Tuesday, August 30, 2022

"Is Someone Trying To Tell Us Something? We Are Being Hit By Unprecedented Drought And Unprecedented Flooding At The Same Time"

"Is Someone Trying To Tell Us Something? We Are Being Hit By
 Unprecedented Drought And Unprecedented Flooding At The Same Time"
by Michael Snyder

"We have never seen anything like this before. There are some parts of the globe that are being absolutely devastated by endless drought, and there are other parts of the globe that are being absolutely devastated by relentless flooding. So if you happen to live some place where weather patterns are still behaving normally, you should consider yourself to be incredibly blessed. In all my years, I have never seen extreme conditions in so many areas of the world simultaneously. This is a major red flag, but unfortunately the vast majority of the general population is still not paying attention.

Over the past few months, I have written article after article about the droughts that we are currently witnessing all over the planet. Right now, Europe is experiencing the worst drought that it has gone through in at least 500 years, and the rivers are getting so low that “hunger stones” are now being revealed for the first time in centuries…"On this front, too, Europe’s rivers are turning up bleak omens - the receding waters in parts of central Europe have revealed old “hunger stones,” markers placed along riverbeds that locals centuries prior left as guides to earlier droughts. One stone that emerged out of the Elbe read: “When this goes under, life will become more colorful again.”

Here in the United States, the western half of the nation is suffering through the worst multi-year megadrought that the region has experienced in 1,200 years, and this is causing all sorts of very serious problems…"Nearly three-quarters of California is in either extreme or exceptional drought, considered worse than severe, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. It’s so bad that scientists say the ongoing drought in the western United States marks the region’s driest 22-year stretch in more than 1,200 years. The conditions have affected a broad swath of regions and industries. California wells are going dry. Farmers are either paying a premium for water or letting their fields sit empty. And there is growing concern that water exports from the Colorado River could come to a halt."

Not to be outdone, China is currently being hit by the worst drought that it has seen in all of recorded history…"China is in the grips of its worst drought on record, which has dried up parts of the Yangtze River and impacted swaths of the country’s industrial sector."

If you have read my previous articles, then you already know about those droughts. But did you know that at the same time we are also witnessing some of the worst flooding in modern history? In Pakistan, it has been raining and raining and raining…“Much of central and northern Pakistan has had 200-600% of normal rainfall with over 1,000% of normal rainfall in southern Pakistan,” Nicholls said, adding that wet weather is common in a La Niña pattern. “Karachi, Pakistan, had 1,397% of normal rainfall in July, or 9.78 inches (248 mm) of rain versus a normal rainfall of 0.70 of an inch (18 mm). For the season, rainfall has been 1,001% of normal in Karachi.”

All of that rainfall has caused a flooding disaster in the country that is absolutely unprecedented. In fact, it is being reported that “entire villages” have been completely wiped off the map…"Pakistan’s foreign minister said the calamitous floods gripping the country are ‘a catastrophe on a scale that I have never seen’ as the death toll soared above 1,000 and an area the size of Britain faced going underwater. Tens of millions of Pakistanis have been forced to flee their homes as entire villages have vanished, with dramatic footage capturing hotel collapses, helicopter rescues and narrow escapes."

I am sitting here trying to picture such a disaster, and I am really having a hard time trying to imagine such a thing. Pakistan is an enormous nation, and we are being told that one-third of the entire country is currently covered by water…"One-third of Pakistan has been completely submerged by historic flooding, its climate minister says. Devastating flash floods have washed away roads, homes and crops – leaving a trail of deadly havoc across Pakistan. “It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out,” Sherry Rehman said, calling it a “crisis of unimaginable proportions”.

What a horrible, horrible tragedy. Needless to say, this is having an enormous impact on agricultural production…"A situation report from the United Nations stated that nearly 800,000 livestock, a vital food and livelihood source for Pakistanis, have perished amid the monsoon floods. Around 2 million acres of crops and orchards have also been impacted."

I expect those numbers will go even higher as the full extent of the damage becomes clear. This is yet another very serious blow to the global food supply, and it means that our rapidly growing food crisis is going to get even worse.

There are areas in Africa that are dealing with unprecedented flooding right now as well. For example, check out what has been going on in Sudan…"Sudan is in the midst of yet another round of severe floods, even as much of the Horn of Africa struggles with catastrophic drought. The Save the Children organization says 83 people have died and another 146,000 have been affected by the flooding. Whole villages have been submerged, with nearly 44,000 homes partially or completely destroyed. People living in the Gezira and River Nile states have required assistance from the British-based NGO. Authorities in Sudan have declared a state of emergency in a third of the country’s provinces. Central Darfur, South Darfur, and West Darfur also have seen some of the worst impacts."

This is what I mean when I say that global weather patterns have gone completely haywire in 2022. Much of the planet is either getting way too much rain or way too little rain. Let me give you another example. Here in the United States, even as the western half of the country suffers from endless drought we are witnessing crazy flooding along the Mississippi River…"Major flooding across America’s heartland will be around for weeks to come as the Mississippi River surges south. The deadly onslaught of rising waters and storms has killed more than two dozen people in Missouri and Illinois. In all, some 7 million people in 15 states were under threat of flooding, according to CNN meteorologists."

So why is this happening? Is someone trying to tell us something? All of this drought and all of this flooding are going to be really, really bad for global food production. The stage is being set for the sort of historic global famines that we have been warned about, and even now food prices are starting to surge dramatically all over the planet.

But most people still don’t seem too alarmed. In fact, most people still seem entirely convinced that everything will work out just fine somehow. Hopefully they are correct, because at this point the vast majority of the general population is completely and utterly unprepared for any sort of a major disruption to their current lifestyles."

Bill Bonner, "Quiet Days in Poitou"

Fort de Brégançon, exclusive summer vacation 
destination for President Emmanuel Macron 
"Quiet Days in Poitou"
Plus Macron's warning for Europe, 
a broken down chateau and some wedding advice...
by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Laudate Dominum. “In France, we forgive many sins committed for love.” ~ Last night’s dinner companion. The speaker was a mayor of a smallish town nearby. The subject was France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. “He was just 16 when he fell in love with his future wife. She was his high school teacher. She was 40 years old and already had three children. His family tried to keep him away from her. But it didn’t work… they got together anyway. And now she is what you would call the ‘first lady’ of France. Et, alors…?” Our companion gave what could be called a ‘gallic shrug,’ and made a slow arc with his right hand, as if tracing out the rise and fall of all things human.

It is past the Assumption. That is the 15th of August, the day remembered by Catholics as the day the Virgin was ‘assumed’ into heaven. How exactly that happened, we don’t know. But there’s so much we don’t know, we hardly know where to start. Should Brigitte Macron be punished for her liaison with a student?

Was Mary really a ‘virgin’… how did they know? Did she really ascend to Heaven, bodily…and die there, rather than on Earth, like everyone else? Is the world really heating up? Can we do anything about it? Will future generations be better off if, with carrots and sticks, we drive people to ‘green’ energy?

Should the Fed aim for 2% inflation rather than 3%? Can 12 government hacks, working for a private bank, actually guide – and improve! – a $24 trillion economy?

Are the Russians really bad guys? Who are the good guys?

The Great Unknown: There are people who think they know the answers. Your humble editor confesses ignorance. Not only as to those questions, but to millions more. Are we exceptionally modest… or exceptionally dumb; we don’t know that answer either! So, today, let us stick to our story… for no other reason than almost all the French are on vacation; we might as well join them.

Assumption Day is the day that Richard Nixon turned the dollar into a trash currency. But its primary importance, in these parts, is that it marks a change of season. Nothing lasts forever. Even fine red wine rarely gets better after 10 years; there’s no point in keeping it longer. Here in Poitou, after the 15th of August, the heat disperses… replaced by a gracious, late-summer warmth. Like wine and women, the summer reaches its peak just as the first hints of decay appear. The leaves begin to turn… and the nights turn cool. This year was especially dry in Europe. So, some leaves hit the ground early; our linden tree, for example, had already laid down a carpet of brown leaves by mid-August.

We live in a part of France that is forgotten and neglected. There are no tourists. No factories. A highway and a high-speed train track cut through the region, taking busy travelers from Paris to Bordeaux; few stop along the way. Except for Futuroscope, near Poitiers, there is no reason to stop.

We arrived here 26 years ago and bought a large, broken down house – a chateau – for our large family. We have been here ever since. The French know better than to buy such a place. None did. So it was up to us. And then, the local people wondered: were we some kind of cult? Or were we just naive? These old houses are uncomfortable, drafty, and difficult to maintain. The French accept them when they are inherited, but with mixed feelings; like being given a pony, they know there will be some clean up involved.

Having bought the chateau, your editor entered lustily into fixing it up… turning his young work crew – aged 3 to 13 – out of their beds in the morning so they could help him. His wife, meanwhile, entered smoothly into the local ‘bourgeoisie rurale’ of families similarly burdened by piles of old stones. This allowed us both to move among them, to learn their language and study their ways. The migratory pattern of these people follows the church calendar. Many of them made their careers in Paris or Bordeaux, but they hold onto the old houses, whence their grandparents and great grandparents came.

Here Comes the Bride: The houses are buttoned up after Toussaint (Halloween) and left shuttered all winter. Then, with the arrival of Paques (Easter), the shutters are thrown open… the windows and curtains pulled back… the sun comes in and dull roots all over the area are stirred by warm, spring rain.

A few months later, comes the glorious summer, when the countryside bursts alive with flowers, blossoms, bees, string beans, tractors, flies, and outdoor dinners. And then, after the Assumption, come two weeks of intense socializing, with family reunions, parties, concerts and marriages, before the ‘rentree’ (return to work and to school) begins after the first of September.

The weddings are the worst. We went to one two weeks ago and another this past weekend; we’ll go to another next weekend. We’ve been to so many, over the last quarter of a century – watching carefully, like an anthropologist observing a tribe of naked savages – we feel qualified to comment. This is, after all, among the few things we know anything about.

French weddings, at least among this class, are an endurance contest. It is unnatural and stressful to maintain a jolly demeanor for more than an hour or two – especially for your editor. Doing so for 12 hours straight invites depression. The weddings begin at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, with the church ceremony. They do not end until after midnight. By then, the usual subjects of polite conversation – where do you live, what do you do, why are you here – are exhausted, the band is packing up, and it is time to leave the party to younger people, who will keep at it until daybreak.

At our most recent event, there were about 300 people gathered in an ancient stone church with a rare ‘cylinder organ.’ We were not able to ascertain what it was about the organ that was special, but we were assured by a brochure that it was. As if to prove itself, the organ gave out such a sound as to shake the foundations… but that was to come a little later.

As we noticed a year or two ago, hats are going out of style. But there were a few hold-outs in the crowd… women who enjoyed the chutzpah of a fabulous confection on their heads. One, for example, had a flat black hat, roughly the size and shape of the Oval Office. Another cut a striking figure with what looked like the wedding cake itself perched on her head.

Bonner Event Management: The mistake most wedding planners make, at this stage of the festivities, is that they search for originality. Most likely, they are just bending to the music director, but it is always an error to choose pieces of music that are unfamiliar to the crowd. They don’t know what to do; they are supposed to sing, but they don’t know the tune. They hum… and stumble over the notes… as best they can. The effect is one of communal embarrassment, as if the governor of Maryland suddenly began to praise Benito Mussolini. Better to stick with music that people know.

Also, as a general rule, celebrations need focal points. They should not be just a series of events. Like theatrical performances, they need a build-up, a climax… and all the elements that make for a satisfying show.

In a wedding, the first important scene is the arrival of the bride. It should be accompanied by appropriate fanfare. By then, the guests have been seated to the music of Pachelbel or Bach. But if you want to do it right, when the bride appears in the back of the church, have the music switch to Richard Wagner’s Bridal Chorus. Then, everyone knows what to do; they stand up, and turn around to watch her coming down the aisle. Her hand on her father’s arm… veiled and elegant… she walks slowly, realizing that this is probably the most important moment of her life.

“I prefer funerals,” says our brother-in-law, a Baptist minister in Virginia. “A lot of things can go wrong in a wedding. People are all nervous and on edge. And you often hear, a few years later, that the couple has split up. You feel like it was all a waste of time. “But a funeral is final. You don’t get any complaints.” More to come… including a flirty conversation at dinner…"

Joel’s Note: Proving after all that he really is a man of the people, President Emmanuel Macron recently returned from his three week summer vacation at Fort de Brégançon, an exclusive islet off the French Riviera, to warn his countrymen that the Age of Abundance is drawing to an end.

Leaving his jetski back on the Mediterranean, a newly suntanned Macron told his nation it was time for ordinary, working Frenchmen to “face consequences” of such lavish living. English language paper, The Connexion, provided a translation of the president’s warning: "The time that we are living in [...] can appear to be structured by a series of crises. And it could seem that it is our destiny to be perpetually managing crises and emergencies.

We are living at the end of what could appear to be [an age] of abundance, of endless cash flow, for which we must now face the consequences in terms of state finances, of an abundance of products and technology which appeared to be perpetually available. We lived through [this stoppage of supply] during the Covid period, and we are reliving it now even more intensely. The breaking of value chains, the shortage of this or that material or technology, the end of an abundance of land and of resources, and that of water as well, it is all reappearing."

Left unsaid, of course, was any notion that his own government, or those of his neighboring EU countries, had contributed in any conceivable way to the crises now unfolding across the continent. Their collective response to COVID… their widespread and draconian lockdowns and unprecedented government spending programs… their hardline green energy initiatives… their reliance on Russian gas...

(To this latter point, France fairs somewhat better than do many of her EU brethren, depending on Russia for about one quarter of her gas imports. Italy and Germany, meanwhile, import about half their gas from Russia. Other, smaller countries – North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova – rely almost entirely on Russian gas imports, while Finland, Latvia and Serbia are about 90% dependent.)

Any hint of perhaps reversing course, you wonder? Of dialing back unrealistic green goals, the kind that would see citizens in advanced, 21st Century European nations sleeping in their sweaters this winter, dimming streetlights, shuttering factories and rationing hot water as energy costs soar beyond reach? Not a chance. The Connexion, again, translates Macron’s words…"We must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, double the efforts we have made over the past five years, transform the country even more quickly so that it can confront these changes." The president then announced that next week would see a “great governmental meeting” aimed at “structuring the key areas of work” to be prioritized this autumn, including security, justice, labor and energy. More state meddling, in other words, not less… more “climate justice”… more energy regulations and labor market restrictions…

Readers following along with our Trade of the Decade know we’re long old-world, conventional energy. As governments across Europe and elsewhere (Australia, Canada, even the US) dig their heels in on unworkable green energy initiatives, it falls increasingly to traditional energy sources - oil, gas and, incredibly, coal - to fill the gap and keep the lights on."

"I Have Accepted the Fact..."

"One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless. I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke God's blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side."

 "There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy."
- Henry Miller

"How It Really Will Be"

 

"Empty Shelves, And Massive Price Increases At Meijer! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 8/30/22:
"Empty Shelves, And Massive Price Increases At Meijer! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, 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:

Gregory Mannarino, "Fed Warns Of Inflation 'Aftershocks' As The Economy Continues To Crater Faster"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/30/22:
"Fed Warns Of Inflation 'Aftershocks' As 
The Economy Continues To Crater Faster"
Comments here:

"The Elephant In The College Classroom"

"The Elephant In The College Classroom"
by Tom Purcell

“Half of that goes to the bank for your college fund!” That’s what my father told me in the 8th grade, when I got my first paycheck for waking up at 5:30 a.m. to ride my bike a few miles to Cool Springs Driving Range before school, where I plucked golf balls for a dollar an hour.

My dad had six kids to feed on a single income, after all. Paying my full college tuition bill was never going to be an option. There was only one option for me: work.  When I got a little older I started mowing lawns to make more money than the driving range could ever pay.

When I got my driver’s license at 16, I decided I’d become a stone mason. Retaining walls were all over the place in hilly Pittsburgh. I hit the motherlode with that entrepreneurial decision and by the time I was 17 I had four people working for me. The “young man saving for college” line resonated with customers, and I was able to fund almost all of my first-year college costs with the money my back-breaking labor was able to net.

Money was still tight, though. After paying for my first year of college, I needed to borrow some money for the next three years - and I was grateful that those government-backed funds from banks were available to me. But to keep my borrowing to the bare minimum I worked all year while in college.

I worked in the Penn State cafeteria, waking early to help prepare breakfast, then clean dirty plates. I sold my plasma twice a week - a money-making enterprise that nearly killed me and terrified my mother. During my senior year, I became manager of a creepy rooming house. It was dank and old, but it was cheap and, in addition to the free rent, the owner paid me to shovel coal into the auger, maintain the lawn and make frequent household repairs.

The high point of my college-work career was becoming a bouncer at Penn State’s legendary Rathskellar bar - still the coolest thing I ever did.

I see now I was lucky to attend college in the early 1980s. Myelearningworld.com reports that in the last 50 years college tuition costs have risen five times the inflation rate. If tuitions had kept pace with inflation, public universities would be charging an average of about $20,000 a year - HALF of what they are charging today.

Why have college costs grown so rapidly? The simple answer: Easy money. As the borrowing limits of government-backed and direct government college loans have increased, so have tuitions. The $1.7 trillion in student debt held by millions of young people today is in large part due to tuition inflation. Colleges took full advantage of all that easy loan money students were getting and jacked up their prices.

Now President Biden wants to forgive $10,000 in college-loan debt for millions of kids who willingly took it on - even though college grads, over time, eventually earn more than most of those who did not attend college. The trouble is, debt cannot simply be “forgiven” - especially when it amounts to more than $300 billion. It can only be transferred to taxpayers like me who scrimped and saved and took on a dozen crummy jobs to avoid taking on student-loan debt. That’s the big, fat elephant in the college classroom.

Here’s another certainty: Repaying other peoples’ debt obligations is going to be as fun as plucking golf balls off dew-covered grass at 5:30 a.m. every morning."

"The Unfairness Of Mass Student Loan Forgiveness"

$300 BILLION?!!!
"The Unfairness Of Mass Student Loan Forgiveness"
Reposted from May 9, 2022
by Rich Manieri

“You wanna borrow, you gotta pay the man.” Rocky Balboa was right, even way back in Rocky I. Rocky didn’t break Bob’s thumb like Mr. Gazzo told him. Bob was late on his payments and Gazzo didn’t like it. “How come you didn’t break this guy’s thumb like I told you?” “I figure if I break the guy’s thumb he gets laid off and he can’t make the payments…” “Let me do the figurin’ Rock! Just let me do the figurin’! These guys think we’re running some kind of charity or something.”

Rocky, Philly palooka though he was, had a tender heart. Still, he collected the debt because he understood the deal. Whether you’re borrowing from a loan shark on the docks or from a major lending institution – and the difference is sometimes negligible – a loan is an agreement, a contract. “You wanna dance, you gotta pay the band,” Rocky reminded the terrified Bob.

President Biden, however, is working his way toward turning the basic principles of borrowing, understood by everyone from the ancient Mesopotamians to South Philly leg breakers, upside down. He wants to cancel student loans on a mass scale. A terrible idea in the presidential pantheon of terrible ideas. He’s already canceled some $17 billion in student loans for 725,000 borrowers through what the White House calls “targeted relief.” But that was clearly just an hors d'oeuvre.

Biden appears to be considering forgiving $10,000 of student debt per borrower. Who will pay for this? We will. And by “we” I mean those of us who paid cash the old fashioned way, or took out loans and paid them back, or who never even attended college. It’s such a bad idea than even Biden himself poo pooed it which, like many other things, he’s apparently forgotten.

"The idea that you go to Penn and you’re paying a total of 70,000 bucks a year and the public should pay for that? I don’t agree,” Biden told New York Times columnist David Brooks in an interview last year. Right, Mr. President. So, what changed?

For starters, Biden’s popularity is plummeting like Wile E. Coyote from a cliff and that little dust cloud you see when he hits the dirt is the Democrats’ fate in the looming midterms unless something changes. In short, Biden needs a win and he appears willing to pursue it through executive action despite rising inflation and a shrinking economy. The timing for this will never be good but it’s difficult to imagine it being much worse.

If there’s any good news, it’s that Biden doesn’t appear prepared – at least not yet – to go as far as socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who wants to forgive all, yes all, $1.7 trillion of student loan debt. The whole scheme seems grossly unconstitutional and illegal.

My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch but my mother, who never attended college, managed our finances with ruthless efficiency. She operated by one simple axiom – don’t buy anything you can’t afford. She was also loath to take out any loans unless she knew she could pay them back in short order. My parents put my sister and me through college, debt free. There was no magic involved. They sacrificed. There were no expensive vacations or cars. They lived comfortably but simply, always within their means.

So, the Biden administration is effectively saying to people like my mother and millions of others who paid, or are in the process of paying back students loans, “You’ve done pretty well for yourself so we want you to pay back the loans of some strangers, like the kid who borrowed 70,000 bucks a year to go to Penn.” This is, above everything else, a wealth redistribution scheme straight from the Sherwood Forest School of Economics. And really, Robin Hood and his Merry Men were just a bunch of thieves in silly underwear anyway.

College tuition is too high and has risen at rates that far surpass inflation. Of course, one of the reasons tuition is so high is because virtually anyone can get a loan, regardless of their ability or intention to pay it back. If this sounds familiar it’s because similar loan practices led to the catastrophic burst of the housing bubble in 2008. We tend to learn little from history.

Still, if you’re going to borrow, you gotta pay the man. Rocky understood. So did Bob. I wish the politicians advocating for loan forgiveness in the name of “fairness” understood how unfair it is."
"The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."
- Thomas Sowell
Baffled...
Consider what you're working with here...
"What It’s Like Being a Millennial (Give Me the Respect I Didn’t Earn)"
"Millennials are the most advanced crop of humans that our species has 
ever seen.  Here's everything you'll ever need to know about being a Millennial."
"We're so freakin' doomed!"
- The Mogambo Guru

"Student Loan Forgiveness Proves All Those College Degrees Really Are Worthless"

"Student Loan Forgiveness Proves All 
Those College Degrees Really Are Worthless"
by Tyler Durden

"Back when I taught at UCLA, I was constantly amazed at how little so many students knew. Finally, I could no longer restrain myself from asking a student the question that had long puzzled me: ''What were you doing for the last 12 years before you got here?''
- Thomas Sowell

"What is a college degree actually worth? We know what secondary schools charge for the “opportunity” to study with them, but this does not really tell us much about the value of the services they offer. On average, college tuition costs around $10,000 per year for a person studying in their home state, and $25,000 a year for those studying out-of-state. Federal student loans can cover these costs, but this is the application of public tax dollars with the expectation of returns; it is not supposed to be free money. And to be clear, NO ONE is entitled to a secondary education, let alone for free.

The average interest rate on a student loan is around 5% these days, and such loans include stipulations that they cannot be erased through bankruptcy. The argument among people who support loan forgiveness is that the cost of a degree is too high and the loans are impossible to pay or escape. On top of that, many of these graduates can't even get a job once they leave college.

Surveys over the past couple years show that at least 45% of college graduates are unable to find a job once they enter the private sector. Those that can find a job usually end up working outside the scope of their field of study. Keep in mind this is happening during a period of very low official unemployment.

The result? Four year or eight year degree holders end up working side-by-side with high school graduates in lower wage jobs. This is extremely common and is fueling a rise in worker discontent. Their fantasies of six-figure incomes and a life of prestige suddenly hit a wall called reality, and now these students are angry and in debt to the tune of $36,000 or more on average.

But do they have a right to be angry? No, not really. The problem with this line of thinking is once again about real world value. When these students chose their field of study, were they considering the value of the work they would eventually be able to do? Were they considering the job that their degree would afford them, or were they only thinking about how easy it would be to take those particular classes?

As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently noted: “It’s very unfair to have a truck driver have to pay back a loan for somebody that got a PhD in gender studies. That’s not fair. That’s not right.”

This is an accurate assessment. The loan could have been used for anything – any field of study with limitless potential for job growth and success, but 45% of these kids chose idiotic majors with zero earning potential. The money was wasted on nothing, and now, many of these graduates that made foolish decisions are being rewarded for it with loan forgiveness by the Biden Administration.

What's worse is that these same children now act as if they were “victimized” by receiving the loans in the first place. No one made them take the loans, and no one made them pick a field of study that was lazy and worthless. They can't use the excuse that the jobs market is unfavorable, because according to Joe Biden this is the “best employment environment ever.”

So what is the root disconnect? What is the question that no one is asking? Well, if the degrees were worth the cost of the loans then wouldn't it be easy for graduates to pay them off as high level producers and money makers? Why does the federal government need to step in at all? Shouldn't graduates be able to pay off their loans with the vast number of jobs available under Joe Biden? Why would they need the help if the economy is flying?

There are multiple points to make here:

1) Someone has to pay for the debt that is created, it doesn't disappear because Joe Biden says so. It gets added directly to the national debt and the deficit and every taxpayer has to take on that cost, along with the increased drag on the economy. Why should we pay for the mistakes of a bunch of low expectation college kids, or for educational services that add no value to the financial system?

2) Is it legal for Joe Biden to essentially buy votes from college students by offering them free tuition as long as he stays in office? Isn't this what he is doing, or is this really Joe giving the kids a break from the goodness of his heart? Because we all know if Joe can do this successfully once, he will do it again.

3) Loan forgiveness only confirms what many of us already suspected; that at least half of all degrees are worthless and pointless. If they were worth something, then there would be no need for forgiveness because the graduates would be able to pay off their loans without aid.

4) If we accept the fact that half of student loans are for worthless degrees, then we also have to then ask why they were given out in the first place? Shouldn't student loans for necessary fields such as STEM fields or business fields be prioritized and loans for meaningless fields like social sciences be turned down? Why not only give loans in fields where there are insufficient applicants and a high demand for trainees? Why not incentivize students to take on a field of study that is difficult and needed? Wouldn't this be smarter than adding hundreds of billions (potentially trillions) of dollars onto the national debt with the stroke of a pen?

5) Finally, maybe it is good to make people pay for their mistakes? Maybe this builds character and forces them to work harder to rectify their lives. If we subsidize their mistakes, then won't they simply learn that they can continue doing whatever they please without consequences? Doesn't this incentivize stupidity?"
"Incentivize stupidity?" Well, look around! We've been astoundingly, astonishingly successful at incentivizing stupidity, haven't we? Not that these brain-dead clowns need any encouragement...

"It Will Happen Suddenly"

"It Will Happen Suddenly"
by Jeff Thomas

"As the Great Unravelling progresses, we shall be seeing many negative developments, some of them unprecedented. Only a year ago, the average person was still hanging on to the belief that the world is in a state of recovery, that, however tentative, the economy was on the mend. And this is understandable. After all, the media have been doing a bang-up job of explaining the situation in a way that treats recovery as a general assumption. The only point of discussion is the method applied to achieve the recovery, but the recovery itself is treated as a given.

However, as thorough a distraction as the media (and the governments of the world) have provided, the average person has begun to recognize that something is fundamentally wrong. He now has a gut feeling that, even if he is not well-versed enough to describe in economic terms what is incorrect in the endless chatter he sees on his television, he now senses that the situation will not end well.

I tend to liken his situation to someone who suddenly finds all the lights off in his house. He stumbles around in the dark, trying to feel his way. Although he can picture in his mind what the layout of his house is, he is having trouble navigating, often bumping into things. This is similar to the attempt to see through the media and government smokescreens during normal times.

But soon, as his government undergoes collapse, he will be getting some bigger surprises. He will find that the furniture has inexplicably been moved around. Objects are not where they are supposed to be, and it is no longer possible to reason his way through the problem of navigating in the dark.

Many of those who observe the daily news reports are beginning to figure out that they are being fed misinformation. Many are beginning to recognize that neither political party truly represents them or, for that matter, is even concerned for their welfare. These folks are now navigating in the dark.

But the bigger surprises have not yet occurred. There will be a certain amount of lead-up, plus a great deal of confusion, but the actual occurrences will be sudden. No one will be able to predict the dates on which they occur, except those very few people who control the triggers to these events.

Crashes in the Markets: Major bull markets rarely end with a whimper. They end with a major upside spike. And, unfortunately, brokers and investors alike tend to think that, if the market has been up for the last week, the last month, or the last year, it can be expected to be up again tomorrow. This makes them prime pickings for governments who may choose to falsely inflate a given market, creating an upside spike to encourage investors to toss their last few coins into the pot, just before the bottom drops out.

In previous eras, it could take time for people to sell, and even in panic times, the bloodletting was not instantaneous. However, with the Internet, all that is necessary is a major sell-off by one entity - one that goes through the stops of a large number of investors, and in a flash, the market goes though the floor. (Editor’s note: Stops are orders placed with a broker to sell a security when it reaches a certain price.) The average investor wakes in the morning to find that he has been wiped out.

Commitments by Governments: Should there be a currency crash, as is expected in many countries, promises made by governments will be abandoned suddenly, as though they had never existed. Whilst millions of people will find themselves lost, unable to function without their entitlements, governments will evade their guilt through finger-pointing. Tories will blame Labour; Labour will blame the Tories. (The equivalent will take place in other countries.) The net result will be the disappearance of entitlements, either in part or in total. The public will take out its anger through increased hatred of whichever party it is that they already consider to be the evil one. They will fail to understand that collapse was unavoidable.

Assumed National Strengths Will Vanish: International alliances will fall away. Former allies will suddenly not be at the side of the failing nation. Former friends will sign alliances with the other side. Trade agreements will suddenly cease. Wealth, initiative, and favor will flow to the new foremost country and its allies.

All of the above will happen incrementally - not by any means on the same day - but in each case, the actual occurrence will be sudden. Just as Julius Caesar was at his peak of power when his fellow members of the Senate drew their knives, a powerful nation is coddled right until the time of its fall. In this regard, the US will see the greatest abandonment of loyalties that any nation will experience. (The greater the empire, the greater the pretense of loyalty to it. And the greater the abandonment when the fall comes.)

When an empire collapses, it dies slowly. Unless it comes to an end through conquest, it deteriorates in a series of sudden jolts. Its leaders grasp at anything that might cause a delay, even if this means a worse outcome in the end. The process may take years and even decades. However, it is in the first few years that the major events occur - the events that create the most significant damage.

This occurs for two reasons. The first is that the leaders of the country, believing in their own power, believe that they can maintain control of their trade, their overseas control, their military, etc. and find that, when the crashes come, the rats desert the ship in every area. The second reason is that any empire builds its strength upon lies and exaggeration as much as it builds on its true attributes. After a crash, these lies and exaggerations fall away, and in a short time, it becomes clear that the empire was, in its latter stages, a house of cards.

The warning signs are already taking place but are not heavily publicized. The stage is set, and we are approaching the first major events.

The victims in this play are, unfortunately, the average people, who simply hope to have a decent life. They will be caught unawares and unable to even understand what has occurred, let alone take action to save themselves. Those who have not spent the previous years educating themselves and preparing an alternative life will suffer most greatly.

All who live in a country that is undergoing collapse will be negatively. There is little comfort in being one of the least injured, both during the actual event and during the terrible time that is sure to follow. Some will do better than others, but to live on this slim hope is much like being fortunate enough to live on the outskirts of Hiroshima in 1945. The political and economic climate is constantly changing... and not always for the better. It's clear the situation in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world will continue to deteriorate."

Monday, August 29, 2022

"System Is Dying, Get Your Money Out Of The Bank; It's All Gonna Crash; Restaurant Industry Is Done"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/29/22"
"System Is Dying, Get Your Money Out Of The Bank; 
It's All Gonna Crash; Restaurant Industry Is Done"
Comments here:

"People Line Up For Days To Buy Coal Ahead Of Winter Because They Feel What Is Coming"

Full screen recommended.
"People Line Up For Days To Buy Coal Ahead 
Of Winter Because They Feel What Is Coming"
by Epic Economist

"This is going to be an extremely bitter and cold winter for millions of people from all over the globe. The rush to hoard energy supplies is rapidly accelerating as soaring prices and concern about potential shortages continue to cause anxiety for countless families. In many places, widespread street demonstrations have already begun. New reports reveal that homeowners are lining up for days to buy coal, firewood, and alternative heating sources ahead of the winter. The cost of living crisis is plaguing several major economies around the world, and people are getting increasingly furious with their governments’ inaction. This is set to be the most devastating energy crisis the planet has ever seen and we must start bringing attention to this issue before it’s too late.

A recent exposé published on ZeroHedge reported that mindblowing gas and electricity prices are leading households to seek alternative energy sources as global energy production sharply declines. Over the past month, demand for firewood has shot up by 100% and it is expected to go even higher, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. On top of that, countless people have started lining up their cars and trucks outside coal mines to be able to secure supplies before they run out.

At this point, soaring demand is forcing mines to ration supplies or offer the fuel to individual buyers via online platforms, in limited amounts, the report adds. Artur, who did not want to share his full name, said he had “collected paperwork from his extended family in the hope of picking up all their fuel allocations at once.” However, ZeroHedge analysts argue that despite the struggle to buy the supplies they need, “these households are probably in better shape than the ones relying on natural gas, whose price is rising by 10-20% every day, and is now almost literally in the stratosphere.”

All across the globe, and including here in the U.S., skyrocketing costs for energy are already crippling economic output, and heaping pressure on politicians to resolve the crisis with winter just a few months away. This Monday, natural gas prices were about six times higher than they were at this time last year, with the panic spreading across nations ahead of peak winter demand. Numerous families out there are being absolutely stunned by the size of their energy bills, and a severe backlash has been brewing in some places. In fact, a separate Reuters report revealed that very large demonstrations are happening in a number of different countries.

It’s safe to say that this is just the beginning. A lot of government officials are worried that there simply won’t be enough energy supplies for everyone, and that shortages and outages may leave a large share of the global population in a very dangerous situation. That’s extremely alarming considering that over 50% of the U.S. population uses natural gas to heat their homes. This is especially troubling news for those at the bottom of the economic food chain, who are now expected to spend almost 70% of their incomes on energy alone.

A lot more chaos is going to erupt in every corner of this country sooner than most people think. Authorities aren’t taken this crisis seriously enough, and we’re the ones who are supposed to face the consequences of their “wait and see” approach. If you can, we would like to encourage you to do what you can to become more independent from the power grid. The worst is yet to come. Energy bills are about to hit extraordinary heights, and this is going to cause excruciating pain all over the western world."

Gerald Celente, "The UnCommunist Manifesto: A Message of Hope, Responsibility and Liberty for All"

Gerald Celente, 8/29/22:
"The UnCommunist Manifesto: 
A Message of Hope, Responsibility and Liberty for All"
Gerald Celente interviews Mark Moss and Aleksandar Svetski, the authors of "The UnCommunist Manifesto: A Message of Hope, Responsibility and Liberty for All"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, “My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)”

Full screen recommended. Incredible...
Liquid Mind, “My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just above the image center, houses several of these massive stars and has itself changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.”

Chet Raymo, “Living In The Little World”

“Living In The Little World”
by Chet Raymo

"My wisdom is simple," begins Gustav Adolph Ekdahl, at the final celebratory family gathering of Ingmar Bergman's crowning epic “Fanny and Alexander.” I saw the movie in the early 1980s when it had its U.S. theater release. Now I have just watched the five-hour-long original version made for Swedish television. Whew!

But back to that speech by the gaily philandering Gustav, now the patriarch of the Ekdahl clan and uncle to Fanny and Alexander. The family has gathered for the double christening of Fanny and Alexander's new half-sister and Gustav's child by his mistress Maj. A dark chapter of family history has come to an end, involving a clash between two world views, one - the Ekdahl's - focussed on the pleasures of the here and now, and the other - that of Lutheran Bishop Edvard Vergerus, Fanny and Alexander's stepfather - a stern and joyless anticipation of the hereafter. It is not the habit of Ekdahls to concern themselves with matters of grand consequence, Gustav tells the assembled guests. "We must live in the little world. We will be content with that and cultivate it and make the best of it."

The little world. I love that phrase. This world, here, now. This world of family and friends and newborn infants and trees and flowers and rainstorms and- oh yes, cognac and stolen kisses and tumbles in the hay. The Ekdahl's are a theatrical family; we will leave it to the actors and actresses to give us our supernatural shivers, says Gustav. "So it shall be," he says. "Let us be kind, and generous, affectionate and good. It is necessary and not at all shameful to take pleasure in the little world."

The Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, "I Want A Lot"

"I Want A Lot"

"You see, I want a lot.
Perhaps I want everything:
the darkness that comes with every infinite fall
and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing
and are raised to the rank of prince
by the slippery ease of their light judgments.
But what you love to see are faces
that so work and feel thirst...

You have not grown old, and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

“Today Is Mine..."

“Today is mine. It is unique.
Nobody in the world has one exactly like it.
It holds the sum of all my past experiences and all my future potential.
I can fill it with joyous moments or ruin it with fruitless worry.
If painful recollections of the past come into my mind,
or frightening thoughts of the future, I can put them away.
They cannot spoil today for me.”
- Alcoholics Anonymous

Gregory Mannarino, "Shocker! Both The BIS And The IMF Warn Of Much Higher Inflation To Come. Be Ready"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/29/22:
"Shocker! Both The BIS And The IMF Warn 
Of Much Higher Inflation To Come. Be Ready"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Edgewood, Maryland, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Now WHAT Is This? Someone Just Flew Over The Circuit"

Full screen recommended.
"Now WHAT Is This? 
Someone Just Flew Over The Circuit"
"Belgian F1 Fans Stunned By Man Flying Over Track; 
Could This Be Mysterious 'Jetpack Man'?"

"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Walmart! Not Good! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 8/29/22:
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Walmart! 
Not Good! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog we are shopping at Walmart only to find lots of empty shelves, and very high prices! From frozen goods, to meat and dairy. Items are missing everywhere! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products."
Comments here:

"People are Shorting Zillow Stock - A Very Grim Forecast"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 8/29/22:
"People are Shorting Zillow Stock - A Very Grim Forecast"
"We are seeing energy bills completely skyrocket. People are betting against Zillow. There will be massive layoffs during the upcoming dark when that’s projected."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Bond Market Again Becoming Unstable, Stock Market Set To Fall"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/29/22:
"Alert! Bond Market Again Becoming Unstable,
 Stock Market Set To Fall"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

"The Psychology of Totalitarianism" (Excerpt)

"The Psychology of Totalitarianism" (Excerpt)
by Robert W Malone MD, MS

Excerpt: "A European perspective. Guest substack editorial by Dr. Mattias Desmet. This is his first substack essay, and you can find his new substack here. I suggest you consider subscribing to it."

"At the end of February 2020, the global village began to shake on its foundations. The world was presented with a foreboding crisis, the consequences of which were incalculable. In a matter of weeks, everyone was gripped by the story of a virus - a story that was undoubtedly based on facts. But on which ones? We caught a first glimpse of “the facts” via footage from China. A virus forced the Chinese government to take the most draconian measures. Entire cities were quarantined, new hospitals were built hastily, and individuals in white suits disinfected public spaces. Here and there, rumors emerged that the totalitarian Chinese government was overreacting and that the new virus was no worse than the flu. Opposite opinions were also floating around: that it must be much worse than it looked, because otherwise no government would take such radical measures. At that point, everything still felt far removed from our shores and we assumed that the story did not allow us to gauge the full extent of the facts.

Until the moment that the virus arrived in Europe. We then began recording infections and deaths for ourselves. We saw images of overcrowded emergency rooms in Italy, convoys of army vehicles transporting corpses, morgues full of coffins. The renowned scientists at Imperial College confidently predicted that without the most drastic measures, the virus would claim tens of millions of lives. In Bergamo, sirens blared day and night, silencing any voice in a public space that dared to doubt the emerging narrative. From then on, story and facts seemed to merge and uncertainty gave way to certainty.

The unimaginable became reality: we witnessed the abrupt pivot of nearly every country on earth to follow China’s example and place huge populations of people under de facto house arrest, a situation for which the term “lockdown” was coined. An eerie silence descended -ominous and liberating at the same time. The sky without airplanes, traffic arteries without vehicles; dust settling on the standstill of billions of people’s individual pursuits and desires. In India, the air became so pure that, for the first time in thirty years, in some places the Himalayas became once more visible against the horizon.

It didn't stop there. We also saw a remarkable transfer of power. Expert virologists were called upon as Orwell’s pigs - the smartest animals on the farm - to replace the unreliable politicians. They would run the animal farm with accurate (“scientific”) information. But these experts soon turned out to have quite a few common, human flaws. In their statistics and graphs they made mistakes that even “ordinary” people would not easily make. It went so far that, at one point, they counted all deaths as corona deaths, including people who had died of, say, heart attacks.

Nor did they live up to their promises. These experts pledged that the Gates to Freedom would re-open after two doses of the vaccine, but then they contrived the need for a third. Like Orwell's pigs, they changed the rules overnight. First, the animals had to comply with the measures because the number of sick people could not exceed the capacity of the health care system (flatten the curve). But one day, everyone woke up to discover writing on the walls stating that the measures were being extended because the virus had to be eradicated (crush the curve). Eventually, the rules changed so often that only the pigs seemed to know them. And even the pigs weren’t so sure.

Some people began to nurture suspicions. How is it possible that these experts make mistakes that even laymen wouldn’t make? Aren't they scientists, the kind of people who took us to the moon and gave us the internet? They can't be that stupid, can they? What is their endgame? Their recommendations take us further down the road in the same direction: with each new step, we lose more of our freedoms, until we reach a final destination where human beings are reduced to QR codes in a large technocratic medical experiment.

That's how most people eventually became certain. Very certain. But of diametrically opposed viewpoints. Some people became certain that we were dealing with a killer virus, that would kill millions. Others became certain that it was nothing more than the seasonal flu. Still others became certain that the virus did not even exist and that we were dealing with a worldwide conspiracy. And there were also a few who continued to tolerate uncertainty and kept asking themselves: how can we adequately understand what is going on?"
View this complete article here:

"Why Are So Many Bad Things Happening To America In 2022?

"Why Are So Many Bad Things
 Happening To America In 2022?"
by Michael Snyder

"Have you ever wondered why we just keep getting hit by one thing after another? I grew up during a time when it seemed like America was endlessly blessed, but now everything around us seems the opposite of blessed. Our economy is imploding, inflation is out of control, the housing market is starting to crash, our weather patterns have gone completely nuts, the western half of the nation is enduring the worst drought in 1,200 years, we are dealing with three major pandemics simultaneously, we are losing our proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and it looks like war with China is just around the corner, and on top of everything else our political system is failing because liberals and conservatives deeply, deeply hate one another. And if you think that there is hope on the horizon, you are going to be severely disappointed. The current crop of politicians in Washington is the worst that we have had in our entire history, and all of the “solutions” they give us just seem to make matters even worse.

This weekend, I came across a very intriguing article in the Jerusalem Post entitled “Is God punishing the United States of America?” It was authored by a prominent businessman named Sherwin Pomerantz, and it really got me thinking. Could it be possible that there is a common thread that connects all of the bad things that are constantly happening to us?

In his article, one of the points that Pomerantz makes is that America’s political system is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes…"Politically, whether people want to admit it or not, the country is in the midst of a civil war, though for the moment, not one where both sides have taken up arms, one against the other (although that, too, could eventuate)."

Sadly, he is right on target. There is so much politically-motivated hatred in our country today. Liberals deeply hate conservatives and conservatives deeply hate liberals. It would seem that it is only a matter of time before the entire system shatters.

On another note, Pomerantz believes that it is no coincidence that our weather patterns have gone totally haywire and that our nation is being constantly hit by natural disaster after natural disaster…"Then there is the weather. On average, the US experiences fewer than 1,500 tornadoes a year. Through June, there have already been 940 reported tornadoes there, which means the country is on track to see 2,000 or more, a 33% increase year-on-year.

The nightly news out of the US for the past few months shows tens of millions of people under extreme weather risk every day, often in three different areas of the country simultaneously (upper Midwest, East coast and the Southeast region). In the west, a long period of drought has been drying up reservoirs and spawning massive forest fires. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) statistics show that as of July 5, 34,478 fires have already burned 4,582,301 acres. This is above the 10-year average of 27,346 fires, and twice the average of 2,026,917 acres burned. The odd thing is that very little of this occurs just north of the US in Canada, or just south in Mexico. It all seems to be centered in the US."

I did find it odd that Pomerantz only briefly mentioned the drought, because it is actually a really big deal. At this moment, the western half of the nation is in the midst of the worst multi-year megadrought that the region has experienced in 1,200 years, and this is having an absolutely devastating impact on agricultural production.

For example, we are now being warned that a very serious shortage of tomatoes could soon be coming…"As endless supply chain-related food shortages force people to adjust their grocery lists, another essential ingredient is becoming scarce. Along with avocados, cream cheese, chickpeas, and olive oil, the supply of tomatoes has started to dwindle. But this time it’s California’s catastrophic drought conditions denying farmers the water needed to grow the versatile vegetable that’s to blame. Due to the shortage, the price of byproducts like ketchup, salsa, and spaghetti sauce has started to surge.

Speaking about the tomato shortage, Head of the California Tomato Growers Association Mike Montana said the golden state desperately needs rain. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand,” he told Bloomberg News. California, which grows a quarter of the world’s tomatoes, is in the middle of a historic drought that has stoked massive wildfires while drying up reservoirs. It has also become a major threat to the agriculture industry."

When I was growing up, I never once imagined that there could ever be a shortage of tomatoes in this country. But things have changed, and life in the U.S. will never again be like it was when I was a little boy. Although to be honest I am having flashbacks to the 1970s with all of the inflation we are witnessing right now. In fact, if the inflation rate was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would be higher than anything that we experienced during the Jimmy Carter era.

Over the past couple of years, our politicians in Washington have gone on the most dramatic borrowing and spending binge in human history, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. Of course that was going to cause inflation, and now we have a colossal mess on our hands.

I really like how Steve Bannon recently summed up what we are now facing… "Every time you get a paycheck you’re falling behind because of inflation. Your real wages, sixteen months in a row (now let me think, how long has the Biden Administration been around here – about 18 months). Every month since they’ve been here real wages are down.

Ok so you’re losing, your treadmill, you’re losing every day in your wages and now the little bit of equity you have in the world, the little bit of net worth you’ve got in the world, the bottom’s fallen out on that. Ok. You are screwed. Let me be blunt. Let me do some Harvard Business School math for you – You’re screwed."

The Federal Reserve is recklessly hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to battle inflation, but everyone knew that this would inevitably cause a housing crash. And as I pointed out last week, a housing crash has already begun. This July, new home sales were about 30 percent lower than they were last July…"The plunge in home sales is just stunning. Sales of new single-family houses collapsed by 12.6% in July from the already beaten-down levels in June, and by nearly 30% from July last year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 houses, the lowest since January 2016, and well below the lockdown lows, according to data from the Census Bureau today."

Sadly, this is just the beginning. If the Fed keeps raising rates, things will get far worse. Meanwhile, we find ourselves battling three major pandemics all at once. Despite everything that our health authorities have done, COVID is still with us and will be with us for many years to come. If that wasn’t bad enough, a bird flu pandemic has erupted this year which has resulted in tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys being wiped out. On top of that, a new monkeypox outbreak continues to spread at an exponential rate all over the planet. Is it just some sort of a bizarre coincidence that we are now facing three major pestilences simultaneously? 

Of course this article would not be complete unless I talked about the war. We are now deeply involved in a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and it is not going very well. And if both sides continue to escalate matters, we could eventually find ourselves in a nuclear conflict with Russia which would have the potential to ultimately kill billions of people. In addition, the warmongers in the Biden administration have also brought us to the brink of a war with China. More U.S. politicians keep flying over to Taiwan, and at some point the Chinese are going to decide that they simply cannot take any more provocations. Also, it is just a matter of time before Iran and Israel go to war. And once that happens, the U.S. will inevitably decide to intervene.

In this article, I have covered war, plagues, economic collapse and natural disasters among other things. Could it be possible that all of these things are happening at this specific moment in human history for a reason? And could it be possible that we were warned in advance that all of these things would be coming?

My hope is that this article will get people thinking. All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population has no idea what is ahead, and so most of them are going to be absolutely blind-sided by the cataclysmic events that are rapidly coming our way."