Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
"Small Business In Big Trouble; Wealth Destruction; Homeowners Will Get Wiped Out"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/14/21:
"Small Business In Big Trouble;
Wealth Destruction; Homeowners Will Get Wiped Out"
Gerald Celente, "Silent Night, Holy Night, All Is Not Well, All Is Not Bright"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal":
"Silent Night, Holy Night, All Is Not Well, All Is Not Bright"
"Chinese Lockdowns Trigger Panic Across Supply Chains: Prepare Your Self For Shortage Of Everything"
Full screen recommended.
"Chinese Lockdowns Trigger Panic Across Supply Chains:
Prepare Yourself For Shortage Of Everything"
by Epic Economist
"Widespread port shutdowns and factory closures in China are threatening to push already-stressed global supply chains over the edge. Chaos is fast spreading at Chinese ports as new lockdown mandates have started to be put in place after another wave of virus cases has been confirmed.
The measures are aggravating port congestion all across the country just as operations started to be resumed last month. Many sources on the shipping industry said the new port shutdowns are likely to bring a repeat of the shipping disruption experienced earlier this year, when the nation's key ports, Ningbo and Yantian, suspended all export operations for weeks. That event has contributed to the aggravation of shortages worldwide. And as several nations continue to struggle with empty shelves, including the UK and the US, the scarcity of consumer products may hit its worst level on early 2022.
With approximately 350 ships waiting to dock at Chinese ports to either load or unload goods, almost 4 million containers remain stranded at sea. And as shipping prices climb, some Chinese manufacturers have stopped exporting goods to the U.S. Inflated costs for shipping and ocean freight are inflaming the export crisis in China and causing severe import delays all over the globe. Industry executives are warning U.S. retailers to brace for inventory shortfalls, significant price increases, longer production times, shortages of materials and delays in order delivery.
Higher shipping costs are also adding to overall inflationary pressures for the global economy in 2022. Unfortunately, this means that if consumer prices are already nearing absurd levels right now, next year, price hikes are going to be even more shocking. Meanwhile, in the U.S. cost, the cargo ship logjam has never been worse. Despite claims from officials that the number has dwindled in recent weeks, an analysis published by the firm MarineTracker exposed that the number of ships stuck outside the California coast is still at an all-time high.
The analysis also has shown that dozens of ships have been waiting to berth since October, leaving thousands of sailors stranded at sea as they wait to be allowed on dry land. The contradiction in the official number of ships comes as a result of a new policy recently introduced by shipping trade groups that encourage incoming vessels to wait out in the open ocean amid the worsening logjam - rather than at the congested ports.
MarineTracker data revealed that hundreds of ships are sitting more than 100 miles away from the California coast, nearing the coast of Mexico or Taiwan. The impact of our domestic port crisis, the ongoing container shortage, and the new Chinese restrictions are disproportionately hitting American farmers, who are having an extremely difficult time in getting their goods out of the country to foreign buyers.
In a recent statement, Rep. Dusty Johnson explained that the situation is leading to the "destruction of millions of dollars in value". Johnson argued that Asian ocean carriers are "unfairly discriminating against American cargo." He noted that "shipping companies offload foreign goods in U.S. ports and then simply head back to Asia, so they can bring more goods back to the U.S., rather than taking the time to fill up with American goods to sell abroad". "Unfortunately because it's an oligopoly, you've got to take it or leave it if you're an American agricultural shipper," he added. "The terms often say that liquidated damages for you canceling a container is $100. Well there can be $100,000 of goods in each container."
The U.S. food industry has already been struggling with shortages of workers, drivers, and rampant inflation that has driven up the price of energy, feed and ferrilizer. Consumer food prices in the United States have just jumped to their highest levels in nearly 40 years. Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices have rose an additional 6 percent in November, the highest month-to-month spike since 1982, with beef prices leading the rise, facing a dramatic 20.9 percent increase.
Needless to say, this is very bad news for American consumers who are seeing their purchasing power sharply collapse as inflation runs wild. We're effectively headed to a very painful winter that will bring food insecurity back to millions of American families. Sadly, we haven't seen the worst of shortages and price increases just yet. Now more than ever, we should get ready for the challenges that are coming for us. A perfect storm is on the horizon, and all of our problems are about to get out of control."
"The Neo-Fascists Among Us"
"The Neo-Fascists Among Us"
by Jim Rickards
"The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID is now firmly entrenched in the United States. That’s no surprise. There’s a significant lag between the time a mutation first infects someone and when science identifies and isolates the new strain. In that gap, infected individuals inevitably travel or come in contact with others in such a way that the mutant virus spreads around the world before science even knows it exists.
Omicron is now present in 57 countries, but that number will soon be 90 and then 120. It’s also highly infectious. In the U.K. and South Africa, for example, cases are doubling every three to four days. The bottom line is the virus goes where it wants. If you think lockdowns are the answer, think again. Ample evidence demonstrates that lockdowns simply don’t work.
All Pain, No Gain: Lockdowns don’t work to stop the spread of the virus because they keep people indoors where the virus can spread more easily. Outdoor activity is essential for fresh air, mental and physical health and exercise. People will find a way to gather and interact even with lockdown rules. This means that lockdowns impose all of the economic costs with few of the supposed public health benefits.
This was recognized in a paper in 2006 by D.A. Henderson, the greatest virologist and epidemiologist of the 20th century, who led the successful effort to eradicate smallpox and won the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. He said lockdowns don’t work and provided detailed reasons why. Unfortunately, his award-winning work was ignored by politicians eager to appear to be doing something.
79% Fully Vaccinated: And don’t think that vaccines are the answer, either. There were a total of 43 U.S. Omicron cases as of Dec. 11 (there are likely many more today). What’s interesting is that 79% of them were fully vaccinated and 14 had received booster shots. Five of the 14 who received boosters had gotten them at least two weeks prior and should have had maximum immunity. They got infected anyway.
What do the numbers tell us? As a first approximation, the vaccinated are more likely to get COVID through Omicron than the unvaccinated, although this sample size is small. But what this data shows beyond doubt is that vaccines do not prevent COVID infections and that this is not a pandemic of the unvaccinated. The vaccinated and unvaccinated are equally likely to become infected and to spread the virus.
The Good News: But here’s the good news: While the Omicron variant appears to be more contagious than earlier variants, it’s also less lethal. It may even mark the end of the pandemic as infections provide immunity without high costs in terms of hospitalization and death. That’s how pandemics end. We’re at the stage where we can learn to live with COVID as we do with many other endemic diseases such as the seasonal flu. There’s no reason for fear. Unfortunately, government authorities continue to insist they can control the situation with orders and mandates.
COVID can be lethal and imposes costs, but it’s not the end of the world. Survival rates for all groups are 99.2%, and for those under 65 who are not obese or have other comorbidities, the survival rate is 99.8%. Meanwhile, multiple studies show that early treatment with drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin (among others) slashes the chances of hospitalization and death. In other words, COVID is highly treatable unless sufferers wait until they have trouble breathing before seeking treatment, which has shamefully been the advice of the CDC.
COVID Derangement Syndrome: Still, in their obsession to force vaccinations with gene-modification therapies (mRNA) from Moderna and Pfizer, the government and mainstream media have trashed ivermectin as a “horse dewormer” and something used only by veterinarians. This type of lying and propaganda has cost many lives, maybe hundreds of thousands.
The question is why? Besides discouraging cheap, lifesaving medications, bureaucrats and politicians are persecuting the unvaccinated, imposing unneeded vax mandates and ignoring natural immunity held by almost 50 million Americans who have recovered from COVID. Why?
The recent pandemic seems to have caused a Covid Derangement Syndrome in government leaders. They haven’t learned any lessons from the past year. They’re reimposing useless or counterproductive policies that destroy economies, abuse children with masks and school closures and needlessly trample on individual rights. In places like Austria and Germany, they’re imposing strict lockdowns once again.
Violating the Nuremberg Code: Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU, is now suggesting the European countries consider mandatory vaccinations. It’s a one-size-fits-all policy. Leaving aside the fact that vaccinations don’t stop infection and don’t stop the spread of the virus, this is a violation of the Nuremberg Code adopted after World War II to prevent involuntary experimentation on humans of the kind carried out by the Nazis.
Despite government approvals, the vaccines are still experimental because long-term studies on efficacy and side effects have not been completed. The fact that the head of the EU hasn’t learned anything from the horrors of Nazi experimentation on humans is highly disturbing.
Over in the U.K., one psychology professor likens the unvaccinated to “terrorists.” He argues that "hardcore vaccine refuseniks" need to be "deradicalized" like terrorists. They need to be "punished" and of course subjected to vaccine mandates. I’m sure there are many politicians who agree. Why are so many politicians susceptible to Covid Derangement Syndrome?
Neo-Fascism: Some politicians are just stupid and do what they’re told by corrupt public health officials. Some politicians know better but consider it politically expedient to “do something” even if the something makes no sense. But most disturbing are those politicians who harbor a neo-fascist impulse. They’re using the pandemic to induce fear and intimidate the population into following orders and doing what they’re told. They just can’t tolerate independent citizens making their own decisions.
I realize that “fascist” is a very strong word with powerful connotations. It may seem paranoid or hysterical, but it’s not. It perfectly describes a certain type of politician. The pandemic has merely ripped their masks off, exposing them for who they truly are. The problem with the neo-fascist impulse is that it never goes away. That means the pandemic will never go away in the official sense because that would deprive these neo-fascists of their cover to pursue their political agenda of fear and control. Again, that’s not being paranoid. It’s an objective assessment.
COVID and Climate: Two-Headed Trojan Horse: This neo-fascism goes beyond COVID. In some ways, the pandemic is a test run for draconian climate policies. Global elites see the COVID pandemic and climate alarm as a two-headed Trojan Horse that can be used to foist global taxation and heavy regulations on a global population who have suddenly become accustomed to following government orders.
If populations can successfully resist vaccine mandates and other strict measures, then globalists fear they’ll rebel against restrictive climate policies. Their real agenda is to define a “global problem” so they can advance “global solutions” such as world governance, world taxation and world rule by elites. It doesn’t matter that the actual science behind lockdowns, vaccine mandates or hysterical climate alarmism is extremely weak. It’s about control.
Intimidation or Freedom: I’m a macroeconomic analyst, so why am I writing about public health and climate policies? The answer is because they have real-world consequences for the economy. Poor policy choices have already cost trillions of dollars, and that number will certainly grow in the future if the neo-fascists get their way. With weak growth, government spending out of control and debt rising at alarming rates, we’re likely heading for an economic crisis sooner or later.
Until citizens stand up to the petty dictators around us, the pandemic will never be over and life will never return to normal. It’ll only set the stage for more tyranny in the future. The choice between more intimidation and more freedom, economic and otherwise, has rarely been more clear."
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Related:
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Free Download: "The Vaccine Death Report" (PDF)
"The purpose of this report is to document how all over the world millions of people have died, and hundreds of millions of serious adverse events have occurred, after injections with the experimental mRNA gene therapy. We also reveal the real risk of an unprecedented genocide.
Facts: We aim to only present scientific facts and stay away from unfounded claims. The data is clear and verifiable. Over one hundred references can be found for all presented information, which is provided as a starting point for further investigation.
Complicity: The data suggests that we may currently be witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world. The severity of this situation compels us to ask this critical question: will we rise to the defense of billions of innocent people? Or will we permit personal profit over justice, and be complicit? Networks of lawyers all over the world are preparing class-action lawsuits to prosecute all who are serving this criminal agenda. To all who have been complicit so far, we say: There is still time to turn and choose the side of truth. Please make the right choice."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the below gorgeously detailed image was taken in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.”
Chet Raymo, “New Philosophy”
“New Philosophy”
by Chet Raymo
"It is one of Albert Einstein's most-often quoted quotes: "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible." Is the world comprehensible? Apparently at least partially so. Consider the NASA solar eclipse atlas I referenced the other day. It is possible to calculate the precise locations and times for solar eclipses thousands of years into the future and past. That's comprehensibility for you.
Of course, there are still things we do not comprehend, such as consciousness or the development of organisms, but there is no good reason to suppose those things are intrinsically beyond human understanding. The whole of modern technological civilization and medicine is a monument to comprehensibility.
Why? Why this strange consonance between the world and the human mind? For centuries the answer was simple. God created a world of space and time, a finite mirror, so to speak, of his own intelligence. He created humans in his own likeness. Human intelligence partook of the intelligibility of God. Everything in the closed, human-centered cosmos was ordered in his likeness. The world was comprehensible because it was made that way - for us to comprehend.
Then, in the 16th and 17th centuries, came the great disruption, which Alexandre Koryé described in his seminal 1957 book "From the Closed World To the Infinite Universe." Daring thinkers resurrected the Greek idea that the universe might be infinite in extent and eternal in duration - no boundaries in space, no beginning or end in time. It was a radical thought, heretical really, but it meshed well with what the astronomers and physicists were learning about the world we live in. As the poet John Donne wrote:
Of course, there are still things we do not comprehend, such as consciousness or the development of organisms, but there is no good reason to suppose those things are intrinsically beyond human understanding. The whole of modern technological civilization and medicine is a monument to comprehensibility.
Why? Why this strange consonance between the world and the human mind? For centuries the answer was simple. God created a world of space and time, a finite mirror, so to speak, of his own intelligence. He created humans in his own likeness. Human intelligence partook of the intelligibility of God. Everything in the closed, human-centered cosmos was ordered in his likeness. The world was comprehensible because it was made that way - for us to comprehend.
Then, in the 16th and 17th centuries, came the great disruption, which Alexandre Koryé described in his seminal 1957 book "From the Closed World To the Infinite Universe." Daring thinkers resurrected the Greek idea that the universe might be infinite in extent and eternal in duration - no boundaries in space, no beginning or end in time. It was a radical thought, heretical really, but it meshed well with what the astronomers and physicists were learning about the world we live in. As the poet John Donne wrote:
"And new philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out,
The sun is lost, and th' earth, and no man's wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confess that this world's spent,
When in the planets and the firmament
They seek so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out again to his atomies.
'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,
All just supply, and all relation."
The element of fire is quite put out,
The sun is lost, and th' earth, and no man's wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confess that this world's spent,
When in the planets and the firmament
They seek so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out again to his atomies.
'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,
All just supply, and all relation."
Of course, it wasn't as bad as all that. Galileo and Newton provided a new coherence. The physical world itself took on two characteristics of the Godhead - omnipresence and everlasting life. Everything unfolded not in accordance with the divine will, but according to eternal and immutable laws of nature. The Divine Artifex, master craftsman, in Koyré's words, was replaced by the Dieu fainéant, a lazybones God with nothing to do. And the comprehensibility of the world became- well, as Einstein said- incomprehensible. But...things were about to get more complicated.
Koyré's "From the Closed World To the Infinite Universe" was published in 1957. When I started teaching college in 1964, the required reading for my general studies science course included two articles by two prominent physicists published in "Scientific American" at about the same time as Koyré's book. George Gamow, a principal architect of the big bang theory, made the case for a universe that began billions of years ago as an explosion from an infinitely dense and infinitely small seed of energy. Fred Hoyle, stalwart champion of the steady state theory, took the stand for an infinite universe with no beginning and no end, in which matter is continuously created in the space between the galaxies.
Both theories had strengths and weaknesses. For example, the big bang successfully accounted for the known abundances of hydrogen and helium in the universe but posited an embarrassing beginning that could not be explained. The steady state theory avoided the stumbling block of a universe that seemed to come from nowhere but replaced it with many little unexplained beginnings (those particles of matter appearing continuously from nothing). Yet the big bang theory made one prediction that was testable: if the universe began in a blaze of luminosity, a degraded remnant of that radiation should still permeate the cosmos, and the precise spectral distribution of this microwave-frequency background could be calculated.
Then, that very year I started teaching, the cosmic microwave background radiation was serendipitously discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, with precisely the predicted spectrum, a triumph of comprehensibility. The universe- space and time- had an apparent beginning! For some people, this extraordinary development re-opened the door to a creator God, whose intelligence is the source for the intelligibility of the world. Koyré may have anticipated this. In his final paragraph he wrote: "The infinite Universe of the New Cosmology, infinite in Duration as well as in Extension, in which eternal matter in accordance with external and necessary laws moves endlessly and aimlessly in eternal space, inherited all the ontological attributes of Divinity. Yet only those - all the others the departed God took away with Him."
What others? Personhood. Love. Justice. And intelligence. Intelligence that is the source of the intelligibility of the world.
But for Einstein, and many of us here, the mathematical singularity which is the big bang is an opaque barrier. To say the universe is created by God conveys no more information than to say it is created by X. We learned to live without Koyré's Dieu fainéant, the lazybones God who had nothing to do, and see no reason to bring him out of retirement. So why is the universe comprehensible?
Both theories had strengths and weaknesses. For example, the big bang successfully accounted for the known abundances of hydrogen and helium in the universe but posited an embarrassing beginning that could not be explained. The steady state theory avoided the stumbling block of a universe that seemed to come from nowhere but replaced it with many little unexplained beginnings (those particles of matter appearing continuously from nothing). Yet the big bang theory made one prediction that was testable: if the universe began in a blaze of luminosity, a degraded remnant of that radiation should still permeate the cosmos, and the precise spectral distribution of this microwave-frequency background could be calculated.
Then, that very year I started teaching, the cosmic microwave background radiation was serendipitously discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, with precisely the predicted spectrum, a triumph of comprehensibility. The universe- space and time- had an apparent beginning! For some people, this extraordinary development re-opened the door to a creator God, whose intelligence is the source for the intelligibility of the world. Koyré may have anticipated this. In his final paragraph he wrote: "The infinite Universe of the New Cosmology, infinite in Duration as well as in Extension, in which eternal matter in accordance with external and necessary laws moves endlessly and aimlessly in eternal space, inherited all the ontological attributes of Divinity. Yet only those - all the others the departed God took away with Him."
What others? Personhood. Love. Justice. And intelligence. Intelligence that is the source of the intelligibility of the world.
But for Einstein, and many of us here, the mathematical singularity which is the big bang is an opaque barrier. To say the universe is created by God conveys no more information than to say it is created by X. We learned to live without Koyré's Dieu fainéant, the lazybones God who had nothing to do, and see no reason to bring him out of retirement. So why is the universe comprehensible?
There are reasonable arguments for the incomprehensibility of human consciousness, and some of them were given here the other day in Comments. Let me offer arguments for the contrary.
First, one very important feature of consciousness has already been comprehended. We can say with a high degree of confidence that there is no ghost in the machine, that consciousness is an emergent physio-chemical property of the material brain. Whether consciousness is deterministic or involves some measure of quantum uncertainty remains to be seen, but I find Roger Penrose's argument for quantum uncertainty unconvincing. For the moment, Ockham's Razor rules.
Second, we can study emergent consciousness by observing other organisms, from sea snails to chimpanzees. That is, in principle, we can build up an understanding of human consciousness incrementally. This assumes, of course, that human consciousness differs from that of other organisms only in complexity, not kind. Again, for the moment, the Razor rules.
Third, as I mentioned here once before, a project is underway to fully map the neuronal structure of the human brain, at which point it should be possible to construct an operational electronic analog of the brain. Will such machines be conscious? Google "artificial consciousness" and you'll find arguments for both sides. At the very least we will pare away some of the incomprehensibility.
Fourth, we may already have created a "conscious" machine: the internet, which approaches the human brain in its degree of interconnected complexity. It is continuously "aware," sensitive to millions of sensory inputs- touch, vision, hearing, smell, and for all I know even taste. I can ask a question in human language or tap an icon and instantly have a response from the internet's vast memory. The internet and its myriad of input/output devices mimic enough of the aspects of human consciousness for us to be increasingly confident that consciousness is not intrinsically beyond in principle understanding. And isn't in principle understanding all we ask of science, and Life?"
First, one very important feature of consciousness has already been comprehended. We can say with a high degree of confidence that there is no ghost in the machine, that consciousness is an emergent physio-chemical property of the material brain. Whether consciousness is deterministic or involves some measure of quantum uncertainty remains to be seen, but I find Roger Penrose's argument for quantum uncertainty unconvincing. For the moment, Ockham's Razor rules.
Second, we can study emergent consciousness by observing other organisms, from sea snails to chimpanzees. That is, in principle, we can build up an understanding of human consciousness incrementally. This assumes, of course, that human consciousness differs from that of other organisms only in complexity, not kind. Again, for the moment, the Razor rules.
Third, as I mentioned here once before, a project is underway to fully map the neuronal structure of the human brain, at which point it should be possible to construct an operational electronic analog of the brain. Will such machines be conscious? Google "artificial consciousness" and you'll find arguments for both sides. At the very least we will pare away some of the incomprehensibility.
Fourth, we may already have created a "conscious" machine: the internet, which approaches the human brain in its degree of interconnected complexity. It is continuously "aware," sensitive to millions of sensory inputs- touch, vision, hearing, smell, and for all I know even taste. I can ask a question in human language or tap an icon and instantly have a response from the internet's vast memory. The internet and its myriad of input/output devices mimic enough of the aspects of human consciousness for us to be increasingly confident that consciousness is not intrinsically beyond in principle understanding. And isn't in principle understanding all we ask of science, and Life?"
"Life..."
"Life is painful and messed up. It gets complicated at the worst of times, and sometimes you have no idea where to go or what to do. Lots of times people just let themselves get lost, dropping into a wide open, huge abyss. But that's why we have to keep trying. We have to push through all that hurts us, work past all our memories that are haunting us. Sometimes the things that hurt us are the things that make us strongest. A life without experience, in my opinion, is no life at all. And that's why I tell everyone that, even when it hurts, never stop yourself from living."
- Alysha Speer
"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."
- Scott Turow
"Life's funny, chucklehead. You only get one and you don't want to throw it away. But you can't really live it at all unless you're willing to give it up for the things you love. If you're not at least willing to die for something- something that really matters - in the end you die for nothing."
- Andrew Klavan
The Poet: Mary Oliver, “White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field”
“White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field”
“Coming down out of the freezing sky
with its depths of light,
like an angel, or a Buddha with wings,
it was beautiful, and accurate,
striking the snow and whatever was there
with a force that left the imprint
of the tips of its wings - five feet apart -
and the grabbing thrust of its feet,
and the indentation of what had been running
through the white valleys of the snow -
and then it rose, gracefully,
and flew back to the frozen marshes
to lurk there, like a little lighthouse,
in the blue shadows -
so I thought:
maybe death isn't darkness, after all,
but so much light wrapping itself around us -
as soft as feathers -
that we are instantly weary of looking, and looking,
and shut our eyes, not without amazement,
and let ourselves be carried,
as through the translucence of mica,
to the river that is without the least dapple or shadow,
that is nothing but light - scalding, aortal light -
in which we are washed and washed
out of our bones.”
“Coming down out of the freezing sky
with its depths of light,
like an angel, or a Buddha with wings,
it was beautiful, and accurate,
striking the snow and whatever was there
with a force that left the imprint
of the tips of its wings - five feet apart -
and the grabbing thrust of its feet,
and the indentation of what had been running
through the white valleys of the snow -
and then it rose, gracefully,
and flew back to the frozen marshes
to lurk there, like a little lighthouse,
in the blue shadows -
so I thought:
maybe death isn't darkness, after all,
but so much light wrapping itself around us -
as soft as feathers -
that we are instantly weary of looking, and looking,
and shut our eyes, not without amazement,
and let ourselves be carried,
as through the translucence of mica,
to the river that is without the least dapple or shadow,
that is nothing but light - scalding, aortal light -
in which we are washed and washed
out of our bones.”
- Mary Oliver
"In the Inbox"
"In the Inbox"
"From: Coordinator of Volunteer Services: We have a young man, thirty-six, on hospice who has a very young child. They want someone to help him do a life review and perhaps put some pictures together for he and his wife so the child will know him. Call me if you are willing to do this."
"The next time, friend, your life seems too hard, check your Inbox."
- Jose Orez
"Big Government's "Smash & Grab"
"Big Government's "Smash & Grab"
by Ben Garrison
"The Smash And Grab Big Government Criminals Are Looting Our Country: We’ve all seen the recent crime sprees taking place in the Democrat-controlled big cities. Acting in concert, flash mobs showed up to smash glass counters, steal the jewelry inside, and then make a quick getaway. They are nothing compared to the smash and grab criminals controlling our country. I’ve drawn three here, but there are many more. The corporate media, for example. They smash and remove the truth and leave lies behind.
Big Pharma is unaccountable and irresponsible. It claims to own science, but what they really own is greed. Pfizer rakes in over $200 million taxpayer dollars per day for their dangerous and ineffective injections. The corporate media does not say a word about those injured or dying from the so-called vaccines. They don’t mention that thousands who are fully vaccinated not only contract Covid, but also die from the Chinese bioweapon.
Big Government makes laws in order to grow their own power as well as to enrich themselves. The so-called “Patriot Act” is a good example. It had nothing to do with patriotism. It had everything to do with stealing our liberties. Big Guv does this as a matter of routine. It keeps taking until it encounters resistance. Unfortunately they rarely get much push back. Too many people still think Big Guv is on their side and out to do good things for citizens. Nope. Big Guv is more concerned in getting reelected and growing more wealthy as it starts new wars. The latest may be against Russia. Yes, Big Guv wants to use US Troops and even threaten global nuclear war in order to protect the borders of Ukraine. Meanwhile, our southern borders remain wide open.
The Federal Reserve is an expert smash and grabber. It steals by means of currency creation at the flip of a switch. It is spent by the top of the pyramid and those at the bottom pay the hidden tax by means of inflation. The IRS makes sure it finishes the job of wealth confiscation, thereby making the working class poorer.
The criminal government gets away with it because they own a monopoly on force. Try and resist and they will send armed functionaries to arrest you. Resist arrest and you could be murdered. Included in the government mob are Big Pharma and The Federal Reserve. The politicized FBI does as it pleases, too. The CIA has been rogue almost from the start.
They will all continue until they are stopped. They will only stop when there is nothing left to grab. When that happens we will have no freedom, no privacy, and no dignity. We will own nothing and live in a technocratic dictatorship unless the war mongers decide to destroy all life on Earth first by means of a nuclear war.
The time to push back against this tyranny is now."
"It's Like 'The Purge': Murder Records Are Being Shattered All Over America, And Next Year Could Be Even Worse"
"It's Like 'The Purge': Murder Records Are Being
Shattered All Over America, And Next Year Could Be Even Worse"
by Michael Snyder
"It is often said that life imitates art, and these days that is particularly true on the mean streets of our major cities. Violent criminals just keep getting more brazen, and murder rates are soaring all over the nation. As you will see below, one official in Los Angeles is actually comparing what is now happening to a horror movie that came out a number of years ago called “The Purge”. But in that movie, violent criminals only had one night each year to run wild. Unfortunately, in America today they are running wild every single night.
Perhaps some of you think that I am exaggerating, and so let’s look at some hard numbers. At this point, there are 12 large U.S. cities that have already broken their all-time murder records for an entire year…"At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 — and there’s still three weeks to go in the year. Of the dozen cities that have already surpassed the grim milestones for killings, five topped records that were set or tied just last year.
“It’s terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy and this needs to stop,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said after his city surpassed its annual homicide record of 500, which stood since 1990. The 12 cities that have already established brand new records in 2021 are Philadelphia, St. Paul, Portland, Indianapolis, Tucson, Louisville, Toledo, Baton Rouge, Austin, Columbus, Rochester and Albuquerque."
And with more than half of December still remaining, more cities will be joining that list by the time the year is finally over. In Los Angeles, violent crime numbers are going up so fast that it is difficult to believe that the figures are actually real… "The LAPD reports that in the first 24 weeks of 2021, reports of shots fired were up 48 percent. The number of people wounded by gun violence was up 50 percent and homicides were up 26 percent.
The environment in the city has completely changed. During a recent television interview, the head of the LA Police Protective League warned tourists not to come to his city this holiday season… “My message to anyone thinking about coming to Los Angeles, especially during the holiday season, is don’t,” Jamie McBride, the head of the LA Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, said in a television interview."
What a thing to say. McBride went on to compare current conditions in Los Angeles to “The Purge”… “We can’t guarantee your safety. It is really, really out of control. I said it to people before, it’s like that movie ‘Purge,’ you know, instead of 24 hours to commit your crime, these people have 365 days days to commit whatever they want,” McBride said." Wow. This isn’t some random guy on the Internet saying this. This is the head of the union that represents police officers in Los Angeles.
Crime is so out of control in L.A. that even people that don’t like guns are arming themselves. The following comes from a New York Post article entitled “Beverly Hills residents arming themselves with guns in wake of violence”… “I’ve always been anti-gun,” said Debbie Mizrahie of Beverly Hills. “But I am right now in the process of getting myself shooting lessons because I now understand that there may be a need for me to know how to defend myself and my family. We’re living in fear.”
Of course things aren’t much different in northern California. In fact, an atmosphere of “lawlessness” is seemingly everywhere in San Francisco at this point… "The pandemic emptied parts of San Francisco and highlighted some of its drawbacks: human and dog feces smeared across sidewalks, home and vehicle break-ins, overflowing trash cans, and a laissez-faire approach by officials to brazen drug dealing. Parents despaired as public schools stayed closed for most of last year as nearby districts welcomed children back to the classroom.
Meanwhile, residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and squalor. Just steps from the Opera House and Symphony Hall, drug dealers carry translucent bags filled with crystal-like rocks or stand outside the public library’s main branch, flashing wads of cash while peddling heroin and methamphetamine." It should come as no surprise to learn that the number of people that died from drug overdoses in San Francisco last year was nearly three times as high as the number that died from COVID.
During normal times, we rely on the police to protect us from lawless criminals, but in America today the police are under siege. I really like how Heather Mac Donald recently made this point… “I can tell you across the country in the United States today, when cops get out of their car to make an inquiry, to question somebody who’s acting like he’s pulling up his gun out of his waistband, to go into a drug set, they find themselves routinely surrounded by hostile jeering crowds throwing things at them,” she said. “They’re assaulted.” “This is what it’s like to be a cop in America today,” she added."
Every single day, police officers put their lives on the line when they go to work. 314 police officers have been shot so far in 2021, and the final number for this year will inevitably be even higher. Meanwhile, the mainstream media and many groups on the left continue to relentlessly demonize the police, and this is driving good people out of the profession in record numbers…"A workforce survey released in June by the Police Executive Research Forum found the retirement rate in police departments nationwide jumped 45% over 2020 and 2021. And another 18% of officers resigned, the survey found, a development which coincided with nationwide social justice protests and calls to defund law enforcement agencies following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers."
As the trends that I have discussed in this article continue to escalate, it is likely that 2022 will be even worse. But before I end this article, I want to make a very important point. The worst criminals in America are not the violent thugs in our streets.
Often, the worst criminals dress in suits and walk the halls of power. For example, just check out what a CNN producer was just charged with doing…"The CNN producer charged with luring a mother and her nine-year-old daughter to a rental home in Vermont for ‘sexual subservience’ training also told someone else he’d ‘trained’ girls as young as seven. John Griffin, a producer on CNN’s New Day and worked for Chris Cuomo, was charged last week by federal prosecutors in Vermont who say he paid for sex with underage girls, including one whose mother he convinced into letting her visit him."
Needless to say, his case in not an isolated incident. In all my years, I have never seen such utter lawlessness in America. And if you have read my most recent book, then you know that I believe that things are going to be getting a lot worse. Just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine is exploding in our society, and our country has now become unrecognizable. Decades of incredibly bad decisions have brought us to this point, and the years ahead are going to be more chaotic than most people would dare to imagine."
Gregory Mannarino, "Inflation Soaring... Is The Fed. About To Do Something Dramatic? How About NO! "
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/14/21:
"Inflation Soaring... Is The Fed. About To
Do Something Dramatic? How About NO! "
"Is the Economy a Ponzi Scheme? - The Games Continue"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 12/14/21:
"Is the Economy a Ponzi Scheme? - The Games Continue"
"The Fed continues to print money and buy assets. The quantitative easing will not slow down. We have not seen inflation like this since Harry Truman was president. Experts are asking if our economy is a Ponzi scheme."
"Does the Fed Have the Stomach For It?"
"Does the Fed Have the Stomach For It?"
By Bill Bonner
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "On Friday morning, investors were tense. The inflation numbers were coming out… Was the fun coming to an end? For the last two weeks, the Biden team had been trying to downplay rising prices. Here’s a Reuters’ report from Thursday: "President Joe Biden, bracing for another jump in inflation, sought to reassure Americans on Thursday that rises in energy costs and other key goods were starting to ease, but said the change might not be reflected in November data due on Friday."
But rising prices are a hard thing to keep under your hat. You can lie about a war in Afghanistan, for example, for 20 years. Who’s to know? But rising prices? Consumers see them every day. And economists were warning that the inflation numbers on Friday could be worse than those of last month. They could show prices rising at a rate not seen for 40 years. Then, as expected, Friday’s report showed inflation at a 6.8% rate – the highest since 1982. The Financial Times reported: "US inflation hits fastest annual pace since 1982." "Consumer price index rises 6.8% in November, intensifying pressure on White House as it seeks support for spending plan."
Mainstream Media Awakens: Inflation is always bad news for a democratic government. They don’t necessarily understand the process, but voters feel ripped off… and they don’t like it. Typically, they show their displeasure at the ballot box. That is why it’s hard to square inflation with democratic, consensual capitalism. Often, you get a coup d’état by the military… or an “emergency” that brings democracy to an end. (Some argue that inflation is a policy tool of the elite, not only to enrich itself… but also, intended to undermine democracy.)
Many times in these Diaries, we have given you our opinion. Push comes to shove, we said… the elite is going to push down hard on the inflation pump… and shove democracy down the stairs. Maybe that's what investors believe too – they bid up stocks to new record highs on Friday.
And a headline from Bloomberg over the weekend gives us a look at where this is going. In it, we see that the mainstream media has finally taken note of the “Inflate or Die” trap: "Massive U.S. Debts Could ‘Trap’ Powell as Fed Fights Inflation." "The U.S. went on a borrowing binge last year and the hangover could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to fight inflation without crashing the economy. Corporate debt has surged $1.3 trillion since the start of 2020 as borrowers took advantage of emergency Fed action as the pandemic spread, slashing interest rates and backstopping financial markets to keep credit flowing. […]"
Powell’s challenge is to try to curb price pressures without large costs to employment or growth, a move that would likely anger both political parties and blotch his record with the first Fed-assisted hard landing since the 1990-1991 downturn.
Hard Landing Ahead: To be clearer about it, the financial markets – and the economy itself – are the grotesque creatures of more than 12 years of absurd monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. It has lent money below the rate of consumer price increases for almost all of that time. Of course, corporate debt increased – by almost 80%. And so did U.S. government debt – up more than $18 trillion (more than 180%) since 2008.
Now, the Fed can’t “normalize” policy without a “hard landing”… in which asset prices return to normal… over-leveraged businesses go bankrupt… millions of people lose their jobs… millions lose their homes… the elite gets about $30 trillion poorer (from lower asset prices)… and the economy goes through a very mean wringer. Do Powell, Biden, et al have the backbone for it? Do they even understand what they are doing?
In any case, here’s our prediction: There will always be something more important than restraining inflation. Here’s a story from England, again from Bloomberg, that gives us a hint: "Omicron Seen Trumping Inflation for Bank of England This Week." Economists expect BOE to hold off rate hike until February. The flu… the weather…and most importantly, a collapsing economy…There will always be reasons not to change course. And when push comes to shove, they’ll find one of them."
Monday, December 13, 2021
"Economic End Of The Road Approaches; Dumb Money Keeps Buying The Bubble"
Jeremiah Babe, 12/13/21:
"Economic End Of The Road Approaches;
Dumb Money Keeps Buying The Bubble"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy are scattered through this eye-catching field of view. From the early hours after midnight on August 13, the 30 second exposure of the night sky over Busko-Zdroj, Poland records the colorful and bright trail of a Perseid meteor. Seen near the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower it flashes from lower left to upper right. The hurtling grain of cosmic sand, a piece of dust from periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, vaporized as it passed through planet Earth's atmosphere at almost 60 kilometers per second.
Just above and right of center, well beyond the stars of the Milky Way, lies the island universe known as M31 or the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object easily visible to the naked-eye, about 2.5 million light-years away. The visible meteor trail begins only about 100 kilometers above Earth's surface, though. It points back to the meteor shower radiant in the constellation Perseus off the lower left edge of the frame. Follow this bright perseid meteor trail below and left to the stars of NGC 869and NGC 884, the double star cluster in Perseus.”
"All Of The Available Data..."
"All of the available data show that the typical American citizen has about
as much interest in the life of the mind as does your average armadillo. "
- Morris Berman
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "One"
"One"
"The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.
How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!
A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination."
~ Mary Oliver
"High End Retail Continues to Crumble - Inflation at a 40 Year High"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 12/13/21:
"High End Retail Continues to Crumble -
Inflation at a 40 Year High"
"I am in Newport Beach, California. Retail has continued to crumble even in the best of cities. There is no escaping this crash. Inflation is at a 40 year high while the stock market will continue to rise through the end of the year."
Gregory Mannarino, "AGAIN! More Calls For A Stock Market Meltdown And Crash... Let's Talk About That"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/13/21:
"AGAIN! More Calls For A Stock Market Meltdown And Crash...
Let's Talk About That"
"Corporate Insiders Dump Stocks Of Their Own Companies At Record Pace: Brace For An 80% Crash"
Full screen recommended.
"Corporate Insiders Dump Stocks Of Their Own Companies
At Record Pace: Brace For An 80% Crash"
by Epic Economist
"No one understands market trends better than its top insiders. They can foresee bullish and bearish developments way before everyone else does. Insiders are corporate CEOs, senior executives, board members, or shareholders who own at least 10 percent of a company. They always come out on top when buying and selling stock. They always reap the biggest profits. They are always one step ahead than everyone else.
What most Americans believe and what many market watchers have been telling us is actually correct: The stock market is a rigged game that benefits corporate executives who can hide behind trading plans as they buy or sell stock, sometimes based on nonpublic information. That's what ZeroHedge analysts have been warning their readers for years. And now, they're inviting the public to see what those insiders, executives and CEOs are doing right now and what that means for the future of the stock market.
A disaster is looming -- and corporate executives are already looking for ways of protecting their wealth before things get out of control. Recently, we have been hearing stories of billionaire executives massively dumping their company's stocks. That's actually been happening at a much faster rate than we've seen in over a decade. The twist is, as ZeroHedge analysts explained, that they're ramping up selling while their own companies engage in record stock buybacks.
Last month, insiders dumped a total of $15.59 billion -- an absolute all-time record. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from the research firm InsiderScore, 48 top executives have collectively disposed of over $200 million each in stock sales in 2021. That's nearly four times the average of stock sales from 2016 through 2020. The avalanche of insider selling includes the two richest men in the world, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as well as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, Walmart's Walton family, and Facebook and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, among many others. In recent weeks, they have significantly accelerated stock sales.
InsiderScore data reveals that corporate insiders sold a whopping $63.5 billion in shares in November, a mind-blowing 50% increase compared to all of 2020. This selling trend is developing as major equity stock indexes are signaling peak levels and stock buybacks are occuring at breakneck speed. The largest share of insider dumping is happening in the technology sector, which recorded a staggering $41 billion in sales.
Stock buybacks are an alternative form of wealth protection. CEOs sell their stocks to raise cash, but instead of using this cash to expand production, increase sales, acquire competitors, or buy new products or services, they use it to reduce the outstanding share count of their company and artificially inflate earnings per share. That's what Real Investment Advice Chief Market Strategist Lance Roberts has explained in a 2019 article. "The reason that companies do this is simple: stock-based compensation. Today, more than ever, many corporate executives have a large percentage of their compensation tied to company stock performance," Roberts highlighted.
That's to say, when things are about to fall apart on Wall Street, a way to reduce the damages faced by a company is to decrease the amount of this company's shares in the market. In that way, when the market goes down, the impact on the company's stock price is far more manageable. "Share buybacks only return money to those individuals who sell their stock. This is an open market transaction, so if Apple buys back some of their outstanding stock, the only people who receive any capital are those who sold their shares," Roberts explained.
If it wasn't for stock buybacks, all of these insiders wouldn't be able to sell off their stock at record-high valuations without suffering major losses. Today, at least 40% of the current bull market is entirely due to buybacks. That's a Ponzi-like scheme that allows corporate insiders to prepare a financial cushion before the market takes a turn for the worse. This insider selling wave accelerated in recent weeks because, as Goldman warned, the buyback open window for 2021 ended on December 10.
If we take a deeper look in the current market, we can see that damages are not superficial, as some are choosing to believe. This sell-off madness is proof that a much more devastating stock market crash is fast approaching. Investors betting on higher stock prices will be bitterly disappointed. Even the dotcom crash wasn't recognized as such until it was too late. It's time to wake up now. Otherwise, you might be left scrambling when all of these stock market crash predictions become a reality."
"Flood-tide of Darkness"
"Flood-tide of Darkness"
by Jim Kunstler
"The frenzy around the Christmas holiday conceals deeper currents running through advanced techno-industrial societies like froth on the surface of a raging river that surges with dangerous, hidden flotsam. We’re informed that the next James Bond might be a transsexual. But, you see, it’s not just that Hollywood is running out of gimmicks for its floundering “franchises,” but rather that there has been no place for men these days in the struggle to prevent civilization from drowning. The lifeguards are cancelled. All that’s left in the commotion of the flood is the shrieking of women.
Thus, the hysteria over Trumpism. America actually needed a rescue operation and, defective as he was personality-wise, Mr. Trump rose above the surge and called for exactly that, and was pulled under for the effrontery of saying so. It was a bad time to be a man standing out among men. The torrent is in charge now, not the people bobbing and flailing in it. Ride it out, if you can. By and by, the flood will subside and the survivors will be cast back on shore. The shrieking women will also subside, because the men will tell them to cut it out. And then the men and women will go forth reconstructing the human project here in North America.
The landscape will not look the same and we will not act like we did before, when we were just carried along helplessly in the flood. There will be fewer of us. All the giant things, too large to save themselves — the corporations, the institutions, the agencies — will be swept away, but we’ll back on dry land, with a lot debris to sort through, some of it useful for rebuilding a way of life. We’ll be too busy for any more shrieking and hand-wringing, and crybabies will get whapped upside their heads.
That is what you can expect in the decade ahead. For the moment everything is just froth and noise, and most everybody is in too much of a panic to make sense. Humans don’t do well without sense-making. What makes sense is having a roof over your head, something to eat, some purposeful activities to provide those things, some other people to exist with and care for, and some ceremonies to honor our efforts and declare our gratitude for being here in the first place.
Christmas, most of us understand, is as much about the world descending into cyclical darkness as it is about the birth of a religious figure who signifies our recognition of the very light that makes darkness visible. You also understand, of course, that demons and monsters dwell in the darkness, that they spawn in it. This year, the darkness seems darker than any darkness we remember, and so we may be astonished when the light returns to our world. Eventually, we’ll memorialize the monsters and they will frighten children for generations to come.
I know it’s hard to even imagine generations to come at this moment in history. There is even some question whether human beings will able to reproduce after the dastardly things we’ve done to our own chemistry. But this isn’t the end of us, not yet anyway. Let’s act as if it’s not, at least. We don’t know for sure where our story goes from here, but we have some say in it depending on what we do. Just knowing that there is a difference between story-telling and story-making is a good start in rediscovering what men are for.
One thing men are responsible for is bringing order to the world. They don’t always succeed, but it must be their duty to make the effort, and it’s not wise to distract them with histrionics when they attempt to do that, or shame them for trying. You are not excused from your duty in any case, American men. It’s not okay to pretend to be women to escape your duty. The women must not allow the men to hide among them and pretend to be them. They must insist that you be men.
One of your duties as men is to oppose false realities to preserve meaning, and you do that first by insisting on being upright yourself and speaking of things as they really are so that you can do with them what you must do. And this is the meaning of authority, which has been submerged in the flood we’re riding on, this flood of false realities drowning the meaning of everything.
I know this makes for a harsh Christmas. It is where we happen to be: the flood-tide of darkness. Do what you can with it, knowing that it marks some kind of turning. I promise you, the light is coming."
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