Bill Bonner, "Model Lives Matter"

"Model Lives Matter"

Statistically speaking, 

the fed's Inflation Reduction Act is 93.281% balderdash.

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "We came back to Ireland last night, flying from Dulles directly to Dublin. Dulles Airport was strangely quiet… as if everyone knew it was about to be bombed by terrorists – everyone but us. But no bomb went off. Instead, it was much like the old days. Few people wore masks. There were no long delays. The Homeland Security crew were even polite. A fluke? A trend? We don’t know.

Yesterday, we looked at the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act, IRA. What the heck is it? An attempt to control the world’s temperature? An effort to reduce deficits and inflation? Is it meant to save lives… increase GDP… boost jobs? Or is it just another Democratic Party giveaway to favored groups and artful lobbyists?

Robbery, Flimflam and Jackassery: Yahoo!News focused on the environmental angle: "Climate change bill would cut U.S. air pollution deaths by up to 3,900 per year, study finds." "The budget reconciliation bill that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., agreed to with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could save up to 3,900 lives per year by 2030, thanks to reduced air pollution, according to a new study from the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. The bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), contains $369 billion in spending to address climate change over 10 years, in addition to other provisions, including closing tax loopholes and holding down the rate of increase in the cost of prescription medication."

But wait, there’s more…. “The IRA provisions could also generate enormous public health and jobs benefits,” the report states. In addition to preventing between 3,700 and 3,900 premature deaths from air pollution in 2030, Energy Innovation found it would lead to a net increase of up to 1.5 million jobs in 2030 and increase the United States' gross domestic product by 0.84% to 0.88% in 2030."

What kind of morons do they take us for? This grab bag of boondoggles will increase US GDP by 0.84% eight years from now? It will save 3,700 to 3,900 lives? Really? The technocratic precision is breathtakingly absurd. There is no way on Earth to predict the effect of this collection of robbery, flimflam and jackassery on our $24 trillion economy… 8 years in the future. And to 2 decimal points! If passed, it will be doctored up, interpreted… bent and persuaded to suit the people in control of it. And then… it will run into the real world. Like an invasion of Russia… no Great Campaign ever survives the initial shock.

Politically Correct Hypotheticals: The number of saved lives, too, is screaming claptrap. There again, the nonsense mounts on stilts… with a projection that the “low” estimate for Black lives saved is 0.14%. The ‘high’ estimate is 0.14%. And yet the ‘moderate’ estimate is 0.13%. (We’re as puzzled as you are. But if the math is curious, at least the numbers are politically correct; 0.02% more Black lives are saved than White lives!)

How can democracy function with such gobbledygook dressed up like ‘science?’ What’s a poor voter to think? How can he think at all? But no matter. Here come the heavies… five former treasury secretaries… throwing their weight behind the IRA. Business Insider: The former treasury secretaries backing the proposal are:

• Larry Summers, who served under President Bill Clinton

• Robert Rubin, who served under President Bill Clinton

• Hank Paulson, who served under President George W. Bush

• Tim Geithner, who served under President Barack Obama

• Jacob Lew, who served under President Barack Obama

That does it for us. If they’re for it, we’re agin’ it. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, looked at the tax angle, renaming the bill “The Schumer-Manchin Tax Increase on Everyone.” The Journal says the bill will make Americans poorer. Of course, making people poorer is the effect (but not the intention) of almost all federal legislation. The feds take from the many (thus making them poorer) and give to the few (making them richer.) Result: most people are poorer. All the other promises, projections and estimates for the IRA will fail. Poverty will triumph.

Joel’s Note: Digging a little deeper into the Energy Innovation “report” (it’s only 8 pages; you can review it here), we discover some more startlingly precise assertions. For instance, did you know that reduced air pollution in the modeled scenarios – that is, harmful particulate matter in the planet’s atmosphere… 8 years from now – could lead to “99,000 to 100,000 avoided asthma attacks, and 405,000 to 417,000 avoided lost workdays.”

Hmm… surely “workdays” are good for an economy, right? And what kind of sadistic nut is pro asthma attacks? Ah, but what constitutes a “workday,” you wonder? Performed by who and at what cost? Public or private? Worthwhile or not? Buggy whip maker or rocket scientist? Prostitute or politician? Dear reader, if you have to ask, it’s probably because you’re one of those America-hating asthma attack lovers!

As for the hypothetical “lives saved,” the typically indolent press crudely rounded the numbers off. The Energy Innovation team were far more exacting in their pretense to knowledge. Indeed, when it comes to “avoided premature mortalities in the year 2030,” the IRA will save between 3,731 (on the low end) and 3,894 souls (on the high end).

And yes, before you ask, all possible variables have been taken into account, including the known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Why, at a mere $189,487,179.487 per “avoided premature mortality,” being against the IRA is practically tantamount to being against democracy itself. For shame!"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Warning: The Debt Market Is Unstable, Look For Central Banks To Inflate Even More"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/4/22:

"Warning: The Debt Market Is Unstable, 

Look For Central Banks To Inflate Even More"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Summer Slow Down of 2022 - Experts Say Inflation Could Hit 18%"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 8/4/22:

"Summer Slow Down of 2022 - 

Experts Say Inflation Could Hit 18%"

"There’s so much going on around the world. It doesn’t matter what kind of industry you’re in because everything is slowing down right now. People are spending less money on gasoline because they’re not traveling. The restaurants are slow and people are not spending the money they did even two years ago."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Very Stressful Shopping Trip To Kroger! Massive Price Increases!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 8/4/22:

"A Very Stressful Shopping Trip To Kroger! 

Massive Price Increases!"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing 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!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide As Food Distribution Systems Break Down"

Full screen recommended.

"Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide 

As Food Distribution Systems Break Down"

by Epic Economist

"We’re starting to see store shelves emptying at a stunning pace once again, and millions of Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated because they can’t get their hands on needed supplies. Many people blame “hoarders” for the current mess, but the truth is that this problem is much more complicated than it seems. All of a sudden, our grocery stores are being flooded with unexpected traffic, and many people are buying far more than usual in anticipation of coming shortages. However, our food distribution systems were not designed to handle this sort of demand surge, and things are really starting to get crazy out there.

With vast stretches of the food industry facing shortages, normal economic activity has come to a standstill, and it is going to become increasingly difficult for our warehouses to meet the demand that grocery stores are putting on them. At the same time, our farmers are facing critical problems of their own. A recent CNBC report reveals that “a blistering heat wave has stunted crop growth in the Midwest. Now, the U.S. food supply chain is dealing with another blow to a vulnerable farm economy, sending crop and livestock prices to soar and raising concerns about worsening labor shortages.”

Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt told reporter Emma Newburger that “we’ve stopped saying it can’t get worse”, and he says that the ongoing food system breakdown looks like it could be “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Of course, this comes at a time when the economy is entering another historic downturn and unemployment rates are ticking back up. Without any money coming in, many people are already turning to alternative sources of help in order to feed themselves and their families.

With inflation at a 40-year high, many are looking for aid for the first time and food banks are already struggling to meet demand. A Fox News report uncovered that hundreds of families were lined up in cars outside St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, last week.

The food bank said its main distribution center provided packages to 4,271 families during the third week in June. That number marks a nearly 80% increase over the same week in 2021. Distribution by California's Alameda County Community Food Bank has also risen this summer and Texas' Houston Food Bank now gives out an average of 610,000 pounds. In Southern California, the Los Angeles bank gave away around 30 million pounds of food during the first three months of this year, far more than the 22 million pounds passed out during the first quarter of 2020. And it is also being reported that the number of people coming for free meals on Skid Row in Los Angeles has tripled since the same time last year.

Sadly, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what we will see in the months ahead. Food is only going to get more expensive from here on out, and supply chain disruptions are only going to make our food systems more vulnerable.

An Urban Institute survey found that 1 in 6 adults relied on charitable food, a share that was still above pre-pandemic levels. Low-income households feel rising prices the most because they spend a far greater share of their income on necessities. Food alone makes up nearly a third of their budget, on average.

Desperate people have been running to the grocery stores to stock up on essential supplies only to find that purchasing limits are being put back in place. A new “panic buying” wave is emerging on the horizon, and it is probably only a matter of time before many stores start running out of food staples. We have reached a major turning point in our history, and things are only going to get crazier."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"IRS Shakedown, They Plan On Taking Your Money; Economic Retaliation Coming; Rate Hikes Not Slowing"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/3/22:

"IRS Shakedown, They Plan On Taking Your Money;

 Economic Retaliation Coming; Rate Hikes Not Slowing"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "WW3 Just Entered the Next Phase"

Canadian Prepper, 8/3/22:

"WW3 Just Entered the Next Phase"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"

Full screen mode recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140828.html

The Universe

“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”

“Good on you,”

The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”

- www.tut.com

"Not Much Mental Distance..."

“A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing his ways. He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't afford to admit - no matter how often he's reminded of it - that every day of his life takes him farther and farther down a blind alley. Very few toads in this world are Prince Charmings in disguise. Most are simply toads, and they are going to stay that way. Toads don't make laws or change any basic structures, but one or two rooty insights can work powerful changes in the way they get through life. A toad who believes he got a raw deal before he even knew who was dealing will usually be sympathetic to the mean, vindictive ignorance that colors the Hell's Angels' view of humanity. There is not much mental distance between a feeling of having been screwed and the ethic of total retaliation, or at least the random revenge that comes with outraging the public decency.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

"Now We Know What It’s like To Live Among Lunatics"

"Now We Know What It’s like To Live Among Lunatics"

by Mark Oshinskie

"From 1965-71, CBS aired a sitcom entitled "Green Acres." The show’s protagonist, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was an NYC lawyer who bought a farm and, several years ahead of the zeitgeist, went back to the land. In Hooterville, his adopted domicile, Oliver wears a three-piece suit while he rides his tractor and is surrounded by hicks, hucksters and bumbling bureaucrats. The show portrays this naive romantic’s daily encounters with the loony locals and his ingenuous, Hungarian immigrant, incongruously glamorous, reluctant farm wife, Lisa, who’s also a very bad cook. Every interaction ends with Oliver exasperated by the ludicrous statements or conduct of those in his new sphere.

I remember this surrealistic show as having been quite funny. Seeing other people at wit’s end is often amusing. But living through Coronamania put me at wit’s end. I didn’t fear The Ro for one minute. Having developed, over time, some working knowledge of Biology, Systems Ecology and human health, and being skeptical about media and government, the viral threat seemed to me way overblown from Day 1.

I doubt I was ever infected, though one February, 2020 afternoon I felt a little funny, took a nap and thereafter had an otherwise unexplained dry cough for a week. At that time, I might have tested 40 cycle PCR positive for Covid. But then, so did tangerines.

Nor did I ever directly know anyone who died from Covid. Among the many hundreds of people I know, only five knew a purported Covid decedent; each ostensible victim was very old and/or very baseline unhealthy. This anecdotal evidence mirrored the obvious, and biologically unsurprising, statistical trend, which the media conveniently ignored. The public also lost sight of Covid’s demographically clear risk profile.

Not a single thing happened in March, 2020, or in the ensuing 28 months, to make me rethink my initial perception that the virus presented functionally zero risk to anyone healthy, under 70. Even the vast majority of the old, overweight or immuno-compromised were very likely to survive a virus that the media histrionically portrayed and that many, including Trump, wrongly considered “The Plague.”

It later became known - but was grossly underreported - that many of the ostensible Covid deaths were falsely attributed to Covid because of perverse CARES Act financial incentives to hospitals; that treatment protocols caused many deaths; and that inexpensive, alternative early treatments or self-care delivered far better outcomes than did the protocols that hospitals commonly applied.

From the outset, I foresaw high costs - economic, social and psychological - to shuttering society. I directly experienced some of those consequences: the boredom, the lost life experiences and lost savings, via federal spending-driven inflation. Many - especially younger - people I know suffered far more than I did. It was obvious that the purported public health benefits of locking down, masking, testing and taking much-hyped jabs wouldn’t justify these human costs. A February 2, 2022 Johns Hopkins study resolutely confirmed this hypothesis.

Yet, for me and others, the hardest part of the past 28 months has been being surrounded by so many people so deeply out of touch with reality. For 28 months, I’ve/we’ve felt like Oliver Wendell Douglas in Hooterville. Without the laugh track. We could discuss at length whether The Gods Must Be Crazy. But without question - and I’m not trying to be funny - we learned that many people around us are.

And badly misinformed to boot. So many people vastly overstated Coronavirus peril. Forty-one percent of Democrats thought that over 50% of the infected ended up in the hospital, while another 28 percent of Democrats put that figure between 20% and 49%. The real number was between 1%-5%. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats polled believed that 10% of those infected, died; many thought 30% of the infected, died. The real infection fatality rate was well under 1%. Another poll revealed that many Democrats - including some I knew - believed the virus had killed 10% of all Americans, i.e., 33 million people. Think briefly about what that would look like.

The misled also naively overrated human ability to stop viral transmission. And they knew nothing about the statistical chicanery applied to death tolls, case counts and vaxx outcomes. The shots’ benefits were egregiously oversold and the injections’ injuries have been systematically hidden. Emerging data show that the jabs raise, not lower, the risk of infection and death. Despite all of the prior hype and support for the shots - and mandates - the long-term “vaccine” safety picture may get very ugly.

I was vexed by such pervasive ignorance, fear, gullibility, dishonesty and hucksterism. It came, non-stop, from all directions: government, TV, newspapers, radio, the Net, Pharma, people in the street, neighbors, college students, employers, friends and family - though thankfully, with some notable exceptions, like my wife, two siblings, two in-laws, two cousins and the astute, though “uneducated” Mexican immigrants with whom I work. And unlike watching Green Acres, I couldn’t turn off the craziness around me after a half hour had passed. Soon after seeing the first wave of fearmongering, I blacked out all of the mainstream sources of (actual) misinformation. But I inevitably had to deal with or watch many irrationally fearful people.

Instead of the Green Acres’ characters’ amiable goofiness, the people to whom I expressed my Coronamania critique reacted with misplaced, oft-angry certainty that this was a terrible crisis that threatened everyone, that non-maskers caused it and non-vaxxers perpetuated it. Those with the least factual knowledge were the Covid interventions’ biggest backers.

As you did, I repeatedly heard people anxiously recite soundbites learned from the media, such as: “We’re all in this together!” “It’s a novel virus!” “We’re living through history!” “This is serious. My friend’s (87 year-old) father-in-law died from it!” “I’m following ‘CDC protocols’ to ‘flatten the curve’/’stop the spread!’” “If it only saves one life!”

“I won’t meet you for an outdoor dinner when you pass through my state because you’re from New Jersey and infections there are ‘spiking.’” (People loved that word; it sounded scientifically sophisticated, up-to-the-minute and scary). “Why should I listen to you? You’re not an MD!”

Later, dozens of people - including three MDs who expressly pulled rank - assured me that the shots were: “really good!”, “safe and effective,” “a technological marvel” and that “they’ll make this all go away,” that “everyone needed to take them” and that those who refused to inject were “selfish and endangered others.”

Etc. LOL. The derisive kind. Tens of millions hid at home and ate delivered food. They wore masks while walking or driving alone, even after taking the “vaxxes” in which they so strongly believed.

Day after day, week after week, month after month for 28 months, I heard people invoke the shibboleth, and parrot the mantra: “Pandemic!” Uttering this magic word was intended to justify any disruption of normal life, to excuse the failure to fulfill a wide range of personal responsibilities and to foreclose any reasonable discussion/dissent that might support the conclusion that the orchestrated, opportunistic overreaction to a respiratory virus was a complete, avoidable, government and media-made meltdown.

I saw all of the Pandemanium dogma as lies. Time has proven me right; statements that caused Medium.com to de-platform me have turned out to be undeniably true. After 18 months of Vaxx Fascism, hucksters like Fauci and Birx have finally admitted that the vaxxes don’t stop the spread. The White House now admits what I and many others said in March, 2020: widespread infection can’t be thwarted.

What will they admit next? Throughout the past 28 months, most people with whom I came into contact believed more strongly in the “experts” Corona falsehoods than they believed in anything else. It was pathetic and maddening.

Astoundingly, after all this time and all of the lockdown/mask/testing/jab failure, some of the brainwashed still cling to the notion that a respiratory virus that nearly everyone survives remains a serious threat, and that all should mask, test and boost up. Even those who have belatedly perceived the folly of these interventions won’t admit that their alarmism has been groundless, and extremely harmful.

Instead of enduring this epic episode of mass psychosis, I might have preferred that some natural disaster had hit my area. Of course, unlike Covid, a natural disaster would have killed vital people. I would have hated that. A natural disaster would also have disrupted communities and lives, and cost individuals and society a lot of resources. But even combining the strongest hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and forest fires ever to hit the US would have caused far less disruption than has the anthropogenic overreaction to an infection that most people experience as a cold.

At least the occurrence and effects of a heat wave/drought (as we are now having, and which impairs my efforts to grow food at my parched, formerly Green, Acres), an earthquake or a hurricane would have been objectively undeniable and unavoidable. I could have understood and shared other peoples’ grief and dread and respected their judgment. I could have exchanged spoken reason with them and not have been expected to validate panic and to go along with an ever-changing set of plainly ridiculous “mitigation” measures.

It would have made far more sense to do things like hand out food and water and rebuild flattened buildings than it did to test and trace. Who conceived and funded the 70 plus-billion-dollar testing debacle and the other CARES Act political plums? How many humans could have been fed and housed with the trillions wasted on “Covid Relief?”

In contrast to Coronamania, natural disaster damage would have would have been of limited geographic extent and duration. Instead of feeling Covid-based alienation from unhinged others, mutually experiencing a natural disaster would have inspired a sense of solidarity with my countrymen. (I grew up in a neighborhood that flooded most years; families riding rowboats down streets gushing mudwater). I’d have been far less pessimistic about our collective future than I’ve been for the past 28 months.

Since Day 1, the whole thing has felt to me like a PsyOp against both the fearful and the sane. Those who effected it broke a lot of people. But the Hootervillians couldn’t break Oliver Wendell Douglas. And the Coronamaniacs won’t break me."

- https://brownstone.org/articles/

The Daily "Near You?"

Palmyra, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"As Americans..."

''As Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?''

- Dave Barry

"We Are Living In The Worst Financial Crisis In The History Of The World"

Full screen recommended.

The Atlantis Report, 8/3/22:

"We Are Living In The Worst Financial Crisis In The History Of The World"

"Gerald Celente warns about the coming collapse, 

we are living in the worst financial crisis, geopolitical and societal crisis."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Real Estate is in a Recession - Brace for Layoffs"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 8/3/22"

"Real Estate is in a Recession - Brace for Layoffs"

"We are seeing more real estate listings than we have seen in the last 12 years. June is the month that everything turn in real estate. More people dropped the price of their homes in June than they did in the last 20 years. Real estate foreclosure starts are up 250% right now. Layoffs are happening now at a record pace."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Judge Napolitano, "Col. Douglas Macgregor: Ukraine-Russia Latest"

"Col. Douglas Macgregor: Ukraine-Russia Latest"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom,

"Russia strikes areas in northern Ukraine while

 Ukraine counterattacks in the south."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The US Cannot Realistically Defend Taiwan"

"The US Cannot Realistically Defend Taiwan"

by Chris Black

"Reanimated corpse Pelosi becomes highest ranked US official to visit Taiwan. Just like with the Ukraine-Russia situation, Taiwan is part of the Chinese empire for hundreds of years, its population is 99% ethnic Chinese, and, most importantly, the country is thousands of miles away from the US, which makes logistics in case of China invades quasi-impossible.

Basically, you cannot fight China on its own turf, short of using nuclear weapons. The Chinese army in 2022 is not the Chinese army in the nineties. Any military expert can tell you that the Chinese military is incapable of being used offensively. It is specifically designed to quickly repel a US attack on its soil or immediate surroundings.

So the US engaging China in the South China Sea means attacking them where they are the strongest. They will sink every aircraft carrier to the bottom of the ocean.

No, the U.S. cannot defend Taiwan. End your delusions please.

pic.twitter.com/UrEekVDuiM

- Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) August 2, 2022

Also, what the media doesn’t tell you is that a big chunk of the Taiwanese population wants reunification with China. The same thing is basically happening with Ukraine, with Eastern Ukraine being basically 90% ethnic Russian and looking to reunify with Russia.

These people are lying to you on purpose in the most absurd possible ways, telling you that Taiwan is somehow a separate country than China. I’m not really surprised that Nancy didn’t announce the Taiwan visit and then went anyway. Or at least, I shouldn’t be surprised.

This is a joke government. This administration and DEMs are worried about drag shows and pronouns with our military and then this drunk goes and screws around with China? We own this however, as anyone who voted for this drunk is crazy. We need term limits, stop congress trading in stocks, address post service lobbying, stop family lobbying “Hunter” etc.

Committee positions in Congress also need to be addressed; sorry, but Nancy can’t sit on that committee for 20 years and RINO’s and DEMs can’t be allowed to own committee appointments like they do today. None of this will really happen though, we can’t even get accurate fair elections. The people who run the USA regime have enjoyed world hegemony since 1989, which means they consider every corner of the globe within their “sphere of influence” (which is, hypocritically, a concept officially rejected by NATO).

Ukraine is to Russia as Mexico is to USA, and Puerto Rico is to USA as Taiwan is to China. USA wouldn’t like Russian or Chinese activity in Puerto Rico or Mexico for the same reason Russia/China don’t like USA right up in their sh*t. The difference is, the people who run the USA regime still think of themselves as global hegemon in a unipolar world.

Russia calling NATO’s bluff is an indication the people who run USA are losing their world hegemonic status and we are transitioning to a multipolar world. Nancy Pelosi is trying to assert that old unipolar energy and say “not so fast.” Bottom line, if they really wanted to send Nancy to invade, they could have just announced it. Instead, they refused to announce it – then sent her jet on a bizarre course, flying all the way around the Philippines for no reason. I’ve never seen anything remotely similar to this situation. These people just invent new confounding behavior patterns daily. No good. No good."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com

○

Related:

“'Those Who Play With Fire Eventually Get Burned',

 Xi Tells Biden On Taiwan"

"We Were Specifically Warned About This Coming War 

With China All The Way Back In The 1990s"

Bill Bonner, "A Phony Façade"

"A Phony Façade"

Amid soaring debt and falling income, 

the feds propose a $739 billion dollar lie.

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "With 100 million Americans under heat advisory, President Biden promises executive action." ~ A headline at Deseret News.

We’ve been following what we believe is the crack-up of American family finance. Real wages are falling. Mortgage rates are rising. House prices are beginning to go down. The NY Fed Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit adds detail: "Household Debt Rises to $16.15 Trillion Amid Growth in Housing and Non-Housing Balances." "Mortgage balances - the largest component of household debt - climbed $207 billion and stood at $11.39 trillion as of June 30. Credit card balances saw their largest year-over-year percentage increase in more than twenty years, while aggregate limits on cards marked their largest increase in over ten years."

And here’s the latest from UPI: "Job openings plunge in June to lowest level since 2021." "The biggest drop in available jobs was in retail with 343,000 fewer openings in June. Larger companies also offered fewer jobs, while the number of jobs offered by smaller employers went up."

Unable to refinance at lower and lower rates… Unable to get a ‘cash-out’ mortgage loan… Unable to earn enough to keep up with inflation…how does a family keep its head above water? It cuts back on spending. Which is why Walmart and other retailers are reporting fewer sales… and rising inventories. And it’s why the US economy is in recession.

Fantasies and Foolishness: Normally, the Fed might toss out some life preservers – in the form of lower interest rates. But not his time. The Fed is trapped. It is ‘inflate or die.’ And for now, the Fed will let businesses and households die. Meanwhile, it’s been a hot summer. People are calling on the president to take action.

What action can an executive take? Can he command the wind to give us a gentle breeze? Can he order the clouds to shade us from the sun? No? We didn’t think so. But maybe he can reduce inflation?

Reading the news is like wading into a swamp. You don’t know what’s under the surface. And soon you are up to your neck in fantasies and foolishness… with deadly snakes nipping at your fingers. The cause, we believe, is a cynical collusion between government, academics and the media. One makes news. The others egg it on… and lie about it to the masses.

And so it came to pass last week, the Democratic Establishment unveiled legislation supposedly designed to help “hard working American families” and advertised as the “Inflation Reduction Act.” We admire bald-faced lying as much as anyone. If we could get away with it, we’d probably do it too.

Still, it is shocking how brazenly dishonest the feds can be. The deal struck between Senators Manchin and Schumer could be honestly described in many different ways. It is a pot-pourri of graft, corruption, giveaways, bribes, waste… counterproductive tax increases… green energy boondoggles… subsidies to pill poppers… a few billion here… and a few billion there…all $739 billion dollars worth!

Potemkin Production: There must be hundreds of possible ways to describe it fairly. But “inflation reduction” is not one of them. Nor will the bill help the typical household, add jobs, save lives, reduce deficits (by 2027!) or increase GDP, as supporters allege.

Prices are determined by balancing the supply of money (demand) against the goods and services it is meant to buy (supply). When government uses money for jackass purposes, it reduces supply. Naturally, prices rise. Richard Vigilante explains: "Inflation is 'always and everywhere' a result of the government constricting and displacing the real economy with its Potemkin version of phony production, phony work, and the phony money they pay for it."

Second, subsidizing ‘green’ power, is inherently inflationary. Green power is more expensive (otherwise, it wouldn’t need subsidies). More costly energy leads to higher prices for just about everything else. Says Vigilante: "The energy will appear affordable only because it will be paid for twice, once by taxpayers and once by consumers."

Of course, that is the discreet charm of the ruling class. It gets to lie, cheat, and steal without ever having to say it’s sorry. But the glory of the IRA is that it manages to pack so much mendacity into a single piece of legislation. Will the bill reduce inflation? No. Increase GDP? Not a chance. Reduce deficits? Almost certainly not. Will it add jobs? Not in a meaningful way. (You can always hire people to dig ditches and fill them up again.) Will it save lives? More likely, it will cost lives. For all the ‘pollution’ caused by the industrial age, life expectancies have INCREASED from under 40 years to over 80 years. Raising the cost of energy will make people poorer and probably reduce life spans too."

Joel’s Note: BPR’s resident macro analyst, Mr. Dan Denning, sent on this handy chart yesterday afternoon, depicting the rising total debt balance for American households. Take a look…

Among the contributors to the rising debt levels were, mortgage balances, up $207 billion during Q2, 2022; credit card balances, up $46 billion since the first quarter; and auto loan balances, up $33 billion in Q2. “Other” balances - which include retail cards and other consumer loans, were up $25 billion. Meanwhile, outstanding student loans stand at a whopping $1.59 trillion. As you can see, when it comes to the bedrock of America’s economic woes, it’s debt, debt and more debt… all the way down."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"The Very, Very, Very, Last Time..."

We're simply incapable of not provoking Russia and China, aren't we?

The degree of absolute incompetence and stupidity is incomprehensible...

And all we ever get is this...

And yet, despite it all, despite knowing better, we still hope...

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”

- Inga Muscio

"A Matter Of Life And Death: Tens Of Millions Of Americans Will Be Without Medicine Once Trade With China Stops"

"A Matter Of Life And Death: Tens Of Millions Of Americans

 Will Be Without Medicine Once Trade With China Stops"

by Michael Snyder

"If you are against a war with China, you need to make your voice heard while you still can. Because once the bullets start flying, it will be too late. Once a war with China starts, our current standard of living won’t just be interrupted. The truth is that our current standard of living would end. There are thousands upon thousands of products that we currently get from China that would very quickly disappear from store shelves. They simply would not be available any longer. And Taiwan produces more of our microchips than anyone else in the world by a very wide margin. When the microchips stop flowing our whole economy will come to a crashing halt. So the stakes are incredibly high, and most people don’t seem to realize this.

Nancy Pelosi knew that her visit to Taiwan would absolutely enrage the Chinese, but she did it anyway…"Pelosi and the rest of her delegation disembarked from a U.S. Air Force transport plane at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei after the nighttime landing on a flight from Malaysia to begin a visit that risks pushing U.S.-Chinese relations to a new low. They were greeted by Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, and Sandra Oudkirk, the top U.S. representative in Taiwan.

Her arrival prompted a furious response from China at a time when international tensions already are elevated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never renounced using force to bring it under its control. The United States warned China against using the visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan."

China is warning that there will be a military response, and the whole world is waiting to see what that will be. If the Chinese don’t do anything more than they have already done, it will look like a big victory for Nancy Pelosi and the United States. There is no way that Xi Jinping is going to allow that to happen, and what happens next could change everything.

It is being reported that Chinese forces are gathering near the coast for a potential invasion, but I don’t think that China will launch a full-blown invasion of Taiwan quite yet. Instead, I think that it is far more likely that China could grab a couple of the small islands right off the Chinese coast that currently belong to Taiwan. If that happens, I believe that the Biden administration would feel compelled to respond very forcefully. Of course if both sides keep raising the stakes it could escalate into a full-blown war in the Pacific very rapidly. And once a conflict begins, our trading relationship with China will halt. Are you prepared for that?

Needless to say, this would hurt us very badly in countless ways. For example, very little of our medicine is actually made here in the United States, and that is an enormous problem.

According to a statement posted on the official website of U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher earlier this year, 80 percent of the drugs that Americans use come from overseas, and China is the largest supplier…“The Chinese Communist Party has threatened to withhold lifesaving drugs from the U.S. once and we’d be crazy to think they won’t attempt to do so again,” said Rep. Gallagher. “Congress needs an aggressive plan to protect our critical pharmaceutical supply chains and end our reliance on China. This is a national security imperative and to many Americans, a matter of life and death.”

“The United States must end our reliance on China for lifesaving drugs and critical medical equipment,” Stefanik said. “We have become far too dependent on China’s supply chain, and their malign regime represents too great a threat to our national security for us to be at their mercy. I am proud to sponsor this legislation to equip our domestic pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers to be able to efficiently produce these items here in the United States. Through this effort, Americans can have better peace of mind regarding who they rely on for their own personal health needs,” said Conference Chair Elise Stefanik.

“Eighty percent of the drugs that Americans depend on come from overseas,” said Rep. Bill Posey. “China, whose pharmaceuticals have been subject to numerous recalls, is the largest manufacturer. As a result of this reliance, the U.S. has not produced basic medicines like in the case of penicillin since 2004.”

Are the pills that you take every day made in China? You might want to check. And once war with China starts our supply of antibiotics will also dry up very, very rapidly…"Right now, the U.S. has virtually no capacity to manufacture antibiotics. That’s because China currently controls roughly 90% of the global supply of inputs needed to make the generic antibiotics that treat bronchitis, pneumonia, pediatric ear infections, and life-threatening conditions such as sepsis.

At the peak of last year’s COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., these generic antibiotics -including azithromycin - were urgently needed to treat secondary bacterial infections. However, the U.S. faced a potential shortage, since the key materials for azithromycin and other drugs are supplied by China."

We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on one of our primary global rivals. All of the experts could see a scenario like this coming, but nothing was ever done. Two years ago, there was a major article about this in the New York Times…“If China shut the door on exports of core components to make our medicines, within months our pharmacy shelves would become bare and our health care system would cease to function,” said Rosemary Gibson, a senior adviser with the Hastings Center and an author of “China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.”

Read that quote again. If this thing with Taiwan gets out of control and we go to war, our health care system “would cease to function” for the duration of such a conflict. So what would we do then? Does anyone out there have an answer for that?

If people can’t get their pills, many of them will go absolutely insane. Never has there been a population that is more dependent on pharmaceutical drugs than we are…"Almost 70 percent of Americans take at least one prescription medication, and more than half take at least two, according to a new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic. The most common prescriptions are for antibiotics, antidepressants and opioid painkillers. One-fifth of Americans are taking five or more prescription drugs, CBS Atlanta reports."

As I have been warning for years, a full-blown war with China would be absolutely unthinkable. But our leaders are provoking one anyway. I wish that I had the words to express what I am feeling. We are so close to a truly cataclysmic conflict, and if it happens it will be far more horrifying than any Hollywood movie studio could ever imagine."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

○

Related:

"20+ PLA Jets Cross Median Line Over Taiwan Strait 

As Chinese Drills Encircle Island"

"China Summons US Ambassador Overnight,

 Says Washington 'Must Pay The Price'"

"Strange Prices At Dollar General! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 8/3/22:

"Strange Prices At Dollar General! This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog we are at Dollar General, and are noticing 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!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Watch For A Debt Market MELTDOWN While 'The Government' Gives BILLIONS To Corporations"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/3/22:

"Watch For A Debt Market MELTDOWN While 

'The Government' Gives BILLIONS To Corporations"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Circus – A Chicken – And The Human Spirit"

"The Circus – A Chicken – And The Human Spirit"

by Ray Jason

"For several years I have been haunted by a simple photograph that I saw only one time. The image itself is not complicated, and yet its deeper meaning has eluded me and taunted me – like a riddle inside a dream.

In the photo we see a few children waiting in line at the ticket booth of a traveling circus. But instead of paying with money, each of the youngsters is offering something of real value. One has a basket of eggs, another a loaf of bread, and the third child is holding a live chicken. The reason these kids are not buying their tickets with cash, is because they are trapped in the hyperinflation nightmare of Weimar Germany in the 1930s. We have all seen the black and white pictures of fathers pushing wheelbarrows full of Deutchmarks to the store with the hopes of feeding their families.

I just spent many hours on various search engines trying to locate that circus photo, but I failed. However, is it not the writer’s task to paint a word picture as vividly as real life? So here is what I saw in that sepia-frozen moment in time.

A Big Top Amid The Ruins: The joy on the faces of the children is almost beatific as they wait their turn to present their offering like the Magi of old. From the benevolent smile of the woman in the booth, I suspect that she accepted every item – no matter how humble. In a matter of minutes they would be inside the mighty tent with joy swelling within them as the Ringmaster made his entrance. For two sublime hours they could escape the trauma of daily lives shattered by the decrees of far away gray old men, who would never have to share their suffering.

The performers and their audience were bound together under the Big Top in a sort of dilapidated symphony to the Human Spirit. The tattered circus -barely scraping by from town to town, and the common folk who did their best to support them, refused to lose faith in the dream of a brighter tomorrow. After all, if the men on the flying trapeze would risk their lives for a common, backyard chicken then hope must not be extinguished.

The Circus Of Today: In the 1930s a circus would have been one of the highlights of the year for an ordinary family. Today a young person is bombarded with a huge array of distractions disguised as attractions. Sitting together on the hardwood benches beneath the Big Top was a bonding experience. But slouching around in the living room, with everyone fixated on their own Hypno-screens, isolates people.

The children in the old photo had real life skills. They could raise the chicken and fetch the eggs and bake the bread. What can their modern counterparts do? Tweet and twerk? However, what is even more disturbing about these vapid, meaningless substitutes for real living, is their implication for human flourishing. The designers of these devices know that they are “control devices.” They are deliberately addictive. They consume their consumers. They have become almost the only source of information. And so, the people who control the messaging on the screen, create the dominant perceptions.

These are not good people. I call them our Malignant Overlords, because they are not just content with obscene wealth and immense power. Instead, their sense of superiority and entitlement is so psychotic that they believe that they should manage every detail of the average persons life.The plans that they have for our futures are beyond grim. The best simple description of it is a High-Tech Neo-Feudalism.

The Elites will waddle about in luxury in their gated and guarded communities, while the rest of us will barely scrape by. Meat will become a rare treat and our normal “food” will be goo made from insects or lab grown Frankenfood. Current middle class pleasures like owning a house or car or taking an overseas vacation, will become distant memories. The surveillance grid will become almost inescapable with kitchen appliances monitoring and reporting our behavior. Wouldn’t want to exceed one’s carbon footprint.

Cash will be banned and every electronic transaction will be logged and evaluated. Enemies of the State will see their bank accounts vaporized. All will fear Big Brother. Or will it soon be Big TransBro?

These predictions are not outlandish conspiracy emissions. Their plans can easily be found with a little online research. White papers from The World Economic Forum, the United Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation are great examples of this.At mid-year of 2022, it seems obvious that they have now transitioned from beta-testing to actual implementation of their tyrannical game plan.

Food shortages and supply chain disruptions are rampant all around the globe. Celebrities are doing slick commercials raving about the joys of insect protein. Gasoline prices are making driving a luxury that will soon be affordable for far fewer people.

Worldwide inflation is driving up food prices leading to mass famine. The “people on TV” are talking about digital currencies as though it is already a done deal. The media is full of stories about the benefits of living in tiny dwellings. The World Health Organization is trying to seize the right to decree when any human must “get their next shot.”

These are their near-term plans. Their long-range desires are even more despicable. Since robots and Artificial Intelligence will make most human beings “surplus to demand” or no longer necessary. The population will be radically reduced. The Malignant Overlords will claim that this is to Save the Planet. In actuality, it is to save the planet for themselves. That way they will no longer have to share the beautiful locations with the riff-raff. The best spots will be their private Club Med. Thinking of it as their personal Club Earth is probably an accurate image. The few humans that they will allow to continue will be implanted with micro-chips that will control them and transform them into docile, obedient cyborgs.

The Circus Of The Future: Sometime in the not too distant future, when the whole world seems hopelessly digitized and sanitized and homogenized, a rumor might circulate about a strange troupe of performers that have been hiding out in the Forbidden Forest beyond the reach of the security drones. That same rumor mentions that on the next full moon they will perform an old-style circus on the edge of the forest for all who would dare to attend.

They will not accept digital currency for their performance, but instead they request that the audience members bring “something useful.” And so I am reminded of the Weimar Children, who long ago entered the magical Big Top, in exchange for some eggs, some bread and a chicken. Since I am a Sea Gypsy, I will bring a freshly-speared fish."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

For more of Ray’s work please visit The Sea Gypsy Philosopher

○

Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.

Musical Interlude: Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

Full screen recommended.

Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

2002, "Land of Forever"

2002, "Land of Forever"

"A Look to the Heavens

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

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

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

"You May Know..."

"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law - men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims - then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

- Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”

"15 Signs That A Day Of Reckoning Has Arrived For The U.S. Auto Industry"

Full screen recommended.

"15 Signs That A Day Of Reckoning 

Has Arrived For The U.S. Auto Industry"

by Epic Economist

"Over the past decade, the U.S. auto industry has significantly boosted sales by pushing people to take on auto loans they cannot actually afford. That's been particularly true for auto loans made to consumers with subprime credit. In recent years, these loans have been accounting for an increasingly larger percentage of the market. But when you make loans to people that should not be getting them, at some point, a lot of those loans are going to start to go bad, and that is exactly what is happening now. At the same time, automakers and dealers are starting to panic as sales have begun to fall and production continues to be stalled by an ongoing shortage of semiconductors, raw materials, and workers. If you remember the last recession, then you probably recall how horrible things became for the auto sector. Now that we're entering another downturn, conditions are set to be even worse. Back in the old days, the auto industry was very resilient due to the economic strength of average U.S. consumers.

But some of the long-term economic trends that our leaders in Washington D.C. have consistently ignored led the American middle class to be systematically hollowed out, and now the purchasing power of the average American has been steadily dropping as a consequence of rampant inflation. We have become a nation of economic extremes. In the past two years, the number of millionaires exploded, and now we have more people in the top 5% of income earners than ever before. Meanwhile, poverty rates are rising at an alarming pace.

Many communities across the nation are witnessing a massive surge in the number of people living on the streets. In fact, as a recent Gallup survey showed, an all-time record high percentage of Americans is extremely worried about hunger and homelessness these days. "Over the past two years, an average of 67% of lower-income U.S. adults, up from 51% from 2019, have worried “a great deal” about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the country. Concern has also increased among middle- and upper-income Americans," the report highlights.

Those who are financially secure and have a cushion to fall back on may not be paying attention to the country's rising food and housing insecurity. But for those who are just scraping by from month to month, having enough food and a place to sleep at night are top priorities. As Gallup noted, "U.S. households at all income levels are expressing rising concern about soaring food inflation and declining housing affordability. That is the top worry among lower-income Americans, who are most likely to struggle to pay for adequate food and housing."

In addition to the woes of the auto industry, the retail industry has just gone through the worst wave of store closings in modern American history, pension funds have started melting down all over the nation, and stocks are experiencing a crash of epic proportions. Unfortunately, most people are not paying attention to the warning signs. These same things happened just before the devastating financial crisis of 2008. All evidence that a huge meltdown was about to occur where there. Many experts repeatedly argued that a collapse could be averted if action was taken sooner. But given that it was a slow-motion crash, most people dismissed the alerts and let their guards down. Then, the fall of 2008 arrived and so did a day of reckoning. For that reason, today, we compiled facts and statistics that expose the decline of the U.S. auto industry."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/