“How Far Will You Lower Yourself?”

“How Far Will You Lower Yourself?”

by Brian Maher

"Yesterday’s reckoning about mask-wearing drew a heavy - and spirited - reader response. The bulk of it denounced us viciously. We are with the devil, readers insisted. For we are dispensing falsehoods - and possibly condemning the witless dupes who heed our evil counsel to early, needless graves. And if not condemning our witless dupes to early, needless graves... possibly condemning their elder and compromised relations to early, needless graves.

Reader Greg D., for example, catalogues our trespasses in grim detail:

"1) Every doctor and medical professional wears (masks). I would hazard to say there has been a few studies confirming the needs for masks for the last 80 or so years with a modern understanding of infectious transmission. Great to see you are feeding the already biased and ignorant who will never read to the bottom of the article.

2) The primary purpose of wearing a mask is to not infect others. Even back in March the effectiveness of protecting yourself with a mask was in question. Loop back to point #1 and medical professionals not making a sick patient worse.

3) Social distancing is the primary and best control. Ah! But we have rights to run our business and kill the weak and the old."

“Entirely Bogus”: Reader Jas. M believes we are perpetuating fraudulent science. It is “entirely bogus,” he claims: "Alas, the supposedly scientific article that you have used as the basis of your thesis is entirely bogus. I, too, am always skeptical and almost always try to track information back to its source. My suspicions were instantly roused because everything that Denis Rancourt (the expert whose work we cited) has to say is contrary to science in which I am reasonably well versed. Secondly, all the many reproductions of the article via the internet are on platforms with little or no grounding in the genuine scientific community."

Just so. And perhaps Jas is correct. Yet we would add that scientific fact is not written in stone. It is rather etched in water. That is, today’s reigning scientific fact is often tomorrow’s junked scientific fiction. And those who initiate the junking are routinely denounced by the scientific establishment of the day. They are labelled frauds. Quacks. Charlatans. Zanies. Yet time validates their heresies. Do we have a Galileo on our hands in Dr. Rancourt? We do not claim to. We merely raise a point.

“How Far Will You Lower Yourself to Promote a False Premise?” Another reader - Len A. - says we debase ourself by hawking a false premise: "How far will you lower yourself to promote a false premise? Masks are not worn to protect YOU, they protect OTHERS from your aerosol particles – NOT the germs themselves."

In response to Len’s question, we are pleased to report: We rather enjoy life down here in the gutter. It gives us a fresh - if somewhat foul - perspective on events. Yet the good Dr. Rancourt disagrees with Len: "There is no evidence that masks are of any utility either preventing the aerosol particles from coming out or from going in. You’re not helping the people around you by wearing a mask, and you’re not helping yourself preventing the disease by wearing a mask."

What About Medical Masks? But “if wearing masks are worthless,” asks Jim H., “then why do medical professionals all wear them when treating Covid patients?” Rancourt allows that masks limit the spread of virus-soaked droplets. Yet he argues that these droplets are not the primary means of transmission. Transmission results primarily from the aerosol particles that pass through masks… as minnows pass through shark nets.

But what about those custom N95 masks? Do they not seal the netting? Not especially, argues our heretic. They may even damage the wearer: "In one of the randomized control trials, a big one that compared masks and N95 respirators among health care workers, the only statistically significant outcome they discovered and reported on was that the health care workers who wore the N95 respirators were much more likely to suffer from headaches."

Not All Feedback Was Negative: Again, we claim no medical expertise. And the consensus view may be the correct view. Mask-wearing may indeed meet its advertising. Yet we are given to jabbing holes in consensus views… and probing for weaknesses within the citadel walls. Perhaps we have located one. Perhaps not.

Not all reader mail was critical, we must note. Take, for example, Grant A.: "As a Ph.D. research scientist in biomedical engineering, all I can say is: bravo! You (and Dr. Rancourt) are a breath of fresh air, standing against the propaganda/outright lies that fuel the draconian measures taken against us poor serfs. Masks do little (if anything) against viruses. Period. The powers that be don't like this "inconvenient truth," but the scientific literature is clear. History bears witness to it. Our current "pandemic" bears witness to it… Keep up the good fight. Keep waking people up."

Sometimes Right, Sometimes Wrong, Always in Doubt: Some days we are haunted by the fear that we are sending people to sleep... rather than waking them up. And we claim no special enlightenment to do the waking. As writes our co-founder Bill Bonner: "Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, always in doubt – we try on ideas like a grown man trying on a pair of shorts. We want to see how they look before we buy them. We leave it to you to decide for yourself which of the following ideas look most ridiculous."

As we wrote last December: "For 20 years The Daily Reckoning has stood athwart, watching the scenery roll by. From Y2K to bitcoin…

From the 2000–2001 dot-com derangement to the 2008 near-nightmare to the 2020 nightmare…

From United States presidents 42–45…

From Federal Reserve chairmen 13–16…

The Daily Reckoning has suffered through them all.

Yet it has endured them with a wry, smirking detachment - even a tinge of sympathy for the cads, rogues, grifters, chiselers, scoundrels and rascals who hagride and afflict us."

Who Will Cast the First Stone? This world may be hopelessly and incurably botched. It may be sinful that it is this way. It may be against God that it is this way. Yet it is this way. And let the sinless one heave the first stone. This publication holds out no solutions to the sorrows of this world.

As H.L. Mencken styled it, we are entirely devoid of messianic passion. We hear no voice from the burning bush. And what we write one day is dead the next. We simply attempt to make sense of it all. If we can help you profit along the way, so much the better. That is our central mission, in fact. Do we often fail? Yes, we do. We often chase phantoms… and barrel down alleyways leading to ends that are dead.

A Man Enthroned: But what spectacle it all provides, what theater, what circus - what comedy. And we have the best kind of time looking on from the front row. Well and truly, a man in our seat is a man enthroned. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, always in doubt… We would not climb out of it for all the teas of China... or all the perfumes of Arabia..."

- dailyreckoning.com.

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,” said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”

“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”

- Voltaire

"Six Reasons Why the Wrong Party Will Win the Most Important US Election Since 1860"

"Six Reasons Why the Wrong Party Will 

Win the Most Important US Election Since 1860"

by Doug Casey

"The upcoming election may be the most important in US history. At least as important as that of 1860, which led directly to the War Between the States. In 2016 I believed Trump would win and placed a money bet on him. This time I'm not so sure, despite Trump's "incumbent advantage" and the fact the Democrats could hardly have picked two worse candidates. I see at least six reasons why this is true, namely:

• The Virus

• The economy

• Demographics

• Moral collapse of the old order

• The Deep State

• Cheating

The consequences of a Democrat victory will be momentous. Let's look at why it's likely.

1. The Virus: Despite the fact COVID is only marginally more deadly than the annual flu, and the fact it's only a danger to the very old (median death age 80), the hysteria around it is changing the nature of life itself. It's proven much less serious than the Asian flu of the late '60s or the Hong Kong flu of the late '50s. And not even remotely comparable to the Spanish flu of 1918-19. None of those had any discernable effect on the economy or politics. COVID is a trivial medical event but has created a gigantic psychological hysteria.

The virus hysteria is, however, a disaster from Trump's point of view for several reasons. None of them have anything to do with his "handling" of the virus—apart from the fact that medical issues should be a matter between a patient and his doctor, not bureaucrats and politicians.

First, the virus hysteria is severely limiting the number and size of Trump's rallies, which he relies on to keep enthusiasm up.

Second, more people are staying at home and watching television than ever before. However, unless they glue their dial to Fox, they'll gravitate towards the mainstream media, which is stridently anti-Trump. People who are on the fence (and most voters are always in the wishy-washy middle) will mostly hear authoritative-sounding anti-Trump talking heads on television, and they'll be influenced away from Trump.

Third, older people have by far the heaviest voter turnout, but roughly 80% of the casualties of the virus are elderly. And over 90% of those deaths are related to some other condition. Be that as it may, fear will make older people less likely to vote in this election. The COVID hysteria will still be with us in November. Older people tend to be culturally conservative and are most likely Trumpers.

Fourth, in today's highly politicized world, the government is supposed to be in charge of everything. Despite the fact there are thousands of viruses, and they've been with us thousands of years, this one is blamed on the current government. Boobus americanus will tend to vote accordingly.

2. The Economy: Keeping his voters at home is one thing. But the effects the hysteria is having on the economy are even more important. The effect of COVID on the economy should be trivial since only a small fraction of the relatively few Covid deaths are among people who are economically active.

Presidents always take credit when the economy is good and are berated when it's bad on their watch, regardless of whether they had anything to do with it. If the economy is still bad in November—and I'll wager it's going to be much worse, despite the Fed creating trillions of new dollars, and the government handouts—many people will reflexively vote against Trump.

In February, before the lockdown, there were about 3.2 million people collecting unemployment. Now, there are about 30 million. So it seems we have over 30 million working-age people who are . . . displaced. That doesn't count part-time workers, who aren't eligible for unemployment but are no longer working.

The supplementary benefits have ended. If they return, it will be at lower levels. The artificial good times brought on by free money will end too. It will be blamed on the Republicans. Worse, the public has come to the conclusion that a guaranteed annual income works. This virus hysteria has provided a kind of test for both Universal Basic Income and Modern Monetary Theory - helicopter money. So far, anyway, it seems you really can get something for nothing.

An important note here: Trump - whatever his virtues - is an economic ignoramus. He's supported both helicopter money and artificially low-interest rates since he's been in office. But especially now, because he knows it's all over if today's financial house of cards collapses on his watch.

I'll wager that, out of the 160 million work-force Americans, 30 million will still be out of work by voting day. The recognition that the country is in a depression will sink in. The virus hysteria was just the pin - or sledgehammer, perhaps - that broke the bubble. But that's another story. What's for sure is that the average American will look for somebody to blame. As things get seriously bad, people will want to change the system itself, as was true in the 1930s.

The only economic bright spot for Trump is the stock market. But it's at bubble levels. Not because the economy is doing well, but because of the avalanche of money being printed. Where it is in November is a question of how much more money the Fed will print, and how much of it flows into the stock market. Even then, there's an excellent chance it could collapse between now and the election.

For reasons I've detailed in the past, the economy is now entering the trailing edge of a gigantic financial and economic hurricane. The Greater Depression will be much different, longer-lasting, and nastier than the unpleasantness of 1929-1946. And people vote their pocketbook. Bill Clinton was right when he said, "It's the economy, stupid." If stocks fall, it will compound this effect. A high stock market just gives the illusion of prosperity. And, at least while stocks are up, contributes to the atmosphere of class warfare. Poor people don't own stocks.

3. Demographics: Since the gigantic political, economic, and social crisis we're in will be even more obvious come November, people will want a radical change. Since that - plus lots of free stuff - is what the Democrats are promising, they're likely to win. But there are other factors.

The last election was close enough, but now, four years later, there are four more cohorts of kids that have gone through high school and college and have been indoctrinated by their uniformly left-wing teachers. They're going to vote Democrat overwhelmingly.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and people like her, are both the current reality and the future of the Democratic Party - and of the US itself. She knows how to capitalize on envy and resentment. The Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements have added the flavor of a race war to the mix. Racial antagonism will become more pronounced as whites lose their majority status over the next 30 years.

Nobody, except for a few libertarians and conservatives, is countering the purposefully destructive ideas AOC represents. But they have a very limited audience and not much of a platform. Arguing for sound money and limited government makes them seem like Old Testament prophets to Millenials. Collectivism and statism are overwhelming the values of individualism and liberty.

It's exactly the type of thing the Founders tried to guard against by restricting the vote to property owners over 21, going through the Electoral College. Now, welfare recipients who are only 18 can vote, and the Electoral College is toothless.

For the last couple of generations, everybody who's gone to college has been indoctrinated with leftist ideas. Almost all of the professors hold these ideas - as well as high school and grade school instructors. They place an intellectual patina on top of emotional, fantasy-driven leftist ideas.

When the economy collapses in earnest, everybody will blame capitalism. Because Trump is rich, he's incorrectly associated with capitalism. The country - especially the young, the poor, and the non-white - will look to the government to "do something." They see the government as a cornucopia.

A majority of Millennials are in favor of socialism, as are so-called People of Color. By 2050, whites will be a minority in the US. A straw in the wind is that a large majority of the people who commit suicide each year are middle-class white males - essentially, Trump supporters. The demographic handwriting is on the wall. Trump's election in 2016 was an anomaly. No more than a Last Hurrah.

4. Moral Collapse: There's now a lot of antagonism toward both free minds and free markets. A majority of Americans appear to actually support BLM, an openly Marxist movement. Forget about free minds - someone might be offended, and you'll be pilloried by the mob. Forget about free markets - they're blamed for all the economic problems, even though it's the lack of them that caused the problem. The idea of capitalism is now considered undefendable.

Widespread dissatisfaction with the system is obviously bad for the Republicans and good for the Democrats, who promote themselves as the party of change. It used to be pretty simple - the Republicans and the Democrats were just two sides of the same coin, like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Traditionally, one promoted the warfare state more, the other the welfare state. But it was mostly rhetoric; they were pretty collegial. Now, both the welfare and the warfare state have been accepted as part of the cosmic firmament by both parties. The difference between them is now about cultural issues. Except that polite disagreement has turned into visceral hatred.

The Dems at least stand for some ideas - although they're all bad ideas. The Republicans have never stood for any principles; they just said the Dems wanted too much socialism, too fast, which is why they were always perceived - correctly - as hypocrites. Antagonism between the right and the left is no longer political or economic - it's cultural. That's much more serious.

Look at the 20 Democratic candidates that were in the primary debates last summer. They were all radical collectivists, dedicated statists. The Republicans were all - with one exception - mealy-mouthed nonentities.

Unlike Trump and the Reps, the Dems actually have a core of philosophical beliefs - and that counts during chaos. It doesn't matter that they're irrational or evil. People want to believe in something. The Dems give them a secular religion that promises a better world. The Reps only represent the withering status quo - which is not very appealing.

There's no political salvation coming from the Republican party. Like Trump himself, it doesn't have any core principles. It just reacts to the Dems and proposes similar, but less radical alternatives to their ideas. It doesn't stand for anything. It's only capable of putting forward empty suits, pure establishment figures like Bob Dole, Mitt Romney, or Bush. Or a nobody like Pence. That's a formula for disaster in today's demographic and cultural environment.

Incidentally, I'm not a fan of Trump, per se. He's an opportunist who flies by the seat of his pants. He's essentially an American Peron, whose economic policies are disjointed and inconsistent. His foreign policies are dangerous, provoking the Iranians and the Russians and starting a cold war with China that could easily spin out of control and turn into a major hot war.

But on the bright side, he's a cultural conservative. And that's why people support him. He wants to see the US return to the golden days of yesteryear, the world of "Leave it to Beaver", "Ozzie, and Harriet", and "Father Knows Best. We'd all like to see domestic tranquility and rising prosperity. But that's not the world we're going to be living in, not just for 2020, but the whole decade.

For years, I've joked that I planned on watching riots on my widescreen from a secure location, not out my front window. Things have now become so predictable that when I turn on the news, I kill the audio and just put the Stone's "Street Fighting Man" on a continuous loop.

Anyway, conservatives are completely demoralized. They're grasping at cultural and moral straws from a bygone era. It's impossible to defend being a white person anymore; propaganda has made it shameful to be white. If you object to the race-baiters, you'll be shouted down in the media - especially by white "liberals." Everything you grew up with and thought was part of the cosmic firmament is being washed away as unworthy.

As an example, recently, in Stone Mountain, Georgia, 1,000 uniformed, armed black men went out of their way to say that they were looking for a fight. "Where are the rednecks that want to fight with us?" It would have been out of the question at any time in the past, but no rednecks showed up to the party. That's partially because they've been psychologically cowed, and partially because they recognize that if they did when law enforcement arrived, they'd be the ones that were prosecuted, not the black men.

It's a complete inversion of what would have been the case only a generation ago. Then the blacks would have been too psychologically cowed to turn up for a fight, and the legal system would have railroaded them. Just to be clear, I'm opposed to any kind of identity politics, regardless of the group. The point is that there's been a sea change in mass psychology.

The demoralization of the ancien regime is why the destroyers of scores of statues of national heroes, from Columbus on down, are not being prosecuted. Nor do any citizens come out to oppose them. It's a matter of psychology. Whites and conservatives no longer believe in themselves. When that's true, it's game over. Yes, I know it's not true of all of them - but I believe it's a fair generalization.

This was spelled out very presciently by late Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who fled to Canada in 1970. Bezmenov stated in the mid-1980s that there were four stages of collapse: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization. Demoralization takes decades. Bezemov said in 1985 that the process of demoralization - an undermining of a target nation's values that makes it ripe for revolutionary takeover - was "basically completed already" in the United States. Destabilization, which we've seen, especially since the crisis of 2008, is now reaching a climax. I believe a Crisis that changes everything is coming in November.

5. The Deep State: The president is important. But the fact of the matter is that the Deep State - which is to say the top senators and congressmen, heads of the Praetorian agencies, generals, top corporate guys, top academic guys, top media people - really runs the country. Since the Deep State supports Biden and despises Trump, they'll do everything in their power to defeat him. You've seen this with numerous commercials that don't sell products so much as promote Woke and SJW ideology. Almost all corporations, universities, sports franchises, and media now make diversity hiring and social activism high priorities.

The 2016 election took them by surprise; they didn't think it was possible. This time they're going to be organized, and the Deep State is going to be working actively against Trump's reelection. Whether it's through active "de-platforming" by Google, Twitter, and Facebook, or the more subtle influence of how they present things, this time, they're going all out to derail Trump. They have immense power and can use it in many ways.

They didn't do much in 2016 because it hardly seemed worth the trouble; the election was thought to be in the bag for Hillary. This time it's going to be different.

6. Cheating: The first five factors are important; they represent megatrends, tidal size influences. But let's be candid. This election is going to hinge on who cheats the best. And the Democrats have, over the years, developed far greater expertise in cheating than the Republicans. I grew up in Chicago, and it was a joke even then. Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" wasn't written for the kind of people who vote Republican.

For one thing, there's now an emphasis on mail-in votes, which makes it easier to cheat. You can register dead people as voters. You can register your dog as a voter. You could probably register 50 million Nigerian princes and get away with it. If the fraud is ever even discovered, it won't be until long after the election. Which means it's likely to be a contested election long after Nov 3rd.

That's only part of it, though. A high percentage of voting machines are computerized. Fraud by hacking voting machines is apparently easy to do - and it's pretty untraceable. It's just a matter of planning and boldness.

One of the consequences of these widely acknowledged dysfunctions is to delegitimize the whole idea of voting. That's possibly not a bad thing. Mass democracy inevitably degrades into a system where the poorer citizens vote themselves benefits at the expense of the middle class. Basically, mass democracy is mob rule dressed in a coat and tie. But if the populace loses faith in "democracy" during a serious economic crisis - like this one - they're going to look for a strong man to straighten things out. The US will look more and more like Argentina. Or worse.

Remember what Stalin said: "Who votes doesn't count. What counts is who counts the votes."

But what about the idea of democracy itself? What does it matter the US starts to resemble a Third World country if that's the will of the people? I've got to say that I don't believe in democracy as a method of government. I understand how shocking that is to hear. Let me explain.

There's something to be said for a few people who share traditions and culture and generally agree on how the world works, voting on who will speak for them when it's appropriate. That's one thing - and it can make sense. But it's very different from a gigantic agglomeration of very different, even antagonistic, people fighting for control and power.

Winston Churchill said two things about democracy that are apposite. One is that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." I would argue that's simply not true. The alternatives are worth discussing. The other thing that he said was, "The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." He's absolutely right in that quip.

Getting back to cheating: Will foreign interference in US elections be part of the cheating? Kind of. There already are millions of foreign citizens - illegal aliens orchestrated by the left - interfering directly in the outcome by voting. That's much more of a change than some random Russians making political comments on Facebook allegedly during 2016. Although the Russian thing isn't even a tempest in a toilet bowl. So what if some Russian kids played around on their computers to see what they could do? It was totally trivial and meaningless.

In a way, it just proves the old saying, turnabout is fair play. For many years, the US government has cultivated regime change in foreign countries by interfering very overtly in their elections. Why should Americans act surprised if it happens in the US?

A Counter Argument: What are the chances Trump could win, despite the six points I've just mentioned? There are two factors I can think of.

One is that the Dems may have overplayed their hand by first supporting, and now not denouncing the "mostly peaceful protest" (aka, riots), Defund the Police, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the like. People can approve or not - but they don't want to be scared or have their lives disrupted. It may send the silent majority to the Republicans.

Second is the immense enthusiasm of Trump's supporters. When he goes somewhere, they disrupt their lives and line-up, waiting for hours to get into the venue. It seems Biden and Harris can barely fill a coffee shop. Millions of middle Americans support Trump as if their lives depended on it. And in a way, they do.

If Trump loses the election - or more exactly, if the Democrats win - it is, in fact, going to change the nature of the US drastically and permanently. Unfortunately, that's going to be the case even if Trump wins. Next week I'll follow up with what's going to happen after the election. Stay tuned."

- InternationalMan.com

"It's Time To Get The Story Right: If We Don't, Things Will Only Get Worse"

"It's Time To Get The Story Right: If We Don't, Things Will Only Get Worse"

by Chris Martenson

"After 8 months of reporting only on the coronavirus pandemic, it's high time to zoom out and look at the other major trends that will shape the next several decades of our lives, as many of them will have just as much impact -- or more -- than covid-19. In this video, Chris makes the argument for pursuing *resilience* vs growth -- both in our individual lives as well as a society.

The blind pursuit of ever more "growth" is not only mathematically illogical, but it's destroying our future as a species. We need to find better ways to live within our economic, energetic and ecological means. The good news is there are many, many great models that exist today for doing so. We just need to decide to embrace them, and discard the current ones that aren't serving our interests."

- https://www.peakprosperity.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Springfield, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The World Left Behind"

"The World Left Behind"

By Bill Bonner

SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – “Perpetual recession…?” asks a Reuters headline this morning. Most likely, is our guess. Already, before COVID-19 arrived, U.S. GDP growth rates were the lowest ever recorded. At only 1.8% per year, the U.S. economy limped and staggered – barely making any headway. And now, with $78 trillion of debt… a public that has been warned not to leave home… and a $4 trillion budget deficit – we’ll be lucky to have any growth at all.

Lost Jobs: What will we find, after more than half a year of quarantine in the Calchaquí Valley, when we finally get back to America? A world without growth? What if the world we knew has been left behind… abandoned… forgotten, like an old car in a junkyard? Yesterday, we looked at some of the used auto parts left scattered on the ground.

Waiters. Pilots. Truck drivers. Shop clerks. Whole categories of workers might be out of work for a long time – or forever. The 2008-2009 mortgage finance crisis put 8 million people out of work. It took five years to get those jobs back.

Today, there are still 11 million Americans without jobs (according to Reuters… CNBC says there are 30 million collecting unemployment compensation). (These "official" numbers are massively understated. - CP) If the economy were to re-absorb these people at the same rate it did after the last crisis, it would take (best case) until 2027 to get back to February’s job levels… or, if we go with CNBC’s figures, to 2038.

Gone Forever: But if the economy really is sinking into Perpetual Recession… they will never get their jobs back. Airlines, restaurants, hotels, cruise lines, universities, hospitals, commercial property owners and developers – all will cut staff numbers as the customers disappear.

Then, too, employers will shift their focus to computers and robots to replace employees. Why? The electronics don’t get sick. They don’t sue. They are not disease “vectors.” And they don’t care about “diversity,” “equality,” or “white privilege.”

Why hire another bank teller if people can be forced (for health reasons, of course!) to use a computer terminal? Why bother with the expense of a physical bank at all? Why hire a truck driver… when a self-driving truck should be coming down the road any day now? What’s a parking lot attendant supposed to do when nobody comes into town?

More, More, More: But jobs are not the only things being left behind. Small governments, balanced budgets, sound money, free enterprise – all have been covered in vines. A majority of Americans, from both political parties, now favors more government spending, more bailouts, more giveaways, and more meddling with trade, industry, and commerce. As for the Fed’s fake dollars – they just want more of them.

Even Senator Ted Cruz, supposedly a “conservative Republican,” now probably speaks for the whole new breed. He wants central planning, where the government – not investors – decides which technology gets vital capital. Next, maybe he’ll announce a “five-year plan” and a “Great Leap Forward.”

Old Economy Industries: The big, “Old Economy” industries are also being left behind. GE, GM, P&G, J&J – these companies make up the backbone of the Dow Industrials. But they’ve been adding debt and losing ground for 20 years. In real-money terms… that is, in terms of gold… they’ve lost two-thirds of their value. Our bet is that those losses will get worse.

Real Money: As colleague Tom Dyson explains in his "Postcards from the Fringe", the Dow tends to move in big, long swings… as measured in gold. It registered a low – under 2 ounces of gold for the entire 30 Dow stocks – in 1980. And then it hit a high of over 40 (ounces of gold to buy the Dow) 20 years later. Right now, it’s trending down (it’s currently at around 14)… and most likely, it will go below 5 again – probably soon.

We measure in gold because it is real money. It represents the things real money can buy – goods and services. The Federal Reserve can’t “print” gold. So, prices of other things – cars, houses, lawn care, TVs, and even college – tend to be more stable in gold terms than in U.S. dollars. A semester at an in-state public college in 1970, for example, cost about $350. Today, it’s around $10,000. Up 28 times. But in gold terms, it went down, from 10 ounces (an ounce of gold in 1970 cost in the region of $35) to only 5 ounces (at gold’s current price of almost $2,000 per ounce).

Dollar Disaster: But this brings us to the most important thing of all that will be left behind – the U.S. dollar. As you can see from the example above, the dollar has been a bad form of money for many, many years. Had you simply kept your money in gold, the cost of college would have been cut in half. Instead, in dollar terms, it went up 28 times.

Or look at the wheels of the working man. A Ford F-150 cost about $2,500 in 1970. Now, it’s $28,000. But in gold terms, it went down from 71 ounces… to only about one-fifth of that – 14 ounces. In other words, with the same real money – the same ounces of gold – you could have bought five new F-150s.

The dollar has lost ground. And it’s bound to lose a lot more. For 30 years, the Federal Reserve has been committed to supporting Wall Street. Now, it is supporting Main Street, too. And with what? Not with gold. And not with bitcoin. With dollars… money that will be left in the junkyard. More to come…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"Sacrifice for Thee But None For Me"

"Sacrifice for Thee But None For Me"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Words can be debased just like currencies. Take the word sacrifice. The value of the original has been debased by trite, weepy overuse to the point of cliche. Like other manifestations of derealization and denormalization, this debasement is invisible, profound and ultimately devastating.

Consider the overworked slogan of implied shared sacrifice: we're all in this together. Pardon my cynicism, but doesn't this sound like what the first class passengers in the lifeboats shouted to the doomed steerage passengers on the sinking Titanic?

Here is the ice-cold reality of America in 2020: Sacrifice for Thee But None For Me. This isn't a new trend, of course. Any measurable sacrifices shared by all the socio-economic classes ended with World War II in 1945, and since then it's been one long slide to Sacrifice for Thee But None For Me.

We've seen this slide to decay and collapse many times in history. The elites who once gained social status and political power by making real sacrifices on behalf of the nation / empire become entirely self-serving, accumulating ever greater wealth and power by transferring all the sacrifices and risks onto the lower classes.

Peter Turchin, author of "War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires", describes how civic virtue is gradually replaced by personal greed and self-interest. This excerpt perfectly captures the current zeitgeist: "Virtus included the ability to distinguish between good and evil and to act in ways that promoted good, and especially the common good. Unlike Greeks, Romans did not stress individual prowess, as exhibited by Homeric heroes or Olympic champions. The ideal of hero was one whose courage, wisdom, and self-sacrifice saved his country in time of peril.

Unlike the selfish elites of the later periods, the aristocracy of the early Republic did not spare its blood or treasure in the service of the common interest. When 50,000 Romans, a staggering one fifth of Rome's total manpower, perished in the battle of Cannae, as mentioned previously, the senate lost almost one third of its membership. This suggests that the senatorial aristocracy was more likely to be killed in wars than the average citizen...

The wealthy classes were also the first to volunteer extra taxes when they were needed... A graduated scale was used in which the senators paid the most, followed by the knights, and then other citizens. In addition, officers and centurions (but not common soldiers!) served without pay, saving the state 20 percent of the legion's payroll... The richest 1 percent of the Romans during the early Republic was only 10 to 20 times as wealthy as an average Roman citizen."

Now compare that to the situation in Late Antiquity when "An average Roman noble of senatorial class had property valued in the neighborhood of 20,000 Roman pounds of gold. There was no 'middle class' comparable to the small landholders of the third century B.C.; the huge majority of the population was made up of landless peasants working land that belonged to nobles. These peasants had hardly any property at all, but if we estimate it (very generously) at one tenth of a pound of gold, the wealth differential would be 200,000! Inequality grew both as a result of the rich getting richer (late imperial senators were 100 times wealthier than their Republican predecessors) and those of the middling wealth becoming poor."

Compare this to the America of World War II and the America of today. Wealthy, politically influential families such as the Kennedys could only retain their influence if their sons served in positions of combat leadership, and Joe Kennedy was killed in the European theater after volunteering for a highly risky air mission. John F. Kennedy very nearly lost his life in the South Pacific.

And how do our era's crop of presidents and presidential contenders fare by comparison? The idea that flesh and blood should ever be at risk in defense of the nation/empire - perish the thought. As Turchin sagely observed, it's not just the limitless greed and avoidance of sacrifice of the elite that generates destabilizing inequality - it's the eradication of the middle class as all the risks and sacrifices were shifted from the self-serving top to the middle and lower classes.

As I've often noted, risk cannot be made to disappear, it can only be transferred to others. In the grand scheme of things, the inherent risks of globalization and financialization have all been transferred to the middle and working classes (however you define them). The elite class enjoys the near-infinite support of the Federal Reserve and it's ability to print near-infinite sums of currency to bail out the greediest, most self-serving scum of parasites and speculators.

Meanwhile, all the sacrifices required to support this unfair, corrupt, predatory system have been transferred to the middle and working classes via sleight of hand. The sacrifices weren't transparent and up front; they were cloaked in the decline of job security, in ever-higher costs, in the decline of social mobility and the erosion of the purchasing power of wages.

The elites' economist flunkies and factotums claimed that bailing out the freeloaders, parasites and speculators would benefit "the little people" because the grand trade-off delivered by the Federal Reserve (as correspondent R.J. pointed out to me) was: no more financial panics, which caused much misery in the working class due to business failures causing layoffs and unemployment.

But globalization, financialization and the rise of cartel-state monopolies have eviscerated the middle and working classes far more effectively and permanently than any brief financial panic, while greatly enriching the elite class - a rise in wealth that is backstopped by the Federal Reserve: profits are the elites to keep while their losses are socialized, i.e. transferred to the lower classes. Job security, the purchasing power of wages and social mobility - nothing vital to the middle or working classes is backstopped by the Fed; the Fed's one and only job is backstopping the wealth of our parasitic, predatory elite.

Sacrifice for Thee But None For Me. The banquet of consequences for the Fed, the elites and their armies of parasitic flunkies and factotums is being laid out, and there won't be much choice in the seating."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

"The Cruelest Joke Of All..."

“The smallest decisions made had such profound repercussions. One ten-minute wait could save a life… or end it. One wrong turn down the right street or one seemingly unimportant conversation, and everything was changed. It wasn’t right that each lifetime was defined, ruined, ended, and made by such seemingly innocuous details. A major life-threatening event should come with a flashing warning sign that either said ABANDON ALL HOPE or SAFETY AHEAD. It was the cruelest joke of all that no one could see the most vicious curves until they were over the edge, falling into the abyss below.”

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

"It Costs What It Costs"

"It Costs What It Costs"

by Ryan Holiday

"When I first moved to New York, I had dinner with a friend who had lived there a long time. The thing about the city, he told me, is that everything is so expensive, it’s almost freeing. His apartment rented for half of what I would later buy an entire farm for. He was in the middle of planning a wedding in the city, too. In any sane environment, he said, you’d look for a deal; you’d refuse to be gouged or charged exorbitant prices for ordinary things. But in New York? You just have to accept it. It costs what it costs. That’s it.

Now, I personally came to believe that almost none of the advantages offered by the city were worth the price - and still don’t, which is why I moved - but this lesson has stuck with me. Because it transcends both geography and finances. Reality is indifferent to our preferences. There is no such thing as a fair price. Stuff - life - costs what it costs. You either pay it or you don’t.

The Stoics had a beautiful phrase for this. They called it the art of acquiescence.

It would be better if I never had to run into traffic on the way to my office. It would be better if a good chunk of our fellow humans hadn’t hardened their hearts to suffering. It’d be better if I didn’t have to tell my kids that they can’t go to school or see their friends right now. It’d be better if ordinary prices were always attached to ordinary things. But that’s not how it goes. So if I want to keep living here, in Austin, on Planet Earth, I’ve got to accept it. I have to pay it.

That’s an idea I’ve loved from Seneca. He points out that taxes are not just levied on income. They are just the financial form. There are many forms of taxes in life. You can argue with them, you can go to great - but ultimately futile - lengths to evade them, or you can simply pay them and enjoy the fruits of what you get to keep.

“Nothing will ever befall me that I will receive with gloom or a bad disposition,” he writes. “I will pay my taxes gladly. Now, all the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life -things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape.”

I’ve posted this quote on Instagram on April 15th the last few years and it’s been hilarious to see how angry some get. As if people haven’t been complaining about their taxes for thousands of years! And by the way, where are those people from so long ago? Dead.

Everything we do has a toll attached to it. Waiting around is a tax on traveling. Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is a tax on abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that come attached to success. And on and on and on.

This can make you angry, or you can come to terms with it. Especially since, like with income, taxes are a good problem to have. Far better than, say, making so little there is nothing left to pay the government or living in anarchy and having to pay for every basic service in a struggle against nature. Remember: There is a certain way to get out of paying taxes - literal or figurative… it’s called death (and actually, because of the estate tax, that’s not true either).

When the broadcaster Stuart Scott found out he had cancer, possibly fatal cancer, he had this reaction. It wasn’t resignation, it was responsibility. He was an adult about it, a real man - or perhaps almost more than the kind of man that most of us are capable of being. In any case, he was not like these children who get upset the first time something doesn’t go their way.

When a friend asked if he ever thought, “Why me?” he said, “I have two girls that I love. I have a wonderful job that I love getting up for every day. Why not me? I’m about due.” When another friend said they wished they could take some of his cancer and suffer instead of him, he said, “I wouldn’t let you do it. I got it.”

When you meet someone who has true zen about them, you can bet they are operating on that level. They are calm because they have learned what they have to accept. They are happy because they’ve stopped fighting battles they were never going to win. They are grateful for what they get to keep, not what was taken or what they’ve had to put up with. Now more than ever we need this attitude, as difficult as it is.

A pandemic is a pandemic. Does it cost wearing a mask? OK. Does it cost traveling less? OK. Does it cost enduring fools and jerks who can’t understand these things? OK, I’ll come to terms with that too. Because what am I going to do? Wear myself down fighting something that can’t be fought? Become crazy myself? Fall prey to magical thinking or conspiracy theories? No. Like Seneca, I’ll pay my taxes gladly. So should you."

- https://ryanholiday.net/

"How It Really Is"

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/16/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/16/20"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Updated live.

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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Daily Update (September 15th to 16th)

- http://www.shadowstats.com/
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9/16/20 

Gregory Mannarino, 

“Be Ready, Today We Hear From the FED”

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Covod-19 Pandemic Updates 9/16/20"

 "Covod-19 Pandemic Updates 9/16/20"

SEP 16, 2020

By David Leonhardt

A bar in Paris on Sunday. 

In France, about 30 people a day die from the coronavirus.

Learning to live with the virus: Facing a possible second wave of coronavirus infections, European countries are trying to walk a tightrope: avoiding the harsh lockdowns of the spring, while also adhering to social-distancing rules and contact-tracing protocols. “It’s not possible to stop the virus,” said Emmanuel André, a leading virologist in Belgium. “It’s about maintaining equilibrium. And we only have a few tools available to do that.”

SEP 16, 2020 12:18 AM ET:

 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 29,549,500 
people, according to official counts, including 6,614,111 Americans.

      SEP 16, 2020 12:18 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Updated 9/16/20, 3:22AM ET

Click image for larger size.

- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

"Man-Made Weather Engineering Killing Us All"

"Man-Made Weather Engineering Killing Us All"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"West Coast wildfires, wild temperature swings and hurricanes in the Gulf are all part of the consequences of man-made weather modification called Geoengineering. Climate engineering researcher Dane Wigington says, “People need to unite in the fight against climate engineering because it’s killing us all. If we look at this mathematically, climate engineering and all of its ramifications are the greatest threat we collectively face short of nuclear annihilation. The ramifications are beyond grave. There can be no legitimate discussion about the climate, or the the state of the climate from any perspective, without addressing this issue first.”

More than five years ago, Wigington warned then Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom (who is now Governor of California) about the devastating and uncontrollable fire destruction coming to the West Coast. Record high temperatures along with a record amount of millions of acres have been torched this year in California alone. Wigington remembers, “I had a private meeting with Gavin Newsom and his top aid in his office in the capitol, and I gave a full presentation on the climate engineering issue. They did not dispute the data. They couldn’t dispute the data. We have seen no acknowledgment from Governor Newsom, even as the state is burning to the ground, which is exactly what I told him would happen.”

Wigington says if you want to heal the planet, then stop geoengineering now. Wigington contends, “It is the single biggest leap we could make in the right direction. What we have is the environmental groups trying to protect their 501- (c) (3) nonprofits, and they are told not to talk about this issue– period. This is a taboo subject that they will not touch. How can you have a discussion about the state of the climate if you do not acknowledge the single greatest disrupting factor of all? What has set the template for these fires to burn with such ferocity? That is absolutely climate engineering. It is cutting off precipitation, toxifying soils with the elements used in climate engineering. That poisons the root systems and kills the trees from the bottom up. Geoengineering is destroying the Ozone layer. That’s releasing immense solar radiation, and that is killing trees from the top down. These particles are electrically conductive, creating far more dry lightning, which is igniting more fires. These materials, aluminum, barium and strontium particulates, are incendiary, which means they are flammable. This means they are coating forests from every conceivable direction. Climate engineering is the issue that must be acknowledge in regard to the ferocity these fires are burning.”

Wigington also ties Bill Gates, CV19 and climate engineering together, and it is an ominous thing. Wigington explains, “The world’s second most recognized climate engineer, Dr. Ken Caldiera, we have him on record stating one of the jobs he did for the Department of Defense (DOD) was to design ways to spray pathogens into clouds to effect the populations below. Who does he work for now? He works for Bill Gates. We have peer reviewed studies that CV19 has been found on atmospheric particles. When you look at the uniformity of how this was spread around the globe, they had to be aerosol dispersion. It was too uniform and spread too quickly. You can’t hide from needing to breathe air. If this is being dispersed, how do we hide from that? We have these characters working together, and what kind of a picture does that paint? This is weather warfare. It’s bio warfare, and it’s an all-out assault. Those in power have long stated that there are too many people on the planet. We better face this picture squarely now because we are rapidly running out of time.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with climate 

researcher Dane Wigington, founder of GeoEngineeringWatch.org.

Must Watch! “California Coming To America; Retirement Savings Vaporized; Americans Need Money Now- Amazon Jobs”

Jeremiah Babe,

“California Coming To America; Retirement Savings Vaporized;

 Americans Need Money Now- Amazon Jobs”

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal: "Teaching Fear, From the Cold War to the COVID War"

Trends Journal: "Teaching Fear, From the Cold War to the COVID War"

"Gerald Celente is the Publisher of the "Trends Journal", a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times ahead."

Musical Interlude: Poco, "Rose of Cimarron"

Poco, "Rose of Cimarron"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Sharp telescopic views of NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep portrait of the magnificent, edge-on spiral galaxy puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, the Hamburger Galaxy. It also reveals a small galaxy nearby, likely a satellite of NGC 3628, and a faint but extensive tidal tail. The drawn out tail stretches for about 300,000 light-years, even beyond the right edge of the wide frame. 

Click image for larger size.

NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for creating the tidal tail, as well as the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk. The tantalizing island universe itself is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200604.html

"The Shocking Truth About Facemasks"

"The Shocking Truth About Facemasks"

by Brian Maher

"The coronavirus menaces yet. Maybe you believe a face shield is your sword, a colossal weapon against the microscopic barbarians at your gate.  Our agents inform us you can purchase a face shield for perhaps $10. But let us suppose you perch upon the upper rungs of America’s social ladder. Let us further suppose you wish to be seen upon this ladder, high aloft… all beneath looking up in heart-eating envy. Well then, we have the personal protection equipment for you…

The Price of Vanity: A Louis Vuitton face shield you can have for $961 - some $950 above standard. Is this viral barrier $950 superior to the plebian plastic that shields the lower 99%?

Our men have conducted a thorough scientific inquiry - in studies singly blind, doubly blind and triply blind. As a barrier, they conclude, Louis Vuitton’s face shield is the precise equal of the socially inferior issue. Yet the socially inferior issue does not bear the razzle-dazzle of Louis Vuitton. “We are all in this together,” we are told. Yet even together… apparently… some insist upon standing apart. Vanity, Louis Vuitton is thy name.

If You Must Settle: Perhaps a $961 plastic yet golden face cover is beyond your means. You nonetheless aspire to radiate a superior air to the lessers around you. May we then suggest a leather Louis Vuitton face mask?

The unwashed hordes may go about in their ten cent surgical masks. But you can advertise your aristocracy for a mere $50.

Gucci, meantime, will sell you similar “luxury masks.” You may have difficulty breathing while wearing one. You nonetheless wallow in luxury, in opulence. But are masks and shields - Louis Vuitton, Gucci, or Acme - effective barriers at all?

They are not, concludes physicist Denis Rancourt. This fellow is a learned master of “environmental nanoparticles.”

A Maginot Line: A facial covering is - he concludes - a Maginot Line of sorts. It is no more effective at keeping out viruses than France’s Maginot Line was at keeping out Germans. Both are easily outflanked.

As well erect a chain link fence to keep the flies out. Rancourt: "When I looked at all the randomized controlled trials with verified outcome, meaning you actually measure whether or not the person was infected … NONE of these well-designed studies … found there was a statistically significant advantage of wearing a mask versus not wearing a mask… What this means - and this is very important - is that if there was any significant advantage to wearing a mask to reduce this [infection] risk, then you would have detected that in at least one of these trials, [yet] there’s no sign of it."

That to me is a firm scientific conclusion: There is no evidence that masks are of any utility either preventing the aerosol particles from coming out or from going in. You’re not helping the people around you by wearing a mask, and you’re not helping yourself preventing the disease by wearing a mask.

This science is unambiguous in that such a positive effect cannot be detected. Wearing a mask or being in an environment where masks are being worn or not worn, there’s no difference in terms of your risk of being infected by the viral respiratory disease. There’s no reduction, period. There are no exceptions. All the studies that have been tabulated, looked at, published, I was not able to find any exceptions, if you constrain yourself to verified outcomes. Yet we are ordered to seal our facial orifices in public venues indoors and out. All - evidently - to very little effect.

Why, Dr. Rancourt, are masks such hopeless sieves?

Aerosol Particles: We’re talking about the small size fraction of aerosols, so typically smaller than 2 micrometers… When you get down to those sizes, gravitational outtake is very inefficient and they basically stay in suspension. And, as soon as you have currents or flow of air, [the particles] are carried… These aerosol particles that are the vector of transmission are completely suspended as part of the fluid air. They’re really part of the fluid air, so any air that gets through, [the viral particles are also] going to come through. That’s why masks don’t work… Those fine aerosol particles will follow the fluid air. In a surgical mask, there is no way you’re blocking the fluid air...

In other words, very little of the airflow is going to be through the actual mask. But masks block saliva. Saliva houses the virus. Is it then not sound to sport masks and don shields to keep saliva in? No, argues Dr. Rancourt. That is because the virus is transmitted in the fluid air of which he writes - not through saliva: The mask is only designed and intended to stop your spitballs from coming out and hitting someone. The large droplets drop to the floor immediately and are not breathed in. So, they’re not part of the transmission mechanism. You can do a scientific study that demonstrates that viruses survive a fairly long time on a surface.

That does not mean that transmission occurs through surfaces. It only means that a scientist was able to establish that a virus can survive a long time on a surface. It doesn’t tell you anything about the likely transmission mechanism of the disease. So, there are a lot of studies like this that are basically irrelevant in terms of transmission mechanism.

[Infectious respiratory diseases] are transmitted by these fine aerosol particles that are in suspension in the air. In a case like that, will a mask, will something that is preventing spitballs from coming out, protect you or protect others? And the answer is no, it makes no measurable difference."

Please, doctor, continue: "There are many studies that show how difficult it is to actually infect someone when you’re just trying to put something like a fluid or something you know is bearing the virus into their eye or into their nose. It’s hard to do this. That’s what the studies show. But if you take a fine aerosol and you breathe it in deeply, that’s where the infection starts. So, by breathing in aerosols laden with these viruses, you’re going to be infected. Try to do anything else, and it’s going to be difficult [to spread infection]."

In conclusion: "The most recent randomized controlled trial [published] this year basically concluded they could find no evidence that masks, hand-washing and distancing, in terms of reducing the risk of these types of diseases, were of any use. [They] didn’t help."

Thus the good Dr. Rancourt blasts the bedrock upon which public policy rests. Yet the hocus-pocus of mask-wearing is mighty in the land. And the masked are horrified into white hot rages should you appear among them unmasked.

Can we guarantee Rancourt’s claims? We cannot. We are not a scientist. Yet we have seen similar evidence elsewhere. More importantly, they confirm our biases. They slant the way we lean… And a fellow leans this way or that way in life, forever foraging for facts that fit his precious theories, forever picking cherries.

We are by nature skeptical of official policies - they are generally anchored in error, bankrupt. These findings affirm our deep-dyed skepticism. They soothe us. They massage our scalp… and caress our gills.

Consolation: Must we endure the futility of slipping on personal protection equipment before entering stores? Alas, we must. Yet we are consoled by this capital fact: It affords us the chance to display our plumage, to strut, to showboat our popinjay superiority, to be a big deal in this world. And it only costs $961, payable to Louis Vuitton - a bargain at thrice the price."

- dailyreckoning.com