Wednesday, May 31, 2023

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/31/23"

 

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/31/23"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o
Jim Rickards, 5/31/23
"This Is Terrible News!"
"Jim Rickards warns about the irrational exuberance and warns people to prepare for an 80% market crash. He warns about the Fed and explains that the Fed will cause a recession, stock market crash, and much higher unemployment."
Video and comments here:
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"There Is No Easy Way Out Of This"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 5/31/23
"There Is No Easy Way Out Of This"
"Our manufacturing is suffering dramatically. There is no end in sight to this downturn. Plus, retail is suffering dramatically UBS says that we will have 50,000 stores closed within a couple of years."
Comments here:

"Walmart Prices Are Getting Ridiculous! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/31/23
"Walmart Prices Are Getting Ridiculous! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting really tough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products and also raising prices, due to inflation!"
Comments here:
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Travelling with Russell, 5/31/23
"Russian Typical Discount Supermarket Tour: Chizhik"
"What does a Russian typical supermarket look like inside. Together we are going to have a look inside Chizhik Supermarket, one of the largest hard discount supermarkets in Russia. Chizhik has more than 500 stores across eight regions of Russia, with the aim be be the largest hard discount supermarket in Russia."
Comments here:

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Bioweapon Catastrophe is Murder"

"CV19 Bioweapon Catastrophe is Murder – Dr. Pierre Kory"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"World renowned CV19 critical care and pulmonary expert Dr. Pierre Kory is now running a full-time CV19 vaccine injury practice. With more than 675 million CV19 bioweapon/vax injections in America alone, he has a lifetime of work ahead of him. Kory says, “We live in a country where there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding, and it’s being kept a secret. Most of society is just humming along thinking vaccines are ‘safe and effective,’ and they don’t understand that these vaccines were a humanitarian catastrophe. It really affected the health and the survival of us as a country. In a two-year period, the average life expectancy of Americans went from 79 years old to 76 years old. Who has to die to produce that kind of reduction? It’s not 80-year-olds who are dying. It’s young people dying that drives such a change in our average life expectancy.”

Dr. Kory says this is no small medical mistake that produces this sort of “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.” Dr. Kory is out with a new book called “The War on Ivermectin.” Dr. Kory contends it was not only a war on Ivermectin but a war on doctors who wanted to use it. Dr. Kory says, “They have the tools to punish you locally, regionally and, in my case, on the national level. It really was a war on good doctors.”

Ivermectin was one of the drugs Dr. Kory and others were promoting and using for early treatment of Covid, but the doctors who used it were punished and shouted down by Big Pharma and the bought-and-paid-for medical community. Dr. Kory says, “We had the data by mid-2020 to late 2020. There was enough data to tell you to use Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin in combination. Had that been the national protocol, the hospitals would have emptied, and the market for Remdesivir would have disappeared. You get what I am saying? There would have been no global CV19 vaccine campaign. There would have been massive ‘vaccine hesitancy.’ Who is going to line up for a shot when you know this is a small illness you can treat with a couple of safe drugs?”

According to Dr. Kory, Big Pharma and the medical community are still restricting the use of things like Ivermectin, and they are still punishing good doctors trying to help their patients. The “war” is ongoing.

Kory says this is not just a humanitarian catastrophe but crimes against humanity. Kory explains, “You can see it in the depraved actions of the regulatory agencies and the way they ignored the deaths, side effects and adverse events in the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data base. You can see it in the way they promoted vaccine data that is completely fraudulent and faulty. Yes, these are crimes. These are crimes. To tell lies that result in the death of someone, because of your lies and being in position of authority and you killed someone as a result of those lies, that sounds like a crime to me. It sounds like some sort of homicide or manslaughter or murder. I am not a lawyer, but there are people who propagated lies that lead to the deaths of others.” There is much more with Dr. Kory in the 51-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Dr. Pierre Kory, one of the top pulmonary and Covid Critical Care experts on the planet, who is co-founder of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (flccc.net) and author of the new book “The War on Ivermectin”. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Be kind to yourself, savor this beautiful music...

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Northern winter constellations and a long arc of the Milky Way are setting in this night skyscape looking toward the Pacific Ocean from Point Reyes on planet Earth's California coast. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, is prominent below the starry arc toward the left. Orion's yellowish Betelgeuse, Aldebaran in Taurus, and the blue tinted Pleiades star cluster also find themselves between Milky Way and northwestern horizon near the center of the scene.
The nebulae visible in the series of exposures used to construct this panoramic view were captured in early March, but are just too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. On that northern night their expansive glow includes the reddish semi-circle of Barnard's Loop in Orion and NGC 1499 above and right of the Pleiades, also known as the California Nebula."

"And Sometimes..."

 

"Breaking (WTF) News; Russia Will Close Moscow Airspace Soon; Full Mobilization; Nukes Are Coming"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/30/23
"Breaking (WTF) News; Russia Will Close Moscow Airspace Soon; 
Full Mobilization; Nukes Are Coming"
Comments here:
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"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Are Falling Apart In 2023"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Are Falling Apart In 2023"
by Epic Economist

"The restaurant industry is particularly vulnerable during economic downturns, and this time is no different. Managing a restaurant is a tough task, and many of our beloved chains have disappeared over the years. Many of our viewers were shocked to find out that even some of the biggest chains out there, including McDonald's, Burger King, and Starbucks are shuttering multiple locations this year. That's why we decided to list other major chains that are facing mounting challenges this year, or have been at serious risk of going under for years and are now being threatened by the ongoing recession. From Taco Bell to Chipotle, and even Red Lobster, no chain is immune to the retail apocalypse.

Similarly, Sbarro, the famous pizza chain, which has been around for more than two decades and became very popular at shopping malls during its boom days, is falling behind other big competitors, especially because shopping malls are becoming a thing of the past and the company doesn’t offer any type of delivery service for its customers. Since 2004, Sbarro has closed over half of its restaurants in America. Their revenue continued to decline as years went by, and recently, the cost of everything that goes into a pizza, including flour, tomato, cheese, sausages, pepperoni and more has seen a significant increase, which led the Sbarro to pass these costs onto customers. However, shoppers have been complaining about a drop in the quality of its products, and higher prices resulted in even lower sales for the chain. Because it doesn’t keep up with new trends and consumers’ shifting preferences, experts at Mashed predict that the company’s restaurants won’t stay open for much longer.

Moreover, IHOP can’t keep up with customers’ demands. Since the pandemic, things have drastically changed for the brand. Over 200 restaurants were shuttered, and one of its biggest franchises, CFRA Holdings, went bankrupt. Now, another 40 branches are on the company’s chopping block. They are located in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, according to the DailyMail. Recently, the chain also had to make some significant cuts to its menu to save on costs. Analysts think that its old-fashioned casual dining format may be too unappealing for new customers, which may accelerate IHOP’s demise.

At the same time, it’s safe to say that Americans aren’t happy about Taco Bell’s latest price increases, and that is taking a toll on the chain’s business. In fact, there have been quite a few health concerns within the company, but they don’t seem to be working on solving this at the moment. Recently, the company shuttered a dozen locations without much notice, and experts in the sector believe this is a very troubling sign for the chain that spent years growing and evolving.

Restaurants are some of the businesses that face the hardest times during economic recessions. When conditions get harder for everyday Americans, some of the things they immediately forgo is their usual trip to their local restaurant as they try to save on costs to be able to get by. Many chains won't survive the storm that is coming, and unfortunately, this means we may have to say goodbye to our favorite diners, pizza chains, and casual restaurants in the months ahead. If your favorite chain has made into this list, you should probably visit their locations soon because the truth is that we never know if the next time will be the last."
Comments here:

"Las Vegas War Zone; Car Repossessions Explode, Auctions Flooded; Banks Will Implode On Bad Auto Loans"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/30/23
"Las Vegas War Zone; Car Repossessions Explode,
 Auctions Flooded; Banks Will Implode On Bad Auto Loans"
Comments here:
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The Daily "Near You?"

Maxwell, California, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"And In That Very Way..."

"A sad fact, of course, about adult life is that you see the very things you'll never adapt to coming toward you on the horizon. You see them as the problems they are, you worry like hell about them, you make provisions, take precautions, fashion adjustments; you tell yourself you'll have to change your way of doing things. Only you don't. You can't. Somehow it's already too late. And maybe it's even worse than that: maybe the thing you see coming from far away is not the real thing, the thing that scares you, but its aftermath. And what you've feared will happen has already taken place. This is similar in spirit to the realization that all the great new advances of medical science will have no benefit for us at all, thought we cheer them on, hope a vaccine might be ready in time, think things could still get better. Only it's too late there too. And in that very way our life gets over before we know it. We miss it. And like the poet said: The ways we miss our lives are life."
- Richard Ford

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney Harris

"Debt Ceiling Theater"

"Debt Ceiling Theater"
Maybe more borrowing and a heavier debt
 load is just what the US economy needs...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

Youghal, Ireland - "A dropped ceiling. The last report we got tells us that Republicans and Democrats have come to a deal. They’ve both agreed that it is in their interests to spend more of your money. Let’s step back briefly and recall the context.

Either/Or: There are only two choices. People earn their money by providing goods and services to others (most people sell their time); then, either they decide what to do with their money themselves…or someone else decides for them. That ‘someone else’ could be a stick-up man in a dark alley. More likely, it is the large group of rascals who control the US government.

They set up an income tax in 1913 to get a share of the workingman’s time. Originally, the tax rate was 2%. Now, the top marginal rate is 37%. But the federal government spends about 38% of GDP; somehow, the feds must capture 38% of our output.

Then, in 1971, the Nixon administration cut the dollar loose from gold, making it easier to inflate the currency. Voters don’t appreciate tax increases. But they don’t understand inflation. They think it is caused by greedy businessmen, bad weather, or foreigners. They don’t realize that whether the feds tax it, borrow it, or print it, the money ultimately comes from them.

Woe to the member of Congress who advocates tax increases (except on the rich!). Donald Trump pulled a stunt when he cut taxes in 2017. Advertised as a ‘middle class tax cut,’ the savings went overwhelmingly to the rich (Michael Bloomberg got the single largest windfall – a $68 million tax cut). Then, the feds had to borrow more to make up for the lost revenue. Eventually and inevitably, the real costs will show up in higher prices – paid by the middle classes.

While taxing is bad for a politician’s career, borrowing is considered as wholesome as church attendance. The only visible impediment is the ‘debt ceiling,’ which was supposed to keep them from borrowing too much. And so…the ceiling has to go.

One Giant Scam: Yes, dear reader, the whole ‘debt default’ hoop-tee-do was a scam. First, because there was never any danger of default; the feds get plenty of money to cover their debt. Second, they have no need to borrow more anyway; they could perfectly well cut the fat if they had to. Third, neither Republicans nor Democrats were ready to give up the habit of overspending. And neither was going to let the debt ceiling stand in their way. In the end, a ‘deal’ was a given...a fait accompli even before it was accompli.

While the dramatis personae were imposters, the plot was phony too. Supposedly, Republicans…or at least, the Tea Party, MAGA, white supremacist portion of the Republican party… were willing to bring the nation to its knees rather than agree to an increase in US debt. Here’s Laura Veldkamp: “One side is saying, 'Give me what I want, and if you don't, I won't allow Treasury to issue more IOUs, and it's gonna explode the global economy. This is a disaster. It's an entirely avoidable disaster. This was a ridiculous way to try to save money."

We remind readers that the federal government already owes $31.4 trillion…and has commitments estimated at another $100 trillion or so – to retirees, mental defectives and so forth. Typically, when you go to buy a house, the lender will give you three times your income – not more. At 600% of the government’s revenue, its Treasury debt alone is way over the limit.
o
Just Keep Digging: And even though there was no danger of default…and no real shortage of money… and no emergency to require borrowing – the press made it sound like not going deeper into debt would be the end of life as we know it. Here’s ABC news on the weekend, supplying the fake dramatic tension. "If the debt limit is not raised…the U.S. will be unable to pay all of its bills — sowing unprecedented economic turmoil, including lost jobs and major hits to stock markets."

Really? Does the wellbeing, solvency and stability of the US economy depend on more debt? Is that how the real world works…when you’re deep in debt, you borrow more? Is that the key to prosperity? Your ‘net’ wealth is the difference between what you own and what you owe. Increasing the debits on the left side of the ledger does not increase wealth; it decreases it. What strange legerdemain are the feds up to? Tune in tomorrow…"

Joel’s Note: Assuming the debt ceiling deal weasels its way through the greasy halls of Congress, this will be the 79th time the limit on borrowing has been raised since 1960… which really calls into question the definition of the term “limit”… not to mention “borrowing.” But hey, maybe this time really will be different?

Half a century ago, when a chipper young Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. packed his bindle and went to Washington, the nation was facing a similar debt “crisis.” But it wasn’t the first time this had happened. By the time Joe arrived, ready to roll up his shirtsleeves and get the job done, his senior colleagues were already pros at the old game.

The nation’s very first debt ceiling was established way back on Sept. 24, 1917, in the Second Liberty Bond Act. Back then, the limit was fixed at a paltry $11.5-billion… barely enough to keep the lights on at the White House over the Memorial Day weekend.

Between the wars, the debt ceiling was amended no fewer than 16 times and had grown to a “hard, permanent, line in the sand, to be defended at any cost” $300 billion at the height of wartime borrowing, in 1945. It was then amended in 1954, ‘55 and ‘56… then again in ‘58 and ‘59. But that was it, the American public were told. These were, after all, extraordinary times. From now on, there would be no more increases…until 1960-71, when Congress voted to increase the debt ceiling – temporarily, mind you – another 18 times.

Which brings us to Mr. Biden’s first turn on the helter-skelter debt ceiling ride. The story goes that, in 1972, the beltway spendthrifts had (would you believe it?) once again blown through their “permanent” debt ceiling of $400 billion… plus an additional “temporary” $30 billion allowance that was to last them through June 30.

According to an article from that year in the CQ Almanac, it was Chairman Wilbur D. Mills (D Ark.) of the Ways and Means Committee who told the House of Representatives the national debt stood above $429.976-billion, “perilously close to the $430-billion limit imposed by Congress in 1971.” No doubt the situation was grave… desperate… apocalyptic, even.

Thankfully, Joe Biden was on hand to learn the dark art of politicking from his elder statesmen. How to make and break promises… how to draw up budgets without ever expecting to adhere to them… and how to make the whole thing appear as if Congress was working for, rather than against, the American people. Alas, it was a lesson Biden and his colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, appear to have learned well."

"How It Really Is"

"Debt Ceiling Deal: At Least 4 Trillion In New Debt"

Jim Kunstler, "Memorial Service"

"Memorial Service"
by Jim Kunstler

“Liberalism was never about freedom, but nurtured a profound desire to change humanity above all other aspects. This rendered it a willing ally of tyrants promising to do the dirty work of such a project.” — John Waters on Substack

"An anxious silence fell over the land this Memorial Day as we discern increasingly that those we put in charge of this shape-shifting thing called the public interest are running out of trips to lay on the people. Something grotesque is revealing itself: a bankruptcy not just of money but of national purpose, meaning, and legitimacy. You realize this day, with a breaking heart, that your country has been stolen by psychopaths.

Brace for impact. We’re already off the road and now it’s only a matter of how this vehicle comes to a stop in the ditch. Then, it’s a question of how each of us emerges from the smoldering wreckage. The main thing, though, is clear to everyone: What we were riding in is no more. We’re out there stumbling around in the dark, in shock, trying desperately to assess our whereabouts and what has happened to us.

Now, the trouble with being ruled by psychopaths is that they don’t care about other people. They are actually incapable of imagining the lives of others, especially the fact that these others care about each other, and what happens to them. You may have noticed, for instance, that the psychopath Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) went to Ukraine last week and declared, “Russians are dying. We have never spent money so well.” Only a couple of months ago, he called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. He stopped short of dissing Mr. Putin’s mother.

Ukraine, of course, is a lost cause, and it was never a good cause in the first place. Contrary to Lindsay Graham’s untoward utterance, American money has killed far more Ukrainians than Russians. He overlooked this unappetizing tidbit because he doesn’t care about the Ukrainians, for whose sake our “folks” in charge supposedly undertook this clusterf**k. Lindsay Graham also may not have noticed that our country is collapsing and Russia is not. That must be because Lindsay Graham does not care about Americans, either.

As for our money, it looks like most of the rest of the world — the nations that still produce things of value — are so turned-off by American pathocracy that they are seeking every way possible to stop using our money in international trade settlements. That money, our dollar, became the world’s reserve currency because our country ended up on top in the previous world war and for the better part of a century afterward dominated the planet militarily. Naturally, as our leadership turned more pathological and pathocratic, so did our military endeavors — until lately they amount to little more than just smashing up other countries to show we can do it.

These other countries must wonder which is the next place that America will try to smash up? Two of these other countries, Russia and China, are coming around to the realization that they are possibly better equipped to do the smashing than America is. There is no indication that our pathocracy recognizes that the next smash-up may be World War Three, and that we may not emerge from it victorious.

Hence, our anxiety this Memorial Day as we reflect on America’s military exploits generally, and must perforce contemplate our less-than-glorious prospects ahead. How will our pathocrat neo-con strategists greet the debacle of our failure in Ukraine? Denial and spin, for sure. But will they scramble to dream up yet another misadventure as reckless and absurd? You have good reason to be concerned.

Pathocracy always marches toward totalitarianism because pathocrats can’t imagine a management of public affairs by a people who care about each other (and their country). Therefore, everyone must be subject to incessant coercion and punishment, especially for their thoughts (and especially for thoughts of opposition to pathocracy). However, there are certainly more people who care about each other than there are psychopaths in America. I’m not a big fan of quantification but, for the record, psychiatric meta-analysis estimates that 1.2 to 4.5 percent of the population displays psychopathic personality disorders.

How that tiny fraction of the citizenry came to take charge of our affairs is surely the big mystery of the moment. My guess is that under conditions of economic-social-and-political collapse, the people who care about each other become preoccupied with their mutual caretaking duties while the psychopaths, unburdened by such cares, can go about other business — such as plunder, murder, and the sowing of chaos.

Sometimes in history, the pathocrats are simply overthrown by the majority of humans with functioning emotional equipment. It’s not easy, though, because in most other places around the world, the pathocracy become the sole owners of the guns and have armies and police at their disposal to put down revolts. That’s not quite exactly the case here in the USA with our Second Amendment to the Constitution. The putative president, “Joe Biden,” cracked some time ago that anyone seeking to oppose him better bring some F-15 fighter planes to get the job done. As the good book says: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

This Memorial Day is the pregnant moment before history gives birth to new and astounding events. Everyone senses it. The rough beasts are out there slouching across the fruited plain. Attend to your duties courageously, as those before us did, who we remember today."

"The Problems Have Just Begun"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/30/23
"The Problems Have Just Begun"
"Now that the debt ceiling has been resolved we are supposed to believe that everything is going to be OK. The problems have just started. You’re going to see the feds raise interest rates and continue with quantitative easing."
Comments here:

"Nightmare Trip To Meijer! Massive Price Increases! Not Good!"



Adventures With Danno, 5/30/23
"Nightmare Trip To Meijer! Massive Price Increases! Not Good!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are noticing massive price increases on groceries! This has become a complete nightmare as we are seeing yet another wave of price increases around the country, and around the world."
Comments here:

"Prepare For A Worst Case Scenario Because There Is No Way Out Of It Now"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/30/23
"Prepare For A Worst Case Scenario 
Because There Is No Way Out Of It Now"
Comments here:

Monday, May 29, 2023

"Remember The Fallen... And Those They Left Behind"

"Remember The Fallen... And Those They Left Behind"
by Brooke Rollins

"The Christmas season of 1942 was clouded by war in the small town of Waterloo, Iowa, but for Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, it was especially dreadful. A rumor was going about town, and it was about her sons. Or rather, it was about all five sons, each of whom had volunteered for the Navy — and elected to serve together aboard the same ship. The brothers meant to fight as they lived, as a team, as a family, each helping the other out — on the vast and distant Pacific as much as in idyllic Iowa. 

The rumor that reached their mother was that their ship, the light cruiser Juneau, had sunk off Guadalcanal. But Mrs. Alleta Sullivan had received no news. So, she did something very American. She wrote to the Navy. “Dear Sirs,” she began, “I am writing you in regards to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. A mother from here came and told me she got a letter from her son and he heard my five sons were killed.

The next line, even softened by 80 years, still breaks the heart in its simplicity and directness: “It is all over town now, and I am so worried.”

Mrs. Sullivan would have been entirely justified in demanding news of her boys. She would have been justified in demanding that the Navy account for them, that she did not have to endure the quiet hell of rumors of her sons. Instead, she does something remarkable, and reading it now is a window into a different — and better — America. She writes that even if her five sons are gone, she will still do her own duty

“Please let me know the truth. I am to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA, Feb. 12th, at Portland, Oregon. If anything has happened to my five sons, I will still christen the ship as it was their wish that I do so.”

Stop there for a moment and re-read that. Even in the shadow of the most terrible prospect a mother can face, Mrs. Alleta Sullivan tells the Navy it can count on her to keep her commitments. She would never have said it, but here you can see from whom her five sons inherited their own sense of sacrificial devotion. 

I hated to bother you,” she continued as if she had anything at all to apologize for, “but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy, but I am proud of my boys that they can serve and help protect their country.”

Mrs. Sullivan did not have to wait long for her answer. Her letter went to the Navy and crossed paths with the inbound casualty notification. Her letter went out in early January 1943. On the early morning of January 11, three Navy officers arrived at the little house on 98 Adams St. in Waterloo. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan knew why they had come. The officer in charge knew he could not soften the blow.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “All five.”

The story of the Fighting Sullivans is a famous one, notable for its contrast of great virtue — five brothers, on fire with duty imparted by their parents — and great tragedy, in their death together on a black day off the Solomon Islands. We have an obligation to remember. We should also remember that it is not the only tale of its kind. We today are as far from World War II as it was from the Civil War. In that war, there was the heartbreaking episode of Mrs. Bixby and her five sons, all fallen in battle, of whom President Lincoln wrote that they were “so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.” 

In his 2013 “The Guns at Last Light,” Rick Atkinson tells a lesser-known tale of an elderly widower in Missouri, one Henry A. Wright, who waits at his small-town train station for the casket bearing his son, killed on Christmas Eve 1944 in the Ardennes. He also received the remains of another son, who died in a German prison camp. He also received the remains of still another son, who died in combat in Germany, 10 days before war’s end. Atkinson writes that the three brothers were buried “side by side by side beneath an iron sky.”

These stories of the grievous loss of the young, strong, brave, and parents burying their children, hit us hard. They should. If they do not, then we are undeserving of the fallen. The five Sullivans, the five Bixbys, and the three Wrights seize our attention and hearts because of the numbers. But make no mistake: the mother, the father, the brother, and the sister who lose a single son at war, do not grieve less because it is just one. 

For them, there is the consolation in the grace that is only God’s to give.

On this Memorial Day, we remember all the fallen — and we remember those whom they left behind. We have a sacred obligation “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” — and that obligation increases a hundredfold because the battle was borne, and the wife was widowed, and the child was orphaned, for us. “Freedom is not free” is an overused phrase, almost cliche, which does not mean it should not be said. But this Memorial Day, when you say it, think of what it means on the most human level. You live in the greatest nation, among the greatest people, in the history of the world.

You have that privilege because, across three centuries, unnumbered Americans laid down everything for it.  

A young man died in battle on a sunny morning on the road to Concord.

A loving father fell in the wheatfield at Gettysburg. 

A draftee determined to make his father proud died on the Imjin.

A bright and eager student breathed his last at Khe Sanh.

A young woman took her final flight over Fallujah. 

Remember them. Let the memory steel you - to deserve them."

“Thucydides in the Underworld”


“Master, what gnaws at them so hideously
their lamentation stuns the very air?”
“They have no hope of death,” he answered me…”
- Dante Alighieri, “The Inferno”
“Thucydides in the Underworld”
by J. R. Nyquist

“The shade of Thucydides, formerly an Athenian general and historian, languished in Hades for 24 centuries; and having intercourse with other spirits, was perturbed by an influx into the underworld of self-described historians professing to admire his History of the Peloponnesian War. They burdened him with their writings, priding themselves on the imitation of his method, tracing the various patterns of human nature in politics and war. He was, they said, the greatest historian; and his approval of their works held the promise that their purgatory was no prologue to oblivion.

As the centuries rolled on, the flow of historians into Hades became a torrent. The later historians were no longer imitators, but most were admirers. It seemed to Thucydides that these were a miserable crowd, unable to discern between the significant and the trivial, being obsessed with tedious doctrines. Unembarrassed by their inward poverty, they ascribed an opposite meaning to things: thinking themselves more “evolved” than the spirits of antiquity. Some even imagined that the universe was creating God. They supposed that the “most evolved” among men would assume God’s office; and further, that they themselves were among the “most evolved.”

Thucydides longed for the peace of his grave, which posthumous fame had deprived him. As with many souls at rest, he took no further interest in history. He had passed through existence and was done. He had seen everything. What was bound to follow, he knew, would be more of the same; but after more than 23 centuries of growing enthusiasm for his work, there occurred a sudden falling off. Of the newly deceased, fewer broke in upon him. Quite clearly, something had happened. He began to realize that the character of man had changed because of the rottenness of modern ideas. Among the worst of these, for Thucydides, was that barbarians and civilized peoples were considered equal; that art could transmit sacrilege; that paper could be money; that sexual and cultural differences were of no account; that meanness was rated noble, and nobility mean.

Awakened from the sleep of death, Thucydides remembered what he had written about his own time. The watchwords then, as now, were “revolution” and “democracy.” There had been upheaval on all sides. “As the result of these revolutions,” he had written, “there was a general deterioration of character throughout the Greek world. The simple way of looking at things, which is so much the mark of a noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous quality and soon ceased to exist. Society had become divided into two ideologically hostile camps, and each side viewed the other with suspicion.”

Thucydides saw that democracy, once again, imagined itself victorious. Once again traditions were questioned as men became enamored of their own prowess. It was no wonder they were deluded. They landed men on the moon. They had harnessed the power of the atom. It was no wonder that the arrogance of man had grown so monstrous, that expectations of the future were so unrealistic. Deluded by recent successes, they could not see that dangers were multiplying in plain view. Men built new engines of war, capable of wiping out entire cities, but few took this danger seriously. Why were men so determined to build such weapons? The leading country, of course, was willing to put its weapons aside. Other countries pretended to put their weapons aside. Still others said they weren’t building weapons at all, even though they were.

Would the new engines of destruction be used? Would cities and nations be wiped off the face of the earth? Thucydides knew the answer. In his own day, during an interval of unstable peace, the Athenians had exterminated the male population of the island of Melos. Before doing this the Athenian commanders had came to Melos and said, “We on our side will use no fine phrases saying, for example, that we have a right to our empire because we defeated the Persians, or that we have come against you now because of the injuries you have done us – a great mass of words that nobody would believe.” The Athenians demanded the submission of Melos, without regard to right or wrong. As the Athenian representative explained, “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” 

The Melians were shocked by this brazen admission. They could not believe that anyone would dare to destroy them without just cause. In the first place, the Melians threatened no one. In the second place, they imagined that the world would be shocked and would avenge any atrocity committed against them. And so the Melians told the Athenians: “in our view it is useful that you should not destroy a principle that is to the general good of all men – namely, that in the case of all who fall into danger there should be such a thing as fair play and just dealing. And this is a principle which affects you as much as anybody, since your own fall would be visited by the most terrible vengeance and would be an example to the world.”

The Athenians were not moved by the argument of Melos; for they knew that the Spartans generally treated defeated foes with magnanimity. “Even assuming that our empire does come to an end,” the Athenians chuckled, “we are not despondent about what would happen next. One is not so much frightened of being conquered by a power like Sparta.” And so the Athenians destroyed Melos, believing themselves safe – which they were. The Melians refused to submit, praying for the protection of gods and men. But these availed them nothing, neither immediate relief nor future vengeance. The Melians were wiped off the earth. They were not the first or the last to die in this manner.

There was one more trend that Thucydides noted. In every free and prosperous country he found a parade of monsters: human beings with oversized egos, with ambitions out of proportion to their ability, whose ideas rather belied their understanding than affirmed it. Whereas, there was one Alcibiades in his own day, there were now hundreds of the like: self-serving, cunning and profane; only they did not possess the skills, or the mental acuity, or beauty of Alcibiades. Instead of being exiled, they pushed men of good sense from the center of affairs. Instead of being right about strategy and tactics, they were always wrong. And they were weak, he thought, because they had learned to be bad by the example of others. There was nothing novel about them, although they believed themselves to be original in all things.

Thucydides reflected that human beings are subject to certain behavioral patterns. Again and again they repeat the same actions, unable to stop themselves. Society is slowly built up, then wars come and put all to ruin. Those who promise a solution to this are charlatans, only adding to the destruction, because the only solution to man is the eradication of man. In the final analysis the philanthropist and the misanthrope are two sides of the same coin. While man exists he follows his nature. Thucydides taught this truth, and went to his grave. His history was written, as he said, “for all time.” And it is a kind of law of history that the generations most like his own are bound to ignore the significance of what he wrote; for otherwise they would not re-enact the history of Thucydides. But as they become ignorant of his teaching, they fall into disaster spontaneously and without thinking. Seeing that time was short, and realizing that a massive number of new souls would soon be entering the underworld, the shade of Thucydides fell back to rest.”
o
I really fear "that a massive number of new souls would soon be entering the underworld", and you and I and everyone we know will be among them...
o
"Medvedev Guarantees Russia Will 
Nuke America If Biden Deploys F-16s; 5/29/23"
"We now know how the United States gets hit with nuclear weapons. Biden is promising to deploy nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which would put the US within easy striking distance of key Russian targets. In its defense, Russia now says (through former president Medvedev) that it will pre-emptively launch nuclear missiles against the United States of America. That means nuclear strikes on key U.S. cities may be just weeks away, unless somebody backs down. Almost nobody is really prepared for a nuclear war in the United States. Are you?"
Full details here:

Draw your own conclusions...

"Red Alert! NATO Closing Borders, S-400 And Nukes Are Mobile, Air Raids Now, Major Issue In Taiwan"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/29/23
"Red Alert! NATO Closing Borders, S-400 And Nukes 
Are Mobile, Air Raids Now, Major Issue In Taiwan"
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Musical Interlude, Melissa Venema (13 yo),"IIl Silenzio"

Full screen recommended.
Melissa Venema (13 yo),"IIl Silenzio"
"'Il Silencio' (The Silence) played by 13 year old Melissa Venema with André Rieu and his orchestra at the 'Vrijthof' in Maastricht. Melissa plays like an angel - a very skilled one, too. In this unique performance, the sound of the trumpet evokes harmony and heavenly peace. What a majestic interpretation! Il Silenzio' is an Italian instrumental piece written in 1965 by trumpet player Nini Rosso. It is a memorial piece commissioned by the Dutch and first played in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands. Conductor André Rieu (born 1949) is a famous Dutch violinist, conductor, and composer."
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"Greater love hath no man than this,
 that a man lay down his life for his friends."
- John 15:13

"A Look to the Heavens With Chet Raymo"

“Reaching For The Stars”
by Chet Raymo

“Here is a spectacular detail of the Eagle Nebula, a gassy star-forming region of the Milky Way Galaxy, about 7,000 light-years away. The Eagle lies in the equatorial constellation Serpens. If you went out tonight and looked at this part of the sky – more or less midway between Arcturus and Antares – you might see nothing at all. The brightest star in Serpens is of the third magnitude, perhaps invisible in an urban environment. No part of the Eagle Nebula is available to unaided human vision. How big is the nebula in the sky? Hold a pinhead at arm’s length and it would just about cover the spire. I like to think about things not mentioned in the APOD descriptions.

If the Sun were at the bottom of the spire, Alpha centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, would be about halfway up the column. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s sky, would be near the top. Let’s say you sent out a spacecraft from the bottom of the spire that travelled at the speed of the two Voyager craft that are now traversing the outer reaches of the Solar System. It would take more than 200,000 years to reach the top of the spire.

The Hubble Space Telescope cost a lot of money to build, deploy, and operate. It has done a lot of good science. But perhaps the biggest return on the investment is to turn on ordinary folks like you and me to the scale and complexity of the universe. The human brain evolved, biologically and culturally, in a universe conceived on the human scale. We resided at its center. The stars were just up there on the dome of night. The Sun and Moon attended our desires. “All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare, and he meant it literally; the cosmos was designed by a benevolent creator as a stage for the human drama. All of that has gone by the board. Now we can travel in our imagination for 200,000 years along a spire of glowing, star-birthing gas that is only the tiniest fragment of a nebula that is only the tiniest fragment of a galaxy that is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies we can potentially see with our telescopes.

Most of us still live psychologically in the universe of Dante and Shakespeare. The biggest intellectual challenge of our times is how to bring our brains up to speed. How to shake our imaginations out of the slumber of centuries. How to learn to live purposefully in a universe that is apparently indifferent to the human drama. How to stretch the human story to match the light-years.”

"The Ukraine War is Over. Russia Won"

"The Ukraine War is Over. Russia Won"
Bob Moriarty

"I got to Vietnam in late July of 1968. Lots of American troops still believed we were winning the war. A year later most of our forces realized the war was a waste of time and not worth dying for. By 1970 no one wanted to be the last person to die for an illegal and meaningless war.

So when the troops ran into gung ho 2nd Lieutenants or other 90-day wonders they would explain the facts of life to them and encourage them to slow down and smell the roses. Those who didn’t got fragged. It’s a great way to off someone, just pull the pin, release the spoon and walk briskly away with a smile. Alternatively, in battle shooting a dumb leader right in front of you works as well. He’s closer to you than the enemy and a lot more dangerous to your longevity. No one wants to talk about it but it happens in all wars.

The number of racial violence incidents, fragging and people shooting themselves in the foot to get sent home rocketed higher in 1970. When that happens, the war is over. Those selected to fight it wake up to the fact that if you are going to die anyway, why not die for a reason? Like fragging the stupid son of a bitch ordering you to take a hill that isn’t worth taking. By 1970 the entire US military knew and understood the Vietnam War was over and we lost. It wasn’t worth dying for.

Now it seems the Ukrainian soldiers who have been sold out by Boris Johnson and Zelensky have figured out the same thing. When your soldiers learn that the penalty for shooting their own officers is no worse than their odds of surviving going into combat, the war is over and you lost.

The Ukrainian’s army has been destroyed. This incredibly stupid war should have been over in March of 2022 but Boris Johnson decided to end his career with a suggestion massive in its stupidity. When Zelensky was willing to call it a draw and start abiding by the Minsk II agreement, Johnson pointed out to him that he could rake a lot more loot off the top of all the weapons being handed to Ukraine. Several hundred thousand soldiers from Ukraine have been killed since then and their blood is on Johnson.

The Ukrainian army is now a shell of what it was eighteen months ago. All of the reporting from the Main Stream Media in the West is a total lie. The sooner NATO and the EU wake up, the sooner the dying will stop. Russia didn’t start this war but they will end it.  The US on the other hand is an Empire in a rapid state of decline led by fools and other idiots. The US lacks the good sense to admit when they have lost one more useless war."
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 5/29/23
"Russian Forces Obliterate NATO Weapons In Ukraine"
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o

The Daily "Near You?"

Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"America Is In Free Fall, Economic And Social Collapse Around The Corner"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 5/29/23
"America Is In Free Fall, 
Economic And Social Collapse Around The Corner"
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"We Are Circling The Drain"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/29/23
"We Are Circling The Drain"
"Today we have a special guest. The one and only Economic Ninja. We discuss it all. The economy, interest rates, real estate, and where everything is going."
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Bill Bonner, "The Misery Olympics"

(A giant US dollar bill with the face of Argentine congressman Javier Milei is seen before the presentation of his book "El fin de la inflación" (The end of inflation) at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, on May 14, 2023. Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP) (Photo by LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images)

"The Misery Olympics"
America falls a few notches as inflation bites and living standards slip...
By Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland -  Today is a holiday in America. But here at the Irish headquarters of Bonner Private Research work goes on. Connecting the dots…cogitating…investigating – just trying to understand what’s going on. In Friday’s news was this update from CNBC: "Inflation rose 0.4% in April and 4.7% from a year ago, according to key gauge for the Fed.

Inflation stayed stubbornly high in April, potentially reinforcing the chances that interest rates could stay higher for longer, according to a gauge released Friday that the Federal Reserve follows closely. The personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures a variety of goods and services and adjusts for changes in consumer behavior, rose 0.4% for the month excluding food and energy costs, higher than the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate. On an annual basis, the gauge increased 4.7%, 0.1 percentage point higher than expected, the Commerce Department reported." Inflation is going up, not down!

The Misery Olympics: Many years ago, economist Arthur Okun came up with a Misery Index by combining inflation with unemployment. Alone, each is a nuisance. Together, they are, well, misery. Since then, other economists have added their fillips – connecting interest rates and GDP growth to the index. And then, Steve Hanke, at Johns Hopkins, computed the index for the rest of the world, as well as the US. This gives us another measure to answer Ed Koch’s old question: how are we doin?

Ten years ago, the US was in the 18th position…trailing nations in the Far East and Scandinavia. Ireland was in the middle of the pack, at #45 from the top (out of 89 nations.) In the latest version, the US has slipped down a few notches…but not catastrophically. It is still in respectable company – along with France, Russia, Portugal and Austria, neither good nor bad.

Ireland has moved much higher up. It is now one of the least-miserable nations in the world – along with Switzerland, Japan and the Nordic countries. We have indices of life-span, GDP/capita, earnings, fatness, and so forth. By most of these measures, maybe all of them, Ireland has gone up…while the US has been failing for many years.

Of course, these numbers are just averages – and are frequently misleading. In a big country such as the US, it’s hard to generalize. The quality of life is very different in the hills and hollows of East Tennessee than it is in the canyons of Manhattan. And put Warren Buffett in a poor neighborhood and average earnings will shoot up. Statistically, everyone will be rich.

Silent Battles: In Baltimore many people lead lives that appear to be as miserable as any on the planet. They have very low incomes – based either on government handouts, petty crime or menial labor. Neighborhoods are ugly…trashy…and dilapidated. There are no sidewalk cafes. No restaurants. No shops. No artisans. And the schools are horrible.

Five people were shot in Baltimore on Friday. This has prompted the mayor to institute a curfew on teens for this long, Memorial Day weekend. Statistically, especially on a holiday, you’re much more likely to get shot in West Baltimore than in the Ukraine. But it’s always much easier to solve other peoples’ problems than your own. The war in the Ukraine is a major feature of the nightly news; it attracts billions in weapons and financial aid. Baltimore’s battle is largely ignored.

Down at the bottom of the Misery Index are the countries you’d expect to see there – Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Argentina. What they have in common is persistent high inflation. Inflation is not like a heat wave that comes and goes. It is government policy. Once the feds begin to use it, like a cellphone, it is very hard to give it up. And once inflation becomes persistent, it corrupts the economy, the society and political system too.

Zimbabwe probably set a new record when its inflation rate rose to 79 billion percent – per month – in November of 2008. The country fell to pieces. Robert Mugabe, its aging crackpot dictator, was shown the door. People switched to US dollars. There were signs of recovery. But then, in 2019, the authorities sought to regain control of the nation’s money. They re-introduced a Zimbabwean dollar. The inflation rate promptly soared again. Scarcely a year later it was over 700%.

Dollar Blues: In Argentina, the inflation rate is over 100%...and rising. After decades of price increases, hyperinflation, depression, and debt defaults the Argentine politicians cling tightly to inflation. And by the misery measure, they’ve gone from among the best to among the worst in the space of 70 years. It was a sad show. But the gauchos may not be in the mood for a sequel. A surprising, and unlikely politician – Javier Milei – is rising in the polls.

In troubled times, politicians look for someone to blame – enemies. Trump pointed the finger at foreigners. He told the nation that it could be great again if it would only stop allowing Mexicans to work in the US…and stop the Chinese from sending us cheaper goods. Joe Biden looks to the Russians, the Chinese…and sinister Republican ‘White Supremacists’…for his enemies.

The Argentines may be ready for a better explanation. Javier Milei, a former rock and roll singer, now an economist and radio host, tells voters that it is the ‘political caste’ itself that is to blame. They are the ones who control the government budget and the currency. They spend too much money on corrupt projects and vote-buying giveaways. The system is rigged, he says, in favor of the political elite. Milei proposes to remove the temptation to inflate by taking Argentina’s money out of their control. He would do away with the peso completely and replace it with the US dollar. That would be good news for Argentines. US inflation is only around 5%. It would be good news for the US, too; it could inflate Argentina’s economy as well as its own."

"How It Really Is"

 

"Massive Shrinkflation At Dollar Tree! Empty Shelves Everywhere!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/29/23
"Massive Shrinkflation At Dollar Tree! 
Empty Shelves Everywhere!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Dollar Tree and are seeing a lot of grocery items that have shrunk in size. With empty shelves everywhere in this store, we also notice they are adding a lot of higher priced items, which I'm not sure will do well here."
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o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 5/29/23
"Russian Typical Hard Discount Supermarket Tour: Svetofor"
Take a look inside a Russian typical hard discount supermarket in Moscow, Russia. What are some of the products on offer, and how are the prices compared to other typical Russian supermarkets?"
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