Musical Interlude: The Moody Blues, "Question"

Full screen recommended.

A Spadecaller video of The Moody Blues' "Question"

Please do visit the Spadecaller channel link above.

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Matthew Schwartz (AKA Spadecaller) is an artist imbued with 

deep convictions. His galleries of original art and photography 

are available for viewing and purchase at:  

- https://matthew-schwartz.pixels.com/

A magnificent talent...my very highest recommendation.

“Americans Using Homes As ATM; Don’t Lose Everything; Housing Bubble Unsustainable; Real Assets”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Americans Using Homes As ATM; Don’t Lose Everything; 

Housing Bubble Unsustainable; Real Assets”

You really need to view this video...

And you'd be wise to view this article:

"Here's How 30 Preppers Have Adapted 

And What They Foresee Happening Next"

Musical Interlude: Nickelback, "If Everyone Cared"

Full screen recommended.

Nickelback, "If Everyone Cared"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.

The galaxy’s protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872′s spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “A Warning To My Readers”

“A Warning To My Readers”

“Do not think me gentle

because I speak in praise

of gentleness, or elegant

because I honor the grace

that keeps this world. I am

a man crude as any,

gross of speech, intolerant,

stubborn, angry, full

of fits and furies. That I

may have spoken well

at times, is not natural.

A wonder is what it is.”

- Wendell Berry

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”

“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”

- Voltaire

The Poet: Theodore Roethke, “The Geranium”

“The Geranium”

“When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,

She looked so limp and bedraggled,

So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,

Or a wizened aster in late September,

I brought her back in again

For a new routine -

Vitamins, water, and whatever

Sustenance seemed sensible

At the time: she’d lived

So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,

Her shriveled petals falling

On the faded carpet, the stale

Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.

(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)

The things she endured!

The dumb dames shrieking half the night

Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,

Me breathing booze at her,

She leaning out of her pot toward the window.

Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me -

And that was scary -

So when that snuffling cretin of a maid

Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,

I said nothing.

But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week,

I was that lonely.”

- Theodore Roethke

The Daily "Near You?"

Ellijay, Georgia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Can't You See..."

"Can't you see that the courage to risk, to dare, to toss that gold coin up in the air over and over again, win or lose, is what makes humans human? They are fragile, doomed creatures, blinder than worms yet braver than the gods."

- Jennifer Donnelly, "Stepsister"

Free Download: Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”

“The Prophet: On Good and Evil”

by Kahlil Gibran

“Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, 

and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.

For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.

Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
“Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.”

For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,

Yet you are not evil when you sleep 

while your tongue staggers without purpose.

And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.

Even those who limp go not backward. 

But you who are strong and swift, 

see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, 

and you are not evil when you are not good,

You are only loitering and sluggard.

Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: 
and that longing is in all of you.

But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, 

carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.

And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and 

bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.

But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, 

“Wherefore are you slow and halting?”
For the truly good ask not the naked, 

“Where is your garment?” 

nor the houseless, “What has befallen your house?”

Freely download a PDF version of “The Prophet” here:
-https://onemorelibrary.com/

“7 Things Fear Has Stolen From You”

“7 Things Fear Has Stolen From You”

by Marc Chernoff

“There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.”

- Ben Johnson

“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid; courage means you don’t let fear stop you. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Don’t ever hesitate to give yourself a chance to be everything you are capable of being. Although fear can feel overwhelming, and defeats more people than any other force in the world, it’s not as powerful as it seems. Fear is only as deep as your mind allows. You are still in control. The key is to acknowledge your fear and directly address it. You must step right up and confront it face to face. This tactic robs fear of its power, instead of fear robbing YOU of…

1. Your true path and purpose. Fear of being different… Don’t be fooled by what others say, especially when they try to tell you what is right for you. Listen and then draw your own conclusions. What is your intuition telling you? There is not a clear path that everyone should follow. Your greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding in life at all the wrong things. Choose a path that fits YOU. Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it. Challenge yourself to ask with each and every step, and each focus point that consumes your energy: “Does this thing I’m doing right now truly serve me and those I care about in the next few minutes, few months, and few years?” Whatever you settle on, just make sure you don’t gain the whole world by losing your soul and purpose in the process.

2. Self-respect. Fear of not being good enough… Don’t be too hard on yourself. There are plenty of people willing to do that for you. Do your best and surrender the rest. Tell yourself, “I am doing the best I can with what I have in this moment. That is all I can ever expect of anyone, including me.” Love yourself and be proud of everything you do, even your mistakes, because your mistakes mean you’re trying. If you feel like others are not treating you with love and respect, check your price tag. Perhaps you subconsciously marked yourself down. Because it’s YOU who tells others what you’re worth by showing them what you are willing to accept for your time and attention. So get off the clearance rack. If you don’t value and respect yourself, wholeheartedly, no one else will either.

3. Your ability to make concrete decisions. Fear of commitment… You cannot live your life at the mercy of chance. You cannot stumble along with a map marked only with the places you fear, or the places you know you don’t want to revisit. You cannot remain trapped, endlessly, in a state where you are unable to ask for directions, even though you’re terribly lost, because you don’t know your destination. You have to commit to goals that speak to you. You have to stand up, look at yourself in the mirror, and say, “It isn’t good enough for me to know only what I DON’T want in life. I need to decide what I DO want.”

4. Priceless opportunities and life experiences. Fear of change and discomfort… As Thich Nhat Hanh so perfectly said, “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” In many cases you stay stuck in your old routines for no other reason than that they are familiar to you. In other words, you’re afraid of change and the unknown. You continually put your dreams and goals off until tomorrow, and you pass on great opportunities simply because they have the potential to lead you out of your comfort zone.

You start using excuses to justify your lack of backbone: “Someday when I have more money,” or “when I’m older,” or the over-abused “I’ll get to it as soon as I have more time.” This is a vicious cycle that leads to a deeply unsatisfying life – a way of thinking that eventually sends you to your grave with immense regret. Regret that you didn’t follow your heart. Regret that you always put everyone else’s needs before your own. Regret that you didn’t do what you could have done when you had the chance.

5. General happiness and peace of mind. Fear of facing inner truths… If you keep looking for happiness outside yourself, you will never find it. Happiness is found from within. What you seek is not somewhere else at some other time; what you seek is here and now, within you. The more you look for it outside yourself, the more it hides from you. Relax, remember the source of your deepest desires, and allow yourself to know their fulfillment. A choice, not circumstances, determines happiness. Each morning when you open your eyes, say to yourself: “I, not external people or events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. It’s up to me. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow hasn’t come yet. I only have today and I’m going to be happy in it.”

6. Your willingness to love, truly and purely. Fear of not being loved in return… Although it is nice when gestures of love are returned, true love is one-way traffic. It’s a pure flow of giving and expecting nothing in return. Anything else is a contract. Notice how whenever you allow love to flow you are always clear, calm and strong. It is only when the thought arises, “What have they given me in return?” that there is confusion and resentment. Ego transacts, love transforms. Life is too short for all these meticulous contracts and transactions.

Look out for yourself by focusing your love in a direction that feels right to you, but once you decide to love, remain clear, remain bright, and remain strong. Love without expectation. Don’t let fear get in your way. When the love you give is true, the people worthy of your love will gradually reveal themselves over time.

7. The right company. Fear of being alone… Sadly, no matter how much love you give, some relationships simply aren’t meant to be. You can try your hardest, you can do everything and say everything, but sometimes people just aren’t worth stressing over anymore, and they aren’t worth worrying about. It’s important to know when to distance yourself from someone who only hurts you and brings you down. When you give your love to someone, truly and purely without expectation, and it’s never good enough for them, there’s a good chance you’re giving your love to the wrong person.

The bottom line is that long-term relationships should help you, not hurt you. Spend time with nice people who are smart, driven and like-minded. And remember, good relationships are a sacred bond – a circle of trust. Both parties must be 100% on board. If and when the time comes to let a relationship go, don’t be hostile. Simply thank the relationships that don’t work out for you, because they just made room for the ones that will.

Next steps… Your biggest fears are completely dependent on you for their survival. Every new day is another chance to change your life, and it’s way too short to let fear interfere. Today, focus your conscious mind on things you desire, not things you fear. Doing so can bring your dreams to life.

Your turn… What has fear stolen from you? What has it stopped you from doing, being, or achieving? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with the community.”

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

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“Overcoming Fear And Anxiety”

by Tony Robbins

"Relax..."

"Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to 

TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing."

 - Steve Voake, "The Dreamwalker's Child"

"The False Choice Society"

"The False Choice Society"

by The Zman

"The false dichotomy, sometimes called the false choice, is one of the most popular rhetoric tricks used in liberal democracy. The point is to frame the debate in such a way as to either avoid some unpleasant topic or narrow the scope to the benefit of one party in the debate. “We either do X or we allow this terrible thing to continue” is an effective way to compel action. After all, everyone knows that doing nothing in never an acceptable action. Only monsters choose that option.

It is fair to say that our political system is built upon the false choice. Every election we are asked to choose between the two offerings put forward by the parties. In most cases, one option is ridiculous. That is why over 90% of incumbents win reelection. In races with real competition, the options put forward are nearly identical. Both parties offer up a plank of wood spouting whatever slogans are popular at the moment. The voters select between two robots programmed by the same people.

The reason this is a false choice is there is at least one other option. The voters could stage a boycott of the election. Maybe demand some reforms as a condition of rejoining the charade of democracy. Of course, the voters could riot at the polling stations, hurl the voting machines into the river and burn the ballots. They could vote for a third party candidate as a protest. Picking from one of the two options offered up from the uniparty is a false choice, because there are other options.

Of course, people do not select the other options because they are constantly reminded that those are all bad options. No rational person votes third-party. Even the most cynical critics of democracy say the third party option is a waste of time. Similarly, boycotts are dismissed as pointless. Rebellion, of course, is dismissed out of hand, despite the fact the country was literally founded on rebellion. The one thing everyone seems to agree upon is you have no choice but to pick from the two parties.

Another example of where the false choice is the foundation of liberal democracy is in the current Covid panic. The reason the rulers took a wrecking ball to society is they were sure they had just two options. It was either the wrecking ball or do nothing and we all know that doing nothing is never an option. They had to do something, and all of the choices were bad, so they happily went with the bad option. When you eliminate the best option, you are always left with the worst options.

The false choice plays out in more subtle ways too. Unwilling to leave well enough alone, the rulers are now trying to impose a vaccine passport. The idea is to require this for travel or to attend public gatherings. Given that liberal democracy looks a lot like fascism, businesses and banks are making noises about requiring the vaccine in order to have a job or use the financial system. You can get the vaccine, the choice is yours, but you may not be able live in society.

People are rightly upset about this turn of events. House broken conservatives are banging on about how the vaccine passport if just like when their grandparents made the Jews wear gold stars. The point of the yes/no debate on the vaccine passport is to distract from the real problem. The people in charge of public health are incompetent and have turned a minor public health problem into a disaster. Worse yet, they seem to take some pleasure in being incompetent at it.

Not so long ago, proof of vaccination was a common requirement for travel. People were given a card that showed their vaccinations. This was before computers when the people in charge were somewhat competent at their jobs. People went along with it because they understood it was for public health. They could trust the people in charge enough to go along with it. The people who cured things like polio and smallpox were proud of it and the policies that made it possible.

Today, of course, no one trusts anyone. There can be no public pride in collective accomplishment because we have accomplished nothing, other than putting men in dresses and desecrating some statues. This is why half the public is skeptical of the vaccine and the passport business. Instead of dealing with that reality, we choose to have a debate about the passport itself. The false choice here is whether to get the vaccine or not. Whether to have a proof of vaccine or not.

The promise of democracy is that public policy is no longer set according to the narrow interests of a small ruling class. Instead, the marketplace of democracy will set the priorities and select the polices based on majority will. In reality, democracy is a mass delusion where the public debates pointless issues and selects from identical options, all in order to avoid facing reality. Say what you will about aristocracy, at least everyone knows who is in charge and who is to blame.

The Covid hysteria underscores how the false choice society staggers on through inertia and dumb luck. Faced with a real crisis, the current regime would collapse in a pile, with the people bickering with one another over how best to celebrate the pile once the dust settles. The false choice society is a society built on lies the people tell one another in order to avoid reality. The trouble is reality is the thing that does not go away when you stop believing in it."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

- http://thezman.com/wordpress/

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"The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation. [Jim Quinn - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal at the website": https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Have It Done..."

”Never explain. Never apologize. 

Have it done and let them howl.” 

- Winston Churchill

"The Trouble With Most People..."

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their

hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

- Will Durant

Chet Raymo, “Walking Wary”

“Walking Wary”

by Chet Raymo

“Virginia Woolf called them "moments of being," those unanticipated encounters with something in nature (including, of course, human nature) that sets one back on one's heels, drops the jaw, sends chills up the spine. I use clichés, but the experiences are anything but clichés. What makes them special is the way they break through and illuminate what Woolf calls "the grey cotton wool" of everyday experience.

Sylvia Plath describes these rare and precious encounters in her poem "Black Rook in Rainy Weather." "Spasmodic tricks of radiance," she calls them. A "celestial burning" that takes possession of an ordinary object, setting the sight on fire. A wet black rook, arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain: Something utterly ordinary that suddenly flares out as miraculous.

We are not talking about rooks alone, of course. We are talking about the self in interaction with the world. The flare flows both ways. The rook is illuminated by mind. The mind is set afire by rook. Don't go to psychologists or neurologists to explain what is happening; they are a long way yet from understanding. Go to the poets and mystics, who can't explain but do describe. "Hallowing an interval otherwise inconsequent," says Plath. And so it is that we walk blind and deaf through a world that by and large seems commonplace, inconsequent, and mute, whereas in fact even the most ordinary thing - a leaf, a cloud, a face - is miracle enough to exhaust our analytic powers, waiting, hoping, for the touch of grace, the breaking through.

I am aware that the two writers I have quoted, Woolf and Plath, were ultimately overwhelmed by the "dull, ruinous landscape." A particular sensitivity to the contrast between light and dark was surely part of their genius; it would seem that their savage gods demanded the ultimate sacrifice as the price of their Promethean gifts. As for the rest of us, we live without their depths of darkness, but also with the minor lights, those treasured moments of being when we are gifted with the understanding that the apparently ordinary is blindingly special.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy, "Shadows in the Wood"

Gnomusy, "Shadows in the Wood"

"The Odds Are Stacked Against Us..."

"Our world is not safe. It is a toxic swamp populated by predators and parasites. The odds are stacked against us from the moment of conception. We survive only because we fight the elements, hunger, disease, each other. And, although civilization promises us safe harbor, that promise is a fairy tale. Only the storm is real. It comes for each of us. And we cannot win. We can only choose how we will suffer our defeat. We can meekly take our beatings, and die like lemmings, finding solace in the belief that we shall one day inherit the earth. Or, we can plunge into the chaos with eyes wide open, taking comfort instead from the bruises, scars, and broken bones which prove that we fought to live and die as gods."

 - J.K. Franko, "Life for Life"

"The worst part is wondering how you'll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long, where you'll find the strength for all that stupid running around, those projects that come to nothing, those attempts to escape from crushing necessity, which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable, that every night will find you down and out, crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows. And maybe it's treacherous old age coming on, threatening the worst. Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself."

-  Louis-Ferdinand Celineo

"Dare..."

 

"Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift In The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History"

Full screen recommended.

"Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift In 

The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History"

by Epic Economist

"The American standard of living is being dramatically deteriorated right before our eyes, but authorities and policymakers insist we shouldn't worry about inflation because they have "everything under control". But if we take a quick look at the situation of our country at the moment, it gets incredibly hard to believe in what they are saying. The value of the U.S. dollar is steadily dropping, while the price of goods and services is soaring, and, of course, wages aren't keeping up with the latest price increases. It seems like we have been facing hardships for so long that many of us have grown accustomed to the financial pain caused by the current economic recession. Sadly, Americans are getting used to having the cost of living rise at a much faster pace than their paychecks do. And most of them don't realize just yet that 12 months ago a drastic paradigm shift has begun.

Countless experts have been warning that we are entering an era of a Weimar-like hyperinflation, and the current monetary policies will notably accelerate the debasement of our currency as our money supply continues to grow at an exponential rate. This is becoming a major national crisis that no one seems to be talking about. Needless to say, our leaders are definitely not properly addressing this matter. So we must brace ourselves for the biggest decline in living conditions in all U.S. history because, at this stage, there's no turning back. That's what we're going to expose in this video.

Inflation is already exploding in several sectors of our economy. Over the past several weeks, many of us could already notice that the price of gasoline is skyrocketing across many states. According to AAA, gas prices have been surging at the pumps, hitting a national average of $2.77 a gallon as of Monday, which is 39 cents more expensive than the same time in 2020. GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan predicted that drivers would see a national average of $3 “as early as April".

Many people are starting to get worried about this situation, but the Federal Reserve insists that this is absolutely "normal". It appears that the "new normal" includes absurd price increases all over the economy. More concerningly, we can already observe that food inflation is now a reality. Over the past year, the price of agricultural commodities traded on the global stage has climbed up by 50 percent, according to economists at Rabobank. The company's senior commodity analyst Charles Clack stressed "the higher prices will be around for some time to come".

This unwelcoming food inflation has caught the attention of SocGen's Albert Edwards, who has already sounded the alarm saying this could result in growing social-instabilities all over the world, as increasing food prices are quickly outpacing incomes. At least the price of food is not rising as fast as the price of lumber. NAHB released a report of standard estimates of lumber used to build the average home and found that lumber prices have increased more than 180 percent since last spring, and this price spike has caused the price of an average new single-family home to soar by $24,386 since the same time last year.

More and more Americans are being forced to put their plans to build a home on hold in face of those ridiculously high prices. In one year, we entered in an affordable housing crisis and a massive housing price bubble. Underemployed and unemployed Americans are falling out of the middle class by the millions, and jobless claims continue to escalate up, but authorities that those that are warning of hyperinflation just have wild imaginations.

Last week an additional 712,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and recent reports say weekly jobless claims have remained stubbornly high for months, hovering around four times the typical pre-outbreak level. This definitely is not what an “economic recovery” looks like.

As prices explode to sky-highs, life turns increasingly more difficult for most Americans. If our income does not rise as fast as prices are surging, our standard of living will sharply collapse. That's basic logic. Since we continue to deliberately destroy the value of our currency, soon enough, other nations will start to realize that a collective shift to a different reserve currency is necessary.

Once the U.S. dollar loses its sovereign position as the world's reserve currency, there will never be any going back to the “good old days”. It's just sad to say that we have never been closer to an economic endgame than we are right now. And the term "collapse" is not nearly strong enough to describe what is coming next."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal, "Current Events 3/12/21"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal, "Current Events 3/12/21"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times ahead."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, Post-market 3/12/21: "Very Important Updates! What You're Not Allowed To Know"

Gregory Mannarino, Post-market 3/12/21:

"Very Important Updates! What You're Not Allowed To Know"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Elton John, "Your Starter For"

Elton John, "Your Starter For"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The southern Milky Way appears spectacular in this composite image taken from Mangaia, the most southerly of the Cook Islands. Few sources of light pollution exist here, home to only 500 people.

The two bright stars at the Milky Way’s center are Alpha (left) and Beta Centauri. They point to Crux the Southern Cross. Near the horizon, two of the satellite galaxies of our Milky Way, the Small (left) and Large Magellanic Clouds are easy to spot.”

- http://www.astronomy.com/

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Southern Cross...ok...

Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Southern Cross"

Bertrand Russell, “Three Passions”

“Three Passions”

”Three passions have governed my life:

The longings for love, the search for knowledge,

And unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.

In the union of love I have seen

In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision

Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.

I have wished to understand the hearts of people.

I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,

But always pity brought me back to earth;

Cries of pain reverberated in my heart,

Of children in famine, of victims tortured,

And of old people left helpless.

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,

And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.”

- Bertrand Russell

"Danger..."

“At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other, even more reasonable, says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger, since it is not a man’s power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events; and that it is therefore better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.”

- Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”

A little light reading from Tolstoy… 
Freely download “War and Peace”, by Leo Tolstoy, here:
- http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/

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“All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper,

and the next – who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.”

- Sophoclese, “Philoctetes”

Freely download “Seven Tragedies of Sophocles- Philoctetes” here:

- https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/

"When? Social Security, SSDI, SSI, VA - $1,400 Stimulus Check"

Blind to Billionaire, 

"When? Social Security, SSDI, SSI, VA - $1,400 Stimulus Check"

Many people are wondering when they will receive

 the $1400 stimulus check now that has been signed into law.

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/12/21"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/12/21"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Vice President Biden (I refuse to call him President as he was cheated in) went on television last night to give an update on his Covid plans for the nation. What it boiled down to was a pep talk to convince all people to get vaccinated. Of course, VP Biden left out the fact that the vaccination is totally experimental, and they have no idea what the long term downside effects will be. The FDA approved these vaccines on an emergency basis only. I ask why not take HCQ, zinc and Ivermectin. These have been proven effective in fighting CV19 and have zero downside risk.

Republicans are in a total civil war. It’s between President Trump and his 80 million voters against the RINO swamp creatures in D.C. These RINO weasels at the RNC want to use the Trump name to raise money, and Trump told them to “cease and desist.” President Trump wants zero money going to RINOs, and Trump has his own political action committee to divert money away from the RINO rich RNC. It’s called “Save America PAC.” This is war, and look for President Trump to raise enough money to stage a hostile takeover of the Republican National Committee.

Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, but it really is nothing more than a pork filled blue state bailout. Biden is promising more money printing for more pork. Is this how the dollar dies? With massive money printing in the trillions in pork and waste from both parties. The money printing has gone parabolic according to FED data, and there is no end in sight."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about

 these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.

- https://rumble.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift In The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History"

"Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift 

In The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History"

by Michael Snyder

"They are assuring us that we don’t have to be concerned about “inflation” because they have everything under control. Do you believe them? The value of the U.S. dollar has been steadily declining for a long time, and most Americans have grown accustomed to having the cost of living rise at a faster pace than their paychecks do. But over the past 12 months an enormous paradigm shift has begun. Instead of devaluing our currency a little bit at a time, now our leaders are going “full Weimar”. Our money supply is growing at an exponential rate, and this is becoming a major national crisis. As I pointed out yesterday, it took from the founding of our county all the way to 2020 for M1 to reach 4 trillion dollars. But then from the start of the pandemic to today, M1 has gone from 4 trillion dollars to 18 trillion dollars. To call that “economic malpractice” would be way too kind. The truth is that it is complete and utter lunacy, and we are all going to literally pay the price for such madness.

Sadly, inflation is already starting to show up in a major way all throughout our economy. For example, most Americans have noticed that the price of gasoline has really started to shoot up over the last several weeks: "Gas prices have been increasing at the pump for the past few weeks, reaching a national average of $2.77 a gallon as of Monday, which is 39 cents higher than the same time in 2020, according to AAA." A lot of people are alarmed by this, but the Federal Reserve insists that this is completely normal.

Meanwhile, the price of agricultural commodities has risen by 50 percent over the past year: "The price of agricultural commodities traded on the global stage has shot up by 50 percent since the middle of 2020, according to economists at Rabobank. In a new report, the bank pins the lift in the price of wheat, corn, soy, sugar, and a range of other commodities on the northern La Niña, a weakening US currency, market speculators, and rising demand from importing nations."

As those prices are passed along to the consumer, you will be paying more for groceries at your local supermarket, but authorities assure us that prices will stabilize once the economy returns to “normal”.

The good news is that at least the price of food is not rising as fast as the price of lumber is: "Lumber prices have increased more than 180 percent since last spring, and this price spike has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $24,386 since April 17, 2020, according to the NAHB standard estimates of lumber used to build the average home." Now that is some serious inflation! There are so many people that have had to put their plans to build a home on hold in recent months because the price of lumber has gotten so ridiculously high.

But the experts at the Fed insist that those that are warning of hyperinflation just have wild imaginations. Over the course of the past year, our leaders have pumped trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars into the system, and all of that money has to go somewhere. In such a highly inflationary environment, this sort of a thing can happen: "A digital collage by American artist Beeple which exists only as a JPG file sold Thursday for a record $69.3 million at Christie’s, fetching more money than physical works by many better-known artists.

‘Everydays: The First 5,000 Days’ became the most expensive ever ‘non-fungible token’ (NFT) – a collectible digital asset that uses blockchain technology to turn virtual work into a unique item – after being listed at the start of the two-week auction for only $100."

The U.S. dollar is being transformed into “toilet paper money”, and we are rapidly approaching the point of no return. At least if our paychecks were rising as fast as the cost of living was, American families would be able to keep up with the escalating prices. But of course that is not happening, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

In fact, vast numbers of formerly middle class Americans no longer have jobs at all. Last week another 712,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and the number of claims continues to hover around “four times the typical pre-crisis level”: "Weekly jobless claims have remained stubbornly high for months, hovering around four times the typical pre-crisis level, although it’s well below the peak of almost 7 million that was reached when stay-at-home orders were first issued a year ago in March."

There are roughly 10 million fewer jobs than there were last year in February before the crisis began. This is not what an “economic recovery” looks like. The truth is that the U.S. economy is broken, and the only solution our leaders have is to print, borrow and spend even more money.

Now Biden and his minions are about to pump another 1.9 trillion dollars into the system. Do you think that will make the inflation crisis better or do you think that it will make it worse? You don’t need to answer, because the answer is self-evident. As prices soar into the stratosphere, life is going to become increasingly difficult for most Americans. If your income does not rise as fast as prices are going up, your standard of living will go down.

Of course you will be far from alone. The vast majority of Americans are about to experience a dramatic shift in the standard of living, and most of the population doesn’t even realize what is happening. All they know is that more government checks are on the way, and most of them are absolutely thrilled about that. But all of this printing, borrowing and spending has put us on a path to national financial suicide.

As we continue to recklessly destroy the value of our currency, other nations will begin to realize that a move to a different reserve currency is needed. And once the U.S. dollar is no longer the reserve currency of the world, there will never be any going back to the “good old days”. We are so close to the economic endgame, and the word “collapse” is not nearly strong enough to describe what is eventually going to happen to us."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Despite My Firm Convictions..."

"Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."

- Malcolm X

"Previews of Coming Attractions"

"Previews of Coming Attractions"

by Jim Kunstler

"How reassured were you by Joe Biden’s speech to the nation Thursday night? The more his managers pretend that he’s in charge of anything, the more unlikely it actually seems. So, they wound him up - Adderall would be my guess, to fortify the attention span - and rolled him out like the mummy of Amenhotep III, and one could just imagine the leaders of this-and-that foreign nation cringing (or cackling) in their seats to see this embodiment of collapsing America go through his spiritless ritual motions.

Mostly what did not fly is the idea that the Covid-19 virus can still be used as a cattle-prod for herding citizens into feedlots of compliance - Americans are buffalos, not steers. They are determined now to take care of business, and the main business of people with any initiative will be to rig up some sort of gainful occupation while the lumbering old systems break down. They will do it despite orders to operate at fifty percent capacity, or close at nine o’clock, or be handcuffed by rinky-dink regulations. They’ll have to get creative to figure out ways around all the official impediments to making a living. This group of the not-yet-undead will resist further attempts to restrict their liberty and to steal the fruits of their own enterprise to pay for other people’s failures or lack of enterprise.

The federal government is one system visibly working to destroy itself with epic giveaways of money it pretends to command and the Covid-19 Stimulus bill will only accelerate its loss of credibility. A $1,400 check won’t “solve” the problem of someone a year behind on mortgage payments or rent. It sure won’t solve the problems of their creditors and landlords. And if you think shortchanging that class of people is a good idea, you’re beating a path straight to the death of credit per se, and then of our money, the dollar, which is based on credit.

Taxpayers are not so stupid that they’ll fail to notice who is being asked to bail out bankrupt states, irresponsible cities, and pension funds and there’s going to be trouble over that. The trouble will express itself both in political strife and in the further decay of the relationship between work and wealth. It means a collapsing standard of living for most people. Turning the one-shot $1,400 into a monthly Guaranteed Basic Income can only be a short-term shuck-and-jive when a loaf of bread goes from $5 to $15 to $50 - which can happen easily, and quickly, too, as lots of “free” money chases crashing productivity. Wait for it.

Meanwhile, the party in charge of things is squandering the last of its moral authority in stupid and tyrannical Woke crusades against free speech and free thought. They went after Washington and Jefferson last year. This month, it’s a purge of cartoon characters, starting with an auto-de-fe over at the Warner Brothers’ Loony Toons lot. Disney better watch out because they’ll be coming after Mickey Mouse next - for “acting white.” Which brings us to the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the abysmal condition of race relations in the USA, expressly sponsored by the Democratic Party.

The Left’s promotion of the supreme “conspiracy theory” du jour, that “white supremacy” stifles and suppresses people-of-color in everything they endeavor, has inspired provocations so dastardly that they are driving the country to racial war. The rioting and looting season is upon us again, and the perfect stage-set for the opening offensive is Minneapolis, where the trial of officer Derek Chauvin just kicked off this week. Black Lives Matters is marshalling its troops outside the courthouse to intimidate jurors and threaten mob violence against an outcome they may not like.

The facts of the case suggest that former officer Chauvin has a sturdy defense, starting with Minneapolis Police training films that show officers how to apply the same knee restraint that Chauvin used on George Floyd. It was in their instruction manual, too. Add to that the forensic reports that show fentanyl levels in Mr. Floyd’s bloodstream several times above what would likely kill a normal person, plus meth, plus marijuana. He had an enlarged heart and was Covid-19 positive at the time of his death. And, of course, he was not complying with the cops’ orders during his arrest, which is exactly what led to him being physical subdued.

None of that will matter to BLM because the video of Mr. Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was such a perfect poster for the white supremacy meme, whatever the reality of the situation was, and it’s just too rich in coercion value to let go of. I’d predict trouble in the streets no matter which way the Chauvin trial ends up, just because energies are up and the weather is good. It will be infectious in cities across the nation again because the dividend of getting to loot is such a temptation, and last time that happened, the authorities did nothing to stop it.

How will it go this time? By now, shop-owners in Minneapolis (and elsewhere) must have gotten the message that the police are not interested in defending their places of business - their bosses, the politicians, ordered them not to. Some business owners may opt for defending their property themselves. Imagine the cognitive dissonance that will make for as Nancy Pelosi’s Congress tries to pass new gun control laws. If Joe Biden is even around, will he step up and tell BLM and Antifa to cut it out? Or will he just ignore all that as he did during the election campaign last year? Half the country, at least, won’t stand for it anymore.

In the meantime, Gawd knows what will be happening in financial markets and banks as all that new money floods an economy that can’t produce enough to absorb it. Racial war and runaway inflation… not a good recipe for political continuity."

- https://kunstler.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Vaccines Aren’t Actually Vaccines"

"The Vaccines Aren’t Actually Vaccines"

by Jim Rickards

"Is the world on the brink of a fourth wave of increasing coronavirus infections and deaths? Based on the latest data, that’s a possibility that cannot be ruled out right now. Here’s why... After the virus broke out in Wuhan, China, it spread rapidly to Milan, Italy, where a new strain called the Italian Strain became much more contagious. The Italian Strain spread through Europe and then to New York and surrounding states. This was the first wave that lasted through March and April 2020.

There was a reduction of new caseloads in May and June before a second wave began in July. The second wave receded in September and leveled off in October 2020. The third wave exploded in November 2020 and peaked on January 8, 2021. At its worst, the third wave showed an increase in daily cases that was nine times the first wave and daily fatalities that were double the first wave. Since January 8, both the caseload and fatalities have trailed off sharply.

Today, the increases in new cases and fatalities are about where they were at the height of the second wave, but down sharply from the height of the third wave. The combination of declining caseloads, expanding vaccinations and simple herd immunity has given many people hope that the spread of the virus can be contained, if not completely eliminated, by this summer and that life can begin to get back to something like normal.

“Mutation Escape”: However, there’s no assurance of that. There are concerns that a new fourth wave may be emerging. There are many reasons this could be the case. Even as vaccine programs expand, the virus continues to mutate in ways designed to decrease the efficacy of the vaccine, something called “mutation escape.”

At the same time, many individuals are not taking the vaccines because they are concerned that the vaccine’s experimental genetic modification therapy could have possible, unforeseen side effects (see below). And, some regions do not have ready access to the vaccines, regardless of their efficacy. It would be great to finally put the pandemic behind us, but it may be too soon to declare victory. Each wave lasts about eight weeks, so if a new wave emerges now, it may result in increased caseloads and fatalities at least until June.

Let’s hope the fears of a fourth wave are a false alarm. Still, everyone needs to keep an eye on this possibility before sounding the all clear. Many economists are projecting a strong rebound as more Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19. But the vaccines themselves raise some potentially serious problems…

No Serious Medical Consequences? A recent article in The Hill argues, “... the barriers to a return to normal remain in the form of vaccine hesitancy, as millions voice skepticism over shots that have shown no serious medical consequences.”

Well, it’s not entirely true that these vaccines have shown no serious medical consequences. A few people have died, and others have developed severe side effects immediately after receiving the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine (which isn’t being used in the U.S). As a result, Austria has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine while investigations are underway. Meanwhile, an otherwise healthy 39-year old Utah woman recently died four days after taking her second shot of the Moderna vaccine. Her liver stopped functioning, according to doctors.

To be clear, side effects and even death are not unusual among those receiving vaccines. Most people don’t have serious problems, but no approach is 100% perfect. Pharmaceutical companies and clinicians try to minimize such events in the development and testing of vaccines. Public health policy is based on balancing potential harm from the vaccine against the benefits of the vaccine in terms of lives saved. This information should be provided to patients so they can make an informed consent.

The risks may be low, but they do exist and a small number of people may experience serious side effects or even death. But, here’s what’s not widely known (and is available from drug manufacturers’ own clinical tests of the vaccines)...

The Vaccines Aren’t Really Vaccines: First, these so-called vaccines are not really vaccines in the widely understood sense. A traditional vaccine involves an injection either with a weakened form of the virus you are protecting against or a similar virus. Either one can produce antibodies that remain in the system and fight the actual disease if you get it. These new vaccines are entirely different.

I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here, but these treatments use experimental genetic modification to inject you with mRNA, which is a partial strand of genetic code. That mRNA then enters your cells and orders the cells to construct a spike protein similar to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID). This spike protein then precipitates antibodies that can reduce your reaction to SARS-CoV-2 if you get it. But the “vaccine” does not prevent you from getting COVID, and it does not prevent you from spreading it to others.

The spike protein remains with you indefinitely. In effect, you have modified your own genetic make-up to fight COVID without actually gaining immunity and without reducing transmissibility. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you’re immune to a disease, “you can be exposed to it without becoming infected.” But these vaccines do not prevent you from being infected or spreading it to others. Some have likened them to chemotherapy for a cancer you don’t have.

Brave New World: Vaccines of this type with respect to viruses are entirely new in humans. Studies have not gone on long enough to evaluate long-term side effects. These drugs are not FDA approved; they are being distributed under an emergency waiver to avoid the normal approval process. It’s almost like we’re being used as guinea pigs. It is likely that most people receiving the drugs are unaware of these important differences between the new drugs and traditional vaccines, which raises questions about whether their “consent” is fully informed.

There could be very good reasons for vulnerable individuals to take these drugs, but they should not be mistaken for the kind of smallpox, polio and flu vaccinations with which we are familiar. As far as vaccines go, mRNA genetic therapy is a brave new world - one that is not well understood."

- dailyreckoning.com

○

• "Understanding mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines"

Must read:

• "Operation Vaxx-All Deplorables: Codename 'Satan's Poker'"

• "Vaccine Diabolus and the Impending Wave

 of Rare Neurodegenerative Disorders"

○

"Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to 

TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing." 

- Steve Voake, "The Dreamwalker's Child"