When Does This Travesty Of A Mockery Of A Sham Finally Implode?

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When Does This Travesty Of A Mockery Of A Sham Finally Implode?

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The mutually reinforcing crises aren't in the future, they're here now, and Jay Powell's shuck-and-jive has lost its magical powers to cloak the rot with speculative bubbles.

How many more times do we have to watch Jay Powell claim his speculative bubble isn't a bubble, and that his massive expansion of billionaires' fortunes will magically create jobs for all those living in the real world he's created of stagnation, social depression and inequality?

In other words, when will this travesty of a mockery of a sham finally implode? When will the Universe tire of the lies, fraud, embezzlement and corruption and bring the whole rotten charade down? When will we tire of the stale tale of reflation, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

We all know the Status Quo's response to the global financial meltdown of 2008 has been a travesty of a mockery of a sham--smoke and mirrors, phony facades of "recovery", simulacrum "reforms," serial bubble-blowing and politically expedient can-kicking, all based on borrowing and printing trillions of dollars, yen, euros and yuan, quatloos, etc. and funneling them to financiers, corporations, monopolies, cronies and billionaires.

When will the travesty of a mockery of a sham finally come to an end? How many more "saves" does the Ponzi Scheme of central banking possess? Wall Street and its vast army of apologists, lackeys, toadies, schemers, scammers, con-artists and profiteers will have us believe that the Everything Bubble is permanent and its continued expansion will hide all the systemic rot hollowing out America.

On the other hand, maybe manipulation, lies and artifice can no longer keep the Everything Bubble from popping. The chart I prepared back in 2008 (below) give us a flavor of the confluence of crises that are no longer in the future--they're here now.

Cycles are not laws of Nature, of course; they are only records of previous periods of growth/excess/depletion/collapse, not predictions per se. Nonetheless their repetition reflects the systemic dynamic of growth, crisis and collapse, and so the study of cycles is instructive even though we stipulate they are not predictive.

What is predictable is the way systems tend to follow an S-curve of rapid growth with then tops out in excess, stagnates in depletion and then devolves or implodes. We can see all sorts of things topping out and entering depletion/collapse: financialization, the Savior State, Chinese credit expansion, oil production, student loan debt and so on.

Since each mechanism that burns out or implodes tends to be replaced with some other mechanism, this creates the recurring cycle of expansion / excess / depletion / collapse.

Four long-wave cycles are plotted in the chart:

1. The credit expansion/renunciation cycle. a.k.a. the Kondratieff cycle. Credit expands when credit is costly and invested in productive assets. Credit reaches excess when it is cheap and it's malinvested in speculation and stock buybacks, and as collateral vanishes then credit is renunciated/written off.

This is inexact, but obviously the organic postwar cycle of expansion has been extended by the central bank money-printing / credit orgy.

2. The generational cycle of four generations/80 years described in the seminal book The Fourth Turning. American history uncannily tracks an 80-year cycle of crises and profound transformation: 1860 (Civil War), 1940 (world war and global Empire) and next up to bat, 2020, the implosion of the debt-based Savior State and the financialized economy.

3. The 100-year cycle of inflation-deflation described in the masterful book The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History. The price of bread remained almost constant in Britain throughout the 19th century. In contrast, the 20th century has been characterized by inflation--the U.S. dollar has lost approximately 96% of its value since the early 20th century.

Another characteristic of this cycle is wage stagnation: people earn less even as costs of essentials rise, a dynamic that inevitably leads to political crisis and upheaval. The federal agencies have been tasked with masking the decline of the purchasing power of wages with heavily gamed statistics, but here's how to detect wage stagnation in the real world: calculate how many hours the average wage-earner had to work in 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2005 to pay for essentials and common non-essentials.

If you kept records of your expenses, you'd probably find, as I have, that my wages bought far more goods and services in 1975, 1985 and 1995 than they do now, even though the nominal wage was much lower.

Ask yourself how it is that jobs that paid $12 in 1985 still pay $12 an hour. How much does that $12 buy now compared to what it could buy in 1985? Precious little.

Jay Powell, you and the rest of your Wall Street lapdogs have failed the American wage earner. You've enriched the top 0.1% and impoverished the bottom 90%. As this RAND Corporation report documents, ( Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018) $50 trillion in earnings has been transferred to the Financial Aristocracy from the bottom 90% of American households over the past 45 years.

4. There's a problem with oil, and it isn't the price or how much is left in the ground. Actually, there's a number of problems with oil: I explain one here: Oil and Debt: Why Our Financial System Is Unsustainable (2/25/21).

The price isn't the issue, or the supply: it's how much energy wage-earners can buy out of their dwindling discretionary income, i.e. what's left after they pay higher prices for essentials.

If this is new to you, please read Gail Tverberg's work: Why Collapse Occurs; Why It May Not Be Far Away.

And Tim Watkin's work: A failure of complexity and Texas trip.

And Tim Morgan's work on his SEEDS model of how the economy actually works (it's energy that matters, not finance) Mapping the economy, part one and The map unrolled.

Or if you prefer video, watch Nate Hagens: Nate Hagens: The Collision (1 hour).

The mutually reinforcing crises aren't in the future, they're here now, and Jay Powell's shuck-and-jive has lost its magical powers to cloak the rot with speculative bubbles. The billionaires thank you, Jay, as they've been selling for months, leaving all the fools you conned holding the bag when your con-artist powers fade and your bubble pops.

*  *  *

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A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF).

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Tyler Durden Thu, 03/04/2021 - 10:15

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House Democrats Pass Bill To Change American Voting Forever

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House Democrats Pass Bill To Change American Voting Forever

The House of Representatives in the late hours of March 3 passed a sweeping election reform bill that, if signed into law, would affect multiple aspects of the electoral process and campaign financing.

As The Epoch Times' Mimi Hguyen Ly notes, H.R. 1, also called the For the People Act, passed the Democrat-controlled House on a largely party-line vote of 220-210. All Republicans voted against the bill. They were joined by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the only House Democrat who voted against the bill.

The proposed legislation would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. Democrats currently hold the smallest possible majority in the Senate, with 48 Democrats and two independent senators who caucus with them. It is unclear whether there would be enough support, with the bill needing 10 Republicans to overcome the filibuster.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he would sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

“This is called the For The People bill. And in doing so, we combat big, dark, special-interest money in politics and amplify the voice of the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday at an event prior to a vote on the bill.

However, as AmericanThinker's Andrea Widburg warns, if you thought the election in 2020 was bad, you'd better reach out to your senator to fight H.R. 1, which passed the House last night.  H.R. 1 takes every bad idea blue states adopted in 2020 — all with an eye to facilitating election fraud and increasing the number of otherwise ineligible Democrat voters — and nationalizes all of them.  It isn't just that this bill will mean that Republicans will have an even more uphill battle than usual in every election.  It also means that no federal election will ever be trustworthy — and an untrustworthy system is one that will inevitably fail.

John Fund says  H.R. 1 "is the worst piece of legislation I have ever seen in my 40 years reporting from Washington."  According to him, the bill, if it becomes law, "would cement all of the worst changes in election law made in blue states in 2020 and nationalize them."  He quotes Hans von Spakovsky, who summarized some of the worst aspects of the bill.  (The link Fund gives for Spakovsky is here, but it goes to a dead page.)

• H.R. 1 would make fraud easier by forcing states to implement early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration and no-fault absentee balloting

• Degrade the accuracy of registration lists by requiring states to automatically register all individuals on state and federal databases. This would include many ineligible voters, including aliens

• It would require states to allow 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to register. Combined with a ban on voter ID, this would allow underage individuals to vote

• Require states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts, a recipe for election fraud

• Mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves, force states to accept absentee ballots received up to 10 days after Election Day and force states allow 'ballot harvesting'

• Prevent election officials from checking the eligibility and qualifications of voters and removing ineligible voters

• Ban state-voter ID laws by forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID and merely signing a statement in which they claim they are who they say they are

• Create vague and broad language that could be used to criminally charge someone who questions the eligibility of a voter

• Destroy the bipartisan composition of the Federal Election Commission and places a partisan majority in control of every aspect of our federal elections

• Require states to restore the ability of felons to vote the moment they are out of prison

• Force disclosure of names of Americans who donate to nonprofit organizations — thus subjecting them to political harassment

• Declare statehood for Washington DC to be 'constitutional' despite evidence it is not

• And finally, HR 1 would effectively ban nonprofits from contacting a member of Congress or their staff about pending legislation — a direct assault on the right of Americans to petition their government.

House minority leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy put together a short video explaining some of the other problems with the bill:

Democrats did not design #HR1 to protect your vote. They designed it to put a thumb on the scale of every election in America and keep the Swamp swampy. pic.twitter.com/Csyu9AX6Ce

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 3, 2021

Because Republicans are honorable enough (or stupid enough) to believe that election fraud is wrong, the bill is an election boondoggle for Democrats.  It is they who are constantly trying to register everyone, from the newborn babe to the murderer to the irresponsible teen to the granddad who died decades ago.  Having all those names on the voter rolls, and making them impossible to purge, creates huge vistas for fraud — something we saw happen in blue states that have already implemented many of these changes.

And allowing the election to extend indefinitely ensures that Democrats will always win.  They'll just see how many votes they need after Election Day and keep submitting more ballots.  Eventually, in self-defense, Republicans will do the same.  At that point, citizens can just stop voting at all, because elections will have devolved into battles between crooks rather than the voice of the people.

Contact your senators and make let them know that, in the interests of American democracy, you are completely opposed to steps that will weaken Americans' ability to trust the integrity of their elections.  It's not just Republicans who should care.  Democrats should, too.

In D.C., the continued presence of the National Guard shows that the Democrats are frightened.  They fear that people who feel that they don't have a truly representative government will make themselves heard by other means.  If the Democrats continue with this mad plan to destroy voter integrity, they will become increasingly fearful of the American people.  It creates a volatile situation when the government fears the people because the government knows that it has done wrong.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/04/2021 - 11:50

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How We Know SARS-CoV-2 Absolutely Leaked From a Chinese Lab

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

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What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum

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What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum

Submitted by Luke Eastwood

We are all aware of the environnmental crisis that humanity (and all life on Earth) faces, characterised by the term ‘climate change’. Much of the current thinking in the scientific community is promoting the idea that our planet is rapidly warming due to excess CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas produced by humans in the last few centuries, and the last 70 years in particular.

While there is a very strong and hard to deny case to suggest that human activity is the main cause of environmental destruction, the premise that it is due primarily to CO2 emissions is beginning to look somewhat flawed. I am well aware that the previous sentence is likely to draw a lot of negative attention and criticism, with accusations of ‘climate denier’ being thrown at me. However, the situation is not that simple as to be a case of ‘global warming’ being the main influence or no influence at all.

The reality of the situation is complex. In my opinion the main drivers of the  environmental crisis are many, but put in simple terms – destruction of wild habitats, pollution due to industrialisation, over-use of soils, over-population, erosion of soils leading to desertification or barren, infertile landscapes, monoculture agriculture and climate fluctuations. Notice that I did not use the term ‘climate change’ which in the current scientific norm implies warming.

While the planet has undoubtedly warmed up, in part due to human activity and CO2 production, the current popular thinking completely ignores historical CO2 levels beyond the last millennium and also the primary input on temperatures on this planet and all eight of the planets in this solar system. That input, although largely ignored at the moment, is of course our sun, which on average generates 3.8 x 1026 Joules (energy) per second. Human energy usage per year is around 5 x 1020 Joules, which is about 1 million times less than the Sun produces during 1 second! In fact, in the whole of human history we have used less energy that the Sun produces in that 1 second.

So, given the above, it stand to reason that the energy of the Sun must have a significant effect on the energy available on this planet and the heat energy (temperature) that is captured by it, as it rotates around the Sun. If we look at the history of Earth, particularly through the use of ice-core samples, we can see that the temperatures on our planet follow a very distinct pattern. On a macro level this can be observed as a huge cycle of glacials (ice-ages) and interglacials, with the ice ages lasting many times longer than the interglacial (warm) periods.  We are currently in an interglacial, which began approximately 11,500 years ago and it is estimated that it will end some time within the next 50,000 years.

On a micro level, the Sun undergoes cycles of around 11 years  known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, which has been studied and recorded by humans for approximately 400 years. During each cycle the number of sunspots peaks and falls in a recognisable pattern. However, this pattern of approx. 11 years is itself part of a much longer solar pattern of solar minimums and solar maximums. For instance the Medieval maximum (grand solar maximum) lasted from 1100-1250 (warm period) and the famous Maunder Minimum (grand solar minimum) lasted from 1645-1715 (cold period). The later was known as a mini  ice age due the particularly drastic drop in global temperatures that affected crop-growth and led to bitter winters for a period of 70 years.

Scientists that study the sun are well aware of these periodic cycles both on the 11 year scale and on the larger scale of 70–100 years, known as the Gleissberg cycle. We have just finished a solar maximum cycle of around 70 years and are now heading into a both a new 11 year cycle and a new grand solar minimum cycle that will reach its lowest (coldest) point some time between 2030 and 2040.  You don’t need to take my word for it – this has been confirmed by NASA and by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). NOAA predictions of sunspot and radio flux appears to show a ‘full-blown’ grand solar minimum (GSM) which will last from the late-2020s to at least the 2040s.

This means that the coming solar minimum is going to be not only a grand solar minimum, but perhaps the worst one since the Maunder Minimum in the 1600s. One would expert this to have been front-page news, but outside of the scientific community this information is virtually unheard of and little understood. One must ask – why is this the case? The simple answer to this question is that the solar predictions destroy the current scientific and cultural narrative of ‘Climate Change’ in the form of warming.

There will indeed be climate change in the coming decades, but for the next 10 to 40 years it is going to get colder, not warmer! The same thing will happen on the 7 other planets in this solar system, because the main factor affecting planetary temperatures is the activity of the Sun. Given that so much time, effort and money has been invested in ‘global warming’ as a premise for change in how human society is run, it is very much an “inconvenient truth” that is beginning to arrive just at the time when we are beginning to take more affirmative action on environmental issues.

The controversial news that the Earth (and all 7 other planets) will cool down in the next 10-40 years is politically highly inconvenient and that is why it is being kept quiet. Getting rid of fossil fuels, caring for our environment, lowering industrial output, ending industrial farming and reducing livestock, plus a gradual reduction in the human population are all excellent goals.  Unfortunately the rationale for doing this, that has been sold to the public, is most likely entirely misguided.  The net effect of this false premise may well be that environmentalists and main-stream public scientists will look like fools by the end of this decade. The cooling of planet Earth may well be seen as justification to abandon environmental concerns and reform of our economic systems, which would be a terrible tragedy.

In order to avoid this highly likely total embarrassment, world governments and the scientific community need to admit that the coming dip in solar energy output is going to lead to the cooling of our planet for at least 2 decades, possibly 4 or 5 or even 7 decades!  This is not conspiracy, this is not mis-information or propaganda – this is proven, verifiable fact which can be validated by current solar observation, previous observation of sun cycles for 400 years and ice-core samples stretching back millions of years.

As someone who has been involved in the environmental movement since I was 16, when I joined a conservation group at college, I am very concerned about how this plays out. If the public feels that they have been lied to it may lead to a backlash and a disinterest in environmental issues. The reasons I outlined at the beginning of this article are more than sufficient for humanity to change its modus operandi. One does not need to concoct highly improbable narratives about the world ‘burning up’ within decades to justify environmental activism. In fact the coming GSM is likely to produce similar negative effects to predicted ‘global warming’, such as habitat loss, loss of farming land, a drop in food availability, migration, social unrest and possibly other problems too.

It is time that the whole ‘climate change’ theory was re-assessed and the known solar activity cycle as observed by NOAA and NASA taken into account. To fail to do so is total folly and only creates another problem, that will come back to haunt us if the grand solar minimum is ignored.  We do need to take better care of our world and learn to live far more harmoniously within it, but we need to base our actions on good science and not on misleading or inaccurate information.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/03/2021 - 19:20

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Truth & lies: Do we believe media, or our own eyes?

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We have reached a remarkable place in our national condition where it is so accepted that the current political narrative is equal to "truth," whatever that narrative may be at the moment, that important people are perfectly comfortable telling obvious lies and relaxing in the comfort they will not be held accountable.

This week in testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed the bureau had no evidence of antifa or "fake Trump supporters" participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests on Capitol Hill. This in spite of the fact the FBI actually investigated and arrested now former-antifa activist John Sullivan, who posted publicly on social media of his plans to infiltrate the crowd of Trump supporters and taking pictures and video of himself disguised in MAGA paraphernalia while screaming obscenities trying to encourage the crowd to go into the Capitol building. Americans can see the pictures, watch the video and read the indictment for themselves, but the political narrative is the opposite of reality. And so, we are told – under oath – that the "truth" is the opposite of what we see with our own eyes.

On March 25, 2020, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an order requiring nursing homes in that state to accept known COVID patients. As a result, coronavirus ran rampant through New York nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly patients. In late May, the state's Health Department quietly removed the order from its website. As anger and accusations against Cuomo swelled from the grief of thousands of New York families over lost loved ones, the governor lashed back at them. More than five months after the results of his shockingly lethal order were undeniable, Andrew Cuomo denied it, anyway, stating that "it never happened." He went on to blame nursing home staff and the families of the deceased for infecting and causing the death of their loved ones. But compare New York to Florida, a state with a higher overall population and higher population of elderly, but dramatically fewer coronavirus deaths. What was the big difference between these two large states? Florida's COVID response sought to protect the elderly from the virus, while Cuomo's order packing coronavirus patients into nursing homes was a death sentence for thousands of elderly New Yorkers who had no way to escape and were the most vulnerable.

Then in January the Cuomo administration admitted to dramatically underreporting COVID deaths, including undercounting the state's nursing home deaths by nearly 50%. In February, Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted in a conference call with Democratic lawmakers that the Cuomo administration intentionally lied about the state's COVID numbers, citing fear of a federal investigation and blaming President Trump for making them scared to tell the truth. Notwithstanding these incredible revelations, within a few days Cuomo reversed again, angrily insisting that "all deaths … were always fully, publicly and accurately reported."

It is as though reality has no influence in what is said or what is repeated by the adoring mainstream media for their political heroes.

One would think the death toll alone in New York would be enough to cause media elites to offer critiques of Cuomo, or at least report the truth. Instead, the media's response to the incredibly disastrous COVID response in New York has been to celebrate the governor for his excellent leadership. Cuomo was even given an Emmy Award for some peculiar reason to commemorate his brilliance. At the same time, leftists and media have mercilessly attacked governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem in South Dakota as monsters presiding over mountains of dead bodies, while both states have dramatically better COVID outcomes by any measure than New York. One deranged writer at a national mainstream publication even went so far as to demand all COVID dead be buried at Donald Trump's home in Florida. For this political sect, their politics is their only reality.

It is this alternate reality to which Gov. Kristi Noem was referring on Saturday in her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando. Noem pointed out the glaring difference between the media beatdown she received for South Dakota's COVID response while, at the same time, Cuomo was lionized by the media as a compassionate genius for the deadly disaster over which he presided in New York. At one point, when she appeared on the same episode of ABC News' "This Week" as Andrew Cuomo, host (and former Bill Clinton attack dog) George Stephanopoulos asked Cuomo to give Gov. Noem advice on how to properly handle COVID in South Dakota. Incredible!

The most remarkable aspect of this alternate reality in which American elites choose to reside is not the fact that it exists, but how aggressively they are willing to insist that alternate reality is true and that the actual reality we can all see is, in fact, a lie. They start with the story they want to be true and then ignore all facts, statistics, photos, video – even their own previous words – and any other inconvenient truth to create their own alternate reality with which to attack their political opponents. We saw this play out for years with the Russian collusion hoax, the 2000 election recounts and even the October Surprise accusations against President Reagan. When political elites, supported by their allies in media and the tech sector, and ordinary people cannot even agree on reality, one has to wonder how much longer we can pretend there is any hope of actually governing or addressing our nation's pressing issues.

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Federal Law Prohibits COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

This will be a legal nightmare unless it is settled once and for all by a higher court, but federal law makes it clear that Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) drugs may not be mandated by employers. Further, your opt-out choice may not be used to discriminate against you. ⁃  Patrick Wood

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Mandatory Quarantines Unnecessary For Deadly Virus

(NaturalHealth365) Dr.

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Annual Flu Deaths Scam Unwittingly Exposed and Replaced by the COVID Deaths Scam

During the past 10 years that Health Impact News has been publishing the truth about vaccines and exposing the corruption and lies in the pharmaceutical industry and their marketing branch, the U.S.

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What "Normal" Are We Returning To? The Depression Nobody Dares Acknowledge

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Perhaps we need an honest national dialog about declining expectations, rising inequality, social depression and the failure of the status quo.

Even as the chirpy happy-talk of a return to normal floods the airwaves, what nobody dares acknowledge is that "normal" for a rising number of Americans is the social depression of downward mobility and social defeat.

Downward mobility is not a new trend--it's simply accelerating. As this RAND Corporation report documents, (Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018) $50 trillion in earnings has been transferred to the Financial Aristocracy from the bottom 90% of American households over the past 45 years.

Time magazine's article on the report is remarkably direct: The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90% -- And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure.

"The $50 trillion transfer of wealth the RAND report documents has occurred entirely within the American economy, not between it and its trading partners. No, this upward redistribution of income, wealth, and power wasn't inevitable; it was a choice--a direct result of the trickle-down policies we chose to implement since 1975.

We chose to cut taxes on billionaires and to deregulate the financial industry. We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds. We chose to permit giant corporations, through mergers and acquisitions, to accumulate the vast monopoly power necessary to dictate both prices charged and wages paid. We chose to erode the minimum wage and the overtime threshold and the bargaining power of labor. For four decades, we chose to elect political leaders who put the material interests of the rich and powerful above those of the American people."

I've been digging into downward mobility and social depression for years: Are You Really Middle Class?

The reality is that the middle class has been reduced to the sliver just below the top 5%--if we use the standards of the prosperous 1960s as a baseline.

The downward mobility isn't just financial--it's a decline in political power, control of one's work and ownership of income-producing assets. This article reminds us of what the middle class once represented: What Middle Class? How bourgeois America is getting recast as a proletariat.

This reappraisal of the American Dream is also triggering a reappraisal of the middle class in the decades of widespread prosperity:The Myth of the Middle Class: Have Most Americans Always Been Poor?

Downward mobility excels in creating and distributing what I term social defeat:In my lexicon, social defeat is the spectrum of anxiety, insecurity, chronic stress, fear and powerlessness that accompanies declining financial security and social status.

Downward mobility and social defeat lead to social depression.Here are the conditions that characterize social depression:

1. High expectations of endlessly rising prosperity instilled as a birthright no longer align with economy reality.

2. Part-time and unemployed people are marginalized, not just financially but socially.

3. Widening income/wealth disparity as those in the top 10% pull away from the bottom 90%.

4. A systemic decline in social/economic mobility as it becomes increasingly difficult to move from dependence on the state or one's parents to financial independence.

5. A widening disconnect between higher education and employment: a college/university degree no longer guarantees a stable, good-paying job.

6. A failure in the Status Quo institutions and mainstream media to recognize social depression as a reality.

7. A systemic failure of imagination within state and private-sector institutions on how to address social depression issues.

8. The abandonment of middle class aspirations: young people no longer aspire to (or cannot afford) consumerist status symbols such as luxury autos or conventional homeownership.

9. A generational abandonment of marriage, families and independent households as these are no longer affordable to those with part-time or unstable employment.

10. A loss of hope in the young generations as a result of the above conditions.

The rising tide of collective anger arising from social depression is visible in many places: road rage, violent street clashes between groups seething for a fight, the destruction of friendships for holding "incorrect" ideological views, and so on.

A coarsening of the entire social order is increasingly visible: The Age of Rudeness.

Depressive thoughts (and the emotions they generate) tend to be self-reinforcing, and this is why it's so difficult to break out of depression once in its grip.

One part of the healing process is to expose the sources of anger that we are repressing. As psychiatrist Karen Horney explained in her 1950 masterwork, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization, anger at ourselves sometimes arises from our failure to live up to the many "shoulds" we've internalized, and the idealized track we've laid out for ourselves and our lives.

The article The American Dream Is Killing Us does a good job of explaining how our failure to obtain the expected rewards of "doing all the right things" (getting a college degree, working hard, etc.) breeds resentment and despair.

Since we did the "right things," the system "should" deliver the financial rewards and security we expected. This systemic failure to deliver the promised rewards is eroding the social contract and social cohesion. Fewer and fewer people have a stake in the system.

We are increasingly angry at the system, but we reserve some anger for ourselves, because the mass-media trumpets how well the economy is doing and how some people are doing extremely well. Naturally, we wonder, why them and not us? The failure is thus internalized.

One response to this sense that the system no longer works as advertised is to seek the relative comfort of echo chambers--places we can go to hear confirmation that this systemic stagnation is the opposing ideological camp's fault.

Part of the American Exceptionalism we hear so much about is a can-do optimism: set your mind to it and everything is possible.

The failure to prosper as anticipated is generating a range of negative emotions that are "un-American": complaining that you didn't get a high-paying secure job despite having a college degree (or advanced degree) sounds like sour-grapes: the message is you didn't work hard enough, you didn't get the right diploma, etc.

It can't be the system that's failed, right? I discuss this in my book Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform: the top 10% who are benefiting mightily dominate politics and the media, and their assumption is: the system is working great for me, so it must be working great for everyone. This implicit narrative carries an implicit accusation that any failure is the fault of the individual, not the system.

The inability to express our despair and anger generates depression. Some people will redouble their efforts, others will seek to lay the blame on "the other" (some external group) and others will give up. What few people will do is look at the sources of systemic injustice and inequality.

Perhaps we need an honest national dialog about declining expectations, rising inequality and the failure of the status quo that avoids polarization and the internalization trap (i.e. it's your own fault you're not well-off).

We need to value honesty above fake happy-talk. Once we can speak honestly, there will be a foundation for optimism.



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"Slippery Slope" - Vaccine Passports Are A Technical & Ethical Minefield

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"Slippery Slope" - Vaccine Passports Are A Technical & Ethical Minefield

Authored by Melinda Mills, op-ed via The Financial Times,

I remember the evening a co-worker arrived at our door waving a phone, beaming “I’ve got it!” His Android mobile was the only way to use the UK government app that let EU citizens apply for UK settled status after Brexit. After some unsettling jokes about uploading my private biometric data on his device, we completed the deed and he disappeared into the night. As governments around the world ponder digital vaccine passports, that evening remains in my mind.

Vaccine passports are essentially certificates that link proof of vaccination to the identity of the holder, a potential silver bullet to return to our pre-Covid-19 lives. Before the pandemic, the EU was working on plans for cross-border electronic certificates to replace the paper booklets that many travellers carry. At this week’s EU summit some leaders pressed for further steps towards coronavirus passports.

A recent Royal Society report that I led came up with 12 different criteria that would need to be satisfied to make such passports feasible. This is a complex ecosystem that requires an understanding of everything from immunity and infection to technology, ethics and behavioural factors. But the underlying question must be: what would a vaccine passport be used for?

The head of Heathrow airport has called for digital health certificates to reboot international travel. Estonia and Iceland already link e-vaccination certificates to travel and exclusion from quarantine. Greece is pressing the EU to move quickly. There are precedents such as the airline industry group Iata’s travel pass initiative. But would these certificates only be required for international travel or could they be needed for getting a job, attending a football match, or buying some milk?

Israel recently introduced a green pass heralded as “the first step back to an almost normal life”. It opens entry to gyms, cinemas, hotels and meets some our technical criteria such as verifiable credentials, portability, (attempts at) security for personal data and interoperability. It is valid for six months after a second dose and for “those who have recovered from coronavirus”.

But this could be problematic. Current vaccines protect against severe disease, but we do not yet know whether they stop transmission, how quickly immunity wanes or if they are compromised by emerging variants. Whether someone who has “recovered” meets immunity criteria remains a question. In addition to an expiry date, we would need the ability to revoke a vaccine passport. Israel’s warning of severe punishment for forgery is another reminder of what could go wrong.

There is also the question of mission creep. Recall the UK’s early digital contact tracing app, which raised concerns about privacy, government surveillance and private sector data sharing. Or consider the technical problems with the Tawakkalna app, introduced in Saudi Arabia, which is used for entry into many places but recently froze.

All vaccine passports have the potential to block people from essential goods and services and exclude those who lack identification or do not own or cannot afford a smartphone.

The RS criteria for a workable vaccine passport included equity, ethics and non-discrimination. That means we must ask who would we exclude? There is higher vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities and the jabs are being rolled out by age. Plus some people are excluded entirely: children, pregnant women and those with allergies.

Others worry of a slippery slope towards digital health or ID cards. We are already partway there, as I discovered, with Apple’s link with healthcare institutions which allows me to download my immunisation and medical records on to my iPhone. This technology could mean greater efficiency in the health system and better outcomes. But there would be serious ethical concerns if a vaccine QR code that tracks movement is linked to other data — say housing and immigration status — without our knowledge, or if it increases surveillance of already disadvantaged groups.

Credit cards and social media data hold a wealth of behavioural and location data, that companies regularly mine. With vaccine passports, it will come down to trust in government and that can only be won through transparency. There is a risk that the government expends time and money to create a passport system only to have the public recoil in horror.

We also shouldn’t forget we are globally interconnected. When travel resumes, visitors and workers will cross borders and need global standards such the WHO’s Smart Vaccination Certificate. This could be a legal minefield of issues. Human rights and data protection need to be weighed against a duty of care and commercial freedom to act. Governments may make vaccine passports mandatory on economic grounds or to protect public health. Or they may decide to dodge that bullet, but allow businesses to require them instead.

There is also the question of whether a domestic vaccine passport is worth the investment. That depends, of course, on vaccine rollout, virus mutation and other factors. To work, a substantial proportion of the population needs to be vaccinated with universal access, which in most countries is months away. In the meantime, let’s put the pieces of this puzzle together and carefully judge if we like the picture that emerges. 

*  *  *

The writer directs the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at Nuffield College, Oxford university

Tyler Durden Sun, 02/28/2021 - 22:35

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Despite news blackout, awesome COVID-19 protection is available

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Following is an exclusive excerpt from the new book, “Pandemic Blunder: Fauci and Public Health Blocked Early Home COVID Treatment” by Joel S. Hirschhorn. The author has a long history of working on health issues, including being a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association. A member of both the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and America's Frontline Doctors, Hirschhorn has authored several books and hundreds of articles.

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Pandemic blunder is defined as the failure of the United States public health system and federal agencies to support and promote early home/outpatient treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic disease. Considerable medical information and data convincingly show that when given early, a number of proven safe, cheap, generic medicines and protocols knock out the coronavirus. Early means within the first few days of getting symptoms or a positive test. Some pioneering and courageous doctors have been using innovative approaches to prevent their COVID patients from needing hospital care and facing death. Many doctors support the view that 70% to 80% of COVID deaths could have been prevented – and still can for future victims of the disease.

This book does more than describe the pandemic blunder, particularly in terms of the influence of Dr. Anthony Fauci. It can help Americans protect their lives by not being victimized by disinformation and propaganda from leftist media. Pandemic management has failed because of corrupt forces aiming to make billions of dollars from expensive medicines and vaccines. There has been widespread dereliction of duty on the part of many local, state and federal government officials.

Developing a personal strategy to stay healthy

The beginning of any personal strategy to stay healthy and survive the COVID pandemic is a deep appreciation for the undeniable truth that there are proven ways to save lives. This is the profound truth about the big pandemic blunder, meaning the failure of the public health system to support early home/outpatient COVID treatment. …

A number of statements by credible sources are presented here to convince you of life-saving truths:

* The white paper on the website of America’s Frontline Doctors by Dr. Simone Gold in the summer of 2020 concluded: “What we do know is that 70,000-100,000 excess American lives have been lost due to lack of access to HCQ.”

* On Fox News in July 2020, Dr. Harvey Risch said, “75,000 to 100,000 lives will be saved” with use of the controversial medicine, and “we’re basically fighting a propaganda war against the medical facts.” Later in October 2020, after many more deaths, Risch wrote in the Washington Examiner: “Many or most of the 220,000 deaths in the United States to date could have been prevented by widespread HCQ use that the FDA blocked. It is the FDA that is responsible for these deaths, not the president.” But Fauci is the power behind the throne, dictating FDA actions. What Risch said holds true now, with a much higher number of deaths.

* Dr. Brian Tyson has said that between 75% and 80% of the over 200,000 deaths thus far could have been prevented by using HCQ!

* In November 2020, Dr. Peter McCollough said: “Public health historians will look back and call out a blunder. The lack of investment, execution of large-scale clinical trials, and implementation of available oral medications in a sequenced regimen, conceptualized by doctors in early April, was responsible for the greatest amount of human suffering and death in our nation’s history. The avoidable loss of life is in the hundreds of thousands. The great gamble on the vaccine was a race in time in which ‘warp speed’ was simply not fast enough for those ill now and over the months to come before immunity closes out the crisis.”

* Also in November 2020, Dr. Zev Zelenko said: “There is a cure for COVID-19 as well as effective prevention options. The Zelenko Protocol could have saved over 200,000 lives.” Considering that this was when the national death figure was close to 280,000, this translates to about 70% of lives that could have been saved. But in his December 2020 published study “COVID-19 outpatients: Early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study” in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Zelenko found an 80% reduction in deaths among those receiving early home treatment with his protocol.

* In November 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said thousands of people have died because doctors have ignored treating COVID-19 patients early with the use of alternative drugs, notably HCQ. ''Thousands of people have died because we’ve ignored it. That’s a question we’re asking: Why?'' Johnson added, “There’s a host of things we should have explored, we should be using, we should be letting doctors be doctors. And we should be celebrating their courage and their compassion rather than raking them over the coals and calling them names. … This is ridiculous.''

* In December 2020, Dr. Ramin Oskoui, who appears often on Fox News, said that with HCQ use, “probably over 100,000 deaths could've been easily avoided.” How much over is the question. He added that because of the U.S. rejection of hydroxychloroquine, “we've stressed our health care system, we've almost crashed our economy, and we've destroyed small business, and potentially, sadly, we may have really wounded ourselves from a military standpoint and a health care standpoint for years to come.”

* Also, in December 2020, Dr. Pierre Kory said: “The effective vaccines for which we have all been waiting are coming very soon, but not soon enough to save the tens of thousands who are projected to die before the widespread distribution of the vaccines can be completed. Right now, COVID-19 is a runaway train barreling down the tracks, and if you’re on those tracks, ivermectin can help lift you out of harm’s way.”

* In his second Senate hearing on early home/outpatient treatment in December 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson emphasized that probably hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost because of inattention to the use of the safe, low-cost HCQ and IVM generics for early home/outpatient treatment. At the same hearing, Dr. Rajter emphasized that “we cannot stand by and let hundreds of thousands of patients go untreated,” with the clear inference that otherwise there would be hospitalizations and deaths. He emphasized that IVM destroys the COVID virus in 48 hours.

The most important point is that the data on the advantage of using HCQ (with a 70% reduction in deaths) imply saving about 200,000 U.S. lives in November 2020, when the total deaths were about 280,000. This savings figure of course will increase as the number of deaths, sadly, keeps increasing without wide home/outpatient use of HCQ or IVM, likely along with other medicines and supplements.

In sum, there is a clear, compelling and medical basis for believing that a great many lives could have been saved and, in the future, could be saved through the use of the various medicines and protocols presented earlier. It is almost incomprehensible that we have a government and public health system that still is not doing everything feasible and proven to greatly reduce COVID deaths, in the range of 70% to 80%. It is morally repugnant and a disgrace. No wonder the terrific doctors active in the early home/outpatient treatment movement are filled with anger over what is not being used on a wide, national scale. …

Victor Davis Hanson, a leading conservative thinker, has introduced this apt description of the reality about leftist thinking stemming from the history with HCQ: “This Hydroxy Effect – hysterical disavowal of anything Trump has endorsed – is dangerous to the country at large.”

Though the mainstream media has not done stories on all the lives that could have been saved by using early home/outpatient treatment, they have done countless articles blaming insufficient contagion controls for not preventing deaths. For most Americans, such a position seems ludicrous, considering so many months of disruptive and costly contagion controls, especially various types of lockdowns. …

How to get the best information and ignore and discount bad information and propaganda

This book is just the beginning of getting sound, reliable information to protect your life, whether or not you get a COVID vaccine. There has been far too much panic about the pandemic. The major reason for that is the strategy of the leftist media to weaponize negative data to maintain a crisis atmosphere enabling political powers to do what they want.

Then what do you do?

The first thing is to depend on information from “conservative” sources and avoid paying attention to COVID information from leftist, mainstream sources. In the former category are shows on Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. There are a multitude of conservative websites, many of which have been identified in the previous parts of this book. Of particular note are websites that have published pandemic articles by this author; they include WND.com, lifesitenews.com, globalresearch.ca, unz.com, opednews.com, nolanchart.com. Another important website is americasvoice.news, which airs the Steve Bannon War Room show that has often given reliable information on the pandemic.

For data on the pandemic for the U.S. and other nations, there is worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

Perhaps more importantly, ignore and discount COVID information that amounts to disinformation and propaganda on all the major leftist media, including the Washington Post and New York Times, as well as CNN and MSNBC. Stay away completely from social media for reliable information. …

Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has made the great point that FDA has no legal authority to regulate the practice of medicine. Nevertheless, by its actions on HCQ, for example, it ends up doing exactly that.

One of the pioneers for early home treatment, Dr. George Fareed, in December 2020 emphasized this: “Sadly, many infected people and primary care doctors and doctors in ERs follow the NIH and Dr. Fauci stipulations with no effective treatments offered. We need to have the NIH/FDA/CDC formally acknowledge the importance of early treatment with moderately acting, safe antivirals so readily available. When (if ever) that happens, everything would improve dramatically.”

Briefly, here are some points to remember if you hear about or read for yourself medical studies that conclude that HCQ or IVM is unsafe and ineffective.

Many such studies have used these drugs too late in the process of COVID infection. Mostly such studies have wrongly used what should be considered valid early treatment for hospitalized patients whose infection has progressed beyond the early virus replication stage. Although there have been many studies showing HCQ or IVM effective for hospitalized patients, the key is whether those patients were given the medicines early enough to be effective. But the majority of negative studies on HCQ or IVM gave the medicines too late to be effective.

In some other negative studies, the dosages of HCQ or IVM have been too high, or generally inconsistent with what positive studies have used successfully. Another shortcoming of many negative studies is that there was no use of zinc. Often negative studies include very small numbers of participants using the tested drug.

How to prepare for home/outpatient treatment

A basic decision is whether you want to obtain medicines and supplements that, as discussed in the previous section, have been found safe and effective for COVID prevention and cure.

Besides the information provided previously here, there are some very useful websites. Two of the best ones are the websites of America’s Frontline Doctors and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Both have details on protocols that have achieved respect by medical professionals.

Another very useful site is c19protocols.com. There are two main sections: one for early treatment and one for prevention. Each provides links to specific websites providing detailed information.

Yet another useful site that is updated frequently is covexit.com. It provides many videos covering both treatment and news. Of special value are videos featuring some successful frontline doctors using early home/outpatient COVID treatment. You must learn to use the feature at the bottom of the home page to progress to other pages.

A website particularly useful for getting information on prophylaxis is COVID19criticalcare.com. It tends to focus on the use of IVM rather than HCQ.

For getting links to published studies, go to c19study.com. It has sections on HCQ, IVM, supplements, as well as remdesivir.

Another useful website is medicineuncensored.com run by Dr. James Todaro, an early proponent of HCQ, that offers a broad range of useful information

Also to be used is the website of Dr. Zelenko (vladimirzelenko.com) that has much useful information. And the website rationalground.com, which is also very useful. …

How to find a doctor to get necessary medicines

As long as home/outpatient treatment is blocked by NIH guidelines denying approval for any such treatment, the vast majority of American doctors won’t be using medicines like HCQ and IVM. That imposes a challenge on those people who want to use a protocol for either COVID prevention or early cure. There are three websites that offer assistance in finding a doctor who can help you get a safe and proven protocol.

The website c19protocols.com has a section “physicians/facilities offering early treatment.”

There are many links that are very useful in finding doctors to consider. One of the best links is to the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org) that you can access separately. This group has an extensive listing of doctors in specific locations across the nation. It also has a free, extremely useful document titled “A Guide to Home-Based COVID Treatment.” This is regularly updated.

Another good website is americasfrontlinedoctors.com. It offers a detailed section on obtaining HCQ. Users can check what their state situation is for obtaining HCQ. Another section helps users find a doctor and prescription through use of telemedicine.

Prophylactic use of generic medicines and supplements

Though most of the attention has been given to HCQ and various cocktails including it for early home/outpatient COVID treatment, the prophylactic or preventive use of various medicines and supplements has also received attention. In other words, people can choose not to wait until they get COVID symptoms or a positive test. This is the easiest form of home/outpatient treatment, though if you choose to use a prescription medicine, you still need to see a physician willing to prescribe what you want to use.

All of us can take personal initiative to protect our lives, and this can be seen as competitive to taking a vaccine. Considering significant uncertainties about how long immunity lasts with the new COVID vaccines, as well as about effectiveness for older people and those with serious underlying medical conditions, staying with preventive action may be justified.

To begin, this author, based on many months of researching the medical literature, has been using what many others have concluded is a sensible preventive cocktail. For your consideration is the use of these supplements: quercetin, zinc, and vitamin D. The quercetin acts as a substitute for HCQ in that it gets zinc into cells. Typical use is to take a zinc supplement that supplies 50 milligrams; this could be a supplement product such as zinc sulfate labeled as 220 milligrams or a zinc gluconate labeled as 50 milligrams. Quercetin is typically sold as 500 milligrams. Vitamin D is available with 2,000 IU. One or two daily cocktails of one each of the three supplements is a safe and sensible prophylactic cocktail. All of these three supplements have been safely used for many decades.

Dr. Ramin Oskoui has talked about zinc and vitamin D, and says he suggests all his patients take them as prophylaxis. It's “a simple health measure that could be implemented easily.” He has expressed dismay as to why supplementation has not been officially recommended.

Indeed, as to the big pandemic blunder, it is somewhat amazing that public health agencies do not work hard at promoting the use of common supplements as a preventive or prophylactic measure against the coronavirus, especially for vulnerable older people and others with serious comorbidities.

Vitamin D in particular has received much attention at the website COVID.us.org, which provides many references for finding evidence that this vitamin reduces the risk of COVID infection. There are some doctors who recommend much higher doses than 2,000 IU once or twice a day, such as 10,000 IU daily. Also, many doctors have advocated taking high doses if one gets COVID symptoms.

A Harvard Medical School publication said this: “Vitamin D may protect against COVID-19 in two ways. First, it may help boost our bodies' natural defense against viruses and bacteria.

Second, it may help prevent an exaggerated inflammatory response, which has been shown to contribute to severe illness in some people with COVID-19.”

“Pandemic Blunder: Fauci and Public Health Blocked Early Home COVID Treatment” by Joel S. Hirschhorn is available now at Amazon.

The post Despite news blackout, awesome COVID-19 protection is available appeared first on WND.

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Sowing and Reaping: The Mechanism of Life

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Guest Post by Freed Radical

This is not an article about current events, but about all events. I’ve been wanting to write this article for years, for it discloses the mechanism of the destruction that comes from so many sources, from communist ideology, to liberalism, to critical race theory, to cancel culture, to elitism and the oligarchy, to corrupt government, to the welfare state, and most everything else of a deathly nature. We’re going to discuss sowing and reaping, and exactly why so many people don’t understand its impact as a fundamental law of the universe.

You and I, as conservatives who have held jobs, understand what sowing and reaping is. If you sow good things in your life, you will reap good things in the main. If you sow bad things, you will reap bad things. Duh. And what other people sow affects what we reap, to some extent. But there are loads of people who were never taught this principle, and they live oblivious to the reason their lives suck.

This principle applies to every area of life. Mothers and fathers (an outmoded patriarchal concept) understand that if you want to reap good children, you have to be good parents. Farmers understand it literally, that it takes good seed sown correctly to produce a good crop. Scientists even understand it, knowing that if you want to reap good results from an experiment you have to sow proper design and operation of your setup.

On the other side of the ledger, we’ve all known people who bought cars and drove them until the engine seized up. “Motor oil? What is that?” Yep, sow motor oil into your engine, reap 200K miles. Who doesn’t know that? My old Chevy Vega did not run 200K miles, but it sure used a lot of oil! Never, ever sow a sleeveless aluminum engine block.

The big gotcha regarding sowing and reaping, the thing that confuses people, is that there is usually a sizable delay between the sowing and the reaping. Farmers again understand this literally. Plant the seed in the spring, pray for rain, but not too much rain, and wait for the harvest in the fall.

The big delay really buffaloes the gullible. For example, affirmative action. When a person takes advantage of affirmative action programs and gets a head start over people who are actually more competent, they get used to the lighter load and easier grading scale, over the course of years. But then when they get into the real world where there is no affirmative action, where it’s dog eat dog, they have a rude awakening when they are slapped down for poor performance. The sowing of less work at the beginning of life reaps huge disadvantages later in life, and they cry “unfair!”

The premature aging complex really slams a lot of unwed mothers. Some make the same mistake over and over. God ordained two parents per child for a reason. You see her in the mall at age 35, pushing a stroller with four other kids in tow, baby daddys all gone, looking like she is 50. She looks in the mirror and all those years come smashing down on her all at once. Sowing and reaping, baby.

I went to high school with a bunch of potheads, and today they are living in trailers and looking for their government check so they can afford food, because they spent their last bit of cash on a bag of dope. Sow brain damage, man, reap poverty.

Smoking also produces a wicked delayed reaping. I’ve watched two relatives who were smokers die, and their last days were hideous. We just lost Rush to lung cancer, perhaps from smoking. We need a video channel dedicated to the last 24 hours of smokers’ lives. Brutal. If you are a conservative, please quit. Another relative quit 20+ years before passing, and his last breaths were easy. Your lungs can heal. Sow healing.

The government plays the sowing and reaping delay for all they can get. Look at each and every economic activity, program, and appropriation and you will see sowing of total irresponsibility, and much later the reaping of the total economic destruction of an entire nation. The Federal Reserve Act, the federal income tax, the great society programs, what could go wrong? When we go down, we’re taking the whole world with us. During the intervening delay they sucker the population with promises of prosperity! What bubble?

I know some readers don’t like Bible verses, but I’ll tell you what, human nature has not changed, ever, and there is a load of wisdom in the Bible, even for atheists. Archaeologists dig up fossil skulls with holes in them from violent deaths. Don’t tell me humanity is improving, we just have the Internet to express our evil more efficiently than the cave men did. HerGalatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”e’s my favorite verse about sowing and reaping, from the first century, A.D.:

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

When we deny the reality of sowing and reaping, we first deceive ourselves, like the NPC morons in the cartoon thinking that they can just ignore gravity. This happens a lot in groups, and liberal group think today deceives millions; they even have their own television networks! The fall is way fun, but the sudden stop at the bottom is a killer. Denying sowing and reaping is also mocking God. Briefly, God does not like to be mocked. He actively enforces sowing and reaping. He designed it. Ouch.

What to do? Teach your children about sowing and reaping. Even your adult children. Actions have consequences. Thoughts have consequences! Explore real life situations with them. Certainly they can give you examples of their friends’ actions reaping good and bad consequences. Understanding the delay between sowing and reaping is key, but once you have a handle on that you can use it to your advantage, as with investing. Well, you could use investing before our economy and currency were destroyed. Except for GameStop!

Teach your children the meaning of life. What’s the meaning of life? Whatever meaning you put into it! Also teach them the mechanism of life: Sowing and reaping. It’s how life works.

Conservative, sowing and reaping is one of our most powerful allies. Make it work to your benefit, setting you up well for the future. Prepare for the difficulties to come in our nation and world. Live free, as one of the Free People of America.

Sowing and reaping is also the ultimate tool of death against communism, socialism, and liberalism. We need do nothing for the idiots to reap the destruction they have banked. They are asking for it! They kick the can down the road and every kick multiplies their failure. Every stimulus bill seals their fate. Every dollar you don’t spend at Amazon.com and every product you don’t buy from China and Starbucks accelerates liberals on the negative Z axis! Wheeee!!

Just watch out or some idiot liberal might fall on you. Step smartly out of the way. Eyes to the sky!

Vivat gravitatis!

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We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities

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Americans fled the big cities “in droves” in 2020, and one recent survey discovered that even more Americans are planning to move in 2021.  The corporate media is attempting to frame this mass exodus as a temporary phenomenon, but there is nothing temporary about it.  Millions upon millions of people can see that our society is literally melting down all around us, and they want to get somewhere safe while they still can.  In recent weeks, I have written articles about the specific problems that we are witnessing in Chicago and San Francisco, but the truth is that virtually all of our major cities are coming apart at the seams, and this is motivating more people than ever to seek greener pastures.

With so many Americans looking to move, this has pushed up home prices in desirable suburban and rural areas to insane heights.

In fact, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find a decent home for sale at all.  In Bozeman, Montana one man has actually resorted to walking around with a cardboard sign asking for someone to sell him a house…

“I’m just asking for someone to sell us a home. My sign says please sell me a home,” said Sean Hawksford, a Bozeman resident.

You may have seen Hawksford strolling down Main Street with a cardboard sign, asking for leads on a house for sale.

This is not a homeless man that we are talking about.

Sean Hawksford is a family man that owns a successful business, and he has been approved for a mortgage.

He just can’t find a house to buy.

According to Hawksford, he has made 18 offers over the past 6 months, but none of them have been accepted…

“It’s been about 6 months, we’ve made I think 18 offers now on different properties and haven’t had one accepted yet,” said Hawksford.

“It’s been a little bit tough with them, and all of my first-time homebuyers to be honest with you,” said Jeff Bent, the Hawksfords’ realtor in Bozeman.

I warned that this would happen.

I warned that when things started to get crazy many Americans wouldn’t be able to move because there would be a crushing amount of demand for available housing as hordes of Americans suddenly sought to relocate.  NBC News has used the term “droves” to describe the mass exodus that we witnessed last year…

Americans fled big cities in droves to escape the coronavirus pandemic — and many of them are staying, permanently or indefinitely. But escape means something different depending on whom you ask.

We have never seen anything like this before in U.S. history.  According to the Pew Research Center, about one-fifth of all Americans either moved or know someone who moved in 2020…

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center while the pandemic was in full swing in June 2020 found that approximately a fifth of Americans moved or know someone who moved as a result of COVID-19. The reasons they gave for people moving were extremely varied — ranging from being called into active military duty to college housing being closed down to, of course, sudden financial constraints.

The corporate media keeps trying to blame COVID for the mass migration, but now the COVID pandemic is fading and Americans are still moving in large numbers.

In fact, one recent survey actually found that “20% more people are planning to move in 2021 than moved in 2020”.

If I was currently living in a major city on the east or west coast, I would be highly motivated to move too.

For example, just check out what is happening in Los Angeles…

Los Angeles, the state’s largest city and arguably the most populous now in the United States, has become a byword for violent crime and especially the stronghold of the enormous, ultraviolent and rapidly growing MS 13 organization, routinely mislabeled as a mere “gang” in media reports. MS 13 has up to 50,000 members worldwide of whom at least 10,000, officially, and probably twice as many according to the private assessments of many police officers are in LA.

Jeremiah Babe recently went into the wealthy areas of downtown Los Angeles, and the footage that he captured was mind blowing.

L.A. has never looked like this, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

Of course many would argue that San Francisco is in even worse shape…

San Francisco – America’s “anything goes” city – is in even worse shape. Its most famous, historically popular and beautiful stylish locations are now swamped with aggressive, unsanitary street people who openly urinate and defecate in the streets. Public services, long superb, are now appalling.

For much more on the tragedy that is playing out in that once beautiful city, please see my previous article entitled “The Reason Why A Lot Of People Are Leaving San Francisco Might Surprise You”.

Of course it isn’t just individuals that are moving.  In recent months we have seen large numbers of businesses choose to relocate.  At one point, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made headlines all over the globe when even he decided that it was time to leave California for good…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has left California and is now a resident of Texas.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Musk said that the move made sense, amid plans underway for a new Tesla factory in the Austin area.

I certainly can’t blame him.

What rational person would choose California over Texas at this point?

On the east coast, hordes of businesses have left New York as well.  If you can believe it, even the New York Stock Exchange is thinking of leaving…

The head of the world’s largest financial market, Stacey Cunningham, floated the idea of leaving New York in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal to avoid taxes.

When people think of Florida, they often picture restaurants and shopping, the kind of business you do on vacation. But more and more, people are choosing to move down to the sunshine state because there’s no income tax, and the cost of living is low.

Perhaps they will need to rename it “the Florida Stock Exchange” if they actually pull the trigger on such a move.

Sadly, when things get really bad in this nation, no part of the country will be fully immune.

We will all feel the pain, and the suffering will be off the charts.

But if you do feel motivated to relocate, I would do it as soon as possible, because later this year global events will start accelerating at a very rapid pace.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities first appeared on The Economic Collapse.

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