Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 11/11/23
"RV Sales Collapse, Dealers Struggle To Stay Alive;
RV Manufacturers Going Bankrupt"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, November 11, 2023
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.
The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left of the bright crescent region. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121025.html
"Perhaps..."
"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will."
- Rachel Carson
"Hezbollah Will Escalate to Total War in Israel If They Break The Red Line in Gaza"
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 11/11/23
"Hezbollah Will Escalate to Total War in Israel
If They Break The Red Line in Gaza"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "We Are A Bunch Of Deadbeats"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 11/11/23
"We Are A Bunch Of Deadbeats"
"Moodys just downgraded the United States of America’s financial position. Because of political strife and the continued geopolitical forces that we are getting ourselves involved in our credit rating has been lowered."
Comments here:
"The Times..."
"The times might be unpleasant, repulsive. The ghastly chaos, the abhorrent incivility might be intolerable, might force us into argument or leave us panic-stricken. On such occasions people build within themselves a conviction that the world outside is diabolical. The whimsical insults test our level of endurance, causing us to plead for mercy, wanting us to be pitied than exploited and victimized. Often this grief and shame form a delusion within us that there no longer exists good in this world, that good people are fictitious, and that goodness has lost its definition altogether. But such is not true because there are still people who are virtuous, unselfish, willing to help and possessing the ability of restoring our faith in humanity. To disregard them, their presence, would be as heinous as the deeds of the people who are unlike them. The times might be unpleasant, repulsive, but we'll come out it, unharmed and liberated."
- Chirag Tulsiani
o
Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
- Samwise Gamgee, "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
"Shortly..."
"Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think
for themselves. They'll only be able to parrot the information
they've been given on the previous night's news."
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
Just a guess, but it appears "shortly" has arrived...
Just a guess, but it appears "shortly" has arrived...
“Just Sit Down And Think?”
“Just Sit Down And Think?”
by Oliver Burkeman
“’All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone,’ wrote the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. It's a line repeated so frequently, in the era of smartphones and social media, that it's easy to forget how striking it is that he wrote it in the 1600s. Back then, a sentence such as "Yo is a messaging app that enables iPhone and Android users to say 'Yo' to their friends" might have got you burned as a witch.
Yet even in 17th-century France, apparently, people hated being alone with their thoughts so intensely, they'd do almost anything else: play boules, start the Franco-Spanish war, and so on. Still, I'd wager even Pascal would have been disturbed by a study published in Science, showing that people detest being made to spend six to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think – even to the extent of being willing to give themselves mild electric shocks instead. It's natural to conclude that there's something wrong with such people. Which means, all else being equal, that something's probably wrong with you, too.
Modern humans spend virtually no time on "inward-directed thought", and not solely because we're too busy: in one US survey, 95% of adults said they'd found time for a leisure activity in the previous 24 hours, but 83% said they'd spent zero time just thinking. The new study, led by Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia, first asked students to entertain themselves with nothing but their thoughts in an "unadorned room". Most said they found it hard to concentrate; half found it unpleasant or neutral at best. In further experiments, older people, and those who rarely used smartphones, got similar results. Meanwhile, those given the chance to do something outward-directed, such as reading, enjoyed it far more. And when 42 people got to choose between sitting doing nothing and giving themselves electric shocks, two-thirds of men and a quarter of women chose the latter.
Are we mad? In his book "Back To Sanity," the Leeds Metropolitan University psychologist Steve Taylor answers: yes. The condition he diagnoses, "humania", isn't recognized as a disorder, but only because we're all victims, he argues, and it's part of the definition of a mental illness that most people don't have it. The "urge to immerse our attention in external things is so instinctive that we're scarcely aware of it", he writes. We often speak of emails, tweets and texts as if they're annoyances that we'd eliminate if we could. Yet the truth, of course, is that half the time we're desperate to be distracted, and gladly embrace the interruption.
Taylor's explanation for this puzzle borrows from Buddhism (among other places). We mistake ourselves for individual, isolated beings, trapped within our heads. No wonder we don't dwell on what's inside: that would underline the loneliness of existence, so obviously watching TV is more fun. To sit comfortably with your thoughts first requires seeing that there's a sense in which they're not real. A less new agey way of putting it is simply that you don't need to believe your thoughts. Whereupon they become fun to watch, and the need for distraction subsides. To quote the title of a book by Sylvia Boorstein, a meditation teacher: don't just do something, sit there.”
"U.S. Caught in Death Trap"
"U.S. Caught in Death Trap"
by Brian Maher
"Imagine a fellow…This is a wastrel sunk impossibly in debt - credit card debt. Spiraling interest payments begin to swamp him. He must take on an additional credit card in order to satisfy interest payments on the original. Yet he must soon take on another credit card… to service the interest on the card he previously took on… which he took on to service the interest on the first. That is, he must borrow money to service previously borrowed money. Reduce the thing to its essentials and you will find: The money he borrows is dead money. It lacks all productive purpose. He is merely shoveling it into a roaring fire. Yet Pelion goes heaping upon Ossa. That is, his situation deteriorates further yet…
Rising Interest Rates: To his fantastic alarm, interest rates begin to gallop on him. That means he must pay more and more money to service his debt. Before he knows what has struck him… he is undone… bankrupt. Well friend, here you have the government of the United States.
It is the reckless and improvident fellow just described - who opens new credit cards to service the interest on existing ones - who is the slave of nonproductive debt. Projected interest payments on the nation’s debt presently exceed $1 trillion annually. And the cost to service that debt has doubled in the past 19 months alone - doubled! The nation is far along the ruinous path. How far down the ruinous path has the United States wandered?
The Day of Reckoning Is in Sight: Mr. Alasdair Macleod, economist: "The day of reckoning for unproductive credit is in sight… Malinvestments of the last 50 years are being exposed by the rise in interest rates, increases which are driven by a combination of declining faith in the value of major currencies and contracting bank credit. The rise in interest rates is becoming unstoppable…
The interest bill is already growing exponentially. We can see that the funding requirement for new debt will be $2 trillion in excess spending, plus at least another $1.3 trillion of interest (allowing for the $7.6 trillion of debt to be refinanced), totaling over $3.3 trillion in total. Clearly, it won’t take much more of a credit squeeze and the increasing likelihood of a buyers’ strike to push the interest bill to over $1.5 trillion…
Irrespective of central bank policy, the shortage of credit is driving borrowing rates higher, and the cost of novating maturing debt is rising, if the credit is actually available - which increasingly is rarely the case. It is an old-fashioned credit crunch, not really seen since the 1970s. And it has only just started… The big picture is of an asset bubble which has come to an end. And by any standards, this one was the largest in recorded history."
It is our sincere hope that you are wrong. It is our profound fear that you are correct. Yet cannot the Federal Reserve and its brother central banks reach into the deep trick bag into which they reached last decade - interest rate suppression, quantitative easing and the rest? Will not these magic tricks prove adequate next time? No says Mr. Macleod…
The Black Hole of Extinction: Thus we are informed: "The era of interest rate suppression is over. G7 central banks are all deeply in negative equity, in other words technically bankrupt, a situation which can only be addressed by issuing yet more unproductive credit. These are the institutions tasked with ensuring the integrity of the entire system of bank credit. This is not a good background for a dollar-based global credit system that is staring into the black hole of its own extinction."
Just so. Yet with the highest respect, sir, we have heard this “doom and gloom” before. In fact, we have heard it issue from an orifice upon our very face, the one directly beneath the nasal bas. For three decades - at least - these cries have come issuing. And for three decades it has been a cry of wolf.
In each instance the financial system has been knocked horizontal… it has shortly regained the vertical. Whether under its own steam or assistance from the financial authorities, it has gotten up. Why should next time prove different?
Why This Time Is Different: Here Mr. Macleod inform us why “this time is different”: "This time, the Global South, the nations standing to one side of all this but finding their currencies badly damaged by unfavorable comparisons with a failing dollar, a dollar forced into higher interest rates in a world that knows of nowhere else to go - this non-financial world is on the edge of abandoning American hegemony for a new model emerging from Asia."
The Global South’s rise is different you say. Do you care to elaborate, sir? "That the U.S. government is ensnared in a debt trap and is being forced to borrow exponentially increasing amounts just to pay the interest on its mountainous debt is not the fault of other nations. But many of them in turn are being forced to pay even higher interest rates, irrespective of their budgetary positions, and irrespective of their balance of trade. Yet their currencies continue to weaken even against a declining dollar."
A conundrum! They are chained to the dollar. It is a liability. They are prisoner to it. What can they do? The Global South, which is the new name for those either in the Asian hegemons’ camp or considering joining it will need to find an alternative… The pressure for a whole new monetary system for the emerging nations is increasing… There is only one answer, and that is to abandon the dollar. Perhaps the potential BRICS currency of which Jim Rickards so often speaks represents an omen - a straw swaying in the wind.
The Wages of Sin: Thus the United States confronts the wages of its monetary and fiscal sins. It has cast all restraint to the scattering winds. It has sacrificed the morrow upon the altar of the present. And it has made its dollar headache the world’s migraine.
A private concern would confront bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of United States Bankruptcy Code. The United States government will not confront bankruptcy proceedings of course. It does - after all - maintain access to a press that prints money. It can make all its shortages good… in nominal terms at least. The debtees will get their money. In reality they will get sawdust…
The Wicked: “I borrowed $100 from you, good sir? Well, here is your $100 back, as promised. I hereby discharge my fiduciary responsibility to you. I have fulfilled my contractual obligations.” “But the $100 I loaned you is now only worth $22.08, because of the vicious inflation you caused” comes the bitter reply. “You’ve robbed me blind! You’re a goddarned crook, that’s what you are.” “Your problem, not my problem,” answers the deadbeat.
That is Uncle Samuel for you. “The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again,” Psalms informs us. This uncle of ours is a cad. He is a bounder. He is a scoundrel. He is wicked…"
"The FDIC Seizes Another Major Bank, Financial Collapse Is Coming"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/11/23
"The FDIC Seizes Another Major Bank,
Financial Collapse Is Coming"
"The recent turmoil in the United States banking system has sent shockwaves throughout the country, leaving thousands of Americans devoid of their hard earned paychecks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations’ seizure of yet another bank, coupled with the inability of major corporations like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase to process Automated Clearing House deposits, has caused widespread panic and uncertainty. As the country grapples with deposit delays on what is payday for many, the question on everyone's mind is whether this is the end of the crisis or just the beginning. Experts warn that hundreds of more Silicon Valley Bank like events will unfold in the near future, leaving even more Americans in financial chaos."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Kroger, Massive Holiday Sale!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 11/11/23
"Stocking Up At Kroger, Part 2; Massive Holiday Sale!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and urging everyone to stock up on these items. They are having a massive holiday sale on groceries. We take you with us showing every great deal they have to offer. Stock up now as we may never see these kinds of sales again!"
Comments here:
Jeremiah Babe, "Debt Is Creating A Dangerous Illusion"
Jeremiah Babe, 11/10/23
"Debt Is Creating A Dangerous Illusion,
Living On A Credit Card Is Unsustainable"
Comments here:
"'Clear Intention of Ethnic Cleansing': Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov Warns of Genocide in Gaza"
Full screen recommended.
Democracy Now 11/10/23
"'Clear Intention of Ethnic Cleansing':
Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov Warns of Genocide in Gaza"
"Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov, one of the world's leading experts on the Holocaust, says Israel's brutal assault on the Gaza Strip is at risk of becoming a genocide. The month long air and ground war has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave, a majority of them women and children. Israel has also severely limited the movement of food, water, fuel, medicine and other essentials into Gaza. Bartov says the disproportionate killing of civilians by Israel, as well as dehumanizing statements by Israeli leaders and suggestions of mass expulsion, are of grave concern. He recently joined hundreds of lawyers and academics in signing an open letter warning about Israel's violations of international law in Gaza. "There is an indication that there are war crimes happening in Gaza, potentially also crimes against humanity," says Bartov. "If this so-called operation continues, that may become ethnic cleansing … and that may become genocide."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Douglas Macgregor, 11/10/23:
"55,000 Israeli Forces Surrounded"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 11/10/23
"Muslim Countries To Attack Israel?
IDF Prepares For Wider War Amid Gaza Offensive"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 11/10/23
"Hezbollah Has 200,000 Guided &
Unguided Rockets For Israel if Gaza Conflict Escalates"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 11/10/23
"Hezbollah Pounds Israeli Border Posts;
New Video Shows 'Revenge Shell Storm'"
Comments here:
Friday, November 10, 2023
"Alert! Lebanon War Begins; 3 More Carrier Strike Groups! Russia And NATO Showdown; Global Unrest"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/10/23
"Alert! Lebanon War Begins; 3 More Carrier Strike Groups!
Russia And NATO Showdown; Global Unrest"
Comments here:
"15 Biggest Restaurant Chain Bankruptcies of 2023"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 11/10/23
"15 Biggest Restaurant Chain Bankruptcies of 2023"
"Economic instability, labor pressure, and changing consumer habits are just a few of the challenges faced by U.S. restaurant chains this year. Many beloved companies struggled with rising borrowing costs and intense competition for customers, which led to some shocking bankruptcies throughout the year. In this video, we remember the biggest bankruptcies of 2023, as well as the latest filings sending shockwaves across the market right now.
One major example is Burger King. In the first half of 2023, two large operators, and a small franchisee filed for Chapter 11 protection citing rising debt and declining revenues. Meridian Restaurants, Toms King, and Restaurant Brand International also conducted store closings as a part of their restructuring plan. So far this year, more than 400 Burger King restaurants have been shut down, and even more are likely to stop operating in the next few months. That’s because eleven days ago, another big franchisee operator has gone bankrupt. Premier Kings, which managed stores in Alabama, Georgia, Tennesse, South Carolina, and Florida, also sought court protection in an attempt to save some of its 172 Burger King units. The company reported a $32 million drop in sales and a net operating loss of $27 million. More details about the proceedings are going to be shared in December, but lenders believe about one-third of the Premier King locations will eventually cease operations due to underperformance.
Likewise, one of the biggest Carl’s Jr. operators, Summit Restaurant Holdings (SRH), went under earlier this year, and closed dozens of restaurants across the country. The group’s decision to file for bankruptcy is said to be due to a sharp decline in revenue and customer traffic, which added to rental obligations, debt, and other liabilities, making multiple stores unprofitable. In its filing, the company also noted that the decision was also driven by higher wages, labor costs, lower staff availability, shipping, and food inflation as well as general inflation, QSR Magazine reported.
Carl’s Jr. sister chain Hardee’s was also operated by SRH, and the group’s bankruptcy caused the fast food chain to close 39 restaurants so far this year. About 145 Hardee’s locations are expected to be sold to a “qualified and well-capitalized buyer, with a record of success across the restaurant, entertainment, food, beverage and retail markets,” according to its parent company. But since the announcement was made in May, a deal hasn’t been settled. Industry experts say the chain isn’t considered a good investment right now. During the latest fiscal year, Hardee’s sales declined by 4.2%, and average unit volumes dropped by 3%. It continued to struggle throughout 2023 while competitors reported record profits.
Experts say many other companies are just hanging by a thread, and a much bigger wave of distress companies is about to hit the market in 2024. It’s getting increasingly harder to survive in such a tight economic environment. Businesses are fighting over customers as more Americans continue to cut their spending on restaurants. Restaurant chains now have to prove their product is unique, and that their brand has what it takes to become a great success. Unfortunately, this means it’s time for many struggling companies to go. We never know for sure who will go down next, but there are many consumer favorites in dire financial straits right now. In 2024, conditions will be even more difficult, and more bankruptcies will certainly serve as a shock for the entire market."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Full-On Liquidity Crisis, Cash Is Drying Up Rapidly. This Is The Endgame"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 11/10/23
"Full-On Liquidity Crisis, Cash Is Drying Up Rapidly.
This Is The Endgame"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though.
Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past."
"Accomplished Fugitives..."
“Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems. We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within. More often than not we don’t want to know ourselves, don’t want to depend on ourselves, don’t want to live with ourselves. By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”
- John Gardner
"An Old Farmers Advice"
"An Old Farmers Advice"
"These simple words of wisdom, from Texas state legislator Judge Roy English, "Don't Whiz On An Electric Fence: Grandpa's Country Wisdom,1996", are fruits ripe for the picking by people of all walks of life:
• Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
• Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
• Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
• A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
• Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.
• Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.
• Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
• Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
• It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
• You cannot unsay a cruel word.
• Every path has a few puddles.
• When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
• The best sermons are lived, not preached.
• Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen, anyway.
• Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
• Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none.
• Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
• Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
• The biggest troublemaker you’ll ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
• Always drink upstream from the herd.
• Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
• Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
• If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
• Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly."
• Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
• Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
• Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
• A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
• Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.
• Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.
• Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
• Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
• It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
• You cannot unsay a cruel word.
• Every path has a few puddles.
• When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
• The best sermons are lived, not preached.
• Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen, anyway.
• Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
• Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none.
• Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
• Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
• The biggest troublemaker you’ll ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
• Always drink upstream from the herd.
• Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
• Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
• If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
• Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly."
“Character is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”
- J.C. Watts
"A Pueblo Indian Prayer"; "Amazing Grace", Sung In Cherokee"
"Hold on to what is good, even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life, even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand, even if someday I'll be gone away from you."
~ A Pueblo Indian Prayer
o
Full screen recommended.
"Amazing Grace", sung in Cherokee.
Free Download: Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Ask her if it was worth it...
o
“You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment
taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.”
- "Paul Baumer", "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)
- "Paul Baumer", "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)
Freely download “All Quiet on the Western Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque, here:
- http://explainallquietonthewesternfront.weebly.com/
- http://explainallquietonthewesternfront.weebly.com/
o
Bill Bonner, "In Praise of Hypocrisy"
"In Praise of Hypocrisy"
Rules for thee... not for we
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Parents, priests, and politicians know the value of hypocrisy. Take Senator Lindsey Graham. He’s 100% in favor of protecting the lives of children…particularly the unborn. “America is at her best when she’s standing up for the least among us,” he says. This expression of grace and piety came sandwiched between two remarkable episodes…the first proving that it wasn’t true…and the second proving that Graham didn’t really mean it anyway.
America did not stand up for the ‘least among us.’ She walked on them. That was the dreadful admission of former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who, when confronted by a death toll of 500,000 children in Iraq who had been deprived of essential medicines by US sanctions, replied: “it was worth it.” What ‘it’ was, exactly, has never been clarified, since no benefits of the sanctions nor the invasion have ever been identified. In any case, Graham did well to avoid the apparent contradiction and proudly stick with an honorable hypocrisy.
But come the Israeli pounding of Gaza…with more than 4,000 deaths of children already…and the man sank into Albright-style barbarity. “Level the place!” he says: “They’ve been taught since birth to kill people and hate the Jews.” It’s unlikely that the dead children, buried under the rubble, had already learned to be hard-core Jew killers. But the survivors are getting a crash course in hatred now!
Baby’s Bottoms: When it comes to hypocrisy, politicians of both parties are as smooth as a baby’s derriere. Here’s the Financial Times: "The US House of Representatives has voted to censure Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative from Michigan, accusing her of “promoting false narratives” about the Hamas attacks on Israel and “calling for the destruction” of the state of Israel."
This is the same confederacy of dunces that has repeatedly endorsed the destruction of governments all over the world – Iraq, Libya, Iran, Russia – and now calls for the destruction of the democratically-elected government of Gaza. Surely, Ms. Tlaib, elected by the good citizens of Detroit, is entitled to decide for herself which narratives are true or false…and which foreign governments should be destroyed. But that’s hypocrisy. You take the high road…ignoring the swampy, blood-stained trail you leave behind.
Another gem in the condemnation of Ms. Tlaib is this: “Israel has existed on its lands for millennia and the United States played a critical role in returning Israel to those lands in 1948,”
Whoa! Does that mean the US government favors giving back Florida to the Seminoles? Laramie to the Sioux? Las Vegas to the Paiutes?
Again, hypocrisy at work. It makes you feel good when you can return somebody else’s land to its rightful owners. As for your own, you stole it fair and square. Even today, there are probably some people in Brooklyn who feel guilty about not speaking an Algonquin language and squatting on lands where the Rockaway or Canarsie tribes once existed. But as far as we know, no major effort has been made to restore them to their lands…if there are any Indians left to give them to.
Wait. If we’re returning land to people who ‘existed’ on them…where did the Palestinians exist? In Palestine, maybe? And the Romans? And the Byzantines? The Kish…Sassanides…Crusaders…Seleucids…Akkadians… Sumerians…Amorites…Ahlamu…Babylonians…? All have existed in Palestine.
“Do as I say…” Hypocrisy has its uses. For elite groups it is as essential as a liar’s tongue…or a butcher’s thumb. No one really expects our leaders to give up their own thievin’, cheatin’ ways. But the least they can do is wag their fingers at the lower classes and tell them to do better. Likewise, a hegemon empire does the world a favor when it…tells others to behave themselves (even though it has barely recovered from its last debauch)…preaches financial prudence (while it blithely continues borrowing, spending and printing)…warns against recklessness in war (even as it endangers the safety of the entire world by funding conflicts all over the planet.)
‘Free Trade!’ should be its motto…even if it rigs the world economy with its fake money, sanctions, tariffs, and trade preferences. ‘The Rule of Law!’ it should shout from the balconies…even as it makes up its own laws as it goes along. “Human Rights and Freedom” should be its anthem….no need to mention the millions of people it keeps behind bars (America has the largest prison population in the world). ‘Respect for National Sovereignty’ should be almost sacred…except, of course, when it wishes to invade another nation. And an emphatic ‘NO’ must be given to anyone who would engage in mass murder. (Unless it is a special ally, with a powerful lobby in Washington.)
“…not as I do.” Well…you get the idea. ‘Extremism in defense of liberty,’ as the great Karl Hess once wrote for Barry Goldwater, ‘is no sin. Moderation is no virtue.’ And hypocrisy, we add, in pursuit of peace and justice, is better than nothing. So, let’s find another model…a leader who is not complicit in the mass murder of children.
In 1982, the Israelis were on the warpath again…this time they were shooting the fish in the Beirut barrel. After two and a half months of bombardment, the death toll approached 20,000, half of whom were children. Ronald Reagan spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin directly. No need to make reference to America’s murderous campaigns…neither in Japan…nor Vietnam…nor even in Honduras or Nicaragua… Instead, the Gipper went straight to the point: “Menachem, this is a holocaust.” Twenty minutes later, the guns went silent. Hypocrisy works."
Dan, I Allegedly, "AM/PM 11/10/23""
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 11/10/2
"Avoid the Trap! What's Coming in 2024"
"There is so much happening in the stock market right now. Today we bring forward Bob Kudla of Trade Genius. What is going on with stocks? Where will crypto go? What about the metals and other areas of investment? We cover it all today."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly PM 11/10/23
"A Bank Just Ruined Your Credit"
"What happens when a major bank destroys your credit? I had a subscriber write me a letter where the bank recorded the payoff of their car loan incorrectly to the credit reporting agencies. This was devastating."
Comments here:
"15 Retail Stores Are Getting Wiped Out Right Now"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/10/23
"15 Retail Stores Are Getting Wiped Out Right Now"
"In the face of rising inflation and stringent credit conditions, many well-known retailers in the United States are reevaluating their physical presence to align with evolving economic realities. Escalating real estate expenses, augmented labor costs, and heightened operational expenditures have stirred apprehension among even the most successful stores chains regarding their financial stability in 2024. Concurrently, a substantial transition towards online shopping is rapidly transforming the American retail landscape, resulting in a rapid and unsettling closure of traditional brick-and-mortar stores."
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 11/10/23"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 11/10/23"
Banking Crisis Coming, War Coming, More CV19 Vax Deaths Coming
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Big banks are in trouble, but you are not going to hear about it until it’s too late. Banks are losing deposits at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, they have big losses on the books because of rising interest rates. This is all causing the biggest liquidity problems since the Great Recession. In other words, the banks need money to cover losses and conduct business. Record government interest payments mean Washington does not have the money for a bailout. The problem is not going to get better anytime soon, and it is getting worse by the day. You have been warned.
New bombings are taking place in the Middle East, and we are not talking about the Israeli/Hamas war. This bombing is taking place in Syria by the U.S. Air Force. This is to punish and degrade Iran proxies who have attacked American Troops 46 times in the last few weeks. An enemy weapon storage facility was blown up, but further attacks against U.S. forces keep coming. 56 soldiers have been wounded in these attacks. Secretary Lloyd Austin says he does not want “escalation,” but that is exactly what he is getting from Iran.
In the latest CV19 bioweapon vax death watch, we see a 14-year-old boy died in an ROTC fitness competition. It is being reported he died of “natural causes,” but what the heck is “natural” about a 14-year-old dying unexpectedly? There was no autopsy, so, they don’t really know what happened. The cover-up continues, and with at least 700 million CV19 injections in America alone, the bad news is not going to stop. Why is society acting like this is not a problem, and deaths like this are totally normal when it is anything but normal!! This is yet another murder from the CV19 bioweapon vax—period. There is much more in the 44-minute newscast."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 11/10/23.
"World War III Prelude, 11/10/23"
Full screen recommended.
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/10/23
"The US Will Directly Involve Iran Into This War.
Expect It! Be Ready!"
Comments here:
o
Douglas Macgregor, 11/10/23
"An Analysis of the Current Situation"
Comments here:
o
Douglas Macgregor, AM 11/10/23
"Prepared For A Major War"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, AM 11/10/23
"Hamas Bleeds Israeli Troops Despite Fierce Offensive;
41 IDF Soldiers Killed In Gaza Fighting"
"Two more Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza ground fighting, taking the overall death toll to 41 since the invasion began, Israeli military has said. The Israeli military said that it eliminated the members of Hamas' elite unit who were involved in October 7 attacks. The Israeli attacks on Gaza in response to Hamas's October 7 assault have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians while the Gaza strip has been split into two."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, AM 11/10/23
"Iran FM's Bombshell On Tehran's Entry In Israel's Conflict:
'Expansion Of Gaza War Inevitable'"
"Iran's Foreign Minister has dropped a bombshell on Iran's possible official entry into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Speaking to his Qatari counterpart on phone, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that given the intensity of Israeli bombardment, the expansion of the scope of the war was inevitable in the region. His remarks came after he tweeted that time was running out for Israel."
Comments here:
Jim Kunstler, "Party, Party!"
"Party, Party!"
by Jim Kunstler
"Of course, you already sense that the 2024 election will be a freaky event, if it happens at all. If it’s not America’s last election altogether, it may be the last one that follows the traditional format that has signified stability in our country’s high tide as a great power: that is, a contest between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are likely to crash and burn in the year ahead, along with a whole lot of other things on the tottering scaffold of normal life.
Have you lost count yet of the number of things in our country that are broken? The justice system. Public safety. Education. Medicine. Money. Transportation. Housing. The food supply. The border. The News business. The arts. Our relations with other countries. That’s just the big institutional stuff. At the personal scale its an overwhelming plunge in living standards, loss of incomes, careers, chattels, liberties... poor health (especially mental health)... and failing confidence in any plausible future.
The reasons behind all that failure and loss are pretty straightforward. The business model for operating a high-tech industrial economy is broken. That includes especially the business model for affordable energy: oil, gas, nuclear, and the electric grid that runs on all that. We opted out of an economy that produced things of real value. We replaced that with a financial matrix of banking fakery. That racket made a very few people supernaturally wealthy while incrementally dissolving the middle-class. We destroyed local and regional business and scaled up what was left into super-giant predatory companies that can no longer maintain their supply chains. Fragility everywhere in everything.
Bad choices all along the way, you could say, but perhaps an inexorable process of nature. Things are born, they grow, they peak, they decline, they die. The difference this time is the scale of everything we do is so enormous that the wreckage is also epic. It’s happening in Western Civ at the moment, led by its biggest nation state, us, the USA, but it will eventually go global, spread to the BRICs and the many countries that will never actually “develop.”
I started writing about the fiasco of suburbia decades ago, and now the endgame of that living arrangement is in view. The dissolving middle class has gotten priced-out of motoring. Motoring is the basis of the suburban living arrangement. No motoring, no suburbia. It’s that simple. There was widespread belief among idealistic reformers that suburbia could just be “retrofitted” for “smarter” daily life, but that dream is over. The capital (money) is not there to fix it, and there’s no prospect that we’ll somehow come up with it as far ahead as we can see.
So far, the collapse of suburbia has happened in slow motion, but the pace is quickening now and it’ll get supercharged when the bond markets go down, as they must, considering the country’s catastrophic fiscal circumstances. That will produce exactly the zombie apocalypse telegraphed in all those movies and TV series over recent years: normality overrun by demonic hungry ghosts. Every day in suburbia will be Halloween, and not in a fun way.
All this is apprehended to some degree by the increasingly frightened public, though they have a hard time articulating it within any of the popular frameworks presented by politics, religion, or what appears lately to be extremely corrupt science. The people see what’s coming but they can’t make sense of it, and the stress makes a great many of them insane. Without a way to construct a coherent view of reality, or tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not, they behave accordingly: anything goes and nothing matters.
In the face of all this the two big political parties are helpless and clueless. The Democrats have made themselves into a giant feedback loop amplifying the poor mental health of their constituents. They are in CrazyLand, where there are no boundaries anymore, and to insist that there should be is an affront that gets you cancelled. They are in upside-down inside-out world. Hillary Clinton demonstrated this perfectly the other day on ABC’s The View when she accused her party’s opponents of trying to “do away with elections, trying to do away with the opposition, and do away with a free press….” It’s hard to imagine a more impressive lack of self-awareness.
.@HillaryClinton tells #TheView a win for former Pres. Trump in 2024 "would be the end of our country as we know it." https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/E8tevUoZbs
— The View (@TheView) November 8, 2023
And, of course, they are the party of “Joe Biden,” the moneygrubbing ghoul pretending to be president and pretending to run for another term - with hard evidence of his crimes publicly unspooling day by day now. The Democratic Party will not survive after an election that he runs in, and there is plenty of reason to believe that his regime might cancel or postpone the election on account of some contrived “emergency.”
The Republican Party is also badly splintered. Forces in the party are trying like hell to dissociate from Donald Trump, despite his clear domination in the polling. And another faction led informally by Rep. Matt Gaetz and new speaker Mike Johnson is in active rebellion against the GOP blob cabal around deposed speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the evanescent uber-fool, Mitt Romney.
You may have seen candidate Vivek Ramaswamy go after Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel (Mitt’s niece) in this week’s debate, a pretty savage attack, but well-earned. Ms. McDaniel has a unique libido for losing elections. She has especially helped deploy money from the GOP campaign war chest against candidates in her own party. The perfidy is quite out of this world. And it looks like the Matt Gaetz/Mike Johnson faction is good and goddam sick of it, too.
The net result of all this internal strife is a party that can’t function as an opposition to the Democratic Party of Chaos. So, chaos reigns for now. Chaos at the border. Chaos in foreign wars. Chaos in government finance. Chaos in the streets and the stores. Chaos in the school curricula. Chaos in the kids’ minds. Chaos in the household. Chaos in the supply chains. You can expect the chaos to really amp up when the financial markets blow and every household mired in debt faces its own margin call - along with every business in America.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump slogs through an Okeefenokee Swamp of tribulations laid before him like the supernatural character he is. If he gets to the nomination despite it all, and happens to win the election, if there is one, every reptile and rodent will get bum-rushed out of the party and it will be transformed into something new. If not, the brand is finished and many in it will be looking to start a completely different brand."
Oh yeah, the full name of Kunstler's website says it all...