NO ONE GETS OUT OF HERE ALIVE

“The seasons of time offer no guarantees. For modern societies, no less than for all forms of life, transformative change is discontinuous. For what seems an eternity, history goes nowhere – and then it suddenly flings us forward across some vast chaos that defies any mortal effort to plan our way there. The Fourth Turning will try our souls – and the saecular rhythm tells us that much will depend on how we face up to that trial. The saeculum does not reveal whether the story will have a happy ending, but it does tell us how and when our choices will make a difference.”  – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

As we wander through the fog of history in the making, unsure who is lying and who is telling the truth, seemingly blind to what comes next, I look to previous Fourth Turnings for a map of what might materialize during the 2nd half of this current Fourth Turning. After a tumultuous, harrowing inception to this Crisis in 2008/2009, we have been told all is well and are in the midst of an eleven-year economic expansion, with the stock market hitting all-time highs.

History seemed to stop and we’ve been treading water for over a decade. Outwardly, the establishment has convinced the masses, through propaganda and money printing, the world has returned to normal and the future is bright. I haven’t bought into this provable falsehood. Looking back to the Great Depression, we can get some perspective on our current position historically.

The Dow is up 450% since its 2009 low, which is the metric used by the establishment to prove their money printing solutions have succeeded in lifting the country from the depths of despair and depression. The narrative peddled to the plebs by the lords of the manor through their fake news media mouthpieces for the past decade is one of solid recovery, as the cancer of debt proliferates through the global intestines, thrusting the patient towards a terminal fate.

Looking back to the previous Fourth Turning it seems the Dow went up 450% from its 1932 low in just five years, making this bull market look like a calf. It seems the ruling class did quite well in the midst of the Great Depression, while the masses lined up in soup lines. History may not repeat, but it certainly seems to be rhyming during this Fourth Turning, as the Wall Street cabal have been enriched while senior citizens have been impoverished by the Federal Reserve ZIRP and QE to infinity. This is proof depressionary conditions can prevail for the majority even as the stock market skyrockets to new heights.

Image result for dow jones during 1930s

Trump consistently touts our economy as the best ever. Obama crowed about bringing the country out of the depths of recession. How many of today’s historically challenged iGadget addicted morons know GDP grew by 63% between 1933 and 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression? Meanwhile, GDP has only grown by 48% since the 2009 low, over a ten-year period. And this has only been achieved through a 100% increase in the national debt, a 450% increase in the Federal Reserve balance sheet, a decade of zero interest rates, and trillion-dollar annual deficits.

The blizzard of lies obfuscating the reality of our economic decline has been so persistent, critical thinking Americans have lost all trust in the existing social order. The fabric of our nation has been torn asunder through the machinations and criminality of the Deep State players and their apparatchiks disseminated throughout our political, financial, government and media structures.

I do contemplate what future historians (if our egomaniacal leaders don’t blow up the planet) will write about this profoundly abnormal period in world history. Rational sober minded people will wonder “what were they thinking?”. How did mass delusion sweep across the globe and convince hundreds of millions to believe debt equaled wealth and prosperity could be generated by central bankers printing money at hyper-speed. How could supposedly highly educated financial professionals convince themselves it was rational to pay $900 per share for a company losing hundreds of millions per year?

The irrational exuberance exhibited by the big swinging dicks on Wall Street during the dot.com bubble, the subprime mortgage induced bubble, and the current everything bubble has been encouraged and inspired by the reckless actions of the Federal Reserve and their fellow feckless central bank heroine dealers around the world. Their arrogance is only exceeded by their greed and myopia. Their grasp of history reaches to last Wednesday. No one is heeding the wisdom of great men. That’s why they will be blind-sided by the coming total catastrophe, once again.

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.  The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” – Ludwig von Mises, Human Action [1949]

https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/SP500-MarginDebt-FreeCash-020620.png?itok=RQseWbcd

I spent countless hours during the Obama administration poking holes in the false narrative of the unemployment figures produced by the BLS and GDP numbers produced by the BEA. The Obama haters were completely onboard with my counter-factual arguments, backed up with rational arguments that these government drones were doing nothing more than peddling lies to keep the serfs in the dark.

Even Donald Trump openly scorned and ridiculed the fake data pumped out month after month. But it seems Donald now believes every economic data point his governmental agencies produce on a monthly basis. The recent jobs report was a perfect example. The mainstream media all blasted the same headline that 225,000 jobs were added in January, much higher than expected. This proved the economy is doing wonderfully, in their eyes.

It’s funny, but the Trump acolytes ignored the 520,000 downward revision of jobs created in the prior year, making his State of the Union boasts provably false. I’ve trashed the birth/death adjustments made by the BLS for years, but now Trump and his supporters ignore its falsity. The 225,000 increase in jobs came from the establishment survey. I heard no one point out the household survey showed the number of employed Americans fell by 89,000 in January and the number of unemployed jumped by 139,000. There are still almost 101,000 million working age Americans not working, the same number not working at this point in Obama’s presidency.

The overall employment situation has improved in the last three years, but Trump touting this as a blue-collar recovery is laughable. Real median weekly earnings for full-time workers is $362 ($18,824 annually), up a phenomenal 2.8% over the 3 years of Trump’s presidency. Real wages did fall 2.9% over the first three years of Obama’s presidency, but let’s not get carried away with less than 1% real wage growth per year under Trump. And remember, using a true inflation figure north of 5% would show real wages are actually in decline.

None of the current narrative fanboys pointed out only 1.93 million private industry jobs were created in 2019, the lowest level since 2010. Not exactly robust. And not consistent with the “greatest economy ever” narrative being promoted to the masses. The Fed reporting consumer debt soaring by $22 billion in December, with credit card debt growing by the most in over two decades (just prior to the dot.com debacle), is surely a sign of a healthy consumer. Right?

Consumer credit as a percentage of GDP reaching all-time highs as their real wages are stagnant isn’t a sign of middle-class desperation. Right? We also know 40% of American adults don’t have $400 of savings to cover an emergency expense, like a normal car repair or medical expense. It is clear to any critical thinking individual that credit card debt has risen to new all-time highs because the average family is treading water by paying utilities, rent, taxes, food and medical bills with their credit cards.

Image result for credit card debt new high

The foolishness of consumers, corporations, politicians and government bureaucrats is borne out in the chart below. The Federal Reserve created loose monetary policy, started under Greenspan in the 1980s, has convinced Wall Street titans the Fed will always have their back, bailing them out after they take excessive risks and push the financial system to the brink of collapse. The hubris of the ruling oligarchs, exhibited by issuing debt at hyper-speed to “solve” a crisis caused by excessive debt, knows no bounds.

Just the leveling off of debt in 2008/2009 threatened to bring the house of cards down. The issuance of another $17 trillion of debt, a 30% increase in ten years, has barely budged GDP. The fallacy that debt doesn’t matter because we owe it to ourselves has been proven false time and again. Consumers and corporations have to service their immense debt or go bankrupt. Interest on the national debt is already crowding out spending on real priorities like our infrastructure. Borrowing to pay interest on the debt is a pathway to destruction. An unsustainable trend will not be sustained. It’s just a matter of time.

Image

So, who benefits from this hyperbolic increase in debt? Certainly not the average working stiff who has been propagandized into buying shit they don’t need with pretend money (debt) they don’t have, in order to keep up with the Joneses. As clearly demonstrated over the last decade, the beneficiaries of this stratospheric issuance of debt have been Wall Street shysters, mega-corporation executives, corrupt politicians, billionaire oligarchs, media titans, the military industrial complex, and the Deep State.

Why is it that Wall Street bankers were able to borrow for free from the Federal Reserve for a decade, while paying .15% to senior citizens and reaping billions in ill-gotten profits? As the Federal Reserve chairman lies that keeping interest rates low is to benefit the average American, why are interest rates on credit cards at an all-time high? I wonder who is benefitting from this interesting development. If the average American hasn’t figured out ZIRP, QE to infinity, and trillion-dollar deficits aren’t for their benefit, then they are just willfully ignorant or plain stupid.

Image

After what has seemed an eternity with this Fourth Turning not appearing to intensify, the last few months, and particularly since the start of 2020, it seems like we are about to be flung forward into a coming storm of chaos, with no way to plan for the challenges awaiting. The ruling oligarchs recognized their attempt to try and normalize our economic system by slowly weaning it from ever expanding debt during 2019 was headed towards a cliff.

Their actions over the last six or so months reveal an air of desperation. The sudden reversal from methodically slow interest rate increases to three cuts in succession exposes the Fed as being trapped, with no way out. Normalization is impossible. Then the repo market began to implode, with overnight rates soaring to 10%. The ongoing hundreds of billions in funding provided by the Fed every day divulges the rot underlying the financial system, requiring never ending emergency measures to keep it alive.

Image result for paulson bernanke geithner Image result for wall street ceos congress

“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.” Ludwig von Mises

The masses have been trained through decades in government gulags (aka public schools) to worship the state and propagandized through the corporate media to believe government and the politicians picked for us by men in backrooms are working on our behalf. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Deep State is inhabited by a myriad of corrupt, vile men who are the source of the mischief and disasters being inflicted on honest hard-working people across the land.

Central bankers and their Wall Street puppet masters have been making billions as they blow bubbles, then use their power and control over politicians to shift their losses to the ignorant masses when their bubbles burst. When it happens over and over again, it clearly isn’t due to mistakes or misunderstandings. The pillaging of your wealth, rigged markets, fraud, and buying off the regulatory system is now the standard operating procedure in our outlaw surveillance state.

Image result for surveillance state usa

In Part Two of this article I will examine the earth moving events which have already happened in 2020 and ponder what will catalyze the rest of this year and the second half of this ongoing Fourth Turning.

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Anonymous
Anonymous

In Part Two of this article I will examine the earth moving events which have already happened in 2020 and ponder what will catalyze the rest of this year and the second half of this ongoing Fourth Turning.

comment image

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

Just something to consider, but is transformative change really about the stock market value, fiat money, one form of government over another et cetera? By this yardstick a 4th turning is more of a changing of the guard in the establishment, where the new bosses often get back up to the old tricks of the old bosses (the cycle driver) and in turn are eventually ousted themselves. Lather, rinse, repeat…

What I have in mind here is truly transformative and irrevocable change – the kind experienced in recent history by the likes of the Australian Aborigines, the Ainu of Japan, the Tehuelche of Patagonia, et cetera. When I say irrevocable change, this is not only destruction of these peoples’ culture, but a complete disappearance of their genome. What forces are there that lead an entire people to just give up, and once these forces are identified are they present at all in current societies?

This would be a good first principles approach, kind of like a boundary condition, like a 5th turning that never cycles back through, if it could be done without all the guilt and anti-western bias.

DinCO
DinCO

Interesting point – if I recall the 4th turning cycles analysis every 80 years or so has been from the western world perspective. As Martin Armstrong has been saying that by 2032 the world’s economic center will have shifted from the west to the east (China), then maybe now the pattern does shift completely as well. In the past the “new bosses” have been the same as the “old bosses”, the old money banksters of the western world – Rothschilds, Morgans, etc. Maybe the ending of this 4th turning cycle will result in a set of new bosses. Well, we’ll see. Or, maybe admin has the answer in Part 2.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

If one takes the center of power in recent history as Europe, say, since early 1700s, there seems to be a lot of turnings from the upper-middle to the bottom, but the Banking Elite control structure has not changed at all to the present day. After all turnings we still end up with “governments” that control armies and police forces, pretend to work for the common man, still tax the populace, and are dependent upon finance from privately owned central banks for their continued exercise of power. Where is the true 4th Turning? Where is the real, fundamental change?

It reminds me more of Joseph Campbell’s Hero Cycle, the template of every dumb Marvel / DC movie you’ve ever seen, where the characters are churned but the underlying story line just gets regurgitated over and over. The reluctant hero always wins, good triumphs, there is always a sequel…

The Philosopher Kings, that all seeing eye separated from the base of the pyramid, financed the likes of Napoleon, Bismark, the Bolsheviks, Hitler, the EU Brave New World, the financial destruction of the USA, and the coming post-industrial ecofeudalism. There is no fundamental change that I see in these 4th turnings. Great upheavals to those in play, yes – but to the Philosopher Kings, we’ll they’ve already plotted and game theoried three moves ahead.

anonII
anonII

Hyper.
Ecofeudalism is exactly what they have in mind. “They even intend to revert back to the days of Artisian Craftsmen in place if today’s industry with the rest of us living in the hedgerows. Some of the Neuve rich will be allowed to buy titles but otherwise we are the serfs. Everyone is busy looking for communism or fascism but if that did appear it would only be a transition phase.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

The template was set by Plato 2,400 years ago. There will be the unseen Philosopher Kings, divorced from earthly concerns, wholly lacking in empathy and compassion, who rule by logic alone. Then there are the Guardians of the Philosopher Kings, trained only in the martial arts and music. Then there is everyone else of no consequence, rich, poor, et cetera.

This is the template adopted by those who espouse the End of History, where history is only the chronicles of the endless struggles for power and control between and within peoples. The thesis from Hegel to Marx to the latest torchbearer the NeoConservatives is that only when true equality of all earths inhabitants is reached will the cycle of wars end, and thus descends the End of History. But in the interim there must be that unseen force (The banker Philosopher Kings and their peers) and the violent means means (armies directed by governments that are controlled by private central banks) of forcing this End of History onto the ungrateful masses. The Project for the New American Century was just America’s part on behalf of the Philosopher Kings, we’re just their proxy army making deserts and calling it peace.

The Philosopher Kings have planned their WWIII well in advance. And if I were a strategic thinker, what better type of world war that that which is unseen yet causes tremendous death, suffering, and eventual rebirth? Remember, they are at war with us more than we are at war with others.

But in the end, my money is that we all end up as either Morlocks or Eloi.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Thank God that God wins in the end.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

That’s not a Game Theory outcome. There is no magical mystical outlier.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Hyper.
Sure there is. It’s all mystical. Even they have their Chief among Chiefs. I have mine. The mystical beauty has been wrung out of the Church by the Philosopher Kings by design. Mine wins in the final actalthough unlike some here, I don’t expect to get sucked out by a giant hoover vacuum at half time and watch the rest of the game from the Luxury boxes.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

I never had nor felt that spiritual element. My travels have taken me to see a lot of poverty, disease, misery, pollution, and over-population which to me seems to reflect a God that has forsaken His people. I’m aware of the “Leap of Faith” argument but it has never been faith that has gotten me through, more like just plain dumb luck.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Hyperborean.
Iv’e seen more of that than most Americans and at an age when I wasn’t able to cope with it well. God will reward them in the afterlife, contrary to what way too many alleged Christians tell us.
I almost had to die to find and experience that element. I nearly missed it because this age isn’t conducive to seeking the mystical experience with God.
Not that I’m a good example of how it’s done but I know it’s here all around us. Iv’e already injected more religion here than I intended so I’ll cut if off here. Few see the fuedalism down the road.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

No worries. I have many religious friends and we often have quite animated discussions.

But the best argument I have ever heard about belief was from a Jehovah’s Witness I worked with in Bakersfield. He came from a rough part of town but managed to make a good life for him and his family after he found Jesus. His argument was, “I don’t care if Jesus did or didn’t exist. I like this life I’ve chosen, my family is happy, we have a good life and they can prove without a doubt that Jesus didn’t exist and I don’t care.” No arguing with that.

mark
mark

Hyperborean,

What I like about you, even though Flea and I are on the same pages, and those pages are in the Bible, and we both agree being a Believer is not a one way rocket ride out of the coming Tribulation, is your lack of malice, mockery, and or condescending rejection from your lack of the ‘spiritual element’ plus your calm thoughtful counters.

Reminds me of something a holy God, who also is a merciful God (man, there is a supernatural balancing act only He could pull off) once said that fit me uncomfortably well.

ISAIAH 1:18
Berean Study Bible
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.”

M G
M G

There are none so blind as those who refuse see what is right in front of them.

The blatant propagandizement of our culture (I think propagandizement is a perfectly good word and I will ignore the squiggledy lines because there are rules which are meant to be broken and no linguistibot is going to tell me how to think within its constrictive, constraining and rational spelling rules.)

Fleabaggs, you bring up such good points with such brusque and biting banter I had to share one of my stories, which are rarer and rarer as I watch the world go insane.

We first purchased the 35 acres to build this home in 2009. Three acres adjacent came available and we snatched it the following year because it has a little home, unfinished, on it. Our cousins mocked us for paying so much for such a little plot of land with a shack on it. We paid $14,500 for 3.4 acres with a 30 x 40 home built ten feet above ground on 10×10 barn posts. That “shack” is very sturdy and built from really good lumber. It just never got finished. The people got divorced and my real estate broker friend picked it up at auction. Sure, she made good money from the sale, but we got a hell of a bargain.

We fixed it the little house good enough to live in for a while (subjective term) and the Mennonites lived there fine. They could work from dawn to dusk, as they like to do, Monday through Friday. They usually drove back to Warsaw on Friday evenings, so as to be with Lorene and the girls Saturday and Sunday. They usually arrived here by 10 a.m. Monday and would go right to work. I did their linens and supplied the “birdhouse” as they called it while they were home for Sabbath a five hour drive away.

Our log home is to the right, btw, out of the camera’s view.

comment image

So, we paid about fifteen grand for that little acreage (3.4) for two reasons:

1. The little home was good enough for the Mennonite family to live in from Monday to Friday to build our home, saving us tens of thousands in construction costs on top of hiring experts in the business.

2. The acreage gives us driveway access to the gravel road adjoining the blacktop highway our driveway accesses already.

The purchase of that land is the difference between our being hillbillies and Hillbilly Feudal Lords.

We control a major intersection and since our neighbors, the Browns daughters “flank” them on the east, they are also Hillbilly Land Barons with great power because they know how to get from here to there.

Perhaps that big bridge over troubled water which might get blown if the worst comes to pass.

Feudal Lords of the Ozarks. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

People either read the signs or they ignore them.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Maggie.
Part of the landed gentry now.
Reminds me of a verse in an old country song where the hillbillies get rich.
“Those Hillbillies are Mountain Williams now”.
Land is a Biblical store of wealth. There is a Psalm or Proverb about a wife who saves her money until she can buy a small parcel of land.
As with any store of wealth in the coming years, the trick will be defending it.

M G
M G

Here’s the kicker… the land has one little corner along the road which belonged to the landowner on the other side. He sold that little piece of ground to his part-time laborer, who built this crazy little house on it and is a decent sort of guy as poorly educated country bumpkins go.

However, he is the second cousin of the two gentlemen farmers who mow and take our hay and they assure me he’s good people and comes from good stock. On their word, I consider his placement on our back boundary a blessing.

I will take a picture of his crazy house. Our treehouse may have inspired it, but our treehouse is at the foot of the hill, protected from wind and the posts are barn posts! His house is on the hillside, leveled on short 4×4 posts.

Without a true foundation. I expect it may end up in the road, but he has a little covered camper for his sons on the place and can just move back in with them.

John Galt
John Galt

I never understood the idea to suffer and believe the one allowing you to suffer is the one to end the suffering only once you suffered. Took a long time for me to see religion as a means of control, especially being former catholic, the control the church exerts over parishioners, and the whole religion is one based off guilt and tithe.

That said, I speak with God daily….I no longer need a medium of church, a Pope, or religion. My relationship is now direct. So is my charity if I choose.

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

There would still be suffering even if there was no religion.

And everything was created from nothing, so there’s that.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

World, national and individual suffering is due to the original sin of disobedience to God by in the Garden of Eden. It cast the world and people under the curse.

A product of Man’s free will.

Because we are all sinners or selfish and imperfect we are all under the judgment or condemnation of sin. We do not have the capacity to prevent that judgment and save ourselves.

Jesus, perfectly God in the flesh, suffered willfully and undeserving on our behalf due to His love for us.
He took our lawful condemnation and judgment on our behalf to pay our penalty for sin for us since we can not pay it ourselves.

The penalty of sin or death must be paid. Jesus supernaturally paid it for us to save us from our sin by grace through faith for all that choose to believe upon Him.

Our faith in Him saves us spiritually from our sin and eternal judgment but does not physically remove us from our current sinful world until physical death or the Rapture, whatever comes first.

God allows suffering to continue on Earth until His second coming to show us the horrific result of our sin and our need for Him and His free gift of salvation.

It forces us to make a choice of free will to recognize our sin and need of Him and His free gift of salvation, pardon and eternal life or to disregard it and remain in eternal condemnation and judgement.

When Jesus soon returns again the curse of sin will be lifted forever and the heavens and earth cleansed and returned to it’s original perfect condition for those that belong to Him.

For everyone else the eternal Lake of Fire.

M G
M G

So, Fleabaggs’ typo entry The End is High is probably not the case.

BL
BL

M G – How about “get high til the end”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VScSEXRwUqQ

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

The poverty, disease, misery, etc., is a result of man, not God.

M G
M G

A giant hoover vacuum at half time…

Like on Space Balls?

anonymous
anonymous

MG
Pretty much.

javelin
javelin

Excellent comment!
I just finished Rand Paul’s new book “The Case Against Socialism” and he dedicates 2 chapters to “The End of History” ideas originating from Plato ( although unsure whether he and Orwell intended their writings as satirical) to Hegel, Marx and Gramsci. Nothing new under the sun, and like the “long march”, TPTB are willing to take decades/centuries to slowly bring their plan of global domination to fruition.

Hyperborean
Hyperborean

Francis Fukuyama’s “The Last Man and the End of History” is a good synopsis of just how twisted these EoH crowd are.

John Galt
John Galt

Yup

Jan
Jan

There won’t be anymore “turnings.” Man is incapable of attaining a higher nature and has actually regressed to that of a rabid, vile, ruthless monster. Time for God to intervene. Man’s wound is incurable.

ursel doran
ursel doran

SUPERB work as usual Sir.
The appearance of the biological virus now, effectively putting the Chinese economy at dead stop, along with South Korea, as reported, is the causal event to trigger the Beginning of the Fourth Turning.

The dead stop of the Chinese manufacturing and export industries to quickly cut off the just in time supply chains for the rest of the world’s manufacturing
of goods and services should be felt in a couple of weeks more or much less.

The other virus exported to the world by the Banksters, Debt, or Credit as some call it, is the big string of dominoes that will have to cascade down across the world shortly thereafter in the process.

This review of the situation is of keen interest.
OK he is a gold bug, but irrelevant here. Black Swan biological virus arrives with the Banksters VIRUS of MAX leverage, aka Credit, spread around the world just like another virus.
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/coronavirus-and-credit-a-perfect-storm

DinCO
DinCO

Yes, Alasdair is a gold bug, but he definitely is worth reading. He gives a good long term perspective from the Austrian economics point of view from across the pond.

mike
mike

Except it’s not a Black Swan if you made it happen deliberately…

Mygirl...maybe

Well, sorry to say but we are well and truly fucked boys and girls. The Chinese have stated that they will not roll out another massive stimulus and….they have also stated that they are on a ‘war footing’ with the ‘virus’. The neocons in the administration are also stating they are on a war footing preparing for the ‘virus’.

I will leave a comment from a person at zerohedge who sums up the situation very precisely. A long comment but he hits the bases. The Chinese are toast…we will soon follow….

Dr. Fusterclucks

“… A high volume, short duration dump of a several trillion in USD at the same time as the price of oil craters due to an actual fundamental that hasn’t mattered until recently, namely vanishing demand, and at the same time as the EU goes into a recession/depression, and at the same time another Mideast war kicks off, and at the same time as global paranoia about foreigners goes violent due to virus panic once the sheep notice each other dying, these catalysts could easily result in trade stopping globally and suddenly; a hyperinflationary flood of USD returning home the likes of which no living human has seen before. China holds the pin to that grenade at present.

China is totally fucked. That’s been fairly clear for a couple weeks now. Ups and downs, good days and bad days, but the result is unavoidable. They’re fucked. And Xi and all his buddies know it. So does Trump and Bojo and Merkel and Macron and Lam. The question is whether or not they decide to take the rest of us with them. Of course a dangerous virus scything through the western countries will damage those economies as well over the next couple of years. Serious damage to large sectors of several economies including the US is easily possible – we’ll start to see it in the next month or so, I’d wager. Much of the currently fat, dumb, and obliviously happy crowd will get to find out what peasants in Venezuela and Yemen have been dealing with for the past few years as regards quality of living conditions and local violence. Not everywhere, not every day, not everybody will participate. But we will not recognize this place in five or ten years. So many of these people don’t even know they’re peasants because they’ve been lied to for so long by so many. They will not be amused. They own lots of guns.

But no matter how bad it gets out here, it is now and will remain worse in China (and Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Taiwan, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, maybe India and likely much of Africa, and possibly some of southeastern Russia) for the duration. Hundreds of millions of people around the world will die directly from consequences of the virus itself and the implosion of global trade arrangements in food, medicine, clothing, raw materials, and of course – the flows of capital and debt. The dumber frauds will be exposed, the lightweight racketeers and corrupted might even occasionally get arrested or assassinated. The big money will still own and control most everything and the ******** will be thicker than lead from all directions. Eventually the other parts of the world won’t matter so much anymore and nobody will give a **** either.

Once the flocks of proles figure out in a few months that this virus thing might actually suck for them too, they will not let into the White House either the inexperienced unicorn-farting communist aiming for his second heart attack or the vengeful hag with the sociopolitical acumen of a colostomy bag. The Chinese government’s pivot to a professed wartime footing is the tell. They say they’re at war with the virus. Nope, they’re at war with us now. We should be doing the exact same thing of course, as should any intelligent group of people that would prefer to be alive ten years from now (they won’t until it’s too late so cover your own *** if you want to live). This is about to be a war even if nobody actually wants to fight it. No choice anymore if the cargo ships just stop… everything just stops.

Powell will ctrl-P his useless little *** off as there is now no other politically permissible response to anything that happens BUT to print more debt money and give it immediately to the richest fuckers they can find while millions die penniless in the streets. Trump will happily spend the Fed’s shiny new trillions on whatever he thinks will get the most likes. But – BUT – if China decides to take us with them whether for spite or revenge, they have enough USD-denominated debt and other instruments to detonate the US economy with uncontrollable hyperinflation as the whole thing collapses. So we’re fucked too. It’ll just take the next couple of years to pick up speed.

This is gonna suck ***. The meteor would’ve been quicker”

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/beijing-crashes-party-chinese-media-warns-austerity-coming-after-finmin-says-proactive#comment_stream

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Mygirl...maybe

Ain’t it hard to breath with all that sand?

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

A teaspoon of maple syrup will make the medicine go down.

Ghost

It does! I don’t order the long-distance syrup though I loved it enough to go find me a local source!

I buy from a local family at an Amish market, but it is closed for the winter (April 1) and I am making my last quart of it last!

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Mygirl.
Companies are buying back their stock at a record pace while the insiders sell at a record pace as we speak.
Reminds me of the old Farr Side cartoon of the pilots and stewardesses whistling down the isle toward the door wearing their parachutes.

SeeBee
SeeBee

Isn’t this what everyone was waiting to happen?

Mygirl...maybe

Waiting for it? I hoped and prayed that this would never happen….understand that China holds 1.1 TRILLION worth of treasury bonds, China has stated it will no longer prop up the markets, what happens with that debt? China buys our debt. If China croaks the domino effect will be staggering….

‘The biggest black swan facing the financial system is China.

China has been the primary driver of growth for the global economy since the 2008 Crisis. Despite only accounting for 15% of global GDP, China accounts for 25%-30% of GDP growth.

Put simply, from an economic perspective, if China catches cold, the world gets sick… and if China goes into a coma…’

The Biggest Black Swan in the World is a China Collapse

Tony
Tony

Don’t forget that not only are the cargo ships sitting parked in far off places, but the locust swarms have devastated all the food crops in much of Africa, the middle east, and now in east Asia. This perfect shit storm is not going to be pretty.

John Galt
John Galt

I believe Pm’s are a 10 bagger in the near term (10 years) if this really is a true fourth turning. I decided to debt up and use the cash to buy Pm’s. I figure
1) I can always walk away, bankrupt, foreclose etc but be wealthy with PM’s and nobody would know
2) smart long term fixed rate debt, allows hyperinflation to be my best friend! (If you own real assets)
3) paid for equipped bug out location as last resort

Now, where am I going wrong or what am i missing?

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Mad skills.

Learn how to use as many tools as you can and get proficient in keeping them well running/sharpened/lubricated/etc

Your abilities will be your ace in the hole.

Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee
Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee

Badabing!!!
Backyard chickens ain’t a bad idea either.

M G
M G

Bunny breeding and composting.

Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee
Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee

Damn good idea.

(EC)
(EC)

Your plan is good except for the part about walking away from the debt. That is not something LLPOH would approve of, mens rea, and all that. See Reverse Engineer.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

There’s also the idea of debtor prisons in the future.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Wow. I sure didn’t expect that so soon. The lawlessness is getting worse already. Cities, towns, states and the .gov are all going to be getting greedier, along with their business lobbyists/campaign donors.

(EC)
(EC)

I think I had a wild theory along these lines back in January. Back then, I speculated whether the US had a hand in releasing this virus from their lab. It made sense if you considered previous US responses to a threat. Didn’t Trump come in promising to take care of China? Then, immediately after the outbreak, didn’t Trump officials start crowing about how this disaster would ultimately be good for the US (and Mexico)?

Doc Pangloss said MBA stands for Most Brutal Action. What more brutal action can you take against a creditor than to eliminate your debt to him by taking him out? Hitler thought that was an excellent way to eliminate his debt to the Allies. The Chinese have got us touching our toes, paying them interest on their loans. We can’t raise interest rates here because it will raise the cost of debt servicing. We aren’t Hard Farmer; we can’t blithely say, ‘more stones’ – the weight of the current debt is suffocating us and forcing even more money printing.

Say what you will about our dear leader, he has the stones to take the most brutal action needed to solve a problem or pay back somebody who won’t play ball by Trump’s rules. That’s nice as far as it goes but we might not be so impressed with him when he goes Xi on us and imposes martial law in the US.

We knew it would come to this. The economic engine was running hot, we kept adding fuel without stopping to lube the gears. There was no way we were going to be able to keep paying the piper while borrowing even more money to pay him. Either we turned the country over to Xi or we fight to keep it. Trump has chosen to keep it. And he will send Americans to defend what belongs to the oligarchs. Epstein did not die in vain, his death was a signal to the world that America will not be blackmailed, she will win at all costs.

If NK represents a threat to SK, China represents a threat to the entire world. Unless China is willing to nuke Hubei from space, exactly how can we contain a country of over 1 billion hungry souls?

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

That’s the sea dog I know and love.

(EC)
(EC)

In this interparty game of Face/Off, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of who is Travolta and who is Cage. I mean, when did Republicans want to keep cheap labor out of the US? When did Democrats want to put whites down and put blacks in charge?

I wasn’t going there but I was thinking of a wall, how it wasn’t built. I got there thinking about the hurdles put in place to protect our health. First, containment inside China and then international restrictions and quarantines and then and then nothing, they are bringing them here.

Our next presidential candidate might want to run on a promise to build a wall, a cordon sanitaire, to keep out more infected people. Not that it will go anywhere. The opposition will sue to prevent any preventive measures. Par for the course so far.

I Love Hillary (EC)
I Love Hillary (EC)

In the last hillaryous episode, our beloved funny girl fumbled the presidential election after finagling the nomination with the aid of her apartment neighbor Ethel who conveniently was in charge of the DNC.

The current episode promises even more guffaws as Hillary attempts yet again to gain the WH by teaming up with Fred Bloomfield. In the end, the adventure will fail spectacularly, Hillary will break out in tears to avoid the ‘Hillary, you got some ‘splainin’ to do’ and we will still be laughing as we hear the finale announcement, Hillary Show was filmed before a live audience.

Mygirl...maybe
Blaine
Blaine
MagNag
MagNag

I hadn’t seen this… disturbing.

ottomatik
ottomatik

Excellent comment (EC). Thought provoking.

M G
M G

Hey… since you did not suggest any I did not sing the blues. I did enjoy listening to a lot of it all day yesterday, though.

Along with some classical music Haydn around here.

I Love Hillary (EC)
I Love Hillary (EC)

You’ve been turned, soon you will be the 4th classical contributor.

Ghost

I’m telling you, the TBP Muppet Musical could sweep the Grammies.

Or at least it will charm the Grammas.

Get it?Charm the Grammas?

PainesGhost
PainesGhost

On top of which:
The major genomic sequencing was definitely created HERE, in the USA. Probably some “additional specifications” in the code besides the protein spike corona.
It got from HERE, one of OUR LABS, into a Chinese level 4 bio facility in Wuhan, where it appears to have been mated with the genes from a pretty nasty bat flu.
Up to 14 days SYMPTOM FREE contagious incubation period
85% infection rate of those exposed
And it now turns out, EAROSOLIZED, can infect through air for hundreds of meters
AND it now looks to be targeted at ASIANS in particular.

So someone here, a black hearted black ops type, says

Maybe we could engineer a really nasty virus TARGETED AT THE CHINESE and then let the Chinese steal it. They are guaranteed to have a leak if they work with it, so we don’t get caught using a bioweapon on them. This way, they did it to themselves.

And someone here said,

Yeah, I know JUST who to call.;

cynic
cynic

How long will it take for the Chinese retaliation to arrive? How long does it take to tailor a nasty disease for whites? Might they just exaggerate the effects of the current disease to spread panic and disruption, or get Trump to pay not to be attacked? Interesting times.

Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee
Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee

Part two is when we get our ass handed to us.

(EC)
(EC)

It sounds more like your handing your ass over to them.

Two if by sea, Three if from within thee
Two if by sea, Three if from within thee

Thank you for the critique.
You are correct. I have not produced a single watt of electricity from the river.
I have not got a half years supply of food storage.
I have not appropriated a wood burning apparatus.
Damn the calming country life that moves me to relax and feel I have at least begun the process.
More to be done. Thanks again.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer

Awesome and 100% on target….this game is over and very soon the players are going to flip the table over and spill the drinks, chips, and cards all over the floor….that’s OK…we need this reset of the system. My flat earth brothers are directionally correct….do not trust the system and remember who you oppressors are. Don’t take the bait and fall to fighting amongst your neighbors it is DC vs. the rest of us…..

Anonymoose
Anonymoose

Now you are beginning to make sense. You keep talking like that and we just might get along.

anonII
anonII

He doesn’t mean it Anon. He says that and promptly issues snide putdowns to anyone he disagrees with.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer

Sure, guilty as charged, I expect a lot out of the commenters here and have a low tolerance for BS…..very simple reason, the folks on TBP are the type of folks that will be potentially on my side in the death struggle (or lunch mob) to come….I take this stuff quite seriously.

John Galt
John Galt

MH I too view the commenters here as a drill sergeant, bust your ass but will keep you alive…..and best buds in a foxhole

Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee
Two if by sea. Three,if from within thee

Lunch mob? Don’t Bogart the spread.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

two fer.
That’s funny. Priceless.

anonII
anonII

What horse manure. Who the hell are you to expect a lot out of commenters here. How could you have a low tolerance for bull when you reek of it. Iv’e never heard such conceited horse hockey. You are really full of yourself.
Go back to your Gay leather bar bar the purple passion and tell your husband I insulted you.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer

Settle down Beavis and make me a sammich.

anonII
anonII

That’s what hubby said to you? Scratch his eyes out honey.

Blaine
Blaine

anonII :
Maybe the plant of misinformation was whithering under the hot spotlight of truth requiring a retreat to the fallback SOP position of entrapment.
Or not, either way the government is mandated to protect the good citizenship from extremists and for that I say, thanks man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atks5rRqQkg

Blaine
Blaine
anonymous
anonymous

Can you translate that Blaine.
Marty has made himself the self appointed speech police. He thinks the rest of us don’t take this serious?
Then he gripes about Nazi’s.

Blaine
Blaine

As free speech withered and cencorship took root, propaganda blossomed. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/obama-signs-countering-disinformation-and-propaganda-act-law
All freedom loving groups will be infiltrated,propagandaized, agent provocateured and entrapted. A typical set up involves cajoling folks to support outrageously provocative statements, progressivly duped down the garden path to extremist red flagville. Buyer beware. Even the laughable curiosities that are modern day nazis, whose free speech I strongly support, are to now be hunted down like a chinese dog. https://kutv.com/news/nation-world/racially-motivated-violent-extremists-elevated-to-national-threat-priority-fbi-says
RIP free speech, you will be missed.

TS

Don’t take the bait and fall to fighting amongst your neighbors…

MH –
I was thinking of posting my comment on the main line, but you hit it on the head, so I’ll put it here.

Rats in a cage will ALWAYS fight and eat each other when the food runs out. Only then will the last survivor/s get serious about trying to escape. They are practically never successful.
So avoid the cage and live free, even if food is scarce. Better a little than the alternative.
edit:
Making them – as per “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD’ a real live lunch mob.

M G
M G

So avoid the cage and live free, even if food is scarce.

But, if you do end up in a cage, work together to get out and don’t eat each other.

Ghost

That was funny…

John Galt
John Galt

Unless the neighbors get too hungry…..

Steve C.

Trump’s booming economy is only booming for the top 1%. The rest of us get zip.

When the time is right, the top .001% will pull the plug and even those top 1% that think they are among the chosen few will go down the drain as the top guys buy up all real assets for pennies on the dollar.

Using the stock market as an indicator of the health of the economy for the normal’s is a mistake in thinking.

And just when do they pull the plug?

The light is always brightest just before it goes out…

DinCO
DinCO

Steve C – Also keep in mind that Trump really isn’t a politician, rather he is first a business man who LOVES debt and low interest rates. So, I don’t expect ANY reduction in federal deficits going forward, and he has explicitly called for lower rates from the fed – which I think is a bad idea. Negative interest rates have killed the banking sector in Japan and Europe – since the USA still has positive rates the capital flow is toward the USA, which has resulted in the game continuing here. What cannot continue forever, won’t. If rates go negative here, then game over.

John Galt
John Galt

With hyperinflation, negative rates are assured. They would need it to rid all those newly priNted dollars as well as chinas flooding the mkt with dollars. It also encourages hyper spending. Use the money now before it buys you less which continues the hyperinflation cycle because demand remains high but supplies remain limited. That is the new Teump plan if he is in when this thing pops. Understand this people. Prepare for it now. Barter items are a must as well as 10 bagger opportunities to remove any debts you owe.

TXRancher
TXRancher

John G.
If you expect hyper-inflation then wouldn’t it be smarter to have more debt since you would be repaying in cheaper dollars?

Agree barter items would be valuable. Food, water and bullets…

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer

Think Mafia protection racket….Mafia takes over a restaurant, they take the weekly vig, eat free drink free, use the restaurants’ credit to buy lots of stuff and sell for cash. Then when the place is bankrupt, light a match and collect the insurance….rinse and repeat.

The elite’s approach is really no different….use the assets of America to enrich themselves while living the high life and when the country is completely bankrupt trigger a massive war or depression (or both) and start all over again.

Though I must say comparing the Deep State to the Mafia is deeply insulting to the Mafia. The Deep State folks tend to be extremely cowardly personally and with very abusive habits (Bohemian Grove, Epstein, child trafficking, abuse of interns, Adam Schiff’s friend, Mr. Buck killing black gays with Meth injections)

DeaconBenjamin
DeaconBenjamin

Though I must say comparing the Deep State to the Mafia is deeply insulting to the Mafia.

Was discussing this with a close friend. He said there was no chance the Mafia would have allowed the Las Vegas shooting crap — Las Vegas has been taken over by a certain 3 letter “agency”, as have the boats in Shreveport. What’s worse, it’s pretty sad when you can rely on the word of a Mafiosi, but not an “agency representative.”

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer

BTW 500 people injured, most deadly mass shooting in US history and we are supposed believe that thin gruel of a story? Rabbit holed!

Anonymous
Anonymous

booming for the top 1%. The rest of us get zip.

The rest of us get ZIRP.

(EC)
(EC)

“Trump’s booming economy is only booming for the top 1%.”

You hear him talking to the 1% and assume he is talking to you too. Big mistake.

Mama Pangloss to daughter, he’s putting up the money but don’t forget you’re putting up the ass.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

No One Gets Out Alive

Did anyone ever? It’s only when and how that diifers.

Unless you make the Rapture of course.

TS

Ignore those downvotes; it was probably a few ‘grammar nazis’ at work, over ‘diifers’. 🙂
It couldn’t possibly be intolerance for a different point of view. Not on this site, surely.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

Life is full of typos

MagNag
MagNag

YOU ARE ON A ROLL TODAY

DinCO
DinCO

TS 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

TS

To recap a convo a few of us had maybe a couple of years ago…

Every turn of the Fourth Turning screw has increased the violence and severity of the consequences, dramatically if not exponentially. So now – considering just how vastly more destructive the weapons are (conventional, nuclear and biogenic) and just how inter-linked and inter-dependent the entire world is – the soon-to-be commenced festivities will be biblical in proportion.
Just sayin’.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

I meant in life

TS

biblical in proportion.

Yep, I got your meaning, Eyes, and I agree. I wasn’t referring to you, just a general ‘wake up’ kind of comment.

DinCO
DinCO

Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine?

However, I agree.

MagNag
MagNag

Is why I hope to catch the first missile and fly away…

DinCO
DinCO

Like Dr. Strangelove? Until a few years ago I thought it was a comedy; then I realized it was actually a documentary…………

Uncola

From the piece:

…as the cancer of debt proliferates through the global intestines, thrusting the patient towards a terminal fate.

and

Their [i. e. central bank heroine dealers] arrogance is only exceeded by their greed and myopia. Their grasp of history reaches to last Wednesday

and

And remember, using a true inflation figure north of 5% would show real wages are actually in decline.

All true statements revealing the emperor(s) as buck naked; yet most in The Bubble will not see.

The inflation / real wages sentence was carefully crafted. I know, because I’ve written similarly constructed ones myself. When referring to “true inflation” many will argue it’s much higher than 5% – hence the word “north”; because even a realistic bare minimum percentage is enough to “show real wages are actually in decline”.

Truth is, no one really knows the true inflation rate currently; and that’s to be expected in The Bubble. But like frogs in rapidly heating water, Average Joe’s sense something is wrong as they supplement their paychecks with their Visa cards in the grocery store check-out lane.

To any newcomers who might be reading this, welcome to TBP – home of the Realist Party. We have two slogans:

1.) No Truth Without Honesty

and

2.) We’re All F*cked

Excellent article. Thanks Jim.

TS

And we can expect more and more grocery shop-lifting as the cards max out, courtesy of the lunch mobs.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

You’re killing me. How much milage do you think we can get out of lunch mob?
” No soup for you!”
For all my Eco friendly readers I was out tending my methane flatulating livestock and loading my coal stove.

MagNag Promoting Lunch Mobs
MagNag Promoting Lunch Mobs

EWS… TS is a pro, like me. You might think your new Term De Jour has run its course, but trust TS and I to promote Lunch Mob into TBP Mythology!

TS
Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

Great clip.

I love the elementary school recruitment scene where the kids are playing with their weapons and given live rounds to play with.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

Don’t forget ” Dirt People” I love that one too.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

Although I can’t take credit for it.

MagNag
MagNag

FOCUS!!!!

Lunch Mob is your ticket. Put Dirt People behind you.

TS

That’s right, EWS. Listen to Mags. This is your money shot. Your ‘meal ticket’, so to speak.

MagNag Promoting Lunch Mobs
MagNag Promoting Lunch Mobs

We could move from Lunch Mobs to Brunch Bombadiers… Dinner Doomsdayers…

Let your creative inner typo director work.

TS

Snack Attackers

MagNag
MagNag

You DO realize how funny this is, don’t you? The mental energy here is just amazing.

TS

I’m thinkin’ ‘viral’, and a new, immortal ‘insider’ reference.

MagNag
MagNag

Viral Vittles?

John Galt
John Galt

Brunch Bunch

MickeyWop
MickeyWop

Eyes Wide Shut,

Prepare your teats…

I think MagNag & TS are both watching this Vid.

However…you are a laugh along guy and that is rare and admirable.

mark

MagNag
MagNag

My goats are now in Arkansas. I tell the kids who used to visit and paint rocks that they moved on to a goat farm which is almost like a petting zoo.

I hope I am not lying.

mark
mark
TS

Pretty much like antelope.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

If you aren’t gonna eat ’em and don’t want a shitload of milk, why have goats? Lamb is so much tastier. As is pork. Oink.

Mygirl...maybe

Back in the 70’s and 80’s you couldn’t give a goat away, now they’re a hot commodity. I have a friend who raises goats and milks them. The fresh milk is worth all the grief the little escape artists can inflict.

TS

Mygirl – around here several people loan their goats out to small acreage ‘ranchers’ – and the county leases them, too – to take out a lot of the weeds around here. They’re far more effective than sprays, etc. To say nothing of way healthier.

Mygirl...maybe

Don’t forget the fertilizing and sod busting they do as well. They also eat weeds like poison oak, poison ivy and sumac. They don’t graze like sheep, instead they forage on twigs and brush. Back when I had goats I’d rake all the leaves and bag and toss them to the goats who loved them. They were also handy to use as branch and limb disposal systems.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Some of us stare at goats

mark
mark

All goats stare back….just saying…and not Anonymously…

Mygirl...maybe

The Men Who Stare at Goats….

mark
mark

Ha!

MagNag
MagNag

I miss my goats now.

Mygirl...maybe

I don’t…

M G
M G

Good one! LOL

My newest foray into animal husbandry is with raising potential pet rabbits. A local farm store will buy them five bucks each if they are marked well.

Turns out pretty rabbits are not very good mothers, so I’ve spared you images of little deceased bunnies whose mothers did not love them.

However, I’ve got a litter of kits now that are almost up and about (10 days!). So, as long as their mother doesn’t kill them before I can move them, I will be taking some pictures!

[I’m betting he whom i will not name has seizures and starts calling everyone around him you-know-what when he sees goats or domestic rabbits.]

SeeBee
SeeBee

Very educational/instructional video, Mark MickWop. The guy does seem a little soyboyish to me. Perhaps he’s feeding the goat too much (gmo) grain? I do hope he treats his wife’s differently.

mark
mark

See Bee…did you know Goats milk is as close to real human Mother’s you can get…of course the teat handing is a completely different process. I have been told they hate sticking their heads in that thing.

Dam soy boys are everywhere…..did you notice his three tats on his left forearm, probably stands for: “I Pee Sitting” in Japanese?

MickeyWop

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

Good to know if I ever get goats or end up on Jeopardy.
I love the pigmies.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Well I ate beans and stank up the den but I was left alone when everyone else ran away and stayed away. It seems peaceful not being green, and quite…….

DinCO
DinCO

Uncola – to your point of people not knowing what inflation really is – I don’t think they care, due to the “convenient” free availability of credit that has been created since the 1970’s. They just buy what they “need” (most “needs” that people have today are really “wants”, but that is another topic), and put it on their charge card in the checkout line. And, predictibly, consumer credit just keeps going up, the proverbial noose around the neck of the everyday shmuck just getting tighter and tighter.

I’d add a #3 above – You want Nice or Honest? You’re not getting both. Here you get Honest. [3a then – Never be upset with someone for speaking the Truth]

Yes, I’m sort of a noobie, but I’ve been lurking around here for years.
Just another INTJ that self-selected here, I guess.

StackingStock
StackingStock

When I sold these things ten years ago the retail was $249 with a six bucks commission. Now today retail is $499 and zero commission.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Roper-3-5-cu-ft-High-Efficiency-Top-Load-Washer-White/1000074111

Uncola

Thumbs up, Dinco.

L?terally.

Good you’re here.comment image

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

* thumbs furiously over contingency plans…

DinCO
DinCO

Thanks, Uncola. I’ve enjoyed your (and many others) writings through the years. I’m definitely not a writer, but I hope I contribute with some informative, thought-provoking comments. And, life is too short to not joke around SOME of the time. 😉

John Galt
John Galt

3x in the last 5 days I saw a person use a credit card at mcdonalds and got turned away, today another had to buy his meal using two credit cards, and yesterday the grocer turned down another one (I paid his $25.47 bill).

I feel like I’m in costa rica where everyone looks good, smiling and carefree, but underneath they are hungry and hoping their smile starts a conversation and you invite them to eat an appetizer and have a beer because they are hungry. Everyone is living fake or like trying to keep up with the smiths. (The poor joneses).

mike
mike

Anybody else felt that shift, after since summer 2017 it had been “getting crazier by the month” (and I mean really jaw-dropping increases), now as 2020 began it seemed to switch to “getting crazier by the week“?

If I project this forward, in late summer it will become “crazier by the day”, and not much later something will blow…

DinCO
DinCO

Yes, I do. Right on schedule about election time this fall.
Sort of reminds me of the proverbial animal chasing its tail, going faster and faster, in tighter and tighter circles, until it just disappears up its own …… You get the idea..

TS

That’s because we’re almost at the bottom of the maelstrom. And the more aware you are, and the further you distance yourself from the careening walls of green, the better you can see just how fast it’s moving. And for the fortunate (unfortunate?) few, the rocks at the bottom are getting really clear… and really close.

MagNag
MagNag

comment image

I like the graphic image maelstrom offers.

TS

I published this poem about 20 yrs ago, after a world-class betrayal;

Maelstrom
I think I’m a hopeless romantic fool
I feel like it’s an endless ride down a whirlpool.
You never have to land, just always gliding along.
Being rushed round the sleek walls of green
while those outside watch you careen.

And I dream and hope
That the next love will be the truest
A port from the stormy, love-tossed seas of the past,
a haven for a ship-wrecked sailor
who wants the open sea no more, no more
Just to get to shore
don’t want where I’ve been before
just want to get to shore.

M G
M G

Am resuming lighting dark candle stuff later this day.

My son’s arrival disturbed my perusal, but it will resume soon.

TS

Like I said before; I hope you like it and consider it money at least decently spent. My friend Norm – who incidentally was the first person to ever hear my idea (in ’74!) that eventually became Earth – said that he liked Dark Candle best of all.
I’m about 1/2 way through my 2nd western. I hope to finish it by Dad’s birthday in late April. Then it’s on to the 2nd in the Candle series.

Semi-Retired
Semi-Retired

At my last job I shared office space with our IT guy. Back in 2015 we saw things were ramping up and getting “spicy”.
Even though we had a coworker that was unstable and caused us to fear for our physical safety, we referred to that year as “the good old days”.
That really was the good old days… now far too many things make me fear for my safety.

I’m just enjoying every day at this point and trying to prepare so my family has a chance to survive what is coming. May we all live an interesting life…

Lager
Lager

Phock it.
All the more reason, to:
Carpe Diem.
Seize the day MFers, cuz, Father Time waits for nobody, and you just don’t f’kin know when your number’s gonna get called.

So why put off enjoying what you have available, for you to enjoy?

You could get T-boned in your vehicle tomorrow.

Da fuck are you waiting for?

Take that vacation.
See that place on your bucket list.

Cuz, you ain’t gonna ever see a Brinks truck followin’ a hearse.

Can’t take it witcha, peeps.

Yo kids? They’ll make do, with what you bequeath to them.

Meantime, enjoy what you have worked for.
-What you have earned!

TS

Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

Eat, drink and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Anonymous
Anonymous

You got that right, TS.
Sho, got that right.

Mary Christine

What Lager said. That’s where I have been all weekend. My husband got home at 4:30 on Valentines Day after being gone for 5 days. We had friends over on Saturday. No offense to you all. You keep me sane during the week when he is gone but the weekend is for him. He has today off so I won’t be back for a while.

I always look forward to Jim’s articles. It’s funny because they always seem to appear just about the time I start thinking that it’s been a while since he wrote one.

Carry on.

M G
M G

I was thinking the same thing…

If you want to listen to what I believe is the most beautiful rendition of this song. Is Roberta Flack singing Bridge Over Troubled Water…

The Yin and Yang of Masculine and Feminine

What are your thoughts on the Eastern Theologies… do they introduce dangerous spiritual energies into our thoughts, separating us from God?

Why would the quest for knowledge and insight be forbidden since mankind already took the fall and theosophical knowledge might be the only way to find our way back?

Hopefully, since you (Yin) will be busy with your Yang for this celebration of Presidents’ Day, others will jump in and tell me why several preachers I know believe Yoga and Eastern Meditation practices are sinful.

M G where are VelociPastor candidates?
M G where are VelociPastor candidates?

Since MC obviously has better things to do than answer me, how about others?

Ghost

Holy Crap!

200

The Yin and Yang of Masculine and Feminine


I did not see that preview with that url link. Is that allowed?

M G
M G

I think this is perfect accompaniment for your fine observation!

And, Sandy, that was a wonderful graphic accompaniment.

When Red Ropes Attack (EC)
When Red Ropes Attack (EC)

Bocky, I thought of a clever way to say China is fucked. I thought of the Mexican expression – ya chupo faros.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Does Trump own this economy or when it crashes will the new flu be there to take the blame?

Mygirl...maybe

yes

Anonymous
Anonymous

Doesn’t really matter, for you personally, does it?
Prioritize, man.
Forget blame. Focus on how to maximize your benefit!

Seek, and ye shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Conversely,
Judge not; lest ye be judged.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

So simple, so plain, yet so willingly ignored, and misunderstood.

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

“I do contemplate what future historians….will write…”

I don’t know, but it will probably start out with something like:

Were it not for the advanced preparations of the U.S. Government, under the strong hand of Emperor Trump and the Federal Reservists, all would have been lost….

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—-== 'As the World Turns…'

MickeyWop
MickeyWop

ordo ab chao my friend,

The last word will be the last chapter in the Book.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2022

Then there is the last line.

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

The end of the begining.

After this there will be no more historians or any need for them.

mark

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

I was driving a load of furniture up to the new farm the day the Dow tanked 777 points. Listening to the radio that day I felt like the smartest man in the world.

Eleven years later and the stock market is trippin’ balls.

I just don’t get it.

Great title, BTW, can’t wait for part deux.

MagNag
MagNag

I’m hoping part deux has a deus ex machina to save us all.

I Love Hillary (EC)
I Love Hillary (EC)

I’m not sure of the premise implied in the pic, I thought it was just a mechanical device to help the scene along.

M G
M G

No. That is stimulus response methodology. When the plot gets really boring and something needs to happen to make your protagonist get off his mediocre ass and prove himself to be larger than life, that is a mechanical device (stimulus – send antagonist into the scene with a bioweapon) to force a response from the protagonist (larger-than-life moment turns a regular joe protag into a hero, a sort of deus ex machina in miniature.)

Deus ex machina is the God from the Machine that saves the protagonist(s) from a situation the protagonist(s) would otherwise not have been able to survive.

I’ve heard it said that all resolutions of heroic quest tales are Deus ex machina resolutions, but that some authors are just better at plotting ahead of the journey than others.

If Ripley had not helped load the ship for the journey using the roboloader, her use of the Deus ex Machina to kill the Alien would not have been so believable. That was decent plotting to hide the trick.

I made the comment as a pun about “part deux” and it fell flat.

Geneva and I decided the recent discovery of a locust Monsanto can’t seem to kill means the Famine horse is out of the stable too.

I really do hope Admin provides us all with his version of the God on the Machine that will save the blessings of liberty for our posterity. I hope Part II ends with the announcement the virus is contained and the entire band of badsters has been rounded up and removed from the control rooms of our completely corrupted government. But, I will not be surprised if it simply ends by reminding us that Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself because there is only one root of all evil.

BUY MORE OVALTINE

When Red Ropes Attack (EC)
When Red Ropes Attack (EC)

I’ve heard it said that all tales are a quest.

ursel doran
ursel doran

Federal Reserve hoisted on the horns of the dilemma it created reviewed.
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb20/Fed-monster2-20.html

Saami Jim
Saami Jim

Great writing once again, sir.
I look forward to part two.
Your article reminded me that there has been seemingly little affecting the average American, compared to what one might expect during this stage of a Fourth Turning.
Then, of course, I am reminded of this:

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

We will see those weeks where decades happen, hopefully we have used the previous decades well.

SeeBee
SeeBee

I’ve recently had a change of heart and think TPTB are doing a masterful job of keeping this ship sailing. We need to give credit where credit is due. (no pun intended.)

DeaconBenjamin
DeaconBenjamin

How many of today’s historically challenged iGadget addicted morons know GDP grew by 63% between 1933 and 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression?

How many of today’s historically challenged iGadget addicted morons know GDP was a propaganda construct created by the FDR administration to convince the sheep that “happy days are here again”?

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Deacon.
Now we’re talkin.

Glock-N-Load

“How many of today’s historically challenged iGadget addicted morons know GDP grew by 63% between 1933 and 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression? Meanwhile, GDP has only grown by 48% since the 2009 low, over a ten-year period. And this has only been achieved through a 100% increase in the national debt, a 450% increase in the Federal Reserve balance sheet, a decade of zero interest rates, and trillion-dollar annual deficits.”

THAT’S the boom.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Your Fourth Turning articles are the best. I like the way you add in the quotes at just the right place.

Trump better be ready to “save” the economy because it’s going down. He might want to audit the U.S. gold supply to make sure the evil Deep Staters haven’t stolen it, because the gold will be the only thing that saves us. He needs to start transitioning this country back to the gold standard before the collapse. But he’ll lose the election if the Deep State pushes the Fed into taking down the economy before November.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Wish I had more enthusiasm at the moment. Admin puts out one of his masterpieces and about all I can summon is a good dose of apathy. But thanks to Admin none the less. What he does is magnificent.

I am in the midst of divesting my business holdings. I have had enough. Truly enough. It is much harder and more stressful than it sounds. I have no fucks to give at the moment with the remaining energy I have after the daily divestment efforts. I thought, wrongly, I would be toss the keys on the desk and waltz off. Nope. Much harder than that.

My goal is to simplify everything. Much easier said than done, and it takes much longer. Selling off businesses, assets, property, dealing with ex-employees, ex-customers, ex-suppliers, etc., is time consuming. Go figure. I am trying to assist everyone, as it is the right thing to do. But holy crap, Batman, it is enormously stressful and difficult.

If I just tossed the keys, about 7,000 people would lose their jobs. I knew it was a big number, just not that big. I underestimated how large the entire supply chain was, and my link is critical. I do not want that on my conscience, so I am trying to transition everyone. So far, the key tossing has resulted in minimal job loss.

That is why I have been so scarce, and will remain so for a while. I appreciate the efforts the TBP monkeys are making, and I try to find a few minutes to drop in each day. I will get back to the fray in a few weeks. Until then, just enjoy the peace and quiet !

TS

That shows why you were so successful in the first place. Integrity, and a sense of decency.

M G
M G

We always miss the voice from down under, llpoh.

But, as TS said… it is your integrity and probity that makes us want to read your comments.

I’m working on brevity so that’s enough about that.

mark
mark

Llpoh,

Wow…man, that’s a huge responsibility…most couldn’t imagine, including me. I’ve been in some big operations but just as a cog…never as the Rube Goldberg creator/owner. I scaled back my one man consulting, product/services, speaking/training company by 95% five years ago and flipped into farming in three days, and no one lost their job but me.

Stay with it Llpoh…the careful clean ending will leave you a clean conscience, leaving you a clean start to your next adventure!

I would say good luck – but luck will have nothing to do with it, so I’ll say, ‘Have a solid clean ending and spectacular new start in your next endeavor’!

Llpoh
Llpoh

Thanks folks. My cog is not especially big. But it is crucial. Without it, a couple big wheels would stop turning. Perhaps permanently. It would take 6 months to replace my cog. In the meantime, all their suppliers would go under, their suppliers would be affected, the end customers would cancel orders and go offshore, the retailers would fold, etc etc etc. I knew the web was big, but it is treble what I thought.

I considered making a big grab for cash for a few months, but it seemed distasteful. And came with commercial risk I did not want ie lawsuits and such.

But make no mistake -I did not give a damn about the two big companies. Big companies are generally soulless bastards, and their employees tend to end up in lock step with that, due to the endless pressure the bastards put on them. But the smaller companies, yes I do care about hem, firms with fifty or a hundred fifty employees. And they make up the bulk of the job losses.

So I am going through hell at the moment. All things will eventually work out.

Paulita Senorita!
Paulita Senorita!

ec said his cog was bigger than your cog

llpoh
llpoh

Yeah,well, mine still works, so there is that.

I Love Hillary (EC)
I Love Hillary (EC)

Heresy! LLPOH’s cog is huge and critical. I would never disrespect the great man.

M G
M G

Seek-O-Phant much?

M G
M G

I’ll give you this one… it was funny!

Ned2
Ned2

So, if all the economic stats are false, and Trumps economy is a false front, why don’t the Democrats expose this information?

Anonymous
Anonymous

5 to 1 baby…
1 and 5…
No one here gets…
out alive now…

TC
TC

What I respect most about Admin, well besides allowing free speech on his platform, is that he tells it like it is without letting political dogma or partisanship get in the way of the facts. Thanks for keeping it real.

Hans
Hans

“History seemed to stop and we’ve been treading water for over a decade. ”

Reminds me of an old saying:
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen….Lenin

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

The end is high.
Armed robbers hijack 600 rolls of toilet paper according to ZH article.

The End is High (M G)
The End is High (M G)

You are now in competition with Eyes Wide Shut for BEST TYPO

The end is high!

I feel a lot better about TEOTWAWKI now.

Woo Hoo!

I’ve got my toilet paper stored in secured locations.
We all have our priorities.

TS

LOL. Yeah, I saw that, too.
How funny, speaking of a high end and TP in the same sentence. Well, same paragraph.
I mentioned to VV a few days ago that when the SHTF, TP is one of the first things to become scarce.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

TS/MG.
Think of it.
This is china where we just saw pic’s and vids of what they do to offenders.
For 600 rolls they took that risk. That is indeed HIGH END.
Myself, I’m going to clip my fingernails way back.

M G
M G

That was a visual I could have done without.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Yes, you did. TP steeling is a bad sign.

TS

VV – no doubt; steel TP would be worse than a pinecone.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Typos are becoming common, no?

TS

It’s turning into an art form.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

I think we could send the steel TP to hard ass Hillary.

TS

See, that’s another typo – shouldn’t that be ‘lard’ ass?

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

🙂

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Hard ass as in authoritarian.

M G Steel TP for HardAss Hillary!
M G Steel TP for HardAss Hillary!

I laughed so hard it hurt my stomach.

M G
M G

Lardass works too…

M G
M G

It would certainly make Steel Magnolias seem delicate on one’s behind.

M G
M G

OMG…. ouch!

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

TS.
Connecting s–t hitting the fan and toilet paper is also prize worthy.
might be needed for wiping it off the face.

anonymous
anonymous

Maggie.
Oh shucks, I just now saw that typo. Just paid $2,700.00 for cataract surgery on both eyes and still can’t see. Only thing different is I’m not blinded by street lights now.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

“The End Is High” Awesome!

If we ever go full planet of the apes you wipe with the left hand and shake hands and do everything else with the right.

For all you lefties out there: Don’t screw it up.

anonymous
anonymous

I think I’ll stock up on Nair for the Hair.

M G
M G

TS has declared Typos to be TBP art form.

We also have Steel Toilet Paper due to the theft of 600 rolls of TP reported on ZH, which generated The End is High.

You may need to spruce up your Lunch Mob a bit to remain a contender.

TS

I’m still doing my part; I made an oblique reference to EWS and mentioned a WWZ lunch mob, all while staying in context, on AT STAKE.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Is that another typo? Should it be “A steak.?”

impermanence
impermanence

You ever wonder why events are impossible to predict?

If you believe in ’cause and effect,’ then you might subscribe to the notion that the simplest of occurrences is caused by an infinite number of events preceding.

Apply this reasoning in attempting to predict the outcome of an infinitely complex event [e.g., the forth turning] where you have an infinite number of events colliding with an infinite number of sets of events, and perhaps you begin to appreciate the limits of the human intellect.

What is a fellow to do? Take care of yourself and your family, help others where you can, and enjoy life. It’s just a blip, here today, gone tomorrow.

Ephemeral (EC)
Ephemeral (EC)

Like a fart in the wind.

Adino

Jesus made it through all of the last Fourth Turnings.

I’m gonna get right with Him best I can and sit rigggght next to Him for the next chapters.

Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut

This may be a fourth turning but I prefer Final Turning.

TS

I certainly believe you’re preference is accurate.

ursel doran
ursel doran

Further to my previously posted rant connecting the dots on the Chinese virus Nuclear explosion bringing the country to dead stop for manufacturing and distribution of goods to feed the rest of the world’s manufacturing.
Clive Maund has some charts here to illustrate the movement of the shock waves from the explosion. Dr. Copper, Oil, Baltic dry index, and killer charts of the Stock Market Mania for the tech stocks. Baltic dry is an obvious front runner of much of the world.
https://www.clivemaund.com/article.php?id=5273

TS

All right; this is 198 but I just don’t have time to play. Congrats to whomever grabs the Ducenti brass ring.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

You can see numbered comments but I can’t? What’s up with that? All I see is date and time.

Ghost

The number is just before the first comment… you are just too slow, VV… I got the gold on this one!

This really is a disturbing obsession. I am supposed to be moving baby rabbits into a new cage.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

OK, I see it. It’s at 206 right now. I never noticed that before. I kept wondering why people could see the numbers and I couldn’t.

Blather
Blather

Gosh, every site proclaims the goobermint is stopping them from uhh, revealing truth.

Ghost

Stick around, Blather.

You might make this interesting.

TS

Probably going to live up to the moniker.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Blather the warhawk apologist, U.S. national security objectives are a major focus worldwide.

comment image

WestcoastDeplorable
WestcoastDeplorable

Good to see you’re still carrying the torch of truth, Jim. I shudder to think what our grandkids will need to endure.

Kevin
Kevin

Nice summation of the cliff we are about plummet from. The good thing about the long tail is it has given us more time to prepare and even those with meager income have been able to over this time acquire tangible wealth vs. inflated equities and fiat dollars. The corona virus is emblematic of this. In January I bought masks and now you can’t find masks in a drug store. The other week I was told to come by the next day after they’d unloaded the delivery truck. I went back and none to be had. Glad I have some on hand but now can’t get filters.

jesse porter
jesse porter

“There are still almost 101,000 million working age Americans not working” Surely you realize that there are not 101,000 million (that’s 101 billion) people in America. One wonders if a number like that is a fake statistic at root.

jesse porter
jesse porter

The coronavirus “epidemic” is a gross exaggeration. How can an incident that has infected o.oo1% of the world population and only o.oooo4% deaths be painted as an epidemic? Contrast 2,250 worldwide deaths in 2019 from this virus to over five million abortions in the same year and you will see that the latter presents a much closer approximation to a “fourth turning.” Chicken Little be damned; the sky is not falling, human morality is.

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