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“Certainly one of the most important things I learned is that numbers can be deceiving. There is a logic to mathematics, but there is also the underlying human element that must be considered. Numbers can’t lie, but the people who create those numbers can and do. As so many people have learned, forgetting to include human nature in an equation can be devastating.” ― Harry Markopolos, No One Would Listen

Image result for harry markopolos

The quote I used from Harry Markopolos’ No One Would Listen book about the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme in my last article triggered a bittersweet recollection. For me, the experience captured the true nature of our warped financial markets, a culture glorifying wealthy arrogant criminal assholes, while ignoring or ridiculing honest, hard working, highly intelligent truth tellers.

The picture of Markopolos above shows an average looking middle aged guy, with a five o’clock shadow, bad haircut, and wearing a modestly priced suit and tie. Since reading about his fruitless effort to expose Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme and his fifteen minutes of fame in 2009, I have felt an affinity towards him. We both have a brother and sister. We were both brought up in Catholic households and went to Catholic schools. We both have degrees in finance. We have both had financial careers. We are both married with three sons. And we both believe facts and an accurate assessment of the numbers always reveals the truth.

Through his job as a portfolio manager with a small investment firm Bernie Madoff’s investing record was brought to his attention. As a numbers guy, he immediately began assessing the returns. Markopolos said he knew within five minutes Madoff’s numbers didn’t add up. It took him another four hours to mathematically prove that they could have only been obtained by fraud.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What Keeps Them Up At Night

September 17, 2018

WHAT KEEPS THEM UP AT NIGHT

“Government has coddled, accepted, and ignored white collar crime for too long. It is time the nation woke up and realized that it’s not the armed robbers or drug dealers who cause the most economic harm, it’s the white collar criminals living in the most expensive homes who have the most impressive resumes who harm us the most. They steal our pensions, bankrupt our companies, and destroy thousands of jobs, ruining countless lives.” – Harry Markopolos, Madoff Whistleblower

Image result for bank ceos in front of congress

The tenth anniversary of the Wall Street created financial catastrophe brought back some bittersweet memories this week. I wrote my first articles during the summer/fall of 2008 for Seeking Alpha. They included: Is The U.S Banking System Safe? (Aug 2008), The Great Consumer Crash of 2009 (Aug 2008), Looming Financial Catastrophe: A Real Inconvenient Truth (Aug 2008), Is Wachovia the Worst Run Bank in America (Sept 2008), The U.S. on the Precipice (Sept 2008), On Board the U.S.S. Titanic (Sept 2008), Our Coming Depression (Oct 2008), among others. I was pumping out 5,000 word articles every 2 or 3 days.

I was full of piss and vinegar. I was outraged by the actions taken by Paulson, Bernanke and Bush in bailing out criminal bankers with our money. This ensemble of accurate and acerbic articles led to requests for appearances on Glenn Beck’s CNN show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and several others. My need for my day job led me to turning down the invitations. I did several radio interviews, but kept a relatively low profile.

Ten years later, I’m running low on piss and vinegar. Irrationality reigns. Abnormal is the new normal. Delusions and new paradigms rule the day. During manias it is virtually useless to try and use facts and rational arguments against propaganda, misinformation and hype. The delusional will have to be clubbed like a baby seal once again to regain some sense of reality.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Towers to Heaven: The Alchemy of Prophecy, Terror, and Unity

September 9, 2018

Towers to Heaven: The Alchemy of Prophecy, Terror, and Unity

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

– Revelation 9:11

At the end of last month, I read an article that claimed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was foretold by a “20 Year Old Movie”. The film was a 1998 thriller entitled “Enemy of the State” starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

My curiosity aroused, I selected the show from my electronic catalog and watched it unwind; similar to the way I once queued up songs on jukeboxes in the halcyon days preceding the matrix.

In the film, Gene Hackman played an Edward Snowden-type National Security Agency (NSA) contractor gone rogue who revealed to the viewers the U.S. government’s high-tech surveillance capabilities. Two decades ago when the film was released, the surveillance grid disclosed therein would have seemed far-fetched. But not today. Now, in the aftermath of 911, the Patriot Act, and the Snowden revelations, those capabilities are not only common knowledge, but are the subjects of ongoing daily headlines.

The antagonist in the film was played by Jon Voight, a power-hungry NSA bureaucrat who assembled a team of technology experts and security agents that blackmailed Congress and even murdered a senator. The politician was killed to aid the passing of a Patriot Act-style bill that would have, in effect, drilled the final screw into the coffin of the Fourth Amendment.

The film called to mind multiple recent news stories ranging from high-tech espionage, to social media spying and censorship, to CIA programs like UMBRAGE which masquerades as computer hacks by foreign governments, to the Awan brothers and the murder of former Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich. Essentially, the plot demonstrated Senator Chuck Schumer’s warning to President Donald Trump in an MSNBC interview on January 3^rd, 2017:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

10 Years Later–No Lessons Learned

September 4, 2018

10 YEARS LATER – NO LESSONS LEARNED

“A variety of investors provided capital to financial companies, with which they made irresponsible loans and took excessive risks. These activities resulted in real losses, which have largely wiped out the shareholder equity of the companies. But behind that shareholder equity is bondholder money, and so much of it that neither depositors of the institution nor the public ever need to take a penny of losses. Citigroup, for example, has $2 trillion in assets, but also has $600 billion owed to its own bondholders. From an ethical perspective, the lenders who took the risk to finance the activities of these companies are the ones that should directly bear the cost of the losses.”– John Hussman – May 2009

This month marks the 10^th anniversary of the Wall Street/Fed/Treasury created financial disaster of 2008/2009. What should have happened was an orderly liquidation of the criminal Wall Street banks who committed the greatest control fraud in world history and the disposition of their good assets to non-criminal banks who did not recklessly leverage their assets by 30 to 1, while fraudulently issuing worthless loans to deadbeats and criminals. But we know that did not happen.

You, the taxpayer, bailed the criminal bankers out and have been screwed for the last decade with negative real interest rates and stagnant real wages, while the Wall Street scum have raked in risk free billions in profits provided by their captured puppets at the Federal Reserve. The criminal CEOs and their executive teams of henchmen have rewarded themselves with billions in bonuses while risk averse grandmas “earn” .10% on their money market accounts while acquiring a taste for Fancy Feast savory salmon cat food.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Those Who Don’t Take Heed Die of Ingratitude

August 14, 2018

Those Who Don’t Take Heed Die of Ingratitude

One evening, while in college, I attended an extracurricular lecture held by my college adviser on nuclear proliferation. It was a concern that was close to his heart and I admired his “doing something about it” at the time.

During his talk, he shared the parable of “the frog in boiling water” and it was the first time I had heard it told.

Essentially, it boiled (pun intended) down to this:

If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out to save its life. However, if you place the frog into a pot of room temperature water and slowly heat it to a boil, the frog will gradually boil to death.

The lesson from the story?

For me, it was this:

Inattention and complacency kills; gradually by degree at first, and then all once.

I believe this applies to people on a personal basis as well as on a grander scale. Consider how much we have progressed since Y2K. After 911, I became that frog in the water before I jumped out and went Galt ten years later, in 2011. It was around the time the tsunamis struck Japan and a few months before Ann Barnhardt jumped ship. I couldn’t stop the boiling all around me, so I got out.

For the next several years though, a sort of paralysis set in that was brought about by my anger and fear. In a sense, I was boiling still, but in a different way; from the inside out, as it were, as I’ve seen others do also. Earlier this year, I wrote about some of that in another essay, regarding the importance of honesty and how I leaped from that latest boiling pot:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mere Anarchy is Loosed Upon the World

June 19, 2018

Mere Anarchy is Loosed Upon the World

I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at the vehemence of some of the replies to my recent guest post, “An Open Letter to West Virginians”. Some of my fellow TBP´ers took strong exception to the military draft, voting, the political parties, and the existing world in general.

The intention of my article was to cause West Virginians to reflect before falling for the cynical and dishonest Democratic Party tactic of using sock puppet veterans as candidates, in a vile attempt to deflect attention from their true, treasonous program. I used as an example the campaign of one Richard Ojeda in, of course, West Virginia.

I did not intend to support a military draft, applaud the senseless wars we are involved in, to praise our two main parties, or exalt the usefulness of voting under current conditions. I surely did not mean to express support for the world as it is. Anybody who has followed my comments should understand my basic positions on all of these points.

That said, let me reiterate my views on all of these things so you have a better idea of where I stand.

Military draft. Like it or not, the “draft”, i.e., compulsory military service, is one of the bedrock obligations of a citizen and it has been since the Roman Empire. In our particular case, service in the military dates back to medieval times in England when every man was required to serve according to their station. Nobles had to provide a certain number of armed men for a certain number of days a year, knights had to maintain a horse, weapons and armor, and yeomen had to furnish themselves with weapons and train on a regular basis. In many cases the yeomen were required to furnish themselves with the English longbow and practice regularly – this requirement won the battle of Agincourt for the English king.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

June 11, 2018

Self-Governance in an Unreasonable Age

Part IV: A Conclave of Reptiles

Once again, the country descends into the fetid morass of double-talk, obfuscation, and contemptible cacophony known as election season. Right on cue, every slithering incumbent and mucilaginous political rookie is crisscrossing his/her/its respective area of operations in the hope of bamboozling the required number of dolts into scratching an “X” in their favor. It is a perfectly ridiculous exercise, founded in fanciful expectations, false hopes, and dreams of remembered greatness.

This biennial exercise in national self-delusion will take place across a vast, arid political landscape bereft of any cooling breeze of intelligent debate and denied even the barest sprinkling of intellectual honesty to settle the duplicitous dust of what passes for political discourse in this ghost of a country. Instead, the voting populace will get its usual entrée of verbal offal dressed up with the emotional condiments of their choice. Then, the farce will come to its emotional apogee on election day (oh, blessed day) when the electorate will once again squeeze out a collective turd that looks pretty much identical to the deuce they dropped two and four years earlier. The product of this national bowel movement will smell the same and you wouldn’t want to step in it, but at least it’s out of the system for a few months. At least until the sibilant whisperings of our reptilian ruling class begin to tickle our ears once again…, and again…, and again. Welcome to scatological Ground Hog Day on the Potomac.

The Definition of Insanity

As usual, the voters will return some ridiculous percentage of Senators and Representatives back to the very Congress, which they ostensibly hold in utter contempt.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Ten Ways the Democratic Northern Hemisphere Nations Became the Orwellian West

June 5, 2018

Ten Ways the Democratic Northern Hemisphere Nations Became the Orwellian West

In his book, “1984”, George Orwell envisioned a future crushed by the iron grip of a collectivist oligarchy. The narrative told of the INGSOC Party which maintained power through a system of surveillance and brutality designed to monitor and control every aspect of society. From the time of the book’s release in 1949, any ensuing vision of a dark dystopia depicting variations of jackboots stomping on human faces, forever, has been referenced as being “Orwellian”. This is because Orwell’s narrative illustrated various disturbing and unjust conceptualizations of control, crime, and punishment.

For example, “Newspeak” represented the language of mind control, whereas “crimethink”, “thoughtcrime”, and “crimeface” manifested as transgressions against the state. Guilty citizens were captured by the “Thought Police”, and the ultimate punishment consisted of “vaporization”; which eliminated every last vestige of a person’s existence.

In the horrifying world of 1984, the nation of Oceania was divided into three concentric groups: The Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles, or proletariat. The Proles constituted 85% of the population and lived in extreme privation. The Inner Party represented the elite powerbrokers who led lives of comprehensive luxury compared to the minions in the Outer Party.

But in the real world of today, it is the globalist billionaires who own multiple mansions, fly private jets and ride in eight-cylinder limousines to climate-change conferences where policies are decreed to lower the carbon footprint of the proletariat. It is the wealthy elite of the westernized nations who have sacrificed individual freedom upon the altar of Collectivism as political correctness has stifled free speech and enslaved citizens drown under oceans of debt.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Book Excerpt: How You Got Screwed

April 25, 2018

Book Excerpt: How You Got Screwed

Chapter 4: How you’re getting screwed by…Retirement Promises

The Point: Most people have an expectation that they’ll be taken care of later in life thanks to government programs like Social Security and Medicare, private or public pensions, or through their own efforts to build up their net worth. In reality, it was never possible for governments and corporations to fulfill the promises they made to you, and those assets you saved may not be worth what you think they will be, when it’s time to cash them in.

There is a predictable pattern to life: We start out as dependent children; grow to be independent adults; and, inevitably, become dependent again as we move into old age. We know this is coming; not a single person in history has avoided it. So it’s important for us to plan for that while we’re in our prime.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are completely unprepared for the 100 percent certainty of old age. There are many reasons for this:

Because we live in a debt- and credit-driven society, we have come to think only of our immediate needs and wants. There’s no need to save for the things we want to buy: We just borrow the money and promise to pay for it later. This mindset not only means that we’re hard-wired against saving, it also means we’re probably going to grow old with a pile of debt—all those things we said we’d pay back in the future. We have some assets—notably our home equity—but all that debt keeps our net worth low.
We’re about to deal with a huge demographic bubble—the aging of the huge Baby Boomer population—which will result in a selling frenzy of the assets they accumulated in better times. Asset prices will crash due to little demand and huge supply of those assets.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Winter is Coming (Part Three)

April 18, 2018

WINTER IS COMING (PART THREE)

“The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

Image result for swirling fog game of thrones

In Part One of this article I laid out the reasons for Gray Champions arising to meet challenges during crisis periods in history. In Part Two of this article I assessed the configuration of Gray Champions throughout the world and the potential impact on the course of this Fourth Turning.

The swirling fog of confusion enveloping the globe as the high lords of the universe play their game of thrones has even the most critical thinking individuals baffled by the course of events. The desperation and blatant lawlessness of the Deep State players in their endeavor to preserve their hegemony over the course of global affairs is palpable with every attack, false flag, accusation, and ratcheting up of their propaganda media machine.

Like Game of Thrones, the behind the scenes machinations, subterfuge, and deceptions taking place outside the purview of the common folk are designed to only benefit the rich and powerful players undertaking these traitorous actions. Open warfare will not happen until it is thought to be in the best interests of those manipulating the levers of society and the narrative produced by their perpetual propaganda media machine. But, in the end, it will be the innocent common people who will suffer the consequences, while the lords reap the riches, glory and power.

“Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” – Lord Varys – George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Keep Going. This Too Shall Pass.

March 30, 2018

Keep Going. This Too Shall Pass.

Like the weather when a storm approaches, or as the seasons turn, or waves pounding on a shoreline, any deviations are measured and compared by speed and intensity. The same can be said for headlines: Omnibus, discouraged Deplorables, rumors of war, prospects of peace, economic bubbles, fluctuating markets, and political intrigue. Round and round it goes; when it ends, nobody knows. It’s a time of transition; and when traveling over mountaintops, through valleys, and on rough seas, no one has all of the answers.

Even when looking at maps.

The books, “Generations” (1992) and “The Fourth Turning“ (1997), were written by the historians William Strauss and Neil Howe. These recent explorers identified recorded cycles of history and categorized them across multiple cultures and eras. In both books, historical timelines were analyzed and populations were correlated to specific life-cycles labeled as generational types. Strauss and Howe additionally addressed the concept of time in the context of both circular and linear perspectives and defined what is called a “saeculum” as a “long human life” measuring roughly 80 to 90 years. Every saeculum is comprised of four turnings, each lasting around 20 years.

Just as there are four seasons consisting of spring, summer, fall and winter, there are also four phases of a human life represented in childhood, young adulthood, middle age and elderhood. As each phase of human life represents approximately 20 years, so is each generational archetype identified within the historical cycles, or turnings, as follows.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

1984 is in Full Bloom

March 21, 2018

1984 IS IN FULL BLOOM

When I read this forwarded email from Yojimbo from HollyO this morning it seemed surreal. I swear it sounded like a scene from 1984, the movie. I can’t believe this is happening in this day and age. I think we are all being naive regarding how far our ruling class will go to suppress free speech, freedom, and our liberties as human beings. We are living in dark times, despite the delusion of wealth, health and supposed democracy.

A virtual police state is being created, with government surveillance agencies conspiring with the social media mega-corps to control and monitor our every thought, action, or conversation. If anything, as this Fourth Turning progresses, it will get worse. We are already at war, we just don’t know it, and we’re losing. I need to repost the Hangman poem as a reminder what will happen.

I have a Pdf of Holly’s article on my hard drive. I will email it to you directly if you contact me at quinnadvisors@gmail.com.

Email from HollyO:

The landline rang yesterday which was unusual because no one ever rings me. I picked it up and heard, ‘Heddlu.’ Then the phone was put down on the other end.

I went into shock, then moved fast. I opened protonmail and fired a message to Yojimbo to contact Admin, signed out, wiped what I had under my immediate control, then heard a car pull up.

The last thing I did was burn a PDF to a thumb drive, then trashed the file. I ejected the thumb drive, capped it and heard a knock on the door.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is There a Method to the Socratic Madness?

March 9, 2018

IS THERE A METHOD TO THE SOCRATIC MADNESS?

Image result for COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Bear with me, and let’s together consider a scenario: Imagine one day you wake up, turn on the TV, and there is complete pandemonium. The news has just broken that the Trump administration has set up military tribunals; arrested hundreds of members of both political parties; arrested thousands of others outside government; renditioned George Soros; captured Edward Snowden; and seized Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barry Obama, and John McCain and charged them with treason. Additionally, imagine many of those arrested are charged with child trafficking for sex or organ harvesting, for drug trafficking, and for undermining the sovereignty of the United States. How would the populace react? How would the liberals react? How would the MSM characterize it? Imagine the totality of it.

I think there would be complete chaos. Society would be at the point of coming to a complete standstill, or a revolution, or a societal breakdown.

Image result for black lives matter riots

Most likely, the MSM would be in a full informational warfare stance. They would be characterizing these sweeping actions as dictatorial. They would say that President Trump had arrested the opposition, had lost his mind, was acting extra-Constitutionally, and had directed Sessions to fabricate evidence.

The Democrat Party, certainly, would be saying that Trump had become mentally unstable, that the “resistance” movement must rise up, that people must demand that their Congressmen must remove Trump from the Presidency, and they would basically call for riots.

If anyone arrested was a Republican, like John McCain or Lindsey Graham, the Republicans as well might call for Trump to be removed. The cancer of corruption, treason, selling out America and the Deep State collusion might have spread throughout the Congress.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Destiny Looms: Choose Your Way or it Drags You

March 6, 2018

Destiny Looms: Choose Your Way or it Drags You

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
– 2 Timothy 3:3

– Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.
― Seneca

Posting articles online, especially for readers of high intelligence, can be quite a balancing act. In fact, with certain topics, it is like walking a tightrope while wearing ice-skates in a crosswind. At times, the tightrope represents the delicate balance between the cerebral hemispheres. According to Left- Brain Right-Brain Theory, the left-brained technicians incline towards logic, analysis, and objectivity, and the right-brained artisans are intuitive, subjective, and romantic.

Although I can play either side, I personally favor the creative aspects of artistic, conceptual visualization. This may be why left-brained people rarely get my jokes. For instance, if I wrote how mechanical engineers design weapons and civil engineers design targets, there would be comments in the ensuing thread informing me that both types of engineers design FAR more than just those two categories. Even more importantly, extreme caution must be applied to never get the science wrong, ever. Make one mistake and medieval heretics burned at the stake will gaze up from hell and say: “There but for the grace of God, go we” as the left-brainers, with smoking pens in melted shirt pocket-protectors, dance upon my ashes.

So it’s a fine line.

Effort is required, not only to countervail the cerebral hemispheres, but to reach the blue-pilled wonders while still engaging the red-pilled cynics; to affect those in my personal circle as well as strangers; and concurrently appeal to both conspiracy speculators and the… shall we say… trusting ones.

All that was a preamble for this:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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