Monday, September 28, 2020

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/28/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates 9/28/20" 
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"The more I see of the monied classes, 
the better I understand the guillotine."
George Bernard Shaw
Gregory Mannarino,
AM 9/28/20: "Critical Market Updates"

"Harken, The Covidean Creed..."

"Harken, The Covidean Creed..."
by Ian Jenkins 

"Harken, The Covidean Creed... as agreed at The Unholy Conclave at Davos...

We believe in one Virus, the SARS-COV-2, the Almighty, destroyer of heaven and earth, that is all there is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Malady, Covid-19, the only son of SARS-COV-2, eternally begotten of the Virus, God from God, Darkness from Darkness, true God from true God, begotten, not made (probably) of one Being with the Virus.

For diseases are they none but the One True Virus and Death comes not without Its presence. Thou shalt have no diseases before the One True Virus. They that die outside the Virus shall not have their passing told unto the people on a quotidian basis in hushed tones, but shall be quietly recorded in obscure tables when the time comes.

Through the Virus all things were unmade.

For us men (and women and all points in between) and for our damnation
It came down from heaven (or maybe from China or Maryland):
By the power of the Holy WHO
It became incarnate from the swirling microbes (or maybe bat soup through immaculate Zoonosis), and was made Pandemic.

For Its sake we were crucified under ongoing Lockdown;
It suffered not death, like unto most it afflicteth, and is never buried in the news.
Though by the evidence that appeareth on those who do pass away or wax sick, it hath waned to almost nought.

On the second wave It rose again,
And though few did perish many were tested and lo! Many were deemed infected (probably) and ‘cases’ were they named, though sickness showed they none,
in accordance with the Great Plan;
It ascended into the collective consciousness
and is seated on the right and left hand of all (lest with sanitizer they do anoint themselves five score times hourly)

It will come again in glory, as many times as necessary to convince the living and the dead, and his mask’d kingdom will have no end, it seemeth.

We believe in the Unholy pathogen, the Lord Rona, the taker of life (for they that are vulnerable), though he passeth the children by,
who proceeds from the laboratory and the test.
With the quest for a Vaccine, the donning of the Holy Mask and with sequestration of the faithful he is worshipped and glorified and Its name kept alive in the minds of all.

It hath spoken through ‘The Science’ and thereafter through the Media, through Potentates and Rulers and through the scriptures of the WEF and of the foundations and think-tanks that do proclaim Its Gospel.

Woe to they who do speak out against the words of the Powers of Covid or their servants, for they shall be anathema and their names removed from the Book of Face and platform shall they have none. One shall they be made with they that aver the Earth to be flat and Conspiracy Theorists shall they be named.

We believe in one unholy Catastrophic and Technocratic Global Church.
We acknowledge one Great Reset for the salvation of all.

We look in vain for the resurrection of Reason, Proportionality and Democracy,
and towards the life of the New World to come.

Amen."

"Covid-19 Pandemic Update 9/28/20"

 


SEP 28, 2020 1:04 AM ET:
 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 33,097,000 
people, according to official counts, including 7,139,301 Americans.

      SEP 28, 2020 1:04 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count
Updated 9/28/20, 2:23 AM ET
Click image for larger size.

"Goodbye To All That: Are Our Rituals of "Prosperity" Increasingly Meaningless?"

"Goodbye To All That: 
Are Our Rituals of 'Prosperity' Increasingly Meaningless?"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"Of all the economic heresies imaginable, perhaps the most heretical is to recognize what we label "prosperity" as increasingly meaningless rituals more akin with Soviet-era staged parades than actual well-being. This is the most dangerous heresy because it breaks the link between consumption - the core activity of our economy - and human happiness. If conspicuous/surplus consumption is ritualistic rather than fulfilling (i.e. it adds to our well-being), then it becomes meaningless or even corrosive. The focus them shifts to the negative consequences of consumption, i.e. how the rituals of consumption are eroding / disrupting our well-being.

Rituals are satisfying because the performance of the ritual is itself the source of our satisfaction. Belief or enjoyment isn't necessary; completion of the ritual is its own reward. But once we pull away from the rituals, the emptiness of the performance becomes clear and we start asking, what am I getting out of this for the expense and effort? These questions arise because many conventional consumption rituals have become prohibitively expensive and troublesome and others demand major amounts of time with very little payoff.

Consider the ritual of passively consuming sports. The ratings of televised games were falling before the pandemic, and by some measures appear to be in free-fall. It's not hard to discern potential reasons: Millennials never formed the habit/ritual of spending hours watching a game, or attending games; despite the protests from die-hard fans, most of the games are interchangeable, as are the players, as pro and college sports have become homogenized in many ways.

As with many other consumption rituals, those performing the rituals rarely stopped to ask themselves if the ritual was actually improving their well-being, or if it had slowly morphed into a colossal waste of time and money.

Many activities of discretionary consumption are in large part rituals: going on vacations, taking cruises, shopping, dining out, and so on. While many will miss the performance of these rituals, others will realize they don't really miss them. Some will feel immense relief that they no longer have to put up a facade of enjoying the tiresome, meaningless rituals.

The enormous expense of once-affordable rituals such as dining out means many will give up these consumption rituals because they can no longer afford it. Two sandwiches and two drinks, sales tax and a tip is now routinely $50 or more. (Note to wealthy readers: in the real world, it's pretty difficult to earn $50 net of taxes and the cost of doing business.)

Other consumption rituals were embedded in modes of work that are dissolving because they're no longer financially viable. The rituals of business travel and attending conferences paid by employers are dying because the luxury of these consumption rituals is no longer affordable to employers whose revenues and profits are in terminal decline.

Every manager pounding the table for a return of all employees to the central office has yet to discover what happens when the corporation reports a staggering loss and refuses to provide forward guidance. If the manager is fortunate enough to retain their job, their task will be to eliminate all offices and digitize and/or automate every function to cut costs.

The many rituals of a central office - the endless meetings, the petty arguments, the smoking breaks, going out for lunch - goodbye to all that. A couple of quarters of steep losses in revenues will push every company and agency to strip away all the rituals of consumption that are no longer affordable.

Did all that enormous expense of time and money really make us happy, or were we just going through the motions? Even those who were so anxious to resume the performance of these consumption rituals may find that the performance leaves them with a nagging sense of ennui and hollowness, as if something is missing, despite the perfect repetition of the ritual.

Some will blame the pandemic, but this is not the real source of their dissatisfaction. The heretical truth is that many of the consumption rituals that signified "prosperity" for decades are either meaningless, unaffordable or require way more effort than the meager payoff is worth.

So the game is playing on the TV but nobody's watching. The news is playing on another TV, but nobody's watching that, either. A disembodied stock market pundit declares a new Bull market but nobody's listening. The social media feed is scrolling by in a mad fury on a smartphone but nobody's clicking on any of it. It's all pointless, hollow, tiresome, for the completion of the ritual is no longer enough.

The meaningless of the engagement rituals and the consumption rituals is now so obvious that the desperation of the purveyors to get everyone back on board adds an exclamation point to the emptiness of their offerings. Here's why addressing this is heresy: what props up the economy once all the consumption rituals fall out of favor or are no longer affordable? The answer is of course nothing."

https://www.oftwominds.com/

Sunday, September 27, 2020

"God Grant Me The Courage..."

“God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right, 
even though I think it is hopeless.”
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

God grant us all the courage... we're gonna need it
to face what's coming. And we're all in this together...
Stay strong, folks...

"Food Shortage And Starvation Are Here As Supply Chain Is Broken! Very Difficult Times Approaching"

Full screen mode suggested.
"Food Shortage And Starvation Are Here As Supply 
Chain Is Broken! Very Difficult Times Approaching"
by Epic Economist

"In this video we're about to review how the American supply chain got broken and why food shortages and starvation will likely expand throughout the country.  If you're a subscriber to our channel, you probably watched us making the case about how prepping can keep you safe when all hell breaks loose. And we've outlined the importance of being prepared in advance for a reason. Living through a crisis with so many unpredictable entanglements, without real assistance from our leaders may put us in a vulnerable position, making our households severely affected by both the political and the economic meltdown. Which results can be translated into food insecurity and rental debt or quickly escalate into starvation and homelessness. 

Several months ago, the immediate effects of the sanitary crisis acted as the kickstart of the first noticeable supply chain disruption. Factories, distribution centers, and even farms were shut down under the new restrictions that envisioned flattening the curve. The underlying indication that a restock in stores would not happen, prompted Americans to rush into the stores and panic-buy cleaning items and non-perishable goods, leaving shelves empty. For weeks, finding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Clorox, canned meals, meat, and rice was just impossible. 

For the first time in years or even in decades, Americans found some of their basic necessities were missing on store shelves, triggering a fearful reaction that led some of them and the media to put the blame on preppers, who have been gradually stockpiling goods over the course of months or years aiming to be covered in situations like this one. It's essential to highlight the differences between stockpiling and hoarding and making gradual purchases and panic-buying.

We discovered that many business owners were imposing farmers to dump their produce, destroy their crops, and slaughter their animals to create the idea of scarcity so that later the products could be sold for higher prices, and that was shown in their profits, which skyrocketed since inflation took over the markets.

In the meantime, while food prices soar, unemployment numbers keep increasing and the $600 unemployment benefit has expired leaving millions of Americans completely unassisted, a basic right is being denied to these people because they're now unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. 

Five months ago, a report by the Urban Institute revealed that one in six Americans was food insecure. Now, this number is even worse due to the disappearance of the $600 in extra benefits. That is to say, for the benefit of a handful of billionaires, American families are being dragged to the poverty line again. The famine is becoming a terrible reality and things may get even more disturbing from now on. 

The aftereffects of recent natural disasters will culminate in further supply chain disruptions. This year, we witnessed devastating straight-line wind blows that destroyed extensive amounts of crops and farming infrastructure in states like Iowa, and catastrophic wildfires along all the West Coast from Washington to California and as far east as Colorado, South Dakota, and Texas. Now, fires seem to be heading east, burning up prairies and farmlands, ultimately boosting the hunger crisis.

Who would've thought that in 2020 Americans would be facing starvation? It's disconcerting to realize how little we're cared for by those who profit from our labor and our political support. Both sides of the political game are ignoring the terrible impacts of these disasters.

To make things worse, such natural disasters are happening. Droughts, floods, fires, pests, winds all happened this year and many other countries are also facing supply chain disruptions. This is an indicator that if we need to import goods, the other countries may not want to sell us to keep their stocks for themselves, or let's say they do sell it, but highly overpriced, so that very little people would be able to afford it. In any case, prospects don't look good.

As winter is fast approaching and the food supply has been decimated, we're about to experience harsher food shortages. In short, the US is going to be hit with another wave of challenging incidents in face of the economic collapse and natural disasters. What role will hunger play in this scenario? We're not sure yet, but something we do know is that when people are hungry they're able to do unimaginable things to feed their families. Will that spark more social agitation? Possibly, although we do hope that things don't go down this path. It's hard to admit that this is America now. But we have to be aware of the reality not to be swallowed up by it, don't you think? What do you see happening next? Have you experienced food insecurity so far? feel free to share your thoughts on our comment section down below.  Please share this video with your friends and family members."

Must Watch! “Living Standards To Crash; Financial System Meltdown; Economic Survival; Housing Sales-Assets”

Jeremiah Babe,
“Living Standards To Crash; Financial System Meltdown; 
Economic Survival; Housing Sales-Assets”

Musical Interlude: David Lanz, "Variations on a Theme From Pachelbel's Canon in D Major"

 

David Lanz, 
"Variations on a Theme From Pachelbel's Canon in D Major"

Full screen mode suggested.

"Perhaps They Are Not Stars..."

 

“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven 
where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines
 down upon us to let us know they are happy.”
~ An Eskimo saying.

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus, The River. 
Click image for larger size.
Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531 (right of center), a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. Nicely detailed in this sharp image, the NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the well-studied system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51.”

Free Download: Mark Twain, “On The Damned Human Race”

“‘What Is Man’ And Other Essays,
'On The Damned Human Race'”
by Mark Twain
“I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. Thus I verified and established each step of my course in its turn before advancing to the next. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.

Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to state one or two things which seem to more properly belong in this place than further along. This, in the interest of clearness. The massed experiments established to my satisfaction certain generalizations, to wit:

1. That the human race is of one distinct species. It exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by itself, and not to be confounded with any other. 

2. That the quadrupeds are a distinct family, also. This family exhibits variations (in color, size, food preferences, and so on; but it is a family by itself). 

3. That the other families (the birds, the fishes, the insects, the reptiles, etc.) are more or less distinct, also. They are in the procession. They are links in the chain which stretches down from the higher animals to man at the bottom.

Some of my experiments were quite curious. In the course of my reading I had come across a case where, many years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl. They had charming sport. They killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caused seven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no disposition to harm them. I tried this experiment with other anacondas; always with the same result. The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t; and that the earl wantonly destroys what he has no use for, but the anaconda doesn’t. This seemed to suggest that the anaconda was not descended from the earl. It also seemed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition.

I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor servings in order to partially appease that appetite. I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped when they had gathered a winter’s supply, and could not be persuaded to add to it either honestly or by chicane. In order to bolster up a tottering reputation the ant pretended to store up supplies, but I was not deceived. I know the ant. These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly; they are not. In the course of my experiments I convinced myself that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.

Roosters keep harems, but it is by consent of their concubines; therefore no wrong is done. Men keep harems but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious laws which the other sex were allowed no hand in making. In this matter man occupies a far lower place than the rooster. Cats are loose in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cats looseness with him but has left the unconsciousness behind (the saving grace which excuses the cat). The cat is innocent, man is not.

Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed. Man, with his soiled mind, covers himself. He will not even enter a drawing room with his breast and back naked, so alive are he and his mates to indecent suggestion. Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass. No! Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is the only one that does it or has occasion to.

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is a trait that is not known to the higher animals. The cat plays with the frightened mouse; but she has this excuse, that she does not know that the mouse is suffering. The cat is moderate (unhumanly moderate: she only scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesn’t dig out its eyes, or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man-fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble. Man is the Cruel Animal. He is alone in that distinction.

The higher animals engage in individual fights, but never in organized masses. Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out, as the Hessians did in our Revolution, and as the boyish Prince Napoleon did in the Zulu war, and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.

Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country, takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.

Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day he is always some man’s slave for wages and does that man’s work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.

Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns, he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with his mouth.

Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, he was at it in Mahomet’s time, he was at it in the time of the Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary’s day, he has been at it ever since he first saw the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per the telegrams quoted above) he will be at it somewhere else tomorrow. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.

Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems plain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. His record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with that record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of the lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one. In truth, man is incurably foolish.

One is obliged to concede that in true loftiness of character, Man cannot claim to approach even the meanest of the Higher Animals. It is plain that he is constitutionally incapable of approaching that altitude; that he is constitutionally afflicted with a Defect which must make such approach forever impossible, for it is manifest that this defect is permanent in him, indestructible, ineradicable. I find this Defect to be the Moral Sense. He is the only animal that has it. It is the secret of his degradation. It is the quality which enables him to do wrong. It has no other office. It is incapable of performing any other function. It could never have been intended to perform any other. Without it, man could do no wrong. He would rise at once to the level of the Higher Animals.

Since the Moral Sense has but the one office, the one capacity (to enable man to do wrong) it is plainly without value to him. It is as valueless to him as is disease. In fact, it manifestly is a disease. Rabies is bad, but it is not so bad as this disease. Rabies enables a man to do a thing, which he could not do when in a healthy state: kill his neighbor with a poisonous bite) one is the better man for having rabies: The Moral Sense enables a man to do wrong. It enables him to do wrong in a thousand ways. Rabies is an innocent disease, compared to the Moral Sense. No one, then, can be the better man for having the Moral Sense. What now, do we find the Primal Curse to have been? Plainly what it was in the beginning: the infliction upon man of the Moral Sense; the ability to distinguish good from evil; and with it, necessarily, the ability to do evil; for there can be no evil act without the presence of consciousness of it in the doer of it.

And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some far ancestor (some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perchance) insect by insect, animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of smirch-less innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development (namable as the Human Being). Below us, nothing.”

Freely download: “‘What Is Man’ And Other Essays”, 
by Mark Twain, here:

The Poet: Galway Kinnell, “Another Night in the Ruins”

 
“Another Night in the Ruins”

“In the evening 
haze darkening on the hills, 
purple of the eternal, 
a last bird crosses over, 
‘flop flop,’ adoring 
only the instant.

Nine years ago, 
in a plane that rumbled all night 
above the Atlantic, 
I could see, lit up 
by lightning bolts jumping out of it, 
a thunderhead formed like the face 
of my brother, looking down 
on blue, 
lightning-flashed moments of the Atlantic.
 He used to tell me, 
“What good is the day? 
On some hill of despair 
the bonfire 
you kindle can light the great sky-
though it’s true, of course, to make it burn 
you have to throw yourself in…”

Wind tears itself hollow 
in the eaves of these ruins, 
ghost-flute of snowdrifts 
that build out there in the dark: 
upside-down ravines 
into which night sweeps 
our cast wings, our ink-spattered feathers.

I listen. 
I hear nothing. Only 
the cow, the cow of such 
hollowness, mooing 
down the bones.
Is that a 
rooster? He 
thrashes in the snow 
for a grain. 
Finds it. 
Rips it into flames.
 Flaps. Crows. 
Flames bursting out of his brow.

 How many nights must it take 
one such as me to learn 
that we aren’t, after all, made 
from that bird that flies out of its ashes, 
that for us 
as we go up in flames, 
our one work is 
to open ourselves,
 to be the flames?”

Galway Kinnell

“How Does It All End?”

“How Does It All End?”
by Bill Bonner

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
 - Soren Kierkegaard

“‘How does this all end?’ It’s a regular subject for guesswork here at the Diary. Of course, to see what’s coming, you have to look back on what’s come before.

Fantastic vision: In 1900, a survey was done. ‘What do you see coming?’ asked the pollsters. All of those people questioned forecast better times ahead. Machines were just making their debut, but already people saw their potential.

You can see some of that optimism on display today in the Paris Metro. In the Montparnasse station is an illustration from the late 1800s of what the artist imagined for the next century. It is a fantastic vision- of flying vehicles…elevated sidewalks…incredible mechanical devices, all elaborated from the Machine Age technology as it was understood at the time. There is no sign of hydraulics, jet engines, or electrical devices, for example, just gears and pulleys…and flying machines that flapped their wings like a bird.

But when asked what lay ahead, the most remarkable opinion, at least from our point of view, was that the government would decline in size and power. Almost everyone thought so. We wouldn’t need so much government, they said. People will all be rich. Wealthy people may engage in fraud and finagling. But they don’t wait in dark alleys to bop people over the head and steal their wallets. They don’t need government pensions or government health care either. Nor do they attack their neighbors.

The great illusion: In 1909, British politician Norman Angell published a bestselling book, “The Great Illusion,” in which he explained why. Wealth is no longer based on land, Angell argued. Instead, it depended on factories, finance, and delicate relationships between suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers. And as this capitalism made people better off, he said, they wouldn’t want to do anything to interfere with it. It would only make them poorer.

One of his most important readers was Viscount Esher of Britain’s Committee of Imperial Defence. Set up in 1904, its task was to research and coordinate military strategy for the empire. Esher told listeners that ‘new economic factors clearly prove the inanity of aggressive wars.’ One of the most important components of the wealth of the late 19th century was international commerce. Capitalism flourishes in times of peace, sound money, respect for property rights and free trade. It was clear that everyone benefitted. Who would want to upset that apple cart?

‘War must soon be a thing of the past,’ Escher concluded. He was wrong. In August 1914, the cart fell over anyway. The Great War began five years after Angell’s book hit the bestseller lists. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme- 100 years ago- there were more than 70,000 casualties.

By the time Americans arrived in 1917, the average soldier at the front lines had a life expectancy of only 21 days. And by the time of Armistice Day- on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:00am of 1918- the war had killed 17 million people, wounded another 20 million and knocked off the major ruling families of continental Europe- the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs, and the Romanoffs (the Bourbons and Bonapartes were already gone from France).

The age of ‘isms’: After the Great War came a 30-year spell of trouble. In keeping with the metaphor of the Machine Age, the disintegration of pre-war institutions broke the tie rods that connected civilized economies to their governments. Reparations imposed on the Weimar Republic after the war sparked hyperinflation in Germany. The US, meanwhile, enjoyed a ‘Roaring 20s’, as Europeans paid their debts- in gold- to US lenders.

But that joyride came to an end in 1929. Then the feds flooded the carburetor, in their disastrously maladroit efforts to get the motor started again- including the Smoot-Hawley Act, which restricted cross-border trade. The ‘isms’- fascism, communism, syndicalism, socialism, anarchism- issued forth, like carbon monoxide. They offered solutions!

Finally, the brittle rubber of communism (aided by modern democratic capitalism) met the mean streets of fascism in another six-year bout of government-led violence: the Second World War. By the end of this period, the West decided enough was enough. Europe settled down with bourgeois governments of various social-democrat forms. The US went back to business, with order books filled and its factories still intact.

The end of history? The ‘isms’ held firm in the Soviet Union and moved to the Orient- with further wear and tear on the machinery of warfare in Korea…and later Vietnam. Finally, in 1979, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping announced that, although the ruling Communist Party would stay in control, the country would abandon its Marxist-Leninist-Maoist creed. China joined the world economy with its own version of state-guided capitalism. Then, 10 years later, the Soviet Union gave up even more completely…rejecting both the Communist Party and communism itself.

This was the event hailed in a silly essay by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama, ‘The End of History?’ Finally, the long battle was won. It was, wrote Fukuyama, the ‘endpoint of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’”

Graphic: Salvador Dali, “The Persistence of Memory”

The Daily "Near You?"

 

  Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Thanks for stopping by.

"Sometimes..."

“Sometimes you imagine that everything could have been different for you, that if only you had gone right one day when you chose to go left, you would be living a life you could never have anticipated. But at other times you think there was no other way forward – that you were always bound to end up exactly where you have.”
- Kevin Brockmeier

Gregory Mannarino, “Markets, A Look Ahead: Expect Another Wild Week”

Gregory Mannarino,
“Markets, A Look Ahead: Expect Another Wild Week”

"Covis-19 Pandemic Update 9/27/20"


SEP 27, 2020 12:02 AM ET:
 Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 32,833,300 
people, according to official counts, including 7,101,915 Americans.

      SEP 27, 2020 12:02 AM ET: 
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count
Updated 9/27/20, 3:23 AM ET
Click image for larger size.

"How It Really Is"

The Poet: Paul Fisher, "The Boat"

 

"The Boat"

"Maybe the eyes of a dragon or goddess
glare from its prow.
More likely it leaks, loses an oar,
and reeks of rainbows awash on a sheen
of gutted salmon and gasoline.
If it’s a liner, we lash ourselves
to whatever will float or sell.
No matter which. We choose. We’re aboard,
icebergs or no, as we plow
through the songs of the siren stars-
one boat, black water, dark whispering below."

- Paul Fisher, 
"Rumors of Shore"

"Whatever Your Fate Is..."

 

"Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment- not discouragement- you will find the strength there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures, followed by wreckage, were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes."
~ Joseph Campbell