Author: Garry

From Zero Hedge

First the good news: for the first time in a week, there were no overnight limit up/down trigger halt in the S&P500 future.

Now, the not so good news: the global dollar margin call/short squeeze escalated even more overnight, resulting in total chaos in Asia, as multiple regional indices hit circuit breakers, the Korean Kospi was halted after falling more than 8%, Indonesian stocks triggering limit down at 5% and the Philippines market reopened only to drop 24% on the open triggering a circuit breaker. The panic dollar scramble also led to a flash crash in the Aussie, Kiwi and various other EM currencies as reported overnight.

Worse, this happened even as the Fed stepped in with yet another Lehman-era facility, a Money Market backstop (MMLF), which however did nothing to convince panic-stricken equity markets that a coronavirus-driven global recession could be averted, or to ease the record $12 trillion dollar funding squeeze, as measured by the surge in the FRA/OIS…

Well, I’ve got to get off of my ass and run into Huntsville today; Son-In-Law has sharpened the blades and performed an oil change on the zero-turn mower and has brought my little Honda tiller back to life.

I went in on Monday and on Tuesday they reported that the pharmacy I had gone to had a employee test positive for the virus…….on Wednesday they reported that the employee had self quarantined a week earlier. What a bunch of self serving asses, they should have reported the quarantine a week earlier.

Anyway, will do shopping while I’m out: Fresh goods for two weeks (vs my normal weeks worth) as I would prefer not to have to deal with the crazies once the infection rate begins it’s inevitable climb. All plans subject to change based on the behavior of the marauding idiots that think their world will be excellent-more better if they scoop up anything/everything of nutritional value.

It seems to me that an industrious person could turn a quick buck by producing/selling some of these little jewels.

A real eyeopener for those that think American freedom will prevail regardless of the threat; this from Greenwich Time.

I’ll spare you the statistics and the sermons; both are already abundant. But I do want to make one thing clear: If you think that by stocking up your pantries you have absolved yourself from the responsibility of preparing for this virus, you are mistaken. This is a crisis like none before. Be skeptical of both naysayers and doomsayers; there’s no way of knowing how this will end.

The restrictions came upon us slowly but steadily. Within two weeks, our old lives were gone. First the schools closed, then came social distancing. Then the government locked down the hardest-hit areas: no more going in and out of certain provinces; limited movements within the “red zones.” Then the whole country shut down.

Most stores closed their doors. People who could were asked to telework; those who could not, and did not have a job related to the continuation of essential services, were placed on part-time schedules or on unpaid leave. When we went out, we had to carry a pass explaining our reasons for being outside to show to the law enforcement officers patrolling the streets. The priority became keeping everyone inside, at all times.

For some people, the gradual rollout made these measures hard to accept: Skeptical observers questioned the seriousness of the disease, given that the restrictions were not draconian from the start. And yet without time to adjust to a progressive loss of freedom, we wouldn’t have accepted it. We might have rebelled.

Two decades after President Robert Mugabe wrecked Zimbabwe’s economy by urging blacks to violently force white farmers off their land, Zimbabwe has thrown in the towel.

Back in 2000 they decided that it would be good to steal farm land from whites in order to “redress colonial imbalances”. Almost 4,500 white-owned properties were ripped from their owners and the once vibrant agricultural industry that exported tobacco and roses and grew most of the food the nation could possibly need immediately collapsed. Food shortages ensued, inflation became the world’s highest and the manufacturing industry was decimated.

What was one of Africa’s richest countries became one of its poorest. Now the government is trying to get the farmers back. Good luck with that, once bitten…

Fast forward to 2018 and those ‘quick learners’ in South Africa think it would be a grand idea to rip the land away from it’s white farmers (without compensation) .

Those pesky white people, who make up just 9% of the population, owned 72% of the private land. Given that the “redistribution of land” was a fundamental principle in the struggle against apartheid, its only logical to take whatever whitey has. After all, whats the worst that can happen?

So now, 90 percent of the land that was stolen from the whites is ‘not productive’. ‘Not productive’ in government speak means not involved in the production of goods.

And now we come to 2020 and the Bernie Bro’s. These mental heavyweights believe that the time for socialism is upon us. Everything is gonna be free; education, housing, income, food, medicine, healthcare, etc.

I’ll guarantee you that once these children grab hold of the methods of distribution and then shortly realize that there are never enough resources available to satisfy the demands of the masses equally , they will be clamoring to take control of the means of production. Ask Zimbabwe and South Africa how that works out.

Once the production side of the carefully balance invisible hand (of Mr. Smith fame) falls to the the masses, it’s all over.

I’ve always been a pretty lucky guy, let’s hope that luck holds!

When I mentioned that I went out for more canning lids yesterday, I failed to mention that I was picking those up after having gone to the pharmacy at Redstone for wifey’s prescriptions. Now this:

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) –
Mar 17, 2020 3:00 PM

Redstone Arsenal reports that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-quarantine.

This person is a Department of the Army civilian who works in the Pharmacy at Fox Army Health Center on Redstone Arsenal.

The employee is a resident of Madison County, was tested at a local community medical facility, and is being included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alabama Department of Public Health consolidated statewide reporting.

Fox Army Health Center’s Pharmacy will be closed effective immediately until March 24. The pharmacy is currently expected to reopen on March 25. If that timeline changes, Redstone will notify the workforce and beneficiaries immediately.

If my luck is going to hold (assuming I’m not already a dead man walking) I’m going to need to dial back my face time with all of the zombies that are popping up here and there.

It seems as if the Pope may not actually be in charge of the flock. This from Rome:

“May the Lord give them strength and the ability to choose the best means to help,” Francis continued. “Drastic measures are not always good. This is why we pray that the Holy Spirit will give shepherds the capacity for pastoral discernment so that they can enact measures that do not leave the holy faithful people of God alone.”

“May the people of God feel accompanied by their shepherds and comforted by the Word, sacraments, and prayer,” he concluded.

The Catholic Church in Italy first canceled weekday Masses, then all Masses. Next, the Diocese of Rome decided to close all its churches, followed by a decree by the bishops’ conference counseling the closure of all the churches in the country, leaving the faithful without the sacraments or any spiritual attention during the crisis.

The decree by the Diocese of Rome was particularly brutal, noting that the faithful are forbidden from entering any place of worship until Friday, April 3.

Cardinal De Donatis, who signed the decree, insisted that this decision did not stem from a specific government directive, but rather was made in the interests of the “common good.”

The pope’s apparent questioning of the wisdom of these measures has led to much speculation on social media as to who is actually in charge in Rome.

It is the Church’s Abbot and Costello moment.

There is a short, easy to read article over at Smart Prepper that provides a straight forward list of do’s and don’ts if your thinking about going this route. Worth the read.

7 Valuable Lessons I’ve learned as a prepper

1.Preparedness is a lifestyle developed by a shifted mindset
In the preparedness community there is a big misconception or belief that preparedness is all about buying beans, bullets and bullion.  Unfortunately, you can never buy your way to preparedness.  Preppers should focus more on survival first then develop a plan on purchasing gear and supplies to assist in that plan
2. It is more than about bugging out
3 .Goals supported by strategic plans are essential
4. Don’t fall for the “tacticool” fade
5. You’ll never be 100% prepared
6. Prepping never ends
7. Don’t be a victim of fear mongering

Snatched from the Babylon Bee

Parents Worried They’ll Have To Raise Their Own Children As Government Schools Shut Down

U.S.—Parents across the nation have expressed their worry, fear, and shock at having to raise their own children now that government schools have temporarily shut down.

Those who send their children to public schools registered their displeasure at the government for not doing its main job of indoctrinating their children, even temporarily.

“Raise, educate, and parent my children?” said one exasperated mother as her teen sat at home, bored and with nothing to do. “But that’s the government’s job! What am I supposed to do? Teach them things? Instill them with my values? Train them up in the way that they should go?”

“Honestly, if this keeps up, I’m going to move to a different country where I can count on the government to parent my children. This is ridiculous.”

I saw this over at Mike’s place and it struck a chord.

This is how future generations will view this moment. For some, this is how we see the moment now.

I wandered down to the south side of the property a little earlier today to see just how bad the rain/storms had ravaged the area where I used to have my garden planted.

I’m standing on what was a waterfall we had constructed all the rabble and rock in the foreground is what has accreted in what was once a pool that was 2 foot deep or so. You can see how the water has blown out the far side of the fall and ripped away at the hillside in the background. What cannot be seen is the post that existed on the far side and the cattle panels that crossed the ‘dam’ that kept the cows on one side of the fence (or other).

The picture below is where the garden was. I’m standing pretty close to where the picture above was taken from. This area was previously filled with raised beds and dirt filled tires. The blue objects in the background are 50 gallon drums that I used to water the garden. I connected a small 12 DC pump to a battery and pumped water out of the creek into the drums.

I ginned up a manifold system on the barrels so I could water the entire garden by opening and closing valves. Here is what the area looked like before I ripped everything out and moved it to the hilltop near the cabin. It got dark down by the creek.

Just to the right of the drums is the area of the creek that I pumped the water from. Notice how dark it is in the creek.

Had this area not set down in a valley and only received 6 or so hours of sunlight daily, my garden would still be there. With the water fall noises in the background I could piddle here all day every day.

There was no real planned bottom line to this rambling other than noting that things are in a constant state of change. I guess man could properly be called ‘changlings’, as we not only change, but constantly note the change. With all this said, I guess I begin working on changing out of my winter weight!

I started outlining a book once. I guess it followed the same pattern as most apocalyptic story’s; world blows up, the hero (a prepper) moves from modest surroundings to champion ‘his people’ through a recovery and everyone lives happily ever after in the brave new world.

My book offered something no other story had though: a completely incompetent author with terrible writing skills.

Now, despite having all of this going for me, one of the early challenges I had to have my characters address was the uncertainty of determining just when Zero Hour would occur. How would he know when the trigger was to be pulled and the fuses lit? How would he know when to hop in the truck and go?

I mean obviously he (or we) would know after the fact when the optimum time to begin executing plans should have been. Beginning to soon, especially if your plans have elements of bravado (such as storming a Walmart for canned goods and ammo) means that you’d end up in jail for a very long time if the crises does not fully materialize. Starting to late would mean that everyone in Bumfuck beat you to the goods you were counting on.

So how do you know when/if the SHTF moment is here and it’s time to start doing lion shit? This question is not rhetorical. Let me frame the same question a little differently: Does the corona virus have the potential to cause irrational responses in our communities and can those responses be disastrous enough to crash the economy/society. Can COVID-19 usher in a world wide collapse?

Before today I would have thought not. Today I found that Bernie and Biden, enabled by panicked voices across the spectrum of media organization, are doing their best to scare the holy shit out of our citizenry.

Sanders warned the coronavirus pandemic could cause deaths on par with a major war, in an address slamming Donald Trump and calling for an aggressive response by congress.

“In terms of potential deaths and in terms of the economic impact on our economy the crisis we face from the coronavirus is on a scale of a major war and we must act accordingly,”

Both CNN and MSMBC are pumping fear into the atmosphere as fast as the wide eyed hosts can manage. If there is a way to crash the country, these guys will find it.

All of this brings us back to the original question. How do you know when?

Old Nancy made a habit of flaming anyone that suggested that peachmints would interfere with the faithful administration of the peoples business. They could, after all, walk and chew at the same time. If only that was true.

Joel Pollak at Breitbart lays out the stunning timelines of two parallel events: COVID-19 and impeachment.

His article lays out the true cost of the democrats quest for power.

January 11: Chinese state media report the first known death from an illness originating in the Wuhan market.
January 15: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds a vote to send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Pelosi and House Democrats celebrate the “solemn” occasion with a signing ceremony, using commemorative pens.
January 21: The first person with coronavirus arrives in the United States from China, where he had been in Wuhan.
January 23: The House impeachment managers make their opening arguments for removing President Trump.
January 23: China closes off the city of Wuhan completely to slow the spread of coronavirus to the rest of China.
January 30: Senators begin asking two days of questions of both sides in the president’s impeachment trial.
January 30: The World Health Organization declares a global health emergency as coronavirus continues to spread.
January 31: The Senate holds a vote on whether to allow further witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial.
January 31: President Trump declares a national health emergency and imposes a ban on travel to and from China. Former Vice President Joe Biden calls Trump’s decision “hysterical xenophobia … and fear-mongering.
February 2: The first death from coronavirus outside China is reported in the Philippines.
February 3: House impeachment managers begin closing arguments, calling Trump a threat to national security.
February 4: President Trump talks about coronavirus in his State of the Union address; Pelosi rips up every page.
February 5: The Senate votes to acquit President Trump on both articles of impeachment, 52-48 and 53-47.
February 5: House Democrats finally take up coronavirus in the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia.

For twenty days, from the day the first death from coronavirus was known, Democrats did nothing about it. They were too busy with the president’s impeachment trial — a trial Pelosi had delayed unnecessarily for several weeks.

To the extent that they commented on coronavirus at all, it was only to tear up the president’s remarks or to call him a racist. They told the nation that he, not coronavirus, was a threat to the national security of the United States.