2002, "Memory of the Sky"
Full screen mode highly recommended.
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
"There Are Some Oddities..."
"There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
- Douglas Adams
"A Look to the Heavens"
“The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image combines many short and long exposures to also reveal an extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across.
Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the left, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.”
"It Is Being Predicted That More Than 1 Of 3 Americans Will Face Starvation By The End Of This Year"
"It Is Being Predicted That More Than 1 Of 3 Americans
Will Face Starvation By The End Of This Year"
by Epic Economist
"Washington DC is now considered the most affected by food insecurity amid the 2020 economic collapse, with staggering famine rates that are likely to increase as winter approaches, potentially leading 1 out of 3 Washington residents to experience acute food insecurity by early 2021.
Some households amongst minority groups have been disproportionately affected by the hunger crisis, driving a substantial share of Washington's children and adolescents to experience severe disruptions in their eating habits. Doctors are warning this could mark the physical and intellectual development of a considerable part of the next generation of Americans. In this video, we bring updated data to expose this harsh reality that has been dangerously spreading across the country.
Since the beginning of the current economic meltdown, a disturbing increase in the number of Washington state residents facing food insecurity doesn't stop to scale up. Projections indicate that Washington State’s food insecure population will quadruplicate as a result of the 2020 economic downturn.
Considering that 80 percent of jobs are currently at risk and another surge in viral cases is now unfolding, 2.2 million people could experience food insecurity in Washington State. This year nearly 500,000 individuals were newly affected.
The three largest counties in Washington - King, Pierce, and Snohomish - represent over 50 percent of the total food-insecure population in the State. While nine counties out of 39 are home to roughly 80 percent of all food-insecure households.
Right now, one out of 10 residents of the metropolitan D.C. region is food insecure, but by January 2021, approximately 1 in 3 individuals could face the same instability in their eating habits. Some groups had their lives critically afflicted throughout this turbulent time. For instance, research showed that people of color and low-income, vulnerable communities, and populations, such as seniors, children, people experiencing homelessness, and undocumented immigrants have been disproportionately affected by the hunger crisis.
Furthermore, D.C. has 6.5 square miles of food deserts overall, which is about 11 percent of D.C.’s total area. The massive unemployment rates, plus the absence of enhanced government aid, and the intensification of longstanding racial and economic inequities are also factors of influence when it comes to disruptions in eating habits.
Washingtons’s food pantries have been overwhelmed by demand and now they’re set to face further challenges as the holiday season is right at the corner. Food banks used to receive donations from retailers. However, this year, retailers donations have dropped since Americans have been buying their food from grocery stores more than they have in the past, and due to supply chain disruptions witnessed so far, many retailers don't have any surplus inventory to give away.
In March, after consumers started to panic-buy and hoard food products, within the span of one week, the donations fell by 75 percent since grocery stores started to stock up and hold inventory for shoppers.
More concerningly, 28.6 percent or nearly one-third of all-state residents facing meal instability are teenagers and children. The shocking increase of roughly 10% compared to last year emphasizes how the tragic hunger crisis can influence the physical and intellectual development of the next generation.
Doctors have been warning that the lack of nutritious meals in developing-ages can have lasting effects, both physically and psychologically, which implicates that food-insecure children may not be able to evolve as others who have access to proper diets even after their situation improves.
This isn't only a hunger crisis, as it is a housing and an income crisis, raising concerns about how an economic recovery can take place while 11% of the American population is on the brink of famine. The Food Research and Action Center published a report announcing that the number of people in the US experiencing a persistent lack of food sometimes or often skyrocketed to above 29 million people in July.
In times when social and economic misery continuously grows, budgets get tight and it becomes harder to escape food insecurity. Since our leaders and those in privileged positions seem to insist on keep looking the other way, the cost of inaction will be very high."
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
by International Man
"International Man: The decline of Western Civilization is on a lot of people’s minds. Let’s talk about this trend.
Doug Casey: Western Civilization has its origins in ancient Greece. It’s unique among the world’s civilizations in putting the individual - as opposed to the collective - in a central position. It enshrined logic and rational thought - as opposed to mysticism and superstition - as the way to deal with the world. It’s because of this that we have science, technology, great literature and art, capitalism, personal freedom, the concept of progress, and much, much more. In fact, almost everything worth having in the material world is due to Western Civilization.
Ayn Rand once said "East minus West equals zero." I think she went a bit too far, as a rhetorical device, but she was essentially right. When you look at what the world’s other civilizations have brought to the party, at least over the last 2,500 years, it’s trivial.
I lived in the Orient for years. There are many things I love about it - martial arts, yoga, and the cuisine among them. But all the progress they’ve made is due to adopting the fruits of the West.
International Man: There are so many things degrading Western Civilization. Where do we begin?
Doug Casey: It’s been said, correctly, that a civilization always collapses from within. World War 1, in 1914, signaled the start of the long collapse of Western Civilization. Of course, termites were already eating away at the foundations, with the writings of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It’s been on an accelerating downward path ever since, even though technology and science have been improving at a quantum pace. They are, however, like delayed action flywheels, operating on stored energy and accumulated capital. Without capital, intellectual freedom, and entrepreneurialism, science and technology will slow down. I’m optimistic we’ll make it to Kurzweil’s Singularity, but there are no guarantees.
Things also changed with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Before that, the US used gold coinage for money. "The dollar" was just a name for 1/20th of an ounce of gold. That is what the dollar was. Paper dollars were just receipts for gold on deposit in the Treasury. The income tax, enacted the same year, threw more sand in the gears of civilization. The world was much freer before the events of 1913 and 1914, which acted to put the State at the center of everything.
The Fed and the income tax are both disastrous and unnecessary things, enemies of the common man in every way. Unfortunately, people have come to believe they’re fixtures in the cosmic firmament. They’re the main reasons - there are many other reasons, though, unfortunately - why the average American’s standard of living has been dropping since the early 1970s. In fact, were it not for these things, and the immense amount of capital destroyed during the numerous wars of the last 100 years, I expect we’d have already colonized the moon and Mars. Among many other things…
But I want to re-emphasize that the science, the technology, and all the wonderful toys we have are not the essence of Western Civilization. They’re consequences of individualism, capitalism, rational thought, and personal freedom. It’s critical not to confuse cause and effect.
International Man: You mentioned that the average American’s standard of living has dropped since the early 1970s. This is directly related to the US government abandoning the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been able to debase the US dollar without limit. I think the dollar’s transformation into a purely fiat currency has eroded the rule of law and morality in the US. It’s similar to what happened in the Roman Empire after it started debasing its currency. What do you think, Doug?
Doug Casey: All the world’s governments and central banks share a common philosophy, which drives these policies. They believe that you create economic activity by stimulating demand, and you stimulate demand by printing money. And, of course, it’s true, in a way. Roughly the same way a counterfeiter can stimulate a local economy.
Unfortunately, they ignore that, and completely ignore that the way a person or a society becomes wealthy is by producing more than they consume and saving the difference. That difference, savings, is how you create capital. Without capital you’re reduced to subsistence, scratching at the earth with a stick. These people think that by inflating - which is to say destroying - the currency, they can create prosperity. But what they’re really doing, is destroying capital: When you destroy the value of the currency, that discourages people from saving it. And when people don’t save, they can’t build capital, and the vicious cycle goes on.
This is destructive for civilization itself, in both the long term and the short term. The more paper money, the more credit, they create, the more society focuses on finance, as opposed to production. It’s why there are many times more people studying finance than science. The focus is increasingly on speculation, not production. Financial engineering, not mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering. And lots of laws and regulations to keep the unstable structure from collapsing.
What keeps a truly civil society together isn’t laws, regulations, and police. It’s peer pressure, social opprobrium, moral approbation, and your reputation. These are the four elements that keep things together. Western Civilization is built on voluntarism. But, as the State grows, that’s being replaced by coercion in every aspect of society. There are regulations on the most obscure areas of life. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in his book, the average American commits three felonies a day. Whether he’s caught and prosecuted is a subject of luck and the arbitrary will of some functionary. That’s antithetical to the core values of Western Civilization.
International Man: Speaking of ancient civilizations like Rome, interest rates are about the lowest they’ve been in 5,000 years of recorded history. Trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds trade at negative yields. Of course, this couldn’t happen in a free market. It’s only possible because of central bank manipulation. How will artificially low interest rates affect the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: It’s really, really serious. I previously thought it was metaphysically impossible to have negative interest rates but, in the Bizarro World central banks have created, it’s happened.
Negative interest rates discourage saving. Once again, saving is what builds capital. Without capital you wind up as an empty shell - Rome in 450 A.D., or Detroit today - lots of wonderful but empty buildings and no economic activity. Worse, it forces people to desperately put their money in all manner of idiotic speculations in an effort to stay ahead of inflation. They wind up chasing the bubbles the funny money creates.
Let me re-emphasize something: in order for science and technology to advance you need capital. Where does capital come from? It comes from people producing more than they consume and saving the difference. Debt, on the other hand, means you’re living above your means. You’re either consuming the capital others have saved, or you’re mortgaging your future.
Zero and negative interest rate policies, and the creation of money out of nowhere, are actually destructive of civilization itself. It makes the average guy feel that he’s not in control of his own destiny. He starts believing that the State, or luck, or Allah will provide for him. That attitude is typical of people from backward parts of the world - not Western Civilization.
International Man: What does it say about the economy and society that people work so hard to interpret what officials from the Federal Reserve and other central banks say?
Doug Casey: It’s a shameful waste of time. They remind me of primitives seeking the counsel of witch doctors. One hundred years ago, the richest people in the country - the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and such - made their money creating industries that actually made stuff. Now, the richest people in the country just shuffle money around. They get rich because they’re close to the government and the hydrant of currency materialized by the Federal Reserve. I’d say it’s a sign that society in the US has become quite degraded. The world revolves much less around actual production, but around guessing the direction of financial markets. Negative interest rates are creating bubbles, and will eventually result in an economic collapse.
International Man: Negative interest rates are essentially a tax on savings. A lot of people would rather pull their money out of the bank and stuff it under a mattress than suffer that sting. The economic central planners know this. It’s why they’re using negative interest rates to ramp up the War on Cash - the push to eliminate paper currency and create a cashless society.
The banking system is very fragile. Banks don’t hold much paper cash. It’s mostly digital bytes on a computer. If people start withdrawing paper money en masse, it won’t take much to bring the whole system down. Their solution is to make accessing cash harder, and in some cases, illegal. That’s why the economic witch doctors at Harvard are pounding the table to get rid of the $100 bill.
Take France, for example. It’s now illegal to make cash transactions over €1,000 without documenting them properly. Negative interest rates have turbocharged the War on Cash. If the central planners win this war, it would be the final deathblow to financial privacy. How does this all relate to the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: I believe the next step in their idiotic plan is to abolish cash. Decades ago they got rid of gold coinage, which used to circulate day to day in people’s pockets. Then they got rid of silver coinage. Now, they’re planning to get rid of cash altogether. So you won’t even have euros or dollars or pounds in your wallet anymore, or if you do, it will only be very small denominations. Everything else is going to have to be done through electronic payment processing.
This is a huge disaster for the average person: absolutely everything that you buy or sell, other than perhaps a candy bar or a hamburger, is going to have to go through the banking system. Thus, the government will be able to monitor every transaction and payment. Financial privacy, even what’s left of it today, will literally cease to exist.
Privacy is one of the big differences between a civilized society and a primitive society. In a primitive society, in your little dirt hut village, anybody can look through your window or pull back the flap on your tent. You have no privacy. Everybody can hear everything; see anything. This was one of the marvelous things about Western Civilization- privacy was valued, and respected. But that concept, like so many others, is on its way out…
International Man: You’ve mentioned before that language and words provide important clues to the collapse of Western Civilization. How so?
Doug Casey: Many of the words you hear, especially on television and other media, are confused, conflated, or completely misused. Many recent changes in the way words are used are corrupting the language. As George Orwell liked to point out, to control language is to control thought. The corruption of language is adding to the corruption of civilization itself. This is not a trivial factor in the degradation of Western Civilization.
Words - their exact meanings, and how they’re used - are critically important. If you don’t mean what you say and say what you mean, then it’s impossible to communicate accurately. Forget about transmitting philosophical concepts.
Take for example shareholders and stakeholders. We all know that a shareholder actually owns a share in a company, but have you noticed that over the last generation shareholders have become less important than stakeholders? Even though stakeholders are just hangers-on, employees, or people who are looking to get in on a shakedown. But everybody slavishly acknowledges, "Yes, we’ve got to look out for the stakeholders."
Where did that concept come from? It’s a recent creation, but Boobus americanus seems to think it was carved in stone at the country’s founding. We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, "A pox upon stakeholders." If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders.
Right now, the US is the most polarized it has been since the Civil War. The next couple of weeks could be the most chaotic period in US history. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been in living memory. The consequences of this could be crippling to the average person."
The Universe
“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”
“Good on you,”
The Universe
“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
"The Heart of Humanity"
"The Heart of Humanity"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and we will come out the other side. The last thing most of us want to hear or think about when we are dealing with profound feelings of sadness is that deep learning can be found in this place. In the midst of our pain, we often feel picked on by life, or overwhelmed by the enormity of some loss, or simply too exhausted to try and examine the situation. We may feel far too disappointed and angry to look for anything resembling a bright side to our suffering. Still, somewhere in our hearts, we know that we will eventually emerge from the depths into the light of greater awareness. Remembering this truth, no matter how elusive it seems, can help.
The other thing we often would rather not hear when we are dealing with intense sadness is that the only way out of it is through it. Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and the faith that we will come out the other side. With courage, we can allow ourselves to cycle through the grieving process with full inner permission to experience it. This is a powerful teaching that sadness has to offer us—the ability to surrender and the acceptance of change go hand in hand.
Another teaching of sadness is compassion for others who are in pain, because it is only in feeling our own pain that we can really understand and allow for someone else’s. Sadness is something we all go through, and we all learn from it and are deepened by its presence in our lives. While our own individual experiences of sadness carry with them unique lessons, the implications of what we learn are universal. The wisdom we gain from going through the process of feeling loss, heartbreak, or deep disappointment gives us access to the heart of humanity."
The Poet: Rolf Jacobsen, "When They Sleep"
"When They Sleep"
"All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
God, teach me the language of sleep."
- Rolf Jacobsen,
"The Roads Have Come to an End Now"
"Could Be Worse..."
"I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them. But if experience had taught me anything, it was this: No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse."
- Jim Butcher
Dig your way out, they said...
"America After The Election: A Few Hard Truths About The Things That Won't Change"
"America After The Election:
A Few Hard Truths About The Things That Won't Change"
by John Whitehead
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
- George Orwell
"The American people remain eager to be persuaded that a new president in the White House can solve the problems that plague us. Yet no matter who wins this presidential election, you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we - the permanent underclass in America - will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private. Indeed, it really doesn’t matter what you call them - the Deep State, the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex - so long as you understand that no matter which party occupies the White House in 2021, the unelected bureaucracy that actually calls the shots will continue to do so.
In the interest of liberty and truth, here are a few hard truths about life in the American police state that will persist no matter who wins the 2020 presidential election. Indeed, these issues persisted - and in many cases flourished - under both Republican and Democratic administrations in recent years."
Please read this complete article here:
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"The National Nightmare Begins"
"The National Nightmare Begins"
by Bill Bonner
"Well, the people have spoken… the bastards."
– Dick Tuck, candidate for California Senate, 1966
SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "Yippee! A third of the nation is on the edge of joy. Another third is on the edge of a high window – ready to leap. And the other third – the smartest of the lot – doesn’t give a damn. Here’s the bad news: Like it or not, someone will be named the winner in yesterday’s presidential election. As of this morning, we still don’t know who. Either way… the national nightmare begins.
That’s why the Dow rose 552 points yesterday. Investors figured that after the election – no matter which way it went – the coast would be clear for more bi-partisan giveaways. More fake money, in other words, with more fake “growth”… more fake stock market gains… and more fake wealth.
More Debt: And they’re probably right. Democrats are eager to put their man in office so they can wreck the economy with more federal spending and more debt. But they hardly need to bother. Donald Trump is doing a swell job already. Federal spending increased at a rate of $9 billion per month during the Obama years. Donald Trump increased it to $65 billion per month. And not even counting the first half of 2020 – in which COVID-19 caused a huge increase in government borrowing – federal debt rose at an average of $90 billion per month under Trump, compared to $76 billion per month under Obama. And once the election issue is resolved, one way or the other, debt will surely go up even faster.
Well-Worn Template: Here at the Diary, we are sanguine. Zen. Que sera, sera. There is nothing we can do about it. The country is run by an elite of politicians, economists, grifters, poseurs, bureaucrats, Deep State apparatchiks, Swamp scum, academics, media influencers, and Wall Street insiders, who have become predatory. They get their power and wealth by counterfeiting money and giving most of it – besides the pittance to voters – to their friends, their clients, and themselves. The counterfeit money then destroys the real economy, which the vast majority of people in the country depend on, leading to many long faces and short tempers.
This road is well traveled… and well paved, with good intentions and bad. The deciders are corrupted by power and money… They spend too much… They print money to cover their excess spending… The economy goes to Hell… The natives get restless. One generation learns; the next forgets. Empires rise and fall. And life goes on.
Extended Slump: And since there’s nothing we can do to stop it, we have to find a way to enjoy it. But that won’t be easy. Coming down the pike is one of the roughest, most dangerous periods in U.S. history.
First, stocks will crash… when investors realize that the economy is in an extended slump. Then, the feds will fight the downturn with the only thing they have – more fake money. That is, they will inflate the money supply to make us all feel richer. Once underway, that train goes only in one direction – towards more and more money-printing, which eventually leads to rising consumer prices.
Already, in the 49 years since the pure paper dollar was invented, it has lost 96% of its value, measured in gold. The rest is bound to go, too… in the years ahead. Inflation, stagnation, depression – the elite will get richer as the Federal Reserve pumps up the stock market… and Zoom Towns will become Boom Towns as those who can get away move as far away as possible from the danger zones.
Deep Resentment: The rest – the 90% who are left – will scrounge for jobs… for income… and for a little justice in a collapsing society. This will lead to a deep feeling of resentment… that the “social contract” has been broken… and a belief that violence is justified – either to set things right… or to keep them from changing. Already, many people feel that looting is protected by the First Amendment… Others feel they are “owed” because of an injustice committed more than 150 years ago. Many think that climate change… COVID-19… racism… and transgender rights… are no-compromise issues. They’re ready to overturn the Constitution to get what they want.
What Comes Next? We have no way of knowing what will happen. But even a casual reading of history suggests that when the great unwashed masses of a nation begin to feel they’ve been cheated… the result is not very nice. And of course, they’re right. The counterfeit money system cheats them. It’s cheated them for the last 30 years… or more. But they don’t understand how it works. So instead, they blame the Mexicans. Or the Democrats. Or the Blue State governors. Or China. Or greedy capitalists. Or Donald Trump. And it’s going to get worse over the next four years.
What can you do? How do you protect your money and your family? By tomorrow, we’ll have the election results… and we’ll look at what to do next."
"Why Do We Laugh..."
"Why do we laugh at such terrible things? Because comedy
is often the sarcastic realization of inescapable tragedy."
- Bryant H. McGill
"Market Fantasy Updates 11/4/20"
"Market Fantasy Updates 11/4/20"
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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Gregory Mannarino,
AM 11/4/20:
"Markets: NO LANDSLIDE VICTORY FOR ANYONE.
Keep Your Eyes On The Debt Market!"
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Updated live.
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Daily Update (Nov. 4th to 5th)
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Insanity...
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And now... The End Game...
"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 11/4/20"
by David Leonhardt
Nov. 4, 2020 2:47 AM ET:
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 47,546,500
people, according to official counts, including 9,468,772 Americans.
Nov. 4, 2020 2:47 AM ET:
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count◆
NOV 4, 2020 10:57 AM: "Global COVID-19 Cases Decline As German Spread Slows; UK Braces For More Restrictions: Live Updates"
NOV 4, 2020 3:30 AM: "Sweden: A Beacon Of Light Against A World Gone Mad"
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Updated 11/4/20, 5:24 AM ET
Click image for larger size.
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A "Must Read":
"Restaurant Apocalypse Getting Worse: 40 Percent Of US Restaurants Could Close By The End Of The Year"
"Restaurant Apocalypse Getting Worse: 40 Percent Of US
Restaurants Could Close By The End Of The Year"
by Epic Economist
"A new wave of government-mandated lockdown restrictions is decimating the restaurant sector - by far the most affected by the current economic meltdown. The new constraints are either limiting their functioning or pushing those that have been struggling to stay afloat straight into bankruptcy. changing the landscape of the American hospitality industry for good, which has been registering record-high permanent closures and prompted a massive wave of lay-offs, with far more to come as the winter approaches.
In this video, we discuss how the recent mandatory restrains are fueling the U.S. restaurant apocalypse, and profoundly damaging the labor market. Bars and restaurants are having to face yet another obstacle with the new wave of operational restrictions. Those that haven’t closed have been doing curbside service only, or have drastically altered their layout to make their spaces safer.
The restaurant sector, which is the second-largest private-sector employer in the U.S., is experiencing losses estimated at $240 billion by the end of the year. It was the first industry to close and we will be the last to recover from the current economic collapse.
More than 25,000 restaurant closures were already registered, which over 15,000 restaurants were permanently gone. Projections point that an additional 60,000 permanent closures in the independent restaurant sector alone could be seen by the end of the year, and by 2021 over 10% of restaurants might be erased from the industry.
A survey found that 40 percent of operators aren't sure they'll make it six more months. That means one in six restaurants, which represents nearly 100,000 locations, will be closed either permanently or long-term, while almost 3 million restaurant employees are still out of work.
The sector recorded the highest rates of closures, even surpassing retail shutdowns. Restaurants are losing money every month, and they continue to struggle to serve their communities and support their employees. Nearly 64 percent of urban residents revealed to have witnessed permanent closures in their hometowns, in suburban areas 56 percent of the respondents noted local restaurant closings. Even in rural areas, the number of interviewees who have seen a change in the local restaurant landscape was high, marking 44 percent.
As fall and winter approach, restaurants that are still open will face even greater challenges as customer traffic declines. The foodservice industry has pumped more than $2 trillion into the economy right up until its sudden shutdown, but ever since the government-mandated shutdowns took place, the foodservice industry forfeited $165 billion in revenue.
Meanwhile, another surge in cases has led some states to reinforce tighter restrictions on dining. Indoor dining is once again banned at Chicago restaurants. According to the new rules, all bar service should end at 11:00 p.m, all bar patrons should be seated at tables outside; ordering, seating, or congregating at a bar is no longer allowed and bar stools should be removed; all tables should be 6 feet apart and people cannot stand together indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting. Customers are prohibited to even dance or stand indoors.
While loans given to restaurant owners through the PPP have run out, their laid-off employees have been left waiting for further federal assistance, and September’s unemployment rate of 7.9% shows that many consumers don’t have a dime to spare for dining out.
Many restaurants that have relied on patio dining are about to face extra hardships as the cold weather season is right at the corner. But even in states known for their cozy temperatures, due to the lack of enhanced stimulus relief, many restaurants are still expected to go down.
Considering the hospitality industry is not only one of the foundations of the American economy, as it has a major impact on the global economic scenery, such a substantial spike in restaurant closures will be felt for years in our economy."
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
"Election Disaster: Half the Nation Mourns And the Whole Nation Loses"
"Election Disaster: Half the Nation Mourns And the Whole Nation Loses"
Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity
"It’s War!"
"It’s War!"
by Brian Maher
“We don’t pay much attention to politics… or presidents,” our fearless leader Addison Wiggin likes to write. “In fact,” continues Addison, “this is the time of year we urge readers not to vote at all. ‘Why encourage the bastards?’ the saying goes.” Indeed, why “encourage the bastards?”
Today of course is Election Day. We are told this is the most critical election since the election of 1860. The very future of the republic dangles in the balance… by a fraying thread. One opinion poll yields the following information: 55% of Americans believe today will be “the most stress-filled day of their lives.” As we have written before: It appears some critical hinge, somewhere deep within the national psyche, has abruptly given way…
Never has the electorate been so starkly divided, we are further told. On the right hand we have red state America. On the left hand, blue state America. These two Americas stand not shoulder to shoulder - but face to face. Blood fills every eye… and hatred every heart.
The president’s foes seethe in a state of unconquerable rage, a white-hot hatred. A modern Nero, they insist he is at once the fuel and the fire torching American democracy. He was, is and will forever be unfit for the high office he somehow holds (the Russians!). Bankrupt in character, bankrupt in speech, bankrupt in policy… the nation cannot endure another four years under his atrocities. The national nightmare must end today - and all traces of “Trumpism” with it. When you extinguish a fire, after all, can you allow a single smouldering ember behind? Here we have the one America.
In the other America we find the president’s loyal armies… To them President Trump holds the last trenchline of American civilization. Should he lose, should the line collapse, the enemy’s flags will soon be waving above the capital, their victory complete. The Democratic Party has trussed up Joe Biden and wheeled him out before the American people as a safe and moderate alternative - a Trojan horse to deceive the electorate. That is, the president’s boosters insist Mr. Biden is a mere place-holder, a seat-warmer who will soon make way.
His diminished intellectual capacities will prevent him from completing his term. Once safely behind the city gates, Ms. Kamala Harris and a herd of radicals and berserkers will come bursting forth from the Trojan contraption. Cultural, political and economic vandals, they would wage ferocious and ceaseless warfare upon America as it has existed. They would rewrite its history books, dynamite Mt. Rushmore, rename the Washington and Jefferson monuments…
They would pack the Supreme Court to wash away the present balance (6-3, “conservative”). They would confer statehood upon Washington, DC and the territory of Puerto Rico… thus adding four reliable Democratic senators to Congress. They will shutter the Electoral College - in effect closing out the possibility of a future Republican president. That is, they would have the nation safely under lock and key.
Economically, they would tear through the nation’s finances as a bull tears through china. They would shoulder through Congress a Green New Deal, for example. And green it would be. Its drummers would spend $10 trillion per year on it —- roughly half of 2019 GDP. They would likewise have a go at Medicare for All, “free” college education, a $15 minimum wage… and other rich sweets. They would further throw open the nation’s borders to the world’s teeming and desperate hordes.
Gone would be the American Republic. In its place would stand a Tower of Babel; multicultural, polyglot, hopelessly fractured. This is America’s future should Joe Biden win this evening’s election, we are warned.
Thus we find blue state America and red state America at each other’s throats. Who will win? Who will lose? Will either accept the outcome of a contested election? We have no answers, of course. As a true-blue, red-blooded American patriot, we certainly hope for the best possible outcome. Who would you like to see win - the incumbent or the challenger? And why? Let us know: feedback@dailyreckoning.com
Regardless of the victor, of this we are confident: Under both parties the nation’s finances will run to seed. Deficits will mount. Debt will snowball. Growth will stagnate. We concede, the two parties are different. They are not “both the same.” One party will drive the nation over a cliff doing 90. The other will drive it over the cliff doing 70. Now please, please, get out and vote. Your vote matters!"
"The Coming Economic Storm 2021; Financial Super Bubble; Main St. Destroyed By Wall St."
Jeremiah Babe,
"The Coming Economic Storm 2021; Financial Super Bubble;
Main St. Destroyed By Wall St."
"The Most Beautiful Lies..."
"Memories and feelings of nostalgia are nothing more than cruelties; they are the most beautiful lies we will ever convince ourselves to believe. We chase the false hope so fiercely that we nearly push ourselves past the edges of our sanity, longing for that which can never be in our possession again. These edges are blurred by our regrets and desperation all throughout the darkest hours of the night, until finally we are set free from the illusions and the ghosts of our past with the rising of the sun... and we are changed in some small, yet permanent way."
- Margaret E. Rise
"Our Imperial Presidency"
"Our Imperial Presidency"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"While elections and party politics generate the emotions and headlines, the truly consequential change in American governance has been the ascendancy of the Imperial Presidency over the past 75 years, since the end of World War II.
As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Constitution grants the President extraordinary but temporary powers in wartime. With the power to declare war granted solely to Congress, this dangerous (in the Founders' view) expansion of Executive power was tolerated because it was temporary and necessary in the fast-moving emergency of war. Congress has declared war a total of five times, while U.S. armed forces have been deployed in conflicts 300 times. So in 295 conflicts out of 300, the president had sole discretion. Various stamps of Congressional approval of these wartime powers have been given over the decades, but these are more for show than actual limits on presidential powers.
The extraordinary powers granted to President Roosevelt in World War II did not expire at the end of the war. Rather, the powers of the presidency expanded along with the National Security agencies which rose to unprecedented power in the Cold War era of 1945 - 1991. The entire alphabet soup of the National Security State - CIA, NSA, DIA, etc. - serve the president, not Congress, which has been relegated the role of toothless oversight.
Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s 1973 book, "The Imperial Presidency", introduced the term Imperial Presidency into the American lexicon. While historians have documented the rise of Executive power at the expense of the legislative branch and pundits have wrung their hands over this concentration of vast, often secret power in the presidency, nobody within the status quo has addressed the core reason behind the rise of the Imperial Presidency: America's Empire requires a CEO/Emperor as a simple operational reality.
You can't run a global military/commercial/diplomatic empire with a slow-moving legislative body; you need a dynamic CEO (chief executive officer) with essentially unlimited powers to do whatever it takes to run the empire. Empires need an emperor, and this is the history of post-WW2 America. As the victor, the U.S. emerged with a global reach and power that can only be described as imperial. While the USSR soon gained military parity with nuclear weapons and vast tank armies aimed at Western Europe, the commercial empire was solely American.
While some cheered America's global empire and others shouldered it as a necessary Cold war burden, the status quo relished the immense expansion of centralized bureaucratic and executive powers.
An Imperial President requires the Imperial machinery of global hegemony, and so the National Security State replaced the elected government as the real power. For a peek behind the curtain of the Imperial Presidency's powers, please read "The Enemies Briefcase: Secret Powers and the Presidency." (via Cheryl A.)
The last time the U.S. Congress pushed back against the Imperial Presidency and Security Agencies was 45 years ago, in 1975. In response to the domestic over-reach of the ImperialPresidency (Watergate) and the security agencies (COINTELPRO, etc.), the Church Committee undertook the first comprehensive review of the presidency's expansive secret powers and the secret powers wielded by the National Security State.
The domestic abuses of power by the FBI and CIA included the blatantly illegal COINTELPRO programs aimed at destroying the anti-war / civil rights movements in the 1960s and early 1970s. We know from the Church Committee reports that the FBI and CIA broke numerous federal laws and violated every constitutional limit on their powers as a matter of daily policy. The abuses of power were not the work of rogue agents or even rogue agencies; the abuses were SOP (standard operating procedures) for the Imperial machinery of the presidency and the security agencies that served the essentially unlimited power of the Imperial presidency.
For more on COINTELPRO, please read "War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. activists And What We Can Do About It" and/or "Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom."
Empires arise, evolve and collapse just like nations. Edward Luttwak's insightful book "The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third" outlines the three stages of Empire. Luttwak describes the first stage of expansion thusly:
"With brutal simplicity, it might be said that with the first system the Romans of the republic conquered much to serve the interests of the few, those living in the city - and in fact still fewer, those best placed to control policy."
The second stage spread the benefits of Empire much more broadly: "During the first century A.D., Roman ideas evolved toward a much broader and altogether more benevolent conception of empire... men born in lands far from Rome could call themselves Roman and have their claim fully allowed, and the frontiers were efficiently defended to defend the growing prosperity of all, and not merely the privileged."
The third stage is one of rising inequality: "In the wake of the great crisis of the third century, the provision of security became an increasingly heavy charge on society, a charge unevenly distributed, which could enrich the wealthy and ruin the poor. The machinery of empire now became increasingly self-serving, with its tax collectors, administrators and soldiers of much greater use to one another than to society at large."
That line describes the American state and central bank (the Federal Reserve) perfectly. As the Imperial Presidency's powers have expanded to the top of the S-Curve, so too has self-serving greed supported by everyday abuses of power reached new heights.
Who's benefited mightily from Imperial over-reach? As the chart below indicates, the top 1% of America's power elite has benefited to a degree that's unmatched around the world. The military-industrial sector has prospered (see chart below) as have the agencies of the National Security State. As for the bottom 99%: suck it up, debt-serfs and tax donkeys: yours is not to make a reply or reason why, yours is to do and die.
Click images for larger size.
Regardless of who holds the office, America's Imperial Project and its Imperial Presidency are due for a grand reckoning. Empires require an emperor, and perhaps America will finally tire of its self-serving Empire and its Imperial Presidency."
"LIVE - Multi-Cam Election Day 'Peaceful Protest' Feed"
"LIVE - Multi-Cam Election Day 'Peaceful Protest' Feed"
by IWB
Full screen mode recommended.
"77% Of Americans Think Violence Will Break Out After The Election"
"77% Of Americans Think Violence Will Break Out After The Election"
by Paul Joseph Watson
"A final poll of American voters has found that no less than 77% think violence will break out after today’s presidential election. According to the Yahoo News/YouGov survey, 51% of voters think Trump will refuse to concede if he loses the election while 77% “worry that violence will break out in the coming days.”
Both sides are almost even when it comes to judging the reaction to either candidate winning. 59% of Trump supporters believe that if Trump loses it will be because “Democrats rigged the election,” while 58% of Biden supporters believe if the former Vice President loses it will be because “Republicans stole the election.” With that kind of sentiment being so dominant, it’s almost impossible that there won’t be some form of disorder in the days following the vote. Meanwhile, just 22% of registered voters expect to know the result on election night while only 28% believe the election will be “free and fair”.
As we highlighted yesterday, stores, restaurants and banks in major cities across the country are being boarded up in anticipation of major unrest. However, should Trump lose and accept defeat, it won’t be Trump supporters rioting given what has unfolded over the last 5 months.
Gun stores across the country are also being cleaned out by new buyers who are afraid of major social dislocation, while Walmart has also removed firearms and ammunition from its shelves entirely."
"From Coast To Coast, Cities All Across America Are Bracing For Complete And Utter Chaos"
"From Coast To Coast, Cities All Across America
Are Bracing For Complete And Utter Chaos"
by Michael Snyder
"What we are experiencing at this moment is being referred to as “the calm before the storm”. All over the country, businesses are temporarily shutting down, stores are being boarded up and National Guard troops are being deployed. There has never been a presidential election like this in modern American history, and most Americans are anticipating some sort of nightmare scenario. In fact, the final Yahoo News/YouGov poll of the 2020 campaign found that a whopping 77 percent of all voters expect that “violence will break out” after the election… "Yet most voters (51 percent) also expect Trump to refuse to concede if he loses the election - and more than three-quarters (77 percent) worry that violence will break out in the coming days."
How did it come to this? When I was growing up, I never even considered the possibility that there would be violence after an election. That was the sort of thing that happened in uncivilized areas of the world, and it was inconceivable that there would be rioting, looting and widespread chaos after one of our peaceful elections. But now look at how far we have fallen. Everyone knows that violence is probably coming, and preparations are being made for it from coast to coast.
In Washington D.C., authorities are expecting vast numbers of protesters, and a “no climb” fence will be put up around the entire White House complex: "With Election Day preparations in full swing across the country, the White House will have a “no climb” fence installed this week around the entire complex, a law enforcement source told Fox News on Monday."
In other major cities, entire city blocks are being boarded up with plywood in anticipation of widespread violence: "Businesses across America are boarding up their windows ahead of potential chaos following tomorrow’s election as special police units prepare to tackle looters and rioters and foreign governments warn people not to visit the US for fear of civil unrest.
In cities all over the country on Monday, retailers, offices and art galleries were putting plywood on their windows to protect their inventory ahead of tomorrow night’s election and the mayhem it might spark, no matter which candidate wins. Some of the retail chains that have announced that they are boarding up stores include Tiffany, Saks Fifth Avenue, CVS, Target and Macy’s."
There are still some retailers that have chosen not to board up their stores, and that is a huge mistake. During past riots, looters have largely bypassed the stores that were boarded up and hit those that were unprotected instead. And once looters start rampaging through a store, the losses can be catastrophic. Just check out what looters did to one Walmart in Philadelphia a few days ago.
Yes, it can cost a lot of money to board up a store. According to one expert, the price tag can run as high as $31,000: Tom Buiocchi, CEO of ServiceChannel, an online platform that connects retailers with local contractors, said 750 stores have requested orders on the platform to board up their windows around the country since October 27, with the most in California, New York and Illinois. The cost to board up stores has ranged from $124 to $31,000, depending on the size, according to Buiocchi."
So it is not normally something that you would want to do, but these are not normal times. And it is interesting that Buiocchi says that the most requests are coming from “California, New York and Illinois”. Needless to say, stores in those states are not boarding up their windows because they are afraid of Trump voters. If the results of the presidential election are contested, or if Trump ends up winning, many believe that we could witness a temper tantrum on the left that would be absolutely unprecedented.
We all remember the riots that erupted in the aftermath of the tragic death of George Floyd earlier this year, and now law enforcement authorities all over the nation are bracing for another round. For example, we are being told that the NYPD’s elite Strategic Response Group is preparing “for the worst”: "Despite Mayor Bill de Blasio claiming on Monday morning that there was no specific threat, the NYPD’s elite Strategic Response Group – which consists of a group of 600 cops on bikes – is preparing ‘for the worst’. “We’re hoping for the best this week but we’re prepared for the worst. People have gotten emboldened out there.” There have been rumors that Trump Tower could potentially be a target, and so hopefully officials in New York are aware of this threat and are ready to respond rapidly.
Elsewhere, thousands of National Guard troops have already been deployed all over the United States. In fact, the Army Times is reporting that at least 3,671 troops have been deployed so far: "At least 3,671 Guard troops have been committed to the effort. The size of the authorized deployments ranges from 1,000 in Texas and Massachusetts to a single soldier in Wyoming. Some states are yet to determine how many troops will be activated, and many states have merely alerted selected units in anticipation of possible post-election unrest. All of the troops currently activated are on state orders and are under the control of their respective governors."
Sadly, I expect that number to grow much higher in the coming days. Unless a Biden victory is declared on election night, there will be violence. And the longer we have to wait for a winner to be finally declared, the worse the violence will become. In the end, if Trump is ultimately declared to be the winner, many on the left will be absolutely convinced that the election was stolen from them and we could potentially see months of violence.
I wish that this wasn’t true. I wish that all Americans could understand that violence is not going to accomplish anything. But we have already seen horrific rioting, looting and violence all over the country throughout 2020, and everyone knows that this election could possibly be the spark that takes things to an entirely new level. In just a matter of hours, what we are potentially facing should become a lot clearer. Let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst."
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