Poised,
Charles Hugh Smith asks,"Could America Have a French-Style Revolution?" (Charles draws on Peter Turchin's analysis that an excess of political elites over political-elite positions in society leads to the formation of alternative-elite groups which contest the status-quo elites. This would be precipitated by economic/political shocks.)
In the past, I reckoned the odds of America experiencing a revolution akin to France 1789 were low due to the different political, economic and cultural conditions present then and now, but recently I've considered the possibility that America's extremes of wealth, income and power inequality are a powder keg awaiting ignition. By French-Style Revolution I don't mean a violent overthrow of the ruling elite as much as a tumultuous reset of how resources and power are distributed. Systems become vulnerable to such resets when they become highly asymmetrical in how they distribute resources and power, and rigid in their defense of the extreme inequality of the distribution.
The fundamental source of democracy's stability is the dynamic competition of various interests and the dynamic equilibrium of the three branches of the state each balancing the others by restraining the dominance of any one branch or interest.
But extremes of inequality undermine this stability, as the wealthiest elites now bring such a preponderance of wealth to bear that each of the three branches of the state are now beholden to the interests of the few, leaving little recourse to the many...
..The power elite are incapable of demanding sacrifices of the wealthy as the prime directive of the status quo is to defend the current asymmetry of wealth and power. This undermines the collective consensus needed to take the collective action needed to reset the system.
In any political revolution the bottom 90% has to provide most of the suffering and blood. The competing elite factions need to "offer" the rest of us a more equitable arrangement to gain our consent and cooperative efforts.
Many Americans Are Unable to Afford Food, Even as Unemployment Remains LowSuperCore CPI Jumps Back Above 4.00%; Used-Cars & Shelter Dominate Price-Rises
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/core-cpi-hotter-expected-used-car-price-rise-offsets-energy-drop
Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt
The narrow coastal strip has been under a full Israeli blockade since the start of the conflict more than two months ago and the border with Egypt is the only other way out. It has taken the USA a long time to become as dissipated economically as it has done, since being the world's factory from the depression through the Vietnam years.
The Honest Sorcerer looks at "Inflation" here, which means "retail price inflation" in US government statistics, which are manipulated to look-less-bad, as we know.
Inflation - A Misnomer , How you get poorer and poorer in an economy "doing great" https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/inflation-a-misnomer The money supply keeps growing, based upon exponentially growing debt as the basis of money, and that would be "inflationary" if the quantity of goods and services remained the same. However, the supply of many goods and of the stocks to make those goods are declining, which causes a price inflation of decreased supply, as well.
My comment:
"Inflation" is also "where you measure it". Consumer-statistics measure "inflation" as a basket of goods and services at street level, which means that the massive asset-price-inflation for QE and subsequent interventions was not measured as "inflation".
This asset-price-inflation has been a payoff for continued participation of the top 5-10% of global wealth which invests in financial assets. This has kept this cohort onboard with the western dollar/eurodollar financial system, getting real-returns-on-investments. Since the real-economy has not expanded, losses of actual-wealth to the bottom 90% have resulted, and have been pushed to where the populations have had the least political power.
What is often missed is that the inflection point for diveregence of physical economy and nominal "wealth" took place in 1980-1981 when Fed Chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates to over 20% to support the "value" (price, really) of the $US, at the cost of the real US economy, which was crushed. Also, the return-on-investment support for the $US had to keep being extracted from the productive economy. Volcker was privately targeting wages of construction workers as his personal metric, as revealed at private meetings. He "crushed" those wages.
There is no more crushing-of-wages which can be done to support rent-extraction to "investors", which has supported the price of the $US for so long, while bleeding the real productive US economy, and funding wars to maintain $US system dominance (maintaining global oil and other markets in $US).
At the point where the $US is no longer price-supported by global investors, it will need to be value-supported by American trade goods and services, which include oil, natural gas, airplanes, wheat, corn and soybeans. This will involve massive debt-default, perhaps by devaluing the $US against gold, and certainly through the crash of asset-prices.
"Smart money" has been repositioning out of risk-assets and into real-estate and other real assets since about 2016, by my personal estimation. That seemed more pervasive after 2018, including rural housing after that. These are large global firms buying up property.
The really big systemic-risk question is that of enforcement of ownership-rights in the future, after a systemic collapse/reset. Will global corporate landowners be forced to sell to locals?
Will all such corporate assets be taken over by governments, with some kind of payout to pensioners and pension-funds to maintain social stability? Will the funding for wars finally decrease, or will it consume everything?
We are parties to these moves of society, not just observers, but how might we meaningfully and constructively engage in these solutions to the problems at hand?
"Inflation" is also "where you measure it". Consumer-statistics measure "inflation" as a basket of goods and services at street level, which means that the massive asset-price-inflation for QE and subsequent interventions was not measured as "inflation".
This asset-price-inflation has been a payoff for continued participation of the top 5-10% of global wealth which invests in financial assets. This has kept this cohort onboard with the western dollar/eurodollar financial system, getting real-returns-on-investments. Since the real-economy has not expanded, losses of actual-wealth to the bottom 90% have resulted, and have been pushed to where the populations have had the least political power.
What is often missed is that the inflection point for diveregence of physical economy and nominal "wealth" took place in 1980-1981 when Fed Chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates to over 20% to support the "value" (price, really) of the $US, at the cost of the real US economy, which was crushed. Also, the return-on-investment support for the $US had to keep being extracted from the productive economy. Volcker was privately targeting wages of construction workers as his personal metric, as revealed at private meetings. He "crushed" those wages.
There is no more crushing-of-wages which can be done to support rent-extraction to "investors", which has supported the price of the $US for so long, while bleeding the real productive US economy, and funding wars to maintain $US system dominance (maintaining global oil and other markets in $US).
At the point where the $US is no longer price-supported by global investors, it will need to be value-supported by American trade goods and services, which include oil, natural gas, airplanes, wheat, corn and soybeans. This will involve massive debt-default, perhaps by devaluing the $US against gold, and certainly through the crash of asset-prices.
"Smart money" has been repositioning out of risk-assets and into real-estate and other real assets since about 2016, by my personal estimation. That seemed more pervasive after 2018, including rural housing after that. These are large global firms buying up property.
The really big systemic-risk question is that of enforcement of ownership-rights in the future, after a systemic collapse/reset. Will global corporate landowners be forced to sell to locals?
Will all such corporate assets be taken over by governments, with some kind of payout to pensioners and pension-funds to maintain social stability? Will the funding for wars finally decrease, or will it consume everything?
We are parties to these moves of society, not just observers, but how might we meaningfully and constructively engage in these solutions to the problems at hand?
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge, or increasingly food, in the densely populated enclave, with around 18,000 people already killed and conflict intensifying.
Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as bombardment, describing desperate attacks on aid trucks and sky high prices.
Does Netanyahu need an exit strategy this month? Are Israeli military losses and public opinion getting to the flash-point for Bibi? Is Bibi getting replaced by Israeli elites?
In a sudden about-face, President Biden in a speech on Tuesday began aggressively criticizing Israel and the Netanyahu government for the first time since the Oct.7 Hamas terror attacks. Calling the Israeli prime minister a "good friend" - Biden said "I believe he has to change" as the government in Israel and the ongoing military campaign which has killed many is "making it very difficult for the world."
“This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” Biden said, adding that the Israeli government “doesn’t want a two-state solution.”
A Washington Post journalist came across the remnants of three 155-millimeter artillery shells near the border. Production codes found on the shells indicate that they were made by ammunition depots in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-made-munitions-used-israels-white-phosphorous-attacks-lebanon
These critical remarks on what the United States and its NATO allies have considered to be technological wonder weapons have to be put in the context of what the Russians themselves are now deploying on the battlefield. The Russian soldiers appear to be delighted with the hardware they are receiving from their military industrial complex, both state factories and entrepreneurial firms such as the producers of the now celebrated tank-killing Lancets. Most important, the Russian factories are in daily contact with the soldiers in the field to discuss what improvements should be made and are sending new upgrades straight to the field where their own repair and reconditioning teams make the changeovers under field conditions.
Republican Senators Unswayed As Zelensky Pleads Case On Capitol Hill: "If We Lose, Putin Wins"
Israel has been bluffing about attacking Beirut if Lebanon doesn't make Hezbollah back off (which it can't).
John Helmer , ISRAEL’S LITANI ULTIMATUM – RUSSIAN REACTION IS THAT IT’S BLUFF
Israel now seeks to draw the US into that Lebanese-border conflict zone.
Israel Open To Truce Deal With Hezbollah, Wants US Troops Deployed As Peacekeepers Gilbert Doctorow updates the Russian Informed Media and Governmental views of the Ukraine war. This jumps out as important:
The soldiers remarked that the U.S. built Bradley is poorly suited to its present use in Ukraine. It might be fine perhaps for the desert, where it saw action in Iraq, but it does not allow for the clearances of a crew wearing bulky winter dress. They have little room inside and they have difficulty getting in and out of the hatches. Moreover, the hatches are hydraulically operated, meaning that if you strike the electronics the crew is trapped in what quickly becomes an incinerator. The updates to modernize the Bradley, the active defense elements that were installed after the initial production runs, were deemed to be unimpressive and inadequate to the challenges of today’s kamikaze drones. These critical remarks on what the United States and its NATO allies have considered to be technological wonder weapons have to be put in the context of what the Russians themselves are now deploying on the battlefield. The Russian soldiers appear to be delighted with the hardware they are receiving from their military industrial complex, both state factories and entrepreneurial firms such as the producers of the now celebrated tank-killing Lancets. Most important, the Russian factories are in daily contact with the soldiers in the field to discuss what improvements should be made and are sending new upgrades straight to the field where their own repair and reconditioning teams make the changeovers under field conditions.
What the Republicans want fixed: I Put My Camera On A Pole And Filmed The Border Situation Up High In Lukeville, Arizona—Apocalyptic
It's end of the world stuff down here , Jeff Rainforth The Ethical Skeptic looks at US excess mortality from various causes from 2018 to the present, establishing baseline, trends and evaluating contributing factors. There is an extreme rise in cardiac and cancer excess-mortality in the under-55 age group, staggering 11 to 19-Sigma statistical events. Case incidence regression curves point to mid March 2021 as the origination date for these changes, when the COVID mRNA vaccines were rolling out to the younger age cohorts. This is despite many deaths being buried in an "other" non-specific category which has ballooned in usage since then. There are suddenly a lot of deaths of unspecified cause in younger Americans.
(Optical mouse inventor) Steve Kirsch , Medicare death data proves the COVID vaccines are killing people. No more doubts. The debate is over.
Celia Farber , Rome Public Prosecutor Investigates Former Italian Health Minister For HOMICIDE After Damning Covid Vaxx Emails Surface: "The Investigations Are For Murder, Serious Bodily Harm, And More...
"…Because Speranza and Magrini Evidently Gave Instructions To The Local Health Authorities To Conceal The Deaths And Serious Side Effects That Occurred Immediately After The Vaccinations Began…"The Brazilian Ministry of Health has added the COVID-19 vaccine to the country’s mandatory vaccination schedule for children 6 months to 5 years old, and is considering establishing school vaccination centers with strict reporting requirements.
Three children and their parents rapidly came down with multiple health problems — including sleep difficulties, headaches, stomach pain and skin rashes — when they stayed at a summer home 125 meters away from a cell tower with multiple 5G antennas, according to a new peer-reviewed case study.
Immediately after a 5G tower was erected across the street from his apartment building, a previously healthy 49-year-old Swedish man developed concerning cardiac symptoms and other issues that dissipated when he took refuge in an apartment without 5G, according to a new case study published in the Journal of Community Medicine & Public Health.
Meryl Nass MD, I am home after 27 days. I met and briefed parliamentarians from 5 countries and about a dozen Congressmembers. House hearing on WHO Wednesday. All the lawmakers were interested in what the WHO was up to, while few knew the details--since there has been an MSM blackout on the subject. DoorToFreedom.org filled them in.
Pierre Kory MD , UK Parliament Testimony Videos From MP Andrew Bridgen's Historic Meeting - Martin, Kory, Malone
Numerous obstacles were put into place by the UK gov't to disrupt the meeting and mitigate our ability to get the most important message of our lifetime out. They did not succeed.Recommended by Dr. Nass: Why Does the WHO Make False Claims Regarding Proposals to Seize States’ Sovereignty?
For the first time, a team of Princeton physicists has been able to link together individual molecules into special states that are quantum mechanically “entangled.” In these bizarre states, the molecules remain correlated with each other—and can interact simultaneously—even if they are miles apart, or indeed, even if they occupy opposite ends of the universe. This research was published in the journal Science...
..The ability of quantum devices to outperform classical ones is known as “quantum advantage.” And at the core of quantum advantage are the principles of superposition and quantum entanglement. While a classical computer bit can assume the value of either 0 or 1, quantum bits, called qubits, can simultaneously be in a superposition of 0 and 1. The latter concept, entanglement, is a major cornerstone of quantum mechanics, and occurs when two particles become inextricably linked with each other so that this link persists, even if one particle is light years away from the other particle. It is the phenomenon that Albert Einstein, who at first questioned its validity, described as “spooky action at a distance.” Since then, physicists have demonstrated that entanglement is, in fact, an accurate description of the physical world and how reality is structured.
“Quantum entanglement is a fundamental concept,” said Cheuk, “but it is also the key ingredient that bestows quantum advantage.”
Linked (pictured with cherry tomatoes in hand, greens and garlic in the garden)
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