Living in Two Worlds: Capitalism Pretends All Is Well While the World Is Burning

Sometimes I half-joke with friends about our living in the apocalypse. My use of that word stems not from its biblical usage, but from its root in the Greek word apokálypsis which means, literally, “uncovering, disclosure, revelation.”

The veils between these co-existing realities are thinning daily for everyone. Sometimes they are being torn apart. Other times, when people are not able or willing to acknowledge these hard truths, they themselves are being torn apart by this schism.

Carrying this knowledge, how, then, does one live life on a daily basis — going to work as usual, taking children to summer camp, washing clothes, and making meals?

I have found a variety of ongoing actions helpful for creating a milieu with a spiritual atmosphere of acceptance. After years of wrestling with anger, despair, depression and angst stemming from the global crisis, my weekly menu of self-care includes time outside every day in nature, at least one full day a week in the mountains, a daily meditation practice, regular service work for both humans and the planet, and maintaining a small yet tight inner circle of trusted friends with whom I share my feelings about what is happening to the planet.

via truthout Living in Two Worlds: Capitalism Pretends All Is Well While the World Is Burning

Del Monte Closes 4 Factories, Fires Workers Despite Getting $8M from Trump Tax Cuts

While the company itself is headquartered in Singapore, its U.S. subsidiary is based in California. Financial data compiled by MacroTrends shows that U.S.-based Fresh Del Monte Produce paid just $16.1 million in income taxes in 2018, compared to $24.9 million in 2017 — before President Trump’s corporate tax cuts went into effect. This means that the produce company is laying off hundreds of workers despite saving roughly $8.8 million in income taxes thanks to the legislation.

Earlier this week, U.S. Steel, which earned $728 million more in after-tax income thanks to the Trump tax cuts, also announced layoffs of several hundred workers at its Ecorse, Michigan plant. Other major companies that benefited from the Trump tax cuts yet went on to fire workers anyway include Verizon, Union Pacific, and Lowe’s, among others.

The office of Senator Amy Kloubuchar (D-Minnesota) did not immediately return Grit Post‘s request for comment about the closure of the Minnesota plant.

via Gritpost Del Monte Closes 4 Factories, Fires Workers Despite Getting $8M from Trump Tax Cuts

AMERIKA: Is the U.S. Becoming a Third World Nation? – By Charles Hugh Smith | RIELPOLITIK

….key dynamics in Third World/Failing States:

1. The status quo protects insiders at the expense of everyone else.
2. There is no real accountability; failure has no consequences, bureaucrats are never fired for incompetence, reforms are watered down or neutered by institutional sclerosis.
3. Pay-to-play is the most cost-effective way to influence policy or evade consequences.
4. The status quo is incapable of differentiating between complexity that serves the legitimate purposes of transparency and accountability and complexity that serves no purpose beyond guaranteeing insiders’ paper-shuffling jobs. As a consequence, complexity that adds no value chokes the economy and the government.
5. There are two sets of laws: one for insiders and the super-wealthy, and another harsher set for everyone else.
6. The super-wealthy fear nothing because the system functions to serve their interests.
7. The super-wealthy and state insiders control the media’s narratives and the machinery of governance to serve their interests. Reforms are in name only; the faces of elected officials change but nothing changes structurally.
8. Insiders, well-paid pundits and the technocrats serving the corporate and state elites believe the status quo is just fine because they’re doing fine; they are blind to the soaring inequality, systemic corruption, stupendous waste and the impossibility of real reform.

via AMERIKA: Is the U.S. Becoming a Third World Nation? – By Charles Hugh Smith | RIELPOLITIK

Climate change: Thousands of gray whales dying, no place to rot

The whales that have washed up this year are emaciated, and scientists have also noted that whales migrating north are showing up in places they wouldn’t normally venture, such as the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, or San Francisco Bay. That leads researchers to wonder if the gigantic mammals are veering off course in a desperate bid to find food far south of where they usually fatten up in the late summer months.

The dead whale Rivera and Worwag have on their beach had a stomach full of eel grass, far from its normal diet. A necropsy showed the adult male starved to death.

“This whale was desperation feeding,” said Rivera. “It’s like a starving human eating grass to stay alive. It just can’t.”

via usatoday Climate change: Thousands of gray whales dying, no place to rot

NASA Images Show Just How Much Carbon Monoxide Is Coming Off The Burning Amazon

This animation of the new data shows carbon monoxide rising into the atmosphere, indicated by colours green, yellow, and dark red to demonstrate the concentration of the gas by parts per billion by volume (ppvb).

Concern for the world’s largest rainforest arose as a record number of wildfires blazed through the Amazon this year – a total of 72,843 incidents, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The fires were reportedly caused by humans. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged the development of the rainforest for mining, logging, and farming.

via sciencealert NASA Images Show Just How Much Carbon Monoxide Is Coming Off The Burning Amazon

Jeffrey Epstein: “He could buy anything, including his own death” | Mining Awareness +

Edwards says he plans to continue to represent the victims who still seek justice.

“In fact, his many co-conspirators who may have been fearful to speak out against him have been relieved of that excuse; this is their last chance to speak up.”

Epstein’s death raises the prospect of another courtroom drama.

If any of Epstein’s victims have a right to his vast wealth — because of outstanding civil lawsuits, for example — they can take their claim to court, said John Pankauski, a West Palm Beach probate and trust attorney.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, or anyone else for that matter who he owes money to, for example,” Pankauski said.

via Jeffrey Epstein: “He could buy anything, including his own death” | Mining Awareness +

How the Amazon’s fires, deforestation affect the U.S. Midwest

An invisible atmospheric river that carries water vapor from the rainforest’s billions of trees helps to hydrate the land, as well as provide moisture across the South American continent. However, the continued loss of vegetation in the Amazon could have a cumulative effect, not only in contributing to climate change but also affecting rainfall patterns around the globe, including the U.S. Midwest, threatening food production and destabilizing ecosystems, according to the experts.

“The Amazon is definitely a weather engine,” said Meg Symington, the World Wildlife Fund’s senior director for the Amazon in the United States.

“It’s well-known that the weather patterns affect rainfall in the breadbasket of South America,” she added, “but there’s also evidence that it affects the breadbasket that is the middle of the U.S.”

via nbcnews How the Amazon’s fires, deforestation affect the U.S. Midwest

This is why the Earth is drying out.. Loss of trees leads to loss of the global atmospheric river that trees create. Nothing else can do this.

Clear cutting entire forests also decimates this atmospheric river.

These billions of trees act to moderate the weather, moderate rainfall, moderate temperature swings, moderate droughts, inhibit global warming, inhibit negative climate changes, etc..

Trump cites law to justify his mandate that companies to leave China, but he’s absolutely wrong

Case open, actually, The IEEPA clearly states it must be “an extraordinary threat,” and that the president must “declare a national emergency” to be granted such authority. It’s ludicrous to think that disagreements with our trading partners over tariffs fall under this law.

SEC. 201. This title may be cited as the “International Emergency Economic Powers Act”.

SITUATIONS IN WHICH AUTHORITIES MAY BE EXERCISED

SEC. 202. (a) Any authority granted to the President by section 203 may be exercised to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.

(b) The authorities granted to the President by section 203 may only be exercised to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared for pur- poses of this title and may not be exercised for any other purpose. Any exercise of such authorities to deal with any new threat shall be based on a new declaration of national emergency which must be with respect to such threat.

(Emphasis added)

And as expected, not a word from the GOP with regards to Trump’s latest authoritarian power grab.  Only crickets interrupt the Republican silence that enables this “president.”

Joe Walsh✔@WalshFreedom
I’m going to retweet this every single day:

If Barack Obama had “hereby ordered” private companies to do anything, every Republican & Conservative in America would have completely lost their shit.

via Daily Kos Trump cites law to justify his mandate that companies to leave China, but he’s absolutely wrong

Just wondering when the ‘Great Flood’ of US companies is going to exit China, post haste?

Who will be the first to leave? Who will be the last?

Will they all leave in the next 5 minutes, or will this take a couple hours at most?

Don’t hold your breath..

Government by tantrum: Trump threatens to declare another emergency to expand his power

The Emergency Economic Powers Act has been invoked more than two dozen times since it was signed into law, but the reasons that it has been invoked are critical. The names of the countries that have been at the pointy end of this act—North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya—have been sanctioned at a point when they were engaged in acts seen as encouraging terrorism or attacking neighboring countries. The act has also been invoked globally on several occasions to limit trade in specific technologies, particularly those used in cyber-enabled espionage.

However, it has never been used for an occasion in which a the United States couldn’t get its way in a trade deal. And even if it was … this act doesn’t do what Donald Trump seems to believe it does. The Emergency Economic Powers Act was created to restrict the powers of the executive, which had been given carte blanche to lock down assets and restrict trade under the Trading With The Enemy Act that went back to World War I. This wasn’t an act to give the president more power over American companies. It was an act to give him less.

The Emergency Economy Powers Act was created to restrict executive authority only to declared emergencies originated outside the United States. And that authority is limited to blocking or freezing the assets of foreign government or foreign nationals connected to those governments. To make this happen now, Trump would have to declare that China was engaged in some action that created an “unusual and extraordinary threat” which … oh, hell. Of course he would.

via DailyKos Government by tantrum: Trump threatens to declare another emergency to expand his power

The Trump presidency may have just entered its ‘endgame’

[Trump’s] trade policy no longer appears to be self-limiting. In fact, it could be self-reinforcing, where tariffs cause damage and the president tries to “fix” the damage with more tariffs.

It’s also worth considering the possibility that we have gotten too far down the trade-war road for the president to unwind the problems he’s caused. To the extent there are signs of weakness in the domestic economy, they are largely on the producer side. The consumer sector still looks decent. But tariffs and uncertainty over future tariffs have already discouraged businesses from producing and investing. And China has less reason to participate in a de-escalation than they did a year ago, since they can just ride out the next year and hope to be facing a new, less-hostile president. As Jonathan Chait notes, Xi Jinping doesn’t have to worry about reelection like Trump does.

As China has clearly showed the U.S. that it has no intention of “backing down,” what does our experience with Trump thus far tell us about how he will react? Has he ever, ever, acknowledged his policies for the grotesque mistakes they are? No. He habitually, reflexively doubles down on them. Because, just like any sociopathic personality, Barro notes that he is utterly incapable of admitting that he is wrong.

What the president showed us today is he’s prepared to hit the gas as he approaches the cliff. That should make us all worried about the economic outlook — and it should make Republicans very worried about the political outlook.

It’s arguable whether the human and social costs of a severe, global recession are worth getting rid of a cancer like Donald Trump.  But events are occurring now at a pace that that may render that argument purely academic.

via Daily Kos The Trump presidency may have just entered its ‘endgame’

Sociopaths gotta be sociopathic.

Trump Keeps Being Racist To Native Americans And Getting Away With It | HuffPost

In November 2017, Trump repeated his Pocahontas jab at Warren during an event honoring Native veterans, where he stood in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson, the former U.S. president and slave owner who signed the Indian Removal Act that led to the Trail of Tears.

Adrienne Keene, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and assistant professor of American studies and ethnic studies at Brown University, tweeted that every time she hears “Pocahontas” or “Lie-awatha” or “chief” jokes, it’s a reminder of how close to the surface and accessible these stereotypes are.

“These ‘jokes’ show me that most Americans don’t think of Native folks as your neighbors, your professors, your friends, or your fellow citizens,” she said.

Trump has given no indication that he’s listening to Native communities or their concerns when he goes after Warren. To the contrary, he treats “Pocahontas” ― a name he has called Warren at least 18 times on Twitter alone ― as a clever insult.

via Trump Keeps Being Racist To Native Americans And Getting Away With It | HuffPost

Senator Bernie Sanders continued to blast the state of the American healthcare system during the recent Democratic debates, drawing damning comparisons with other nations such as Canada. He has also consistently critized “the incredible corruption and greed” of the pharmaceutical industry, singling out soaring insulin prices to prove his point. Two days before the second debate, the Vermont senator traveled on a bus across the Canadian border with over a dozen U.S. patients where they could puchase insulin at a tenth of the price. He described the current situation as “a national embarrassment”.

So just how flawed is the U.S. healthcare system compared to other countries? There are many ways of approaching that question but comparing per capita healthcare spending in different nations is a good way to start. As our chart (compiled with OECD data) illustrates, U.S. health spending per capita (including public and private spending) is higher than it is anywhere else in the world, and yet, the country lags behind other nations in several aspects such as life expectancy and health insurance coverage.

via • Chart: The U.S. Has the Most Expensive Healthcare System in the World | Statista

It’s Not Just Pork: Trump Is Also Letting Nuclear Plants Regulate Their Own Safety | The New Republic

 

Republicans have been waging a four-decade war on government regulation, starting with the Reagan administration. The complaint, then as now, is that regulations are often excessive and financially punitive, stunting private companies’ growth and putting them at a disadvantage against foreign competition. But most Republicans admit that some regulation is necessary. The White House Council of Economic advisers, a 2017 paper on “The Growth Potential of Deregulation,” acknowledged that “society is better off with regulations that prevent toxic waste dumping, outlaw child labor, and protect endangered species.”

But in many cases, Republicans don’t see why the government itself has to be the regulator. Why should taxpayers pay for federal inspectors to badger businesses when the businesses themselves have an economic incentive not to threaten public health and safety?

Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News
But the record is clear: Industry self-regulation often fails, and a lot of people wind up getting hurt. Buffalo News cartoonist Adam Zyglis illustrated the point (literally) this week in response to the related crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets, which together took 346 lives.* As NPR reported, the U.S. government “had delegated to Boeing much of the testing of its 737 Max jets. Critics say the FAA let the company basically certify its own plane.”

via It’s Not Just Pork: Trump Is Also Letting Nuclear Plants Regulate Their Own Safety | The New Republic

Forced sterilization of 272,000 indigenous women ‘not a crime against humanity’: Public Prosecutor

“A nurse put me on a stretcher and tied my hands and feet,” said Sabina Huillca. “I asked them to bring me my little baby girl but instead they anesthetized me. When I woke up, the doctor was stitching my stomach. I started screaming, I knew I had been sterilized.”

In Peru, during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, 272,000 women and 22,004 men were sterilized between 1996 and 2000 as part of the National Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program. Most of the men and women were indigenous, poor, and living in rural areas. The program’s alleged aim was to eradicate poverty through lower birth rates, but evidence has emerged over the years that it was coercive and blatantly violated reproductive rights.

Over 2,000 women have testified that medical practitioners performed the procedures against their will. In many cases, the women did not speak enough Spanish to understand what they were consenting to and in some cases, providers did not even go through the motions of obtaining informed consent. Some women have shared stories of providers offering them money to have the procedure or intimidating them with threats or violence.   Some women died due to complications and other women still suffer serious health complications today.

via intercontinentalcry Forced sterilization of 272,000 indigenous women ‘not a crime against humanity’: Public Prosecutor

Russia’s nuclear Burevestnik missile to become part of Dead Hand doomsday system

The military expert suggests that Burevestnik is outfitted with solid propellant rocket engines. The basic propulsion unit is replaced with an air-jet engine combined with a nuclear reactor.

The Perimeter system, known as the “Dead Hand” was put in operation in the USSR in 1985. In a nutshell, the system ensures the automatic launch of nuclear missiles in case of a nuclear attack against the country, even if there is no one left to be able to give such an order.

via pravdareport Russia’s nuclear Burevestnik missile to become part of Dead Hand doomsday system

Fire Apocalypse in Siberia: 4.5 million hectares of woods on fire

Forest fires in Siberia have been raging for three months already. They have become a disaster not only of Russian, but of global scale. The fires have already scorched 12 million hectares of land. Apparently, it will be the largest wildfire disaster in the history of Russia.

via pravdareport Fire Apocalypse in Siberia: 4.5 million hectares of woods on fire

Genocide, the British don’t want you to know about – They systematically starved to death over 60 millions of Eastern Indians! | Serbian FBReporter

June 27— During its 190 years of looting and pillaging, the Indian Subcontininent as a whole underwent at least two dozen major famines, which collectively killed millions of Indians throughout the length and breadth of the land. How many millions succumbed to the famines cannot be fully ascertained. However, colonial rulers’ official numbers indicate it could be 60 million deaths. In reality, it could be significantly higher.

British colonial analysts cited droughts as the cause of fallen agricultural production that led to these famines, but that is a lie. British rulers, fighting wars in Europe and elsewhere, and colonizing parts of Africa, were exporting grains from India to keep up their colonial conquests—while famines were raging. People in the famineaffected areas, resembling skeletons covered by skin only, were wandering around, huddling in corners and dying by the millions. The Satanic nature of these British rulers cannot be overstated.

Clive;

Consider the situation which the Victory of Plassey had placed on me. A great Prince was dependent upon my pleasure; an opulent city lay at my mercy; its richest bankers bid against each other for my smiles; I walked through vaults which were thrown open to me alone, piled on either hand with gold and jewels! By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation.

However, Clive was not the only murderous British colonial ruler. The British Empire had sent one butcher after another to India, all of whom engineered looting and its consequent depopulation

via Genocide, the British don’t want you to know about – They systematically starved to death over 60 millions of Eastern Indians! | Serbian FBReporter in English

Burger King Linked to a Whopping Million-Plus Acres of Deforestation | Sierra Club

You might think soy is just a green, harmless alternative for those trying to steer away from meat and toward a plant-based diet. Not exactly: Three-quarters of the world’s soy is used for animal feed, and about half of it is exported from South America—grown on deforested land that has been cleared away for massive soy fields.

“The soybeans connected to deforestation are making their way to the feed of the chickens, pigs, and cows that people all around the world eat,” says Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of the campaign group Mighty Earth. “Almost every international company that sells meat has some connection to deforestation in their supply chain.”

Enter Burger King.

Using satellite and supply-chain mapping tools, Mighty Earth connected the fast-food giant to a whopping million-plus acres of forest-clearing. In its new report, “The Ultimate Mystery Meat,” the global campaign organization identified two of Burger King’s biggest soy suppliers as the culprits: Cargill, the largest privately owned company in the United States, and Bunge, one of the biggest players in South America.

via Burger King Linked to a Whopping Million-Plus Acres of Deforestation | Sierra Club

The mass media is full of stories about the plight of the dying orcas. Everyone is outraged by the fact that killer whale babies are dying and not even reaching adulthood. The public screams to the politicians… DO SOMETHING!

But what is to be done?

Who is at fault for the starving orcas?

Not many people are ready to hear the truth and dive into the true reasons for the mass extinction event that is happening now, but is being covered up.

If you like hearing the short sound bites and emotional sensationalism via the nightly news, but do not wish to go deeper, stop here and leave.

If you have an open mind, an open heart and are ready to hear annoying and/or difficult to hear facts, keep going.

via Salmon Fry Die Off In Water Above 54 Degrees Fahrenheit; Dams Warm Up River Water And Make Water Temperatures Lethal To Salmon Fry – Average River Temperature At Dam Was Above 70 Degrees In 2019 – Multiple Threats To Salmon Runs Identified And Solutions Proposed | A Green Road Journal

After 525 years, it’s time to actually listen to Native Americans | Grist

The U.S. Army, for instance. It’s the Army Corps of Engineers that last month granted Energy Transfer Corporation the permit necessary to start construction near the reservation, despite a petition signed by 150,000 people, and carried—on foot—by young people from the reservation all the way to Washington. That would be the same U.S. Army that—well, google “Wounded Knee.” Or “Custer.” “Washita River.” “Pine Ridge.”

That’s not really ancient history, not any of it. It’s the reason that Native Americans live confined to bleak reservations in vast stretches of the country that no one thought were good for much of anything else. But those areas—ironically enough—now turn out to be essential for the production or transportation of the last great stocks of hydrocarbons, the ones whose combustion scientists tell us will take us over the edge of global warming.

And if former generations of the U.S. Army made it possible to grab land from Native people, then this largely civilian era of the Army Corps is making it easy to pollute and spoil what little we left them.

via After 525 years, it’s time to actually listen to Native Americans | Grist

Salmon Farming Industry Caught Pumping Infectious Blood Into Canadian Bay

According to Campbell, a third of all the wild salmon in British Columbia swim past Brown’s Bay and through the adjoining Campbell River.

After his discovery, he and a friend hopped in their truck and made their way to Lions Gate Fisheries’ processing plant in Tofino Harbor, where they found the exact same scenario, only this time it was rock fish and perch feeding directly on the blood water.

Campbell collected samples of the “blood water” from the outpouring and sent them to a scientist for analysis. They tested positive for numerous pathogens, including intestinal worms and piscine reovirus, which causes extreme inflammation of the heart and muscles of salmon.

A recent study reveals around 80 percent of Atlantic salmon on British Columbia’s coast have the virus. Some scientists have argued that the highly contagious virus can spread from salmon in open-net pen farms to wild salmon that swim past.

via Salmon Farming Industry Caught Pumping Infectious Blood Into Canadian Bay

Trump increases tariffs on Chinese goods hours after slamming Fed chief

President Donald Trump on Friday announced a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods in retaliation for new Chinese tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods.

Trump said in a statement Friday that the White House would be raising tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese products to 30 percent from 25 percent, effective Oct. 1. In addition, the 10 percent tax on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports will be raised to 15 percent on Sept. 1.

“China should not have put new Tariffs on 75 BILLION DOLLARS of United States product (politically motivated!),” Trump tweeted.

via NBC Trump increases tariffs on Chinese goods hours after slamming Fed chief

If this is not a full fledged trade war, then what is?

Sockeye salmon returns plunge in BC, as climate change mainly to blame | Vancouver Sun

In one of the most dramatic shifts, the federal department has adjusted the number of returning Fraser River sockeye expected this year to slightly more than 600,000, down from an earlier projection of nearly five million.

Twelve out of 13 Fraser River chinook populations have been recommended for protection under the Species at Risk Act, while coho returns in Alaska and Skeena River sockeye returns also prompted significant fisheries closures.

Willimont said his groups have identified just 16 chinook in five Fraser River tributaries above the slide.

Just under 5,000 fish were counted in those tributaries in 2014 and those numbers were considered dire at that time, he said.

via Sockeye salmon returns plunge in BC, as climate change mainly to blame | Vancouver Sun

Sockeye salmon returns plunge in BC, as climate change mainly to blame | Vancouver Sun

In one of the most dramatic shifts, the federal department has adjusted the number of returning Fraser River sockeye expected this year to slightly more than 600,000, down from an earlier projection of nearly five million.

Twelve out of 13 Fraser River chinook populations have been recommended for protection under the Species at Risk Act, while coho returns in Alaska and Skeena River sockeye returns also prompted significant fisheries closures.

via Sockeye salmon returns plunge in BC, as climate change mainly to blame | Vancouver Sun

Video: Even three-year-olds are forced to represent themselves in immigration court in US

It seems absolutely absurd, but in several cases in the United States, migrant children as young as three are being called to immigration courts without their parents or even any lawyers.

A short film made by filmmaker Linda Freedman for the nonprofit Immigration Counseling Service recreates the heartbreaking reality of such courtrooms, with children as young as three or four years old being forced to represent themselves on matters like deportation. Unaccompanied: Alone in America (above) is adapted from real court transcripts and conversations with lawyers, immigration service workers and more.

“In recent years the number of unaccompanied immigrant children migrating to the United States has nearly tripled and they have no representation or legal counsel, leaving them vulnerable and alone,” said Freedman.

via scroll Video: Even three-year-olds are forced to represent themselves in immigration court in US

Trump Trade Tweets Send Grain Markets Diving to 42-Year Low – Bloomberg

July soybean futures capped a seventh straight loss as the contract slumped to a record. Soy has been one of the hardest hit commodities by the trade war as China, the world’s top consumer, snubbed American imports.

Swollen stockpiles and the spread of African swine fever are also hanging over the U.S. grain and soy markets, as soggy weather across the U.S. Midwest impedes planting and means some farmers may switch to plant more of the oilseed, which can be sown later than corn.

via Trump Trade Tweets Send Grain Markets Diving to 42-Year Low – Bloomberg

Dear Ones, release the idea that you can only be one thing. It is very constraining!

Many of you have been conditioned to find one career, one job, one partner, one home, in order to be successful.  In many cases you are expected to find these matches as soon as you step out onto your path as a young adult.

You are forever evolving and growing. What was an energetic match to you ten years ago, five years ago, last year, or even last month, may not be a match to you today, particularly in such rapidly shifting energies. The freedom to expand and shift is essential for your self expression as you move forward into the new energies.

This is not to say that your career or partner may not still be matches for you, particularly if they are evolving and growing along with you. The idea is to not rigidly hang onto anything that is no longer a match to you just because you have been conditioned to think you can only do one thing in order to be successful.

So grow. Evolve. Try many things. Don’t be afraid to move into something new if that is where your heart is leading you. You are so much more than one thing!  You are multi-faceted beings and as such may have many different interests and talents. Embrace the continual unfoldment of you. ~Archangel Gabriel through Shelley Young

via Trinity Esoterics | Daily Message ~ Friday August 23, 2019

Dow falls 620 points as U.S.-China trade war escalates

Meanwhile Friday, Trump savaged Powell as an “enemy” who could be worse for the United States than Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“As usual, the Fed did NOTHING! It is incredible that they can ‘speak’ without knowing or asking what I am doing, which will be announced shortly,” Trump tweeted. “We have a very strong dollar and a very weak Fed. I will work ‘brilliantly’ with both, and the U.S. will do great.”

Trump added: “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?” referring to the Chinese leader. Trump misspelled Powell’s name in an initial tweet, which he then deleted.

via nbcnews Dow falls 620 points as U.S.-China trade war escalates

The Terrifying Legacy of David Koch | Common Dreams Views

The main reason they did all this, of course, was to protect and expand their gigantic fortunes — which were and are heavily based on fossil fuels. (In classic libertarian John Galt fashion, they inherited their money from their father, who was a founding member of the John Birch Society, and made most of their additional money paying other people to dig up natural resources they neither created nor found.) As Jane Mayer writes in a review of Kochland:

Leonard also quotes Philip Ellender, Koch Industries’ top lobbyist, as claiming, in 2014, that the Earth had gotten cooler in the previous eighteen years. In fact, according to NASA, eighteen of the nineteen hottest years on record have occurred in the past two decades. Yet the Koch machine bought its way into Congress and turned climate-change denial into an unchallengeable Republican talking point. Meanwhile, after the cap-and-trade bill died, the planet continued heating, and the Kochs’ net worth doubled. [The New Yorker]

One underrated part of extreme inequality is how it warps the public discourse. In this case, two ultra-rich men with a bottom line to protect were able to spend so much on propaganda, campaign donations, university donations, and so on that they turned the brains in one of two American political parties to rancid tapioca. A nation with an egalitarian income distribution is one in which regular people have a much greater freedom to think.

via The Terrifying Legacy of David Koch | Common Dreams Views

I am a disloyal Jew.

I am not loyal to a political party.
Nor will I be loyal to dictators and mad kings.
I am not loyal to walls or cages.
I am not loyal to taunts or tweets.
I am not loyal to hatred, to Jew-baiting, to the gloating connivings of white supremacy.

I am a disloyal Jew.
I am not loyal to any foreign power.
Nor to abuse of power at home.
I am not loyal to a legacy of conquest, erasure and exploitation
I am not loyal to stories that tell me whom I should hate.

I am a loyal Jew.
I am loyal to the inconveniences of kindness.
I am loyal to the dream of justice.
I am loyal to this suffering Earth
And to all life.
I am not loyal to any founding fathers.
But I am loyal to the children who will come
And to the quality of world we leave them.
I am not loyal to what America has become.
But to what America could be.
I am loyal to Emma Lazarus. To huddled masses.
To freedom and welcome,
Holiness, hope and love.

via Poem: Oath of Disloyalty | Jewish Journal

Honesty | The Creator Writings

Another gentle reminder from The Universe; be honest!  Even though your society has been deemed (and even been accepting of dishonesty on certain levels) as okay, this is about to change.  The further along into the shift your world goes, the more transparent things will become.  This is a necessary step your entire Earth plane must take!  Soon, honesty and integrity will be the only way to function.  Allowing yourself to embrace and understand this on all levels now will help move you on your journey to being whole and happy.  Once dishonesty is released, new space you never knew existed will open in your being to be filled with the Unconditional Love of The Universe. ~ Creator

via Honesty | The Creator Writings

Dark Money: Jane Mayer on How the Koch Bros. & Billionaire Allies Funded the Rise of the Far Right | Democracy Now!

Democrats and Republicans are expected to spend about $1 billion getting their 2016 nominee elected. There’s a third group that will spend almost as much. It’s not a political party, and it doesn’t have any candidates. It’s the right-wing political network backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David Koch, expected to spend nearly $900 million in 2016. The Kochs’ 2016 plans come as part of an effort to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative candidates and causes over the last four decades. The story of the Koch brothers and an allied group of billionaire donors is told in a new book by New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.” Mayer traces how the Kochs and other billionaires have leveraged their business empires to shape the political system in the mold of their right-wing agenda.

Transcript
But then you also say that that very month there was a secret meeting that was convened by the Kochs of billionaires and multimillionaires with a completely different agenda. If you could talk about that?

JANE MAYER: Yeah, well, I’m glad you ask, because the book is not just about the Kochs. And the Kochs, on their own, probably would not be able to have the kind of influence they have. But what they’ve done is kind of a magic trick. They’ve attracted around them—they’ve purposefully built what they call an unprecedented network—it’s a pipeline, they talk about it, too—where they’ve gathered about 400 other extraordinarily wealthy conservatives with them to create a kind of a billionaire caucus almost. And that’s the group that met, just as Obama was being inaugurated. Soon after that, they met to figure out: How can we obstruct this? They regarded it as a catastrophe that Obama had been elected, and they wanted to see if they could stop change from taking place in the country and keep the order the way it had been for them during the Bush years, and maybe even push it further to the right.

So this is not—it’s an organization that I think people need to understand is not just about elections. They’ve been playing a long game that started 40 years ago, when Charles Koch really got involved in politics in the beginning. And they wanted to change not just who rules the country, but how the country thinks. They’re very antigovernment. They are—and they have pushed this kind of antigovernment line for 40 years through many different channels. And it’s kind of a war of ideas as much as anything else.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, you also talk about the secrecy with which they operate. You quote Fred Koch, the family patriarch, as saying, “The whale that spouts is the one that gets harpooned.”

JANE MAYER: Yes. And so—and I’ve talked to—many operatives who have worked for the Kochs are interviewed in this book. And one of them told me, they’re not just under the radar, they are underground. And they, for many years, just were almost invisible. They used to—the Kochs, themselves, used to call Koch Industries the biggest company that you’ve never heard of. It’s the second-largest private company in America. It has $115 billion of business a year. And most people didn’t know what it was. Many Americans use their products, they don’t realize—Dixie cups, Stainmaster carpet, Lycra, Georgia-Pacific lumber, there’s Quilted Northern toilet paper. There are so many products that they’ve flooded the American market with, yet most people don’t realize that that is coming from these two brothers who own most of the company and are pouring the money into far-right-wing politics.

via Dark Money: Jane Mayer on How the Koch Bros. & Billionaire Allies Funded the Rise of the Far Right | Democracy Now!

Trump flips out on NBC reporter for pointing out his stupidity

After whining that President Obama enjoyed the “benefit” of 0 percent interest rates and two payroll tax cuts (you know, because his predecessor had left him with a smoldering crater where the economy used to be), Trump lit into NBC’s Peter Alexander for pointing out Trump’s glaring hypocrisy with regard to Joe Biden. Noting that Trump had slammed Biden over his perceived gaffes, Alexander pointed out that Trump “said that the mass shooting happened in Toledo, when it happened in Dayton.”

He might as well have dumped an Igloo cooler full of bullet ants into Trump’s boxers.

Trump’s less-than-measured response?

“This guy is the most biased reporter, NBC. You know I made a lot of money for NBC with The Apprentice, and I used to like them, but they are the most biased. Peter is such a biased … he should be able to ask a question, same question, in a better way. You are so obviously biased, and that’s why the public has no confidence in the media.”

Then, after claiming, without any reference to anything resembling consensus reality, that “Joe Biden doesn’t have it. Let me just tell you about Joe Biden. Joe Biden doesn’t have it,” Trump tore into The New York Times, claiming the 168-year-old newspaper exists only because of him:

“Well, I think The New York Times now has totally lost credibility. They’ve given up on the Russian collusion delusion, and now what they’re doing is they’re trying the racist deal, and that’s not going to work because I am the least racist person ever to serve in office, okay? I am the least racist person. But The New York Times, they’re trying everything they can. It is a totally dishonest newspaper, it’s a paper that really has lost tremendous credibility.”

via Daily Kos Trump flips out on NBC reporter for pointing out his stupidity

Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times after huge pro-Trump buy

Facebook has banned The Epoch Times, a conservative news outlet that spent more money on pro-Trump Facebook advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign, from any future advertising on the platform.

The decision follows an NBC News report that The Epoch Times had shifted its spending on Facebook in the last month, seemingly in an effort to obfuscate its connection to some $2 million worth of ads that promoted the president and conspiracy theories about his political enemies.

“Over the past year we removed accounts associated with the Epoch Times for violating our ad policies, including trying to get around our review systems,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We acted on additional accounts today and they are no longer able to advertise with us.”

via NBC Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times after huge pro-Trump buy

Billionaire conservative philanthropist David Koch dies at 79 | TheHill
Billionaire David Koch, who along with his older brother was a formidable conservative activist and donor for decades, died Friday morning at age 79.

via Billionaire conservative philanthropist David Koch dies at 79 | TheHill

China announces new tariffs on $75B in US goods | TheHill

China announced Friday it will impose tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, the latest salvo in the year-plus trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The country’s State Council said tariffs of 5 percent to 10 percent will be imposed on a variety of American goods in two batches, with the first going into effect next month and a second scheduled for December, multiple media outlets reported, citing state-run media.

The second batch of tariffs will reportedly include a 25 percent tariff on all U.S. automobiles.

via China announces new tariffs on $75B in US goods | TheHill

Reality Winner sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking U.S. secrets about Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election was sentenced Thursday to five years and three months in prison.

It was the sentence that prosecutors had recommended — the longest ever for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media — in the plea deal for Reality Winner, the Georgia woman at the center of the case. Winner was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and no fine, except for a $100 special assessment fee.

via NBC Reality Winner sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts

The US Share Of Global Yields Has Climbed To 94% | Zero Hedge

One month ago, we reported that in addition to over a dozen “high yield” (we use the term very loosely) European issuers now sporting negative rates, Europe – thanks to the ECB’s insane monetary policy and trillions in negative yielding sovereign bonds – has become ground zero for subzero corporate debt as well, a third of all European investment grade bonds and a third of 1-2y European BB-rated (i.e. junk) bonds now yield less than zero.

via The US Share Of Global Yields Has Climbed To 94% | Zero Hedge

Junk bonds are being piled on top of a huge junk bond debt bubble..

When will it burst?

Cass Freight Index Contracts 8th Month, Predicts Negative GDP By Q3/Q4 | Zero Hedge

With the -5.9% drop in July, following the -5.3% drop in June, and the -6.0% drop in May, we repeat our message from last two months: the shipments index has gone from “warning of a potential slowdown” to “signaling an economic contraction.”

We acknowledge that: all of these negative percentages are against extremely tough comparisons; and the Cass Shipments Index has gone negative before without being followed by a negative GDP. However, weakness in demand is now being seen across many modes of transportation, both domestically and internationally.

Although the initial Q2 ’19 GDP was positive, it was not as positive upon dissection, and we see a growing risk that GDP will go negative by year’s end.

via Cass Freight Index Contracts 8th Month, Predicts Negative GDP By Q3/Q4 | Zero Hedge

When the U.S. falls into a recession, a credit bubble will explode – MarketWatch

Experts tell me that Dodd-Frank requirements have reduced major banks’ market-making abilities by around 90%. For now, bond market liquidity is fine because hedge funds and other non-bank lenders have filled the gap.

The problem is they are not true market makers. Nothing requires them to hold inventory or to buy when you want to sell. That means all the bids can “magically” disappear just when you need them most.

Worse, I don’t have enough exclamation points to describe the disaster when all high-yield funds try to sell at once and at fire-sale prices to meet redemptions. In a bear market, you sell what you can, not what you want to. The picture will not be pretty.

Credit collapse will lead to recession
To make matters worse, many of these lenders are far more leveraged this time. They bought their corporate bonds with money borrowed at record-low rates. And they’ll continue doing so as long as central banks keep them low.

via When the U.S. falls into a recession, a credit bubble will explode – MarketWatch

Bond yields in EU have gone NEGATIVE… red flag warning!

Counting Offit’s Millions: More on How Merck’s Rotateq Vaccine Made Paul Offit Wealthy – AGE OF AUTISM

Furthermore, to the extent that Offit has attempted to create the perception that he only made $6 million from Rotateq®, our analysis shows that he has selectively withheld information on important additional payments. Our calculations show that he has likely received $8.4 million in lump sum payments so far and earned approximately $10 million in total income based on Rotateq® sales through this year, after including ongoing royalty payments he has earned based on Rotateq® revenues through year end 2009.

Put differently, through year end 2009 Offit will have received less than half of his potential return on Rotateq®, and therefore his financial future is clearly tied into the success both of his specific rotavirus vaccine and the reputation of vaccines more broadly, especially worldwide. The increase in royalty payments above $300 million on which Wistar’s royalty payments so strongly depend will be realized most effectively if rotavirus vaccine uptake proceeds expeditiously in international markets.

Finally, although we do not question the sincerity of Offit’s strongly held beliefs on the benefits of all vaccines, we note that his vaccine (not to mention his autism) advocacy is closely tied to his personal financial interests.  As foreign governments and health authorities are persuaded to adopt the American policy of intensive infant vaccination, Offit’s personal wealth will increase.

via Counting Offit’s Millions: More on How Merck’s Rotateq Vaccine Made Paul Offit Wealthy – AGE OF AUTISM

Caged alone 24 hours a day, denied medicine: lawsuit claims ‘torture’ in US migrant jails | US news | The Guardian

The suit filed in Los Angeles on Monday outlines individual experiences at eight different facilities, but immigration lawyers say the mistreatment is representative of systemic problems that affect tens of thousands of people. The complaint comes as the Trump administration escalates its efforts to make it harder for asylum seekers and migrants from certain countries to come to the US, detains undocumented migrants for longer periods of time and expands the use of private prison contracts in the immigration system.

Attorneys said the conditions at some US detention centers were so brutal that migrants who have fled torture and violence “are forced to abandon viable claims for immigration relief and accept deportation out of a desperate desire to escape the torture they are enduring in detention on US soil”.

“They cannot take it any more,” said Elissa Johnson, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of several not-for-profit organizations involved in the suit in Los Angeles. “That is not a choice that anyone should have to make,” she told reporters.

via Caged alone 24 hours a day, denied medicine: lawsuit claims ‘torture’ in US migrant jails | US news | The Guardian

When the country of immigrants starts torturing immigrants who have a legal claim of asylum, and those same legal migrants are put in prison with the assumption that they are all criminals, down to the children and babies, that is psychotic and sociopathic..

The US is sinking lower and getting much darker, as fascism rises.

The Justice Department Sent Immigration Judges A White Nationalist Blog Post With Anti-Semitic Attacks

An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent court employees a link to a blog post from VDare, a white nationalist website, in its morning news briefing earlier this week that included anti-Semitic attacks on judges.

The briefings are sent to court employees every weekday and include links to various immigration news items. BuzzFeed News confirmed the link to a blog post was sent to immigration court employees Monday. The post detailed a recent move by the Justice Department to decertify the immigration judges union.

via .buzzfeednews The Justice Department Sent Immigration Judges A White Nationalist Blog Post With Anti-Semitic Attacks