WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” –  H.L. Mencken

 

“The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.”Andrew Carnegie

I’m 53 years old. The older I get the less sure I am about things I was sure about when I was 25 years old. I believed stocks for the long run was an unquestioned truth. I believed our economy was based on free market capitalism. I believed stock prices were based upon profits and cash flows. I believed a home was a place to live – not an investment. I believed the Catholic Church was run by good men doing good things. I believed journalists and the media were watchdogs working on behalf of the public. I believed our military was protecting our interests. I believed politicians legislated on behalf of the people. I believed the main purpose of bankers was to loan money to businesses and consumers in order to support economic growth. Boy, was I dumbass.

My skeptical nature, reliance on data I’ve personally vetted, and judging our leaders based on what they have done versus what they say, has allowed me to escape the Matrix. I wasn’t truly awakened until I watched Bush, Cheney, Powell, the rest of the neo-con prevaricators and fake news mainstream media utilize propaganda to railroad Americans into a $6 trillion unnecessary war, resulting in 36,000 American casualties, the destruction of a country and the creation of thousands of new Muslim terrorists.

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I’ve spent the last fourteen years pushing back against the establishment narrative, documenting the fake data published by government apparatchiks, and trying to open the eyes of as many people as possible to the propaganda utilized by the Deep State to keep the ignorant masses dazed, confused and distracted. The country is in deep trouble because what the majority believe regarding the economy, politics, religion, and culture just ain’t so.

“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”Mark Twain

Since the start of this year I’ve found myself in a mental funk. I’m tired of the lies. I’m tired of incessant media propaganda. I’m tired of politicians. I’m tired of economic experts. I’m tired of hucksters touting their “the end is near” tale to sell me something. I’m tired of faux mainstream media journalists and their whining about Trump being mean and threatening the First Amendment.

They don’t know jack about the First Amendment, as they work for one of the six media conglomerates whose job it is to produce fake news supporting whatever narrative keeps their Deep State benefactors in power. Regurgitating lines written for them by corporate propagandists is not journalism and has absolutely no relationship to the First Amendment. Over the last decade the only place to find some truth has been the alternative media thriving on the uncensored internet. That’s why the establishment wants to regulate the internet.

The fake news blitz by a Deep State, flailing about trying to retain their power and wealth, has reached frantic proportions. The left wingers, egged on by Obama and funded by Soros, hold increasingly inane protests with themes like: wear a vagina hat to support feminazis; hug an illegal immigrant; everyone I hate is a Nazi; and women take another day off and no one notices. The traitorous neo-con warmongers like McCain, Graham, and Kristol see their enormously profitable never ending global conflict agenda at risk. The military industrial complex needs enemies. The left wingers and neo-cons have joined forces to utilize the fake Russian election intervention propaganda in a last ditch desperate attempt to derail the Trump presidency before it starts.

The relentlessness, bitterness, and blatant disregard for the truth exhibited by Trump’s vast array of opponents have made TV virtually unwatchable. I’ve found myself mentally checking out. Why waste mental energy debating hacks, mental midgets and paid trolls for the establishment? After spending years obliterating fake government statistics on a daily basis, I find continuing to do so is just mental masturbation with no ultimate satisfaction. Confronting left wingers and neo-cons is like wresting with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it.

I’ve always been an observer. I’ve been observing how certain both sides are regarding their positions on illegal immigration, Muslims, Russia, Obamacare, Supreme Court nominees, executive orders, jobs, taxes, climate change, school choice, oil pipelines the First Amendment, Second Amendment, the rule of law, and the Bill of Rights. I find it exhausting. We’re lost in a blizzard of lies. I’m not certain about anything. I will remain skeptical of everything uttered by all politicians, all government bureaucrats, all corporate executives, all central bankers, all media pundits, all religious leaders, all corporate paid journalists and especially Wall Street shysters.

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure.”H.L. Mencken

The dissonance between what I have been observing and what is being flogged by the establishment mouthpieces in the corporate mainstream media has never been greater. Some of my observations are anecdotal, others are based on real unadulterated truthful data, a few are based on simple common sense and the rest are based on my understanding of what happens during Fourth Turnings.

When you understand the cyclical nature of history you are not surprised when events lead to reactions among the masses which take the linear thinking status quo by complete surprise. The 2008 global financial implosion and the subsequent election of Donald J. Trump by the deplorable white silent majority completely blindsided the oblivious establishment, but were entirely predictable if you had studied previous Fourth Turnings throughout history.

I’ve been making a horrific sixty mile round trip commute into Philly for the last ten years. The average daily commute has been about two hours, as the entire route has been under some sort of construction for the entire decade. A fantastic one way commute is forty five minutes. I regularly have ninety minute commutes, and I’ve experienced a few which breached the two hour mark. It became immediately evident to me something changed as this new year got under way. My morning and evening commute has been consistently in the forty-five minute range for the last two months. There are less cars and trucks on the road. The question is why?

This only happened once before over the last decade – during the 2008/2009 recession. In a shocking correlation (especially for brain dead tax and spend liberals), when there are less jobs, there are less drivers on the roads going to work. I tried to think of other reasonable explanations for why traffic appeared to be contracting so dramatically. But lo and behold, certain data can’t be easily manipulated by the government. Gasoline demand is plunging, with the year over year trend crashing to levels last experienced during the 2001 recession. Gasoline demand was higher during the 2008/2009 crisis. Demand was higher when oil was over $100 per barrel. Based on this crash in gasoline demand, Goldman Sachs issued a report saying we should be in a recession.

Total miles driven are dramatically slowing down. It’s not because of electric cars or fuel efficiency, as the vast majority of the 17.5 million vehicles being hawked to the math challenged driving public (using low payment leases and six year 0% loans) are pickups, SUVs, or luxury sedans. The Fed induced and subprime debt fueled frenzy of vehicle sales (aka long – term rentals) has seen vehicle sales skyrocket from 10 million in 2010 to an all-time high above 17.5 million in 2016, while auto loan debt has soared from $700 billion to over $1.1 trillion during this same time frame. The truthfulness of the 17.5 million sales number may be in question, as dealer lots are stuffed with record levels of inventory. With a record number of cars in the hands of consumers, how could gasoline usage and miles driven crash?

Vehicle Sales

More questions emerge to those with critical thinking skills. If the unemployment rate is really 4.8%, how could 40% of the employable population (102 million) not be working? This explains the lack of cars on the road during my commute. Obama and his minions jabber about the tremendous jobs recovery during his reign of error. In 2007 there were 122 million full-time workers among a working age population of 233 million, or 52.3%. After Obama’s eight year economic “recovery”, there are 125 million full-time workers among a working age population of 254 million, or 49.2%.

We’ve added 3 million full-time jobs in the last 9 years, and the captured mainstream media touts this as a success story. The deceitfulness – it burns. When 125 million full-time workers, of which 22 million are non-producing government drones, have to support 102 million non-working Americans, most living on the dole, you have a financially unsustainable paradigm. Trump’s slogan should be Make Americans Get Off Their Fat Asses and Work Again.

The explanation for the plunge in gasoline demand and miles driven is quite simple if you haven’t drunk the mainstream media kool-aid about the fantastic economy, low unemployment, and soaring consumer confidence. Americans drive their vehicles to work, to shop, and to eat out. Truckers are the backbone of our just in time big box retail society. If Americans are driving less, there are less people with jobs, less spending at bricks and mortar retailers, and fewer people eating out.

If truckers are logging less miles, retailers are ordering less inventory, manufacturers are selling less widgets, and the economy is contracting. The entire economic improvement narrative is based on soft data about feelings from consumer confidence surveys and dozens of other easily manipulated surveys. Propagandists are experts at convincing clueless dolts it’s raining when their government is actually pissing down their backs.

Despite government reports about expanding retail sales and strong holiday sales, real info from real retailers tells the true story. Major retailers have announced 1,500 store closings in the first two months of 2017, including:

  • JC Penney – 140 stores
  • Sears – 150 stores
  • Macy’s – 68 stores
  • HHGregg – 88 stores
  • The Limited – 250 stores
  • Abercrombie & Fitch – 60 stores
  • Wet Seal – 171 stores
  • CVS – 70 stores

Kohl’s, Target, Macy’s, Sears, and dozens of other retailers reported awful holiday sales. Wal-Mart was lauded for generating a 1% comparable store sales increase. There is virtually no store expansion by large retail chains. During the 2000 to 2007 period these chains were each opening hundreds of new stores per year. We are in the midst of a long term retail contraction which is just picking up steam.

The closure of these stores combined with rising interest rates are a toxic concoction for real estate mall developers. The Fed allowed them to extend and pretend for the last eight years. The jig is up. A wave of retail and mall bankruptcies is baked in the cake. The government reported retail sales growth is driven by Fed induced auto sales (leases and loans), home furnishing sales financed at 0% over five years, building materials stores offering 0% financing, Amazon and until recently restaurant and bar sales.

Since I don’t go into malls or many retail establishments, and rarely eat at chain restaurants, my observations of retail and restaurant traffic are based on how full their parking lots are at peak hours. When the economy was in bubble mode prior to 2008, mall parking lots were jammed and you had a ninety minute  wait to get a seat at Outback or Olive Garden. Today, you can get a parking spot at a big box retailer near the front door on a Saturday afternoon.

Malls are ghost towns, with Space Available as the hot new location. Except for peak dinner time on a Friday or Saturday (if then) there are no longer long waits to get a table at one of the struggling chain restaurants. We reached peak retail and peak overpriced restaurants a few years ago. The downward spiral, due to demographics, declining real income, and over-saturation, is irreversible.

Image result for restaurant performance index

As usual, with propaganda distributed by the government or industry organizations, they present a positive restaurant performance index based on false hope and delusional expectations. Restaurant chains like Applebees, Outback, Ruby Tuesday, Chilis, Buffalo Wild Wings and many other major chains have been reporting declining same restaurant sales. Industry comparable restaurant sales are lower than two years ago.

Outback’s parent company announced it will close more than four dozen locations of Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse. Ruby Tuesday is closing 100 locations. Despite government reports showing strong restaurant sales over the last eight years, annual traffic to U.S. restaurants has been flat or up just 1% since 2009, when there was a 2% drop in the wake of the Fed created financial crisis.

The “increase” in sales was generated by price increases of 2% to 3% per year. Now these chains are paying the price for high prices, shitty food, and poor service from their college graduate millennial staff. With higher taxes, soaring Obamacare costs, student loan and auto loan debt up to their eyeballs, and low paying service jobs as their career, even clueless millennials have gotten a clue – they don’t have the money to eat out four times per week.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows the majority of Americans have fallen further behind since 2009, with only the establishment and those leaching off the establishment profiting from the suffering of senior citizens and the former middle class. When real personal spending plummets at the highest rate since 2009, you just might be in the midst of a recession.

As consumer confidence surveys, ISM surveys and Fed surveys provide fake news about consumer and corporate feelings about a glorious future, the hard data tells the truth. How could households feel confident when real median household income fell by $558 in December and is down by $529 year over year? How could Obama and his lapdogs in the mainstream media pontificate about the record economic recovery when real median income is 2% lower than it was nine years ago?

How can anyone deny the average American household has been experiencing a depression since 2000, when real median household income is lower today than it was at the turn of the century? Do you think the lack of income growth over the last 17 years may have played a part in the deplorables electing Trump in November?

The corporate fake news media will continue to produce the false narrative as directed by their Deep State employers. The credibility of journalists can be summed up in two pithy sentences by Hunter S. Thompson.

“The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.” – Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

In Part Two of this article I’ll show how the Deep State/establishment/ruling class/status quo have utilized their mastery of propaganda techniques to convince the masses inflation and debt are beneficial to their interests and why Trump’s election is the pushback by a citizenry who are beginning to awake and are mad as hell.

 

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B LEVER
B LEVER

Speaking of butthurt, where is Stucky?

Francis Marion

Moving. I think.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Who gives a fuck?

BL/ formerly Bea Lever
BL/ formerly Bea Lever

Anon- I do, Stucky is the master shit stirrer here.

Zarathustra

I am confused now. Who is the bigger brownnoser, Petreus (max boot) or our very own SSS (Llpoh and his manifold jewish friends)?

RiNS

I have an idea how about we fire up the TBP March Madness bracket again this year.

Fuck the doom bring on the insanity. Have a couple of laughs!

We can all chip in and buy that horse for Yo!

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And maybe a goat for Zara as well.

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ZenitFan
ZenitFan

Just saved that 2nd graphic. All too true. Thanks!

Wip
Wip

Thanks Jim.

VagHalla

Mr. Quinn, sir, you are not alone in the feelings of depression as of late. I, like yourself, have reached a brick wall when it comes to trying to decipher how everything can be so horribly, horribly wrong.
I literally find myself looking for reasons to justify putting a shotgun in my mouth and ending it all. For one, I see no end in sight of all the madness. It seems as though the more aware I become, the less ‘real’ my surroundings become. I find no pleasure in other people’s company, considering most to be little more than ‘zombies’.
It IS only going to get worse, before it gets better, and nuclear annihilation seems close at hand. The body’s aches and pains seem to grow with each passing week.
I’ve been reading your sight for some years now, but only in the last year or so have I become a ‘regular’. Reading your articles and the comments here serve as an oasis of truth in an otherwise insane world. What is the saying, “a sane man is insane in an insane world”, or something like that. We all continue to soldier on.
As far as the jew comments: In my journey over the last decade or so of enlightenment, the jew comments have been there right from the beginning. I personally have no particular point of view regarding them, one way or the other. It seems maybe there are an awful lot of Germans in America, and the jew-bashing is just left-over anger from the World War. Yeah, yeah, I know, they make up a disproportional share of govt, etc, etc. I have simply learned to gloss over the comments while reading. If anything, I have become a consumer, of INFORMATION. Voracious amounts. And when you read as much as I do every day, you learn to ‘speed read’ right through the micky-mouse shit and concentrate on the meat and potatoes.
(If I may sir; would the term be ‘leeching’, vs ‘leaching’? )
Respectfully yours,
VagHalla

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

Vaggie, are you going to the million woman march? Isn’t that VagHalla?

VagHalla

My rebuttal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71H6ZYup8I0

Beautiful music for a beautiful mind.

RiNS

Great song. I never heard that one before. Certainly a “pick me upper”

cheers

RiNS

Ed
Ed

Oh, shit.Now they’re dragging up Al Stewart. Talk about gay…

B LEVER
B LEVER

Perhaps some of this malaise/funk is due to the realization setting in that El Trumpo won’t be saving the day for the Trumpeteers. The real world does not invite fantasy scenarios where a reality show actor can waltz in and fire everyone in the government while filling the positions with banksters.

I read today that the healthcare insurers will have a billion dollar windfall from the new and neoCON improved Obamacare, and I don’t hear Trump saying jack to challenge them. It’s tough leaving the matrix behind, you have to stop trusting the propaganda/mindcontrol outlets of TPTB.

BB

Great Injun Chief , sometimes I think you are just lazy .With all the information available on the internet about Jewish involvement in the destruction of various nations you cling to your ” Jew as innocent victim bullshit “It is all just a Google search away with much of it written by Jews.To me this is not personal.Some of the best people I have met have been Jews on Jewish websites.Get over it ,get over Andrew Jackson being a great leader and most importantly get over yourself.Your self righteous bullshit is nauseating.

BB

God Bless Admin ,I gave up on the new channels a while back.Even Fox.I spend last week in the hospital preparing for my Hernia surgery.For five straight days I watched TCM .Just old movies from the past.It is sad to realize how far American society and Hollywood have fallen since the 50s.At the end I was not stressed out about anything.
I wouldn’t worry about The Great Injun Chief.He will never leave for good.He has to much fun making me feel stupid.

sv
sv

Grammar ‘nazi’ here. Not less cars, but fewer cars.
Thanks.

flash
flash

At least we can still trust in the CIA, right SSS? …nothing nefarious going on there…no sireeee.

BTW, admin , when traveling in Philly, don’t forget to check your privilege.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFchCLpkWvI

Winder
Winder

Re eating out. Hadn’t been to a “restaurant” in 6 months or so but took my bride out Monday night to what I guess would be called a casual dining place for a burger and beer. 2 beers 3 burgers (took 1 home for teenager). With tip, $70. Are you kidding me? I felt violated. 3 1/2 silver eagles for that? It’ll be another 6 months before I even think about doing that again.

And yet we know people that eat out virtually every night. I don’t know how or why they do it. Wasn’t that good any way.

These places are doomed.

flash
flash

It’s often been said, and rightly so, that government is merely the mirror image of society in general which explains a lot. Stupidity is bliss, right up until it isn’t.

5 year anniversary of discovering the rapid, severe intelligence decline in The West
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2017/03/5-year-anniversary-of-discovering-rapid.html

Alec Salt
Alec Salt

Great Article.
Concerning the decline of road traffic and gasoline consumption, I think you need to consider the impact of our new electronic toys (phones, iPads, streaming internet, etc) on people’s normal waking activities. Instead of going to see grandma, you Skype her. Instead of looking around malls, my wife plays Township-Bundles of Cash, which she is totally addicted to. Why go somewhere when you can walk around virtually on Google Earth? The only reason to go somewhere is to catch Poke-monsters. When people are totally content swiping their stupid fingers across stupid glass screens, they don’t drive their cars as much. Of course some drivers can’t stop swiping their stupid fingers across stupid glass screens even while they are driving. But, as part of a withdrawal from the fake news sites, a lot of people are heading into the addiction of virtual worlds.

And if they ever fully come back from their virtual safe spaces, they will be horrified how much the real world has changed.

RiNS

Ladies and Gents I present to you.

Based Stickman

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This should cheer everyone up. He is being called the Alt-knight and along with other Patriots joined field with the black clad thugs. It will not likely rank in history with Hastings but all the same a new meme has been born.

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The police failed to intervene until the violence ensued. Could it be the overriding plan to seed the ground for Martial Law? Maybe. They should have kept the commies a safe distance away from Trump march but didn’t and to me hardly a surprise. Being that it is California it seems predetermined that only one type of protest will be state sanctioned. Again occurring in Berkeley. In the same town where the left shut down a Milo event. The same town where Police were told to stand down to let the rioters run amok. The Antifa and BLM thugs attempted to shut down a Trump Rally.

That was the plan. But as Mike Tyson once quipped everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face or in this case clobbered with a flagpole. Fucken’ awesome!

I just love watching this video of the Stickman playing whack -a -mole with that flagpole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enIIfAZC210

The people claiming to be fighting the Nazis dress and employ same Brown shirt tactics used by Hitler and his henchmen so long ago. As in Germany during rise of NSDAP the police rather than protect and serve during this rally, stood aside. Waited for mayhem to ensue. It could be that they were told to stand down from on high. Those men in blue watched as the Thugs made another hellbent attempt to burn everything to the ground?

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Is the Endgame for the Deep State Anarchy and Martial Law? Seems that way to me.

flash
flash

Civil War II ?

CHARLIE DANIELS WARNS LIBERALS: Knock It Off Or “There Will Be Blood In The Streets!”

I see young people interviewed on television who can’t even articulate the reason they are protesting. Others bent on destruction who probably espouse no cause but chaos.

I’ve seen hysterical protestors screaming about First Amendment rights which they seem to think only protect them and those who think like them and that the opposition has no First Amendment protection and should be shouted down at all costs.

The rhetoric is becoming hotter and more nonsensical, the radical element more apparent, the violence and destruction of property more common place.

The pot is boiling and it’s only a matter of time before there will be blood on the streets.

CHARLIE DANIELS WARNS LIBERALS: Knock It Off Or “There Will Be Blood In The Streets!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QplRXhmf2VM

Ed
Ed

Looks like the Trumpsters need a few skinheads to lead the fight for them. I guess they came out thinking that just by showing up, they’d make all the black clad anarchists run away.

If you’re going to go fight, at least wear your fighting boots. Two or three fight loving rednecks or just two Comanche casino bouncers would have carried the whole day for them. I’d be embarrassed if I’d been in there on the MAGA side.

Getting punked by a bunch of punks is no way to go through life. Ahaha. That’s funny as shit. “Oh, help. This snowflake just busted me in the head with his ‘ love trumps hate’ sign. Where’s the Poe lease?” ahaha.

RiNS

Ed

what are you on about. The Stickman is a Trump supporter. I really don’t get your point.

Ed
Ed

You ain’t sposed to get it, rinse. It’s a merkin joke.

FallTaDoMeCarryWhat
FallTaDoMeCarryWhat

Admin&Friends, respectfully suggest that when the anchor has been cut loose one let go of the rope to which it is attached, lest one be pulled down to the bottom of the cold, gray Atlantic. Not worth the trip or the destination. I have found the need to dis-engage from the spew of filth being vomited from the corporatist pump works. Recognize it, but surf the crest lines of the incoming deluge rather than riding down into the troughs. One glimmer of hope is that there is a power shift happening, larger forces at play both among the upper crust of the septic tank and the mass of sewerage (minions) which lay beneath them. Outcome? At the least enough of a stumble on the road to ruin that the populous may awake to its own powers of choice. Sorry for the mix of metaphors, but kind of like the fuster cluck we find ourselves in these day: a senseless stew of inane contradictions.

thejerkstore
thejerkstore

Excellent analysis. To your point, I was a GNC franchisee for 18 yrs, 98-16, I owned 4 stores during that time, sold 3 back to corp and 1 to another franchisee. Made a lot of money during those yrs but saw the writing on the wall, sold my final 2 locations back to corp in 5/16. In 2015 had a planet fitness open up next to one of my locations which exploded sales up 15% decided to cash out on top. I’m a blessed man, felt like Peyton Manning winning the SB and going out on top.

Decided to take said money and buy another business, was looking for something that would do well in a crash. Bought a repo biz in Nov, gross rev was close to 3MM in 16, we are on pace to hit 5MM this yr. I deal exclusively with banks, I’m looking at a bigger storage lot right now as we speak, hired 2 more guys last month. I’m getting concerned that when it hits the banks won’t be able to pay therefore the cars become collateral. Not gonna lie to you, I’m a nice guy but this business requires you to be hard and non emotional. The adrenaline buzz you get on a daily basis is almost overwhelming.

I too am exhausted.

DC Sunsets

I have capital but every possible business I see is saturated with risk, even businesses that promise to do well in hard times (and such are very few indeed, and lots of folks are already operating in those spaces.)

Richad Broberg

You should have included the quote, “I don’t believe anything I see and only half of what I see.”

DC Sunsets

I’m just awaiting someone to point out anything I’ve not already considered and either 1) rejected or 2) incorporated for my planning and preparation.

Yes, I think conditions are unprecedented.
No, I do not think we will tumble into the Zombie Apocalypse.
Yes, I expect a process that will overturn so much that it will look like a phase change as stark as liquid water freezing into ice.
No, I do not think Mel Tappan had the right idea.

Will someone comment or link to something that gets deeper than this? Something that doesn’t wallow in the Stupidity that we can have a market crash but also inflation, or hyperinflation without first a “bond market asteroid-strike extinction event?”

Paul
Paul

Amazing analysis; thank you!

overthecliff
overthecliff

There is more and more talk indicating that people are resigned to CW 2. We are polarized big time. Prepare yourselves, there is little room for compromise.

Llpoh, to quote Jim Valvano,”never,never,never give up”. Don’t abandon the field to the bastards.

BL/ formerly Bea Lever
BL/ formerly Bea Lever

OTC- Yeah and the Yankees need to prepare for a good ass-whooping. The first example of Total War was against the south in CW1 (kill men, women, children-burn everything to the ground- steal everything that is not tied down) , that method is even nastier today and the Yankees will get a dose. Then we will send in the carpetbaggers and commence to reconstruct them for 150 years so they can eat a shit sandwich everyday as we have.

I think we could whip them in about a week. 🙂

Peaknic
Peaknic

CW2 will not be about North/South cultural difference, it’s about urban/rural cultural differences. Most of upstate NY would join you against NYC.

ZenitFan
ZenitFan

Most of PA would join against Pittsburgh and Filthadelphia.
Most of IL would join against Chicongo.
Most of MO would join against St. Louis and KC.
Most of MI would join against Detroit.
Most of OR would join against Portland.
Most of WA would join against Seattle.
Most of GA would join against Atlanta.

No doubt there are other examples.

BL
BL

Peaknic

It was a joke. Sheesh

steelheader
steelheader

I really enjoy your Philly updates, and frequently know exactly the locales that you write about.
My grandchildren live in Fishtown, I visit them once a year, traveling from the West Coast.
It’s the only two weeks of the year that I don’t carry a Glock. I feel absolutely naked those two weeks.
I just have to wager that society is not likely to collapse during that span. And if it does, maybe I can get them out. I don’t trust the PPD or the city government/judicial to be upstanding. For several years, each time we scheduled a trip, a Philly cop was head-shot by a dark citizen. The city was full of anger and dread during the funeral and manhunt. My wife is much more worldly and understanding than me, I just feel an emptiness around my appendix when there. Good luck to you, retire well.

Randall
Randall

” When you understand the cyclical nature of history you are not surprised
when events lead to reactions among the masses which take the linear
thinking status quo by complete surprise. ” That’s a keeper Jim Quinn. Qualifies for poster space in my man cave.
Hello Jim
If you’re reading my write, this article is most resonating with it’s well outlined big picture view of incremental calamities that continue to befall the masses of people who are gradually becoming aware that the brain entrusted overseers of the civilized construct perpetuate the demise of individual liberty for the designed purpose of collective control.

To add, your article is jam packed with the low hanging fact fruit for easy picking…if one reaches for it. Mmmmm…good me says.
Hat Tip!

BDub
BDub

“…. to convince the masses inflation and debt are beneficial to their interests and why Trump’s election is the pushback by a citizenry who are beginning to awake and are mad as hell.”
.
.
.
“Our companies can’t compete with [Chinese companies] now because our currency is too strong. And it’s killing us,” – Donald Trump

WTF are you talking about?

greg
greg

John McCain is a wise and deep thinking conservative. Viva McCain!!!

DC Sunsets

My view is that everything described in the OP is simply a reflection of a society so used to “Bigger, Faster, Better” that for over 100 years its members have supported every dumb-ass notion ever floated by a con artist, from establishment of central banking to concentrating power in the National government (via direct election of senators) and from cutting the dollar loose from anything physical (fiat money) to eventually deciding that taxation is optional, that henceforth all government spending can simply be achieved by issuing bonds to beyond the orbit of Mars. Anything was embraced that promised to let people Have It All.

Why even have an economy when Uncle simply issues more bonds and showers the nation (and world) with wealth?

Why work or improve yourself when Uncle will pay you, house you, entertain you no matter how inept, stupid or simply vicious you are?

Why make sense when the more senseless you appear, the more famous you become?

Social mood comes first. Given people’s innate compulsion to “fit in,” their impulsive mind tells them to believe whatever is necessary in order to “fit in,” no matter how cat-shit crazy those beliefs may be.

We get a big enough boom in social mood, we get beliefs in overt lunacy like women combat soldiers, transgendered boy scout leaders and attempts to tell us that adults having sex with kids is good for the kids. We hear all the time how the raving lunatics of the Left cannot even articulate WHY they’re protesting this or that.

Why? Because THEY. DON’T. KNOW. Their urge to fit in is so strong that they act without conscious thought. When pressed to explain, they simply cannot do so. They act like they do just like Pavlov’s Dogs salivated to the bell. They are CONDITIONED.

The world in which we live is made up of the masses of people who operate just like this. They have no idea why they do what they do. It makes no sense because no sense is backing it. Only feelings, only herding behavior. We believe all those IOU’s are good because everyone around us appears to do so. That’s all it is.

I have no idea how much longer this lunacy can go on. I thought it was over in 1995, in 1998, in 2000, and in 2007. Yet here we are, 22 years after I thought the jig was up.

We won’t know for certain that this is past until we Get There.

The world goes by itself. At the moment it looks like it’s spinning into oblivion.

GM
GM

OMG .
I believe a good bit of this is from the fact that POCB’S are the exact reason for all this shit.
Privately Owned Central Banks.
Do your research .
I really try to be a kinder, and nicer GM , but give me a fucking break !!!
Look at the root cause , not the fucking symptoms .
Or give me accurate data that disputes this please.
Im being nice .
Do not give me normalcy bias data ,but real data that disproves what I say .
Awaiting responses .
Ya , quite my job , beat this thing killing me , and still gotta a little fight left in me lol
Whatever , just a cook

BrutusMax
BrutusMax

“Do you think the lack of income growth over the last 17 years may have played a part in the deplorables electing Trump in November?”
The bad thing is these deplorables have no idea that Trump will not/can not do a damn thing about it.

DC Sunsets

No one (Trump or other) can change the future in any big way. The path ahead is built of bricks laid down in the past and present.

Our problem, we who peruse TBP and like sites, is that we see where this leads but we don’t know (1) when and we don’t know (2) specifically what details will play out, and it is the timing and details that matter, not the big picture. We know this. And we rage at it.

Or at least I do, and I assume you do as well. I rage at my ignorance and my impotence in escaping it.

Lon Spector
Lon Spector

You can’t have a better world without better people making up that world.
Some can see the light in an unaided fashion but most cannot.
Therefore we must accept more of the same if not worse until Jesus Christ
returns to earth.
Ours is not to reason why. Ours is just to do and die.

RiNS

Jebus better get here soon.\

I’m running low on beer and I hear it is free in heaven.

A P. Henry

just as in the days of NOAH

18 U.S. Code § 2382 – Misprision of Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 4 – Misprision of Felony

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"It is when a people forget GOD that tyrants forge their chains." – Patrick Henry
Toleration Is Compromise – Ignorance Is Complicity – Inaction Is Approval

First step off the road to perdition- abolish child murder

BOSurvivor

For what it is worth: I live in the Boston area and my commutes have gotten longer. Mall traffic was awful around Christmas.

Also, I saw a graph and I am sorry that I cannot footnote it, that surprisingly stated that for the first time ever, dollar value restaurant purchases have surpassed grocery store purchases.

Warren
Warren

Speaking of the miserable state of the economy. My cousin works for the payroll firm ADP, last week she told me that they are closing offices and laying off a lot of their staff. Less people working means less need for their services.

MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) is the answer we've been looking for
MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) is the answer we've been looking for

Neoliberalism is OUT-DATED. Rather, for the past four decades, it’s been fiat currency for the .01% and gold standard straitjacket ideology for everyone else.

“The mainstream view is no longer valid for countries issuing their own non-convertible currencies and only has meaning for those operating under fixed exchange rate regimes,

‘The two monetary systems are very different. You cannot apply the economics of the gold standard (or USD convertibility) to the modern monetary system. Unfortunately, most commentators and professors and politicians continue to use the old logic when discussing the current policy options. It is a basic fallacy and prevents us from having a sensible discussion about what the government should be doing. All the fear-mongering about the size of the deficit and the size of the borrowings (and the logic of borrowing in the first place) are all based on the old paradigm. They are totally inapplicable to the fiat monetary system’ (Mitchell, 2009).

We might now consider the opportunity afforded by the new monetary reality, effectively modelled by MMT. A new socio-political reality is possible which throws off the shackles of the old. The government can now act as a currency issuer and pursue public purpose. Functional finance is now the order of the day. For most nations, issuing their own fiat currency under floating exchange rates the situation is different to the days of fixed exchange rates. Since the gold window closed a different core reality exists – one which, potentially at least, provides governments with significantly more scope to enact policies which benefit society.

However, the political layer, in the way it interacts with monetary reality, has a detrimental effect on the power of democratic governments to pursue public purpose. In the new monetary reality political arrangements that sprang up under the old regimes are no longer necessary or beneficial. They can largely be considered as self-imposed constraints on the system; in short the political layer contains elements which are out-of-date, ideologically biased and unnecessary. However, mainstream economists have not grasped this situation – or perhaps they cannot allow themselves to- because of the vice-like grip that their ethics and ‘traditional’ training has on them.

MMT provides the best monetary models out there and highlights the existence of additional policy space acquired by sovereign states since Nixon closed the gold window and most nations adopted floating exchange rates. We just need to encourage the use of the space to enhance the living standards of ordinary people.”

Heterodox Views of Money and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) by Phil Armstrong (York College) 2015

DC Sunsets

You’re kidding, right?

This bullshit is doubling down on the insanity of today, that’s all.

If a government issues its own money in order to buy stuff (missiles, baby formula, etc.) where does it’s spending ability come from, production? Don’t make me laugh.

If the banker in a game of Monopoly ™ named himself POTUS, and simply started writing “$500” on strips of paper and using that in the game, who would soon own the entire board?

I love watching people tell me up is down.

Tim
Tim

Here’s a quick test/analysis I use to suss things out in life:

Barnum Bailey (DC Sunsets, I think) has been posting here a long time. I try to read everything he writes because it helps me to learn more. The things he writes are so simple, even I can understand complex concepts that he distills down to a few nuggets. His posts are generally short and sweet. He’s the kind of guy I would like to sit down and have beers with.

MMT shows up and writes a voluminous entry without giving us the tl;dr version. The whole thing sounds like gibberish to me. There’s no way to distill it down so the lay person can grok its’ meaning.

ergo, Barnum Bailey writes Truth, and MMT is full of bullshit.

See how easy that is?

DC Sunsets

Hey now, I just write my own version of insanity. I do take issue with those who try to baffle me with bullshit….given that like everyone else here on TBP I have had more than my fill of it.

I don’t have any answers. That’s really what I do when I comment here (and elsewhere) is hone my thinking and ask for someone, anyone to poke holes in it. I’d actually rather be wrong about a lot of this.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I’m desperate for ideas. Hardscrabble Farmer is frankly the guy I wish I could be, walking the talk like no one else I’ve ever heard of. I’m too old to follow that path (or so I rationalize to myself) and too young to not care what happens (plus I have kids and grandkids whose welfare matters to me.)

So I’m left hoping I can zig when zigging is good, and if the wheels eventually come off the economic cart I’ll have preserved enough (wealth, useful knowledge, ammunition, etc.) to be able to BUY my family’s way into the good graces of someone like Hardscrabble.

My SHTF dream is to buy an RV park adjoining farmland owned and operated by the kind of family Hardscrable describes. We’d provide manpower and security necessary in a Z.A. (going it alone is to court extreme vulnerability.)

Life is an adventure. Our adventure seems likely to become more…”exciting.”

ZenitFan
ZenitFan

Admin, you should seriously consider getting the hell out of the Filthadelphia area ASAP. The absolute last place anyone wants to be when the SHTF is the “Bos-Wash” megalopolis. All other big cities will go down the tubes as well.

We would love to have you here in FL. The weather is far nicer, there are plenty of good medium-sized towns to settle in, and (drum roll) there is NO state income tax! Some CPA types estimate that Tiger Woods saved up to $10 million over his career by leaving CA for FL when he turned pro. Last year, hedge fund guru David Tepper blew a $100 million hole in the NJ budget when he moved himself and his business to FL.

WillS
WillS

aahhhahahahahah you poor thing. I commute about 25 miles round trip (Bellevue-Seattle) and it takes three freaking hours. I’m part of generation screwed (mellenial). I work my ass off full time as an electrician (in case anyone is wondering, electricians do assembly line work ‘in the field’; that’s why we haven’t been replace by robots. Yet. My company is currently experimenting with pre-assembled wiring harnesses for apartments). I have a college degree, and the accompanying debts. I am past 30 years old and I still rent a room in a house with a bunch of random college kids (the rent, plus the debt payments, would EASILY cover a mortgage, even with real estate prices as jacked up as the currently are). Yeah, the game is rigged. What are you so surprised about? That’s how things have been for my entire life. If you read any history, that’s par for the course. I’m freaking used to it. Fuck the goddamn system. And that’s not a fucking fashion statement. It’s fucking everyday life.

Shahid Hassan
Shahid Hassan

America may be going down but it has already taken the world where it is itself heading. 60 countries destabilized, destroyed by US interventions. Close to 2 billion people. need one say more?

RiNS

Yeah I’ll say more. If it wasn’t for 1.6 billion being soul crushed by a Pedophile this world would be a whole lot better off.

Hey your Goat just called.

comment image

Wants to answer your prayers.

GoneWithTheWind
GoneWithTheWind

“railroad Americans into a $6 trillion unnecessary war, resulting in 36,000 American casualties”

Do you live on a different planet than I do. The war in question was well under even a trillion and the American deaths were less than the number of people killed by illegal aliens every year. I get it you hated Bush. But once I read that tripe why would I read the rest of your rant?

GoneWithTheWind
GoneWithTheWind

No matter how you do your maff the Iraq war didn’t cost $7 trillion and didn’t kill 36,000 Americans. You can argue that we should have stayed home if you want but it makes no sense to make up your alternate facts if you expect people to believe whatever you decide to say next.

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