Wichita Falls, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, September 9, 2022
"What In The World Is Wrong With This Country?"
"What In The World Is Wrong With This Country?"
by Michael Snyder
"Just when it seems like we can’t possibly go any lower, we always manage to top ourselves. In the old days, every once in a while I would come across a story that would make me shake my head in disbelief because it was just so absurd. Now it is happening on a daily basis. In this article I am going to share some examples with you. I realize that some of these things are difficult to believe, but all of them are true. Our country really is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes, and the pace of our national decline only seems to be accelerating. If we are not able to turn our cultural decay around, eventually we will not have a country at all.
Let me start with a new law which will go into effect in Illinois on January 1st. From that point forward, those guilty of second-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and arson will always be released without having to post any bail at all…"When a new Illinois law takes effect next year, it will do away with the cash bail system in the state, meaning suspects charged with felonies, including second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and arson, will be released without bail.
The Counter Signal reports the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, also called the SAFE-T Act, would end cash bail and includes 12 non-detainable offenses, second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and arson without bail, as well as drug-induced homicide, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, intimidation, aggravated DUI, aggravated fleeing and eluding, drug offenses and threatening a public official." When the law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023, criminals charged with the crimes mentioned above will be released without bail.
How many hardened criminals do you think will actually show up for their trials? I am sure that there will be a few. Of course many of our “woke judges” are doing their very best to make sure that many violent criminals never pay the price for their crimes even if they do stand trial. In California, a judge recently granted a mistrial to one defendant just because he didn’t get a good night of sleep the night before…"A California judge, who hails from a powerful Democrat family who endorsed LA DA George Gascon, granted a mistrial for a man facing life in prison because he was sleepy. The alleged criminal apparently did not get a good night’s rest before the trial after spending the night in a cell without a bed or blanket."
Seriously? So now this violent criminal is back on the streets even though he pointed a gun in the face of a female fast food worker and threatened to blow her brains out…"Vamazae Elgin Banks, 24, appeared in court after threatening a McDonald’s worker with a gun before stealing less than $100. Court records accused Banks of telling the cashier at the fast food joint that he would kill her if she didn’t produce the cash quickly enough, allegedly telling her ‘hurry up or I’ll blow your brains out!’"
Our system of justice is systematically being destroyed. But many Americans simply don’t care because they are drugged out of their minds. The United States has the biggest problem with legal drugs on the entire planet, and it also has the biggest problem with illegal drugs on the entire planet. When I saw the following story, I thought that it perfectly summed up where we are as a nation today…"A speeding woman is accused of driving under the influence of cocaine and alcohol when she crashed into another car, killing its driver who was under the influence of methamphetamine, police said. Summer Butler, 37, faces charges of DUI resulting in death, reckless driving and being in possession of a controlled substance in connection with the fatal crash in January, court documents obtained by the 8 News Now I-Team said."
At this point, it seems like almost everyone is an addict, and that includes many of our government officials. Here is just one example…"A Louisiana state official was arrested for allegedly buying drugs from a drug dealer outside of a fast food chain on Tuesday. Bridgette Hull, 37, serves as the executive secretary for the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners. She was purchasing drugs from dealer Steven McCarthy, who was under surveillance, when a Louisiana Attorney General Office employee recognized him at a Livingston Parish restaurant. Hull was arrested onsite, but McCarthy fled the scene after back up was called – resulting in a pursuit. He later crashed into another car and was arrested."
If we would secure our borders, we could at least reduce the flow of illegal drugs into this country. But the Biden administration refuses to do that. And so the worst drug crisis in all of U.S. history will continue to escalate, and substances that are laced with fentanyl will continue to kill countless numbers of our young people…
"San Diego and Imperial County comprise the epicenter of fentanyl drug trafficking in the United States, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which reported that seizures of fentanyl in San Diego were up 323% in FY2019-FY2021 and that fentanyl overdose deaths increased 2,375% in San Diego County between 2016 and 2021. “A decade ago, we didn’t even know about fentanyl, and now it’s a national crisis,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman. “The amount of fentanyl we are seizing at the border is staggering. The number of fentanyl seizures and fentanyl-related deaths in our district are unprecedented.”
If you are waiting for our national leaders to fix our growing problems, you are going to be waiting for a really, really long time. Every major decision they make seems to make things even worse, and the Biden administration keeps appointing extremely alarming individuals to top positions of power. In fact, Biden just appointed a “doctor” that is absolutely obsessed with pentagrams to be the National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator.
Meet Demetre Daskalakis: Demetre was just appointed by Joe Biden to be the official White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Demetre proudly wears the official symbol of the Church of Satan: The Pentagram.
Joe Biden appointed a Satanist to the White House.
- Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 8, 2022
Not cherry picking here. The Pentagram is proudly displayed in his *promotional* photos for a CDC appointment. It’s ubiquitous on his social media. Demetre has Pentagram tattoos. So it’s a fair question: Did Joe Biden appoint a Satanist?
- Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 8, 2022
So far, only a very small handful of conservatives are objecting to his appointment to such an important position.
What in the world is wrong with this country? Have we gone completely and totally nuts? Perhaps we have. At this point, close to one-fourth of all Democratic voters actually believe that men can get pregnant…"A poll conducted by WPA Intelligence has found that almost one quarter of Democratic voters believe that “some men can become pregnant.” Twenty-two percent of Democrats overall agreed with the statement. The poll also found that more women agreed with the statement, and an incredible 36 percent of white, college-educated female Democrats agreed."
We aren’t just in a state of decline. The truth is that we are in a very advanced state of decline and the clock is ticking. If you love this nation, what has happened to us should deeply sadden you. We were once the greatest country on the entire planet, but now we are rapidly being destroyed from within. Please wake up America, because time to do anything about all of this is quickly running out."
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"We are in the process of creating, in sum, what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time in our history the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal."
- Carl Bernstein
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And nobody gives a damn, nobody cares...
Yeah...well guess what...
Bill Bonner, "Lights Out!"
"Lights Out!"
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "Europe is in a tight spot. It put itself there. It shut down its economy in the Covid Panic. It kept its interest rates way too low, for way too long. It aims to rid itself of fossil fuel, upon which its economy and its living standards depend. And now, in its misbegotten proxy war with Russia, it faces General Winter – Russia’s traditional ally.
We are here in Paris… enjoying a short holiday… and just finishing a $110 breakfast. Consumer prices are almost all, to some measure, dependent on energy. And Europe’s most important source of energy is Russia. Now that the Russians have cut off, indefinitely, gas coming from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, prices are on the rise. Consumer prices in England, for example, are expected to rise over 20%. Here’s Bloomberg: "Soaring energy bills are threatening to put six in 10 British manufacturers out of business, according to a survey that lays bare the extent of the crisis facing the next prime minister. “The current crisis is leaving businesses facing a stark choice,” the report said. “Cut production or shut up shop altogether if help does not come soon.”
And this from The Sun: "SEVEN in ten pubs could shut for good this winter because of rising energy costs, a survey reveals. Thousands of landlords already rocked by repeated lockdowns are teetering on the brink following a doubling in gas and electricity prices."
Another Curve to “Flatten”: Germany is shutting down its factories too. Its citizens are urged to turn off the lights, turn down the thermostat, and bathe in cold water. The French, meanwhile, are planning to ration electricity… but they’re also applauding this opportunity to shift to ‘green energy,’ as if it were possible to quickly replace Russian gas with windmills and solar panels.
Even level-headed Sweden, which resisted much of the Covid madness, has succumbed to anti-Russian propaganda. Aljazeera: "Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson warned that Sweden was facing the prospect of a “war winter” because of Europe’s energy crunch… Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Andersson said [financial] guarantees were aimed at giving energy groups “the breathing room that is needed.”
And now, from the Covid Panic Playbook, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, says the EU will propose a "mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours" in order to "flatten the curve."
We’ve enjoyed using power, on-demand, when we wanted it, all our lives. Forcing us to stop is like downsizing packages or printing money – another subtle form of impoverishment. But it’s for a good cause, right? The feds say that lower output of carbon dioxide will mean lower surface temperatures on Planet Earth; ‘it will be worth it,’ they say. But we don’t yet know what the price will be (wearing sweaters in the winter… or 100 million dead?)
Goldman Sachs put out a report this week, guessing about what cutting off Russian gas will do to Europe’s consumers: "In our view, the market continues to underestimate the depth, the breadth and the structural repercussions of the crisis – we believe these will be even deeper than the 1970s oil crisis. At current forward prices, we estimate that energy bills will peak early next year at c.€500/month for a typical European family, implying a c.200% increase vs. 2021. For Europe as a whole, this implies a c.€2 [trillion] surge in bills, or c.15% of GDP."
Earnest Planet Savers: While cutting off fossil fuel supplies to Europe will purge some carbon dioxide from the air, we don’t know if any particular act of purgery will make any difference at all. If we trade in our old F150 Ford truck for an electric model, will it reduce the heat of a Maryland summer by 1/100th of a degree? Or not at all? Or will we just sit in a long line waiting for a charge… like the Poles now sleeping in their cars at coal mines waiting for a sack of the dirty, old-fashioned fuel? And will our power plants end up running on coal, too, because the windmills can’t keep up?
Nor do we know what will happen if all goes ‘according to plan?’ Let’s say we all go along with Janet Yellen and rid the world of dependence on fossil fuel. And let’s say we pay the price – whatever it is… perhaps doubling the real price of food and energy… perhaps 100 million early deaths from cold or malnutrition (in areas of the world where people are already living on the edge)… and then, what a shame it would be if arriving at the water's edge… like the thousands of innocents in the ‘Children’s Crusade’ in 1212… the seas fail to part! What a shame if … despite all our sacrifices and suffering… the climate keeps changing anyway. What a pity if Planet Earth doesn’t really care what we think or what we do.
But the ‘we’ and the ‘our’ hide a great many distinctions and flimflam. Like so many Great Campaigns in history, the costs are likely to fall primarily on the poor, the weak… and the children. The price of energy could double; but the ‘deciders’ won’t have to explain to their children why they can’t afford heat. Janet Yellen… Ursula von der Leyen… Hillary Clinton – how many of the earnest Planet Savers will be forced to choose between feeding children or paying rent? Will any of them wait in long lines to recharge their electric cars… or buy a gallon of gasoline? Will their private jets be grounded? Will their cafĂ© lattes become unaffordable?
And then… when the campaign to alter the world’s temperatures fails… will they own up? Will they gush tears, like Robert McNamara, finally admitting that ‘we’ had killed a million people in Vietnam for nothing? Will they admit that they didn’t know what the hell they were doing?"
Related:
“We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil
- we will not supply anything,” Putin said.
"Putin Threatens to Let Europe ‘Freeze’ Over Winter,
Raising Risk of Energy Rationing"
by Holly Ellyatt
"Europe was already facing a difficult and unpredictable winter when it came to its energy supplies as it looks to phase out all Russian imports. But Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday again threatened to completely stop all supplies, a move which he hinted would leave Europe to “freeze.”
Russia has already halted gas supplies to the region citing technical issues on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, leaving the region vulnerable as it tries to replenish energy storage ahead of the colder months.
Responding to EU proposals to implement price caps on Russian energy imports, Putin told business leaders in Vladivostok that Russia could yet decide to rip up existing supply contracts. “Will there be any political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfill them. We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s far east. “We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil - we will not supply anything,” Putin said. “We would only have one thing left to do: as in the famous Russian fairy tale, we would let the wolf’s tail freeze,” he said.
Russian newspaper Pravda describes the tale as involving a cunning fox who made a stupid wolf catch fish in the frozen river by putting his tail into an ice hole. “The fox would hop around the desperate and hungry wolf saying “freeze, freeze, the wolf’s tail” until the ice hole froze trapping the wolf in the ice. Men from the village then came and beat the wolf for all the bad things that he had done to them in summer. The wolf struggled and escaped, but his tail was left in the frozen ice hole,” Pravda said.
Energy rationing: Putin’s threat to halt all supplies raises the risk of energy rationing in Europe this winter. The EU has already called upon its members to voluntarily reduce their gas consumption by 15% in the fall and winter but that might not be enough to allay the need for restrictions on gas use.
A number of European governments have announced measures to protect citizens from rocketing energy bills. In the meantime, Western nations are trying to put pressure on Russia’s energy revenues, which they say are funding the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, by proposing price caps on Russian oil and gas.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday described the situation facing Europe as “extraordinary, because Russia is an unreliable supplier and is manipulating our energy markets.” She said the Commission would put forward immediate measures to help consumers, including a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours, a cap on revenues of companies producing electricity with low costs, and other plans to share the burden of energy price rises.
“Low carbon energy sources are making unexpected revenues, which do not reflect their production costs. It is now time for consumers to benefit from the low costs of low carbon energy sources, like renewables,” von der Leyen said in a statement, saying fossil fuel companies should also contribute to easing pressures on consumers. “Oil and gas companies have also made massive profits. We will therefore propose a solidarity contribution for fossil fuel companies. Because all energy sources must help address this crisis.”
Von der Leyen said energy utility companies must be supported to cope with the volatility of the markets and proposed a cap on Russian gas. “The objective here is very clear. We must cut Russia’s revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war against Ukraine.” At the beginning of the war, she noted that the EU imported around 40% of its gas from Russia. It had reduced that level down to 9% of its gas imports, she said. EU energy ministers are set to meet on Friday to discuss the proposals outlined by the Commission."
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Jim Kunstler, "Here It Comes"
"Here It Comes"
The frolics of summer are done, the day shortens,
the sky darkens, the suspense deepens…
by Jim Kunstler
"Labor Day is in the rearview mirror and the long, sickening slide into we-know-not-what (but it can’t-be-good) commences! Well, there are a few things we know, but only in the shaggy outlines because the folks who are supposed to inform us - the news media, the public health gang - like to keep the real action behind a scrim of unicorns cavorting through a rainbow-lit candyland. Of course, we are not all the idiots they want us to be.
Here’s one thing we sort of know: you-all vaxx-happy Wokesters are about to have a new BA-5 bivalent booster laid on you. The Darwin Award season has been extended at least another six months! You’ll be glad to hear it’s been tested in a trial involving eight lab mice, and quickly approved by our FDA. The bad news is that all eight mice got Covid. The worse news is that the booster was wildly inconsistent in producing antibodies among the eight identical mice, meaning the ultimate effect on their immune systems is a crap-shoot - but, hey, they’re only mice.
Thus, some more good news: humans were so far spared any testing for this new miracle treatment. Pfizer and Moderna didn’t hurt anyone in any cobb-job trials, like they did the first time around (hiding the results). The not-so-good news is: nobody, especially no one in the FDA, has any idea what effect the new booster will have on humans. The best news is that our beneficent government will only make the new vax available to people who are already vaxxed. You have to be “eligible,” in the club, so to speak. Aren’t you special! I never joined that club, so it works for me.
I’d suppose, though, that a lot of people who originally joined the vaxx club will demur from pharma’s latest offering. Actually, most of them. Perhaps they’ve heard that each shot drains more mojo from your immune system. Perhaps they’ve heard about friends and relatives who developed sudden vicious cancers, neurological difficulties, vascular disasters, or lingering, unshakable Covid symptoms. Suppression of news has been epic, of course, but surely you’re aware that Justin Bieber lost the use of half his face six months ago. No world tour for Justin.
Another thing we know (this one for certain): a new leading cause of death throughout Western Civ in people under 60 is “Cause Unknown.” At least that’s the official designation because the officials running public health and the medical establishment don’t want to know what’s killing people. Or, more precisely, they don’t want you to know, so they pretend not to know.
If they suddenly felt the itch of curiosity, they might discover that the mRNA shots were behind the spread of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) - the interchangeable and equally ambiguous tag for this mystifying phenomenon. That might suggest to a Nancy Drew level medical sleuth that mRNA vaccines are not good for you, not “safe and effective,” that is, meaning that the entire two-plus-years of vaxxing up roughly 260,000,000 Americans has been a fraud, which would vacate Moderna’s and Pfizer’s liability shield for these products. Cue, every lawyer born after 1940.
Another thing we know for sure now is that people who are vaccinated are far more likely to catch Covid and also more likely to be hospitalized for it. One in fourteen Brits are currently infected with it, mainly the vaxxed-and-boosted. The media propaganda is full of people bragging that their bout of Covid, or several bouts of Covid - from which they were supposedly immune - “could have been much worse.” Actually, for many of the vaccinated, it is much worse. They don’t hear about it because the news media won’t tell them, and the news media executives do what their commissars in government and pharma tell them to do. “Jump!” (“How high?”)
A federal judge this week ordered the White House, Anthony, Fauci, Secretaries Becerra and Mayorkas, and a slew of other US officials to surrender their email correspondence with social and news media companies in the matter of government working to suppress the first amendment and, in the censoring, de-platforming, and defaming of many individual citizens who attempted to present views of the Covid melodrama contrary to the official narratives. This was in a suit brought by state Attorneys General Eric Schmidt (MO) and Jeff Landry (LA). From it, a million more lawsuits for personal injury may bloom. Mark Zuckerberg let the cat out of the bag days ago as to how the FBI leaned right on him.
Prepare for an avalanche of unwelcome news evading the censors as we slide out of summer into the cold-and-flu season, as it’s called. Hundreds of millions throughout the highly-vaxxed nations will be walking around with crippled immune systems. The life insurance companies may require a bail-out, from all those “unknown causes” that killed people. But so will every other institution in Western Civ.
Alas, the money for that is fated to go up in a vapor later this fall as history’s greatest margin call gets underway. Let’s face it, Europe and North America are sloughing off their industrial economies and the financialization racketeering underneath all that doesn’t produce anything of value. Seventy percent of the pubs in the UK are shuttering because they can’t pay the electric bill. Germany is just flat-out hanging itself in the basement. The Euro is going to trash.
A little birdie told me to expect a last gasp stock market rally the next ten days, with the Dow nearing 35,000. What a set-up. Markets are truly diabolical the way they prey on human wishes. God help the suckers watching CNBC.
Following his Mouth-of-Hell speech last week, declaring war on half the country, “Joe Biden’s” prospects are dimming along with sclerotic circuits in his brainpan. The Party of Chaos is desperate to survive the midterm election. Therefore, look for them to grudge up an excuse to make them not happen. They need a “national emergency” and they’ll manufacture one if necessary. Wait for it.
A postscript: the seemingly everlasting presence of Queen Elizabeth has peacefully departed this plane of existence. The old girl had a mighty good run, perhaps the best that will ever be, temporally at least, for any sovereign outside the sci-fi movies. This leaves Britain and its chattel domains with a king, Charles III. I’ve long identified, in a half-assed way, with this quirky fellow. We were born only a month apart, and I’ve witnessed all of his agonizing endless wait for the electric moment when he would rise to the crown and scepter.
Charles was very active in mid-life in the New Urbanist movement, as I was. I gave some talks in those years to the Prince’s Foundation, though I never met the guy. He did some really nice work, notably building the walkable town of Poundbury, Dorset, which he sponsored as a demonstration project to show that England would benefit from quitting its mode of suburban sprawl - which it most surely must do now with all its oil-and-gas problems.
There is chatter that King Charles has lately become a tool of der Hoch Schwabenklaus and his World Economic Forum, with its Satanic program for revising the human project into a nanobot horror show. I hope that is not so. The world needs a lot of help right now, and not from that gang. Here’s wishing Charles an upright and valiant go at the kingship thing, at least lending some honest moral support to his floundering country."
"I Can't Believe They Are Doing This"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/9/22:
"I Can't Believe They Are Doing This"
"Living through a time that has some tradition. Everything is lost in every aspect of our lives. We cannot help but realize that interest rates are going to go sky high and the real estate market is going to drop and affect everything around us."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Banks To Get Another Bailout! It Starts With The ECB"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/9/22:
"Banks To Get Another Bailout! It Starts With The ECB"
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 9/9/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 9/9/22"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"You are not seeing this in the reporting, but Europe is imploding in every way possible. The only thing that will stop this unfolding crash is to stop the Ukraine war–and stop it now. There are no signs this is going to happen. There are plenty of signs that Europe’s coming monstrous crash will drag the globe into the Greatest Depression in history. Inflation is skyrocketing, and the European Central Bank is coming to the rescue by raising interest rates .75%!!! Talk about throwing a drowning man a boat anchor, that’s what raising interest rates is.
The pro-Biden psyop is in full swing, and it needs to be because the real numbers of his approval rating are around 12%. I said the real numbers, not the fake polling that shows Biden surging as inflation continues to roar. It makes no sense that Biden’s official approval rating, according to the propaganda media, was 42% last month, and now, he’s beating Trump in a 2024 matchup by 6 points. 48% for Biden and only 42% for Trump. August 21, 2022, NBC News slipped up and showed a poll where 74% of Americans said the “country was on the wrong track.” Fake news and fake polls abound in the pro-Biden psyop. The real approval number, according to Martin Armstrong, is 12%. Let that sink in, and that will explain a lot.
We are just getting started with the deadly and debilitating effects of the CV19 bioweapon injections. We have children getting heart disease and people dropping dead because of the experimental shots. Now, more and more people are experience long blood clots being pulled from their veins. An Ohio junior in high school was the latest victim to have a 6-foot blood clot pulled from his leg. His football career is over, but will his life be cut short too? Doctors say they are “baffled,” but are they just covering up to keep their jobs? This is too stupid to be stupid. When are doctors going to stand up and say stop the shots. It’s killing and maiming people in very large numbers. It’s going to get much worse, and that is the science and not the political science or the science fiction surrounding the Big LIE of the CV19 “vaccines.” There is much more in the 50-min. newscast."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 9/9/22:
Thursday, September 8, 2022
"15 Brutally Honest Reasons Why The Middle Class Will Never Get To Retire"
Full screen recommended.
"15 Brutally Honest Reasons Why The
Middle Class Will Never Get To Retire"
by Epic Economist
"Some people love their jobs so much they want to work forever. But truth be told – the vast majority of us would like to hang up our work hats at some point and be able to relax next to the people we love. Life is short and we don’t want to be working until we draw our last breath. Unfortunately, there’s some bad news: You might never be able to retire. In fact, millions of middle-class Americans will never get that chance, and in today’s video, we brought you several reasons that show you why.
A recent exposĂ© published by The Guardian highlights that that’s the grim reality of a growing number of Americans, who are forced to work into their senior years because they can’t afford not to have a job. Estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that over the next decade, the number of workers ages 75 and older is expected to increase in the US by 96.5%, with their labor force participation rate projected to rise from 8.9% in 2020 to 11.7% by 2030, a rate that has steadily increased from 4.7% in 1996. By 2040, the US population of adults ages 65 and older is expected to skyrocket to 80.8 million from 54.1 million in 2019. As the aging US population grows, participation in retirement plans has continues to decline. “Nearly half of all families in the US have no retirement savings at all and inequality among Americans based on retirement savings is greater than income inequality. Over 15 million adults ages 65 and older are economically insecure, with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line,” the report reveals.
“I have no savings, no assets, I don’t even own the home I’ve been renting for 15 years,” said Dr. Lisa Natale, 65, who still works as a chiropractor in Hawaii. “There’s no way I could afford to retire.”Similarly, Ted Newman of Columbus, Ohio, is a retired state government employee, but still needs to work full-time to be able to make ends meet.“I have been working full-time for the last 8 years since retiring, and my wife also. Her yearly salary went almost completely to pay student debt and I worked to have extras for the home,” said Newman.
Our population is growing old but their debt isn’t going anywhere. Over 9 million Americans ages 50 and older still have student debt, and the amount owed by this group is growing faster than any other age group. The report outlines that before the pandemic, 40,000 Americans had their social security retirement benefits garnished for student loans. Jane Switchenko, 63, of Massachusetts, says she and her 68-year-old husband cannot afford to retire, because of the debt they took out for their children to attend college.
“My husband and I must work until we die. Parent plus loans take over $1,000 a month, every month, for a decade now and we continue to see a rising balance,” said Switchenko. “Not only can we not retire, we cannot afford to fix our old house – we are desperate for new windows, have a leaking chimney, and need new electrical work done.” She added: “We work hard. We are frugal, but we’re getting up there and have nothing to look forward to because of these loans. We have five grandchildren and don’t know what we’ll be able to buy for Christmas.”
This has become the sad reality of what used the be the most prosperous economic group in America. They once could afford not only to live but thrive and dream of a better future. But now, they're trapped in a nightmare of collapsing living standards, rising prices, and giant piles of debt."
"You Can't Afford Groceries And It's About To Get Worse"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/8/22:
"You Can't Afford Groceries And It's About To Get Worse"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Trends In The News"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 9/8/22:
"Trends In The News"
"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."
Comments here:
"Western Europe Now Facing 'Total Financial Collapse'"
by Mike Adams
"Western Europe is facing "total collapse" from catastrophic scarcity and price hikes surrounding food, fertilizer, energy and industry, warns David Dubyne, featured in today's Situation Update podcast. Silver guru David Morgan, also featured in today's podcast, adds that European banks are facing the possibility of systemic failures (and "bail-ins") due to exposure to energy markets and the desire of Western European governments to keep printing money.
Today's death of Queen Elizabeth II couldn't be more timely, as the death of Western Europe likely won't be far behind. The Queen has died, but so has common sense, rationality, financial sanity and agricultural integrity. No civilization can survive without food, energy and money, and the leaders of Western Europe are determined to destroy all three.
Today's podcast is the most important I've published this year. Take the time to listen to both interviews and the full analysis. See the article and podcast here.":
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Related:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"This fantastic skyscape lies near the edge of NGC 2174 a star forming region about 6,400 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Orion. It follows mountainous clouds of gas and dust carved by winds and radiation from the region's newborn stars, now found scattered in open star clusters embedded around the center of NGC 2174, off the top of the frame.
Though star formation continues within these dusty cosmic clouds they will likely be dispersed by the energetic newborn stars within a few million years. Recorded at infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, the interstellar scene spans about 6 light-years. Scheduled for launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is optimized for exploring the Universe at infrared wavelengths."
"As Far As We Can Discern..."
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human
existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."
- Carl Jung
The Poet: Rolf Jacobsen, "When They Sleep"
"When They Sleep"
"All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
God, teach me the language of sleep."
- Rolf Jacobsen,
"The Roads Have Come To An End Now"
"How Russia Fights A War"
"How Russia Fights A War"
by Andrei, The Saker
"Some very basic stuff about Russian defenses in the SMO. Yesterday I posted a short SITREP about the Ukrainian offensive on Balakleia. And, sure enough, there are 72 comments on this already! Many of them show a total misunderstanding of the nature of the SMO (it was a mistake for me to post a map which, obviously, most people cannot make sense of!). So all I propose to do today is to explain something really basic about the concept of defense (in reality defensive operations are much more complex!).
First, this how Hollywood and the mainstream media present defense: you stand and fight, and if the enemy overruns your defensive position, you lost. The reality could not be further from this silly notion.
For one thing, the USA never fought a real war, never mind a defensive one. As for the Europeans, they are used to the kind of terrain you would have in central Europe, i.e. a terrain with a lot of geographical and topological features which favor a dug in static defense. For example, I did my basic training in an electronic warfare unit which was mostly deployed in the Swiss mountains and I can tell you that a single mountain infantry company (in some extreme cases even a well prepared platoon!) can fully lock a narrow valley or a pass against an entire mechanized/armored battalion (especially if that mountain infantry is supported by well concealed – mountains are ideal for that – and powerful long range artillery!).
Much of Europe is what is called “mixed terrain” that is to say a mix of fields, forests, small town and villages, many rivers (often with steep banks and rapid currents), bigger and stronger regional towns, etc. etc. etc. In that terrain you are naturally inclined to make the best use of these features and hold on to good defensive positions. In fact, in this kind of terrain it is often impossible to deploy a full mechanized/tank brigade or division (they are too big!) and you are simply forced to fight mostly infantry battles with smaller subunits.
The Ukraine is totally different. The eastern Ukraine, the Donbass, has a lot of small towns, and this is why the Ukrainians dug in and hold towns like Avdeevka. However, once you leave that more heavily populated line of towns and villages, you mostly have open steppe with a few rivers and scattered forests, many of them pretty small. This is why only small Ukronazi units can hide in these small forests, their bigger units mostly hide inside towns and cities, basically using the local civilians as “human shields” and since these Nazis hate the local “separs” anyway – they have no illusions about the real sympathies of most Ukrainians in the south and east – they don’t care at all if scores of civilians die in Russian strikes! In fact, in a recent video Gonzalo Lira, who is currently in Kharkov, stated that since most of the anti-Russian locals are under no illusion about the inevitable outcome, they have long left Kharkov, hence the SBU’s “hunt” for “separs” and other “pigdogs” and “biomaterial” amongst the remaining population. Yet another reason for the Russian to do everything humanly possible to avoid civilian casualties!
So in the case of warfare in the Ukraine, I think that it is helpful to think of it as “a land version of a naval battle” which centers not on the control of this or that wave, but on destroying the enemy forces while not getting destroyed yourself.
The next thing which I need to bring up is force concentrations. The war in the Ukraine is more similar to soccer in which attackers and defenders fight each other all over the field than to US football in which there is a clear line of scrimmage and where everything is about “conquering” more terrain or advancing downfield. This means that there are always temporarily unoccupied “grey zones” (think of them as parts of the soccer field which happen to be empty but which could quickly become a “combat area” if a pass is made there and two players will fight each other for control of the ball). Just these two facts very strongly suggest that a mobile defense is the way to go on such terrain. These are generalizations, of course, but by and large they apply.
Next, when you have enough manpower, you normally would organize your defense into two, more rarely three, defensive echelons so if the enemy breaks through the first line, he is faced with a second line of defense and his flanks are potentially exposed to envelopment from all sides. And just to make sure that your defenses hold, it is recommended to have a reserve force behind the 2nd line of defense ready to “plug” any “holes” and/or to be used in a counter-attack (and if things go well, this reserve for can be used as a maneuver group to counter-attack). With a few crucial exceptions, this is not the case in the Ukraine, especially not for the Russian forces who are roughly at a 1:3 numerical disadvantage. This 1:3 figure is misleading, because it ignores the kind of force ratios which can be achieved locally.
Conversely, the Russians have an advantage in 1) firepower 2) maneuverability (they can move under the protection of Russian airpower and artillery, which the Ukrainians cannot) 3) logistics 4) reach (the Russians can strike even in the far western Ukraine 5) C3ISR 6) morale and 7) training.
There is another rule of thumb which should not be taken as dogma, but which is still helpful to keep in mind: a successful attack often requires a 3:1 advantage for the attacking side. This ratio can go up to 6:1 and even higher in strongly built cities. Since the Russians already have an overall 1:3 DIS-advantage in manpower, it is quite possible that in specific segments of the front, that disadvantage might locally peak at even much worse ratios, yet another argument for the Russians to first grind down Ukronazi forces, if needed by conceding terrain, before engaging in any counter-attack/counter-offensive. And this is why:
All these Russian advantages all dictate a flexible, mobile, defensive strategy to counter Ukrainian attacks. In other words, it would be absolutely INSANE for Russians to try to hold a static defensive line at all cost just to prevent the Ukronazis to claim yet another “immense victory”. So, keeping this in might, let’s revisit the Ukrainian “counter-offensives”, bullet style.
These supposed “counter-offensives” were announced weeks in advance (which the Russians noticed). Then the Ukrainians began by sustained artillery strikes to weaken the Russian defenses (and, thereby, indicate again to the Russians where they planned to attack). Then the Ukrainians concentrated large forces (which the Russians saw, of course) and then threw them all into a (relatively) mass assault on what they believed were the weakest spots in the Russian defenses.
This is what happened north of Kherson and this is what is happening just north of Balakleia now. And it will happen again on other parts of the immense frontline. And, each time, the Russians will resist if/when possible, but they will quickly concede terrain and fall back if pressed hard, not only to save Russian lives (why waste them for a few trenches or buildings??) and to “pull in” the Ukrainians into a network of mobile defenses.
So how does a mobile defense work? Basically, it uses the Russian advantages (firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale and training) to save as many Russian lives as possible while killing as many Ukrainian soldiers are possible. Why? Because while terrain can always be re-conquered, dead soldiers cannot be resurrected.
So let me repeat this again: the Russians retreating before a determined Ukrainian attack is not the exception in this war, it is the rule. So we should EXPECT the Russians to do that every time the Ukrainians launch a mass assault and sends entire battalions into the Russian meat grinder.
Some have suggested that this is bad tactic since it gives Kiev a good PSYOP/PR opportunity. To this I will reply two things: Kiev does not need anything anchored in reality to declare “heroic victories”, they can literally take a photo in the “grey zone”, then quickly run away and present that as a huge victory (they did just that a few days ago)
Russian commanders will not sacrifice Russian soldiers for a short lived PR victory. That would be both immoral and totally self-defeating.
Think of the Russian advantages for a second (again: firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale and training) and realize that they are all dependent on the Russian ability to fight against the Ukronazis with lower manpower which, in turn, should suggest to you that the single most precious element of the Russian warfighting machine is the Russian solider: if the Russians tried to emulate Ukrainian “tactics” (i.e., throwing as much meat in the meatgrinder as available) they would quickly run out of the required manpower which, in turn, would create both military and political problems for the Kremlin.
And now, a flashback of sorts. Remember when before the Russian SMO many observers including myself said that Russia would not invade the Ukraine simply because the Russians didn't have the kind of numbers needed to invade the Ukraine? Well, this was true then and this is STILL true! The SMO is not a regular combined arms operation and the Russian STILL do not have the kind of manpower to “occupy the Ukraine”. However, what the Russians did is the following:
First, they gave the US/NATO (not the clowns in Kiev) and ultimatum which they knew the West would reject.
Next, they basically destroyed the Ukrainian military as a coherent whole and broke it up into smaller, uncoordinated forces. Oh sure, after a week or so, the Ukrainians still had a few aircraft left, plenty of subunits (brigades and below), some air defenses, etc. but what they lost is the ability to use all these resources as part of a single plan!
Then the Russian began slowly and methodically grinding down the huge Ukrainian force in the Donbass (that is the force whose attack the Russians preempted). They pushed hard along the coast creating a southern front which the Ukrainians had to protect, tying down Ukrainian forces (which are still terrified by a possible Russian land and amphibious assault towards Nikolaev and Odessa).
And now they are basically waiting for the Ukrainians to come to them instead of going after the Ukrainians. Oh sure, when possible, the Russians will push forward, but they will concede terrain if/when needed.
Which leaves one last parameter: time. Banderastan is a bloody mess, a failed state, a country which is turning into a horror show run by a mix of local Nazis and US Neocons (what an ugly pair these two make!). Western governments, ALL OF THEM, are in really bad shape, all the western economies have gone over the edge and are now falling into a recession and even into a full scale de-industrialization. The biggest western power, the USA, is run by a brain-dead old man, a former call-girl and with a Neocon ruling class which is absolutely terrified of the upcoming elections.
In sharp contrast, the Russian economy’s contraction will be in the 2% range by the end of the year, Putin is as popular as ever, as is Mishustin, the vast majority of Russians fully support the SMO and the Russian economy (a real economy, not a FIRE based one!) is flush with money and has the support of most of the planet.
So whose side is time on? I think that the answer is obvious. So the full list of Russian advantages should also include time: firepower, maneuverability, logistics, reach, C3ISR, morale, training and time. [Sidebar: right now there is still plenty of forest and foliage in the Ukraine, but with the winter coming, this “green” cover will become very thin, making it even harder to hide for the Ukrainian forces! That is also one more reason why the Russians are now mostly waiting.]
Remember how “Ze” spoke of a “million soldiers army”? Well, that is nonsense, of course, but it shows one thing: “Ze” feels that his biggest advantage is to thrown tens and even hundred of thousands of soldiers in suicidal attacks. As for the West, it poured so much money, manpower and hardware into the country that many western leaders now complain that their countries have now compromised their own reserves of weapon systems. The US alone is spending $228 million dollars PER DAY on the Ukrainian fiasco. In sharp contrast, Putin is now openly saying that the SMO has been “beneficial” for Russia!
Apparently, “Ze” and his Neocon masters want to try to “drown the Russian military in Ukrainian blood“. If you sincerely believe that this is a winning strategy, please contact me as I have some super bridges to sell you for very cheap prices. 🙂
Having said all that, if the next time the Russians retreat for a few kilometers you want to either freak out and declare that “all is lost” or proclaim with great gravitas that “Russia is losing the war”, by all means, feel free to do so. I will just ignore these claims simply because, frankly, I am sick and tired of repeating the same truisms over and over and over again, especially when plenty of “commentators” don’t even bother reading what I wrote, they just want to flood the comments section with their talking points!
If you rather trust Girkin-Strelkov or Arestovich that is fine by me as long as you don’t have to parrot their nonsense in the comments section which I consider as “deliberate pollution of the comments section”. That will get you banned and, once we have the “comments for signed-up commentators only” thing ready, I will simply remove you from the approved list.
Anyway, that is all I had to say for right now. I hope that the above has been helpful (though I am under no illusions: as I said, trolls don’t even bother reading what I write, they just need to populate the comments section with their slogans)."
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Hat tip to Stucky at The Burning Platform for this material.
'I Don't Believe..."
"I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”
- Tennessee Williams
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! Not Good! This Is Ridiculous!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 9/8/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! Not Good! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Aldi, 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:
"The Time of Economic Abundance is Over"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/8/22:
"The Time of Economic Abundance is Over"
"More and more people are affected by inflation. Interest rates are going up. There’s a lack of energy around the world. The prices are going to be sky high over the course of the next six months. "
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Goldman Sachs Warns Of Severe Drop In Real Estate Prices... Could Be A Black Swan"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/8/22:
"Alert! Goldman Sachs Warns Of Severe Drop In
Real Estate Prices... Could Be A Black Swan"
Comments here:
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Bill Bonner, "Renewable Faith"
"Renewable Faith"
Testing mankind's eternal belief in fake money,
green energy and political hubris...
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "The West became very rich by ‘printing’ money to buy many more consumer goods than the value of the output made warranted. But that ability to ‘print’ arose from unique circumstances of low inflation - that was, in turn, enabled by cheap exports coming from Russia and China. Naturally, the West crucially doesn’t want the low inflation paradigm to end, but in this conflicted era where commodities, factories, and fleets of ships are dominated by states (Russia and China) that are in conflict with the West, the low inflation world has reached its end."
~ Alistair Crooke
"Thoughts, like viruses, pass from person to person; some succumb, some recover, some are barely affected at all. And then, when enough people get the bug, they are likely to do something crazy. Not just individually, but collectively.
In the 13th century, the Christian ‘West’ allowed as many as 60,000 of its children to embark on a suicidal crusade to the Holy Lands. The idea – according to traditional accounts – was that two groups… one from France and the other from Germany… would march to the Mediterranean (begging for food along the way) and there, with the Grace of God upon them, the sea would part. We can imagine their disappointment when the water failed to cooperate. What happened next is subject to dispute. But it was long believed that many were loaded onto ships and sold in the slave markets of North Africa.
You will say: ‘What morons!’ But was the Childrens’ Crusade so much more benighted than today’s great campaigns? After all, the Moors in the Holy Land represented a ‘clear and present’ danger to Christendom’s most sacred sites. And the children; perhaps innocence would succeed where hardened warriors had failed?
Solar Fossil Fuel: History is festooned with such wild tales. The purge of protestants from France… the purge of Jews from Europe…the purge of muslims from India and Armenians from Anatolia – all were bloody disasters, and most were catastrophes for the perps as well as the victims. They left millions of corpses… millions of refugees… broken families, broken countries and broken societies.
And now, ‘western’ civilization undertakes its most ambitious purges ever – to bleed out racism, sexism and inequality… (it has apparently given up the fight against poverty and drugs)…and to rid the world of fossil fuel. Janet Yellen, America’s Treasury Secretary, and former head of the Fed, will take up this last challenge today. The Hill: "Yellen will vow to ‘rid’ US from ‘dependence on fossil fuels’ in Detroit speech."
"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will call out the fossil fuel industry in a Thursday speech on the Biden administration’s economic agenda to be delivered in Detroit, Mich., where oil and gas companies have long held influence in the U.S. auto manufacturing sector. The visit to Detroit comes on the heels of the Democrats’ passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes $14.2 billion worth of subsidies for electric vehicles meant to wean the auto industry off of gasoline in an effort to reduce U.S. transportation emissions that are contributing to a rise in global temperatures."
As they say on TV: ‘What could go wrong?’ We don’t know. But if 15% of our power is generated, as claimed, from “renewable” sources, that means that 6.8 billion people depend 100% on the energy from the sun, condensed over millions of years into ‘fossil’ fuels. And while governments have encouraged the use of more ‘green energy’ – putting up windmills all over Europe – most of the energy in the Old World still comes from oil, gas and coal. So, with that as prologue, let’s look at what is already going wrong, right now, in Europe.
Childlike Faith: First, most Old World countries went with childlike faith for the ‘lockdown strategy’ when the Covid hit. It was obvious from the early reports coming from Italy in February 2020, that lockdowns were unnecessary. The disease targeted the old and the weak – not the general population. The average age of death from Covid was little different from the average age of death without the Covid. In other words, it posed a considerable risk to some people, but little to most people.
These initial findings were confirmed two years later, when the ultimate infection and death rates were little different between those countries (or US states) with strict lockdowns… and those that were more relaxed about it. Lockdowns produced nothing but inconvenience and financial losses. And those collateral damages are piling up. Look at how our children (the ones who were never at risk from the Covid) pay the cost. Here’s just one that came to our ‘inbox’ yesterday. The World Bank:
"This generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures, according to a new report published today by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The new projection reveals that the impact is more severe than previously thought, and far exceeds the $10 trillion estimates released in 2020."
Years before the Covid, European economies were already deeply infected with central bank jackassery. Interest rates went below zero in Denmark in 2012… and then, the European Central Bank (ECB) followed.
Three-Legged Race: Even now, with double digit inflation in many places in Europe, ECB interest rates have only just risen – to zero! The inflation rate in Estonia is 23%. Europe-wide it is 9.8%. This leaves the ECB real rate at nearly MINUS 10% (in the US, the Fed Funds rate subtracted from the CPI gives us a real rate of MINUS 6%).
Like Americans, Europeans only have two feet. But they found a way to shoot themselves in a third one. When the Russo-Ukrainian conflict broke out, they could have gone either way… or sensibly ignored the whole thing. Instead, they chose to make an enemy out of the country that delivers their fuel. Along with their fellow naifs in America, they sent money and weapons to the Ukraine and applied sanctions to Russia.
Joe Biden led off the madness when – by Executive Order! – he banned the importation of Russian energy into the United States. Then, Europeans jumped into that woebegone crusade with all three feet. They could not ban Russian energy; they needed it. Instead, they joined US sanctions against all manner of Russian goods and services… and seized Russian assets – even the yachts and chic apartments of Russia’s oligarchs – while hoping that the gas would keep coming. ‘Russia needs the money,’ they said to themselves. But last week, the Russians said ‘nyet.’ Playtime is over. No more gas."
"What's next? Stay tuned..."
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Related:
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
"This Winter, Europe Plunges Into 'The New Dark Ages'”
"This Winter, Europe Plunges Into 'The New Dark Ages'”
by Michael Snyder
"Could you imagine being sent to prison for three years if you dared to set your thermostat above 66 degrees Fahrenheit? As you will see below, this is a proposed regulation that is actually being considered in a major European country right now. If you have not been paying much attention to what is happening in Europe, you need to wake up. Natural gas in Europe is seven times more expensive than it was early last year, and that is because of the war in Ukraine. Over the past few decades, the Europeans foolishly allowed themselves to become extremely dependent on gas from Russia. In fact, more than 55 percent of the natural gas that Germany uses normally comes from Russia. But now the war has changed everything, and Europe is facing an extremely harsh winter of severe shortages, mandatory rationing and absolutely insane heating bills.
Things are going to get very cold and very dark all over Europe in the months ahead, and those Europeans that choose to rebel against the new restrictions that are being implemented could literally find themselves in prison…"Switzerland is considering jailing anyone who heats their rooms above 19C for up to three years if the country is forced to ration gas due to the Ukraine war. The country could also give fines to those who violate the proposed new regulations. Speaking to Blick, Markus Sporndli, who is a spokesman for the Federal Department of Finance, explained that the rate for fines on a daily basis could start at 30 Swiss Francs (£26)."
19 degrees Celsius is just 66 degrees Fahrenheit. If you live in Europe, prepare to dress very warmly this winter. Some may be anticipating that they will just use portable radiant heaters to keep things toasty, but apparently using such heaters “would not be allowed” under the new regulations that Switzerland is considering…"Blick also reported that radiant heaters would not be allowed and saunas and swimming pools would have to stay cold."
This is serious. We have never seen anything like this before, and the longer the war in Ukraine stretches on the worse the energy crisis in Europe will become.
An end to the era of cheap energy also means that a severe economic slowdown is in the cards, and this is already starting to show up in the numbers…"Europe is showing signs of heading into a recession as multiple economic surveys show the region’s services and manufacturing sectors slowing down while a large number of the continent’s citizens are struggling to cope with rising prices. The S&P Global Eurozone Composite Output Index fell to an 18-month low in August at 48.9, according to a Sept. 5 news release (pdf). The eurozone private sector “moved further into contractionary territory” in August. Both services and manufacturing output fell for the month."
Of course what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning. Things are likely to get really bad this winter. In fact, German Economic Minister Robert Habeck has publicly admitted that some parts of the German economy will “simply stop producing for the time being”. Wow. And the truth is that this is already starting to happen…
"In yet another truly astonishing announcement that demonstrates the desperation of this hour, German steelmaker ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steel production facilities in Europe, has shuttered operations due to high energy prices. (See their announcement here, in German.) “With gas and electricity prices increasing tenfold within just a few months, we are no longer competitive in a market that is 25% supplied by imports,” said CEO Reiner Blaschek."
This comes after announced closures of aluminum smelters, copper smelters and ammonia production plants over the last few weeks. Ammonia - necessary for fertilizer - is now 70% offline in the EU. Many more factories will be forced to shut down in the coming months. Deeply alarmed by what is taking place, 40 CEOs from Europe’s metals industry have jointly issued an open letter in which they warn that their companies are facing an “existential threat to our future”…
"Ahead of Friday’s emergency summit, the business leaders of Europe’s non-ferrous metals industry are writing together to raise the alarm about Europe’s worsening energy crisis and its existential threat to our future. Our sector has already been forced to make unprecedented curtailments in the last 12 months. We are deeply concerned that the winter ahead could deliver a decisive blow to many of our operations, and we call on EU and Member State leaders to take emergency action to preserve their strategic electricity-intensive industries and prevent permanent job losses.
50% of the EU’s aluminium and zinc capacity has already been forced offline due to the power crisis, as well as significant curtailments in silicon and ferroalloys production and further impacts felt across copper and nickel sectors. In the last month, several companies have had to announce indefinite closures and many more are on the brink ahead of a life-or-death winter for many operations. Producers face electricity and gas costs over ten times higher than last year, far exceeding the sales price for their products. We know from experience that once a plant is closed it very often becomes a permanent situation, as re-opening implies significant uncertainty and cost."
This is what an economic collapse looks like. Things are already so bad that scientists are even considering shutting down the Large Hadron Collider…"Europe’s energy crisis is being felt by everyone – including the scientists working deep underground in Switzerland at the Large Hadron Collider. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, is even considering taking its particle accelerators offline. This is due to the accelerators’ high energy demands, and the organization’s desire to keep the region’s electricity grid stable."
So at least one good thing could potentially come out of this crisis. But overall, the months ahead are going to be an immensely uncomfortable time for Europe. As conditions become tougher and tougher, ordinary Europeans are going to become angrier and angrier. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is openly admitting that there will be “civil unrest”, but he insists that Europeans must make sacrifices in order to support the war in Ukraine…"Vladimir Putin’s ‘energy blackmail’ over Europe could lead to ‘civil unrest’ this winter, the NATO Secretary General has warned. Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that winter ‘will be hard’ as ‘families and businesses feel the crunch of soaring energy prices and costs of living’ in the coming months. Writing in the Financial Times, the boss of the Western security alliance said that it is worth paying the price to support Ukraine."
Eventually, there will be tremendous civil unrest in major cities in the United States as well. We are still only in the very early stages of this new global energy crisis, and it is going to turn all of our lives upside down.
Meanwhile, we are also plunging into a horrific global food crisis. As I detailed a few days ago, even the head of the UN is admitting that there will be “multiple famines” in 2023. Life as we know it is about to change.
Right now, all eyes are on Europe because things are starting to get really crazy over there. Europe is going to descend into “the new Dark Ages” this winter, and the entire world will experience extreme pain as a result."
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