Mar 042021
 


J.J. Grandville ‘A Comet’s Journey’, Illustration from ‘Un Autre Monde’ 1844

 

It’s Time for Major Wealth Redistribution (Lee Camp)
Joe Biden Just Yanked Away Stimulus Checks From 17 Million Americans (Week)
COVID Relief Showers States With 600% Of Lost Tax Revs (ZH)
Durham File: A Documentary Roadmap To Special Counsel Probe (JTN)
Trump Eyes 2024 Run Without Mike Pence (ZH)
A Change in the Water (Ben Hunt)
When Does This Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham Finally Implode? (CHS)
No Shots Fired By Rioters, No Firearms Recovered During Siege On Capitol (JTN)
Biden Bans Export Of Defense Articles To Russia, Which Got None Since WWII (RT)
Delusions of Self-Defense: Biden Bombs Syria (OffG.)

 

 

So many articles today, I’ll put up a separate Covid Rattle shortly here: Covid Rattle March 4 2021.

 

 

“Tucker every once in a while has a segment that just completely knocks it out of the park.This is one of those times.”
Tucker Dr. Seuss

 

 

 

 

 

Excess savings, sure, but only among the rich. Who don’t spend it.

 

 

“..the cumulative tab for our four-decade-long experiment in radical inequality has grown to over $47 trillion from 1975 through 2018..”

It’s Time for Major Wealth Redistribution (Lee Camp)

[..] we desperately need wealth redistribution. And before anyone starts yelling something about Joseph Stalin, here’s the part that’s going to blow your mind — in the United States we’ve already had wealth redistribution for decades. Fifty trillion dollars has been redistributed from the poorest Americans to the top one percent over the past several decades. That’s right, a new study shows the richest people in the world have stolen trillions from average Americans. To put this in easier to access terms — you know how mad you get when someone takes the last donut? Well, imagine that multiplied by 50 trillion. (Quick reminder: If you make $40,000 a year, it would take you 1.25 Billion years to make $50 trillion.)

The new study reveals, “…that the cumulative tab for our four-decade-long experiment in radical inequality has grown to over $47 trillion from 1975 through 2018. At a recent pace of about $2.5 trillion a year, that number we estimate crossed the $50 trillion mark by early 2020.” And to be clear, this money has been stolen from nearly every American. Had income distribution and buying power remained the same as it was from the end of World War II to 1975, ” . . . the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is … enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year.”

The richest people in America are pilfering over $1,100 from you personally and everyone you know every single month of every single year. Just imagine what each living soul in America could do with an extra $13,700 per year — how many people that would feed, how much less stressful their lives would be, how many fewer foreclosures there would be, and how many more people would get the healthcare they need. Yet every time the most modest tax increases are proposed on the richest Americans, or every time someone so much as mumbles about putting in a public jungle gym or putting in filters to take the metal chunks out of the water or fixing the holes in our bridges that are bigger than the ones in Maria Bartiromo’s head — every time someone brings up these common sense solutions, the elites of our society (who own the media outlets and the levers of the state and the law enforcement and the courts) start screaming from their wine-soaked ski resort orgy balconies, “That’s wealth redistribution! That’s class war!”

Read more …

Sure they’ll all vote for him again.

Joe Biden Just Yanked Away Stimulus Checks From 17 Million Americans (Week)

During the campaign for the two Georgia Senate races, Joe Biden repeatedly promised to pass $2,000 stimulus checks if the Democrats won. After they did, the administration argued that $2,000 really meant $1,400 in addition to the $600 that had already gone out in the December rescue package. Whether that is true or not, now Biden is inarguably breaking his promise. Under pressure from moderate Senate Democrats, he has reportedly agreed to cut down the formula under which the checks will be sent out. In the previous packages, the amount started phasing out at $75,000 in income for individuals and $150,000 for joint filers, and vanished entirely at $100,000 and $200,000 respectively (as of 2019). Now the phase-out will start start in the same place but end at $80,000 for singles and $160,000 for couples.


The $1,400 promise clearly implied at least that the checks would go out according to the previous formula used under Trump. But now singles making between $80,000-100,000 and couples making between $160,000-200,000 will get nothing. The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein reports that roughly 17 million people who previously got checks now will not. The supposed justification here is that moderates want the aid to be more “targeted.” In fact this formula is horribly inaccurate, because the income data the IRS uses is from the year before the pandemic (unless people have already filed their taxes — and by the way, if your income decreased in 2020, you should do that immediately). This formula is therefore doubly wrong — there are no doubt millions of people who have lost jobs and should qualify but won’t, and a smaller number that have gotten raises and shouldn’t qualify but will. And this change will only save a pitiful $12 billion.

Read more …

So the states get what their citizens can’t.

COVID Relief Showers States With 600% Of Lost Tax Revs (ZH)

Joe Biden is giving so much money to states as part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that they’re set to receive approximately six times more money than estimated tax revenue shortfalls across the country, according to Bloomberg. While the package carves out nearly $200 billion for state governments, the cumulative tax revenues which have disappeared in the current fiscal year are just $31 billion. “In other words, that money could make up for that loss and be plowed back into states’ economies, such as their own version of relief checks, infrastructure projects and more, depending on the federal guidelines around the aid.”

In short – states, assuming they don’t squander the funds (who are we kidding?), could play a pivotal role in accelerating the recovery – assuming the money actually stimulates jobs and/or ends up in the hands of consumers. The funds would also allow for the unwinding of various budgetary cuts which began last March, and are responsible for the elimination of more than 1.3 million state and local government jobs – which Bloomberg notes is “nearly twice as many as were lost after the last recession.” Republicans, however, argue that some of the stimulus should be cut or shifted to other priorities which could have a more immediate impact than essentially giving states their own giant slush funds.

“If the whole point of this bill is to stimulate economic activity, the federal government has ways of doing that, that may be more efficient than sending checks to state and local governments,” said Moody’s director of public sector research, which estimates that $56 billion is the actual price tag states need to cover shortfalls through 2022 after previously allocated aid is taken into account. Bloomberg also notes that “the financial impact overall has been far smaller than initially feared when Covid last year sent the US economy into the deepest recession since World War II, which left governors nationwide braving for the gravest fiscal crisis of modern times.”

Deficits on that scale were averted after the federal government pushed through stimulus plans in March and again late last year, driving stocks to record highs and promising to increase collections of capital gains taxes. The magnitude of the shortfalls also reflects the unusually uneven nature of the recession: While lower paid service industry employees were thrown out of work, the highest earners who pay far more in state taxes were less affected because they were able to work from home.

Read more …

A lot of information here.

Durham File: A Documentary Roadmap To Special Counsel Probe (JTN)

Freed from his double duty as Connecticut’s chief federal prosecutor, Special Counsel John Durham is zeroing in on the final phase of his far-reaching investigation into whether FBI officials or others committed crimes while conducting the Russia collusion probe, such as misleading federal judges or Congress. All expectations were that Durham would wrap up his probe with final indictments and/or a report last fall after a plea deal was reached with former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted he falsified a document submitted to substantiate an application for a surveillance warrant targeting the Trump campaign.

But FBI Director Chris Wray revealed Tuesday that the entire process — including the bureau’s ability to discipline agents involved in the Russia case — was slowed down at Durham’s request because of continuing concerns about potential criminality. “Because we are cooperating fully with Mr. Durham’s investigation, at his request we had slowed that process down to allow his criminal investigation to proceed,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “So at the moment, that process is still underway in order to make sure we are being appropriately sensitive to the criminal investigation.” Wray’s comments signaling additional crimes are being investigated are consistent with what former Attorney General William Barr said late last year when he upgraded Durham from a U.S. attorney to a special counsel and expanded his investigative staff.

Interviews with a half dozen sources who have had interactions with Durham’s team say he is focused on whether FBI executives knowingly and unlawfully misled the FISA court and Congress by withholding exculpatory evidence, extending an investigation without justification and creating the illusion there was evidence of Russia collusion when most had been debunked or dismissed. The sources said one former senior FBI official has provided invaluable cooperation and context to what decisions FBI leadership and field agents were making in the probe on such consequential matters as what to tell Congress, the courts and Justice Department lawyers about the flaws, political origins and falsehoods in the Russia collusion narrative.

Most of the evidence that supports those concerns is now in the public domain after a series of declassifications that began last year and ended when former President Donald Trump declassified hundreds of pages of the most sensitive evidence during his last 24 hours in office in January. .

Read more …

May be he should let Biden’s blunders grab the spotlight for a while.

Trump Eyes 2024 Run Without Mike Pence (ZH)

Former President Donald Trump is telling allies he’s seriously considering a run for president in 2024, but may do so without former Vice President Mike Pence on his ticket, according to Bloomberg, citing ‘people familiar with the discussions.’ On Sunday, Trump all but announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that he was running again – while privately, according to two of Bloomberg’s anonymous sources, he’s discussed “alternatives to Pence as he takes stock of who he believes stood with him at the end of his term and who didn’t.” Trump’s advisers have discussed identifying a Black or female running mate for his next run, and three of the people familiar with the matter said Pence likely won’t be on the ticket.

That said, given Trump’s history of choosing the ‘best person for the job’ regardless of color or sex, and notwithstanding obvious establishment picks, we imagine that last bit may be a non-starter for Trump. According to the report, Trump is considering South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem – who Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle are hosting a Friday fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. Meanwhile, Trump publicly endorsed South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s re-election. Scott is the only black Republican in the Senate.Following the 2020 election, Trump was livid after Pence didn’t “do the right thing” and reject Electoral College votes for Joe Biden from several contested states. In response, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution.”

Pence rejected his boss’s appeals to unilaterally overturn Trump’s re-election defeat when he presided over the congressional count of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. The event turned into an insurrection by Trump’s supporters, who invaded the Capitol, disrupted the count and forced the vice president and members of Congress to flee. Five people died in the melee. The two men didn’t speak for days afterward. Pence hasn’t said whether he’d be interested in running with Trump again, according to person familiar with the situation, who believes it’s doubtful Pence would. -Bloomberg. “President Trump hasn’t made any decisions regarding a potential 2024 run, but the buried lede here is that the media can’t stop talking about him,” said Trump adviser Jason Miller. According to the report “there’s been no serious consideration of future vice presidential candidates yet,” and if Trump runs, he won’t likely make a formal announcement until summer 2023, according to the anonymous sources.

Read more …

Inflation?!

A Change in the Water (Ben Hunt)

Every morning, we take the previous day’s financial news – all of it – and run it through the Narrative Machine to see if any interesting clusters pop out as a topic for us to write about in one of these quick Zeitgeist notes. And when I say clusters, I literally mean clusters – the building blocks of a graphical representation of linguistic connectivity. But when I say clusters, what I really mean is patterns. I really mean changes in the narrative structure. We’re not doing this to learn new facts. We’re not really interested in the specifics of what people are saying. We are very interested, though, in how people are saying it. We’re looking for changes in how we talk about what is important in markets and investing. We’re looking for changes in the water in which we swim.

That water is changing today. It’s changing a lot. Increasingly, the common knowledge of our investment world – what everyone knows that everyone knows – is that inflation is a problem and you should be focused on it. For example, today in a popular financial news media aggregator, RealClearMarkets.com, of the 21 articles highlighted on their frontpage aggregator, 6 of them were about inflation … is it here? is it coming? what does it mean for your portfolio? does Bitcoin fix this? etc. etc. Again, I have zero interest in the specifics or the facts or the message or the sentiment of these selected articles (even though one of them was yesterday’s Epsilon Theory note).


What interests me a lot, though, is the CHOICE made by the editors and algorithms of RealClearMarkets.com to select these articles over all of the other financial news stories available to them. What interests me a lot is the recursive ENGAGEMENT that these articles and their shared linguistic structures trigger in readers, such that they will look for more articles on this topic, which means that more articles on this topic will be written. This is how common knowledge happens. This is how the water in which we swim changes.

Read more …

“Wall Street and its vast army of apologists, lackeys, toadies, schemers, scammers, con-artists and profiteers will have us believe that the Everything Bubble is permanent..”

When Does This Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham Finally Implode? (CHS)

The mutually reinforcing crises aren’t in the future, they’re here now, and Jay Powell’s shuck-and-jive has lost its magical powers to cloak the rot with speculative bubbles. How many more times do we have to watch Jay Powell claim his speculative bubble isn’t a bubble, and that his massive expansion of billionaires’ fortunes will magically create jobs for all those living in the real world he’s created of stagnation, social depression and inequality? In other words, when will this travesty of a mockery of a sham finally implode? When will the Universe tire of the lies, fraud, embezzlement and corruption and bring the whole rotten charade down? When will we tire of the stale tale of reflation, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

We all know the Status Quo’s response to the global financial meltdown of 2008 has been a travesty of a mockery of a sham–smoke and mirrors, phony facades of “recovery”, simulacrum “reforms,” serial bubble-blowing and politically expedient can-kicking, all based on borrowing and printing trillions of dollars, yen, euros and yuan, quatloos, etc. and funneling them to financiers, corporations, monopolies, cronies and billionaires. When will the travesty of a mockery of a sham finally come to an end? How many more “saves” does the Ponzi Scheme of central banking possess? Wall Street and its vast army of apologists, lackeys, toadies, schemers, scammers, con-artists and profiteers will have us believe that the Everything Bubble is permanent and its continued expansion will hide all the systemic rot hollowing out America.

On the other hand, maybe manipulation, lies and artifice can no longer keep the Everything Bubble from popping. The chart I prepared back in 2008 (below) give us a flavor of the confluence of crises that are no longer in the future–they’re here now. Cycles are not laws of Nature, of course; they are only records of previous periods of growth/excess/depletion/collapse, not predictions per se. Nonetheless their repetition reflects the systemic dynamic of growth, crisis and collapse, and so the study of cycles is instructive even though we stipulate they are not predictive.

Since each mechanism that burns out or implodes tends to be replaced with some other mechanism, this creates the recurring cycle of expansion / excess / depletion / collapse. Four long-wave cycles are plotted in the chart:

Read more …

“No one has been charged with a firearms violation.”

No Shots Fired By Rioters, No Firearms Recovered During Siege On Capitol (JTN)

No firearms were recovered on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 during the riot, and no shots were fired by the demonstrators, an FBI official on Wednesday told Congress.”To my knowledge we have not recovered any [firearms] on that day from any of the arrests at the scene at this point,” said Jill Sanborn, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “No one has been charged with a firearms violation.” Sanborn made her comments during a joint oversight hearing in the Senate to examine the breach of the U.S. Capitol. In addition to Sanborn, witnesses included the commander of the Washington, D.C. National Guard, and civilian officials from the Pentagon.

During testimony, Sanborn responded to questions from Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who asked whether firearms were present or used during the siege. “How many shots were fired that we know of?” Johnson asked. “The only shots fired were the ones that resulted in the death of the one lady,” Sanborn said, referencing Ashli Babbitt, a protester who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer during heightened tension inside the building. Other testimony examined the timeline of when the National Guard was dispatched to help an overwhelmed civilian police force during the siege on the Capitol.

The National Guard was dispatched to the riot more than three hours after Capitol Police made a desperate call for help with a “dire emergency,” a two-star general testified Wednesday before Congress. Major Gen. William Walker, who commands the District of Columbia National Guard, told senators that the 1:49 p.m. call for help from the guard on Jan. 6 was approved in a message that reached him after 5 p.m. At that point, troops who were waiting on buses sped to the Capitol, and helped to secure a perimeter, Walker said. Walker made his comments during a hearing to examine the breach of the U.S. Capitol. In addition to Walker, civilian officials from the Pentagon and the FBI are scheduled to testify.

Read more …

“More US sanctions were announced yesterday against our country. In this particular case, with regard to arms exports, they cause bewilderment…”

Biden Bans Export Of Defense Articles To Russia, Which Got None Since WWII (RT)

Russia’s Service of Military-Technical Cooperation has noted its “bewilderment” after Washington imposed an export ban on “defense articles and defense services” to the country, despite Russia not receiving any US arms since 1945. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled new sanctions against Moscow after the alleged poisoning and “attempted assassination of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny.” “The US government has exercised its authorities to send a clear signal that Russia’s use of chemical weapons and abuse of human rights have severe consequences,” a press statement from Blinken said. As part of the restrictions, Russia has been included in Section 126.1 of the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which essentially means that any requests from Moscow to buy defense-related items would be flatly rejected.

“More US sanctions were announced yesterday against our country. In this particular case, with regard to arms exports, they cause bewilderment,” the federal service noted. “Arms supplies from the United States to Russia are not carried out and, of course, are not planned.” The government body also noted that the last time any military equipment was delivered to Russia from the US was through the lend-lease program during WWII, which ended on August 21, 1945. Speaking to Moscow daily RBK, Russian International Affairs Council expert Andrey Frolov noted that the new sanctions are likely to be toothless and do not pose any threat to the military-industrial complex, which does not rely on American supplies.

Another expert, Ruslan Pukhov from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies think tank, revealed that restrictions won’t actually prevent any export contracts if the US wants to implement them. In particular, he cited the example of Rosoboronexport, which was removed from the sanctions list to sign a contract to supply the Afghan Army with helicopters, and was put back on the list straight after.

Read more …

Defying credulity, the spokesman suggested that the US had “acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq.”

Delusions of Self-Defense: Biden Bombs Syria (OffG.)

Every power worth its portion of salt in the Levant these days seems to be doing it. On February 25, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against Syria. The premise for the attacks was implausible. “These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq,” claimed Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, “and to ongoing threats to those personnel.” More specifically, the strikes were in retaliation for rocket attacks in northern Iraq on the airport of Erbil that left a Filipino contractor working for the US military dead and six others injured, including a Louisiana National Guard soldier. The targets in Syria were facilities used by Iranian-backed militia groups, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack left up to 22 people dead.

The Biden administration has resorted to tactics long embraced by US presidents. To be noticed, you need to bomb a country. The measure, more a sign of raging impotence than stark virility, is always larded with jargon and bureaucratic platitudes.“We said a number of times that we will respond on our timeline,” explained Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to reporters keeping him company on a flight from California to Washington. “We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure about the right targets.” He was convinced “that the target was being used by the same Shia militants that conducted the [February 15] strikes.”

Seven 500-pound bombs were used in the operation, though Stars and Stripes initially reported that “the type of weaponry used” was not disclosed. The Pentagon had been keen to push a larger range of targets, but Biden was being presidential in restraint, approving, as the New York Times puts it, “a less aggressive option”. Kirby insisted the operation had been the sensible outcome of discussions with coalition partners. “The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel.” Defying credulity, the spokesman suggested that the US had “acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq.”

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 4 2021

Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)
  • Author
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  • #70527

    J.J. Grandville ‘A Comet’s Journey’, Illustration from ‘Un Autre Monde’ 1844   • It’s Time for Major Wealth Redistribution (Lee Camp) • Joe Biden
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 4 2021]

    #70531
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    IF by Rudyard Kippling is the Bees’ knees…

    #70535

    We’re looking at the posting issues. We’ve changed the ads, obviously, but what’s appears more likely to cause them is the WordPress updates that were required. That stuff is always hard to define. We’ll find it.

    Meanwhile, in case you missed it, here are V. Arnold’s words from last night:

    I commented about the flatlined Patreon contributions here over many, many months. Ilargi’s hard work deserves way more than a paltry $700, no?

    🙂

    #70538
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    I think the reason no firearms were confiscated during the Capitol Riot was because representatives of law enforcement went into the Capitol and politely told the rioters it was time to leave, which the rioters did upon realizing that Congress had pretty much locked itself up in the basement.

    #70540
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Raul: I make anonymous donations (so you don’t have to bother with a thank you) via Paypal using your site’s donation button. Is it better for you if we use Patreon?

    #70546
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Thank you Raul Ilargi – for the beautiful selections of art and poetry – today and everyday.

    The J.J. Grandville ‘A Comet’s Journey’ illustration is in its’ own world of possibility. It gives HOPE and direction IF you are open to it. Exquisite contrast in all the right places. Cosmic – a mystery, magical and mystical. Our time will come.

    IF…forever in my HEART. We read, discussed and memorized it in middle school; thankfully it has been with me all these years. IF reminds us of our potential, it gives HOPE and direction WHEN you are open to it.

    Today’s art and poetry take us beyond the trap of this creation. Even IF for just a moment. We are better because we went there.

    Yesterday someone was asking how to move forward – after reading Snowden and Chris Hedges. Well, here is your answer.

    #70547
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @RIM: Am curious about why you used the word “cult” when referring to Caitlin Johnstone yesterday. How did you arrive at that conclusion – to the point where you no longer read her posts?

    I find her contribution to be important because it is completely unique. She openly shares her spiritual journey (which is not clear to me Buddhist/Taoist/Yogic) mixed in with real life experience. IF there was a visual component to her work it might just be ‘A Comet’s Journey’.

    #70549
    John Day
    Participant
    #70551
    John Day
    Participant

    Piece by piece:
    ​Tessa Fights Robots, on Broken People​
    I have been thinking a lot about brokenness.
    ​ ​If we look at history, at one point, one of the two things happened in most known cultures of today. Either a local ruler, who was seeking personal prestige and approval by more influential leaders of the time—much like the leaders of today are going for the “Great Reset” to elevate or at least to preserve themselves—forced the people to abandon their traditional way of life and to become “civilized”—again, much like the leaders of today are pushing us toward transhumanism—or foreign invaders came along and did the same.
    ​ ​So what we are dealing with today is not particularly new, it’s just strange to belong to a generation on the receiving end of a religious reform. I am thinking every day, wow, I have never thought I would be living through a thing like this!​ …
    ​ ​It seems like today, history is repeating itself.
    For example, the victory march of “science as religion” that is happening today—very much in the name billionaire profits and asset management (i.e. capitalism)—is nearly identical to the march that was happening in the Soviet Union in the name of “socialism” when my grandparents were young. Just like the proverbial “scientists” of today are denouncing peasants’ self-preservation instincts (so that certain pharmaceutical companies can make a fortune on certain therapies, which are wrongfully labeled as certain must-worship medical products), back then, city-educated folks would come to the village and yell at peasants for their backward ways, force them to use toxic fertilizers, and teach them to not breastfeed their babies (see an ironic throwback from 2016).
    https://tessa.substack.com/p/isms

    #70552
    John Day
    Participant

    Another, related thought: (Hi Susmarie108)
    Caitlin Johnstone:
    ​We are here to participate in the expansion of consciousness.
    Our world appears disordered at the moment because much of it is deeply unconscious. Humanity is mostly unconscious of its inner dynamics and sleepwalks through life in a very destructive way. People loaded with unconscious trauma ascend to positions of power and spread their trauma around without consciousness. Government secrecy and corporate secrecy keep most power dynamics which affect the world unconscious. Propaganda distorts humanity’s collective efforts to consciously perceive the reality of our situation.
    Wherever there is a lack of clear seeing, there is disharmony. Wherever anything moves into consciousness, harmony is increased. Becoming individually conscious of unconscious mental habits created in response to early childhood trauma allows us to change or eliminate those habits and begin functioning more harmoniously. Becoming collectively conscious of racial inequality allows us to collectively begin moving toward racial harmony. Becoming collectively conscious of the abuses of tyranny allows us to collectively begin moving toward political harmony. Wherever there is more seeing, there is more harmony.
    This is why we are here. To make the unseen seen and to dispel illusions which distort our perception. The more visible the universe and humanity’s dance in it becomes to us, the more harmony there will be.

    The Universe Is Just Trying To See Itself

    #70557
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    I see a strong alchemical influence in Grandville’s artwork.

    As for Dr. Seuss’ Sneetches (actually humans), the story always reminded me that vanity was the most easily exploited weakness of humanity. We seem to come with a built-in need to be “special”, we crave “status”, and will do almost anything to rise above the clamoring hordes. Advertisers and marketers thrive on this. When the clever conman, Sylvester McMonkey McBean, arrived in town he saw a people ripe for the picking and then proceeded to extract every last dollar from them.

    I noticed a similar theme in the Pixar movie, The Incredibles, where the arch-villain, Syndrome, was planning to sell all of his “super” technology to the world so that everyone could be “super” like Mr. Incredible, who had shunned him years before hurting his ego. This would level the playing field between those with special powers and those without, claiming: “When Everyone is Super, no one will be.”

    Think of this when your wife pesters you for that Mercedes, BMW, or Tesla, which she just has to have in order to fit in with the other “cool” women.

    #70559

    upstateNYer

    Raul: I make anonymous donations (so you don’t have to bother with a thank you) via Paypal using your site’s donation button. Is it better for you if we use Patreon?

    The only real difference I can see is that small donations at Paypal get cut by insane percentages right away, while at Patreon they become part of the total amount at the end of the month. So, larger: Paypal, smaller: Patreon.

    #70560

    Susmarie

    Am curious about why you used the word “cult” when referring to Caitlin Johnstone yesterday. How did you arrive at that conclusion – to the point where you no longer read her posts?

    A while back she posted something in the vein of (paraphrased): “Do These 37 Things So You Won’t Be Propagandized Anymore”. Yeah, sure. Then later, there was something about her “vows” to be always honest bla bla. If you feel you have to put that in words, you’re already wrong. What I say is I want to keep this site open to everyone, no paywalls. That I’ll be honest will always remain unwritten, because that would be very embarrassing to say.

    As for “The Universe Is Just Trying To See Itself”, hey yeah, but now you’re talking physics, and that’s not her angle. She’s getting carried away by her own cult.

    I hope she’s fine, and I’m sure she’s making a ton, but it’s not my take on the world.

    #70563
    BlueSkye
    Participant

    small donations at Paypal get cut

    Not at all if you select “send money to a friend” rather than “pay a business”.

    #70564
    zerosum
    Participant

    PENT UP SAVINGS !!!!!
    I DON’T BELIEVE IT

    People who only cared if they could afford the monthly payments are going to change and start to do math!!!!
    People could not save before the pandemic. Now I’m expected to believe that people who spent every dollar they had plus maxed out their credit cards have suddenly changed to become savers.
    ——–
    Tell the truth.
    Accountants and lawyers are hiding behind Biden.

    • Joe Biden Just Yanked Away Stimulus Checks From 17 Million Americans (Week)
    • COVID Relief Showers States With 600% Of Lost Tax Revs (ZH)
    ———
    ” …..the media can’t stop talking about him,(Trump)”
    —–
    Repeat …. how propaganda works …. or Russia,Russia
    “What interests me a lot, though, is the CHOICE made by the editors and algorithms of RealClearMarkets.com to select these articles over all of the other financial news stories available to them. What interests me a lot is the recursive ENGAGEMENT that these articles and their shared linguistic structures trigger in readers, such that they will look for more articles on this topic, which means that more articles on this topic will be written. This is how common knowledge happens”
    ——
    How embarrassing!
    The National Guards are still waiting for somebody to show up on Capitol Hill.
    ——

    #70565
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @RIM on Caitlin reply: appreciate and respect your perspective.

    She is deep into metaphysics (vs. physics) which I believe might offer an additional strategy – on the way to/beyond collapse – for shaping the future. Why not explore the possibility that focused human consciousness could have on transforming the individual and the world?

    Some of us will continue to read her writing and will selectively share.

    #70568

    small donations at Paypal get cut

    Not at all if you select “send money to a friend” rather than “pay a business”.

    That’s just one side of the equation, but sure, it makes a difference.

    #70569
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Speaking of Lee Camp (who I respect), here’s another ultra-leftist that sounds just like Herr Docktor.


    (Russell Brand. He wanders so you may need to take his channel more as a collective body)

    How can that be? Could it be the world isn’t Left-Right, but Insiders-Outsiders? Boot-licking toadies vs and Working Independents? Yes, and our nation was founded on that principle: LIBERTY (Freedom + Responsibility) vs Everybody Else. Now it’s the also-rans and the concept of Liberty and Work is politically homeless. At least until Mitch McConnell is drummed from office and back into the Chinese trust fund he crawled out of.

    But here’s the ad: YOU CAN HAVE LIBERTY. Just do it, right now. Just act it. Stop chatting on EvilCorp. Stop shopping at EvilCorp. Stop voting for EvilCorp. Stop banking at EvilCorp. Don’t use EvilCorp’s money. Boom, they collapse, you’re in charge. Lee Camp’s $13,000 blood-money-funnel stops cold. SachsSquid fails. But you won’t. You’ll tell SOMEBODY ELSE to do it. Government, funded by EvilCorp, is going to stop EvilCorp on your behalf, you wait-and-see-this-time-mister. What can I do with you? You’re all still on the internet, not using Bitcoin (or a freer, privater alternative) If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have to be. We’d be bowling in person after throwing hay.

    “Joe Biden Just Yanked Away Stimulus Checks From 17 Million Americans (Week)”

    Yup, but more amazingly, they yanked the microphone away from HIM. Who? Who shut off his mike in his own press conference? No one knows. Which means no one knows who’s running the government. Not Joe, apparently not Harris either. I think it’s Psaki. She’s sneaky that way, you wouldn’t see it coming. This was likewise the end of the USSR, and made the USSA super antsy at the time.

    “focused on whether FBI executives knowingly and unlawfully misled the FISA court and Congress”

    Which everybody on the planet already knows without subpoena power. The question is, what are you going to DO about it?

    “This is how common knowledge happens.”

    Only for people whose reality is formed on the basis of popularity. For the rest of us who have real jobs, or are engineers, knowledge is truth, physics, not fashion.

    “No Shots Fired by Rioters, No Firearms Recovered During Siege on Capitol (JTN)”

    This is how we know it was the biggest thing ever, bigger than 911 and all Republicans should be rounded up, reeducated, and shot on sight. What is it about their “Reality” “Common Knowledge” that’s based solely on what people talk about? That is run by 20 magazine editors? Which are owned by 6 billionaires who call them at 4 am each morning for talking points? Seriously, people? Yes, dead serious. Serious psychosis, as serious as dementia and schizophrenia combined.

    Other news: Cheeto requested 10,000 National Guard for 1/6 with Pelosi, who overruled it. Capital Police backup denied 6 times. She said it would have bad optics. Bad optics like when you erected the 40-foot fence of Pelosi immediately after? That kind of bad optics? ‘Cause I’m having a hard time believing you here. And where are those 6 camera-fed pipe bombs? And where is the $75,000 CNN paid to Mr. Sullivan to break Capitol windows and film it? Poof. Gone. Not in the 4am talking points, so not in the AI word-cloud. Therefore Reality doesn’t exist. Unreality DOES exist.

    “use of chemical weapons and abuse of human rights have severe consequences,”

    We’re going to cut off more stuff we don’t have and never sent before, see-if-we-don’t. You’re denied fairy dust, denied unicorns, denied Dick Cheney’s heart, denied, denied, denied!!! We are clearly the most laughable clown nation that ever was. I could not possibly bring it down faster than they are doing already.

    Agree that Cait is a good read. I almost only read people I disagree with. Because that’s everyone. But anything breaking up the standard bubble (politics VS science VS economics VS…) leads to freedom and the new like she does.

    “Iran Wants War” Yes, but they are now PINK military bases. That means they are filled with love drones and love bombs. Just like back home.

    “Democrats are taking us from Trump’s world to Orwell’s.”

    Joke: “Biden is erecting a monument to George Orwell.”
    “Really? Where?”
    “A: Everywhere.”

    #70570
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    If

    #70576
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Re: donations for this site on Paypal vs Patreon.

    Now I’m going to sound like an idiot because I don’t know what is considered a large or small donation. I donate $50 at a time. Is that large or small?

    Thinking I may just start mailing a check to Raul. 😉

    #70577
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @Susmarie108: “She [… Caitlyn] is deep into metaphysics (vs. physics) which I believe might offer an additional strategy – on the way to/beyond collapse – for shaping the future.”

    And how is it you think we got to where we are?

    Metaphysics … or the idea that how we think, there we shall go, is precisely how we got here. While it makes sense to work on changing the current metaphysical narrative to “remake” the future, I don’t think humans are even close to where we need to be, collectively, to make that shift happen in our lifetime.

    Does that mean Caitlyn shouldn’t write about making this change? Of course not. But if we are talking making metaphysical changes that offer an additional strategy for shaping the future, I believe everyone posting here today will have passed away before the physical changes that result from our collective metaphysical thoughts actually occurs.

    I think the commenters here are already contributing to metaphysical changes, each in their own small way. Especially Raul with maintaining this site through thick and thin. Not sure how he does it.

    #70578
    zerosum
    Participant

    The canadian airlines are in negotiation with the fed.
    They will re-emburse the money that people paid for trips that were not taken.
    In return, the airlines will get money to pay for the bank loan that they have accumulated.
    (cough, cough its a bank bailout)

    #70587
    John Day
    Participant

    @Madamski:
    Another “If”, which I presume you have also heard

    #70588
    John Day
    Participant

    @Ilargi and Susmarie108
    “I don’t know what that word means, but I don’t think it means what you think it means”
    Cult
    Caitlin’s fine and she gets out every day and tries, and throws her own self at the sit, and some days are a ot different from others, but she gets out and throws it down for us to pick and choose.
    Jim Jones in Guyana; that was a “cult”.

    #70589
    John Day
    Participant

    @UpstateNYer: Now you’re talkin’!
    If a tree falls in a forest and there is nobody there to hear it, does the tree or the forest “exist”?
    What is “existence”, do you think?

    #70590
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    This, IMO, is a very good definition of cult

    Oxford Dictionaries
    NOUN
    1A system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.
    ‘the cult of St. Olaf’
    More example sentences
    1. 1.1A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
    ‘a network of Satan-worshiping cults’
    More example sentences
    Synonyms
    2. 1.2A misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
    ‘a cult of personality surrounding the leaders’
    More example sentences
    Synonyms
    3. 1.3usually as modifier A person or thing that is popular or fashionable, especially among a particular section of society.
    ‘a cult film’

    #70593
    Bill7
    Participant

    Surveillance Capitalism and the Abolition of Man: C.S. Lewis’s classic analysis of the scientific worldview illuminates our present danger:

    “..Updating Hannah Arendt’s concept of dispossession as “digital dispossession,” [Shoshana] Zuboff describes how the seeming innocuousness of internet activity during the last quarter century has culminated in a massive yet subtle transfer of power, both within the realm of private economic actors and vis-à-vis the power of the state.

    Instead of the 20th-century economic division of labor, surveillance capitalism has created a 21st-century “division of knowledge,” in which >>surveillance capitalists retain rights to their own privacy while, via algorithmic analysis and continuous experimentation, they increasingly violate the privacy of all others<< engaged in digital social interaction, resulting in >>behavioral capture<< and a situation approximating Emile Durkheim’s “extreme asymmetries of power,” and paralleling Lewis’s conception of a societal chasm between conditioners and conditioned. Of course, all of this was supported by Enlightenment faith in human goodness and reciprocity resulting in the inexorable progress of humanity through science..”

    Surveillance Capitalism and the Abolition of Man

    Good thing it’s just all us silly ol’ humans messing up, and not one tiny, tiny overClass peremptorily ruling over another benighted and subjugated one..

    #70595
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Having been a cult member (JW’s) many decades ago; I would add that there is a darker side to some cults not addressed by the Oxford Dictionaries.
    It includes religions, individuals (Charles Manson), organizations (JW’s & Mormons), and governing bodies, to name but a few…
    Secrecy, intimidation, and a strict hierarchy are generally a part of organizational structure…

    Caitlan Johnstone may, or may not, have a cult-like following; it’s not her fault per se… 😉

    #70597
    Bill7
    Participant

    Ms. Johnstone seems to focus on abstractions, and on the Individual as a center of power (“be your own Revolution!”, says she..)

    lemme know how that works out-

    Johnstone also says Da Covid [political, not medical] phenomenon is “boring and irrelevant”. I disagree; I think it’s the defining
    issue of this very, very dark time. BTW: is it triple-masking, or quadruple, tomorrow? So hard to keep up [by design?]..

    #paidto not See

    #70598
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @Dr D: am looking forward to bowling in person and throwing hay with you.


    @John
    Day: hi. What is existence? A very good question. IF we only had more time tonight…….


    @UpstateNYer
    : thanks for your thoughtful comments. In my opinion, the most practical and actionable things we can do are 1) inner work on ourselves (that seeks answers to John Day’s question above + more) which involves contemplation, reflection, and meditation and 2) bring insight from our personal exploration (inner work) back into the world, living it in real time in everyday life.

    Reject EvilCorp narratives. Find your own (and call it a Mantra) – see where it takes you. A collective shift is not bound by time. Every act of positivity, of LOVE matters – and rolls into the mighty flow. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise.

    #70599
    WES
    Participant

    Savings:

    People save more when they feel uncertain about the future.
    That is not a good sign for the future.

    Wealth inequality is a result of inflation. The explanation is very simple.
    The poor cannot protect themselves from the effects of inflation.
    The rich can position themselves to benefit from inflation.

    #70600
    WES
    Participant

    When Chris Wray, FBI director, says Antifa was not involved in the January 6 Capital riot,
    where the leader of Antifa, John Sullivan, was arrested,
    tells you all you need to know.
    The main job of the FBI and DofJ is to protect the powerful from the people!

    The DofJ has dropped the probe into Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnel.
    She resigned after January 6th, saying she couldn’t stay on due to the Capital riots.
    Nothing to see here about her dealings with the CCP.

    Mitch’s days are now numbered!

    Mike Pence is trying to save his political future to run as president in 2024.
    He, along with Nicky Haley, are now MAGA outcasts. Serves them right.
    If you are going to play with knives like Brutus, you had better make sure you kill Ceasar!

    #70601
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:

    How can you be so cynical about our PM Sparkle Socks!
    He is just trying to pull himself up by pulling up his socks so he can call an election!

    He is very worried about creating jobs in Quebec.
    But not jobs out west!

    #70602
    WES
    Participant

    The reason cities and states are getting the vast majority of federal covid aid from joe, is to reward them for helping him steal the presidential election!

    The Durham investigation is not going anywhere it shouldn’t!
    One of the main purposes of Barr secretly naming Durham a special prosecutor,
    besides stopping President Trump from releasing more documents,
    was to place Durham under direct supervision of congress! That is correct!
    Durham now has to report everything he does to congress where as before he only reported to Barr,
    who Congress appointed.
    This is Congress’s dirty little secret they don’t tell the American people!

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