So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
"Are the Markets About to Crash? What Will Set Them Off?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 9/15/21:
"Are the Markets About to Crash? What Will Set Them Off?"
"There are so many problems in the economy. From supply chain problems, the real estate bubble to the ever increasing inflation it shows no sign of stopping. What is finally make the markets crash? I am at the Wedge in Newport Beach, CA."
Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 9/15/21: "The FReaKShoW Is Getting Even fREakiER"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/15/21:
"The FReaKShoW Is Getting Even fREakiER"
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Tuesday, September 14, 2021
"Disturbing Financial Signs Point To Ominous Times; The Coming Financial End Game; Stockpile Food"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/14/21:
"Disturbing Financial Signs Point To Ominous Times;
The Coming Financial End Game; Stockpile Food"
Musical Interlude: The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line"
Full screen recommended.
The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line"
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal: Welcome to America, Whale Watching, Who's Watching Who?"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, PM 9/14/21:
VERY Strong language alert!
"Trends Journal: Welcome to America,
Whale Watching, Who's Watching Who?"
"If They Force Millions Of Americans Out Of Their Jobs, Our Supply Chain Crisis Will Get Much Worse"
Full screen recommended.
"If They Force Millions Of Americans Out Of Their Jobs,
Our Supply Chain Crisis Will Get Much Worse"
by Epic Economist
"You probably already noticed that shortages are spreading across a wide range of goods and store shelves are getting increasingly emptier, but things are set to get a whole lot worse as the U.S. government decided that now it's a good time to impose work restrictions. Our supply chains have been facing one disruption after the other, but now that thousands of workers are at risk of being forced to leave their posts, we're about to see widespread chaos taking over this country. The economy has already started to slump again, and there's a 50% chance that we face a double-dip recession by the end of the year.
Considering how things are going, it seems absurd that the federal government of the United States is issuing such a draconian decree - one that threatens to push MILLIONS of workers across several industries out of their jobs, but that's precisely what's happening. They are mandating workers to get the vaccine, but if the population doesn't trust the government, why would they comply with what the government is imposing? How are people supposed to feel confident to get the vaccine if they're being forced to make that decision?
Never in history, we have seen global supply chains so gummed up. And one of the main reasons why this crisis has been aggravating so dramatically is the shortage of workers. Dockworkers, truck drivers, warehouse workers - you name it. Every corner of the US supply chain is understaffed. And while many were expecting things to be coming back to "normal" by now, it seems like this crisis is only intensifying and more shortages continue to emerge all over the nation.
A new poll conducted by the Washington Post revealed that most workers prefer to get fired than get the injection. "The poll found 16 percent of unvaccinated workers would get the shot, 35 percent would ask for a medical or religious exemption and 42 percent would quit their job. When asked what they would do if they weren’t given an exemption to opt-out of the requirement, 18 percent of those surveyed said they would comply and 72 percent said they would quit," says the report.
Due to the threat of unemployment, it is likely that some unvaccinated workers ultimately submit to the injection program, but given that the vast majority is unwilling to accept it, we're about to witness economic chaos being unleashed all around us. In fact, many crazy things are already going on due to the vaccine mandates. Hospitals all over the country are seeing healthcare workers leaving their jobs at a time our health system is completely overwhelmed. Many of them are reporting severe interruptions to basic services. For instance, an upstate New York hospital announced it will pause the delivery of babies because of a series of resignations by maternity unit workers who are objecting to vaccination mandates.
We're in the middle of a major health crisis, and things are getting worse because, amid so much uncertainty, the president has decided that the best approach to ease this crisis is to literally force people to get a vaccine when most still doubt it's even effective. The level of absurdity is simply unprecedented. Sadly, this is just the beginning. When this country sees large numbers of people suddenly leaving the workforce all at once, everything will be turned upside down.
If millions of Americans are pushed out of work by Biden’s mandates in the coming months, we are going to watch our society crumble at breathtaking speed. At this point, all we can do is hope that the courts rule the government's decree unconstitutional, otherwise, we will have an economic collapse and an enormous national crisis on our hands sooner rather than later. If you're amongst those whose job is hanging by a thread due to the vaccine mandate, make the wisest choice and do not leave the workforce voluntarily. Let them fire you. In that way, you'll be able to collect a paycheck for as long as possible, and you'll also be able to apply for unemployment benefits. Plus, you'll have a strong case if you ever decide to take some sort of legal action.
It's truly sad to see America descending into full-blown tyranny. For years, several experts have been warning that our liberties and freedoms were being gradually taken away from us right before our eyes. Now, the nightmare is just starting. Just wait until the government realizes the mess they created. When these mandates effectively break our supply chains, panic and chaos will take over this country. Dark times as approaching us and we should get ready for the very difficult years that are ahead."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What powers are being wielded in the Wizard Nebula? Gravitation strong enough to form stars, and stellar winds and radiations powerful enough to create and dissolve towers of gas. Located only 8,000 light years away, the Wizard nebula, pictured above, surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380. Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer.
The active star forming region spans 100 about light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus) Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being formed may outlive our Sun.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/14/21: "Is Real Estate About To CRATER? Are Markets About To CRASH? Let's Find Out"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/14/21:
"Is Real Estate About To CRATER?
Are Markets About To CRASH? Let's Find Out"
"Inflation Will Be the Knockout Punch to Our Economy"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, PM 9/14/21:
"Inflation Will Be the Knockout Punch to Our Economy"
I Know Why You Did It..."
"There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the government. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."
- "V For Vendetta", slightly modified.
"Time..."
“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so?
Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.
Before they know it, time runs out.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
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“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”
- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
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“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha
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Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
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And I turned 70 today lol...unbelievable.
- CP
"Another War for the Feds to Lose"
"Another War for the Feds to Lose"
by Bill Bonner
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase
a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
– Benjamin Franklin
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – “This is not about freedom or personal choice,” said Joe Biden. But that is exactly what the vaccine mandate is about. There are choices to be made: to vax or not to vax. The real question is: Who gets to decide? In a free society, people decide for themselves. In a less free society, somebody else decides. In this case, it’s the Decider-in-Chief who wants to tell others what to do.
A New Battleground: And yes… There’s a new battleground in America. Republican against Democrat, conservative against liberal, vaxxed against unvaxxed. CNBC reports: As many return to the office, tensions flare between the “vaxxed and unvaxxed” Many U.S. companies have introduced vaccine mandates for their employees. “In some workplaces we have seen a significant spike in hostility,” corporate lawyer Philippe Weiss told CNBC.
It is tempting to argue with the “facts” and assumptions that the deciders depend on… Do unvaxxed people really pose a danger to the vaxxed? Or is it the other way around? (According to CNN analysis of CDC data, if you are vaccinated, you are 99.99% protected from a fatal “breakthrough” infection. If you do catch it, it’s more likely that you’ll get a low-grade infection. But you can still pass it on to a vulnerable, unvaxxed person.)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the maladie has carried off 0.19% of the population – more than half of them over 75. Is that such a serious threat that the rest of us should give up our freedom of choice? Is vaccination really the best way for a group to protect itself? (Natural immunity is 13 times better, according to an Israeli study.) Does widespread vaccine use (rather than using it only for those who really need it) backfire? Like the overuse of antibiotics, does it encourage viral innovations and vaccine-resistant strains?
Consequences of Freedom: We don’t know the answers to those questions. But neither does the Decider himself. So, we stick to what we think we know… or at least have strong opinions about. We’ve seen that, based on the Korean experience, you’re about 50 times better off – economically – if you make the choices yourself, rather than letting the political elite make them for you.
We’ve seen, too, based on the American example, that religious freedom – deciding for yourself what god you will worship (rather than letting the Decider tell you) – not only eliminates a major cause of conflict, but seems to benefit religious groups. In the 19th century, America benefited from competition among religious brands. It also benefited from abolishing slave labor; free labor was much more productive.
And how about freedom of the Press? There, too, one of the cardinal values of a free and prosperous society is the ability to say what you think – even if it is idiotic. Here, one of our dear readers, Don M. gives his opinion: "I have no problem with you exercising your freedom of choice when the vaccination comes into play. My only concern is I don’t want to pay your medical bills. Freedom of choice comes with a deterrent. You play, you pay. This coming from a person that strongly believes in the First Amendment."
Reader John N. adds: "Bill, I love your writing and your style, but on your vaccine musings, you are totally wrong. The simple fact is that a reported 2.4 million people have died from this virus. Most of those would not have died had they been vaccinated. That remains a fact, no matter what lipstick you want to put on it. The morons you refer to are exemplified by people like Governor Abbott."
There you have it. It’s so simple. Vax and live. Don’t vax, and you might die. People who don’t see that are just morons. And the unvaxxed are a burden on the vaxxed population. Even strong supporters of the First Amendment do not think that freedom should be allowed to interfere with vaccinations.
The Real Truth: But you see the problem, don’t you, Dear Reader? Who’s the moron? We don’t know. And… excepting perhaps God’s Ultimate, Absolute, and Complete Truth (GUACT)… there is always more to the story.
Do the vaxxed really have to pay the medical bills of the unvaxxed? Maybe not. We are all on the hook for trillions of dollars’ worth of the feds’ unfunded medical and pension obligations. Wouldn’t “our” medical bills go down if more of the unvaxxed got COVID-19 and kicked the bucket? And isn’t that the great usefulness of freedom in all its forms? Like a truce, it allows the rest of the story to come out of hiding.
The elite may think they have the last word on vaccinations. But it was the elite who had the last word on Afghanistan. And being only human, the Truth they tend to see is the Truth they want to see… which happens to be the “Truth” that makes them feel richer, prouder, sexier, and more powerful. After all, they are the Deciders!
Same Outcome: In these pages, we’ve seen that almost all the Great Plans & Projects of the Deciders over the last half-century have been total failures: The War on Poverty. The War on Drugs. The Wars in the Gulf… Iraq… and Afghanistan. Two Wall Street bailouts. And the battle against freely set interest rates, too. As the truth comes out, it becomes clear that since 1980, the feds have run up $27 trillion in new debt, with nothing but bubbles, overcrowded prisons, dead bodies, and McMansions all along the Capital Beltway to show for it. Will the new War Against the Unvaxxed turn out any different? We doubt it."
"Polls Show That The American People Are Extremely Angry – And They Are About To Get Even Angrier"
"Polls Show That The American People Are Extremely Angry –
And They Are About To Get Even Angrier"
by Michael Snyder
"This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were promised that once Joe Biden was in the White House that the tremendous anger that was building up in our country would start to subside, but that obviously is not happening. In fact, as you will see below, Americans have been getting even angrier. Needless to say, the stunt that Joe Biden pulled last week is certainly not helping matters. When he visited Boise on Monday, enormous crowds of extremely angry protesters were waiting for him. And everywhere I go on social media this week, I am seeing huge explosions of anger. What in the world is our country going to look like if all of this anger continues to grow?
Normally, it is either one side of the political spectrum or the other that is angry at any given time.But here in September 2021, both sides of the political spectrum are very angry. Just check out these stunning numbers from a brand new CNN poll… "A new CNN poll finds that 74% of U.S. adults now say they are “very or somewhat angry” about the way things are going in the U.S. today - that includes 88% of Republicans, 70% of independents and even 67% of Democrats. But wait, there’s more. Another 69% of U.S. adults now say that things are going “pretty or very badly” in the country these days - that includes 91% of Republicans, 72% of independents and 49% of Democrats."
Those numbers are crazy. Just a few months ago, there was so much optimism, but now the mood of the nation has completely shifted. Surprisingly, that same CNN poll asked a question about illegal immigration, and it found that even most Democrats are concerned about “the movement of undocumented immigrants”… "And by the way, illegal immigration is still a concern for many in this nation. The CNN survey also found that 77% of U.S. adults say that it is important that the federal government “stops the movement of undocumented immigrants into the United States.” And the partisan breakdown: 95% of Republicans, 76% of independents and 52% of Democrats agreed."
Ever since Joe Biden entered the White House, giant throngs of people have been surging to our southern border, and this has created an unprecedented immigration crisis. Incredibly, even though Biden has decided to impose vaccine mandates on millions upon millions of American citizens, even the White House Press Secretary is admitting that there will be no such requirement for the illegal immigrants that are being let into this country.
Members of Congress and their staffs are exempt from Biden’s new requirements as well. But the rest of us are apparently fair game. Today, my wife walked into a store where the employees were openly talking about how they might soon lose their jobs because of these new mandates. Biden is dragging us into full-blown tyranny, and lots of American citizens are going to lose good jobs because of this.
Another new poll asked Americans if they think that Biden’s tyrannical decrees are constitutional or not, and the results were absolutely overwhelming… "Asked in a new poll by Convention of States Action, in partnership with The Trafalgar Group, whether Biden has the constitutional authority to impose that demand, 58.6% said no. Only 29.7% said yes. The poll, taken over the weekend of likely general election voters, has a margin of error of 2.96%."
If they get away with this round of mandates, they will undoubtedly try to impose even more. In fact, Dr. Fauci is openly telling us that he is in favor of mandating vaccines for air travel. Fauci does not care about you. The next time that you hear the corporate media heaping praise on him, just remember what he and his organization did to a bunch of beagles. He sees you the same way, and he is going to keep pushing Biden to tighten the screws.
Already, we are seeing officials go door to door in some cities. In Washington D.C., there are times when workers will “go back to a house four or five, six times” until someone finally answers the door… "Patrick Ashley, with D.C. Health, said the city has a significant outreach program going door to door. “And as a reminder, we knock on doors until we actually get someone to talk to us. And so they’ll go back to a house four or five, six times, if necessary, multiple times of the day,” he said."
That should chill you to the core. And what came next in that same article is also extremely chilling… "Ashley also said the District is working with Medicare providers to make sure that they’re providing vaccination education. “But you’re right, it is a choice of theirs to make,” Ashley said. “So we’ll continue to do that education through the -” Silverman interrupted Ashley to say: “The president is saying it’s not a choice any more.”
The good news is that some red state governors are starting to fight back. For example, Ron DeSantis just announced huge fines for any government entity in his state that attempts to mandate vaccines… "Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday fought back against Joe Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandates.DeSantis announced cities and counties that force employees to get vaccinated will be fined $5,000 per infraction. “We are here today to make it very clear that we are going to stand for the men and women who are serving. We are going to protect Florida jobs,” DeSantis said during the news conference. “We are not gonna let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate.”
Hopefully more red state governors will step up to the plate, because our politicians in Washington are completely and utterly out of control. Not satisfied with angering millions of Americans with these new vaccine mandates, Democrats have also decided that now is the time to dramatically raise taxes…"Top earners in New York City could face a combined city, state and federal income tax rate of 61.2%, according to plans being proposed by Democrats in the House of Representatives. The plans being proposed include a 3% surtax on taxpayers earning more than $5 million a year. The plans also call for raising the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from the current 37%."
How would you feel if 61.2 percent of your income went to paying taxes? Would that make you angry? Of course it would. But our politicians in Washington have to find some way to pay for their insane spending sprees. The federal government ran a 3 trillion dollar budget deficit last fiscal year, and with one month to go they are on track to do it again this fiscal year.
Everywhere you turn, there is more bad news. And everywhere you turn, things are starting to spiral out of control. So many of the things that I have been warning about are happening right in front of our eyes, and the months ahead are looking very bleak. If Americans are this angry while things are still relatively stable, what is the mood of this country going to look like once things really start to fall apart?
As a nation, we are not emotionally equipped to handle any sort of a major societal collapse, but that is where the road that we are on inevitably leads. These are such troubled times, and I have a feeling that really big surprises are just around the corner."
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/14/21: "Inflation Continues To Surge As The Economy Shrinks At Its Faster Pace Ever!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/14/21:
"Inflation Continues To Surge As The Economy
Shrinks At Its Faster Pace Ever!"
"Economy On Suicide Mission; America Is Entering A Historic Crisis; Apocalyptic Depression Is Next"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/13/21:
"Economy On Suicide Mission; America Is Entering A Historic Crisis;
Apocalyptic Depression Is Next"
Monday, September 13, 2021
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.
The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left of the bright crescent region. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.”
The Poet: Mark Strand, "Dreams"
"Dreams"
"Trying to recall the plot
And characters we dreamed,
What life was like
Before the morning came,
We are seldom satisfied,
And even then
There is no way of knowing
If what we know is true.
Something nameless
Hums us into sleep,
Withdraws, and leaves us in
A place that seems
Always vaguely familiar.
Perhaps it is because
We take the props
And fixtures of our days
With us into the dark,
Assuring ourselves
We are still alive. And yet
Nothing here is certain;
Landscapes merge
With one another, houses
Are never where they should be,
Doors and windows
Sometimes open out
To other doors and windows,
Even the person
Who seems most like ourselves
Cannot be counted on,
For there have been
Too many times when he,
Like everything else, has done
The unexpected.
And as the night wears on,
The dim allegory of ourselves
Unfolds, and we
Feel dreamed by someone else,
A sleeping counterpart,
Who gathers in
The darkness of his person
Shades of the real world.
Nothing is clear;
We are not ever sure
If the life we live there
Belongs to us.
Each night it is the same;
Just when we’re on the verge
Of catching on,
A sense of our remoteness
Closes in, and the world
So lately seen
Gradually fades from sight.
We wake to find the sleeper
Is ourselves
And the dreamt-of is someone who did
Something we can’t quite put
Our finger on,
But which involved a life
We are always, we feel,
About to discover."
- Mark Strand
Gregory Mannarino, "Oh N0! NEW C.1.2. V@riant! Economy Continues To CRATER. Next Week - The FED"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/13/21:
"Oh N0! NEW C.1.2. V@riant!
Economy Continues To CRATER. Next Week - The FED"
"Our Economy is Completely Breaking Down"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, PM 9/13/21:
"Our Economy is Completely Breaking Down"
"Nothing is working like it is supposed to in the economy.
We are suffering a complete breakdown in all aspects of our Economy."
"It Becomes Sad..."
"Why does truth carry such a dreadful face? Why does subjugation carry
such a happy mask? It becomes sad when people understand that they
can lead a better life as long as they bow their heads, ignoring the truth."
- Lionel Suggs
"It’s Time to Make America Free Again"
"It’s Time to Make America Free Again"
by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”
- Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale"
"The Constitution of the United States represents the classic solution to one of humankind’s greatest political problems: that is, how does a small group of states combine into a strong union without the states losing their individual powers and surrendering their control over local affairs?The fifty-five delegates who convened in Philadelphia during the sweltering summer of 1787 answered this question with a document that called for a federal plan of government, a system of separation of powers with checks and balances, and a procedure for orderly change to meet the needs and exigencies of future generations.
In an ultimate sense, the Constitution confirmed the proposition that original power resided in the people - not, however, in the people as a whole but in their capacity as people of the several states. To bring forth the requisite union, the people through the states would transfer some of their powers to the new federal government. All powers not reserved by the people in explicit state constitutional limitations remained in the state governments.
Although the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, the fear of the new federal government was so strong that a “bill of rights” was demanded and became an eventuality. Intended to protect the citizenry’s fundamental rights or “first liberties” against usurpation by the newly created federal government, the Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments of the Constitution - is essentially a list of immunities from interference by the federal government.
Unfortunately, although the Bill of Rights was adopted as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, in America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned. “We the people” have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.
The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, a viral pandemic, and more to come), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called name of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.
A recitation of the Bill of Rights - set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, vaccine mandates, travel lockdowns, and the like (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, and the courts) - would understandably sound more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we truly possess. What we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights.
Here is what it means to live under the Constitution, post-9/11 and in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.
The First Amendment is supposed to protect the freedom to speak your mind, assemble and protest nonviolently without being bridled by the government. It also protects the freedom of the media, as well as the right to worship and pray without interference. In other words, Americans should not be silenced by the government. To the founders, all of America was a free speech zone.
Despite the clear protections found in the First Amendment, the freedoms described therein are under constant assault. Increasingly, Americans are being arrested and charged with bogus “contempt of cop” charges such as “disrupting the peace” or “resisting arrest” for daring to film police officers engaged in harassment or abusive practices. Journalists are being prosecuted for reporting on whistleblowers. States are passing legislation to muzzle reporting on cruel and abusive corporate practices. Religious ministries are being fined for attempting to feed and house the homeless. Protesters are being tear-gassed, beaten, arrested and forced into “free speech zones.” And under the guise of “government speech,” the courts have reasoned that the government can discriminate freely against any First Amendment activity that takes place within a so-called government forum.
The Second Amendment was intended to guarantee “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Essentially, this amendment was intended to give the citizenry the means to resist tyrannical government. Yet while gun ownership has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an individual citizen right, Americans remain powerless to defend themselves against SWAT team raids and government agents armed to the teeth with military weapons better suited to the battlefield. As such, this amendment has been rendered nearly null and void.
The Third Amendment reinforces the principle that civilian-elected officials are superior to the military by prohibiting the military from entering any citizen’s home without “the consent of the owner.” With the police increasingly training like the military, acting like the military, and posing as military forces - complete with heavily armed SWAT teams, military weapons, assault vehicles, etc. - it is clear that we now have what the founders feared most - a standing army on American soil.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from conducting surveillance on you or touching you or invading you, unless they have some evidence that you’re up to something criminal. In other words, the Fourth Amendment ensures privacy and bodily integrity. Unfortunately, the Fourth Amendment has suffered the greatest damage in recent years and has been all but eviscerated by an unwarranted expansion of police powers that include strip searches and even anal and vaginal searches of citizens, surveillance (corporate and otherwise) and intrusions justified in the name of fighting terrorism, as well as the outsourcing of otherwise illegal activities to private contractors.
The Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment work in tandem. These amendments supposedly ensure that you are innocent until proven guilty, and government authorities cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property without the right to an attorney and a fair trial before a civilian judge. However, in the new suspect society in which we live, where surveillance is the norm, these fundamental principles have been upended. Certainly, if the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.
The Seventh Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a jury trial. Yet when the populace has no idea of what’s in the Constitution - civic education has virtually disappeared from most school curriculums—that inevitably translates to an ignorant jury incapable of distinguishing justice and the law from their own preconceived notions and fears. However, as a growing number of citizens are coming to realize, the power of the jury to nullify the government’s actions - and thereby help balance the scales of justice - is not to be underestimated. Jury nullification reminds the government that “we the people” retain the power to ultimately determine what laws are just.
The Eighth Amendment is similar to the Sixth in that it is supposed to protect the rights of the accused and forbid the use of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Supreme Court’s determination that what constitutes “cruel and unusual” should be dependent on the “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” leaves us with little protection in the face of a society lacking in morals altogether.
The Ninth Amendment provides that other rights not enumerated in the Constitution are nonetheless retained by the people. Popular sovereignty - the belief that the power to govern flows upward from the people rather than downward from the rulers - is clearly evident in this amendment. However, it has since been turned on its head by a centralized federal government that sees itself as supreme and which continues to pass more and more laws that restrict our freedoms under the pretext that it has an “important government interest” in doing so.
As for the Tenth Amendment’s reminder that the people and the states retain every authority that is not otherwise mentioned in the Constitution, that assurance of a system of government in which power is divided among local, state and national entities has long since been rendered moot by the centralized Washington, DC, power elite - the president, Congress and the courts.
If there is any sense to be made from this recitation of freedoms lost, it is simply this: our individual freedoms have been eviscerated so that the government’s powers could be expanded. Yet those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, defend and even enhance our freedoms, not violate them.
It was no idle happenstance that the Constitution opens with these three powerful words: “We the people.” As the Preamble proclaims: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America."
In other words, we have the power to make and break the government. We are the masters and they are the servants. We the American people - the citizenry - are the arbiters and ultimate guardians of America’s welfare, defense, liberty, laws and prosperity.
Still, it’s hard to be a good citizen if you don’t know anything about your rights or how the government is supposed to operate. As the National Review rightly asks, “How can Americans possibly make intelligent and informed political choices if they don’t understand the fundamental structure of their government? American citizens have the right to self-government, but it seems that we increasingly lack the capacity for it.”
Americans are constitutionally illiterate. Most citizens have little, if any, knowledge about their basic rights. And our educational system does a poor job of teaching the basic freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For instance, a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that a little more than one-third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, while another one-third (35 percent) could not name a single one.
A survey by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that only one out of a thousand adults could identify the five rights protected by the First Amendment. On the other hand, more than half (52%) of the respondents could name at least two of the characters in the animated Simpsons television family, and 20% could name all five. And although half could name none of the freedoms in the First Amendment, a majority (54%) could name at least one of the three judges on the TV program American Idol, 41% could name two and one-fourth could name all three.
It gets worse. Many who responded to the survey had a strange conception of what was in the First Amendment. For example, 21% said the “right to own a pet” was listed someplace between “Congress shall make no law” and “redress of grievances.” Some 17% said that the First Amendment contained the “right to drive a car,” and 38% believed that “taking the Fifth” was part of the First Amendment.
Teachers and school administrators do not fare much better. A study conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis found that one educator in five was unable to name any of the freedoms in the First Amendment. In fact, while some educators want students to learn about freedom, they do not necessarily want them to exercise their freedoms in school. As the researchers conclude, “Most educators think that students already have enough freedom, and that restrictions on freedom in the school are necessary. Many support filtering the Internet, censoring T-shirts, disallowing student distribution of political or religious material, and conducting prior review of school newspapers.”
Government leaders and politicians are also ill-informed. Although they take an oath to uphold, support and defend the Constitution against “enemies foreign and domestic,” their lack of education about our fundamental rights often causes them to be enemies of the Bill of Rights.
So what’s the solution? Thomas Jefferson recognized that a citizenry educated on “their rights, interests, and duties” is the only real assurance that freedom will survive. As Jefferson wrote in 1820: “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of our society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”
From the President on down, anyone taking public office should have a working knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be held accountable for upholding their precepts. One way to ensure this would be to require government leaders to take a course on the Constitution and pass a thorough examination thereof before being allowed to take office.
Some critics are advocating that students pass the United States citizenship exam in order to graduate from high school. Others recommend that it must be a prerequisite for attending college. I’d go so far as to argue that students should have to pass the citizenship exam before graduating from grade school.
If this constitutional illiteracy is not remedied and soon, freedom in America will be doomed. As I make clear in my book "Battlefield America: The War on the American People" and in its fictional counterpart "The Erik Blair Diaries", we have managed to keep the wolf at bay so far. Barely. Our national priorities need to be re-prioritized. For instance, some argue that we need to make America great again. I, for one, would prefer to make America free again."
"How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?"
"How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?"
by Bill Bonner
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Last week was a delight… at least from a cynical perspective. On Thursday, the U.S. president went on TV to announce that henceforth, people who work for businesses with more than 100 employees would be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
CNN was on the story: “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said, his tone hardening toward Americans who still refuse to receive a vaccine despite ample evidence of their safety and full approval of one – the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine – from the US Food and Drug Administration. He said vaccinated America was growing “frustrated” with the 80 million people who have not received shots and are fueling the spread of the virus. And he acknowledged the new steps would not provide a quick fix.
The feds have long claimed the right to tell Americans what they must NOT put into their bodies. Certain drugs have been illegal for many years. And the feds are so adamant… so sure that this is a good thing… they’ve put millions of people in the hoosegow for breaking the prohibition.
Currently, there are some 450,000 people locked up for non-violent drug offenses. But this is the first time the president has taken it upon himself to tell people what they must put into their bodies… whether they want to or not. Will the federales start breaking down doors, throwing unvaccinated people to the floor, and putting them in prison to enforce the drug mandate? Or will they just take away their jobs?
Elite Lifesavers: Last week, we were exploring the idea of “freedom.” We wondered what good it is. After all, if the elites who control the government know what drugs we should take… and what drugs we shouldn’t take…what prices we should pay (they should increase 2% per year, not more, not less)…what kind of car we should drive (electric)…if they know good from evil, true from false, left from right…why do we need the freedom to decide for ourselves?
As Joe Biden pointed out on Thursday, freedom just gets in the way. He says it prevents the elite from saving our lives.
Inflation Is Still Here: Let’s come back to that subject tomorrow… It’s too heavy for a Monday morning. Instead, we turn to the news for more light-hearted nonsense. And what’s this? What happened to that “transitory” inflation? It must have missed its bus; it’s still with us. Here’s Breitbart’s Economics and Finance editor, John Carney: "Prices charged by U.S. businesses jumped higher than expected in August, data from the Department of Labor said Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index rose 0.7 percent compared with July. Compared with a year ago, the index is up 8.3 percent, the fastest pace of price increases in data going back to 2010."
Note that these are producer prices. Typically, these increases show up in consumer prices in the months ahead. Note, too, that they are running four times higher than the level the Federal Reserve has blessed as meet, right, and so to do. Which suggests that there will be more “tapering” talk… until the stock market sinks… and the tapering talk tapers off.
Tokenize Everything: Meanwhile, the $120 billion per month in non-tapering money-printing is producing its inevitable chaos and confusion. For example, afoot is a movement to “tokenize” almost everything. We’ve read several articles about the trend. As best we can make out, when things are “tokenized,” the tokens can then be bought and sold, on the internet, without going through brokers or retailers. At least, that is the line of talk from the token entrepreneurs.
Let’s say you own a car wash in Mahwah, New Jersey. It’s much too small to “take it public.” But you’d like to cash out. So, you somehow “put in on the blockchain.” Not the suds and sprays, but the enterprise. As a token. And now, you can “fractionalize” the token into lots of pieces, maybe millions of them. And all the people who’ve been waiting years to own a piece of a fractionalized, tokenized car wash in Mahwah can now get in on it.
Token Wealth: We have no idea how that works. But to people with more imagination, or at least a better sense of humor, tokenized wealth is like catnip. In case you missed it, last week, the world discovered the most valuable work of art – ever. Yes, it was a picture of a dog. To be more precise, it was a tokenized picture of the Shiba Inu dog on the dogecoin.
The token sold for $4 million three months ago. But this past week… are you ready for this?… the owner fractionalized it into 17 billion pieces and sold 20% at auction. If the thing were worth $4 million, and you were selling 20%, you wouldn’t even need a calculator to see that the sale should have brought in $800,000. Instead, the price rose to 11,000 ether coins… worth about $225 million. Or maybe it was 17,000 ether and 11 billion fractionalized bits of a dog. Or maybe it was a cat. Or a lark. We don’t know. Our head is spinning.
The whole thing is so screwy. The tokenized Shiba Inu picture might just as well be worth nothing as a million dollars. You can’t put it on your wall. You can’t hold it in your hand. It doesn’t earn any money, wag its tail, or fetch sticks. And the story, while reported as truth by the major media, might just as well be a total fantasy. It makes more sense as a fantasy. But then, so does most of the news."
"Ordeal by Narrative"
"Ordeal by Narrative"
by Jim Kunstler
"Has doctor Anthony Fauci booked passage to Paraguay yet? Like, on a smallish container barge registered in Cote D’Ivoire, conveying a six months backlog of cars stolen out of Essex County, New Jersey, for detailing and re-sale way up that lazy river to Asunción? The captain has a comfortable guest cabin, price negotiable, but better bring your own food. The US Intel Community will not find the good doctor down there because they will not bother looking for him. And so, the distinguished American public servant will live out his last days in exile among the swooping fruit bats and grinning crocodiles, to the music of toucans screeching in the silk-floss trees (Chorisa speciosa).
Anyway, that’s my fantasy du jour. Walt Disney had it right: America’s fate would be a descent into pure fantasy as the final product of our many twentieth century triumphs. It is increasingly difficult, for instance, to sort fact from fantasy in Dr. Fauci’s magnum opus: the Covid-19 pandemic, starting from the premise that it actually exists. There was some kind of rumpus in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020… folks dropping dead in their tracks on the sidewalks (captured on closed circuit TVs)… folks getting the doors to their apartments welded shut… and then what?
Not much indication of further freak-outs inside China since back then. Perhaps the virus has been raging over there all the while, but a million here, a million there, do you really notice the attrition in a land of 1.4 billion? Or did they just switch off that groove on their narrative machine? The CCP can do that, I hear.
Back in the USA, where you’d have to subtract a billion and then-some in population, something was surely killing folks, though, overwhelmingly, most of those folks were already sick, and old, pretty much in the check-out zone. In 2020, the death of old and sick people was declared… impermissible! Death suddenly had no place in the exceptional order of things American. (Ask old Uncle Walt, who reportedly had his head and its gelatinous contents cryogenically frozen, in expectation of future re-animation via science magic! Still waiting for him to come back….)
Of course, the new medical rules-of-engagement circa 2020 included the denial of early treatment with known common anti-viral drugs for folks coming down with early symptoms of the mystery illness. So, while pretending to object to the implacable fact of death - a certainty of the human condition, according to science - we killed a whole bunch of people by withholding treatment. And concurrently, we rolled out the vaccines promising to “protect everybody” only to learn that it provided other, even more diabolical, routes to death.
And so, we’re left as of last week with the putative leader, “Joe Biden,” of a fantasy cult formerly known as the United States, barking at the populace to line up and get vaxed… or else! Did you flash on Jonestown, Guyana, 1978, the Peoples Temple, and the Rev. Jim Jones exhorting his deranged followers to “drink the Kool-Aid?” Is this whole extravaganza starting to look like a two-year-long bad dream that you’re finally waking up from?
It was heartening to see those football stadiums this weekend filled to their super-spreading parapets with good folks chanting the magic words of exorcism: “F**k Joe Biden.” And with such exuberance! As if returning home to genuine and familiar consciousness after a hypnotic journey to a weird plane of existence where anything goes and nothing matters. They are finally unimpressed after eight months of this gibbering empty suit who so ineptly fronts for a shadow administration operating wholly outside the law. We are going to get to the bottom of just how they put us through this wringer of the national soul, and exactly who was behind it.
After the initial flush of liberation, though, things get real. The hard work resumes and you start to feel pain again. I have a hunch that the weeks ahead will be doozies as the collective national mind undergoes reconstruction and narratives fall away with the season’s blazing leaves. A great sorting out of the real from the unreal lies ahead. Illusions will dissolve. The fog will lift. Some will be blinded by the light, even as we head into the darkest time of the year."
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