sachs forecast they will drop below 4 million in 2023, lower than during the 2006-11 housing bust."
On Wednesday, we got some more bad news. Pending home sales are one of the best leading indicators for where the housing market is going next, and at this point pending home sales have dropped to the lowest level ever recorded…"Contracts to buy U.S. previously owned homes fell far more than expected in November, diving for a sixth straight month in the latest indication of the hefty toll the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are taking on the housing market as the central bank seeks to curb inflation.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Wednesday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on signed contracts, fell 4% to 73.9 last month from October’s downwardly revised 77.0. November’s was the lowest reading — aside from the short-lived drop in the early months of the pandemic — since NAR launched the index in 2001."
With interest rates so high, very few people want to buy homes right now. So home prices are going to have to come down. A lot. In fact, George Gammon has demonstrated that we will need a crash in housing prices even larger than we witnessed during the last housing crash just to get back to the long-term trend line.
Do you think that our system will be able to handle a housing crash of that magnitude? Of course not.
Meanwhile, the absurd cryptocurrency bubble that was created by the Fed’s easy money policies has already imploded. I really like how Wolf Richter described what we have been witnessing over the past year in one of his most recent articles…"And then come the copycats since anyone can issue a crypto currency. Suddenly there were a dozen of them, and then there were 100 of them then a 1,000, and suddenly 10,000 cryptos, and now there are over 22,000 cryptos, and everyone and their dog is creating them, and trading them, and lending them, and using them as collateral, and all kinds of businesses sprang up around this scheme, crypto miners, crypto exchanges, crypto lending platforms, and some of them went public via IPO or via merger with a SPAC.
And the market capitalization of these cryptos reached $3 trillion, trillion with a T, about a year ago, and then when the Fed started raising its interest rates and started doing QT, the whole thing just blows up. Companies go like POOF, and the money is gone, and whatever is left is stuck in bankruptcy courts globally possibly for years. Cryptos themselves have imploded. Many have gone to essentially zero and have been abandoned for dead. The granddaddy, bitcoin, has plunged by something like 73% from the peak. The whole crypto market is also down about 73%."
More than two trillion dollars of “crypto wealth” has already been wiped out. Less than a trillion is left. But the party was fun while it lasted, right?
Sadly, all of the bubbles are starting to burst, and 2023 is going to be a really painful year. Normally, major economic downturns take just about everyone by surprise. But this time around, almost everyone can feel that really bad times are coming. The following is what Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics recently had to say about this…“Usually recessions sneak up on us. CEOs never talk about recessions,” said Zandi. “Now it seems CEOs are falling over themselves to say we’re falling into a recession. … Every person on TV says recession. Every economist says recession. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He is right. We’ve never seen anything like this before, and that is because the coming crisis is going to be really bad. Many among the elite can sense that what is approaching will be truly nightmarish, and so they have been feverishly preparing for the worst…"Though a recent poll found that four-in-ten Americans believe we are ‘living in the end of times,’ it’s not just the everyman who is fearing the apocalypse these days – billionaires have been prepping themselves for the apocalypse with elaborate doomsday bunkers for years.
As the world still reels from the scars of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-driven storms lash American coastlines and flood inland cities, and Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to talk of using nuclear weapons to devastate Ukraine, a Pew Research Center survey of more than US 10,000 adults found that 39 percent called these the ‘end times.’
The world’s wealthiest are among those cautious of a coming calamity, including billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman, who have famously laid down routes in remote New Zealand with the express purpose of riding out the end of days.
Yes, things will soon get really crazy as global events spiral completely out of control. But that doesn’t mean that you should curl up into a fetal position and throw a pity party for yourself. When I was growing up, I was told that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So get prepared for some really rough years ahead. The clock is ticking, and just about everything that can be shaken will be shaken in 2023 and beyond."
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