Jul 252019
 
 July 25, 2019  Posted by at 9:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Piet Mondriaan Trafalgar Square 1939-43

 

Trump Cheers As Michael Moore Blasts ‘Frail’ Mueller (AFP)
Donald Trump Vetoes Bills Prohibiting Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia (AP)
Nothing Matters: It’s Like the Whole Market Has Gone Nuts (WS)
Mnuchin Says Amazon ‘Destroyed’ US Retail Sector (R.)
Boeing Says It Could Halt Production Of 737 Max After Grounding (G.)
Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured In Jail Cell (R.)
Embattled Governor Of Puerto Rico Resigns After Protests (AFP)
With Finger On Trigger, ECB Aims At More Stimulus (R.)
Deutsche Bank Faces A -Much- Smaller, Poorer Future (Coppola)
California Condor Comes Back From The Dead (NPR)

 

 

There are still people calling for impeachment after Mueller’s horror show yesterday. Saw both AOC and Rob Reiner do just that. The somewhat more awake amongst us merely feel sorry for the old man, but that goes too far. He put himself in that position. He’s never delivered any proof of Russian meddling, but that doesn’t appear to bother many. He refused to talk to Assange just so that meddling narrative could be kept alive.

But the biggest takeaway from the hearing must be that Mueller didn’t write his own report, something that became glaringly obvious when he didn’t know what Fusion GPS was. Mueller has just been the face of an investigation that was conducted by others. He is the supposed hero who’s ideal as the front for such a thing. But the thing is hollow and empty.

There were far too many things Mueller said were not in his purview (he said that 16 times) of which at least some certainly were. Moreover, as several members of Congress pointed out, Mueller got far too close to ignoring the presumption of innocence. Trump does not have to prove he’s innocent, Mueller had to prove he’s guilty – and failed.

Trump Cheers As Michael Moore Blasts ‘Frail’ Mueller (AFP)

In a rare meeting of minds Wednesday between two opposing American political voices, Michael Moore earned plaudits from President Donald Trump when the liberal filmmaker blasted former special counsel Robert Mueller’s “stumbling” congressional testimony. Moore, a frequent Trump critic who has also warned of the Democratic Party’s failure to resonate with working-class America, let loose on Mueller as he testified in often halting fashion before Congress about Russian election interference and possible connections to Trump and his 2016 campaign. “A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions,” Moore said in a scathing tweet after Mueller appeared uncertain and asked for several questions to be repeated during some of the most closely watched congressional hearings of the year.

“I said it in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today — All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller — just STFU from now on,” he added, using a crass acronym that includes an expletive. Trump seized on the famed documentarian and Academy Award winner’s fury, retweeting the post and adding his observation that “Even Michael Moore agrees that the Dems and Mueller blew it!” Mueller, 74, appeared reluctant to take the gloves off as he sat for hours in hearings before two House panels, often sounding dispassionate and unsteady.

At times lawyerly and assured, he was also dull and sluggish, declining to stray beyond the confines of his report or to push back aggressively on his Republican questioners and light the fireworks that several Democrats no doubt had been looking for. “Trump must be gloating in ecstasy,” tweeted Moore, director of films like “Bowling for Columbine” and “Roger & Me.” “Not because of the failure that is Robert Mueller — his Report is still a damning document of crimes by Trump — but because Trump understands the power of the visual, and he understands that the Dems aren’t street fighters and that’s why he’ll win.”

Read more …

If the Dems wouldn’t waste so much time and credility with Russiagate, they could protest this. And sure, Pelosi tries, but they are not a believable anti-war party.

Donald Trump Vetoes Bills Prohibiting Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia (AP)

Donald Trump has vetoed a trio of congressional resolutions aimed at blocking his administration from selling billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, last month cited threats from Iran as a reason to approve the $8.1bn arms sale to the two US allies in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia is an enemy of Iran and tension has mounted between the UAE and Tehran over several issues, including the UAE’s coordination with US efforts to curb what it calls Iran’s malign activities in the region. But Trump’s decision in May to sell the weapons in a way that would have bypassed congressional review infuriated lawmakers. In a pushback to Trump’s foreign policy, Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass resolutions to block the weapons sale.


The White House had argued that stopping the sale would send a signal that the US did not stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats against them were increasing. The arms package included thousands of precision-guided munitions, other bombs and ammunition and aircraft maintenance support. Anger has been mounting in Congress over the Trump administration’s close ties to the Saudis, fuelled by the high civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen – a military campaign the US is assisting – and the killing of the US-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Trump’s decision in May to sell the weapons further inflamed the tensions. “The president’s shameful veto tramples over the will of the bipartisan, bicameral Congress and perpetuates his administration’s involvement in the horrific conflict in Yemen, which is a stain on the conscience of the world,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement.

Read more …

Let’s start a casino and call it a market.

Nothing Matters: It’s Like the Whole Market Has Gone Nuts (WS)

You see, Tesla is different. It just reported another doozie, a loss of $408 million in the second quarter, after its $702 million loss in the first quarter, for a total loss in the first half of $1.1 billion. In its 14-year history, it has never generated an annual profit. It has real and popular products and surging sales, but it subsidizes each of those sales with investor money. And here’s where it’s different this time: investors don’t care. They dig how the company has been consistently overpromising and underdelivering. They dig the chaos at the top. They dig everything that should scare them off.

Yeah, its shares plunged 11% afterhours today, but that takes those shares only down to where they’d been on May 1. Big deal. Shares are down 32% from the peak. But their peak should have been a small fraction of that. Even today, the company is still valued at over $40 billion. Tesla lacks a viable business model in the classic sense. Its business model is a new business model of just burning investor cash that it raises via debt and equity offerings on a near-annual basis because investors encourage it to do that, and love it for it, and eagerly hand it more money to burn, and they’re rewarding each other by keeping the share price high. It’s just a game, you see. And nothing else matters.

Then there is Boeing. It just reported the largest quarterly loss in its history of $2.9 billion due to a nearly $5-billion charge related to its newest bestselling all-important 737 Max, two of which crashed, killing 346 people, due to the way the plane is designed. The flight-control software that is supposed to mitigate this design issue is not working properly. And a software fix that is acceptable to regulators remains elusive. The plane has been grounded globally since March. No one, especially not the regulators, can afford a third crash. So today, Boeing announced that it may further cut production of the plane or suspend it altogether if the delays continue to drag out. This is big enough to start impacting US GDP.

[..] But here we go: From 2013 through Q1 2019, Boeing has blown a mind-boggling $43 billion on share buybacks (buyback data via YCharts): Blowing these $43 billion on share buybacks has caused Boeing to have a “total equity” of a negative $5 billion. In other words, it has $5 billion more in liabilities than in assets. This company is out of wriggle room. If it can’t borrow enough money to make payroll, it’s over.

Read more …

Shouldn’t he wait for the DOJ investigation?

Mnuchin Says Amazon ‘Destroyed’ US Retail Sector (R.)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that online giant Amazon.com Inc “destroyed the retail industry across the United States.” Mnuchin said he looked forward to hearing the results of a Justice Department probe, announced on Tuesday, into whether big U.S. technology firms engage in anticompetitive practices, the strongest sign yet that the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech. “If you look at Amazon, although they’re certain benefits to it, they’ve destroyed the retail industry across the United States,” Mnuchin told CNBC. “I don’t have an opinion other than I think it’s absolutely right the attorney general is looking into these issues and I look forward to listening to his recommendations to the president.”


Amazon defended itself, saying that 90% of all sales occur in brick-and-mortar stores. “Today, independent sellers make up more than 58% of physical gross merchandise sales on Amazon, and their sales have grown twice as fast as our own, totaling $160 billion in 2018,” a spokesman for Amazon said. A Justice Department spokesman declined to say on Tuesday which companies it would scrutinize under the antitrust probe, but said the review would consider concerns raised about “search, social media, and some retail services online” – an apparent reference to Google, Amazon, Facebook, and potentially Apple.

Read more …

No more parking spaces left.

Boeing Says It Could Halt Production Of 737 Max After Grounding (G.)

Boeing said it could halt production of the 737 Max jet on Wednesday as it reported the company’s largest ever quarterly loss following two fatal accidents involving the plane. The company lost $2.9bn in the three months to the end of June, compared to a profit of $2.2bn for the same period last year. Sales fell 35% to $15.8bn. Chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said production of the plane could be slowed or halted if regulators do not move to lift the ban on the plane. The 737 Max was Boeing’s best selling aircraft until the fleet was grounded worldwide in March following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. In January Boeing’s executives said the Max was the fastest selling plane in its history and the company expected to deliver between 895 and 905 airplanes this year.


Now it has become the most costly plane in Boeing’s history. Boeing has predicted that the Max will be flying again by the end of the year, but this month the Wall Street Journal reported that government and industry officials believe a return date of January 2020 is more likely. On a call with analysts Muilenburg said the company may have to consider slowing or halting production if there are further delays in getting the plane back into the skies. Boeing is still producing 42 of its 737 jets a month and plans to boost that rate to 57 next year. But if there are further setbacks, Muilenberg said: “We might need to consider possible further rate reductions or other options including a temporary shutdown of the Max production.”

Read more …

It got him out of jail…

Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured In Jail Cell (R.)

Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls, was found unconscious in a Manhattan jail cell with injuries to his neck, media reported late on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. Epstein was found by guards sprawled on the floor of cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Wednesday, media reported. Some media reported that his face appeared blue. The billionaire financier was taken to hospital, the New York Post reported, but it was unclear where he was taken or what his condition was. It was not clear how he suffered his injuries. Epstein was recently denied bail, a move his lawyers plan to appeal according to a court notice made public on Tuesday.


Epstein was expected to ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the judge’s July 18 rejection of his request to remain under house arrest in his $77 million mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges and the appeal for bail was expected. His lawyer Reid Weingarten did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan declined to comment. The charges, concerning alleged misconduct from at least 2002 to 2005, were announced more than a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida. In denying him bail, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan said the government had shown by clear and convincing evidence that Epstein would pose a danger to the community if released pending trial.

Read more …

Impressive.

Embattled Governor Of Puerto Rico Resigns After Protests (AFP)

Puerto Rico’s embattled governor Ricardo Rossello announced his resignation late Wednesday following two weeks of massive protests triggered by the release of a chat exchange in which he and others mocked gays, women and hurricane victims. “I announce that I will be resigning from the governor’s post effective Friday, August 2 at 5 pm,” Rossello said, in a video statement posted on the government’s Facebook page. As soon as the video ended, a joyous commotion and cries of “ole ole ole” were heard from protesters who had rallied since the afternoon at the gates of the governor’s mansion.


“I trust that Puerto Rico will continue united and move forward as it always has,” Rossello said. “And I hope that this decision will serve as a call for citizen reconciliation.” Rossello said that Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez would temporarily succeed him. Puerto Ricans had waited expectantly for the announcement throughout the day, as rumors of the governor’s forthcoming resignation swirled.

Read more …

Christine Lagarde is stuck even before she takes the job. There is no way out of ultra-low rates.

With Finger On Trigger, ECB Aims At More Stimulus (R.)

The European Central Bank is all but certain to ease policy further on Thursday, with the biggest question whether it staggers its moves over several months or opts for a big bang. With inflation stuck well below its target and the U.S. Federal Reserve already in easing mode, the ECB has flagged more stimulus, hoping to prop up confidence amid a steady flow of bad news that threatens to unravel years of unprecedented support. It could cut interest rates, perhaps while also helping banks offset the costs to them, restart a recently shuttered bond-buying program or raise the bar for any future tightening of monetary policy.


But with economic data relatively stable there is little urgency to deliver a comprehensive package this week, suggesting the ECB could take its time to prepare the measures and wait for the Fed to set its own course. This will be crucial for determining the euro’s exchange rate against the dollar, presently the single most-watched variable for ECB policymakers. Having stoked easing expectations already, ECB President Mario Draghi will have to deliver at least something on Thursday. If nothing else, he is likely to unveil revamped interest rate guidance that makes it clear a rate cut is coming and that rates will stay at record lows for much longer than the ECB had previously expected.

Read more …

As I said: all they can do is to prolong the agony.

Deutsche Bank Faces A -Much- Smaller, Poorer Future (Coppola)

Deutsche Bank has issued its results for the second quarter of 2019. They make grim reading. The bank reported a headline loss of €3.1bn ($3.44bn), which it said was due to “charges relating to strategic transformation” of €3.4bn ($3.78bn). But both net income of £231m ($256.67m) and underlying profits of €441m ($490m) were significantly down on the same quarter in 2018. The restructuring announced earlier this month has yet to impact fully. The “capital release unit” into which the bank plans to put €74bn ($82.22bn) of poorly-performing and non-strategic assets and business lines, including its entire equities trading division, is not yet up and running, and although headcount is about 4,500 lower than it was a year ago, the latest round of sackings doesn’t yet show up in the redundancy costs.


Restructuring costs themselves therefore only contribute €50m ($55.56m) to the headline loss. A further €350m ($388.89m) comes from junking software and service contracts that will no longer be needed because of the restructuring. But by far the largest part of the headline loss arises from impairment of goodwill to the tune of €1bn ($1.11bn) and a €2bn ($2.22bn) reduction in the value of the bank’s deferred tax asset. This may sound like accounting gobbledegook, but it sends a very important message. Deutsche Bank’s management has admitted the bank will never return to the profitability of the past. When the restructuring is complete, it will be a much smaller, poorer bank.

Read more …

Let’s end with something positive.

California Condor Comes Back From The Dead (NPR)

The California condor, North America’s largest bird, once ruled the American Southwest and California’s coastal mountains. The vulture-like bird was revered by Native Americans and was believed to contain spiritual powers. Hundreds of years later, its future seemed all but certain. Defying odds, conservation efforts brought the species back and prevented it from joining the dodo in extinction. Now, condor reintroduction celebrates a milestone: Chick No. 1,000 has hatched. In the 1980s, fewer than two dozen condors were left in the world. Conservationists rounded up the remaining condors and began breeding them in captivity.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the condor became critically endangered in the 20th century — one classification behind extinct in the wild. The decline came from poaching, habitat destruction and lead poisoning as condors scavenged for carrion containing lead shots. Today, more than 300 California condors exist in the wild. Including captivity breeding programs, there are more than 500 in the world, says Tim Hauck, the condor program manager at the Peregrine Fund.

The 1,000th successful birth signifies an optimistic future for the condor recovery mission. “We’re seeing more chicks born in the wild than we ever have before,” Hauck told NPR’s Scott Simon. “And that’s just a step towards success for the condor and achieving a sustainable population.” The hatchling is currently in Zion National Park — it emerged from its shell in May, but its survival was just confirmed in July. The chick, whose sex cannot be identified without a blood test, will be ready to fledge — or take flight — for the first time in November. If the chick successfully leaves the nest, it can expect to grow up to have a 10-foot wingspan. The bird’s average lifespan is 60 years, one of the world’s longest-living bird species.


Photo by National Park Service – AP

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle July 25 2019

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #48765

    Piet Mondriaan Trafalgar Square 1939-43   • Trump Cheers As Michael Moore Blasts ‘Frail’ Mueller (AFP) • Donald Trump Vetoes Bills Prohibiting Ar
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 25 2019]

    #48766
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    But the biggest takeaway from the hearing must be that Mueller didn’t write his own report, something that became glaringly obvious when he didn’t know what Fusion GPS was. Mueller has just been the face of an investigation that was conducted by others. He is the supposed hero who’s ideal as the front for such a thing. But the thing is hollow and empty.

    Yes. I caught that and even at 74, my memory is still spot on; especially for the things I, myself, wrote…
    Pathetic…the lot of it…
    Yesterday I said hopeless; today, it’s beyond even that…
    I jumped ship in 2003; but the god’s know I love North America; its beauty rivals any continent on this gorgeous blue orb; but stupid human politics are destroying it all……….

    #48767
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Oh, and poor little Eppy was found semi-conscious in a fetal position on the floor of his cell…
    Sounds like a bad acting job to get sympathy for his barbaric, pathetic, violation, of our societies most precious mores and norms…
    May he rot a very slow death…

    And while I’m at it: Britain also had a wide ranging scandle involving major pedophilia and other such debauchery; reminds me of our ancesters from over yonder.
    Same stock if you care to go back a paltry 300 years ago or more; Hey Boris! Are we related?
    God’s be good! Say it ain’t sooooo……….

    #48770
    NooBoob
    Participant

    Apocalypse Now and the Joys of Predatory Socialism
    Just because your house flooded after the forest fire and before a tornado hit it, doesn’t mean you can blame it on climate change. It’s the stupidest artificial distinction I ever heard of. The latest one is the drive by big pharma to use climate fear to boost medication profits. The drive to over-medicate kids started in earnest in the 90s.

    Those kids are now in their 30s, and they have no baseline reference to how fucked up they are. When I was a kid, our parents didn’t drug us, they relied on good ol’ physical and mental abuse. When I was a kid, we were taught to believe in things that aren’t true. Nowadays, we teach adults these things.

    Life has taught me 2 things; never come between a gardener and their favorite flower, and “progressives” are some of the most abusive pricks on earth. Rednecks I understand because that’s just naked bullying, but progressives dress their bullying up in virtuous drag. Look at today’s virtuous war pigs mourning saint Mueller. who’s only purview he can remember is not to exonerate Trump. It’s the modern day version of a pope not blessing a king, or when the kings and priests of ancient Egypt fought for power. It’s one brain-dead dinosaur not blessing another. These are the useless idiots running our world.

    https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.WOWdY8Skxa3ThQTel1DW-wAAAA&pid=Api&P=0&w=300&h=300

    Here is the 1996 cover of Newsweek. It’s fucking disgusting. It’s like grooming kids for rape. Those kids now dress up in blackface and beat the shit out of whitey. All this is done by virtue of being right, self-righteously so. It’s the right man’s burden. It’s good to be god. All virtue is twisted into evil around boardroom tables. I remember being told it was my fault that 6 women tried to kill me, by a gay predator social worker, The worst social predators are shrinks. I remember one telling me he had the power to lock me up and rape me.

    Lawyers are the worst because they’ll do anything for money. Presidential hopeful, Michael Avenatti held a press conference the other day, and only CNN showed up. The room was empty, except for the CNN microphone on the podium. CNN wanted him to be president, he’s now charged with stealing money from wheelchair bound old ladies.

    Physicists are telling us they’ve seen the mathematical mind of god, because they’re bat-shit crazy. I stared at a clock for 10 minutes once high on acid, and I couldn’t tell what time it was, was it 10 to 2, or 2 to 10? Never do math on acid. Priests tell us god talks to them, and not your kid. There was an orphanage in Italy for deaf-dumb kids that was run by pedo priests.

    Virtue and predators fit like a fist in ass. Tight. This virtuous predator is as old as Nanook the Eskimo.

    Watch out where the huskies go and don’t you eat that yellow snow. — Frank Zappa.

    We live in a make believe world of wealth and power based on hard credit and debt. Money is the guiding social construct we made up in 1913. The banks have been fucking us for more than 100 years.

    Socialism is a word beta males have been using to get laid, for over 100 years. There’s 4 billion people who don’t give a fuck about socialism. There are also 4 billion flights per years. 20% of those flights are socialists. It will take 50 years to educate the world about the joyous wonders of socialism. Socialism is the stuff of predatory college campuses. It’s predatory capitalism in socialist drag.

    We have to reduce emissions 50% in 10 years. Virtuous predatory socialists like Bernie Sanders and AOC will not be able to do that — and no — they’re not the first step, unless we got another 100 years. Politics cannot reduce emissions 50% worldwide. Only money can do that. Religion sure as fuck won’t do it, and neither will feminist gayism. When I see nazi rednecks and femi-nazi fags dancing in the streets, then I’ll believe they have a chance.

    As far as I’m concerned, everybody is gay and racist, they just don’t know it yet. Being a gay socialist feminist is just a cop out, an educated privilege used to hide our predatory lust for power. This pedatary lust for power subverts our freedoms. The men with the guns watch the kids go down into the mines of Africa, so we can tweet faux outrage. We are not going to fly to mars on unicorns. Renewable energy is only increasing 1% per decade. Grow the fuck up and get real.

    The only way money can fix everything in 10 years is if we make it 100% private and open. Modern day crowdfunding can do what governments used to do — if there’s no motive to get rich. This is a chicken and egg argument, no egg — no chicken. Why do I so insanely make this argument daily? Because I’m not the crazy one, you are. How else could you read this? 🙂

    Despite all my rage, I’m still just a rat in a cage — Smashing Pumpkins

    #48772
    zerosum
    Participant

    Win, Win
    No boots on the ground
    Not involved

    Simple trade, oil money for guns

    • Donald Trump Vetoes Bills Prohibiting Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia (AP)
    —–
    ” …. Tesla is different. it has never generated an annual profit…”

    ” …. Then there is Boeing.
    it has $5 billion more in liabilities than in assets…..
    Boeing is still producing 42 of its 737 jets a month and plans to boost that rate to 57 next year. But if there are further setbacks, Muilenberg said: “We might need to consider possible further rate reductions or other options including a temporary shutdown of the Max production.””

    ———

    • Mnuchin Says Amazon ‘Destroyed’ US Retail Sector (R.)
    dhuuuuu
    Propaganda – Some people want their cake and want to eat it.
    Gov. should stay out of the way of capitalism
    Socialism is bad
    Free army

    Wake up.
    This is the way the system is suppose to work.
    “…. big U.S. technology firms engage in anticompetitive practices …. concerns raised about “search, social media, and some retail services online” – an apparent reference to Google, Amazon, Facebook, and potentially Apple. ….”
    ———-
    @ NooBoob
    Correction
    The system has been built by the capitalists who are rich and powerful.
    The social/economic system is operating as it was designed by the elites.

    Apocalypse Now and the Joys of Predatory Socialism
    Capitalism

    #48773
    zerosum
    Participant

    Read something that is not fake

    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/07/its-not-just-news-thats-fake.html

    Despite all the craftsmanship, though, fake is still fake. And today virtually everything is fake, a con designed to trick or distract the marks (us) from the looting, plundering and predation of those running the con for their own self-interest.

    #48775
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    AMAZON

    Amazon famously grew turnover by not bothering to make a profit. [although recently its’ cloud services have done so] Any other retailer is at a disadvantage as they do need to make a profit.

    It would seem that the only way to compete against Amazon is to start a company selling goods at a loss. There are numerous examples of companies which have no prospect of making profits but which gain high valuations, so this should not be an issue. Investors subsidising consumers with no chance of recouping their money is common nowadays.

    #48776
    John Day
    Participant

    Overextended,

    i feel the stress more acutely, which comes in waves these days. I’m sensitive, and I don’t ignore or deny what I feel. I see signs that people all around are stressed, in how they drive, in how they walk on the streets, in how some of them bicycle. You are probably seeing people at work and family showing signs of stress.
    How many are getting better? I don’t see much of that.
    I believe that a big part of the problem is that the post-WW-2 global economy is terminally ill, due to massive untreated parasitism and a bad diet. The good food got eaten long ago. here is the GDP graph from Shadowstats, which uses the “old” measure of GDP, instead of the revision (which looks much better).
    image.png
    How does one person adapt to this, whether only feeling it, or feeling and seeing it, as we do?
    The most common form of adaptation to stress in mammals is to work harder and faster at the same things as before, until exhaustion.
    I think we are seeing that in the strident polarized politics, with so many positions being intellectually dishonest in one way or another, but “rallying the troops to the call”.
    Social Justice Warriors vs Climate Denying Racists…
    Everybody has to eat, and that’s where I see problems arising.
    In America, people need to drive places, because that’s what has been built for 75 years, roadways. People need a safe place to live, electricity, clean water, working sewers and some gas for the stove and water heater.
    Rents and taxes are high, so people camp under overpasses and pan-handle.
    Bonded debt, voted for and spent for our lifetimes presents cities and states with high and growing fixed costs, which raise rents on everybody except the urban-hunter-gatherers, who also have a hard and stressful life. Rapes, beatings and robberies make it hard to sleep, say my patients.
    Everything we were promised, and borrowed from, for so long, was predicated upon perpetual growth on what seemed like a really huge world in the 1960s.
    We are approaching the limits, which shows as real economy stagnating (GDP graph above), air and water pollution, necessities of life more expensive, good coal being gone, fracking losing money, and polluting wildly…
    There is the feeling of wanting to push it away, to erect some defenses, to rise above the suffering, because WE deserve better.
    WE are not the culprits.
    I and you still have to adapt ahead of the crunch. WE who have studied this a bit will be called upon to serve those who have not.
    I get to try to serve people daily. Some people fall through all of the cracks, as medical and social welfare bureaucracies put up walls against them. This sounds harsh, and it is. Bureaucracies get squeezed tighter and tighter, but they cannot shrink with shrinking resources, because compliance demands need to be met. Services must be cut. Bureaucrats cannot really attempt much in the way of actual solutions, because experiments draw responsibility and risk. That’s how to lose your job. Nobody can risk that these days.
    Some of us are old enough to remember work teams and personal responsibility and the satisfaction of success being a reward.
    Failed attempts were less threatening, too.
    Currently, i am spending many hours each day in meditation, compassion meditation, with, not “for” one of my patients, who is a massive fountain of anguish, for so many reasons. She is panicked, needs oxygen constantly due to years of smoking, has PTSD and probably bipolar disorder, lives alone and cannot keep care attendants, who don’t get much pay, and have their own problems and disabilities, personality disorders and criminality. EMS and the police usually want to help, but some are bullies, and she is a harsh and personally threatened judge. Meals on Wheels volunteers can’t handle her, so that stopped, but she can’t drive anywhere, has very little money, and no family…
    You may have skipped down a little in self-defense, and that is my point.
    Each of us, and our systems, churches and bureaucracies want to “solve problems”. We feel the resources shrinking and the wolf at the door, even if we don’t see it in our country yet. We don’t have to worry about Iraq, Venezuela, Iran, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, etc. Right?
    It isn’t going to happen here.
    Except, it is so far along here, already, that denial is really hard to sustain any more.
    It’s not America at work, or middle-class-America under threat. There is no “America” as we grew up knowing.
    The middle class was defined by job security and open participation, even more than income level. there was a comfort to the roles.
    That’s gone, even for the folks between 85% and 95% of income, who are living the externalities of what was “middle class”.
    I’m there. I feel the stress before the snap. When will it snap?
    If everybody reflexively pushes away from the zombie approaching, isn’t the path to a solution embracing the zombie?
    Well, it is hard, thankless and feels endless.
    Also, nobody else even wants to try to understand, so it is lonely and merely tolerated if you do all your other work and stay late, and so on.
    I’m fortunate, and this starts to be whining (How I detest that!).
    We are now used to having information and guidance from the internet. We can look things up, but we can’t look up the solution to going forward with less, in a system predicated on exponential growth forever, which has long ago failed.
    The solution that I see is the same as in a dream, where something inescapable is about to kill you, like hitting the ground after a long fall.
    I wake up, then. Can we wake up together?
    Is “Universal Mind” a spiritual internet to provide us with the answers we need, without parasitic-selfish-interest pop-up ads?

    Just Askin’
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/07/strain.html

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