So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Gerald Celente, "We Need A Revolution In The Hearts And Minds Of Men"
Gerald Celente, 4/5/23
"We Need A Revolution In The Hearts And Minds Of Men"
"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."
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"Our Very Own 'Minsky Moment'”
"Our Very Own 'Minsky Moment'”
by Addison Wiggin
"Whereas all capitalisms are flawed,
not all capitalisms are equally flawed.”
- Hyman Minsky
“The mere mention of a ‘Minsky moment’,” Enda Curran wrote in a Bloomberg piece last week, “is enough to send shudders through the spines of policy makers.” The Minsky Moment is defined as “a sudden crash of markets and economies that are hooked on debt.” Curran: "The theory stems from the work of Hyman Minsky, a US economist who specialized in how excessive borrowing fuels financial instability. Sky-high debt levels around the world, coupled with towering financial market valuations, have kept Minsky’s theory prominent, drawing warnings from the International Monetary Fund and others. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once described his work as “required reading.”
What, we wonder, has Janet Yellen learned? Yellen is a disciple of Ben Bernanke, himself a disciple of Alan Greenspan. She is also the mentor to San Francisco Fed CEO Marcy Daly, who, while keeping an eye on banking equity, diversity and climate change… forgot to look at the risk posed by rising interest rates at banks like Silicon Valley Bank.
It’s puzzling, obviously. Fortunately, it’s one we’re actively engaged in trying to solve. Or… at least… trying to recognize what pieces we’ll need to have on hand in order to solve the puzzle. Below is an excerpt from our 2003 best-seller Financial Reckoning Day where we first described the “Minsky Moment.” We’re on deadline with John Wiley & Sons to produce an updated edition of FRD that will encompass the past 15 years since the 2008 crisis. We hope you’ll forgive us for having Minsky on the brain at the moment.
From the chapter in Financial Reckoning Day titled, “Progress, Perfectibility and the End of History”: "The obvious “flaw” in capitalism is that both the capitalists and the proletariat are all too human. They are not Digital Men: They do not calmly measure the risk and calculate the return. Instead, they make their most important decisions - such as where to live, what to do, and with whom they will do it - not with their heads, but with their hearts.
A man gets married, for example, not after carefully toting up the pluses and minuses, as a machine might, but as a dumb beast of burden following instincts he will never understand. He lumbers into church as if he were going to war—that is, without a clue. Men do not usually go to the altar or to war after much rational calculation and reflection. Instead, they are swept along by whatever emotional currents come their way, and they risk their lives and their comforts for causes that, in the calm of retrospect, usually seem absurd. Caught up in whatever madness is fashionable, men do the most amazing things. But that is this vale of tears that we live in.
Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis sets out to show how capitalism is inherently unstable. He might as well have set out to show that beer goes bad if you leave it to sit out too long or that children get cross if they do not get enough sleep. For capitalism, like life and death, is a natural thing; and like all things natural, it is unstable.
But what is interesting in Minsky’s oeuvre is a little insight that might have been useful in the late 1990s. Among the delusions suffered by investors at the time was the notion that American capitalism had reached a stage of dynamic equilibrium and was constantly inventing new and more exciting means of making people rich. Booms and busts were thought to be a thing of the past for two reasons: First, because better information made it possible for businesses to avoid inventory buildups; and second, because the science of central bank management had attained a new level of enlightenment. It could now figure out precisely how much credit the economy wanted at any moment and make sure it got what it needed.
In the absence of the normal down phases of the business and credit cycles, the economy seemed more stable than ever before. But Minsky noted that profit-seeking firms always try to leverage their assets as much as possible. He might have added that consumers do the same thing. Without fear of a recession or credit crunch, Homo sapiens, whether in the office or the den, were likely to overdo it. “Stability is destabilizing,” Minsky concluded. Nothing fails like success, in other words.
Minsky refers to Keynes’s concept of a “veil of money” between real assets and the ultimate owner of the wealth. Assets are often mortgaged, financed, leveraged, or otherwise encumbered. This veil of money gets thicker as financial life becomes more complex and makes it hard to see who is actually getting rich and who is not. When house prices rise, for example, it seems that the homeowner should be the beneficiary. But homeowners now own much less of their homes than they did a few years ago.
Banks, we noted during the run up to the housing bubble, had a strong stake in home values. Fannie Mae had worn a veil of money as sticky as flypaper. The hapless homeowners hardly had a chance. They got stuck almost immediately. In the end, they were hopelessly glued and could not get away. Instead of coming up with innovative new ways to make people rich, the United States’ financial intermediaries - notably Wall Street and the banks - came up with ways to make them poor.
“The financial instability hypothesis,” Minsky explains, “is a theory of the impact of debt on system behavior and also incorporates the manner in which debt is validated. In contrast to the orthodox ‘Quantity Theory’ of money, the financial instability hypothesis takes banking seriously as a profit-seeking activity. Banks seek profits by financing activity and bankers, like all entrepreneurs in a capitalist economy, are aware that innovation assures profits. Thus, bankers whether they be brokers or dealers, are merchants of debt who strive to innovate in the assets they acquire and the liabilities they market.”
So it goes,"
P.S. “In Minsky’s mind,” we wrote in 2003 referring to his theory put forth in the 1950s while he was studying the Great Depression, “capitalism is naturally unstable and needs the government to stabilize it. Roughly, this is also the view of the Democratic Party.” It’s hard to believe we wrote that two decades ago, until you look at how much more the Democratic Party… and Republicans, too… have come around to the same point of view. Both, more aggressively pursuing their aims without regard to individual or economic liberty. Alas, that too, is a story for another day."
"The Exit is Closing"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 4/5/23
"The Exit is Closing"
"We are now seeing large asset managers cut off withdraws to investors.
The exits are closed. Plus, home sellers go on strike."
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Tuesday, April 4, 2023
"Banks Are Bleeding Cash, Emergency FED Rate Cut Won't Work"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/4/23
"Banks Are Bleeding Cash,
Emergency FED Rate Cut Won't Work"
Comments here:
"Trader Joe's Facing Extensive Shortages As Essential Products Disappear From Store Shelves"
Full screen recommended.
"Trader Joe's Facing Extensive Shortages As
Essential Products Disappear From Store Shelves"
by Epic Economist
"Are you noticing that shelves are getting emptier at your local Trader Joe’s? Many shoppers say that multiple essential grocery products have disappeared from the supermarket chain’s stores, and experts confirm that shortages are back. Not only that but the company recently reported that it is discontinuing several items, and new reports reveal that Trader Joe’s is facing rising backlash from some of its recent controversies. The future of the grocer is also being put into question due to supply chain and delivery issues in the era of the relentless retail apocalypse.
One of the most popular grocery store chains in America, the Hawaiian-themed Trader Joe’s, is suffering a disproportionate impact from supply chain problems compared to other big competitors, experts say. In a recent Reddit thread, thousands of shoppers have mentioned that some of their favorite products are out of stock or have disappeared from the store for good. According to Eat This, Not That, the social media conversation started when one user shared a photo of Trader Joe’s frozen hash browns behind a red sign that read: "Limit 2 hashbrowns per household."
The Reddit user noted that the purchasing limit he saw was being implemented in a Los Angeles-area store, but shortly after that, a flood of comments revealed that many other Trader Joe’s locations are in short supply of the beloved breakfast item. But that wasn’t the only shortage customers have reported in recent times. Over the last few weeks and months, several shoppers have taken to social media to complain about the constant product scarcity and supply chain issues seen at the food retailer.
“I miss the multigrain hot cereal,” says one shopper in the comments. “ “I never get the vegetarian chili,” another exclaimed. [It’s] been out of stock for MONTHS and [they] keep saying they'll get it eventually.” “A fond farewell to the only mayo I've ever liked - nay, loved. I know they discontinued it several months ago, but I'm still suffering the loss,” a third comment reads. “Some of my favorite gone but never forgotten items include the round BBQ ridge chips, fudge sauce, and frozen aloo chaat,” another user noted.
That the company has a cult following, everyone already knows. It became a TikTok sensation, and devoted consumers love its accessible prices, unique product range, and singular store design that makes the shopping experience more exciting than at the usual big-box retailer. On the internet, Trader Joe's has somewhat of a glittering reputation. But in real life, the grocer is dealing with huge scandals that are rocking its business.
For instance, it has been recently called out for using too much plastic. On top of that, an industry insider revealed who really supplies the store brand favorites, and shoppers weren’t too thrilled to find out that the grocer mainly relies on giant food corporations. “It's scandalous because one of Trader Joe's selling points for its loyalists is the sense that they're getting something unique and supporting a local grocer,” he notes.
Amid all of this controversy, retail experts believe that Trader Joe’s success formula is becoming obsolete. Its business model is suited poorly for delivery, they argue. And the company’s resistance makes it vulnerable to losing shoppers who have gotten accustomed to the convenience of online ordering. For Trader Joe’s, the future look bumpy, and if the company fails to weather the storm that is now upon us, it may soon be crushed by the worst retail crisis we have witnessed in the modern era."
Comments here:
o
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Over 400,000 light years across NGC 6872 is an enormous spiral galaxy, at least 4 times the size of our own very large Milky Way. About 200 million light-years distant, toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock, the remarkable galaxy’s stretched out shape is due to its ongoing gravitational interaction, likely leading to an eventual merger, with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970. IC 4970 is seen just below and right of the giant galaxy’s core in this cosmic color portrait from the 8 meter Gemini South telescope in Chile.
The idea to image this titanic galaxy collision comes from a winning contest essay submitted last year to the Gemini Observatory by the Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club. In addition to inspirational aspects and aesthetics, club members argued that a color image would be more than just a pretty picture. In their winning essay they noted that “If enough color data is obtained in the image it may reveal easily accessible information about the different populations of stars, star formation, relative rate of star formation due to the interaction, and the extent of dust and gas present in these galaxies.”
"Our Natural Condition..."
"The eternal silence of infinite spaces frightens me. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? We travel in a vast sphere, always drifting in the uncertain, pulled from one side to another. Whenever we find a fixed point to attach and to fasten ourselves, it shifts and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. This is our natural condition, most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desires to find solid ground and an ultimate and solid foundation for building a tower reaching to the Infinite. But always these bases crack, and the earth obstinately opens up into abysses. We are infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, since the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from us in an encapsulated secret; we are equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which we were made, and the Infinite in which we are swallowed up."
- Blaise Pascal
Kahlil Gibran, “The Seven Selves”
“The Seven Selves”
by Kahlil Gibran
“In the silent hour of the night, as I lay half asleep, my seven selves sat together and thus conversed in whispers:
First Self: "Here, in this madman, I have dwelt all these years, with naught to do but renew his pain by day and recreate his sorrow by night. I can bear my fate no longer, and now I must rebel."
Second Self: "Yours is a better lot than mine, brother, for it is given me to be this madman’s joyous self. I laugh his laughter and sing his happy hours, and with thrice winged feet I dance his brighter thoughts. It is I that would rebel against my weary existence."
Third Self: "And what of me, the love-ridden self, the flaming brand of wild passion and fantastic desires? It is I the love-sick self who would rebel against this madman."
Fourth Self: "I, amongst you all, am the most miserable, for naught was given me but the odious hatred and destructive loathing. It is I, the tempest-like self, the one born in the black caves of Hell, who would protest against serving this madman."
Fifth Self: "Nay, it is I, the thinking self, the fanciful self, the self of hunger and thirst, the one doomed to wander without rest in search of unknown things and things not yet created; it is I, not you, who would rebel."
Sixth Self: "And I, the working self, the pitiful laborer, who, with patient hands, and longing eyes, fashion the days into images and give the formless elements new and eternal forms – it is I, the solitary one, who would rebel against this restless madman."
Seventh Self: "How strange that you all would rebel against this man, because each and every one of you has a preordained fate to fulfill. Ah! could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot! But I have none, I am the do-nothing self, the one who sits in the dumb, empty nowhere and no-when, when you are busy re-creating life. Is it you or I, neighbors, who should rebel?"
When the seventh self thus spake the other six selves looked with pity upon him but said nothing more; and as the night grew deeper one after the other went to sleep enfolded with a new and happy submission. But the seventh self remained watching and gazing at nothingness, which is behind all things.”
Gerald Celente, "Death Of The Dollar, In God We Don't Trust"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 4/4/23
"Death Of The Dollar, In God We Don't Trust"
"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:
"Not Knowing..."
“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter
"Is It Any Wonder..."
"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking" - if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five- or maybe five hundred!"
- Dale Carnegie
o
"It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome."
- Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim"
The Poet: David Whyte, “The Sea”
“The Sea”
“The pull is so strong we will not believe
the drawing tide is meant for us,
I mean the gift, the sea,
the place where all the rivers meet.
Easy to forget,
how the great receiving depth
untamed by what we need
needs only what will flow its way.
Easy to feel so far away
and the body so old
it might not even stand the touch.
But what would that be like
feeling the tide rise
out of the numbness inside
toward the place to which we go
washing over our worries of money,
the illusion of being ahead,
the grief of being behind,
our limbs young
rising from such a depth?
What would that be like
even in this century
driving toward work with the others,
moving down the roads
among the thousands swimming upstream,
as if growing toward arrival,
feeling the currents of the great desire,
carrying time toward tomorrow?
Tomorrow seen today, for itself,
the sea where all the rivers meet, unbound,
unbroken for a thousand miles, the surface
of a great silence, the movement of a moment
left completely to itself, to find ourselves adrift,
safe in our unknowing, our very own,
our great tide, our great receiving, our
wordless, fiery, unspoken,
hardly remembered, gift of true longing.”
~ David Whyte,
“Where Many Rivers Meet”
"17 Words That Changed My Life Forever"
"17 Words That Changed My Life Forever"
by Jerry Clark
“I remember several years back I heard something that changed my life forever. Up until that point I had been struggling through life – doing everything the hard way. I couldn’t figure out why my life wasn’t going the way I felt it should be. I saw some people going through life effortlessly and seemingly with less tension and frustration while I was wondering if I could ever straighten out the mess my life had turned out to be. I was behind on my dreams, my promises, and my bills. Then one day I was listening to a tape and the lady was talking about the power of having dreams and goals and all of the other stuff that those motivational speakers talk about. By that point I had listened to hundreds of such tapes, but it seemed as if nothing worked for me.
Probably the only reason I was listening to that one was because I had developed a habit of listening to cassette tapes while driving my car. The statement the lady said was simple and I think I had even heard it somewhere before but this time a light bulb went on in my head. I remember stopping the tape and rewinding it over and over again to hear the 17 words she said. I couldn’t believe it was so basic and simple. I was looking for something sophisticated and complicated. I thought I had to attend a $10,000 seminar. I didn’t know I could find it on a $10 tape program.
I’m taking the time to tell you all of this preliminary information because when I tell you the 17 words, I really want you to get it and get it NOW! Because if you get it NOW, your life will never be the same. You will be using the same principle that all who have became wealthy before you have used. Even those who became wealthy and can’t tell you how they did use this same principle without even being aware of what they are doing. Well, are you ready for the 17 words that made a powerful and positive impact on my life and on the life of tens of thousands of individuals who have achieved unimaginable success? Of course you are… Well, here they are…
Probably the only reason I was listening to that one was because I had developed a habit of listening to cassette tapes while driving my car. The statement the lady said was simple and I think I had even heard it somewhere before but this time a light bulb went on in my head. I remember stopping the tape and rewinding it over and over again to hear the 17 words she said. I couldn’t believe it was so basic and simple. I was looking for something sophisticated and complicated. I thought I had to attend a $10,000 seminar. I didn’t know I could find it on a $10 tape program.
I’m taking the time to tell you all of this preliminary information because when I tell you the 17 words, I really want you to get it and get it NOW! Because if you get it NOW, your life will never be the same. You will be using the same principle that all who have became wealthy before you have used. Even those who became wealthy and can’t tell you how they did use this same principle without even being aware of what they are doing. Well, are you ready for the 17 words that made a powerful and positive impact on my life and on the life of tens of thousands of individuals who have achieved unimaginable success? Of course you are… Well, here they are…
For things to change, you must get a
picture of what you want them to change to.
Yes, it’s as simple as it sounds and as easy as it seems… Don’t try to make it any complicated than this because it will only frustrate you.
You must know exactly what you want and the more specific and clear you can get, the better. This is important because Human Beings are Teleological in nature… In other words, we move towards the pictures we constantly hold in our minds. Let me give you an example… Suppose you went to the store and bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle but it didn’t have a picture on the box of what the end result should look like.
Would you have a much harder time putting the picture together? Of course. You may eventually figure it out; however, the person who has a clear picture of what the end result should look like will be more than 100 times ahead of you. The question is are they 100 times ahead of you because their IQ is 100 times greater? Is it because they are 100 times better looking than you? Maybe it’s because they live 100 times closer to the person who created the puzzle? Ohh, I know – they were one of the first students to take the Evelyn Woods mind-expanding speed-reading and comprehension course right? If none of this is true then what is?
Yes, the person who had the clear and specific picture of what the outcome was supposed to be was simply operating in accordance to how our brain works. It moves towards the pictures we hold in our mind. It’s interesting because once you know exactly what it is you are moving towards, you seem to automatically know the steps to take or the necessary steps will soon become noticeable.
Your brain's subconscious mind, operating similar to a magnet, will start to attract in your direction the conditions, people, and circumstances that will help you move closer to the mental picture you maintain in your mind and it will repel all of those things that do not correlate to the picture you have in your mind. Therefore, the people who are clear and specific about what they want are using the powers of the Universe to assist them. This is, indeed, an awesome power. A person who knows how and uses this awesome power of the Universe to his or her advantage is a person who is working smart. A person who struggles every day trying to move closer to the success that they have no idea how it’s supposed to look is a person who is working hard.
Based on your observations over the years, do you think that most people are working hard or working smart? People who just work hard day in and day out without a clear picture of what they are moving towards are about as exciting as a tulip. Even though they may seem to be willing to work hard and put in the hours, they don’t seem to have much life in them. And people want to follow people who seem to have some life in them. If they want to find people who don’t seem to have much life in them, all they have to do is go to their job. People will follow people who look like they know where they are going and look like they are excited about the journey.
You must understand that your strength comes from knowing what you want. This will ignite the fire inside of you and enable you to borrow from the promise of the future so you can engage in the activities today that will move you closer and closer to what you want. It will enable you to go through the trials and tribulations that may be necessary so you can arrive at your destination. But remember the journey will be more important than the destination because in the journey you will become the person you require to become to finally arrive at your destination. So when you reach your destination, look at the person you have become and set a new destination so you can continue to grow and develop.
Whatever you do, just always remember that for things to change, you must get a picture of what you want them to change to. These are the "17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"… why not allow them to change yours too?”
You must know exactly what you want and the more specific and clear you can get, the better. This is important because Human Beings are Teleological in nature… In other words, we move towards the pictures we constantly hold in our minds. Let me give you an example… Suppose you went to the store and bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle but it didn’t have a picture on the box of what the end result should look like.
Would you have a much harder time putting the picture together? Of course. You may eventually figure it out; however, the person who has a clear picture of what the end result should look like will be more than 100 times ahead of you. The question is are they 100 times ahead of you because their IQ is 100 times greater? Is it because they are 100 times better looking than you? Maybe it’s because they live 100 times closer to the person who created the puzzle? Ohh, I know – they were one of the first students to take the Evelyn Woods mind-expanding speed-reading and comprehension course right? If none of this is true then what is?
Yes, the person who had the clear and specific picture of what the outcome was supposed to be was simply operating in accordance to how our brain works. It moves towards the pictures we hold in our mind. It’s interesting because once you know exactly what it is you are moving towards, you seem to automatically know the steps to take or the necessary steps will soon become noticeable.
Your brain's subconscious mind, operating similar to a magnet, will start to attract in your direction the conditions, people, and circumstances that will help you move closer to the mental picture you maintain in your mind and it will repel all of those things that do not correlate to the picture you have in your mind. Therefore, the people who are clear and specific about what they want are using the powers of the Universe to assist them. This is, indeed, an awesome power. A person who knows how and uses this awesome power of the Universe to his or her advantage is a person who is working smart. A person who struggles every day trying to move closer to the success that they have no idea how it’s supposed to look is a person who is working hard.
Based on your observations over the years, do you think that most people are working hard or working smart? People who just work hard day in and day out without a clear picture of what they are moving towards are about as exciting as a tulip. Even though they may seem to be willing to work hard and put in the hours, they don’t seem to have much life in them. And people want to follow people who seem to have some life in them. If they want to find people who don’t seem to have much life in them, all they have to do is go to their job. People will follow people who look like they know where they are going and look like they are excited about the journey.
You must understand that your strength comes from knowing what you want. This will ignite the fire inside of you and enable you to borrow from the promise of the future so you can engage in the activities today that will move you closer and closer to what you want. It will enable you to go through the trials and tribulations that may be necessary so you can arrive at your destination. But remember the journey will be more important than the destination because in the journey you will become the person you require to become to finally arrive at your destination. So when you reach your destination, look at the person you have become and set a new destination so you can continue to grow and develop.
Whatever you do, just always remember that for things to change, you must get a picture of what you want them to change to. These are the "17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"… why not allow them to change yours too?”
"At My Age"
"At My Age"
"At my age: I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.
I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.
I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work.
I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.
I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.
I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.
Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.
One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get!
And, sometimes I think I am in Vincible but life shows me I am not."
- Author Unknown
"Free Money!"
"Free Money!"
Billions in race-based giveaways, $1 houses,
Social Security races toward insolvency and plenty more...
By Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
San Martin, Argentina - "The point we were making yesterday was that no matter how much life insurance you buy…you will still die. And no matter how much money the Fed ‘prints,’ it will still go broke. When it does, someone will pay. In an honest economy, as in life itself, people usually pay for their own errors. But the whole idea of politics is to shift the costs from those who deserve it…to those who don’t. And so…in the spirit of mischief, which is all it merits, we turn to the latest news from the BBC. In preamble, this is something we can get behind.
"San Francisco Reparations Plan Proposes $5m For Black Residents." "San Francisco could become the first major US city to fund reparations, under a plan that would award $5m (£4m) to each eligible black resident. A city-appointed panel also suggests guaranteed annual incomes of $97,000 for qualifying recipients and homes in San Francisco for $1 a family."
Hey, why not? Why shouldn’t the ‘city-appointed panel’ give away $5 million to everyone with the favored DNA? It’s not their money. They didn’t earn it. They didn’t save it. It’s not real anyway. And they were careful to say that they didn’t concern themselves with the practicality of the program.
Numbskull Programs: That’s right, they didn’t worry about where the money would come from…just so long as it wasn’t from them. And the recipients? Would they be harmed by free money…including almost $100,000 per year forever…without having to work another day…for 250 years!? Why bother to study? Why bother to save? Why bother to learn a skill? We’ve seen what small welfare payments can do to people – so let’s try big welfare payments. The panel must not have worried about that either.
What is astonishing is that the panel’s report – which is one of the most numbskull and unworkable programs ever devised by public officials – was approved unanimously. Apparently, there was not a single doubt or misgiving on the panel. Instead, the committee vouchsafed that people with African blood had suffered greatly – and uniquely – 158 years ago…and that the people of San Francisco (the city hardly existed at the time…and had no slaves)…should make amends.
Our heart leaps….thrills…at the thought of blithely correcting injustice, without a care in the world for the real-world costs. People who did no harm will pay fortunes to other people, who suffered no harm. Taxpayers (a third of whom are Asian) will pay – an estimated $600,000 per family – so that people with a slightly different DNA will get a $20 million payday per family of 4.
We hope they follow through. We’d love the reality show rights: ‘SanFran Reparations! A real-life cluster!’ How will it turn out? Let’s take a guess. The non-Black population will leave…they’re no fools. The city will borrow the money and then, its tax base undermined, it will default. City services will collapse. And the city residents will be reduced to a remnant of big-spending, shiftless freeloaders.
The Victim Olympics: But what a jolly blabberfest that ‘panel’ must have enjoyed. Perhaps ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ was required reading…or ‘White Fragility’ for a more contemporary spin. Everywhere they looked they saw ‘racism.’ They saw people who thought Blacks should take care of themselves – obviously, white supremacists. And other people who thought Blacks were a victim class that needed special help and special rules granted to them by white do-gooders – obviously, racists too. Then, they looked into their own hearts, and like looking into an empty safe…they saw the solution – a big wad of cash was needed.
But what cheapskates. If you’re going to compensate people for the wrongs they never suffered…committed elsewhere…by people who may or may not be in any way related to the current taxpayers, why not toss a penny to the descendants of European Jews? They were systematically exterminated by the Third Reich. And that was during the lifetimes of people still alive in the Bay Area, not a century and a half ago!
Or how about the many Irish…who were slaughtered in their homeland…who died in droves in the Famine…and then who arrived in America so destitute that they were put to work doing the jobs considered too dangerous for slaves? On the docks of Mobile, Alabama, slaves tossed the bales of cotton into the ships. Down in the hold, Irish deckhands caught the bales and died from breathing the dust. Or, how about the many thousands of indentured White slaves? Black slaves were valuable property and had to be protected. But the White slaves were dispensable…their overseers worked them hard as they could until their indentures expired.
What about survivors of the Armenian genocide? Of gypsy persecutions? Of Bolshevik murders? Of the Wounded Knee massacre? Of homosexual prejudice? And what about all those with stutters, limps, Downs syndrome? What about people who are too short, too tall, too fat, too thin…too dumb…too ugly…too timid…too lonely…too depressed…too irascible…too sick…too insane…?
Other People’s Money: But what fun it must be to hand out other peoples’ money and think you are doing good. The theory is ridiculous. But it is the implementation that is likely to trip them up. The wrong being righted in SF happened so long ago that the DNA evidence has long since been contaminated. Almost all Black Americans have some white DNA. They may wear the halos of descendants of slaves…but they also bear the stain of enslavers. Should they get only partial payments from the Great White Fathers of San Francisco?
The panel’s recommendation was to give the money to anyone who “identified” as African American…and met some other fishy requirements. But this is the slippery slope that all racist projects eventually slide down. Ultimately, you have to decide who is and who isn’t a member of the favored group. In other words, you actually have to act like a racist.
A 19th century stage play, which appeared at the same time as ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ was called “Octaroon.” It highlighted the race laws of the Deep South, in which a person with only 1/8th African blood was nevertheless considered ‘Black’ and was put up for auction. Her lily-white lover tried to buy her, but he was out-bid by someone who wanted her as his mistress. In her case, having African blood, even a little of it, was a serious problem; the poor girl committed suicide. Now, it is the whole city of San Francisco with a gun to its head. And now, there’s a $5 million advantage to having African blood!
But how much do you need? How are they going to decide? We think of our own grandchildren. They are marvelous mixtures of Irish, Asian, African and ‘native American’ DNA; would they qualify? Should we move them to SF forthwith so they are fixed for life? Oops. Too late. The panel decided that you had to be resident in the city in 1996…if you moved there afterwards, either you didn’t suffer from slavery or you are just out of luck."
Joel’s Note: Speaking of the government over-promising and under-delivering... the Board of Trustees for Social Security recently published their Annual Report. Dan Denning read it, so you don’t have to... “It was ugly reading,” he admitted in a private note to the BPR team this morning. “The big change from last year is that they moved up, by a year, the date for when the trust fund will be fully depleted at current rates. Just ten years from now, in 2033...
“Total costs for the program began exceeding total income (payroll taxes) in 2023. There's no actual cash in the lock box anymore. It's full of Treasury bonds. Now, if 2022 was bad for Silicon Valley Bank and anyone who bought government bonds at low rates and high prices, what impact do you think it had on the Social Security Trust Fund?”
The report factors in a 3% downward revision of gross domestic product and worker productivity over the coming decade, accelerating the fund’s trajectory toward insolvency. Here’s Fox Business: "Unless major changes are made before 2034 to shore up the trust fund, more than 66 million Americans would see a benefit reduction between about 23% to 25%, the report showed."
“The combined trust funds will be insolvent by 2034, when today’s 56-year-olds reach the full retirement age and today’s youngest retirees turn 73,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) said in a recent analysis. “Upon insolvency, all beneficiaries will face a 20 percent across-the-board benefit cut.”
If you’re counting on the government to keep its promises – whether regarding Social Security... or anything else – now might be a good time to think about a contingency plan."
o
Now this astonishingly deranged scheme from San Francisco. Despite the overwhelming evidence that as a country we are stupider than mud I still believed there was at least a tiny reason to hope we'd do better. I see with finality that once again I was wrong... - CP
o
Read 'em and weep...
"Crazy High Prices At Food City!"
Full screen recommended,
Adventures With Danno, 4/4/23
"Crazy High Prices At Food City!
This Is Ridiculous! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are at Food City in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and are noticing some very high prices on groceries! It's getting rough out here as grocery prices continue to skyrocket all over the country, and around the world!"
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"The Credit Crunch is Here"
Full screen recommended,
Dan, iAllegedly 4/4/23
"The Credit Crunch is Here"
"We are hearing from banks that people are not doing refinances. People are borrowing money with lines of credit and HELOC loans. Credit card companies are slashing credit lines."
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Musical Interlude: Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"
Full screen recommended.
Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"
Monday, April 3, 2023
"Supervirus Spreads; Nukes On Poland's Border; Putin's House Prepares; AI 'Kill Everyone'"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/3/23
"Supervirus Spreads; Nukes On Poland's Border;
Putin's House Prepares; AI 'Kill Everyone'"
Comments here:
"Americans Are Getting Wiped Out; You Will Be Poor Overnight; China Will Bring Down The US Dollar"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/3/23
"Americans Are Getting Wiped Out; You Will Be Poor Overnight;
China Will Bring Down The US Dollar"
Comments here:
"The Dollar Is In Trouble! 7 Signs That Global De-Dollarization Has Just Shifted Into Overdrive"
Full screen recommended.
"The Dollar Is In Trouble! 7 Signs That Global
De-Dollarization Has Just Shifted Into Overdrive"
by Epic Economist
"For decades, the U.S. dollar was the undisputed king of global currencies, but now dramatic changes are happening. China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and other nations are making really big moves which will enable them to become much less dependent on the U.S. dollar in the years ahead. This is really bad news for us, because having the primary reserve currency of the world has enabled us to enjoy a massively inflated standard of living. Once we lose that status, our lifestyles will be much different than they are today. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t understand any of this. Even though our leaders have treated the stability of our currency with utter contempt in recent years, most Americans just assume that the dollar will always reign supreme. Meanwhile, much of the planet is preparing for a future in which the U.S. dollar will be far less important than it is right now. The following are 7 signs that global de-dollarization has just shifted into overdrive.
The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Alexander Babakov, said on 30 March that the BRICS bloc of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – is working on developing a “new currency” that will be presented at the organization’s upcoming summit in Durban.
“The transition to settlements in national currencies is the first step. The next one is to provide the circulation of digital or any other form of a fundamentally new currency in the nearest future. I think that at the BRICS [leaders’ summit], the readiness to realize this project will be announced, such works are underway,” Babakov said on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership for Development and Growth Business Forum.
The Chinese renminbi is speeding up in expanding its global use, a trend that will help build a more resilient international monetary system, one that is less dependent on the US dollar and more conducive to trade growth, experts said on Thursday. They commented after China and Brazil - two major emerging economies and BRICS members - reportedly reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary. Chinese state oil and gas giant CNOOC and Total Energies completed the first LNG trade on the exchange with settlement in the Chinese currency, the exchange.
As U.S. relations with both Russia and China continue to go downhill, both of those nations will have a very strong incentive to push de-dollarization even further. And that is really bad news for the United States, because our currency is the source of our economic power and it is the most important thing that we export.
This is a story of monumental importance, but unfortunately most Americans still believe that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they have everything fully under control."
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o
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What's happening behind those houses? Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars, a nearby phenomenon that can appear as a distant one.
In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun-pillar. The featured image was taken in Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks in central Alaska.”
Chet Raymo, “Into The Night”
“Into The Night”
by Chet Raymo
“I first became intimate with the night sky on the sleeping porch of my grandmother’s house on Ninth Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the early 1940s. A screened sleeping porch might be found attached to any southern home of a certain vintage and substance, usually on the second story at the back. On sultry summer nights you could move a cot or daybed onto the porch and take advantage of whatever breezes stirred the air. I slept there when I visited because it was the only place to find a spare bed. I was usually alone in that big spooky space, with only a thin wire mesh separating me from the many mysteries of the night.
Far off in the house I could hear the muffled voice of the big Stromberg-Carlson radio in the parlor, where grown-ups listened to news of the war or the boogie-woogie tunes of the Hit Parade. Outside was another kind of music, nearer, louder, pressing against the screen, which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, a million scratchy fiddles, out-of-key woodwinds, discordant timpani. These were the cicadas, crickets and tree frogs of the southern summer night, but to me at that time they were the sounds of the night itself, as if darkness had an audible element.
Some nights the distant horizon would be lit with a silent, winking illumination called “heat lightnin’.” And closer, against the dark grass of the badminton court, the scintillations of fireflies- “lightnin’ bugs”- splashed into brightness.
The constellations of fireflies were answered in the sky by stars, which on those evenings when the city’s lights were blacked out for air-raid drills, multiplied alarmingly. I would lie in my cot, eyes glued to the spangled darkness, waiting to hear the drone of enemy aircraft or see the flash of ack-ack. No aircraft appeared, no ack-ack tracers pierced the night, but soon the stars took on their own fierce reality, like vast squadrons of alien rocket ships moving against the inky dark of Flash Gordon space.
In time I came to recognize patterns, although I did not yet know their names: the Scorpion creeping westward, dragging its stinger along the horizon; the teapot of Sagittarius afloat in the white river of the Milky Way; Vega at the zenith; the kite of Cygnus. As the hours passed, the Big Dipper clocked around the Pole. And sometimes, in late summer, I would wake in the predawn hour to find Orion sneaking into the eastern sky, pursuing the teacup of the Pleiades.
One memorable Christmas of my childhood, my father received a star book as a gift: “A Primer for Star-Gazers” by Henry Neely. As he used the book to learn the stars and constellations, he included me in his activities. The book was Santa’s gift to him. The night sky was his gift to me.
That book, now long out of print, is still in my possession. A glance takes me back half a century to evenings on the badminton court in the back yard of our own new home in the Chattanooga suburbs, gazing upwards with my father to a drapery of brilliant stars flung across the gap between tall dark pines. He told me stories of the constellations as he learned them. Of Orion and the Scorpion. Of the lovers Andromeda and Perseus, and the monster Cetus. Of the wood nymph Callisto and her son Arcas, placed by Zeus in the heavens as the Big and Little Bears. No child ever had a better storybook than the ever-changing page of night above our badminton court. My father also taught me the names of stars: Sirius, Arcturus, Polaris, Betelgeuse, and other, stranger names, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, the claws of the Scorpion. The words on his tongue were like incantations that opened the enchanted cave of night.
He was a man of insatiable curiosity. His stories of the stars were more than “connect the dots.” He wove into his lessons what he knew of history, science, poetry and myth. And, of course, religion. For my father, the stars were infused with unfathomable mystery, their contemplation a sort of prayer.
That Christmas book of long ago was a satisfactory guide to star lore, but as I look at it today I see that it conveyed little of the intimacy I felt as I stood with my father under the bright canopy of stars. Nor do any of the other more recent star guides that I have seen quite capture the feeling I had as a child of standing at the door of an enchanted universe, speaking incantations. What made the childhood experience so memorable was a total immersion in the mystery of the night- the singing of cicadas, the whisper of the wind in the pines, and, of course, my father’s storehouse of knowledge with which he embellished the stars. He taught me what to see; he also taught me what to imagine.”
“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
by Peter McKenzie-Brown
“The Immutable Laws of Nature”
• Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.
• Law of Gravity: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place.
• Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
• Law of Random Numbers: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.
• Law of Variable Motion: If you change traffic lanes or checkout queues, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
• Law of the Bath: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
• Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases exponentially when you are alongside someone you don’t want to be seen with.
• Law of the Damned Thing: When you try to prove to someone that a machine or device won’t work, it will.
• Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
• Law of the Spectator: At any theatrical, musical or sporting event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, for beer, or to the toilet and who leave before the end of the performance or game. Those who occupy the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay seated beyond the end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
• Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your partner will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
• Murphy’s Law of Lockers: When only 2 people are in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
• Law of Plane Surfaces: The chance that a slice of marmalade toast will land face down on a floor is directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
• Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible when you don’t know what you are talking about.
• Law of Physical Appearance: If clothes fit, they’re ugly.
• Law of Public Speaking: A closed mouth gathers no feet
• Law of Commercial Marketing: As soon as you find a product that you really like, it will cease production or the store will stop selling it.
• Law of Psychosomatic Medicine: If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to see to the doctor and by the time you get there, you’ll feel better. If you don’t make an appointment you’ll stay sick.
“Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.3. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.
7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
8. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them.
10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
11. The things that come to those who wait may be the things left by those who got there first.
12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
14. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark.
15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.”
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