We either make the future or break the future, so choose wisely.
There is a make-or-break financial fork in the road ahead for the United States: there are only three options:
1. Slash trillions of dollars in annual federal spending to align with current tax revenues.
2. Raise trillions in additional tax revenue from the only entities able to pay more, corporations and the top 5%
3. Monetize the soaring federal debt by the central bank “printing money” and using this new money to buy Treasury bonds, as issuing new Treasury bonds for sale is the way the federal government funds its stupendous deficit spending.
One approach might be to do some of each, but there are political obstacles to any rational response to unsustainable federal debt expansion. Any cuts in spending large enough to be consequential will slash-and-burn either the cash overflowing in the federal trough that politically powerful cartels are gorging on, or entitlements that buy the complicity / passivity of the general populace. Neither is politically viable.
Those who can afford to pay more taxes–corporations and the top 5%–are (surprise) the most politically powerful groups in the nation, and they will never accede to tax increases high enough to be consequential.
Politically, the only viable option is the politically painless one of monetizing the soaring federal debt via the Federal Reserve creating $2 trillion a year with a few keystrokes and using this $2 trillion to buy virtually all the newly issued Treasury bonds.
If private owners of existing Treasury debt find the yield they’re receiving doesn’t even keep up with inflation, they will sell their Treasuries…
…forcing the Fed to print additional trillions every year to monetize portions of the existing $30 trillion in debt.
Recall that a significant percentage of state and local government spending is funded by the issuance of municipal bonds. This other governmental debt competes with Treasury issued bonds for scarce private capital. Other nations’ bonds are also competitors for private capital.
Since capital flows to the highest and lowest-risk yields, yields have to rise to attract private capital. This creates another problem: as yields rise, so does the interest paid on the entire portfolio of bonds.
Higher interest payments then pressure other government spending. The politically painless solution is to monetize not just the newly issued debt but the rising interest payments due on the soaring debt.
Monetizing government debt is what I call the perpetual money motion machine. Just create another trillion to buy newly issued bonds, an additional trillion to pay higher interest and more trillions to buy up old debt that private owners are selling.
Is there anything that could break the perpetual money motion machine? Those pointing to Japan’s deflationary stagflation of the past 30+ years claim there are no impediments to ever-greater monetization. The Federal Reserve can expand its balance sheet by $10 trillion or $50 trillion without any structural problems arising.
Interesting, that $50 trillion number. That’s the amount that the top 5% skimmed from labor in the past 45 years.
Setting aside the political veto of the wealthiest corporate interests and households, clawing back this $50 trillion via higher taxes on those who gained the $50 trillion would be karmic justice and present fewer risks that the insane scheme of just “printing more money” to satisfy every cartel, entrenched interest and entitlement.
Let’s ask a simple question of history: if monetizing debt works so wondrously, why hasn’t it been the go-to solution for every free-spending government? In the good old days, creating money out of thin air was accomplished by replacing the silver or gold in coins with lead or other base metals.
Alas, people catch on to this devaluation of money, and inflation skyrockets accordingly. Proponents of adding $50 trillion to the Fed’s balance sheet (i.e. monetizing the soaring debt and interest payments) claim this hocus-pocus won’t spark inflation. But since all that newly issued currency enters the economy one way or another, how can it not generate inflation?
The status quo answer is: if it only inflates assets owned by the wealthy, that inflation is really rather grand. But suppose inflation leaks into Cheetos instead of Big Tech stocks? Since “We can’t eat iPhones,” that eventually matters.
In other words, there is a governor built into the perpetual money motion machine: real-world inflation. There is also a social governor built into the “painless” expansion of asset bubbles that favor the already-wealthy: eventually this systemic inequality distorts and destabilizes the social and economic order.
This in one reason why history shows government debt in excess of 100% of GDP (the real economy) eventually leads to disorder, default and bankruptcy. Or revolution. Take your pick.
(Chart courtesy of David Sommers.)
If $50 trillion were clawed back from the wealthiest corporations and households, that would only return total assets owned by the wealthy to levels that were considered excessive a decade ago. But since this is politically unviable, the “painless” option of monetizing debt will be pursued.
But since the only possible outcomes of this option are disorder, insolvency or revolution, the wealthy may well regret their short-sighted greed. Nemesis can take various forms, but eventually the pendulum swings from one extreme (monetary hocus-pocus and staggering inequality) to the other extreme (clawback of central-bank-bubble “wealth” and a balance of revenues and expenditures).
The meteor that will obliterate the financial hocus-pocus is already visible and cannot be diverted by dancing the humba-humba and waving dead chickens around the campfire, i.e. Federal Reserve policies. Claiming god-like powers doesn’t grant one god-like powers.
There’s no going back once we select a pathway. The systemic damage cannot be reversed, regardless of what happy stories are told around the campfire by credulous believers in the magical powers of waving dead chickens around. We either make the future or break the future, so choose wisely.
30 People Shot, 2 Dead As Block Party In Baltimore Turns Into ‘War Zone’
Thirty people were injured, two fatally, during an overnight mass shooting at a block party in southern Baltimore City. The shooting is no surprise considering Democrat city leadership has failed to enforce law and order. The out-of-control crime is so bad that notable trading desks in the Inner Harbor area have told us they’re actively seeking to relocate because of violent crime.
Officers received 911 calls around 12:35 a.m., acting Baltimore police commissioner Richard Worley said during a news conference. The mass shooting occurred at 800 Gretna Court in the Brooklyn neighborhood. When police arrived at the incident area, Worley said “multiple victims” were found with gunshot wounds.
An 18-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and a 20-year-old man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Officers said 28 victims were taken to local area hospitals with gunshot wounds.
Currently a significant police and medical deployment has been initiated in response to a mass shooting that occurred during a large gathering that was taking place in… pic.twitter.com/5pd6Ck9Azz
Worley said the suspects are still on the loose. He said homicide investigators would be at the scene for “quite a while.”
“This morning, all of Baltimore is grieving for the lives that we lost here,” Mayor Brandon Scott said at a press conference early Sunday morning.
Scott called the shooting “a reckless, cowardly act” that “did not have to happen.” He said, “We will not stop until we find you, and we will find you. Until then, I hope with every single breath that you take that you think about the lives that you took.”
Scott, elected in 2020, pledged to reduce gun violence. However, his crimefighting plan has been all but a failure (so far).
Financial firms are looking to exit the city, businesses are closing up shops, and parts of the downtown area have transformed into a ghost town as anyone with common sense avoids the city as it descends into further chaos. Scott and his fellow Democrats have pushed ultra-progressive policies (similar to ones in San Francisco) that have all but backfired. We have detailed the chaos in recent months:
Keep in mind our reporting above is only in the last several months. The collapse is happening much faster under Scott and his progressive regime, who care little about law and order.
… meanwhile, Scott, like every other Democrat, scapegoats the gun industry while failing to take accountability for failed progressive policies. Democrats have been in control of City Hall for six decades. It’s time to entertain or at least hear what the other side of the political spectrum offers regarding a crimefighting plan. If not, and progressive continue to run the city, then Baltimore is a lost cause. After all, the total population has collapsed to a 100-year low. The exodus is happening in real-time.
The U.S. dollar could someday go the way of all paper-currencies past and be consumed in a hyperinflationary fire. It seems unlikely but it is possible. In some ways, given the reckless policies of the past three years, we should be perhaps surprised that it hasn’t happened yet.
If the dollar loses its status as the international reserve currency – again, not likely anytime soon – that could provoke a massive repatriation of U.S. dollars which puts the end times in motion.
For many decades now, the United States has benefitted from the export of its dangerous policies but in a globe no longer dominated by the dollar, the costs would be quickly and painfully felt at home.
But these two scenarios are not the only beckoning threats.
What if under intensified digital surveillance and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), your ability to spend your own money – whether to get food, pay the rent, or flee the country—comes to be severely circumscribed? What will you do then?
This is worth thinking about right now. The critical question is: are there alternatives available out there that can perform a monetary function domestically that are untied from the dollar itself?
The most obvious example is precious metals, gold and silver in particular.
The other day, a nice person gave me a roll of old silver dimes. They are so wonderful, a great reminder of a time when money was independent of state control. The dime in those days was worth its value due not to the government stamp but to its actual value in specie. Today we cannot even imagine such a thing.
Gradually over many decades, the foundation of the dollar was removed, leaving nothing but paper and a memory of what it once did. Many people at the time predicted complete collapse but they underestimated the power of the price system and an entrenched habit. Once a money gets going, it benefits from the network effect and retains its purchasing power. The dollar has been a powerful currency even without specie backing.
Even now in the event of a widespread failure of money, silver has marketability. It would likely be accepted by many, perhaps not the utilities or the airlines but surely farmers’ markets and other small vendors. Obtaining a few bags of silver dimes does indeed seem like a very good idea these days.
Gold is also a great alternative but its high value makes transacting in it rather awkward. It’s still the best safe haven in the world, which is why central banks still hoard it.
If all else fails, gold will always be there.
And this brings to mind an interesting product I encountered at Porcfest last week. It’s called Goldback.
It’s a fascinating and innovative thing from a private company founded in Utah in 2019. It is made of gold itself and laminated for durability. It comes in five denominations: 1 (which is 1/1,000th troy ounce of gold), 5 (which is 1/200th troy ounce of gold), 10 (which is 1/100th troy ounce of gold), 25 (which is 1/40th troy ounce of gold), and 50 (which is 1/20th troy ounce of gold.
Yes, they sell at a premium. And yes you can use them. They circulate in four states at least. At the event I was at, most everyone took them. Are they legal? The company has been very scrupulous in not calling them money, not claiming legal tender, and not using any dollar denominations at all. There is absolutely nothing illegal about flattening and laminating gold and putting a number on it. That’s just a hobby, so nothing about this risks any legal issues.
At the same time, I had to laugh at the alarm when I pulled one out at the bank the other day. I simply asked if they had ever seen one. It was passed from hand to hand and then to a manager who marched over to me with great alarm.
“That is not money,” she said firmly and accusingly. I said I know that and explained that I just thought it was interesting. I asked if she wanted one. No, she said, and told everyone else not to take them either.
That was a lot of high dudgeon going on for a product that they themselves said is not money!
In any case, the value of this item has been rising since the day it was issued.
(Goldback.com)
It’s not completely crazy to think that this could be money at some point in the future. In a pinch, it might just work.
To be sure, it is not money for now. Not in an official sense. It functions more like script. Script is more like a coupon, a stand-in for money with limited uses. The old factory towns used to issue these in lieu of wages and workers could spend them at the stores owned by the issuer. They were an early version of Amazon points or SkyMiles in that sense.
These are not money. What is money? In the broadest sense, it is the good you acquire not to consume but to trade because you know that others accept. Economists generally add another proviso: it must be generally accepted. What is considered generally, however, is up for dispute.
In most prisons, something emerges as money so that people don’t constantly have to barter. It could be cigarettes, canned fish, soup packets, salt, or whatever. In some cities in the United States, things like detergents have taken on money properties for drug dealers who find it hard to launder cash. Indeed, many things can work as money, even items you least suspect. It could be candy bars or oil cans. The market finds a way regardless.
Goldback is interesting because one can easily imagine that under some conditions of monetary collapse, it could emerge as money just through informal trading.
And that is precisely the source of the demand for these items, which are available on eBay for about $5 each. At Porcfest, they were selling for $4 each.
You might be thinking: what about Bitcoin and crypto? In the mid 2010s, Bitcoin was the currency of choice for Porcfest. Everyone was using it and accepting it. But something went wrong. Because the currency would not scale, using it became slow and expensive. That’s when the new cryptos and Bitcoin forks came along, most of which are far faster in settlement and cheaper. At the same time, many lack the network that Bitcoin developed since 2010.
It’s one of the tragedies of our age that Bitcoin was throttled early on in its scaling. Adoption came to a screeching halt sometime around 2016. Now it seems more like a security held by a small group of early adopters. It is not a democratically available money as was originally intended.
Meanwhile, in the midst of this storm of crypto innovation, many other products for digital money use came into existence. Companies like Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and so on, not to mention card readers for smartphones, saw the opportunity and created a full trust-based system for payments that harmed the market for crypto. And now we have central banks in on the act, making their own digital currencies and hoping that people will not see the difference between an open-source project and a proprietary product created by governments.
The modern history of Bitcoin is of a tragically missed opportunity. One does wonder how different history would have been had Bitcoin scaled when it was just getting going and was most needed. The people who tried to save it deserve credit. But today, the market is massively mired in regulations and restrictions, all designed to thwart the development of a private money.
All that aside, here we are today worrying about the future of money under a Central Bank Digital Currency and growing efforts by banks and governments to deplatform people based on their politics. It can happen to anyone, which is an alarming realization.
It makes sense that many people are starting to prepare for the worst.
Nationwide UPS Strike Averted In Last Minute Talks
Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters walked away from the bargaining table earlier this week and demanded that UPS deliver its “last, best, and final offer” no later than Friday. By late afternoon, the Teamsters called off the strike as they returned to the negotiating table after UPS delivered a new counteroffer.
Teamsters said UPS offered “a revised counterproposal with significant movement on wages and other economic language.” It was enough to call off the strike on Friday, but the union said more negotiations were needed.
UPS PLEADS TO KEEP BARGAINING WITH MORE MONEY, TEAMSTERS DEMAND MORE PROGRESS
Today, @UPS — under extraordinary pressure from the #Teamsters to deliver a strong contract — gave the union a revised counterproposal with significant movement on wages & other economic language. #1upic.twitter.com/dAqR0aDwk3
UPS pledged to complete a deal with Teamsters by July 5 for 340,000 unionized package delivery drivers and warehouse logistics workers nationwide.
The company pleaded for the opportunity to continue negotiating, pledging across the table to reach a deal no later than July 5 for 340,000 Teamster package delivery drivers and warehouse logistics workers nationwide. pic.twitter.com/vJKHjcpUuT
“UPS came back with real movement, but it isn’t enough. After they left the room, our national committee had a long dialogue and the universal consensus was to continue our leverage campaign,” Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman wrote in a statement.
Zuckerman said, “One of two things is going to happen next — UPS will come to terms on a deal we can confidently recommend to our members or UPS will fail and the company will put itself on the street.”
“Thousands of UPS Teamsters are practice picketing right now across the country, showing UPS how serious we are about getting the best contract in our history,” he said.
“We are encouraged the Teamsters are ready to continue negotiations and discuss our most recent proposal,” UPS said in a statement.
As for now, a nationwide UPS strike has been avoided in what could’ve been a severe blow to supply chains.
Meanwhile, UPS drivers are practicing their picketing skills.
UPS TEAMSTERS DEMONSTRATE READINESS AND RAW POWER
Rank-and-file UPSers continue putting up practice picket lines all over the country as Teamster solidarity sweeps across the states. #1upic.twitter.com/1G64Y5GiQ1
Now that the pandemic has ended, researchers are urging regulatory agencies to consider the safety issues associated with the rapid approval of COVID-19 vaccines—and to correctly classify messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccinesas gene therapy products (GTPs) to prevent pharmaceutical companies from bypassing regulatory standards.
According to a paper published in Nature on June 22, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, by mode and action, are gene therapy products and should adhere to different regulatory standards. Yet U.S. and European regulatory agencies have not classified COVID-19 mRNA vaccines as gene therapy products, which has allowed them to be regulated as vaccines against infectious diseases instead of being subjected to the more stringent regulation of GTPs.
Because current regulatory guidelines either do not apply, do not mention RNA therapeutics, or do not have a widely accepted definition for these products, regulatory agencies adopted a modified and accelerated approval process for COVID-19 vaccines in the form of a “rolling review.”
A rolling review is a regulatory tool typically used during a public health emergency to speed up the assessment of data for medicines or vaccines. It allows data to be reviewed as it becomes available—without the complete data package or specific controls.
This process led to broad and continuous biodistribution of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines that were not thoroughly studied and yielded tests with noncompliant results regarding purity, quality, and batch homogeneity. Manufacturers are now planning to replace classic vaccines with mRNA vaccines using the same process—starting with influenza vaccines.
Vaccines With mRNA Technology Are Gene Therapies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently defines a “vaccine” as a preparation used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. However, the agency’s definition was changed in 2021 out of concern it didn’t apply to COVID-19 vaccines.
A vaccine must contain an antigen to trigger the body’s natural immune response. Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines do not contain antigens. The active substance used to elicit an immune response in these vaccines is the mRNA—a form of nucleic acid and the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that provides instructions to the body for producing antigens—spike proteins.
In other words, the mRNA is not the substance causing active immunization. Instead, the mRNA must be translated into protein by the cells of the person vaccinated, and that person’s immune system must produce its own antigens to trigger an immune response.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that gene therapy seeks to “modify or manipulate the expression of a gene or to alter the biological properties of living cells for therapeutic use.” Moderna’s Q2 2020 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledged that mRNA is “considered a gene therapy product by the FDA.” In addition, BioNTech founder Ugur Sahin, in a 2014 article stated, “One would expect the classification of an mRNA drug to be a biologic, gene therapy, or somatic cell therapy.”
According to the FDA, mRNA vaccines are comparable to the TypeIA of prodrugs—substances that, after administration, are converted in the body into pharmacologically active drugs.
This “prodrug property” could suggest that additional controls should be applied in addition to those required for vaccines. However, neither the FDA nor the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have referenced these qualifications for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
“With a conventional vaccine, you have the antigen, and you inject it into a person, and that is the thing that your immune system looks at and says, ‘ah ha,’ we need to make antibodies, T-cells, and other immune system components to what’s being injected,” said Dr. David Wiseman, a research scientist with a background in pharmacy, pharmacology, and experimental pathology, in an interview with The Epoch Times.
“The prime reaction of an mRNA vaccine is that it instructs the body how to make the antigen of interest. So, it’s similar to a prodrug, which is converted inside the body via metabolism and enzymes into the desired drug effect. The substance you’re injecting isn’t doing the final action; it leads to the thing that does the final action. With a prodrug, the molecule you inject does not get changed into the final molecule of the antigen, it simply provides instructions because it’s gene therapy.”
Wiseman said the FDA and EMA guidance and regulations that discuss gene therapy all define gene therapies “more or less” the same way. However, a number of years ago, the FDA decided to exclude vaccines for infectious diseases from its various guidance for unknown reasons, including vaccines made from gene therapy technology. Vaccines, in essence, were given their “own set of rules.”
However, the FDA can “change or exclude whatever they want from regulatory guidance, but it doesn’t change the biologic definition of the product,” said Wiseman. “Since Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines meet the definition of gene therapy, they should be handled according to gene therapy guidelines.”
mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Bypassed Essential Studies
According to the paper, because mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were not classified as gene therapy, necessary tests required for GTPs were not performed for the following:
Genotoxicity.
Genome integration.
Germ-line transmission.
Insertional mutagenesis.
Tumorigenicity.
Embryo/fetal and perinatal toxicity.
Long-term expression.
Repeated toxicity.
Excretion in the environment, such as shedding through seminal fluid or breast milk.
“The long-term safety monitoring of GTPs is required over several years whereas, for vaccines, it is generally only carried out over a few weeks,” wrote Dr. Helene Banoun with the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in the paper. “This should not be acceptable, given the persistence of the drug product and the expressed protein.”
I hope everyone has had the time to properly appreciate their first days of summer. If you did not, then I hope your efforts have gotten you closer to being capable of doing so soon.
Today’s writing is inspired by my many conversations over the current state of our United States of America, and how far we have fallen from the Tree of Freedom that our Honored Fallen sacrificed their lives for. How Americans have lost sight of what truly matters, and how our uneducated & unfit masses continue to make decisions that enable their complacencies over doing what needs to be done in order to save the future of our country, for ourselves and for our children…
Failure Teaches. Victory Confirms.
Taking the path of immediate gratification, and especially selling-out the futures of our children, alongside the soul of our proud nation, is inextricably not American. Providing products of shite quality is inextricably not American. Choosing to do the easy thing over that which is more difficult, and that which is right, is inextricably not American. Sacrificing our own steadfastness, our own resilience, and going back on our promises and debts is not American.
Simple vs Easy
The steps required for correcting this egregious path are simple but they are not easy. This brings us to the first true step (Step 0.1) towards course-correction, of any kind. Conflation of something so basic as simple & easy is a problem that we as Americans must identify, acknowledge, and work to correct. A task can be simple; “do [x] in order to get [y] outcome,” but that does not mean that the task will be easy; “man doing [x] required so little effort to so I could get [y].”
Ignorance of Failure
Admitting that we have gone awry is the other 90% of Step 1, that we have made a series of mistakes and poor decisions is necessary. Because it is okay. It is okay to make mistakes, to be wrong. It is not okay to make mistakes, to be wrong, and not own-up to them. Not accepting that we have made wrong/bad decisions is extremely dangerous as there is no learning or growth that is allowed to occur when we choose to ignore our failures. Failure teaches. Victory confirms.
The Average American is the one who holds the power in the coming years — as this is a situation that will take years to correct and get back on “the path.” I have a few simple suggestions for the everyday American to follow if you would like to be on the right side of history.
First
GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS
America is not well. Between those already diagnosed with diabetes, and those that are prediabetic we are looking at 49% of the Us adult population being affected, alone. According to data from 2017 (which is 6 years old mind you) the US population was looking at an obesity rate of 42%. Keep in mind that this does not include the concoction of chronic metabolic syndromes and diseases that accompany obesity; heart disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative conditions, cancers, and so on.
Americans need to get up off the couch and out of their desk chairs and push, pull, and breathe their way into individual fortitude. If the worst of the worst were to happen today, the amount of human life that would be lost simply due to intermittent access to power, let alone food, would be daunting and egregious. Through complacencies afforded the modern era we have become more fragile than ever in history. Yet we have access to the best technologies, methodologies, sciences, and access to more food and information than in any other prior empire in the history of our planet.
As Americans it is our duty and our privilege to become the baddest motherf*ckers that we can become. We are in the Land of the Free. Where you can be free to be a fat, lazy, complacent pile of shit all you want. I don’t know about you… but me, I want to be the most fit, well-rounded, capable, educated, understanding individual that I can be because I am free to do so. Because when shit-hits-fan, which is a virtual certainty (on any scale), I want to be capable of providing the strength and clear-headedness to be capable of providing protection and support to those I care about. Being comfortable means f^ck-all when life deals you a powdered backhand and you are not capable of being an effective force in times of adversity or fear — regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.
If you are not capable to react to the plethora of known knowns as far as potential negative outcomes, then you cannot even hope to be capable of handling those unknown unknowns. Of which are infinite. Fitness and sound health makes the individual far more capable of handling adversity, and during moments of historical shifts in the balance of power adversity is commonplace. Fill the gyms and run the trails, become the embodiment of strength that your neighbors, loved ones, and peers need.
Second
GET ack-tually EDUCATED
America today has been taught to demonize coming incorrect, and pedestalize being correct. To the extent of where people are attributing their being correct as a part of their identity. This poses a slew of problems for a society as the search for what is true and what is right gets lost. As the discussion [inevitably] turns towards pushback, these individuals tend to fall into defensive mode. In these moments their identity comes into question as a relation to their correctness, like when Anthony Fauci made the claim that to question him was to question science. Science, as is every other aspect of knowing & understanding, is and should always be under question. We do not know everything. In fact, we actually know very little about quite literally everything that we observe in our reality to-date. Therefore an individual’s identity should never be tied to their tendency to be accurate or correct in matters of fact; when we know so little, we are all guaranteed to be wrong much more often than we are right.
The American Education System has played a pivotal role in this degeneration of our countrymen’s and countrywomen’s capabilities to practice critical-thinking and original thought. Robert A. Burton, M.D., does a great job of crystalizing my point in his book On Being Certain in one very succinct sentence towards the end of Chapter 8 found on page 84;
“Memorizing facts doesn’t require logic, cause-and-effect, or any significant ability to reason.”
which is precisely what our entire “educative system” is structured around. Memorization. The antithesis to learning.
American schools have failed, abysmally. There is no such thing as a template for learning. Every single soul will learn differently from another. Just like with nutrition and physiology; every single body is different, so why is it that we think that the mind could operate by any other rule? This is also what has contributed to the mislabeling of a large portion of the “mental disorders” today. In a recent essay I argued my position for believing that conditions such as ADD/ADHD, anxiety, and depression are, for the vast majority, not diseases but misidentified signals by the body & mind. Leading to responses to treat the symptoms rather than address the sources of the signal(s). Culminating in continued dysfunction that grows in severity the longer the dysfunction goes unanswered. The dysfunction of the education (indoctrination) system is contributing to the misinterpretation of these states of mind, while also leading to a misidentification of the solutions due to the erosion of logic, cause-and-effect analysis, and erosion of the ability to reason.
So, American schools have not been teaching our children how to learn… what about what they have been memorizing?
This is where things get fun and a little scary at the same time. The textbooks and curriculums pushed in front of us through our scholastic syllabi (and those of our children) are poised to be treasure-troves of truth… but are they, truly? Below I have provided 2 videos that I have been recommending to now thousands of individuals across the twitter spaces & podcasts I have been graciously invited to be a part of, and in private individual discussions over the past 3 years. The perspectives are daunting, that there could be so much to history that got brushed under the metaphorical rug, forgotten about, and then pretended like was never the case.
I call on all of you to make it a point to watch these videos. Go in with a position that you (and I) do not know every individual thing that has transpired across history that was covered in our textbooks. And consider how then (as now) there were many multiples of developments and strategies all playing-out simultaneously. With little-to-no awareness that they were occurring. Events that have transpired over the past 36 months should serve as adequate testimony to this very reality.
That’s It.
Between just these two points, we can see dramatic changes in America’s populace for the better. These changes can begin to bare fruit in a mere handful of years… Consider how much smoother healthcare can become when the system is alleviated of the deadweight of a complacent and unhealthy populace. Consider how much more effective teaching and lecture can become when we have a populace that is critically thinking and capable of effectively challenging anything and everything with logical and rational bases. This is how we improve… EVERYTHING. You want better innovation, better ideas, better leaders, better policies, better technology? We need new, original ideas that can only come from strong & healthy children raised on logic and reason.
A Bitcoin Discussion
With this rebel’s education approach we have to talk about two aspects that are touched on in both videos. Keep in mind that both were produced very much independently of each other, yet share a common thread: private & central bankers have continually acted against the best interests of their constituents in order to maintain their grips on power. From breaking away from the rule of a queen over taxes to only end up copying the precisely same system once independence was achieved… to funding both sides of a world war… something has to change. That’s not even including the capability to print currency (not money, there’s a difference) on a whim or a desire. Providing a vertically-integrated system of power that provides influence beyond that of any single individual or organization when these systems are also based out of the jurisdiction that holds the position of Global Reserve Currency.
This is a power dynamic that must be disrupted. In my opinion it does not need to be totally done away with as there will always be a percentage of the population that desires the services provided by banks. The point is to particularly disrupt the vertically integrated stack that these parties have developed. This is where bitcoin plays an important role, and where I am proud to shamelessly plug my efforts in working with a few passionate individuals to put together a call to separate money from the state. One can argue as much as they want that the state is separated from the process of money formation & banking, on paper, but when we are dealing with human incentives and human policy that is all at the whim of human influence via politics… all roads converge on the two becoming inextricably linked. Creating a true monster. One could say a “creature from Jekyll Island.”
Going further, bitcoin provides an avenue of game theory (hat tip to John Nash) that provides an incentive mechanism that is far and beyond anything that is available thanks to any other technology to-date. With properly custodied bitcoin, the individual, organization, or country is afforded a strategy that has never been available in history, ‘til now. With bitcoin a party is capable of holding value that can ultimately avoid seizure even after death. Meaning that vaults can escape plunder, and something as ludicrous as a death tax becomes a distant memory. Resulting in an environment where, in order to accumulate economic/monetary value, one must provide product or service that is worthy of said value being directed towards their project. If the market does not deem the product to be worthy of their economic power, then there is no other way of accumulating it. Incentivizing cooperation, innovation, and efficiency… a polar opposite incentive mechanism than today where computers and textbooks make marginal improvements (if any) and selling of a “new” flashy product at the expense of the consumer.
As society progresses, new approaches to old problems are behooved. Money & currency is a problem as old as time that has been iterated on to further improve the cooperation and cohabitation of the human species. To think that we are beyond this natural need is a hubris of the utmost.
Personally, I Don’t Care…
I don’t care whether you are interested in the bitcoin mission. Your money is your power and your responsibility. Everyone has the freedom and the right to do what they desire, or deem proper, for their accumulated wealth and purchasing power. But what I do care about is strong, healthy, and capable Americans and American children.
At the very least… if you are a parent you are behooved to provide your child(ren) a proper role model. A strong mother and father that continually work to improve the condition of their family leaves a healthy mark on their offspring regardless of whether they believe their children are watching intently or not. Parents that continually seek improved understanding teaches multiple lessons to their little ones, paramountly that education never stops. Parents that deploy this kind of hustle (if we’re being fair, this isn’t even hustle this is simply staying an efficacious human), not only improve America’s future by rearing up strong & intelligent children but also make for a healthier, stronger, better informed voting populous. Our parents simply need to stop engaging in degenerative behaviors like binge-consuming the plethora of non-informative streaming services, and get back to education being the past-time. Like the days of olde of the cable era with such heavyweights as Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel — oh how I long for those days to return.
Those of us that are not parents, we hold the very same responsibilities. As uncles & aunts, cousins, brothers & sisters, sons & daughters, and family friends; we hold powerful influence. We can act as a confirming force for what those hustler parents are doing is the proper thing. We can act as a challenge to those parents that choose not to better themselves, showing those children that there are better ways of getting the damn thing done. Children are not dumb.
We all have power to influence; residing in the decisions we make on a daily basis and the lifestyles we choose to adopt. You don’t need to be an influencer with a 5 digit follower count in order to leave a strong, positive mark on those around you.
You may feel stuck. Know that your improved future stands on the other side of your improved health & wellness, and your improved understanding of the world. Your own path out of your rut will become easier to see once you climb that first hill.
North Korea might be the hermit kingdom, but data from the UN Comtrade database reveals that goods worth a combined $1 billion were still traded in and out of the reclusive country in 2022.
According to reports from Reuters, imports from China to North Korea have surged in April after also increasing in 2022 due to the end of a Covid-induced trade freeze. However, both imports and exports to the country have fallen sharply over the years – a trend that started even before the pandemic. Exports were down from US$2.8 billion in 2015 to only US$1.7 billion in 2017 and even further to just $192 million in 2022, with imports also falling significantly from US$3.5 billion worth of goods in 2015 to only $903 million in 2022.
International pressure to stick to the sanctions against the country before the pandemic had isolated North Korea further, with China consolidating its role as the country’s only real trade partner.
In 2015, Chinese imports made up was 85 percent of all North Korean imports – the share now stands at 99 percent as the pandemic era has sealed the country off against the world more than ever before.
A handful of European countries are also buying North Korean, however.
Poland imported iron, steel and plastic products as well as pharmaceutical products, electrical and other machinery worth almost $10 million last year.
Half of the Netherlands’ imports worth around $8 million in total consisted of nickel and nickel products, with some substantial amounts of polyethylene and airplane parts also imported.
Both European countries have maintained diplomatic relations in some form with North Korea and their trade with the country can be classified as symbolic. However, it is a different type of import that has been labeled as problematic in Europe. The Dutch University of Leiden in 2019 identified clothing made in North Korea under exploitative labor conditions that had made its way to the Netherlands and other Western countries labeled as of Chinese origin. While Mozambique’s 2022 imports of North Korean transformers and other machinery were likely above board, the country was investigated in 2017 for its arms deals with the country that violated UN sanctions.
At least seven countries in Africa were part of the investigation. Regular economic ties with North Korea, which are not the subject of sanctions, were increasing in African countries at the same time, according to the Voice of America.
The “investigative project” of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was designated by Russia as a foreign agent last year due to his operations being funded by Ukraine, shared “documents” with CNN purporting to show that over 30 senior military and intelligence officials are secretly VIP Wagner members.
The outlet reported on these alleged findings around the same time that they published former Vice President Mike Pence’s answer to the question that one of their journalists asked him during his unannounced visit to Kiev regarding his opinion of whether or not President Putin has full command of his military. He claimed that this is an “open question” in light of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failedcoupattempt last weekend, thus suggesting that Russian leader is struggling to exert his authority.
These two back-to-back news items were intended to leave their audience with the impression that the President Putin remains at risk of being overthrown by his armed forces, which is nothing but an artificially manufactured information warfare narrative designed to sow doubts about his leadership.
It simultaneously attempts to influence him and his circle into carrying out large-scale purges that could adversely affect the specialoperation while also making the public think that he’s weak if he doesn’t.
The New York Times earlier admitted that “American officials have an interest in pushing out information that undermines the standing of General Surovikin, whom they view as more competent and more ruthless than other members of the command. His removal would undoubtedly benefit Ukraine, whose Western-backed troops are pushing a new counteroffensive that is meant to try to win back territory seized by Moscow.” It’s with this motivation in mind that the latest reports should be interpreted.
No honest observer on either side of the debate really thinks that an exiled Ukrainian-funded oligarch and one of the US’ previously most powerful neoconservatives have President Putin’s best interests in mind when suggesting that he’s at risk of being overthrown if he doesn’t purge the Russian military. To the contrary, the only reason why these insincerely expressed concerns were publicly shared and then amplified by one of the world’s top Mainstream Media (MSM) outlets was for subversive purposes.
What’s curious to note is that the MSM and their putative competitors in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) are each aggressively pushing weaponized conspiracy theories to their respective audiences in the aftermath of recent events. The first wants folks to think that last weekend’s regime change plot involved high-level military-intelligence collaborators who might soon give it a second shot out of desperation to preempt their supposedly impending purge if President Putin doesn’t remove them first.
At the same time, top influencers in the second have suggested that President Putin colluded with Prigozhin to stage a so-called “false flag coup” to redeploy Wagner to Belarus and/or expose internal enemies, thus implying that he ordered that group’s chief to shoot down Russian pilots. It’s unclear whether those who propagate this totally ridiculous theory actually believe it, but this baseless innuendo is nevertheless anti-Russian to the core by hinting that its leader therefore committed treason too.
The reality is that Western intelligence agencies masterfully manipulated Prigozhin’s rivalry with the Defense Ministry, the paranoia that this provoked, and his delusions of grandeur after Wagner led Russia to victory in the Battle of Artyomovsk to plant the seeds in his mind for carrying out a coup.
He therefore functioned as the West’s most potentially destabilizing “useful idiot” in history who risked sparking a civil war that was only narrowly averted at the last minute as was explained here and here.
While it’s possible that senior military-intelligence officials are VIP Wagner members, that can’t be known for sure until the FSB’s investigation concludes, which might even determine that there’s truth to this claim whether in whole or in part but that it isn’t evidence of a deeper and more serious plot. In any case, the speculation of those Ukrainian-backed and US figures like Khodorkovsky and Pence respectively should be seen as meddling since they don’t have innocent intentions in talking about this.
They only want to manipulate the public’s perceptions of President Putin and the state of affairs in Russia, which their MSM allies like CNN are helping them do by maximally amplifying their messages. Likewise, those in the AMC who spew anti-Russian conspiracy theories about Prigozhin’s failed coup attempt such as suggesting that President Putin was in on it and thus colluded to have his own country’s pilots shot down by Wagner are also scheming to manipulate the public, albeit a different segment.
Taken together, they represent complementary efforts of the same destabilization operation that’s actively underway in the aftermath of last weekend’s events, which aims to manipulate perceptions among the MSM’s and AMC’s audiences alike about what recently took place. These weaponized conspiracy theories are being deployed to discredit President Putin, his government, and the Russian security services in the minds of their targets, and those who launder them are these three’s enemies.
While the global economy relies on many commodities, none come close to the massive scale of the crude oil market.
Besides being the primary energy source for transportation, oil is a key raw material for numerous other industries like plastics, fertilizers, cosmetics, and medicine. As a result, the global physical oil market is astronomical in size and has a significant economic and geopolitical influence, with a few countries dominating global oil production.
In the infographic below, Visual Capitalists’ Govind Bhutada and Sam Parkerput crude oil’s market size into perspective by comparing it to the 10 largest metal markets combined. To calculate market sizes, we used the latest price multiplied by global production in 2022, based on data from TradingEconomics and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Note: This analysis focuses on raw and physical materials, excluding derivative markets and alloy materials like steel.
How Big Is the Oil Market?
In 2022, the world produced an average of 80.75 million barrels of oil per day (including condensates). That puts annual crude oil production at around 29.5 billion barrels, with the market size exceeding $2 trillion at current prices.
That figure dwarfs the combined size of the 10 largest metal markets:
Based on prices as of June 7, 2023.
The combined market size of the top 10 metal markets amounts to $967 billion, less than half that of the oil market. In fact, even if we added all the remaining smaller raw metal markets, the oil market would still be far bigger.
This also reflects the massive scale of global oil consumption annually, with the resource having a ubiquitous presence in our daily lives.
The Big Picture
While the oil market towers over metal markets, it’s important to recognize that this doesn’t downplay the importance of these commodities.
Metals form a critical building block of the global economy, playing a key role in infrastructure, energy technologies, and more. Meanwhile, precious metals like gold and silver serve as important stores of value.
As the world shifts towards a more sustainable future and away from fossil fuels, it’ll be interesting to see how the markets for oil and other commodities evolve.
Neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings was convinced everything about consciousness, including profound near-death experiences (NDEs), could be explained by science and was rooted in the brain—until he had an NDE of his own.
Cummings was a career-oriented man who was doing well in his job as a doctor and as an assistant professor atBostonUniversitySchoolofMedicineDeptof Anatomyand Neurobiology.
“At the time [it] was really enjoyable to live for that kind of stuff in that world,” said Cummings in a video posted on the International Association for Near-Death Studies.
A trip to Costa Rica for his wife’s 50th birthday changed his outlook completely. While there, he decided to go whitewater rafting with his wife and son.
Cummings was always afraid of the water, though not sure why. He often practiced holding his breath because he felt that one day it would come in handy.
“I used to get really bored in school and one of the things I would do is I would hold my breath. See how long I could hold my breath and then try to beat that record. And I always thought someday I’m going to need this,” recalled Cummings.
“I always found excuses to not be in the water, because I just always felt like I was going to drown,” said Cummings.
He came close that day in Costa Rica when the raft he and his family were in flipped. He bounced along in the water for a while, until he was pulled under by the current.
“There was a point where I was drowning. And I knew it,” said Cummings.
He was surprised at how calm he felt in the face of death.
“I thought about the autopsies I’d done on people who had drowned. This is supposed to be a very peaceful way to die. And then I’m thinking well, ‘What the heck is taking so long?’”
At the bottom of the river, Cummings experienced something neuroscience probably would have called a hallucination.
“At that point, everything stopped and I was next to this huge boulder and all the bubbles had stopped. And I moved my hand through the bubbles and they all just sort of moved around my hand in this very weird way. And then there was this bright light,” he said.
Then he felt “an incredible feeling of love.” He heard a voice speak to him.
“I got really emotional not because it’s upsetting but because I’m in that moment of that beauty. And I knew my family was going to be okay. And the voice said “they don’t need you, they’re going to be fine,’” he recalled.
Somehow, he also knew that his wife and son had already been pulled out of the water. They really were alright.
Then his science brain entered the conversation.
“You’re just hypoxic. Hold your breath. You have to beat your record. And at that point, the light just sort of vanished,” he said.
Cummings was pulled out of the water and slowly he told himself to relax so that he could regain his breath. That night at their hotel, Cummings, who has always been vigilant of his heart rate, checked his Apple watch and found that while underwater, his heart had stopped.
“I remember looking at my Apple watch because I’m kind of a health freak and I’m kind of obsessed with my heart rate. I looked at my Apple Watch and I had eight minutes of unrecorded heart rate in that time period,” said Cummings.
Electronic devices are not 100 percent accurate and they record heartbeats at intervals, but Cummings believes that in those eight minutes, there was a period when he had no heartbeat.
After the near-death experience, Cummings found that his intensive academic life was not what he wanted anymore.
“I became very uncomfortable with my career pursuit. Those things weren’t important to me anymore. I say I’ve written a couple of very bad novels. And I couldn’t identify with that any of those things,” said Cummings.
Sensing that he wasn’t suited for his life in Boston anymore, he and his family moved back to Maine, where he grew up.
The experience turned Cummings into a more thoughtful doctor. As a pathologist, he spoke to many family members of the deceased.
“The number one question I’ve always been asked is ‘Did they suffer?’ And as a physician, you always say ‘No, of course not.’ But I always felt like a liar. Because I don’t know,” said Cummings.
And after his near-death experience, he knew what it was like to die.
“I wish I could talk to those people again and say, look, this is beautiful. Even under these horrible circumstances, but horrible circumstance is a second. The process after that is incredible. And there’s nothing to worry about,” shared Cummings.
In medicine, death is the end. But Cummings now felt that death was not something to avoid talking about.
“We’ve made it so sterile and kept behind this curtain. That we don’t get a chance to really experience and celebrate the transformation that is happening,” he said.
After the incident, Cummings shared that it not only changed his perspective on his job, it “really helped me come to grips with who I am as a husband and a father, a human place on the planet.”
Cummings’ change after his near-death experience is not a solitary one.
Dr. Bruce Greyson has done extensive research on near-death experiences (NDEs) and his observations told him that these experiences often change the person who changed them for the better.
“Dr. Greyson has followed up on cases over the course of decades and found that in about 95 percent of the cases, it remains as though the NDE just happened,” Mr. Greyson told The Epoch Times in 2015.
“In one case, a man was an alcoholic and he was abusive toward his wife. After an NDE, he became an all-around good Samaritan. He didn’t drink, he was good to his wife, he helped others. For example, he rushed to New Orleans to join efforts following Hurricane Katrina,” described Dr. Greyson.
