"We’re All Ukrainians Now", Part II

"We’re All Ukrainians Now", Part II

by Brian Maher

"In response to last Thursday’s reckoning - "We’re All Ukrainians Now" - reader J.B. wrote us a very sharp note: "Like usually, you are politically confused. You don't know which way you can criticize Biden, the Democrats, the media and the right wing's imagined enemies except you have no alternatives to offer; you would like to see America ruled by some authoritarian regime who would abolish the Constitution, the institutions and the media and return to the ’50s. Your analyses that you think are a normal discourse are always off and sound a little crazy…

Your editor delights to learn that he is merely “a little crazy.” Even he suspects - at times - that a deeper psychological affliction besets him. And he concedes it at once - without let, without hindrance, without reservation - he is “politically confused.” He often encounters difficulty discerning Democrat from Republican, Republican from Democrat, the policy of one from the policy of the other. Witness, for example, their conjoining on Ukraine. The majority on each side is hot for anti-Russian action. There is very little light between them.

What Bipartisanship Really Means: When both sides squeeze together in bipartisan union… your editor begins to perspire at the forehead. He is largely with author Thomas Woods: "There are only two (major) parties today: The Stupid Party and The Evil Party. Once in a while the two parties get together to do something that is both stupid and evil, and that's called Bipartisanship."

How do Stupid Party and Evil Party interests align in Ukraine? We hazard the administration is eager to deflect public focus from inflation, the flagging economy and its pandemic totalitarianism. Do not forget: This is an election year. The Republican half of the bipartisan bloc is enticed by the sweet plums of American exceptionalism and American greatness. They get to yell about freedom and the shining city on the hill. And so you have your bipartisanship… stupid and evil though it may be.

Let us now continue with J.B.’s bill of complaint against us…

Abolishing the Constitution? Do we yearn - as J.B. claims - to be “ruled by some authoritarian regime who would abolish the Constitution, the institutions and the media and return to the ’50s”? With the highest respect to J.B.: The Daily Reckoning is heart and soul for free men, free markets, free minds and free expression. We wash no brains, bind no hands and tape no mouths. Moreover, we are fiercely against those who would. That is, this publication is against any “authoritarian regime who would abolish the Constitution, the institutions and the media.”

Yet J.B. is correct when he claims your editor offers no “alternatives.” Your editor is not out to convert minds, hearts or souls. He is no preacher. He is no missionary. He is no tub-thumper. He is instead an anatomist, and in certain instances an autopsist. He approaches the business with the serene detachment of a man who takes the world as he finds it - not as he would rather it. He merely tacks his humble note to the community bulletin board. Passersby can pause, give it a look, take it aboard… or they can simply turn away and push on… as they please. It is all one to him. Yet J.B. is not through with us…

Angry White Men: "The Republican [Party] is overtaken by angry white men like you who can't stand the evolution of America and miss the ’50s when they felt [like] the masters of everyone who is not a male, white and Christian. It has become a cult. It follows QAnon cult and crazy-town conspiracies. Get over it! America is a diverse, multicultural, multi-ethnic country. The only thing that unites us is the Constitution and the rule of law that you are trying to abolish."

Just so. Yet where is our anger? And your editor did not infest this planet Earth during the 1950s. He cannot therefore miss them, anymore than a blind man can miss the colors he has never seen. And precisely what are “QAnon cult and crazy-town conspiracies”? Where have we peddled them? Citations, please - chapter, verse, line, letter. And how precisely do we aspire to abolish ”the “rule of law”? Once again, we request specific evidence. We are confident - supremely - that none is available. We will happily take correction if mistaken.

Incidentally, J.B. mentions the Constitution. Yet we would ask J.B. which Constitution he holds dear - the Old Testament Constitution - or the New Testament Constitution? The two may share an identical exterior. Yet two different spirits animate them. One is stern, one is soft.

How Can You Defend Putin? Lastly, J.B. thunders that: "Tyranny anywhere is tyranny everywhere. We have to stand against tyranny that Putin is trying to impose on Europe and the rest of the world. Biden is doing the right thing; praise him as an American for a change! Give credit where credit is due. Putin is not a friend of freedom, he is a thug, a tyrant and a war criminal. You can't as an American defend him or apologize for him directly or indirectly."

Your editor would inform J.B. that he pounds no politician’s tom-toms. Nor does he shout any politician’s “praise.” A very limited number of exceptions exist. So rare are they that we need not list them. Your editor believes the bulking majority of politicians are rascals… and the sitting president offers no exception. If J.B. seeks rah-rahs and cheers, he will not find them here. He has come to the incorrect address.

A Strange Defense of Putin: Mr. Putin naturally sorts into the rascal’s camp. We certainly do not “defend him or apologize for him directly or indirectly,” as J.B. intimates. With the pleasure of repeating ourself: "Mr. Putin is of course the high villain in this morality tale - and justly so. His hands are red with the blood of many, many thousands. He can never rinse it away. And we would remind the Russian autocrat: As all men, he will one day stand before St. Peter. His deeds will judge him, regardless of his earthly station. We do not expect Peter to stamp the fellow’s passport."

We would consign this man to damnation everlasting… and yet we defend him? It is a very strange defense. We merely counsel prudence in dealing with a potential foe who roosts upon a vast stockpile of atomic toys - and who has hinted at playing with them.

Separating Rhetoric From Reality: Our Patrick Henry claims that tyranny anywhere is tyranny everywhere. It is lovely rhetoric, we concede. Yet is it true? Is tyranny in Turkmenistan tyranny in Tennessee? Is tyranny in Tonga tyranny in Texas? We would argue neither is true.

We have no doubt that J.B. means the best in the world. He is on the side of the angels and saints. Yet if J.B. is out to scotch tyranny anywhere and everywhere he finds it… he will be extremely busy on multiple fronts… for an extremely long time. He will also be bankrupted - putting down tyranny is costly business - as the United States has discovered these past several years. And as its war hawks circle over Ukraine…We fear it is a lesson the United States may soon learn anew…"

- dailyreckoning.com

"15 Signs That Global Financial Markets Smell Blood In The Water"

Full screen recommended.

"15 Signs That Global Financial Markets Smell Blood In The Water"

by Epic Economist

"Global financial markets are facing a devastating downturn that has already led big corporations to report losses of billions of dollars. As signs of weakness spread, speculators have nowhere to hide anymore. All major indexes are plummeting, and several high-flying stocks are dropping by as much as 90% from their peaks. In the US, Europe, China, and Russia, investors are getting increasingly spooked by the prospect of a severe slowdown in economic activity amid extremely stretched market valuations. Pessimism is everywhere and fear is rapidly spreading. Bubbles have started popping, and top Wall Street players can see that a stock market crash is on the horizon.

Things could get much uglier on financial markets when the US economy tips into recession. Thanks to 8.5% inflation, real hourly earnings in the US have actually shrunk by 2.7% in March, compromising Americans’ purchasing power. In 2020, consumers used their stimulus checks to pay down credit-card debt, but since 2021, they’ve been borrowing money at a breathtaking pace, and rising interest rates are leading us to another credit crunch. According to market strategist David P. Goldman, this also means that when the US goes into recession, the tech complex could face something like the devastation that ensued after the 2000 recession, when the NASDAQ 100 lost more than 80% of its value between March of 2000 and September 2002.

All of that spells more trouble for stocks, especially at a time of extreme overvaluation. The Buffet Indicator is at an all-time high, showing that the U.S. market capitalization was at 211% of GDP in January. In a recent conference, Berkshire Hathaway lambasted Wall Street for encouraging speculative behavior in the stock market, effectively turning it into a “gambling parlor.” “Wall Street makes money, one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism,” Buffett said. “They don’t make money unless people do things, and they get a piece of them. They make a lot more money when people are gambling than when they are investing.” Buffett sustained that most large American companies leading the rally have “become poker chips” for market speculation.

There is way too much risk, way too much debt, and way too much leverage in the global financial marketplace. The entire system seems to be racing toward another major crisis. Only this time, big governments around the world won't be able to come to the rescue. That is why what is happening right now is so worrying. The global financial markets are like a house of cards built on a foundation of sand, and investors are more vulnerable today than they have been at any other time in history. When a major domino falls, it is likely to spark a massive chain reaction, and once confidence disappears, the game can change very quickly. For that reason, today, we compiled some key signs that the carnage in financial markets is about to get worse."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Vladimir Putin Issued This Chilling Ultimatum That Could Mean Nuclear War"

"Vladimir Putin Issued This Chilling 

Ultimatum That Could Mean Nuclear War"

by RenewedRight

"War is a place where young people who don't know each other and don't hate each other kill each other, by the decision of old people who know each other and hate each other, but don't kill each other!" 

- Erich Hartmann

"The war in Ukraine is now in its third month. There does not seem to be any end in sight. And Vladimir Putin issued this chilling ultimatum that could mean nuclear war. Putin once again threatened Western nations with nuclear annihilation if they intervened in the war in Ukraine. “If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia,” Putin told Russian lawmakers.

Putin warned that if NATO countries escalated the war in Ukraine with shipments of deadly weapons or assisted in strikes on Russian territory, then he was prepared to launch a nuclear attack with hypersonic missiles. “They must know that our response to counterstrikes will be lightning fast. Fast,” Putin added.

Putin then put the West on notice that Russia will use its super weapons if it feels threatened or cornered into defeat. “We have all the weapons we need for this. No one else can brag about these weapons, and we won’t brag about them,” Putin stated. “But we will use them,” Putin concluded. Putin’s remarks came just days after Russia completed a successful test of its Satan-2 missile, which can carry up to 15 nuclear warheads and obliterate an area the size of France.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova ramped up threats of a nuclear attack on Great Britain after British defense officials announced they would ramp up shipments of arms into Ukraine. “Do we understand correctly that for the sake of disrupting the logistics of military supplies, Russia can strike military targets on the territory of those Nato countries that supply arms to the Kyiv regime?” Zakharova asked. “After all, this directly leads to deaths and bloodshed on Ukrainian territory. As far as I understand, Britain is one of those countries,” Zakharova stated.

These remarks underscore the danger of Joe Biden’s reckless policy of trying to use Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia. Once bullets and bombs start flying, all bets are off and anything can happen. Joe Biden and other globalist leaders think they can use this conflict to destroy the Russian military or even cripple the Putin regime. Those are dangerous ends that go far beyond the initial stated goal of keeping Ukraine a free and sovereign country."

- https://renewedright.com/

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“If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia,” Putin told Russian lawmakers. Of course, we would never do that... right?

"Biden Asks Congress for $33 Billion to Support Ukraine Through September"

We're just begging for it, aren't we? And we'll get it, too...

Musical Interlude: The Who, "Overture" from "Tommy"

The Who, "Overture" from "Tommy"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The South Celestial Pole is easy to spot in star trail images of the southern sky. The extension of Earth's axis of rotation to the south, it's at the center of all the southern star trail arcs. In this starry panorama streching about 60 degrees across deep southern skies the South Celestial Pole is somewhere near the middle though, flanked by bright galaxies and southern celestial gems. Across the top of the frame are the stars and nebulae along the plane of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Gamma Crucis, a yellowish giant star heads the Southern Cross near top center, with the dark expanse of the Coalsack nebula tucked under the cross arm on the left. Eta Carinae and the reddish glow of the Great Carina Nebula shine along the galactic plane near the right edge.

At the bottom are the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, external galaxies in their own right and satellites of the mighty Milky Way. A line from Gamma Crucis through the blue star at the bottom of the southern cross, Alpha Crucis, points toward the South Celestial Pole, but where exactly is it? Just look for south pole star Sigma Octantis. Analog to Polaris the north pole star, Sigma Octantis is little over one degree from the the South Celestial pole."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210101.html

Gregory Mannarino, "Plunge Protection Team Saves The Market! Epic Turn Around; The 10yr Hits 3%! Economy Done"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/2/22:

"Plunge Protection Team Saves The Market! 

Epic Turn Around; The 10yr Hits 3%! Economy Done"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"The Coming of Corporate Collectivism"

"The Coming of Corporate Collectivism"

by Jeff Thomas

"Benito Mussolini stated that "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." Quite so. Interestingly, many, and perhaps most people today, lack an understanding as to the system under which they are ruled.

In the US in particular, most people who vote Republican take pride in believing that the US is a capitalist state. Democrats, too, regard the US as a capitalist state, and take the view that that’s what’s wrong with America today. Increasingly, they seek a move in the socialist (or collectivist) direction to save them from the perceived evils of capitalism.

Interestingly, though, the evils to which they refer are the socio-economic inequalities that exist and the fact that those on the lower levels of society have decreasing opportunity to improve their lot in life. And, of course, since they believe they live under a capitalist system, they assume that capitalism must be the problem. But this is not the case.

It can be said that the first major introduction of corporatist collectivism occurred in 1913, with the introduction of the Revenue Act and the Federal Reserve Act. These were enacted under President Woodrow Wilson and were peddled to the American public as being anti-corporatist. The Revenue Act, which introduced income tax, was touted as creating a tax primarily for the rich, which would even out income disparities. The Federal Reserve was claimed to be a government agency that would ride herd over the greedy banking interests on Wall Street.

However, those few who actually read the bill learned that the Federal Reserve was neither federal nor a reserve. It was to be owned by the larger banks and would give them the power to control the currency of the US. By promising collectivist changes, the goals of corporatism were advanced.

And so it is today. Virtually all the ills of American society, as described by liberals, have been caused by the introduction of collectivist concepts, capitalized upon by the plutocracy of the US. The US is not a capitalist state. If we were to define it accurately, the economic system is corporatist and the social system is collectivist. It is, however, true that there exist the remnants of a free market, or capitalism.

Yet, to most – either liberal or conservative – this would seem impossible. We’ve been taught to regard Wall Street as a denizen for greedy capitalists. Surely, they would never support collectivism – the savior of the masses. Well, yes and no. Wall Street has dominated the American economy for over one hundred years. And in all of that time, they’ve sought a greater level of collectivism. They understand that collectivism (under any of its guises of socialism, fascism or communism) is a highly effective means by which to rule over others.

Collectivism does not raise up the masses, as Karl Marx suggested. Instead, it evens out the classes by lowering the great majority of people to an equal level of poverty. The premise is a simple one: Promise largesse from the government, with the stipulation that basic freedoms must be relinquished in order to receive the largesse. Then, once all have been subjugated under collectivism, the largesse is steadily diminished. Corporate leaders convince the people to give up their rights, but then fail to deliver on their end of the bargain: to bestow riches upon the now-subjugated populace.

And again, this is nothing new. In 1917, one Leon Trotsky was hosted in New York by the most prominent banking and industrial firms. He was provided with funding, along with a US passport, courtesy of President Wilson. A contingent then went with Mister Trotsky to Russia with the funds necessary to wrest control of the new Soviet Union – to replace the Mensheviks with the Lenin/Trotsky-led Bolsheviks. The bargain was that the Soviet Union would be collectivist and that the goods needed by Russians would be supplied from New York, in perpetuity, unseen by the public in either Russia or the US.

Within a decade, the same firms began funding an up-and-coming Adolf Hitler. They funded his rise to power in 1933 and spent the remainder of the decade taking control of much of German industry, in addition to installing American-owned plants in Germany. Prior to Hitler’s rise, Germany was flat broke and heavily in debt, but the massive monetary shot in the arm from Wall Street firms ensured that Germany would rise quickly and come to dominate Europe. Indeed, without US funding, the creation of the German war machine would have been impossible.

The term "Nazi" is an abbreviation for Nationalsozialistische – the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Like the Russian people, the German people had been sold the collectivist promise, believing that their lives would somehow be better if they agreed to give up their liberties and accept totalitarian rule. What they received was the totalitarian rule without the promised largesse.

The effort to create the same situation in the US has long been in the works. In the 1930s, great strides were made toward collectivism under the New Deal. However, post-war prosperity made Americans unwilling to give up liberties for largesse. But today, increased governmental regulation has diminished the free market, diminishing opportunities for the average American. This has created a condition in which roughly half of Americans now buy into the empty promise of collectivism.

America no longer has true "liberal" and "conservative" parties. They now have "liberal" and "liberal-light" parties. Regardless of who is president, the US is on course to go full-bore into dramatic social and legislative changes that will complete the transformation into Corporate Collectivism. All that’s needed is a trigger, as occurred in Germany in February of 1933. Just two weeks prior to the 1933 German national elections, Adolf Hitler hosted a secret fundraising meeting for German and American industrialists, which netted him millions in donations, upon which he could finance a totalitarian corporate collectivist government. He then surreptitiously created the Reichstag fire, blaming it on dissidents and political opponents, ensuring that he would be elected.

In his address at that fundraiser, he stated, "There are only two possibilities, either to crowd back the opponent on constitutional grounds, and for this purpose once more we have this [upcoming] election, or a struggle will be conducted with other weapons, which may demand greater sacrifices… I hope the German people thus recognize the greatness of this hour." Germany was about to receive a totalitarian corporate collectivist rule, either through election or through the creation of civil unrest.

Similarly, the US today is about to undergo dramatic change. The remaining question is whether that will take place through election or its historic alternative. Economically, politically, and socially, the United States seems to be headed down a path that’s not only inconsistent with the founding principles of the country, but accelerating quickly toward boundless decay. In the years ahead, there will likely be much less stability of any kind."

- internationalman.com

○

Owned...

'It's Not Until The End..."

“Using time, pressure and patience, the universe gradually changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds. You’re being worked on too, so hang in there. Just because something isn’t apparent right now, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. It’s not until the end do you realize, sometimes your biggest blessings were disguised by pain and suffering. They were not placed there to break you, but to make you.”

- “The Angel Affect”

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”

- Richard Bach

Bill Bonner, "The River of No Returns"

"The River of No Returns"

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "The great ‘River of No Returns’ – Amazon.com – went over a waterfall on Friday. Forbes: "Shares of Amazon collapsed Friday after the e-commerce monolith reported worse-than-expected earnings spurred by high inflation and lingering supply chain constraints, pushing the stock down more than 30% below its record high and extending a slate of massive losses among formerly high-flying technology firms."

Amazon stock tumbled 14% Friday to $2,485, logging its worst day since 2014 and wiping out about $210 billion in market value. Spurring the losses, the Seattle-based giant on Wednesday reported an unexpected loss of $3.8 billion in the first quarter, or $7.38 per share, significantly worse than the $8.36-per-share profit analysts were expecting and much lower than the profit of $8.1 billion a year earlier.

But what did you expect? Nature imposes symmetry. And in a market economy that means this: Those stocks that go up the most in a boom are the ones that go down the most in a bust.

The First Shall be Last: There are always market leaders. Some companies stand out. Either because they have snazzy new technologies or better business models. And they seem unstoppable… indestructible. They’re the companies everyone knows. And they can afford to hire the very best talent. Then, with the leading engineers and innovators on the payroll, they should be able to meet challenges better than their competitors – including adapting to new innovations as well as developing the next big technologies.

At least, that’s what investors expected from IBM, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Kodak, Sears, Coca Cola and Xerox. These companies were members of a group of sizzling stocks from the 1960s – the Nifty Fifty. They were ‘nifty’ because they grew faster, and made more money for investors, than other stocks. And they had brands that looked unbeatable.

Who could resist “Avon calling?” Who didn’t know that “things go better with Coke?” Who didn’t shop at Sears? What office didn’t have a Xerox machine? But just as day begets night, so does success beget failure. When the big breakthrough in photo technology – digital imagery – came along, for example, did Kodak lead the way? Nope. And when women wanted perfumes and make-up with a little more chic – was Avon on the case? Nope… it was French brands – Givenchy and Dior – that gave them what they wanted. And who led the world into the laptop computer/tablet/I-phone age… IBM? Nope again; it was MicroSoft and Apple.

Similar retrospectives could be written about any of the Nifty Fifty companies. The common feature was the symmetry. They went up… then they went down.

As a group, the Nifty Fifty outperformed on the way up. Then, when the ‘60s boom turned into the ‘70s bust, they outperformed again… on the way down. From Bridgeway Partners: "The recession of 1973 – 1975 ushered in a period of low economic growth, and with it a bear market…. the S&P 500 fell by over 14% in 1973 and lost over 26% in 1974. But the Nifty Fifty stocks fell even more, dropping over 19% and then 38% in those two years. Markets did recover somewhat after that, and the S&P 500 gained on average about 2.5% annually over the five years from 1973 – 1977. But the Nifty Fifty still lagged, with five-year average returns of -4.4%. … those Nifty Fifty stocks with the highest P/E at the peak tended to have the lowest subsequent returns."

The Amazon of the ‘60s: Sears is the one we know best. Growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, we shopped at Sears. Everyone did. If Sears didn’t have it, you didn’t need it. In the 1950s, the Sears catalog was more than toilet paper. It was a ‘Consumer Bible’ where all that was good in American industry was on display. It showed us the latest fashions, gadgets, appliances and precision tools – everything that set America so far ahead of its competitors. In it you could find everything you were looking for… and much more than you never knew you wanted.

The Sears’ Christmas catalog – the “Wishbook” – was a marvel of marketing to children. It kept them occupied for days, making careful notes and comparisons. Richard Sears was a century ahead of Jeff Bezos. His catalog was the paper-era precursor of Amazon. And his company, with its huge customer base, its expertise and its purchasing power… was the retailer Numero Uno... in the top retail market in the world.

In the 1960s, Sears expanded its network of brick-and-mortar stores. They were innovative, car-oriented outlets, typically away from the city centers. Frequently, they were anchor tenants in huge malls. And they were built from the inside out – focused on the shoppers’ experience inside the stores – often without windows to the outside world.

Unlike Amazon, Sears owned its own brands – Kenmore, Craftsman, Diehard, and many others. It developed its own “Discover” credit card. It had its own insurance, auto repair, and investment subsidiaries. Sears had a huge lead on its competitors. It had plenty of money. And it had management non-pareil. But there’s an old saying on Wall Street (that we just made up): “When unstoppably brilliant management confronts the symmetry of market forces, bet on symmetry. “

As recently as April 2007, one hundred and fifteen years after its founding, a share of Sears Holdings would have cost you $193. On Friday, the price was 5 cents."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"To Really Ask..."

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world – few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”

- Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”

Musical Interlude: Justin Hayward, "Doin' Time"

Justin Hayward, "Doin' Time"

"They tell me that the sun comes up every morning,

They tell me that there's people out on the streets,

But why is life so cruel?

(He's doin' time)

They tell me, Man, he tops the list in Creation,

He takes his place as uncrowned king of the world.

But why is Man so cruel?

(He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?)

Oh, Prince of peace we need you now,

Give us a sign to show us how...

Locked in her room the lover mourns her betrayer,

(It's such a shame, he took the blame)

Seems even love possesses treachery too.

But how can love be cruel?

(He's doin' time,

He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?

It's such a shame, he took the blame.)

Seems this old world has lost its way,

On such a torn and troubled day...

Locked in her room

The lover mourns her betrayer.

(He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?)

Seems even love possesses treachery too.

(It's such a shame, he took the blame)

But how can love? But how can love?

But how can love be cruel?

(He's doin' time, he's doin' time)"

The Daily "Near You?"

Sherman, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"I Would Rather Have..."

"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."

- Nadezhda Mandelstam

"1st Ave Walkthrough: East Village, NYC is Becoming a Dead Mall"

Full screen recommended.

Louis Rossmann, "1st Ave Walkthrough: East Village, 

NYC is Becoming a Dead Mall"

- https://discord.gg/rossmanngroup

- https://evgrieve.com/

"We Are Headed for a Hard Landing with the Economy"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 5/2/22:

"We Are Headed for a Hard Landing with the Economy"

"Everything points to big problems in the global economy in a very hard landing. May is going to be a horrific month because the fat is going to start raising interest rates and we’re going to realize that the supply chain problems are not going to get better and are only going to get worse."

○

Related, highest recommendation:

"The 2022 Real Estate Collapse is Going to be Worse

 Than the 2008 One, and Nobody Knows About It"

"There’s going to be a lot of text here, so all you smooth-brain apes who are on Reddit, a text based website, yet are still too retarded to read, can skip to the end where there will be a very short summary, a bottle of milk from your mother, and a blankie."

"Is This Finally The End For America’s Greatest Stock Market Bubble?"

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 

6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

by Ryan Matters

"Edward L. Bernays was an American business consultant who is widely recognized as the father of public relations. Bernays was one of the men responsible for “selling” World War 1 to the American public by branding it as a war that was necessary to “make the world safe for democracy”. During the 1920s, Bernays consulted for a number of major corporations, helping to boost their business through expertly crafted marketing campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion.

In 1928, Edward Bernays published his famous book, "Propaganda", in which he outlined the theories behind his successful “public relations” endeavours. The book provides insights into the phenomenon of crowd psychology and outlines effective methods for manipulating people’s habits and opinions. For a book that’s almost 100 years old, "Propaganda" could not be more relevant today. In fact, its relevance is a testament to the unchanging nature of human psychology.

One of the key takeaways of the book is that mind control is an important aspect of any democratic society. Indeed, Bernays maintains that without the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”, democracy simply would not “work”.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.

In "Propaganda", Bernays draws on the work of Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his uncle!), outlining the power of mass psychology and how it may be used to manipulate the “group mind”. If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?

I recently explored this topic in an essay about how occult rituals and predictive programming are used to manipulate the collective consciousness, influencing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of large groups of people, resulting in the creation of what occultists call “egregores”. Here I have extracted some key insights from Bernays in an attempt to show how his book "Propaganda" is, in many ways, the playbook used by the globalist cryptocracy to process the group mind of the masses.

1. If You Manipulate The Leader Of A Group, The People Will Follow: Bernays tells us that one of the easiest ways to influence the thoughts and actions of large numbers of people is to first influence their leader. If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.

In fact, one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology is that the “group mind” does not “think”, rather, it acts according to impulses, habits and emotions. And when deciding on a certain course of action, its first impulse is to follow the example of a trusted leader.

Humans are, by nature a group species. Even when we are alone, we have a deep sense of group belonging. Whether they consciously know it or not, much of what people do is an effort to conform to the ideals of their chosen group so as to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging.

This exact method of influencing the leader and watching the people follow has been used extensively throughout the last few years. One notable instance that comes to mind is the horrendously inaccurate epidemiological models created by Neil Ferguson, which formed the basis for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown policies. Once Johnson was convinced of the need to lockdown and mask up, the people gladly followed.

2. Words Are Powerful: The Key To Influencing A Group Is The Clever Use Of Language: Certain words and phrases are associated with certain emotions, symbols and reactions. Bernays tell us that through the clever and careful use of language, one can manipulate the emotions of a group and thereby influence their perceptions and actions. By playing upon an old cliché, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.

The clever use of language has been employed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to great effect. An obvious example of this was when the definition of “vaccine” was changed to include injections utilizing experimental mRNA technology. You see, the word “vaccine” is associated in the public mind with a certain picture – that of a safe, proven medical intervention that is not only life-saving but absolutely necessary.

If governments had told people to go get their “gene therapies”, the vast majority of the public would likely question the motives behind such a campaign; they would feel extremely skeptical because the phrase “gene therapy” is not associated with the same images, emotions and feelings as “vaccine”.

The same goes for the word “pandemic”, the definition of which was also changed. The word “pandemic” is generally associated in the collective consciousness with fear, death, chaos and emergency (largely thanks to Hollywood and the myriad virus films it has released over the years).

3. Any Medium Of Communication Is Also A Medium For Propaganda: Any system of communication, whether phone, radio, print, or social media, is nothing more than a means of transmitting information. Bernays reminds us that any such means of communication is also a channel for propaganda. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda.

Bernays goes on to stress that a good propagandist must always keep abreast of new forms of communication, so that they may co-opt them as means of deliberate propaganda. Indeed, systems that most people would associate with freedom of speech and democracy are none other than means of circulating propaganda. Facebook fact-checkers, Big Tech censorship and YouTube’s Covid banners certainly fall into this category.

Other examples of this include the recent algorithm updates made by various search engines (including Google and DuckDuckGo) to penalize Russian websites. Although this should come as no surprise (Google has been engaging in this type of “shadow propaganda” for many years).

4. Reiterating The Same Idea Over And Over Creates Habits And Convictions: Although Bernays terms this a technique used by the “old propagandists”, he, nonetheless, recognizes its usefulness. It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction.

Repeating the same idea or the same “mantra” again and again is a form of neuro-linguistic programming aimed at instilling certain concepts or emotions into the subconscious mind. Indeed, people who are feeling sad or depressed are often advised to repeat to themselves an uplifting saying or affirmation.

There are many examples of this simple, yet effective, technique being used to great effect over the last few years. Think Q’s “trust the plan”, the globalist favourite, “build back better” or the incessant repetition of that twisted phrase, “trust the science”. Included in this category are the 24/7-in-your-face death statistics and case numbers, aimed at promoting the illusion of a pandemic.

There are more obvious examples of this as well, such as news anchors in different areas all reading from the exact same script.

5. Things Are Not Desired For Their Intrinsic Worth, But Rather For The Symbols That They Represent: After studying why people make certain purchasing decisions, Bernays observed that people often don’t desire something for its usefulness or value, but rather because it represents something else which they unconsciously crave. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.

Bernays gives the example of a man buying a car. From the outside, it may appear as if the man is buying the car because he needs a means of transport, but in actuality, he is buying it because he craves the elevated social status that comes with owning a motor vehicle.

This idea, too, applies to the events over the last few years. For example, masks are a symbol of compliance. Everyone knows they don’t work but they wear them because of their desire to “fit in”, and to be seen as an upstanding citizen who follows the rules. Covid-19 injections are also a symbol and many people choose to get them because they have a desire to avoid being called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “conspiracy theorist”.

6. One Can Manipulate Individual Actions By Creating Circumstances That Modify Group Customs: Lastly, Bernays tells us that if one wishes to manipulate the actions of an individual, the most effective way to do so is to create circumstances that engender the desired behavior. What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? […] He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars. The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom.

For example, why all of a sudden does everyone “stand with Ukraine”? According to Bernays, it’s not because there is a war going on and innocent people need our love and support, but rather because it is the new “group custom” to do so. The process of altering group customs begins from the top down. In every nation or social clique, there are leaders, public figures and influencers. Manipulating those with the most sway eventually filters down into the public mind. That is why when a celebrity decides to wear something extravagant on the red carpet, a whole new trend can arise overnight.

Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid saga and then the Russia-Ukraine war, the media were quick to circulate stories of celebs “catching Covid” and urging people to stay home, or public figures condemning Russian actions and calling for stricter sanctions (which just so happened to hurt the West more than they hurt Russia).

The Propaganda Playbook: The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology. Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, "Propaganda."

That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis."

- https://off-guardian.org/

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Freely download "Propaganda", by Edward L. Bernays, here:

- https://www.newbraveworld.org/

"More Focused Than Ever At 60!"

"More Focused Than Ever At 60!"

by Tom Purcell

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” Those are the clever words of British humorist Terry Pratchett, who couldn’t have explained the aging process more succinctly. I know his words are true because I turned 60 this week. It’s a heck of a thing to have burned through six decades already. If I’d known 60 years would go by so fast, I would have taken worse care of myself.

Time is a humbling thing. I know now my greatest accomplishment - aside from an uncanny ability to catch grapes in my mouth no matter how far or high my friends throw them - was becoming a bouncer at the legendary Rathskeller pub at Penn State.

When I was half this age, I was certain I knew everything. I was cocky and brash and incredibly wrong. Now, I realize I know very little, but the things I do know, I know well.

I know that fame is a waste of time - and excess wealth, too - as they bring with them more problems than either are worth.

You don’t who your friends really are until your money is gone. And if you ever do anything stupid as a famous person, social media will broadcast it all over the world.

Several studies have been done on the subject of happiness. Having just enough money to save a little for a rainy day and go out with the love of your life a few times a month is all the money you really need.

It’s friends and loved ones that bring us real wealth. It’s the laughter we can only enjoy with our closest friends - people we know we can count on no matter how difficult our lot becomes.

It’s the love we enjoy from our closest family members, friends, and lifelong spouses and partners - the people we attend weddings, holiday events and special occasions with - all of our most memorable experiences.

And it’s not just people. Why I waited until the age of 59 to get another dog - last having one as a child so many years ago - is possibly the most bone-headed decision I ever made. Somebody said God removed the wings from pets like my best buddy Thurber, so that nobody would know they are angels. This guy makes me laugh out loud every single day - something I didn’t realize I was failing to do until he entered my life.

When we are young, we dream of big houses, and we hope to impress total strangers. As we grow older and wiser, we realize none of that matters. We realize that time is going by way too fast and that every single moment is precious.

I was sick as a dog with a nasty flu weeks ago and, brought to my knees, I went through a paradigm shift. I decided I never want to waste another healthy moment. I started eating healthier than ever. I exercise daily. I go for walks with Thurber. I turn in at a decent hour, so I wake refreshed at 5:40 every morning ready to dive into the new day.

All I want to do now is write well, read great literature and learn how to love better, give back more, laugh harder and spend every moment with people I love as though it were the last moment I had to live. Maybe it’s time to alter Pratchett’s clever quote: “Inside every old person is a wiser person trying to make great things happen with whatever God-given time he has left!”

- https://www.cagle.com/

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"More focused at 60?" Well I'm 70 and doing alright, thank you, lol

First time ever you see me in 14 years of blogging, at 65 in that pic. 

Yeah, doing ok... and intend to keep it that way, too...

- CP

"How It Really Is"

“'Disinformation' is Just a Boot in Your Face"

“'Disinformation' is Just a Boot in Your Face"

by Jim Kunstler

"Since Elon Musk pounced on Twitter, are you not amazed to see just how dedicated to the suppression of speech the Left is? Censorship is the Left’s very spark-of-life. Everything they stand for is so false and lawless that truth magnetically repels them. Now, this may surprise you, but truth and reality are joined at the hip, so when you work hard to suppress one, you are also stomping the face of the other. “Disinformation” just means anything that the Left doesn’t want you to say out loud.

The truth is that everything the Left stands for these days is some kind of a hustle - which is the cheap street version of a racket, meaning an effort to extract something of value from you dishonestly. It’s the only way they know how to operate. It necessarily and chiefly depends on the deployment of lies, which, by definition are propositions at odds with reality. The more they traffic in lies, the further they must distance themselves from reality and try to coerce you to go along with evermore absurdity: mostly peaceful riots… men-with-ovaries… free and fair elections… insurrection… conspiracy theories… Lia Thomas in the fast lane… safe and effective vaccines… Believe it or else!

The Left ends up at war with reality. That adds up to a bad business model for running a society, and the results are now plain to see. What in the USA is not failing these days? Our Potemkin economy of nail parlors, porn sites, pizza huts, casinos, drugs, and helicopter money? Our reckless relations with other countries? Public and higher education? Medicine? Financial markets? The sputtering engine of government under a phantom president? It’s all sinking into chaos and incoherence. For now, food just costs more than ever; wait until it’s simply unavailable. Nobody will care about anything else after that.

All this failure requires cover stories, narratives. Russia did it! Covid-19 did it! White supremacists did it! Trump did it! Narrative failure would equal failure of the Left altogether, so the Left requires the sturdiest possible apparatus for suppressing counter-narratives that lean in the direction of reality, its enemy. The Left found that apparatus in social media, the new vehicle for political debate, especially Twitter, which was so easily, blatantly, and dishonestly manipulated backstage by mysterious code ninjas. Twitter enjoys subsidy relations with government that incline it to do the government’s bidding. In effect, the government enlisted Twitter to undermine and over-ride American’s first amendment protections, by proxy.

Now we have the Disinformation Governance Board to be run by a TikTok musical comedy star, Nina Jankowicz, an instant laughingstock, since retailing disinformation has been her main occupation in the scant years she’s been on the Deep State scene. Ms. Jankowicz is a notorious RussiaGate hoaxer and psy-op agent in the October 2020 emergence of Hunter Biden’s laptop. She has zero credibility as anything but a professional falsifier. Her Disinfo Governance Board has no authority to regulate anything. It’s just a lame charade that can only draw more attention to the Left’s hatred of truth and reality. The Left pretends that free speech is a threat to civilization because, as usual, they are projecting psychologically. Their world is a mirror. In fact, the Left is a threat to civilization.

Behind all this is the growing panic in the Left that they are culpable for an enormous raft of crimes committed against their own country, and will eventually end up in court, in prison, or worse. Mr. Durham is just the leading edge of what will eventually be a heavy blade of judgment falling down on their necks. He’s busy sorting out the “Russia collusion” flimflam that turned into a coup to oust Mr. Trump, but that is only the beginning. In November, the Democrats will lose control of Congress and its oversight powers of agency operations, and in 2023 there will be inquiries galore into the neo-Jacobin craziness imposed on our country by the folks behind “Joe Biden.”

That includes such dicey matters as the several years malevolent mismanagement of Covid-19, which looks more and more like a deliberate effort to kill a large number of citizens, and then moving along to the behind-the-scenes official support for those 2020BLM/Antifa riots, the ballot shenanigans around the last presidential election, the colossal failure to enforce border security (featuring Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis), the Biden Regime’s conduct in provoking and prolonging the war between Russia and Ukraine, and (not least) the overseas moneygrubbing of President Biden’s family, as documented in Hunter’s laptop. I’m sure I left a few things out.

If Mr. Biden is still on-the-scene in January next year, he’ll be the first president not only impeached but convicted and removed by the Senate. And if for some reason he avoids criminal prosecution for treason out of some pitiful need for the government to maintain official decorum before the rest of the world, his brothers and his degenerate son may not be so lucky."

- https://kunstler.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/2/22: "Important Updates: Gold, Silver, Crude, Slammed"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/2/22:

"Important Updates: Gold, Silver, Crude, Slammed"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! What's Next? - This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 5/2/22:

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! 

What's Next? - This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog we are at Aldi and are seeing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

"Economic Market Snapshot PM 5/2/22"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"Economic Market Snapshot 5/2/22"

Updated as available.

MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

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CNN Market Data:

- http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- http://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 5/2/22

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

April 29th to May 2nd

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah...

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And now... The End Game...

Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

Full screen recommended.

Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

"This Spadecaller Video ® features Leonard Cohen's 

music, "Anthem", and the artwork of Matthew Schwartz."

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTRGIj21oB-9lHHk0-5tDSw

"We Are Like Nature: The Mirroring World"

"We Are Like Nature: The Mirroring World"

by The DailyOM

"As humans, our lives are completely intertwined with the cycles and rhythms of nature. Nature is a mirror, inspiring and teaching us, deepening our sense of belonging in the world. Wherever you look, you can see that our patterns and the patterns of the natural world are the same. You can find this resonance in every form, from molecules to plants and animals and to planets. We live our lives according to the same principles as the trees, the mountains, the clouds, and the birds.

We begin our lives in the womb, folded in on ourselves like the bud of a flower. We can see our whole lives in the mirror of this natural form. When we emerge from the womb, we slowly begin our unfolding, just as the flower begins to open its petals. At its prime, the flower draws many insects to it and also the eyes of appreciative humans. When the flower's petals begin to fade and its life cycle comes to an end, it ceases to hold itself upright and returns to the earth. Traditionally, we return to the earth, just as all plants and animals do. Like flowers, we leave behind seeds in the forms of children and other gifts only we could have given. They continue to unfold even after we are gone. Rebirth is encoded into our lives, and death is just one part of the cycle.

Look around you, and you will find connection and insight. Notice how your moods shift from one to another like the sky shifts from bright blue to turbulent grays. Your thoughts are like clouds, appearing, changing shape, passing through, and then disappearing without a trace. The rain cleanses the sky, just as an emotional release cleanses your mind. The sky itself is your eternal awareness, unchanging underneath all these permutations. Let it reflect back to you your own abiding perfection.

As you walk through the world, find your own metaphors for connectedness in nature. Flesh them out fully and follow them as they lead you through the mystery and intelligence of life."

- http://dailyom.com/