So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, April 8, 2023
Musical Interlude: Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Jesus Christ Superstar"
Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Jesus Christ Superstar"
Play on YouTube so songs automatically play sequentially.
"Overture" 4:00
"Heaven on Their Minds" 4:23
"What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying" 4:13
"Everything's Alright" 4:36
"This Jesus Must Die" 5:11
"Hosanna" 2:09
"Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem" 4:49
"Pilate's Dream" 1:28
"The Temple" 4:43
"Everything's Alright (reprise)" 0:34
"I Don't Know How to Love Him" 3:41
"Damned for All Time/Blood Money" 4:36
"The Last Supper" 7:10
"Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" 5:33
"The Arrest" 3:24
"Peter's Denial" 1:27
"Pilate and Christ" 2:46
"King Herod's Song" 3:02
"Judas' Death" 4:17
"Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)" 5:13
"Superstar" 4:16
"The Crucifixion" 4:04
"John Nineteen Forty-One"
"China Surrounds Taiwan; USA on Alert; Russia Moves Nukes Toward Finland; US Nuke Subs"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/8/23
"China Surrounds Taiwan; USA on Alert;
Russia Moves Nukes Toward Finland; US Nuke Subs"
Comments here:
"Buying A New BMW With 22 Cents In The Bank; Fast Food Becomes A Luxury; Banks Are In Survival Mode"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/8/23
"Buying A New BMW With 22 Cents In The Bank;
Fast Food Becomes A Luxury; Banks Are In Survival Mode"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”
"Huxley vs. Orwell"
"Huxley vs. Orwell"
by Neil Postman
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one...
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism...
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.
Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance...
Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we
would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent
of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy...
As Huxley remarked in 'Brave New World Revisited', the civil libertarians and the rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In '1984,' Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In 'Brave New World,' they are controlled by inflicting pleasure...In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."
Huxley was quite obviously correct...
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Opening of Eyes"
"The Opening of Eyes"
"That day I saw beneath dark clouds
The passing light over the water,
And I heard the voice of the world speak out.
I knew then as I have before,
Life is no passing memory of what has been,
Nor the remaining pages of a great book
Waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things,
Seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years of secret conversing
Speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees
Before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
As if to enter heaven and finding himself astonished,
Opened at last,
Fallen in love
With Solid Ground."
~ David Whyte
"Fear Is A Child's Vice..."
“I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.”
- Ernest Hemingway, "True at First Light”
"The Condition Of Our Society Has Never Been This Bad, And It Is Only Going To Get Worse…" (Excerpt)
"The Condition Of Our Society Has Never Been This Bad,
And It Is Only Going To Get Worse…"
by Michael Snyder
Excerpt: "A lot of people seem shocked that the fabric of our society is steadily unraveling all around us, but the truth is that this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What we are witnessing is simply the law of cause and effect in action. We have discarded the values that this nation was founded upon, and we have replaced them with new “values” that are diametrically opposed to the old values. So now we live in a hellhole of our own making. Just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine is exploding in our society, and crime rates have been rapidly rising all over the nation."
Full, highly recommended article is here:
"Dazed Lemmings Can't Bridge The Reality Gap"
"Dazed Lemmings Can't Bridge The Reality Gap"
by Zen Gardner
"Ever wonder why people can't make the leap to real awareness of what's going on? Why do so few people seem to care about the dangers of the unreported Fukushima radiation levels and toxic debris washing across the pacific? As the Orwellian American police state sweeps into place, the economy crumbles, Americans celebrated their entry into a brave new 2020 with minimal awareness of the true dangers already dissolving their health, wealth and chances for survival in an engineered conflagration of mythic proportions that is already descending on their heads.
As the gap between reality and manipulated public perception grows, it may just be too big a leap for many at this point. Having been dumbed-down and unresponsive for so long, it's too much for them to take in. Sad, but again, that's reality. Hey, why wake up when everything's such a bummer? That's the underlying mentality. The thing is, this is a conditioned response. Overload and recoil. And it's been going on a long, long time.
Why? Like the dumbing down effect of fluoride and chemtrails and adulterated food, it eventually suppresses natural responses. When the real alert presents itself, the subject will not be able to react and protect himself. Why all the dramatic end of the world sci-fi movies? Why the emphasis on violence and horror movies and graphic, destructive wars? Why does the news major on the bad events of the day? Why the combative gladiator sports, emphasis on technology instead of humanity, and mind-numbing crass consumerism and sexualization of society? This is deliberate social engineering, and that's the biggie. It's all engineered...and that's the last thing most people want to realize. And it usually is.
The Power of Cognitive Dissonance: The world has become essentially schizophrenic in outlook. Being told one thing while the exact opposite is happening before their eyes for so long, the "dissonance" created by this conflict causes humanity to shut down. America is the perfect example. Ostensibly fighting for "freedom and liberty" we commit genocide and destroy nation after nation. To protect our liberties the government has overturned the Bill of Rights and made the Constitution a mockery. Yet the populace sits and takes it. Why? Too big of a leap. If it turned out they've been completely conned by a massive manipulated agenda they may just completely break down. And subconsciously the horror of that reality is therefore a "no". Even if it were true they're at the point they'd rather not know.
I'll Take Conscious Reality. "Why all the negativity?" is what you'll hear a lot of the time when you bring these things up. The answer, as David Icke often says, is that ignorance is negative. Truth is empowering, no matter how awful it may be sometimes. And at this point in history the more you learn the more negative it may seem, with the Controllers' agenda in full final-phase swing. But so what. Things haven't changed all that much. The purpose of life is to rediscover who you truly are, and that wonderful awakening makes everything else pale in comparison. Our mission then becomes to inform and empower, share and encourage. The same one it always has been. That it's taking this kind of extreme compression to awaken the slumbering masses is really no surprise, and ultimately a gift from the Universe to help people back into the real world...that of conscious loving awareness."
As the gap between reality and manipulated public perception grows, it may just be too big a leap for many at this point. Having been dumbed-down and unresponsive for so long, it's too much for them to take in. Sad, but again, that's reality. Hey, why wake up when everything's such a bummer? That's the underlying mentality. The thing is, this is a conditioned response. Overload and recoil. And it's been going on a long, long time.
Why? Like the dumbing down effect of fluoride and chemtrails and adulterated food, it eventually suppresses natural responses. When the real alert presents itself, the subject will not be able to react and protect himself. Why all the dramatic end of the world sci-fi movies? Why the emphasis on violence and horror movies and graphic, destructive wars? Why does the news major on the bad events of the day? Why the combative gladiator sports, emphasis on technology instead of humanity, and mind-numbing crass consumerism and sexualization of society? This is deliberate social engineering, and that's the biggie. It's all engineered...and that's the last thing most people want to realize. And it usually is.
The Power of Cognitive Dissonance: The world has become essentially schizophrenic in outlook. Being told one thing while the exact opposite is happening before their eyes for so long, the "dissonance" created by this conflict causes humanity to shut down. America is the perfect example. Ostensibly fighting for "freedom and liberty" we commit genocide and destroy nation after nation. To protect our liberties the government has overturned the Bill of Rights and made the Constitution a mockery. Yet the populace sits and takes it. Why? Too big of a leap. If it turned out they've been completely conned by a massive manipulated agenda they may just completely break down. And subconsciously the horror of that reality is therefore a "no". Even if it were true they're at the point they'd rather not know.
I'll Take Conscious Reality. "Why all the negativity?" is what you'll hear a lot of the time when you bring these things up. The answer, as David Icke often says, is that ignorance is negative. Truth is empowering, no matter how awful it may be sometimes. And at this point in history the more you learn the more negative it may seem, with the Controllers' agenda in full final-phase swing. But so what. Things haven't changed all that much. The purpose of life is to rediscover who you truly are, and that wonderful awakening makes everything else pale in comparison. Our mission then becomes to inform and empower, share and encourage. The same one it always has been. That it's taking this kind of extreme compression to awaken the slumbering masses is really no surprise, and ultimately a gift from the Universe to help people back into the real world...that of conscious loving awareness."
"Awaken from slumber, one and all..."
"Perpetual Cognitive Dissonance"
"Perpetual Cognitive Dissonance"
by Todd Hayen
"There’s a clinical term in psychology, which in the vernacular would be described with the phrase, “I think I am going crazy.” This is “cognitive dissonance.” I have actually seen this term show up in casual reading more often in the past couple of years than in all the years before. It seems to have become a rather common utterance.
I am not sure if I will be using the term correctly in this article because in its purest form it describes a cognitive malfunction which occurs when a person creates a story in their mind that doesn’t match reality.
There is an assumption in this definition that there is an objective reality to compare it to, and that reality, as defined here, is stable and not subject to multiple interpretations. Although this isn’t really important because you can still experience cognitive dissonance if both the “story” and what is perceived as “reality” is illusory. Thus cognitive dissonance verges on another clinical term, psychosis.
Despite these nuances in definitions, cognitive dissonance, as well as psychosis, supposedly (according to the folks in white coats) causes internal psychic problems. I don’t necessarily have a problem with this assumption, although if left alone I am not sure if psychotic people really have psychic problems. It is more likely that the people around them have the problems.
I digress.
Most definitions of cognitive dissonance describe it as a “tension” felt if a person behaves differently from a belief system they resonate with, such as an overweight person who eats cookies all day but believes they would be happier if healthier and at a lower weight. I would venture to extend this description to a person who fundamentally believes that a government of smiling, sweet-talking, elected politicians should be honest and caring but end up being liars and willfully hurtful toward their constituents.
The official definition also states that when someone encounters cognitive dissonance they will adjust whatever they have access to adjust in order to relieve the discomfort. In the above examples, a person eating cookies might deny that they are doing something that isn’t conducive to good health and weight loss, saying things like, “I didn’t eat that many!” or “these cookies are not really fattening.” The latter example might find those experiencing cognitive dissonance denying completely the lies of their smooth talking politicians, or justify them in some odd way: “he didn’t really mean it” or “she is only human, she just made a mistake.”
That, though, is “sheep side cognitive dissonance” and I am not as concerned about that in this article - (in general I am personally very concerned about it). Sheep do seem to be in a perpetual form of cognitive dissonance, but I am not sure if many of them know it yet. Their “beliefs” seem to match up with their perceived reality for the most part, so they don’t, at the moment, experience any dissonance. Possibly unconsciously they may, but have plunged themselves into a deep denial. But clinically, to this particular clinician, it doesn’t seem that way. I see no obvious resulting tension - not yet.
Those of us on this side of the fence, however, grapple with this every day because we are more conscious. Everyone’s world has been turned upside down. In fact, the world has basically been upside down, from what most of us perceived as being “right side up,” for quite some time - maybe even the chief dude Neanderthal king was a lying son-of-a-bitch, who knows. Depending on what particular time in history you “woke up” - meaning when did you first see through the fog and understand you had been fed a story your whole life - you are either a “long time truther,” or a rather “short time truther.” Fact is you were not born seeing the truth, unless you were born a soothsayer. Yes, there probably are a few outliers out there who popped out of the womb totally impervious to brainwashing - if you are one of these then more power to you.
However, it is human nature to believe the world, and other humans in it, are benevolent. What I mean by “human nature” is that babies are born to trust. They have to be taught otherwise, and if they grow up in the West, which in the past was fundamentally benign (compared to other rather traumatic areas of the world) they can easily live a life believing, for example, that their government is not going to intentionally hurt them. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but as we see, most people seem to believe this.)
It is all part of our indoctrination to remain loyal to this “human nature” sort of benevolence. Since it is fundamentally our nature to believe in the benevolence of our world, when we learn that it is essentially false and a fabrication, then we will begin to experience this cognitive dissonance. This comes when we begin seeing that our experiences just don’t fit the story we were born believing.
Each time something crazy happens we have to shake our head…much like characters do in a cartoon, along with that “booooiiinnng” sound. “What the f—k???” Even though we know intellectually that nothing is really as it seems, most of the time when we actually experience an example of this insanity it takes a second for it to sink in, “Are you kidding? Really???”
Now, I know some of you out there are hard-core veterans and don’t shake your head, and don’t hear that “booooiiinnng” sound when something fishy happens. You may instead give a little smirk and think, “here we go again.” Well, I am not one of you, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of people out there reading this are not in your group either.
And when we see things like Universities still demanding their students wear masks, or places of employment still demanding vaccinations to be employed, or hear the talk of digital IDs and a no cash world, and 15 minute cities, and leaders telling their constituents they will hunt down the unvaccinated and make sure they get jabbed, we shake our head and hear “boooiiinnng.” I know I do.
This is the sort of cognitive dissonance I am talking about, and it is pretty much constant. I know for me a day doesn’t go by that I am not shaking my head. It truly is the Chicken Little story, the sky perpetually falling on our melons and all of us running around screaming about the impending doom, “Can’t you see it!? Can’t you see it!?” Nothing ever seems right; nothing ever seems to be properly aligned with basic human expectations. If we were all literal prisoners in the gulag, we would at least match up our internal beliefs with our external reality. We would know we were in prison. Right now, we have little literal reason to believe what we believe, other than pretty clear signs of it being planned.
Yes, those of us unvaccinated see the persecution, and the aforementioned mandates still in place. What we see indicates clearly to us that what we believe is really happening, at least part of it is. But we are constantly being told, “All is fine, nothing to worry about, we love you, we will take care of you, you should be happy you live in a free country, look at my shiny white smile, relax, all is safe…”
"Booooiiinnng."
o
Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.
o
And so it is...
"Things You Are Not Allowed to Know"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 4/8/23
"Things You Are Not Allowed to Know"
"So much is happening right now. It’s as if we
are not supposed to know what is happening."
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"President Donald Trump has been indicted on 34 bogus counts of fraud by an ultra-left New York prosecutor. This was a huge turning point in American politics. It has never been done to a former President and leading candidate in the opposing party. It represents how deranged the Democrat party has become. The Lying Legacy Media (LLM) cheered on the pain for Trump this week and reported he was arrested– when he was really only indicted. CBS News (propaganda) buried what really happened. CBS said in one report “an arraignment is different than an arrest” and went on to report that Trump was arrested like all the other LLM. There was no bail, no mug shot taken and no handcuffs. There were some positive turning points for Trump. He raised $10 million and has skyrocketed in the polls. This has backfired in a big way on the Deep State Democrats and is not helping their chances in 2024.
War talk with Russia is heating up over the ongoing Ukraine war. Russia is calling it a “hot conflict with the United States.” Meanwhile, the DOD is consumed with the military being a “safe space for the non-binary.” This is a total departure from reality and a very dangerous turning point for all involved.
The sick and dying from the CV19 bioweapon vax is still trending higher - much higher. More and more are getting so sick they can no longer work. People who “died suddenly” for no apparent reason are still stacking up in greater numbers. Dr. Tony Fauci is now bragging about the next pandemic and says, “There will absolutely be an outbreak of another pandemic.” Has the public reached a turning point for the CV19 vax and plandemic lies?" There is much more in the 55-minute newscast.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about
these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.
"Russia Converting AFU Soldiers Into Corpses"
Col. Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls, 4/8/23
"Russia Converting AFU Soldiers Into Corpses"
"Interview with Stephen Gardner on April 7, 2023. Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
Comments here:
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"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! The Craziness Continues! What's Next?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 4/8/23
"Massive Price Increases At Kroger!
The Craziness Continues! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing massive price increases! This is not good! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products, and also charging extremely high prices!"
Comments here:
Friday, April 7, 2023
"Bad News: It's Much Worse Than We're Being Told"
Canadian Prepper, 4/7/23
"Bad News: It's Much Worse Than We're Being Told"
Comments here:
"20 Facts About Evictions That Will Make Americans Panic"
Full screen recommended.
"20 Facts About Evictions That Will Make Americans Panic"
By Epic Economist
"If you have ever experienced an eviction or know someone who did, then you know how incredibly devastating this experience can be. America is facing the worst housing affordability crisis in history, with both home and rent prices at the highest levels they have ever been. Housing is a fundamental necessity and it should be a fundamental right because, without it, we do not have the right conditions to be able to be a part of our own society. Instead, people with no access to proper housing live on the margins, and their most basic freedoms aren't guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Since the turn of the century, evictions have become a growing problem across the United States, but things have gotten exponentially worse since the pandemic when about 30% of all Americans lost their ability to pay rent due to furloughs, layoffs, and early retirements. Millions were displaced from their homes, a trend that has only accelerated when moratoriums were lifted and landlords started to file for eviction at U.S. courts once again.
In some regions of the country, the rate of eviction is now over 40% higher than it was before the health crisis. Every day, thousands of families are pushed out into the streets, and households with lower incomes have been particularly vulnerable, especially now that they have been financially strained for three years in a row and inflation is making the cost of everyday essentials increasingly more unaffordable for the average American. Recent reports note that 50% of all renters in the country are burdened by rent, and about 14 million households remain at risk of eviction due to non-payment of rent. This crisis is reaching proportions that are alarming many housing advocates, who use terms like "eviction tsunami" and "eviction floodgate" to describe the shocking rise in cases they're currently witnessing.
Not even federal or state-level moratoriums have actually kept evictions from happening in recent years. And now people are facing even higher risks of losing their homes. All over the nation, financial conditions are worsening for Americans, who are seeing layoff numbers skyrocket by more than 400% compared to just one year ago. According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, as of 2022, there is a nationwide shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes, which exacerbates the ongoing eviction crisis. Today, we actually have the lowest rental vacancy rate on record, at a mere 4% nationwide.
That gives huge leverage to corporate landlords that have all the resources to find loopholes in the law to conduct illegitimate evictions so that they can continue rising costs for their next tenants. The absurd increase in home prices is still forcing many would-be buyers to rent, and the higher demand is incredibly beneficial for those at the top of the economic chain while being completely devastating for those at the very bottom.
Although evictions have always been a reality in the U.S., the scale of the problem we're facing right now is unlike anything we have ever seen. That's why in today's video, we compiled some chilling stats and facts that expose the depth of this scary situation."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”
"It Is Common To Assume..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken
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"Col. Macgregor: Ukraine Is Being Obliterated"
"Col. Macgregor: Ukraine Is Being Obliterated"
"Colonel Douglas Macgregor sits down with Stephen Gardner to update us on the Ukraine/Russia war battle assessment, China, North Korea, Biden, the US dollar and de-dollarization."
Comments here:
o
Scott Ritter: "80,000 Ukrainian Soldiers
Wiped Out In Bakhmut, This Is Fatal"
"Scott Ritter joins us on this exclusive interview to discuss the Russia Ukraine war, the conflict of Bakhmut, the bad feelings between Putin and Zelenskyy and how this war will end. Russia rained down over 80 missile on Ukraine last night after figuring out how to bypass their air defense systems. Scott Ritter and Stephen Gardner also discuss military predictions of Colonel Douglas Macgregor on how this war will end and Putin's next military moves.
Scott Ritter is an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission weapons inspector. Ritter served as a junior military analyst during Operation Desert Storm."
Comments here:
"Financial System Is Overheating; Pensions Are Toast; More Rate Hikes"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/7/23
"Financial System Is Overheating;
Pensions Are Toast; More Rate Hikes"
Comments here:
The Poet: David Whyte, "One Day"
"One Day"
"One day I will say
the gift I once had has been taken.
The place I have made for myself
belongs to another.
The words I have sung
are being sung by the ones
I would want.
Then I will be ready
for that voice
and the still silence in which it arrives.
And if my faith is good
then we'll meet again
on the road,
and we'll be thirsty,
and stop
and laugh
and drink together again
from the deep well of things as they are."
- David Whyte,
"Where Many Rivers Meet"
"The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.
And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see -
it is, rather, a light by which we may see - and what we see is life."
- Robert Penn Warren
"Waiting..."
"We're all sinking in the same boat here. We're all bored and desperate and waiting for something to happen. Waiting for life to get better. Waiting for things to change. Waiting for that one person to finally notice us. We're all waiting. But we also need to realize that we all have the power to make those changes for ourselves."
- Susane Colasanti
"Time..."
“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so?
Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.
Before they know it, time runs out.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
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“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”
- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
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“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha
Bill Bonner, "Lock Him Up?"
"Lock Him Up?"
America takes one more step on the road
to becoming a banana republic
By Bill Bonner
"Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today..."
~ Louis Prima
San Martin, Argentina - "Lock him up! This headline appeared in The New York Times in December, 2022. "Argentina’s Most Powerful Politician Found Guilty of Fraud." The country’s vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from public office for steering public works contracts to a family friend. Most likely, the case will eventually be heard by Argentina’s Supreme Court. Until then, Mrs. Kirchner can continue to hold office. Without a seat in Congress, Mrs. Kirchner would lose the immunity that protects her from arrest, a fact she was completely clear on. “Put me in jail,” she said."
Three months later, another headline story in the NYT: "Donald Trump Is Indicted in New York." Mr. Trump will be the first former president to face criminal charges. The precise charges are not yet known, but the case is focused on a hush-money payment to a porn star during his 2016 campaign.
One of the hallmarks of banana republics is that the legal system is used as a billy club, to whack political opponents. That’s one reason politicians – such as Danny Ortega in Nicaragua and Cristina Kirchner in Argentina – hang on for so long, even arresting opponents on trumped-up charges, in order to avoid losing an election. Once a politician loses power, his opponents get control of the judicial system and come afterSlip Slidin’ Away
For many years, the US has been lurching towards banana republic status…and now, every step it takes, it steps on another peel. But the US has no bananas. Almost everything concerning Donald J. Trump, for example, is clownish and false, including the charges against him. Even by banana republic standards, the case against him looks like a scam.
The Democrats hate Trump; they pretend he is a threat to their grift. But he never was. Or is. Instead, the Donald plays along – acting like a fool, making enemies of all the Great and the Good – but he is no real disruptor. Yes, he rants and raves – attacking the FBI, the Pentagon, members of Congress – both Republican and Democrat – NATO, trade with China, the New York Times…and so forth. But it is all bummph.
The two keys to elite power in a late, degenerate empire are war and inflation; Donald Trump has always supported both…with big boosts to the Pentagon budget…and the biggest increases to government spending in history.
Nevertheless, while the Democrats pretend to loathe him…the Republicans like him on false pretenses. They take him as a ‘conservative,’ though there is nothing the least bit conservative about him. He favors easy money. He opposes free trade. He pressures the Fed to lower interest rates and Congress to spend more money. On ‘cultural’ issues, too, he is no conservative…as the ‘hush’ money charges show. A real conservative would have only one or at most two mistresses.
Even Trump’s reputation as a shrewd dealmaker is mostly false. His real estate speculations went into bankruptcy 6 times between 1991 and 1992. Then, when New York commercial real estate rose (thanks to the Fed’s ultra-low rates) his fortunes rose too. But now, as interest rates and vacancies go up, so does the cost of rolling over his debt. A crisis in commercial real estate is likely to be the next thing to hit the banks. It is also likely to hit Donald Trump.
Crime and No Punishment: The bottom-line is that Trump is a big mouth, with no fixed or genuine ideas about how a government should function. This makes him an easy mark for the real powers-that-be in the Deep State. Lacking any compass of his own, he goes in the direction of least resistance.
But what’s this? Are his enemies trying to finish him off with thirty-four counts – felonies – for “falsifying business records?” Or, are his friends trying to discredit his opponents? Hard to know. The case is an obvious distraction. Trump had affairs. He tried to keep them under wraps by paying ‘hush’ money. But what, exactly, is the crime? Ms. Kirchner skimmed millions of dollars’ worth of public money…which ended up in her own accounts. A snippet from the press coverage: "One of her co-accused, Jose Lopez — an ex-secretary of public works under both Kirchner governments, was caught in 2016 trying to hide five bags stuffed with $9m and a semi-automatic rifle in a convent..."
That’s a real crime. She stole money from the taxpayers. What is the case against Mr. Trump? In theory, the ‘crime’ is winning the 2016 election by fraudulently presenting himself as a decent man. That is, he ‘hid’ his past by petty paperwork transgressions in order to deceive the voters into voting for him.
Is that it? Is that all there is? Apparently. But was a single voter deceived? Was there any biped in the United States of America who didn’t know, in November 2016, that politicians lie as habitually as most people breathe…all of them try to suppress embarrassing revelations…and that Donald J. Trump was a sleazeball? His opponent, by the way, Hillary Clinton, paid a fine of more than $100,000 for deleting 30,000 emails (public property) and then lying to the FBI about it…and her husband also lied about having an affair, while in the White House, no less. (‘I did not have sex with that woman.’) Neither of them was charged with a crime.
And so, the case against Trump stacks up with the other great fairytales of our time…weapons of mass destruction…Russiagate …“2 weeks to stop the spread”…the ‘rental yacht that destroyed Nord Stream II’…and banana trees sprout up along Pennsylvania Avenue."
o
Related, sort of... about bananas anyway, lol...
Take a break and enjoy!
Harry Chapin, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas"
Jim Kunstler, "The Hero’s Journey"
"The Hero’s Journey"
By Jim Kunstler
“If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms.” - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"More proof - as if you needed more - that we live in a mentally ill society is the apparently broad acceptance of the idea that “Joe Biden” will run for president again. It’s so obviously preposterous that you have to wonder whether mRNA “vaccines” really do (as rumored) switch off activity in the frontal lobes. Did you happen to see this degenerate catspaw step up to the White House microphone to deliver scripted remarks on the Nashville school shooting only to drift into several minutes of unscripted badinage about how he came downstairs looking for chocolate chip ice cream? There’s your current Leader of the Free World.
We need not belabor the trail of destruction “Joe Biden’s” regime has cut through our country in just over two years. But you must sense nervously that we’re about to reap what this cabal has sown. America is falling apart. “JB” has allowed a rogue bureaucracy to make us a viciously un-free country. Our sleazy Ukraine project is wrecking Western Civ. The rest of the world has noticed and is fast dissociating from us, especially from using our dollar for trade and investment.
They’re engineering an economic smash-up worse than the Great Depression. They’ve torpedoed the rule of law. The Woke Marxist social nuttery they’ve unleashed has disordered millions of young minds. They work overtime to destroy language so that we don’t know what we’re talking about. Their race and gender hustles have made us a clown nation. The worst of us is valorized and the best cancelled. They’ve perverted the election process. And it’s increasingly clear that they’ve disabled and killed at least a million people with their medical tyranny.
You may have noticed that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced he is running for president as a Democrat. I might be wrong, but just now it seems to me that this changes everything. First, let me tell you something interesting about RFK, Jr. Despite the family name and all the baggage that comes with it, he is not the least bit imperial. He’s unpretentious. He communicates in plain English (and with a damaged larynx). I doubt that he entertained any idea of running for office until the current moment. Sometimes the zeitgeist calls, though, and you have to step up, even understanding very clearly that you might get killed for doing it.
Mr. Kennedy’s life has been a rocky hero’s journey. He was a troubled young man, at times lost in drugs. He had a marriage end as badly as possible (wife’s suicide). He’s dedicated the past twenty-five years to fighting the growing menace of Big Pharma and doing it pretty valiantly, considering the US government assists Pharma’s depredations. He wrote THE book about Dr. Anthony Fauci, and it is a helluva book. He’s running in opposition to just about everything that the Democratic Party stands for these days. This must seem strange, but I suspect a substantial portion of rank-and-file Democrats may be secretly anxious to cast off the Woke/Deep State despotism that cloaks the party like a smallpox blanket. For many, it will be like waking from a nightmare.
Now I’m going to tell you something that will blow your mind, something that maybe lurks in a quiet corner of your own brain, something which for my generation, has been hiding inside there for decades, and it is this: There is a deep, primal wish in the American psyche to correct the damage to our country caused by the murders of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. November 22, 1963 was exactly where this nation went off the rails, and many Americans understand that. RFK, Jr. has stated unambiguously that he believes the CIA killed his uncle, the president. And he recently supported the parole of his father’s killer, Sirhan B. Sirhan, suggesting that there was a whole lot more to Bobby’s assassination than that patsy.
Here’s the heart of the matter: that wish to correct the abominations of history is a sentiment much stronger than anything else currently whirring in the fog of emotion that grips a nation in extremis, certainly stronger than all the bullshit embedded in equity, diversity, and inclusion and the bad faith aspirations of the climate change/Great Reset claque. RFK, Jr., represents a way out of all that. He may be strong enough and honorable enough to make that our new national realty.
Then there is Mr. Trump. He’s been on his own even stranger hero’s journey, considering his origins in real estate and showbiz, and his personal peccadillos. Mr. Trump also recognized the evil afoot in our country and he set out to correct all that. He was attacked unfairly and incessantly by people of bad character and ill intent, even to this day as he faces an absurd political prosecution in Manhattan. You have to admire his fortitude and resilience in the face of such massed official bad faith. His first time around in the White House, though, Mr. Trump kind of muffed the job. He had many opportunities to disarm and fire antagonists like Christopher Wray and the perfidious generals who kept backstabbing him, but he just didn’t do it. He got played on the whole Covid fraud and still hasn’t renounced the killer “vaccines” developed in the Warp Speed flimflam.
While I consider the New York case brought by DA Alvin Bragg to be a disreputable shuck and jive, over which Mr. Trump will prevail, and while I recognize him as the current leader in the battle against a Globalist putsch, I think Mr. Kennedy would be a far better choice to clean up the mess that has been made of us. I was particularly unnerved by Mr. Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago the night of his indictment. I know many find his manner charming, but to me his mode of speaking seems childish and weirdly inarticulate - and the last thing this country needs is more rhetorical confusion. And I’m also disturbed by the histrionic trappings that went with it - the grandiose music, the myriad flags and seals. It actually has a banana republic flavor.
Mr. Kennedy, on the other hand, brings a solemn humility to the scene. Even in his quavering voice, he speaks clearly and with insight. He’s an excellent writer. He reminds me much more of what was good about our country and the men it once produced than the flamboyant Golden Golem of Greatness. I’m aboard for the ride. It’s going to be goshdarn interesting and I hope the bastards don’t try to kill him, because that will really be the end for us. In his own words:
o
o
Comments here:
"Imperial Washington - The New Global Menace" (Excerpt)
"Imperial Washington - The New Global Menace"
by David Stockman
Excerpt: "There is no peace on earth today for reasons mainly rooted in Imperial Washington - not Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Damascus, Mosul or the rubble of what remains of Raqqa. Imperial Washington has become a global menace owing to what didn’t happen in 1991 (when the USSR collapsed). At that crucial inflection point, Bush the Elder should have declared “mission accomplished” and parachuted into the great Ramstein Air Base in Germany to begin the demobilization of America’s war machine.
So doing, he could have slashed the Pentagon budget from $600 billion to $250 billion (2015 $); demobilized the military-industrial complex by putting a moratorium on all new weapons development, procurement and export sales; dissolved NATO and dismantled the far-flung network of US military bases; reduced the United States’ standing armed forces from 1.5 million to a few hundred thousand; and organized and led a world disarmament and peace campaign, as did his Republican predecessors during the 1920s.
Unfortunately, George H. W. Bush was not a man of peace, vision or even middling intelligence. He was the malleable tool of the War Party, and it was he who singlehandedly blew the peace when, in the very year the 77-Years’ War ended with the demise of the Soviet Union, he plunged America into a petty argument between the impetuous dictator of Iraq and the gluttonous emir of Kuwait. But that was none of George Bush’s or America’s business.
Furthermore, George H. W. Bush should never be forgiven for enabling the likes of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Gates and their neocon pack of jackals to come to power - even if he eventually denounced them in his doddering old age. Alas, upon his death, Bush the Elder was deified, not vilified, by the mainstream press and the bipartisan duopoly. And that tells you all you need to know about why Washington is ensnared in its Forever Wars and is the very reason there is still no peace on earth.
Even more to the point, by opting not for peace but for war and oil in the Persian Gulf in 1991, Washington opened the gates to an unnecessary confrontation with Islam and nurtured the rise of jihadist terrorism that would not haunt the world today save for forces unleashed by George H. W. Bush’s petulant quarrel with Saddam Hussein.
We will momentarily get to the 52-year-old error that holds that the Persian Gulf is an American lake and that the answer to high oil prices and energy security is the Fifth Fleet. Suffice it to say here that the answer to high oil prices everywhere and always is high oil prices - a truth driven home in spades by the oil busts of 2009, 2015 and 2020, and the fact the real price of oil today (2022 $) is no higher than it was in the mid-1970s.
But first it is well to remember that in 1991 there was no plausible threat anywhere on the planet to the safety and security of the citizens of Springfield, MA, Lincoln, NE, or Spokane, WA, when the Cold War ended.
The Warsaw Pact had dissolved into more than a dozen woebegone sovereign statelets; the Soviet Union was now unscrambled into 15 independent and far-flung republics from Belarus to Tajikistan; and the Russian motherland would soon plunge into an economic depression that would leave it with a GDP about the size of Philadelphia. And China’s GDP was even smaller and more primitive than Russia’s. Even as Mr. Deng was discovering the People’s Bank of China’s printing press, which would enable it to become a great mercantilist exporter, an incipient Chinese threat to national security was never in the cards."
Full article is here:
"There Is Always The Hope..."
“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio
"I've Been Warned About What Happens Next..."
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper 4/6/23
"I've Been Warned About What Happens Next..."
Comments here:
"Small Businesses File For Bankruptcy At Record Pace, Surpassing COVID Crash"
"Small Businesses File For Bankruptcy At Record Pace,
Surpassing COVID Crash"
by Liam Cosgrove
"Small businesses across the United States are experiencing a surge in bankruptcies, surpassing levels not seen since 2020. According to a UBS note reviewed by The Epoch Times, conditions could become worse as the knock-on effects from the recent banking crises begin to manifest.
The note from UBS Evidence Lab shows private bankruptcy filings in 2023 have exceeded the highest point recorded during the early stages of the COVID pandemic by a considerable amount. The four-week moving average for private filings in late February was 73 percent higher than in June 2020. “We believe one of the more under-appreciated signs of distress in U.S. corporate credit is already emanating from the small and mid-size enterprises sector,” Matthew Mish, head of credit strategy at UBS, wrote in a recently published research note. “The smallest of firms are facing the most severe pressure from rising rates, persistent inflation and slowing growth.” Industries hit hardest by the wave of bankruptcies include real estate, health care, chemicals, and retail outlets, according to the Swiss Bank’s report.
The Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening to combat inflationary pressures has been largely behind the uptick in bankruptcies. UBS indicated that the fear of a credit crunch has further worsened the rise in defaults. Credit conditions are tightening across the spectrum. Large businesses and individual borrowers are feeling the heat as well.
As of February 2023, the monthly bankruptcy filings exceeded 31,000, an 18 percent rise from the 25,564 bankruptcy filings reported in February 2022, according to data provided by the American Bankruptcy Institute. The increase in Chapter 11 bankruptcies—typically used by larger businesses—rose by 83 percent over the same period, with 373 total filings in February of this year.
The White House has downplayed the current economic challenges and their impact on small businesses. Last week, for example, President Joe Biden cited higher rates of new business formation over the past three years—without acknowledging the issues entrepreneurs face. “When I came into office, this economy was reeling. Small businesses were hurting. Literally hundreds of thousands of small businesses had closed across the country. Millions of Americans, many of whom worked in small businesses, lost their jobs through no fault of their own,” he said. “To jumpstart American economic recovery, we needed to help the small businesses, and we needed to help them fast. So we got to work.”
The president claimed that the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 helped the economy by providing emergency loans to millions of businesses. Still, the administration is set to raise the corporate income tax to 28 percent sometime in the coming months. The tax hike will affect small businesses at a time when credit conditions continue to tighten."