Formless and Void - The Real Great Reset

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Why does God judge? For several reasons: it is rational and just. Wickedness needs to be dealt with. Because God honours his word; that which he promises to do he will do, and he has promised vengeance on evil. It is because God is love and love must hate evil. But it is also what is good for people, society and the world. Judgement is a reset, it clears the land for renewal. 

Isaiah 24 tells us this: 

"1 Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate,
    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
    as with the slave, so with his master;
    as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
    as with the lender, so with the borrower;
    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
    for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and withers;
    the world languishes and withers;
    the highest people of the earth languish.
5 The earth lies defiled
    under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
    violated the statutes,
    broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
    and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
    and few men are left.
7 The wine mourns,
    the vine languishes,
    all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the tambourines is stilled,
    the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
    the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9 No more do they drink wine with singing;
    strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The wasted city is broken down;
    every house is shut up so that none can enter.
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
    all joy has grown dark;
    the gladness of the earth is banished.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
    the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
    among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
    as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.
14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
    over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.
15 Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
    in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
    of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, “I waste away,
    I waste away. Woe is me!
For the traitors have betrayed,
    with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”
17 Terror and the pit and the snare
    are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 He who flees at the sound of the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
    and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
    the earth is split apart,
    the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth staggers like a drunken man;
    it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
    and it falls, and will not rise again.
21 On that day the Lord will punish
    the host of heaven, in heaven,
    and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together
    as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
    and after many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be confounded
    and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts reigns
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders."

God has made an everlasting covenant with mankind: we get to enjoy the earth, the land, the whole of creation, as Iong as we honour the king. Blaspheme the king and judgement is guaranteed. God took Israel off the land and let it rest for seventy years, he gave the land rest (2 Chron. 36:21). God took out the Canaanites, Amorites, Rephaim and more because of their evil. God makes the land formless and Void, or empty and desolate to clear it of the evil committed upon it. When the Bible says the rocks and trees cry out, there is a spiritual sense in which this must be true. 

This judgement often comes when man peaks in his ability, power and achievements and therefore, also his pride. Just when man thinks he is all powerful God's judgement comes and resets things. Humbling man again. 

God will one day do this to the whole earth. He will wipe the slate clean and start afresh, a new heaven and a new earth. Until this time we will experience this in smaller, but still monumental ways. The earth is giving every sign of a time of judgement coming. Collapse is coming, the earth is staggering like a drunk man. At least Western society is. The leaders of the world are being revealed more and more as corrupt. This can only go on so long. 

God will only permit so much, and then he resets. It is vital for mankind to remember that we are not in charge and we must be on the right side of the one who is. The kingdom of man stands at the and of grace and mercy of the King of Kings. But society has forgotten this. 

Has Europe Backed The Wrong Horse?

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I have already shared two excerpts from this Michael Hudson interview this week on my blog, and here is the final one. Europe is in the process of committing economic suicide at the moment. It is backing a dog in a fight it really need have no stake in, just so that it can fulfil its perceived commitments to the United States. There is a strong element of Europe not being as sovereign as most people thought here. But there would also be an underlying current of belief that America should be backed up, because America is the top dog and can defend Europe if needed. But is this the case? Is Europe backing the right horse? 

Hudson and Haiphong give us some powerful insight here: 

DANNY HAIPHONG: Do you see this succeeding? We’ve been hearing a lot about Russia’s relationship with Europe and just how deep its energy sector is with Europe and how that relationship is a very difficult relationship to break economically. Although Europe is doing everything it can, everything you’ve described. It made me think about how throughout this crisis Europe, because of the dominance of the U.S. and just listening to whatever the U.S. said, was actually going way above and beyond what the U.S. would commit to in terms of Russia and how economically they would wage this kind of warfare. But China and Russia, with Russia’s energy and its natural resources but China I think in a broader kind of portfolio, have so much to offer to Europe, do you think that this will succeed?

Europe has been going the road of austerity for many years but this seems like such a huge step in that direction. Europe could look very much like the United States very soon. Do you see this working given how China has so much to offer it and already has a lot of countries in Europe maybe not the biggest of the clients like the UK for example but a lot of European countries have big relationships with China even the UK does despite all of the nonsense, all the New Cold War stuff. What do you think? Do you think this will work?

MICHAEL HUDSON: There’s a lot of crap that futurists tend to fall into and that’s imagining that countries are going to act in their self-interest. This is the mistake Stalin made with Hitler. He thought if Germany attacks Russia in World War II, it’s obviously going to lose. No sane country would attack Russia just as winter’s coming but Hitler attacked Russia. You’d think that if you tried to say what is a logical future.

Let’s go back to 1991 when the Soviet Union self-dissolved. The whole idea, the dream at that point according to Russia’s leaders was well, if we can have peace, we’re not going to have a war budget anymore. Europe is going to invest in us and help us rebuild a rationalized, efficient industry and we will trade with Europe and we’ll both get rich on mutual trade.

Well, this terrified the United States. It said, “oh my! We want it, we Americans want to be the beneficiaries of Russia.” We don’t want to trade with it. We want to carve it up and privatize it and take over. Basically, have Wall Street take over its oil resources, its gas resources, its nickel resources, its electric utilities. The last thing America wanted was this symbiotic mutual gain between Europe and Russia and I think that Putin and most of the leaders at that time expected that Europe would act in its self-interest and they could both end up gaining.

But that’s not what happened obviously. Europe followed American dictates and continues to because it’s, again, its leaders follow, its leaders are really just like Zelensky in Ukraine, they’re just as dependent on what the State Department dictates to them to do as Zelensky is. And there’s something evangelistic about it.

The Europeans I’ve spoken to really believe that America is the land of the future and that neoliberalism, that finance capitalism, somehow is going to be an ideal of private enterprise. They’ve bought the rat poison, they’ve eaten the rat poison, and they actually believe it and think of themselves not simply as servants of the United States following what it’s doing. As the Pakistan former Prime Minister said a few weeks ago, slaves of the United States policy, they actually are evangelistic promoters of neoliberalism and as sort of disciples, just as bishops you could say really. It’s like a religion and they treat the American-centered neoliberalism as the new religion. It’s literally a crusade against Russia and Europe and I think this has shocked Putin.

I would imagine the Chinese leadership also thinking: How can Europe be so completely unrealistic? How can its media lie so constantly about what’s really happening in Ukraine? How can Europe deify the neo-Nazis in Ukraine as freedom fighters, as heroes, as wonderful people to be supported? I think this has been such a shock to the Russian leadership that they realize finally that, well, Europe is not going to act in its self-interest.

There is not going to be any mutual gain. Europe again and again is just going to grab any money that we have there like they’ve grabbed our whatever was in European or American banks. There’s really nothing we can do. So there’s been a fundamental reorganization with Russia and the rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), meaning not only with China but with Iran, with India, with all of the other Eurasian countries. So, in that sense the United States has brought about exactly what it feared. The whole rest of the world is going its own way productively in a capital investment way, raising living standards, things that democracies are supposed to do well.

In the United States, we really don’t have democracy because the political parties are controlled by the donor class, the one percent, that’s what the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling meant. The United States is left without any means of self-support and Europe will be left without any means and self-support at some point. Europe may say, gee we made a mistake, maybe we should have tried to profit from Russia because everybody else is profiting with and getting Russian gas and nickel and China and other countries are rebuilding Russian industry and we could have had our car industry build up Russia but we don’t have a car industry anymore because it doesn’t have the gas that it needs and the raw materials and titanium it needs from Russia so now, we’ve seen other countries replace us.

And so, Europe has been rendered pretty much obsolete and even if it says we made a mistake, let’s be friends again, I don’t think Russia or other countries will trust it mainly because they can afford not to trust it.

They say, why take a risk with trusting Europe may not just continue to be America’s poodle?

Why take a risk? Why not just say, we’re doing just fine the way we are? Why not just work with each other peacefully? And all that the United States can do about this is threaten to bomb it and the way to stay away from this threat is simply to say look, you go your way, we’ll go our way and to have enough of the military between them to defend themselves against the American potential military attack despite the almost eight hundred military bases the United States has. If the United States is not getting foreign exchange from these countries anymore, the dollar with the euro and the yen and the sterling will all go way down against the Eurasian currency block and they’re going to move into a common block with their own counterpart to the IMF, their own counterpart to the World Bank, their own trade organization and the world will be split into two parts – just like the world split when the Roman empire fell apart and the east went forward, Western Europe went down. This is really the final submergence of western Europe."

It's in the best interests of Europe to ignore the USA and build relationships with continental powers that they can trade with. Scratch that it is in individual European countries interests to break ties with the European Union and their US overlords and build their own economic relationships. However, Europe is almost completely following the US empires lead, getting tangled in a war that would do serious damage to every nation in Europe. Why? 

Because the US is the dominant power? No, because Europe has forgotten itself. It has forgotten what it can be. 

Living in the 20th and 21st centuries can give you a false impression that the West is not only dominant, but always will be. We are just so far ahead of other parts of the world (at least have been). However, for most of history Western Europe was a backwater of civilisation, and only became dominant very recently. And once it flowered it overtook the whole world. The US empire is the last vestiage of that. America looked invincible in 1999, now in 2022, it is clearly on the brink of a serious collapse. Not a decline, but an actual collapse. For whatever reason Europe is just not willing to admit this. And rather than remembering what it can be, it is taking the passive role in its partnership with the US. 

The saddest part about this is that Europe does not need America. Europe is the source of American civilisation. It is the source of the Western ideals which made the USA what it is today. The US was built on the European ideals and European people. But in tying itself to the United States, Europe has made itself very weak and very vulnerable. 

If you see the world through the lens of Top Gun, you will see the US as the invincible good. But if you see the world through the lens of the rise and fall of empires, it is clear that America is the last vestige of Western power, before the West declines again for who knows how long. 

It is in Europe's best interest to remember it does not need the US. Germany, France, England and more were all great civilisations and powers before America existed. As long as Europe submits to American dominance it will suffer. But once it realizes how much it does not need the US, then the World really changes. Europe has backed the wrong horse, because it refuses to back itself. 

The Serpent Consumes Itself

One of the journalists on NRL 360, the Rugby League panel show, a few nights ago almost hit the nail on the head. He said, "I don't want to say that diversity and equality are mutually exclusive. But there is not much overlap between those ideas."

I was surprised a Fox sports journalist would say this on a live broadcast. But he hedged his bets a little bit. This needs to be stated it stronger: diversity and equality are mutually exclusive, they are antonyms, they are exact opposites. Diversity means different and equal means the same. 

So not only are they mutually exclusive, the fact that the very first inclusive football game ever in NRL history excluded 7 players (it's actually more because some reserve grade players also said no to playing) highlights this with a massive exclamation mark. Diversity and equality cannot co-exist. 

The quest for diversity and equality is a quest to exclude those who don't fit these two boxes - which at some point will be everybody. This is why one of the ancient symbols of evil is a snake that consumes itself, because that is all that evil can do. The quest for these goals is evil and it will eventually take down its own biggest advocates, when they are found to be not diverse enough or equal enough. This is inevitable. Because equality is an absolute, it cannot rest with "close-enough". And diversity comes from the same root word as division. As diversity increases so does division and conflict. So the quest for these two things is only able to lead to conflict. 

I welcome this happening because it will drive home how foolish our quests for diversity and equality are. Most people cannot be swayed by arguments. But being slapped around the face (metaphorically) by being banned from inclusive places will convince a lot of people. So to will the experience of the coming diversity conflicts change a lot of peoples minds. As one of the ladies at my church says, if you won't listen you need to feel. 

Their Testimony Overcame

Part of me is annoyed that those Rugby League players could not play. But mostly I'm happy about it. The cultural lines are being drawn, clearly and they need to be. Inclusivity or diversity was always just anti-Christian, anti-European and anti-good. People refuse to accept that because they run those words through their own "good-intention filter". It's what decent people do. 

But most Christians still aren't aware of this and they need to be. There is no neutrality, evil hates you, it hates everything about you, and it wants evil for you. Most Christians refuse to accept that culture war is the natural state of this world. 

2 Cor. 10:3-4 - "3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds."

The whole of history is a battle between evil and good. The culture of evil and the culture of good have constantly advanced against each other. Our greatest asset in this is the gospel, which has the ability to demolish strongholds. At the core of being a believer is representing our King in this world, advancing the gospel, teaching the pagans to obey all of God's word, and recognizing that the king of this world won't like that. 

The days of neutrality and just flying under the radar by being nice are fading quickly. On Monday 7 blokes went to work, some of them Christians, and by Monday night they were banned from playing, banned from doing their job, now banned from the Stadium, and told they might not be able to be protected by police at the stadium. They did nothing wrong and now they are the enemy. 

Cultures wars. You might be proud of avoiding them, but they will find you. If more Christians were vocal with their gospel and biblical beliefs, it would make a difference. 

"7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”"

Revelation 12:7-12

It was the consistent testimony of the early Church which defeated the Roman Empire, and changed its culture for ever. It's also our best weapon against the evil one. Our testimony of Jesus. 

How America Dominates Its Allies

A few days ago I shared an excerpt from this Michael Hudson interview with Danny Haiphong on here, and noted I would share some more this week. 

One of the most interesting things I've learnt over the last few years is how America dominates its allies. I read another article a few weeks ago which really puts this in perspective. 

The author noted that China is a threat to the USA because it is starting to protect itself economically internally. That is it is selling offshore assets, consolidating its ability to make what it needs domesticly, etc. Other countries are increasingly doing the same. The same article noted that Australia and other Western countries were clearly not intent on becoming a threat to the globalist US led system, because they are not doing anything to ensure they could be economically independent. We are not selling off offshore assets, or rebuilding our manufacturing industry, or keeping our resources on shore and processing them through our domestic markets. 

In other words economies which prostrated themselves before the globalist system, showing their exposed bellies, and being completely dependent on international trade, were viewed as friendly. And economies that were working hard to make themselves independent as much as possible, were viewed as threats. 

Puts our government's bad economic leadership of the last 30 to 50 years into perspective, doesn't it? It has been a process of submitting to our international overlords. 

Here is an expert economists take on this:

DANNY HAIPHONG: Well, it seems like what the United States is trying to impose its hegemony through its foreign sanctions, is having this blowback effect where now you have countries seeking alternatives to the dollar and the U.S. seems to be more economically vulnerable even though it’s expanding and trying to dominate. It’s this very strange contradiction that feels very unstable and it feels like the dollar is artificially inflating itself as it is also dealing with the fact that there is no end game here in Ukraine. It seems like messing with a big country like Russia and its relationship to Europe is moving us toward economic catastrophe, an economic crisis if there’s not already one underfoot.

MICHAEL HUDSON: No that’s not what’s happening with the dollar at all. People with all of the emphasis on America’s war against Russia to try to break it away from China before going to war with China, the first thing that America wanted to do was to lock in its control over Europe because that’s the easiest way to get things is you want to take over the richest economies in the world and lock them into the United States and that means taking over the Eurozone, England and Japan. And the dollar has been soaring against these currencies.

To put it another way, the Euro has been plunging toward one dollar per Euro. The pound sterling has been plunging to one dollar per sterling. The Japanese yen has been plunging even more so there’s a huge movement to safety into the dollar.

The Americans have successfully destroyed the basis of European industry. They’ve finally beaten Germany. They’ve left Germany without energy and GDP in any country compared to energy per worker and basically the productivity that makes goods is basically embodied energy and Europe has been getting its energy from Russia in the form of gas and oil.

Well, the United States has asked Europe to commit economic suicide basically by saying, “don’t buy Russian gas, wait three or four years, spend five billion dollars on building new ports so that you can import American liquefied natural gas at seven or eight times the price and meanwhile let your chemical industry, your car industry, your basic industries go bankrupt. Take it on the chin for America and Europe said, “okay not Europe but the politicians that America have meddled in European politics to promote to sign on the dotted line for treaties” made that decision so even if the Europeans don’t want to commit suicide, America has its proxy politicians in its Tony Blairs, in the head of the social Democratic Party in the advocates of pollution and global warming at the head of the Green Party.

You have in England you have a Boris Yeltsin and in Japan you have leaders who are willing to continue to sacrifice Japan’s growth to serve the United States. So these countries, the investors in Europe, England, and Japan are moving their money into the United States especially because the United States is raising its interest rates through the Federal Reserve and that’s telling Japan and Europe not to do it so the Eurozone has very low rates.

People are borrowing at under one percent and moving it into the United States to make two, two and a half percent. Japan has almost interest-free money from the central bank. It’s moved its money into the U.S. so the dollar, while I won’t say it’s soaring against these currencies, other currencies in the U.S. orbit are collapsing against the dollar because they’re following U.S. advice.

So, I think when you say other countries are breaking away, you’re talking about the bulk of the world, Central Asia and Latin America and China and the key to the present New Cold War is America has to achieve its almost dictatorial dominance over Europe and Japan. It’s the client oligarchies and client dictatorships and without realizing that this is American democracy, where the leaders of the whole world follow what the United States tells them to do because the United States identifies itself as the democratic center.

So democracy no longer means a political system where voters get to determine who is in charge, democracy is the policy dictated by the United States State Department. Any country that goes its own way or develops the power potentially to go its own way such as China and Russia is called an autocracy. So, you have to realize in today’s world democracy is autocracy and autocracy is democracy.

You could say yeah, the question is of course will the world really break into two halves and it looks like it is breaking into parts and there will be the U.S. and its allies, the U.S., Europe, and Japan against a Eurasian core that will go hand in hand with Africa and Latin America and other Asian countries who are able to rely on trade and investment among themselves. And the United States by seeming to isolate Russia and China and Iran and other countries actually is isolating its own dollar from the rest of the world. So, there is an iron curtain but it’s not to keep other countries out, it’s to keep its own allies within.

All of the rhetoric about free trade and democracy and Sovereignty has been nonsense all along. Especially when you consider how America has interfered in the Middle East and South America, toppling governments. But America has not just interfered in those places, they dictate how their allies will trade and they severely punish those who do not comply, and they will also squeeze their allies to punish their enemies. 

This is how the US globalist system works, and you are seeing now how they are willing to force us to pay more for everything to try and bring their competitors into line. It is US sanctions which are driving up fuel, energy and food costs. It is US politics that drives climate policy. It is US politics that determines how we benefit or suffer from their dominance in the world. Understanding this puts many things in perspective. Especially this: why God warned his people away from alliances. They always cost more than they pay.

Gambling a Sin?

I hate gambling. Even before I was a Christian I played the pokies maybe 2 or 3 times and about as many dollars. Thought it was silly. I played competition poker as outreach when younger. But it was never for money, just plastic poker chips. And I got great opportunities to evangelize. I don't even like to bet with a friend on a footy game, but I might have in the past, can't remember to be honest. I turn off the gambling ads while watching footy. Because I find the gambling pushers to be sleezy. Can't stand them. I'd support any politician who said they'd remove every pokey machine from every square inch of this state. I say this to highlight I am not a man who likes gambling, or what most of us consider gambling.  

But all the folks saying the Bible says it's a sin are wrong. 

Firstly, the Bible says God made a bet with the Devil. God can't sin. Read Job 1 and 2 you'll see it's so. 

God also determines the lot: 

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

And the lot, a bet, can solve a conflict: 

Proverbs 18:18

The lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between powerful contenders.

The 12th Apostle was chosen by lot. Many more examples can be given from the Bible that are similar.

Most Christians have used Pascal's Wager to evangelise. That's literally encouraging people to make a bet, the best kind, one that will save their soul. 

If you play the stock market you are gambling. You are betting stocks will rise not fall or fall then rise, or rise, fall and rise again. If you start a new business venture you are gambling. You are betting on your ability to make money to make it in business. If as a young man you ask a young women out you are gambling. You are betting on a yes but also risking anything from a maybe to a no to her screaming, "this man is harassing me, someone help." Especially in today's society. If you put all your effort into one career you are gambling on it going well. This doesn't work out for a lot of people a lot of the time. 

To sum it up, the Bible can't forbid gambling, because that's akin to forbidding risk, and life is risk. Playing the pokies or poker for your pay cheque, or betting on the horses is just the lowest form of risk analysis. It's playing the highest risk for the least chance of a payoff. Though pay offs can be high, they are also sparing and costly. Most who gamble this way spend more than they ever make. It's a bad gamble.

It's better to back your ability to work hard, ask out the right girl and get the right response, and make a decent effort in life. This pays off better far more on average. 

All this too say two things: first no one has ever shown me a passage saying gambling is sin, again, if it was then risking all your savings on a new business venture would be a sin and it's not. It might go bust, but it's not necessarily wrong. 

Second, people are hammering those NRL players for making a stand against pride jersey's as hypocritical for wearing alcohol and betting ads on jersey's. But those footy players who have betting ads on their shirts, if they are Christian, have not done anything hypocritical. Alcohol is permitted, gambling is not called a sin in Scripture (usury is, but you aren't attacking Christian bankers are you?). But homosexuality is one of many forbidden sexual behaviours for a believer, like adultery, fornication and more. It's not something a believer can promote. It's that simple. 

That many do they will account for. 

But gambling can't be a sin, because gambling is another word for risk and taking risks isn't a sin. Some risks are just smarter and better to take than others. These men who stood against wearing those jerseys have risked a lot, they've gambled their careers, get behind them. The lot has been cast, they have a struggle ahead of them. May the Church support these men, not nitpick them.

Manly Has Corporate Cancer

image: unsplash.

Why didn't the Manly Sea Eagles NRL club properly consult all their players before deciding to make them wear pride jerseys? As noted by several media outlets, neither the board, the coach nor the players, were responsible for making the rainbow flag decision. It was the marketing department. Why is this important? Because as author Vox day notes in his book Corporate Cancer, Social Justice Activists focus first on taking over two aspects of a company they are seeking to converge to their political agenda:

"There are two departments where convergence first develops inside the average corporation:

- Human Resources (HR)

- Marketing

Of the two, Human Resources is by far the most dangerous. This is because it is the main point of entry into the corporation and it serves as an easily-controlled choke point for employees whose values and objectives are not in line with those of the corporation’s executives and shareholders. For example, social justice warriors in HR use execrable Codes of Conduct to drive out stubborn white males who insist on working in a meritocracy instead of a social justice collective."

The NRL and Manly, would probably sit between Moderately to Heavily converged:

"Moderately Converged. Social justice advocates now control Human Resources, which is used as a corporate high ground to exert influence over other departments as well as the executive team. The corporate marketing begins to devote more attention to signaling corporate virtue than selling its products. Managers are encouraged to hire diverse candidates and pressured to stop holding low-performance employees accountable. HR begins holding mandatory awareness sessions and hiring diversity consultants. The corporation’s customer service begins to go downhill.

Heavily Converged. Social justice advocates now control the corporate high ground and the strategic centers. Significant elements of the executive team and the board are devoted to social justice, often in a very public manner. Implicit hiring quotas are imposed and it becomes almost impossible to fire anyone for anything short of murder in the workplace. HR openly dictates corporate policy to employees, often without consulting the executives. The marketing materials not only signal corporate virtue, but openly advocate various social justice issues. The corporation shows indifference to its core customer base and begins to focus obsessively on new markets that mostly exist in its imagination."

Vox Day. Corporate Cancer. Kindle Edition.

The fact that the club and the League came out quickly to endorse the jersey's highlights that they are moving up the convergence ladder quickly.

Once a marketing department starts making big social justice moves, like changing the players jerseys, this is a sign that a large percentage of that company's resources are directed to efforts that have nothing to do with its core business interests, in this case, winning football games and selling football related products. With company resources being focused on a niche political issue, is it any wonder that Manly have been a struggling team for some time? 

This was once a powerhouse club in the game, but they have struggled to perform consistently well for years now. Despite having multiple high quality representstive players, including the QLD and Australian incumbent half-back as their captain. They now can't even get all their best players on the field for an important game to ensure they can qualify for the finals, because they chose this week to represent a sexual identity, rather than their footy fans.

Day's book is great, because it helps explain why so many modern companies have weird marketing campaigns out of step with their core business. These companies are slowly being overrun by these identity groups whose primary interests lay in promoting these messages, rather than winning football games, selling tickets, or whatever else is the business of the particular company. 

In the case of Manly, diversities have collided. Religious Polynesian players have clashed with the religion of corporate Australia - selective inclusivity. Fascinating to watch happen. And the frequency of these clashes will only increase as diversity increases. Polynesian players are one of the biggest demographics in the NRL and they are not shy about their faith. It is central to who they are. But corporate Australia is just as dedicated to their rainbow god. It's not possible, or even desirable, to include all forms of diversity. And this is going to result in ongoing clashes amongst our diverse society as competing identities vie for ascendancy. 

If you want to understand what is happening in these companies and how to avoid it in your business (or Church denomination), then Corporate Cancer is a helpful tool for that purpose.

The City Makes People Crazy

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One of the most persistent tropes in hollywood and media is the idea of the crazy country hick. From Deliverance to Cletus the Slack-Jawed yokel in the Simpsons, and many other presentations of country folk, there is a media trend to present country people as "different" or broken. Well they are different, they tend to be more sane: 

"Those living in urban settings in the United States and Europe appear to suffer more often from the disease (schizophrenia) than those living in the country or the suburbs. These curious spikes in the disorder remain even when the researchers took migration, drug use and poverty out of the equation. Men living in the most densely populated areas of Sweden, for instance, are at a 68 percent higher risk of being admitted for psychosis - often the first sign of schizophrenia - than those who live in the countryside. For women the risk is 77 per cent higher. Something about city living seems to spark the harrowing delusions, hallucination and disorganized thinking characteristic of a schizophrenic break. Strange still, some neighbourhoods in cities produce more schizophrenics, to such a degree that scientists have wondered about the environmental pathogens that might exist in one place and not another."

From Crazy Like Us, by Ethan Watters

Something about city living actually makes people go crazy more often. Is it the environment. Is it the lights? Maybe something in the water? The constant encouragement to sexual depravity found in cities? A combination of all of these things? 

Seinfeld played on this idea many years ago with Elaine, whose character in one episode bragged about how violated or "broken" she was, and that was just what you had to put up with living in the city. Welcome to the club, she said to Jerry, who had just been violated himself, or at least suspected he had. Elaine was anything but stable. In fact none of those characters were. Something about modern cities wears people down and that show highlighted it. 

There are many things that people enjoy about cities. The restaurants, the social scene, the theatres and more. But cities are unnatural environments in every way, There is also something about being in the concrete jungle that is just off, it just does not feel right. Evidence shows this is not just a feeling, but a genuine environmental effect that in some people drives them literally crazy. 

But what I find most fascinating is that many movies and TV shows are made by a Holloywood steeped in city living that looks at the country and sees crazy. But are they just largely projecting their own insanity? Evidence would seem to point in that direction. 

Pride Is A Sin

My views on immigration are well known to readers of this blog. At least those who have read it for some time. We need to stop it, it is that simple. We have had too much of it here in Australia, and this will cause conflicts of various kinds over time. But one interesting facit of immigration into Australia is the strong representation of Christians amongst Pacific Island immigrants. Aside from a few cults and the occasional Muslim, most Polynesians are strong, practising, and vocal Protestant Christians. 

Israel Folau made headlines across the world a few years ago for challenging the LGBTB issue on social media. He did this openly and boldly, because he comes from a culture and society where it's still a grevious sin. And where the Bible is still the most respected book. 

I have been waiting for this to become a bigger issue in the NRL (National Rugby League), for some time, because many upcoming and established professional players are Polynesians with strong Christian faiths. And finally an SJW at an NRL club has triggered the sleeping saints in the league. Fox News reports:

"Manly are facing a major headache with seven players considering not wearing a pride jersey against the Roosters on Thursday...

...The club will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to find a solution.

The players, mostly of Polynesian backgrounds, are considering a boycott of the game, Nine reported."

Pray for these men, stand with these men. They have unleashed a whirlwind, a necessary one. Diversities are colliding. This will be fascinating to watch play out. 

Why China Is Making America Nervous

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I came across this interview the first time on Vox Day's blog the other day, and then again on UNZ. Now after having read it in full, I'd like share some snippets of the interview myself. 

Michael Hudson is one of the genuine treasures in our world today. I have plugged his book ...and forgive them their debts several times here before and will many times again. I highly recommend it because it shows how a lot of conventional wisdom about economic management is wrong, and the Bible and history, my two favourite topics, show why. 

This interview of Hudson's is enlightening and talks about why our world is in the economic and military bind that it is today. This is more about the current economic situation and why modern capitalism is such a failure. Or as Hudson calls it, financial capitalism. 

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, what gets Americans so upset is that China’s getting rich by doing exactly what the United States did in the 19th century. I’ve written a book America’s protectionist takeoff where I described the whole idea of American protectionism was tariff protection for its industry, government subsidized research and development, government subsidy of industry by having infrastructure as a fourth factor of production alongside land labor and capital – and it was supposed to have public banking.

So basically China, like the United States, said we want to raise the living standards of labor not because of an abstract ideal but because highly paid labor is more efficient labor, a highly paid labor is more educated, it’s better fed, it’s healthier and the Americans in the nineteenth century pointed out that America was the highest paid labor in the world but it was also the most productive and high paid labor outsold pauper labor.

Well China began under Mao with, you’d look at pictures back in the fifties, and even early sixties and you’d see masses of beggars and I’d look at the pictures and I said how on earth are they going to solve this problem? Well, they actually did it and China realized that in order to survive in the modern world you had to have uh well-paid, well-housed, well-fed, well-educated labor and they’ve done it.

The difference is that America had kept money creation in the hands of the treasury ever since the greenbacks in America’s Civil War. Basically, the government created money but in 1913, JP Morgan and the financial sector got together and they said we’ve got to get the government out of money and credit. If we can control money and credit, we can control the economy so they convinced President Wilson to have the Federal Reserve. They said we’re not even going to let a treasury official be on the Federal Reserve.

We’re going to move the Federal Reserve banks out of Washington. We’re going to have the key bank in New York where Wall Street is the ideal of a Federal Reserve to make a centrally planned economy and America is a much more centralized planned economy than China but its centralized planning is on Wall Street by the financial sector, by the leading financial corporations instead of the government.

So, where America took economic forward planning out of the hands of the government in 1913, China has kept the financial system in the hands of the government. Let’s look at how these two countries create money in a different way since the Obama depression began in 2008.

The Federal Reserve has created a tidal wave of credit, all into the stock market, in the bond market, all of this recent zero interest policy. This flood, these nine trillion dollars of federal reserve credit has only been to support banks, real estate prices, bond and stock prices, to support property prices. That’s not what they do in China, although the prosperity that China has created has increased uh housing prices and there has been private credit increasing housing prices. China has kept money creation in the hands of the government itself so that when the government creates money it can finance the creation of factories plant and equipment, dams, transportation infrastructure, public housing.

It doesn’t create money to lend to financial speculators and stockholders to increase their holdings, it creates actual tangible means of production. Now of course, if you create tangible means of production and employ labor and have high speed railroads and research laboratories, you’re going to overtake countries that are busy closing down the factories and cutting back research and development because they want quick payouts.

So the chief public utility to be kept in the public domain, (China realizes and has realized from the beginning) is the banking system and credit creation even so there’s still private credit creation to some extent. They’ve also let some participation by American Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs because it’s hoped, it wants to avoid war and it hopes that it can by providing opportunities for financial profit to American companies that will somehow uh convince Wall Street to resist the Biden administration’s race hatred of China and the attempt to move towards a new war against China.

Obviously, the assumption that China made that seemed rational at the time was well the American economy is run by Wall street so if we can have Wall Street say we’re doing just fine with China, everything’s going to be okay. But Wall Street and the Federal Reserve bank and the treasury have not even been consulted on this year’s war, NATO’s war with Russia in Ukraine at all. It’s Blinken and Biden and the neocons basically are waging a war that has sidelined finance and the result is to create the present crash in stock market prices and the parallel decline in bond prices.

So, finance capitalism is intrinsically self-destructive whereas industrial capitalism is self-expansive. Finance capitalism is self-destructive and that’s exactly what’s happening today and that’s what China wants to avoid by basically following the logic of what used to be called industrial capitalism.

By the 19th century, everybody used the word socialism and it wasn’t only the Marxists that were using the word socialism. There were Christian socialists, libertarian socialists, anarchist socialists and all different kinds of socialists. They recognized that you have to have the government sponsorship of a balanced and fair economic development. You have to prevent people from getting rich not by providing any productive service at all but just by being good rip-off artists and that’s basically what finance capitalism is: opportunity for rip-off artists to get rich uh by taking money away from the 99 percent, into their own hands.

Our economies are dominated by a financial elite that pillage our current industry and production capacities for unjust gain. They want everything privatized, so they can charge for it. It's not profits from surplus created by labor that they pursue, it is complete financialization of the markets, trading, gambling in stocks, rent seeking and more that they are after. Far more destructive means. 

But the reason why I shared this segment is that many people think that America got rich with free markets. But they didn't, they built up their economy with a protectionist system not unlike how China is now, they limited what could come into their country, took what they could from others and invested lots of government money into their domestic industry. Other historians I've read have noted this as well. America limited both immigration and foreign goods. Once they became dominant and wanted access to foreign markets after World War 2, they then began to proclaim free trade as Dogma. 

China is freaking America out because to dominate China America needs unrestricted access to their finance sector to cannibalise their economy. This is not possible now because China protects itself from such manipulation. China is not getting rich with free trade, it's getting rich by playing one rule at home and another overseas, just as the US did, just as the British Empire did. China is playing to win and IT IS winning. Fascinating to live to see this. 

I'll share more over this week. 

Immune Escape?

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Or Immune suppression? 

Dr John Campbell has been on of the more interesting doctors to follow during this pandemic. He has been very pro the vaccines, but also critical of government poilicies of lockdown and forcing vaccines on the young, and very positive towards alternative and suppressed treatments. He has also been a strong advocate for natural immunity, that is immunity gained from infection. 

In this video https://youtu.be/wLyTAsoz6X0 he discusses the fact that the virus is now evading immunity. Something he, and many experts did not expert. But something that was predicted by others (like Dr Malone, Dr McCullogh etc). 

But is the virus adapting beyond the immune systems ability to stop it, or is something else happening? 

Enter this paper in the Virology Journal: 

"Recently, The Lancet published a study on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and the waning of immunity with time. The study showed that immune function among vaccinated individuals 8 months after the administration of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine was lower than that among the unvaccinated individuals. According to European Medicines Agency recommendations, frequent COVID-19 booster shots could adversely affect the immune response and may not be feasible. The decrease in immunity can be caused by several factors such as N1-methylpseudouridine, the spike protein, lipid nanoparticles, antibody-dependent enhancement, and the original antigenic stimulus. These clinical alterations may explain the association reported between COVID-19 vaccination and shingles. As a safety measure, further booster vaccinations should be discontinued. In addition, the date of vaccination should be recorded in the medical record of patients. Several practical measures to prevent a decrease in immunity have been reported. These include limiting the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including acetaminophen to maintain deep body temperature, appropriate use of antibiotics, smoking cessation, stress control, and limiting the use of lipid emulsions, including propofol, which may cause perioperative immunosuppression. In conclusion, COVID-19 vaccination is a major risk factor for infections in critically ill patients." 

This paper, as noted, is based off of research published in the Lancet. This research shows that after more than 210 days (8 months) the immune response of vaccinated individuals were lower. That Lancet paper uses that finding to advocate for administering boosters. But is it not also a vindication of natural immunity? In fact is it not primarily a vindication of natural immunity? 

So is the virus escaping immunity or is immunity being suppressed? I have put this here for you to investigate yourself. I for one think our medical institutions need to face justice for performing this experiment in real time on entire populations. People were coerced, bullied and threatened to participate. This breaks every principle the West said it believed, and shows that we have not learnt anything from passed forced experiments. This information was not unforeseeable, every expert who advocated these policies is culpable. 

Those who advised against this and predicted this damage to the immune system were called conspiracy theorists. But as one commentator said conspiracy theorists are 5 and 0 so far. Now you can't call them conspiracy theorists for noting that the vaccines observably lower immune function. What's next off the plate? 

Archetypal Woman

There are two archetypal women in the Bible, Mary and Jezebel. Both as daughters of Eve, exemplify what woman can be in her best and worst forms. The anti-dote to Jezebel is encouraging women to be like Mary. The most powerful role a woman can play is the righteous mother. The world needs this more than it knows, more than even the Church knows. In fact the Church today often lies about this, and allows Jezebel to rule in its midst in many contexts. 

It's fascinating to me how much of the advice in the modern Church to women is to be like Jezebel. That is, to be the woman who leads her man, leans on her her power, and places herself in compromising positions. 

But the Scriptures are clear on the righteous role of women is to seek after motherhood: 

"11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control" (1 Tim. 2:11-15). 

It's common to see media pieces dealing with "working mum" guilt. How women struggle not being with their kids. All sorts of advice is given to these women to cope with it. I feel for women who can't afford to stay at home. But for most women this is a choice. They want a certain house, status, career or high standard of living. 

To put these things before motherhood, before, raising your child, is the modern siren call to women. The Jezebel lure. It's no wonder women struggle with guilt following this call. 

The Bible's response to the guilt that comes with this lifestyle is simple: just submit to your husband and focus on being a mother in the home. Men, it's our job to help this happen. 

This is not to denigrate women. It is to recognise that a mother such as this was necessaeyvto the incarnation of the Lord Jesus and the salvation of the world. That  is incredible. It wasn't a working woman God needed, it was a humble, ordinary mother, willing to raise her son. 

The more women we have like this, the better chance we have of seeing the kingdom of God extended in our day and beyond in this broken culture. 

There Is Always Hope

I am continually amazed at how the way God judges nations in the Bible lines up with how we see issues happening in our nations today. Especially with regards to judgement on the US, the dominant world empire. Look at what God says about Egypt in Isaiah 19:

“1 An oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud

    and comes to Egypt;

and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,

    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,

    and they will fight, each against another

    and each against his neighbor,

    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;

3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,

    and I will confound their counsel;

and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,

    and the mediums and the necromancers;

4 and I will give over the Egyptians

    into the hand of a hard master,

and a fierce king will rule over them,

    declares the Lord God of hosts.

5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up,

    and the river will be dry and parched,

6 and its canals will become foul,

    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,

    reeds and rushes will rot away.

7 There will be bare places by the Nile,

    on the brink of the Nile,

and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,

    will be driven away, and will be no more.

8 The fishermen will mourn and lament,

    all who cast a hook in the Nile;

and they will languish

    who spread nets on the water.

9 The workers in combed flax will be in despair,

    and the weavers of white cotton.

10 Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,

    and all who work for pay will be grieved.

11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;

    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

    “I am a son of the wise,

    a son of ancient kings”?

12 Where then are your wise men?

    Let them tell you

    that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,

    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;

those who are the cornerstones of her tribes

    have made Egypt stagger.

14 The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,

and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,

    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15 And there will be nothing for Egypt

    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.”

God is going to turn the mighty world power, into a fractured kingdom, led by fool’s, who turn against each other, Egyptian against Egyptian, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. There are those who believe God does not judge nations as he did in ancient times. But this could describe the fall of Rome, the fall of Byzantium, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and many more nations and empires. You can even see how it is starting to happen in America. 

Egypt will be so thoroughly judged they’ll lose their identity:

"16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.”

When God takes away a nations identity, you know he is upset at that nation. But there is a ray of hope. Though their identity is broken, they will find a new hope in the “Lord of hosts”. 

19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. 22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

Some would apply this to Egypt being blessed by the modern nation of Israel. Which makes no sense because that is a nation that hates Jesus, the Lord, that rejects the gospel and that follows the false traditions of men which hold no eternal hope. No this is better seen as fulfilled in the work of Jesus through the gospel. We see a fulfilment of this in the Coptic Church, and the great work of Christianity that spread through Egypt from the first century and, despite tumults over the centuries, still exists there today. 

You see God judged Egypt, but he also gave them a new hope, a hope in Christ. For those that wanted it, and many took that offer. 

We don’t know exactly what the fall of the US will entail. We know it will be devastating. But God offers to all new beginnings in Jesus Christ. There is always hope, even for the judged nation. Sometimes a nation needs judgement to remember where to look for hope. So, even in judgement we can see encouragement. This is true for Egypt, the US, or us in Australia today. 

Supply Issues Aren't That Bad...

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...Unless your life, health and pain management rely on these medications:

"Australia faces a “dire” medicine shortage, with more than 300 drugs in short supply and another 80 anticipated to join the list, as doctors and pharmacists call for a national strategy to prevent the situation getting worse.

Drugs for diabetes, hormone replacement therapy, depression, nausea, stroke and contraception are among the 320 drugs listed by the TGA as in current short supply, with about 50 of these listed as critical. 

Another 80 are listed as anticipated to be in short supply, including anti-venom for the funnel web spider, and a drug used in leukaemia treatment. 

The Pharmacy Guild is also reporting shortages of off-the-shelf cold and flu medications, including liquid paracetamol for children, with new measures in place to try and manage supplies. 

The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Karen Price, said the situation had been exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic affecting international supply chains, with the issue becoming more acute in recent years.

“What we’re finding is that we’re suddenly getting patients saying I can’t get that medication or the pharmacist has changed it … so this is becoming an increasing problem,” Price said."

This is just another area where our government and big business policies have screwed us:

“There is a whole sovereign risk issue here. We used to be great manufacturers of medication in the country, and unfortunately more and more of that has been lost, especially the generic medicine industry where a lot of that now is based in India and China and so forth,” he said."

Australia used to make most of what it needed. But for some time now we have had our manufacturing sector gutted. Describing a nation that cannot produce its own basic or life saving medications as "developed" is a cruel joke. Australia is regressing as a nation and our wealth is such a charade only those who are not aware of how much debt the average Australian is in can say with any seriousness that we are a wealthy nation. Our nation has been in a weak position for some time because of deliberate policies to gut local manufacturing, and recent rolling lockdowns have exposed just how precarious a situation we are in. 

Those of us who condemned the repeated lockdowns and centralised dictates of the supply chains and businesses were not even a little bit wrong. To solve one issue, a thousand issues were created and exacerbated. I would say politicians need to be held to account for this, but we have neither a legal system that cares nor a populous capable of comprehending why they, themselves, should care.

Maybe when you can't get that life saving or pain relieving medication you need, you'll finally be in a position to consider just how badly our society was manipulated in the last few years and the dangerous road our leaders have put us on. We don't have to become like Sri Lanka but our national leadership seems determined to flirt with such a fate. 

God Hates Unjust Scales

image: unsplash. 

There are reports of profiteering happening. 

Retailers apparently aren't quick enough to flow on the savings to their products. There are other reports that big businesses are profiteering off of inflation and raising prices just because they can. I have heard anecdotal reports that business owners are doing the same. 

How much of inflation is just down to the wealthy manipulating things and selfish people increasing prices because they can get away with it? It is being blamed on a far away conflict that really has little financial impact here at all. Those of us who don't have memories dictated by media narratives know that inflation was high before the war began. 

To those who are profiteering note, you won't get away with it. God hates unjust weights and measures, he is watching, he is making an account. Charging more for a necessary service because you can, is an unjust weight or measure:

"Diesel holds up

Mr Trotter says retailers are holding up the price of diesel given the significant fall in the prices from Singapore.

“Given that diesel represents some 20 billion litres per annum and is the key fuel in road transport, rail, agriculture, mining and marine (industries) it arguably has the biggest impact on price inflation as it feeds through into significant percentage of all deliveries in Australia”.

The gap between falling petrol prices and static ones for diesel sees those consumers “significantly disadvantaged” as a retail price gap blows out to near 40 cents a litre."

It's not just fuel companies: 

"Essentially what's going on is that big corporations are using the cover of inflation to jack up their prices beyond what their input costs would justify and rake in those profits, and consumers are paying the price. Some of the most egregious examples are credit card companies. Visa and MasterCard, for example, are a massive duopoly in their space, and so they have a huge amount of market share. And what we saw is that these companies make money by taking a fixed percentage cut of each transaction. So with inflation, as prices are rising, they're inherently going to be pulling in more money, and yet these companies are also increasing that transaction fee."

Reports are coming in in many places. My advice to you is if you don't need it now don't buy it. Of course some things we have no choice, but the cost of some things is falling, just wait. Don't pay $20,000 over price for a car, or a service of some kind that you can wait for. Don't give the profiteers the satisfaction.