"The Death of Citizenship"

"The Death of Citizenship"

by Chris MacIntosh

"The dictionary describes citizenship as: "The state of being a member of a particular country and having rights because of it." The concept is simple. Citizens pay the State and the State provides various protections and rights in return. Citizenship is the result of a need for collectivism. There are times within historical cycles when this sort of cooperation is necessary for survival.

The Sicilian mafia, for example, came about due to a need for Sicilians to protect themselves from Northern bureaucrats who came down demanding a share of their produce. They got pissed off, banded together, and formed a group to repel them. In order for this group to function and be effective villagers initially willingly contributed to them. They called it "protection money," and it was - protection from those bastards up north. When the threat retreated, instead of disbanding, the mafia moved into continuing to demand protection money. Not from invaders up north but from… themselves. That is, of course, a very condensed simplified version of events, but it is broadly accurate.

Citizenship formed in a similar fashion. In earlier centuries, it was the thugs better known as kings and queens who ruled. The modern-day concept of the nation state is a relatively new phenomenon viewed through the arc of history.

The Enlightenment and The Nation State: The 17th and 18th centuries birthed the nation state in Europe, and then in the United States after the American Revolution brought forth the concept of a State. It was after the Civil War between the North and the South that the overriding theme of unification and the birth of the American State known today as the United States of America came into existence. As for the other parts of the world, they were either ruled by kings and princes or colonized by Western powers.

The growth of the modern nation state picked up pace after the war and during the 1960s when many African states became independent from their colonial rulers. This was because their rulers found that the cost to maintain these outposts outweighed the benefits, and they also found that if they controlled the industry, there really wasn’t much need to simultaneously incur the costs of government.Further, with the spread of modern communication technologies, it was easier for the indigenous people to rise up as a unit and overthrow their colonial masters which itself accelerated the birth of the modern nation state.

While all of this was happening something else was taking place that, while it was visible, the power structure was masked from view. That trend was globalization. What globalization did was to cede power from governments to large corporations and giant conglomerates. Consider that at over $7 trillion, the combined market cap of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google is greater than the GDP of every single country in the world, with the exception of the US and China.

Today the corporations are in control. We have moved solidly into a state of affairs where those who are supposed to be providing citizens protection are in fact the aggressors. Modern day mafia, only far more sophisticated because they own and control the narrative via both mainstream media as well as social media. Today I am going to make the case here that we are experiencing the death of the concept of citizenship and hence the nation state as we’ve known it. I’m not sure what follows it but citizenship as we know it is over.

Society: When I think back to my grandparents who survived World War II, I remember people used to dry out tea bags for quadruple usage. People who would have thought it the height of extravagance to be drying their clothes in a dryer when the wind and sun did the job. Patience, hard work, resilience, and fortitude were required and developed. And with real stresses and concerns, perspective was provided.

If you were a naughty little snot as a kid, you got your bottom smacked and sent to your room. You never put your feet on the table, and when speaking with an elder you were respectful and polite even if your elder was being a muppet. That was then, and this is now.

Today’s snowflake generation, glued to their mobile phones and angered if they don’t get a prize for just "being", haven't learnt how to deal with discomfort. Discomfort for this generation involves hyperventilating due to a difference in opinion on social media, by someone on the other side of the world whom they’ve not met and never will. Imagine a generation this fragile. Imagine a generation so fragile they have built themselves "safe spaces" to retreat to when their delicate ears or eyes encounter things that upset them.

These are children, clearly, and children need to be cared for. But these children are of adult age, so what now? Well, the State has stepped in, and the citizens have championed this intrusion into their lives, believing it both necessary and desirable. This has been the case for decades now.

Disturbing economic, political, and social trends are already in motion and now accelerating at breathtaking speed. Most troubling of all, they cannot be stopped. The period of time we’ve entered now is where those in power realize there is no out to this. And so, in order to retain control - before it all implodes - they are actively forcing a self-demolition with the idiotic and murderous idea that they’ll "build back better" using communism instead.

What Happens Now? Did you know that Australians who happen to live in India are not allowed back into the country? Did you know that Australians are not allowed to leave the country? So much for rights.

As citizens wake to the harsh reality and look at this agreement with their government it isn’t long before trust completely evaporates? What does this mean? Well, what exactly do you own when you lose faith? Not only what do you own - where do you own it? These considerations have been comparatively trivial in our lifetimes, and they are fast becoming entirely nontrivial. On the positive side of things this brings with it extraordinary asymmetry.

- internationalman.com

"Plight of the Callow Youth"

"Plight of the Callow Youth"

by Bill Bonner

POITOU, FRANCE – Picking up from where we left off…our poor callow youth have been dealt some low cards. This week, we’ve struggled to connect the dots. What was the connection, we wondered, between…

Fewer people owning their own homes;

Millions of people facing eviction when the feds’ reprieve expires;

A “transitory” society… with cars, houses, offices shared, rented, or leased, rather than owned outright;

Falling rates of marriage; falling births;

The Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rates (the Fed has been lending money at below zero for nearly 12 years straight); rising asset prices;

And the towering wall between the many, who are poorer today than they were 50 years ago… and the few, who are much richer?

It was while we were wondering that another news item came in, from journalist Allan C. Brownfeld: "In a Gallup Poll this June, only 63% of American adults say they are “extremely proud” or “very proud” to be American, the lowest level of patriotism ever recorded since Gallup first asked the question in 2001. Among the youngest people surveyed, only 4 out of 10 respondents age 18-34 claim to be extremely or very proud of being American."

Is it any wonder?

America’s Capitalists: Yesterday, we looked at why young people find it hard to buy a house. They’re now bidding against investment firms like Blackstone and other big players with access to billions of dollars at near-negative real rates, provided by the Fed. And they’re not about to join America’s capitalists any time soon, either.

At today’s prices, it would take them 1,400 hours of work to buy the Dow… compared to only 160 hours for their parents. It’s similar even for automobiles. While not the same kind of asset, an auto is a major purchase. And as prices rise, it becomes harder and harder for marginal earners to afford it. They have to rent… lease… or string out car payments.

Fantasy Currency: We have given the basic figures many times. We do so again just to highlight the plight of the callow youths of today. We entered the workforce, with no student debt, in 1971. That was also the fateful year in which Richard Nixon turned the dollar into a fantasy currency and began the War on Drugs.

In 1973, the F-150 sixth generation came out, with a manufacturer’s suggested price of $2,889. At an average wage of $4 an hour, we could have worked 722 hours (forgetting taxes) to buy the truck. Today’s young man, just starting out, would have to work 1,200 hours for his wheels – even the most basic model. To make a long story short…

Queering our money was bound to have unexpected costs. The young are now getting the bill. Let’s look at how this came to be.

Quack Economics: First, the new, fake dollar financed the transfer of the U.S. manufacturing sector to lower-cost labor markets overseas. It was easier to print money than to earn it. So the U.S. allowed China, Vietnam, and Mexico to do the work. We merely printed the money with which to buy the finished products. This brought a flood of cheap goods into America and helped to put off the inevitable consumer price inflation. But it left a whole generation of young people with few good-paying jobs.

The lack of a good-paying, blue-collar career track caused young people to go to college. And so, they spent some of the best years of their life being indoctrinated in the latest fads and fashions of quack economics, sociology, and anti-racist training. And now, they believe the U.S. invented slavery… and that if we don’t all get vaccinated and begin driving electric cars, we are damned to Hell.

Soft Hands, Mush Minds: Alas, in the real world, you get wealth not by handing out claptrap… but by providing real goods and services. And now, with soft hands and mush minds, what are the young to do? Their fathers (and often, mothers, too) made things. But in the 21st century, the good jobs in manufacturing are largely gone. Young people are much more likely to find work in the “service” sector. Trouble is, manufacturing workers earn an average of $70,000 a year. Accommodation and food service workers (to take the lowest category) don’t earn half as much.

Pew Research reported last year that more than half of these young adults, 18-29, are now living with parents. That’s more than any time since the Great Depression. What happened?

In this glorious age of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Fed’s nifty “dynamic stochastic” model…you’d think all these bright eyes and bushy tails would be able to afford their own digs… their own cars… and their own families. Instead, they are less likely to have drivers’ licenses… and less likely to own cars or houses… than their parents. And as the bills for the Fed’s money-printing debauch come in… and young people’s costs of living rise… don’t be surprised if they get a little cross."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"Ah, You Miserable Creatures!"

Civilized?

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great!

You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything!

Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough. " 

- Frederic Bastiat

Any questions?

"The Very Fine People of a Civilized Society"

"The Very Fine People of a Civilized Society"

by Jim Kunstler

"The very fine people of the Progressive Left believe many things: that men can be women (and mostly should be); that two plus two should equal how you feel, not the same darn thing every time; That “Joe Biden” is not just president but the greatest one since Barack Obama (and the 2020 election proved it). The very fine people on the Left don’t believe in a couple of things: reality and the law. This is getting to be a problem in what’s left of the USA.

Reality, you might think, works in strange ways, such as the idea of rent. It grows out of another idea that happens to underly law: property. Property is owning something. Granted, it has a certain suspicious artificiality, since you must surrender it to others (usually relatives) when you depart this world. And granted, it is not exactly fair, since some people will own more property than other people. But it has many functional benefits in the greater artificial construct sometimes called civilized society.

Property permits people to thrive, and not necessarily at the expense of other people. If I come to own a house through hard work, thrift, and prudent management of my resources; and if I rent out the second floor to you at a price you are willing to pay (while you work hard and manage your resources); then that bargain succeeds in allocating the “good” called a place to live. Granted, there are some people who make bad bargains (and some people who offer them), but there are many who are satisfied with paying for a place to live, and accept it as a condition of participating in that thing called civilized society, with its many benefits.

By the way, the property-owner designated as “landlord” has payment obligations too: property taxes, the cost of fixing all the goshdarn things that wear out: roofs, plumbing, the paint, etc. Often this landlord has a mortgage on his building, which works as a kind of rent. If the government, which is an instrument of civilized society, suspends rent payments indefinitely, then a certain percentage of property owners are going to lose their property one way or another due to not paying the cost of ownership.

As that occurs, a chain of non-payments begins to disrupt the whole system by which the “good” called a place to live is allocated, and then fewer people have a place to live which renders them…homeless. The very fine people of the Progressive Left, who hold the levers of power these days in the executive branch of the instrument called government, have decided that eighteen months of suspended rent payments during a “national emergency” is not enough. Now, it happens that the branch called the Supreme Court decided otherwise in June. But the very fine fellow, “Joe Biden,” purported to be leader of the very fine people of the Progressive Left who run things, has decided to nullify the judgment of the Supreme Court because… well, because he feels like it. And because who is going to stop him? (Echo answers.)

Of course, the very fine people of the Progressive Left also believe in a new and pretty sexy idea (female-style sexy, actually) called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). This theory states that the people in charge can borrow money to pay for anything that they want to make happen, and that the debt does not have to ever be paid back. One thing they might want to make happen is to bail out everyone involved in the rent moratorium fiasco — the renters burdened by accumulated non-payments, and then the broke landlords, and, gosh, even the holders of the mortgages that have been securitized, bundled, and sold as bonds to hedge funds, pension funds, and banks. MMT, therefore, will make everything right when the national emergency finally ends, and all concerned can just pick up where they left off before the emergency started and make a fresh start.

This experiment has only partly played out. So far, borrowing trillions of dollars that will never have to be paid back hasn’t hurt anybody. In other words, so far so good! At some point we may need to revisit exactly what we mean when we use the word debt. After all, it implies some kind of function, some relationship, between borrowing and repayment, and if repayment is no longer required then maybe this mechanism is not what we think it is. What could it be then? The very fine people might call it “economic justice.” But will that make it work? (By which I mean, continue to function.) I guess we’ll just have to see.

Now, the very fine president “Joe Biden” has appointed a very fine fellow named Merrick Garland to be Attorney General of the civilized society called the USA. Mr. Garland is chief enforcement officer of federal law. He attended the very fine Harvard Law School, but he apparently missed the seminar course in constitutional law titled Advanced Issues in Administrative Law and Theory. Mr. Garland has been sending letters to officers of the Arizona state government threatening to punish and even imprison anyone in that state who moves further to investigate the balloting results and the conduct of the 2020 election in that jurisdiction. Mr. Garland, having missed that crucial course (above), is apparently unaware that the US constitution assigns authority over elections to each state — with the reserve clause that the US Congress can legislate changes to that order of things, which they haven’t done.

Therefore, Mr. Garland is out-of-order. Will he actually move to interfere with an effort currently underway in the state of Arizona to conduct a full forensic investigation of the 2020 vote? Elected officials of that state have counter-threatened to throw Mr. Garland’s very fine ass in an Arizona jail if he attempts to interfere. Meanwhile the forensic investigators of said election hired by the Arizona State Senate have completed phase one of their task, close examination of the paper ballots, and are moving on to phases two and three: canvassing street addresses from which mail-in ballots originated, and full examination of the Dominion vote-tallying machines.

There is reason to suppose that the investigation will reach conclusions that might distress the very fine people of the Progressive Left who maintain that the 2020 election was the “most secure in history” — that is, without any significant errors. If that were so, why would they hesitate to examine the evidence? Might it raise questions that would be difficult to answer, for instance: what to do if very large errors happen to be discovered? Is it an affront to their very fine-ness? Is the government not fit to manage such a result? Or are the people of this land not resourceful or fair-minded enough to work through such a development? It will be interesting to find out."

-  https://kunstler.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/6/21: "Beyond The Hyperbubble - Important Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/6/21:

"Beyond The Hyperbubble - Important Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Nothing Makes Sense - Jobs Lost, Trade Deficits and Stocks at an All Time High"

Full screen recommended,

Dan, iAllegedly, PM 8/5/21:

"Nothing Makes Sense - Jobs Lost,

 Trade Deficits and Stocks at an All Time High"

"Nothing makes sense with this economy. People losing jobs at a record rate, our trade deficits are worse than ever, but the stock market is that an all time high. This is like a bad dream that we are living through."

"Why They’re Suppressing Vaccine Side Effects"

"Why They’re Suppressing Vaccine Side Effects"

by Brian Maher

"A question: Why do the health authorities refuse to acknowledge the possibility of severe vaccination side effects? Here is the likely answer: The “Noble Lie.” Details to follow.

As we maintained yesterday - in grim detail - the COVID-19 vaccines are likely not so safe as health authorities claim. Jabbings have likely accounted for thousands of deaths - perhaps tens of thousands - and at least hundreds of thousands of other “adverse events.” The numbers may trifle against the millions and millions of incident-free vaccinations. Most may be unaffected entirely. We do not claim otherwise. Yet the casualty lists are far from negligible.

These vaccines have likely claimed more victims than all other vaccines over the past 30 years - combined. Yet the authorities continue to stroke our ears with pretty jingles. They coo, they croon, that these vaccines are very nearly 100% safe. Again, why? It is the “Noble Lie,” argues Dr. Robert Malone.

No “Anti-vaxxer”: Dr. Malone is an impeccably credentialed scientist. He helped pioneer the mRNA vaccine technology upon which the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based. He is not an “anti-vaxxer.” Very much to the contrary. He has consecrated his career to vaccine development. He believes in them. His feet are planted firmly on the ground - in science.

Yet he harbors grave reservations about the safety of these particular vaccines. His fears center on the “spike proteins” these vaccines yield. The vaccines employ messengerRNA. This mRNA programs cells to switch production lines. The cellular equipment proceeds to roll these spike proteins off the assembly line. The immune system then produces antibodies against them. This is the golden key to immunization… at least to our understanding. Authorities claim these spike proteins are harmless and inert. Yet have another guess, argues Dr. Malone.

Toxicity: He believes they are active mischief makers that can play the devil with the biology: "Every drug or vaccine is toxic at some level in some percent of people, and there's pretty clear evidence that the spike protein expressed from vaccines is causing toxicity in a small subset of patients. The question is, How big is that subset, and how broad and bad are those toxicities? The honest truth is, we don't know. And furthermore, there's a lot of signs that that information is being withheld from us.

The authorities further claim the vaccinated material remains chained to the injection site, to the deltoid muscle and local lymph nodes. There they remain for the duration of their sentence."

Yet is it true? The evidence runs the other way, argues Canadian vaccine researcher Dr. Byram Bridle. In at least certain instances the spike proteins break their chains… turned loose among the general population This fellow is a viral immunologist and associate professor at University of Guelph, Ontario. “We made a big mistake, “ he cries…

“We Made a Big Mistake”: We made a big mistake. We didn’t realize it until now. We thought the spike protein was a great target antigen, we never knew the spike protein itself was a toxin and was a pathogenic protein. So by vaccinating people we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin. It’s the first time ever scientists have been privy to seeing where these messenger RNA [mRNA] vaccines go after vaccination. Is it a safe assumption that it stays in the shoulder muscle? The short answer is: absolutely not. It’s very disconcerting.

The vaccines we’re using get the cells in our bodies to manufacture that protein. If we can mount an immune response against that protein, in theory we could prevent this virus from infecting the body. That is the theory behind the vaccine.

However, when studying the severe COVID-19, […] heart problems, lots of problems with the cardiovascular system, bleeding and clotting, are all associated with COVID-19. In doing that research, what has been discovered by the scientific community, the spike protein on its own is almost entirely responsible for the damage to the cardiovascular system, if it gets into circulation. Now, we have clear-cut evidence that the vaccines that make the cells in our deltoid muscles manufacture this protein — that the vaccine itself, plus the protein — gets into blood circulation.

Not all medical professionals are convinced... “So far,” claim experts at the Meedan Digital Health Lab, “there is no scientific evidence available that suggests spike proteins created in our bodies from the COVID-19 vaccines are toxic or damaging to our organs.”

Just so. Yet we have questions: Why so many fatalities? Why so many grave side effects? What accounts for them? Why have these spike proteins been discovered in the distant organs? We are no medical man. Yet we hazard these escaped convicts that run at large throughout the biology - these circulating spike proteins - explain the vaccines’ multiple side effects. At least, that is, if the casualty lists are accurate to a reasonable degree.

The Butcher’s Bill: As we reported yesterday: "Between Dec. 14, 2020, and July 16, 2021, reports of 518,870 “adverse events” came rolling in. Among these: 65,216 of the adversely affected required emergency repairs. 40,873 were admitted to hospitals for less intense servicing.

12,808 endured permanent disability… Meantime, 11,940 of the vaccinated ended upon the dissecting table, dead."

Yet as we also reported yesterday: "Studies have concluded that merely 1 to 10% of all vaccine-related dying is reported to VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). One whistleblower - an expert in health data with access to government databases - recently filed a sworn legal statement under penalty of perjury. Based upon her sleuthings, she claimed the true vaccine death toll approaches 50,000.

The Tragedy: We do not know the true death toll. Let us assume it ranges between 11,900 and 50,000. Against the 165 million vaccinated Americans, it is a slender, slender fraction. It is true. Yet 11,900 to 50,000 Americans believed they were absorbing life-preserving inoculation against the virus. The authorities assured them of it.

All vaccines - including demonstrably safe vaccines - injure or kill small numbers of the injected. Yet these vaccines appear to especially injure the health of many. These thousands of Americans did not expect the life-preserving vaccine to claim their own. Yet, the health authorities dare not make mention of alarming potential risks. That is because they believe universal vaccination takes the royal road to “herd immunity.”

The Noble Lie: If they give square answers about the elevated risk, they believe it would frighten the horses. Many will run away from vaccination - irrationally in the professional estimate. “The percentages are overwhelmingly with you,” they will say. But they do not believe sufficient numbers of Americans will choose wisely. The Simple Simons will fixate only upon the dead, the amputated and the permanently wrecked. Thus all mention of severe side effects and death must be strangled in the baby’s crib, choked and smothered - for the greatest good.

Again, to the authorities, universal vaccination holds out the divine grail of herd immunity. And they cannot permit a relatively small portion of unfortunates to throw them off the track. Hence, the Noble Lie. The aforesaid Dr. Malone:

"I have colleagues in the government who are fully aware and were aware months before, for instance, the cardio-toxicity was disclosed, that the cardio-toxicity was an issue. What I'm hearing now, from multiple sources, is that individuals are purchasing access, for instance, to the Medicare/Medicaid database and - high net worth individuals - and are paying for bio-statisticians to independently evaluate those. And in some cases… because they're so concerned about what's going on. Now, what they're finding is that the CDC is grossly underreporting these key adverse events [that are available] in data that the U.S. government produces, [data] that is readily available to the CDC. And my colleagues, senior colleagues at the FDA, have known that this was the case for months, and are very frustrated."

Small Sacrifices for the Greater Good: It is “classic Noble Lie Logic,” argues Dr. Malone. There are multiple examples where it appears that the CDC appears to be editing data in support of the "noble lie." Remember, going back to that, the core thesis - it's in the Federal Register - the core thesis is that any information that would cause vaccine hesitancy must be suppressed. That's what's going on. Let's be clear about that. And they believe that it's OK to do so because it's in the best interests of the public. This is classic noble lie logic.

People... believe that they deserve to have access to all of these data, make their own choices, exercise their own free will, not be forced into decisions by the government about risks that they don't fully understand. Yet the government still believes that it's OK to treat us in this paternalistic manner. Yet government agencies are leagued together with Big Tech and the media to defend the Noble Lie - to the last hill, to the last man:

"What's different now is that they have these enormously powerful mechanisms for controlling information they never had before. And that's this intersection of New Media, Old Media, and Big Tech. That's what's going on here, and they never had that level of power in their tools before."

Yet does the Noble Lie contain an even greater lie? Could vaccines actually be worsening and accelerating the viral outbreak? Could the experts be wrong - 180 degrees wrong? This possibility we investigate tomorrow..."

- dailyreckoning.com

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Related

• "They Killed People for Vaccine Profits – Paul Craig Roberts"

• "2021 - The Year Of The Mass Poisoning"

• "Unthinkable Thoughts"

Gerald Celente, "The Trends Journal", "Flying High With Delta, Get Ready For The Crash"

Full screen recommended.

Gerald Celente, "The Trends Journal",

"Flying High With Delta, Get Ready For The Crash"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/subscribe

"And So It Begins – 1000s Of Cattle Are Literally Dropping Dead From Starvation In Northern Mexico"

Full screen recommended.

"And So It Begins – 1000s Of Cattle Are Literally 

Dropping Dead From Starvation In Northern Mexico"

by Epic Economist

"A lot of people never imagined the world could ever reach this point. Many preferred to assume that this crisis would rapidly end and, eventually, things would come back to 'normal' and everyone's lives would be just fine somehow. But here we are in the second half of 2021, and conditions have never seemed worse. Global crises are getting aggravated at an alarming pace, and extreme weather conditions are leading to the destruction of millions of acres of agricultural land, where the food we consume all over the planet is produced, while thousands of people are also falling victim to the extraordinarily high temperatures. In Northern Mexico, a region known for its cattle farming and meat production, thousands of cows are facing starvation and death due to a ravaging drought. The region produces hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat that we consume here in America. And the mass loss of livestock is leaving many in the agriculture industry extremely worried that not only shortages are ahead but, in fact, we might see a permanent collapse in meat production.

In an article released by the Los Angeles Times, Mexican farmers and ranchers expose the devastating situation they're now facing. In the arid hills of southern Sonora, local farmer Marco Antonio Gutierrez wakes up early to count the carcasses of rotting cows. On that day, Gutierrez found nine skulls of cows that were felled by heat and hunger. “There’s nothing for them to eat,” he lamented. Sadly, those nine cows were added to the other 61 Gutierrez have lost just this year. But Gutierrez's loss only represents a fraction of the overall tragedy. Just in Sonora, the number of cattle has dropped by nearly 50 percent this year. The article describes that "two years of extreme drought have turned large stretches of northern Mexico into a boneyard. Between starvation and ranchers forced to prematurely sell or slaughter their livestock, officials say the number of cattle in Sonora has dropped from 1.1 million to about 635,000".

Thousands of Sonora farmers and ranchers are facing crushing financial losses and many of them don't see a future in the industry anymore. The outlook doesn't seem very encouraging. According to a study featured by NBC, "a long-term drought that has hit two-thirds of Mexico looks set to worsen in coming weeks, with forecasts warning of high temperatures, crop damage and water supply shortages on the horizon, including in the populous capital. Experts are sounding the alarm that parched crops could under-produce as temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius - 104F - on Wednesday in some parts of northern Mexico, including key farming areas".

Mexico's drought parallels that of the western United States and Canada, where mass crop failures are being reported and water conservation mandates have been imposed. Most part of the U.S. West is dealing with a drought so severe experts said this phenomenon is an event only seen every 1,000 years. At this very moment, every corner of California is experiencing an extreme state of drought, and that will have major implications for our food supply chain because the state produces roughly one-third of our vegetables and about two-thirds of our fruits and nuts.

In California, along with some parts of Canada, apocalyptic wildfires are sweeping through the region and eating up anything vegetative they can find, including crops. Many other western and midwestern states are also being hard hit by the dry weather conditions, and this situation is rapidly evolving into an alarming agricultural crisis. The most worrying factor of all this is that the region is responsible for the production of a series of food staples that go to our stores.

In all of our history, we have never seen anything quite like this. And it isn’t just North America that is on the verge of a disastrous collapse in food production and in danger of seeing a widespread hunger crisis. All over the planet, extraordinary weather patterns are destroying crops and wreaking havoc with food production, and global food supply chains are just getting more and more vulnerable to disruptions. This looks like a slow-motion train wreck of epic proportions that is being played right in front of our helpless eyes. By now you probably know that none of this is going to end well, so the best chance we have to survive the coming collapse of everything is to start getting ready right now."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

Musical Interlude: "Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended.

"Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

"A Look to the Heaven"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.

The galaxy's protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872's spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

"The Road to New Beginnings: Completion"

"The Road to New Beginnings: Completion"

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"Just as new beginnings are important, so is honoring the experience of closure. Life is a collage of beginnings and endings that run together like still-wet paint. Yet before we can begin any new phase in life, we must sometimes first achieve closure to the current stage we are in. That’s because many of life’s experiences call for closure. Often, we cannot see the significance of an event or importance of a lesson until we have reached closure. Or, we may have completed a certain phase in life or path of learning and want to honor that ending. It is this sense of completion that frees us to open the door to new beginnings. Closure serves to tie up or sever loose ends, quiets the mind even when questions have been left unanswered, signifies the end of an experience, and acknowledges that a change has taken place.

The period of completion, rather than being just an act of finality, is also one of transition. When we seek closure, what we really want is an understanding of what has happened and an opportunity to derive what lessons we can from an experience. Without closure, there is no resolution and we are left to grieve, relive old memories to the point of frustration, or remain forever connected to people from our past. A sense of completion regarding a situation may also result when we accept that we have done our best. If you can’t officially achieve closure with someone, you can create completion by participating in a closure ritual. Write a farewell letter to that person and then burn your note during a ceremony. This ritual allows you to consciously honor and appreciate what has taken place between you and release the experience so you can move forward.

Closure can help you let go of feelings of anger or uncertainty regarding your past even as you honor your experience – whether good or bad - as a necessary step on your life’s path. Closure allows you to emotionally lay to rest issues and feelings that may be weighing down your spirit. When you create closure, you affirm that you have done what was needed, are wiser because of your experience, and are ready for whatever life wants to bring you next.”

- http://www.dailyom.com/

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!”

- www.tut.com

The Daily "Near You?"

St James, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/5/21: "Alert! Stocks Hit New Record High, But Be Prepared for The Disaster That Is Coming"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/5/21:

"Alert! Stocks Hit New Record High, 

But Be Prepared for The Disaster That Is Coming"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Subscription Slaves"

"Subscription Slaves"

by Bill Bonner

POITOU, FRANCE – “Transitory” is catching on. First, it was inflation that was transitory, as Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell put it. Now, it’s housing… transportation… even love.

Startling Statistics: While the U.S. population has grown by nearly a third since the 1970s, the number of married couples with children in the house has fallen by a third. On the other hand, the number of households with only one parent has more than doubled. Father and mother don’t seem to stick together.

A young colleague recently announced that he had become a father. “I didn’t even know you were married,” we replied. “I’m not… My partner and I aren’t getting married. We’ll stick together only as long as it works for both of us.” “Hmmm…” we replied, as if we knew something he didn’t.

People don’t feel much loyalty towards their cars or houses, either. Even when houses and cars are “bought,” they are often never fully owned. Mortgages are refinanced. Why pay it off when you can refinance at a rate below zero (inflation adjusted)? Car payments stretch out. Often the muffler falls off before the last payment is made.

Subscription Economy: It’s a “subscription economy,” say the buzz mongers. The CEO of a company called Zuora claims to have invented the term. This is from its website: "Customers have changed. They’re looking for new ways to engage with businesses. Consumers today have a new set of expectations. They want outcomes, not ownership. Customization, not generalization. Constant improvement, not planned obsolescence.

The result? Businesses are changing the way they sell their products and services. Over the past nine years, we’ve seen an explosion of new types of business models all designed to keep customers consistently engaged in long-term relationships – think Netflix, Amazon Prime, Uber, Spotify, Salesforce, Zendesk, Box.

The Subscription Economy® is a phrase (coined by our CEO, Tien Tzuo) to describe this new era of companies and business models. In the old world (let’s call it the Product Economy) it was all about things. Acquiring new customers, shipping commodities, billing for one-time transactions. But in this new era, it’s all about relationships. More and more customers are becoming subscribers because subscription experiences built around services meet consumers’ needs better than the static offerings or a single product. Largish companies are even giving up their offices altogether. Employees are expected to work from home… and make episodic appearances in shared workspaces."

Rent. Lease. Borrow. Squat. Own nothing.

Prisoners of Cashflow: Perhaps something is gained in the subscription economy – spontaneity? Flexibility? Optionality? But something is surely lost, too. Instead of being shackled to capital assets, people are now prisoners of cashflow. And what if their subscriptions are cancelled?

A dear reader recalls what it was like when the economy suddenly stopped last year. Blanca H. writes: "Before the pandemic: we were working on remodeling our home to start a bed and breakfast. I was forced into retirement and hubby ended with medical issues that limited his ability to work. But the best was there was no mortgage payments…"

Yes, there are some times when you don’t have to pay a mortgage or rent. But in the Brave New World ahead, only a few will escape them. A few people – the elite – will get rich. They will own the capital assets. Most of the rest will become “subscription slaves”… able only to enjoy their homes, their cars, their lives… as long as their monthly incomes continue.

Enter the Financiers: Following the mortgage finance blow-up in 2008, houses were cheap. And financing was cheap, too. Enter the financiers, richly funded by the Fed’s ultra-low-priced credit. They bought up thousands of houses. Home ownership began a decline. If the previous rate had remained, there would be 3.3 million more homeowners (and fewer renters) today. In 2004, home ownership reached 69%. Now, it is only 65%, a huge swing.

There is no particular reason to think that owning is better than renting. Each has its place. But like everything in the financial world, what matters is that the numbers be true and honest, and not persuaded by the heavy-handed feds. But as they manipulate and distort, the feds inevitably slap around the real estate market, along with everything else.

Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone’s jefe, can borrow a lot cheaper than the typical homeowner. (Blackstone was one of the big investment firms to buy foreclosed homes in bulk in the aftermath of the ’08 crisis.) And when the Fed puts rates so low, it puts Schwarzman into competition with homeowners.

The homeowner wants a place to live. Schwartzman aims for yield. And when yields are below zero in real terms, it doesn’t take much yield to make a good investment. That’s why Blackstone can pay more for a house than a family can. And that’s why house prices are going up… to the point where the average family can no longer afford to buy the average house.

Routine Manipulation: So here is another brick in the wall we’ve been talking about for the last 10 years. As asset price goes up, Wall Street makes money. But the homeowner, who works in the Main Street economy, doesn’t earn more money. He’s stuck, trying to pay for a more expensive house with the same old income. The same thing, more or less, happened in the stock market.

In 1980, before the Fed’s manipulation became routine, it took an average working person 160 hours on the job to buy the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Industrial index. Today, it takes 1,400 hours – more than eight times as much. In 1980, he was greatly aided, too, by a decent return on his savings. He could get 10% on his deposits, plus a free toaster oven for opening an account. Today, the going rate is less than 1%.

Subscription Slaves: Oh my… pity the callow youth! A subscription slave. Burdened with student debt… dumped into an economy in which the good-paying manufacturing jobs have been exported to China… unable to save money (on which he would earn nothing anyway)… with no capital and little chance of ever getting any… No house. No car. No business. No family. He sits in Mom and Dad’s basement… gambling his stimmy money on meme stocks and cryptos… and waiting for real life to start. More to come…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

 
On vacation for 7 weeks while the country goes to Hell...

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/5/21: "The Meltdown Continues; Fed. Now ADMITS 'Inflation Is Not Transitory!'

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/5/21:

"The Meltdown Continues; 

Fed. Now ADMITS 'Inflation Is Not Transitory!'"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Do You Want..."

"Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?"

- Macklemore