Saturday, April 13, 2024

"Biggest Attack on Israel in History: 5 Countries With Thousands of Drones and Ballistic Missiles"

Full screen recommended.
Richard Medhurst, 4/13/24
"Biggest Attack on Israel in History: 
5 Countries With Thousands of Drones and Ballistic Missiles"
"British journalist Richard Medhurst reports on the Iranian response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. This violation of the Vienna Convention (1961 and 1963) went unanswered until today on April 14 The world has watched anxiously in anticipation of Iran's response. Now Iran fires a volley of drones and missiles at Israel, accompanied by an orchestra of similar calibers out of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq."
Comments here:

Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel. So be it...

"Prelude To WW III: Israel and Iran At War"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/13/24
"Emergency! Iran Destroys Israeli Airbase, 
Massive Escalation; Dimona Alert!"
Comments here:
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Jeremiah Babe, 4/13/24
"Pray For The World, We May Not Come Back;
Brace For WW 3"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
The Enforcer, 4/13/24
"Iran Launches Attack On Israel, War Declared!"
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is currently conducting a mass missile and drone attack on the State of Israel, with hundreds of Shahed drones, and hundreds of medium range ballistic missiles being fired. Israel, the US, and the UK, have scrambled their air forces to prepare to shoot down the incoming attack. The Israeli doomsday airplane has taken off from it's airbase in Southern Israel, and the Israeli Government has promised mass attacks in return. We will continue to cover more updates as they come in live on air."
Comments here:
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Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/13/24
"Red Alert! Netanyahu In Nuclear Bunker;
 Airspace Closed; Martial Law; Cyberattacks"
Comments here:
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Full screen recommended.
Richard Medhurst, 4/13/24
"Iran Strikes Israel With Hundreds of Drones and Missiles"
"British journalist Richard Medhurst reports on the Iranian response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. This violation of the Vienna Convention (1961 and 1963) went unanswered until today on April 14 The world has watched anxiously in anticipation of Iran's response. Now Iran fires a volley of drones and missiles at Israel, accompanied by an orchestra of similar calibers out of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq."
Comments here:

"Walmart Faces Multiple Store Closings As The Retail Apocalypse Aggravates"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 4/13/24
"Walmart Faces Multiple Store Closings 
As The Retail Apocalypse Aggravates"
"Things are going downhill, and they're going downhill fast. Walmart is the biggest supermarket in the United States. According to the official tracking metrics of Walmart's income levels, the annual revenue of this superstore chain is just over 611 billion dollars. So why is Walmart closing its stores? Walmart is facing multiple closures and besides the stores Walmart closed in 2023, a dozen more stores had been considered one of the few lifelines for many communities across the United States.

They are actually beginning to close these lifelines. Patriots, it's time to stock up and buckle down. We, the American People, have been thrown under the bus, stepped on by our elected representatives, and sold out. We're about to face a retail apocalypse like we've never seen before, so get ready."
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Musical Interlude: Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"

Full screen recommended.
Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" 
Procol Harum performing "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
 with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and choir at
 Ledreborg Castle, Denmark in August 2006.

"A Look to the Heavens, With Chet Raymo"

“Reaching For The Stars”
by Chet Raymo

“Here is a spectacular detail of the Eagle Nebula, a gassy star-forming region of the Milky Way Galaxy, about 7,000 light-years away. The Eagle lies in the equatorial constellation Serpens. If you went out tonight and looked at this part of the sky – more or less midway between Arcturus and Antares – you might see nothing at all. The brightest star in Serpens is of the third magnitude, perhaps invisible in an urban environment. No part of the Eagle Nebula is available to unaided human vision. How big is the nebula in the sky? Hold a pinhead at arm’s length and it would just about cover the spire. I like to think about things not mentioned in the APOD descriptions.

If the Sun were at the bottom of the spire, Alpha centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, would be about halfway up the column. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s sky, would be near the top. Let’s say you sent out a spacecraft from the bottom of the spire that travelled at the speed of the two Voyager craft that are now traversing the outer reaches of the Solar System. It would take more than 200,000 years to reach the top of the spire.

The Hubble Space Telescope cost a lot of money to build, deploy, and operate. It has done a lot of good science. But perhaps the biggest return on the investment is to turn on ordinary folks like you and me to the scale and complexity of the universe. The human brain evolved, biologically and culturally, in a universe conceived on the human scale. We resided at its center. The stars were just up there on the dome of night. The Sun and Moon attended our desires. “All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare, and he meant it literally; the cosmos was designed by a benevolent creator as a stage for the human drama. All of that has gone by the board. Now we can travel in our imagination for 200,000 years along a spire of glowing, star-birthing gas that is only the tiniest fragment of a nebula that is only the tiniest fragment of a galaxy that is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies we can potentially see with our telescopes.

Most of us still live psychologically in the universe of Dante and Shakespeare. The biggest intellectual challenge of our times is how to bring our brains up to speed. How to shake our imaginations out of the slumber of centuries. How to learn to live purposefully in a universe that is apparently indifferent to the human drama. How to stretch the human story to match the light-years.”

The Poet: John O’Donohue, “In These Times”

“In These Times”

“In these times when anger
Is turned into anxiety,
And someone has stolen
The horizons and mountains,
Our small emperors on parade
Never expect our indifference
To disturb their nakedness.
They keep their heads down,
And their eyes gleam with reflection
From aluminum economic ground,
The media wraps everything
In a cellophane of sound,
And the ghost surface of the virtual
Overlays the breathing earth.
The industry of distraction
Makes us forget
That we live in a universe.
We have become converts
To the religion of stress
And its deity of progress;
That we may have courage
To turn aside from it all
And come to kneel down before the poor,
To discover what we must do,
How to turn anxiety
Back into anger,
How to find our way home.”

~ John O’Donohue,
from “To Bless the Space Between Us”
“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estes

"What Keeps You Going..."

“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, ‘What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?’”
- Barbara Kingsolver

“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”

Full screen recommended.
“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
By Melanie Curtin

“Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.

According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- “Weightless”- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.

Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created “Weightless”, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.

In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you’ve got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.

Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.” So don’t drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:

10. “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
9. “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart
8. “Someone Like You,” by Adele
7. “Pure Shores,” by All Saints
6. “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona
5. “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay
4. “Watermark,” by Enya
3. “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah
2. “Electra,” by Airstream
1. “Weightless,” by Marconi Union

I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it’s also downloadable).”

"You Finally Find What You're After..."

"When we're headed toward an outcome that's too horrible to face, that's when we go looking for a second opinion. And sometimes, the answer we get just confirms our worst fears. But sometimes, it can shed new light on the problem, make you see it in a whole new way. After all the opinions have been heard and every point of view has been considered, you finally find what you're after - the truth. But the truth isn't where it ends, that's just where you begin again with a whole new set of questions."
- "Grays Anatomy"

The Daily "Near You?"

Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Few Things..."

"If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions, you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusion. You’ll find yourself continually debating people and never winning except in your own mind. Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational."
- Scott Adams

"And I Ask..."

 

"Humanity is a parade of fools,
and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton."
- Dean Koontz

"The Great Taking"

"The Great Taking"
by Jim Quinn

“At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move all the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.” – Frank Zappa

Excerpt: “In the past few years, you have been living within an escalating hybrid war. Globally, we have witnessed overt media control and propaganda campaigns; censorship, including arrests of people speaking in public; monitoring of all electronic communications and physical contact tracing; brutally enforced lock-down and masking requirements, with people being beaten, handcuffed, and arrested, even in their homes; suspension of healthcare services and weakening of healthcare systems; invasive testing requirements for employment and travel; forced quarantine of travelers; and coerced quarantine and “vaccination” of the healthy, general population.

Governments dropped all pretense of democracy and were emboldened to open despotism. There were no functioning checks on this power. The courts provided no effective recourse to the public. Governments broadly abused fundamental human rights using as justification prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, which are, in truth, a great many, ever-present, and continually evolving. And so, this justification, if allowed to stand, assures the end of democracy and installation of openly despotic government.” – David Webb, "The Great Taking"
Full article here:
o
Full screen recommended.
"The Great Taking"
David Webb exposes the system Central Bankers 
have in place to take everything from everyone.
Hat tip to Jim Quinn and 
The Burning Platform for this material.

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Sale At Kroger"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/13/24
"Massive Sale At Kroger"
"My fun experience at Kroger showing off all the great deals and sharing with you all the different things I bought! As prices continue to rise, shop with me and find many ways to save a few dollars"
Comments here:

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"
by Paul Rosenberg

I’ve gone on for a long time about fear making humans stupid, and even about it being a weapon and a brain poison. But I’ve also wondered at times whether people would hit fear-fatigue… that point where people have simply had enough and walk out from under it.

As it turns out, however, I was a bit optimistic on fear fatigue. I’ve been reading Robert Sapolsky’s newest book, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best And Worst", and was disappointed to learn what the best new research shows on the long-term application of fear. (Or, in the academic terminology, sustained stress.)

My disappointment, however, was soon tempered by two things: I gained information on how fear poisoning works. That human neurology is immensely variable, that there are exceptions to everything, and that if the whole picture were actually as dark as the most troubling findings, we’d have devolved into nothing but murderous monkeys long ago.

I barely need to say this, but 2024 has been The Year of Fear. I’m a bit amazed by the extent of it. There is a certain appeal to soaking up all the fear stories in normal times – our ability to look evil in the eye makes us appear vibrant – but 2024 has pushed far beyond that level. What we’re encountering is much more than simple fear porn, and there are certain outlets (including websites) that I can only describe as obscene. This is more destructive than people realize.

What Perpetual Fear Does To Us: I’m going to quote from Sapolsky, who is one of the better neuroscientists of our time. I’ll edit a bit to simplify and to remove the brain-area references, and will follow the passages with a few elaborations. “During sustained stress, we’re more fearful, our thinking is muddled, we assess risks poorly, and act impulsively out of habit, rather than incorporating new data.”

Under a long stream of fear (like scary headlines), our thinking breaks down. Let me put that very simply: You may be very bright in essence, but when you consume hours of fear every day, you become stupid. And please understand: This is biological. Your brain operations become those of a stupid person. (And yes, I’m using “stupid” very unscientifically.)

Also bear in mind that fear works. The people selling fear on TV, web pages and social media are being rewarded for it. They have become, using my terms loosely but not unfairly, drug dealers, selling damaging material that people become dependent upon. Moreover, these are professionals. Social media companies are fully aware that their business models depend upon people being addicted to them. They are careful to keep them addicted. The fears people consume, then, are coming to them from people who are cashing in from it.

“Stress weakens connections that are essential for incorporating new information that should prompt shifting to a new strategy - while strengthening connections with habitual brain circuits.” In other words, fear locks you into your habits and your previous choices. It literally diminishes the brain pathways that allow you to change your mind. This is serious, and I suspect that you’ve seen examples of this already.

“Under sustained stress we process emotionally prominent information rapidly and automatically, but less accurately. Working memory, impulse control, decision-making, risk-assessment and task shifting are impaired.” Again, prolonged fear locks people into whatever path they’re already on. And again, this is biological. The brain circuits are directly affected. Still…

From everything I’ve written above (and there are other nasty effects like domestic violence), it would appear that we are doomed; that our neighbors who’ve drunk deep from the river of fear are brain-locked, and so long as the fear stream continues (there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight), they will get more and more rigid in their biases, and that violence will continue and increase. And for some people all of the above will be true. Fear destroys in the most direct way: biologically.

Still… biology is never simple, and especially on the human level. While the things above are generally true, there are always exceptions; sometimes a lot of them. And it is those exceptions that have saved us, time after time. The wages of perpetual fear are polarized and locked minds. And that leads to knee-jerk opposition, violence and murder. We’re seeing that now and we stand to see it for some time. The world, it seems, has become addicted to fear. And yet, many of us refuse, and this is a long way from over.

There was a party in my neighborhood two days ago: Music, talking, playing, laughing and so on. It was the first joyful noise I’ve heard in public for a long time. Life finds a way, and especially human life."

The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"

"Courage"

"It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.

Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.

Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.

Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out."

~ Anne Sexton

"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

It won't be...

Dan, I Allegedly, "It’s Getting Bad - Now Zoos Are For Sale"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/13/24
"It’s Getting Bad - Now Zoos Are For Sale"
"Zoos for Sale: Is now the time to invest in wildlife parks? Amidst in an economic downturn, with even zoos hitting the market unique opportunity of owning Zootastic or Aloha Safari Park."
Comments here:

"Israel's Catastrophic Defeat - The IDF Won't Survive a War w/ Hezbollah or Iran"

Larry C. Johnson, 4/13/24
"Israel's Catastrophic Defeat - 
The IDF Won't Survive a War w/ Hezbollah or Iran"
"Larry C. Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 4/13/24
"'Don't F**K With Us Or Else...': Iran Threatens 
U.S. Forces With Attacks Over Potential Israel War"
"Iran reportedly sent a message to the Biden administration to stay out of Iran's war with Israel. Three U.S. officials told Axios that Iran sent a message to the U.S. through several Arab nations. As per the report, Iran warned of attacks on the U.S. forces if it helps Israel against Tehran." 
Comments here:

Friday, April 12, 2024

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! 'Get Out Now' Canada Warns"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/12/24
"Alert! 'Get Out Now' Canada Warns
Biden Deploys Troops To Israel; French Troops Enter Ukraine"
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, Our Dog Mimi Almost Died, Big Medical Bill; WW3 Could Start This Weekend"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/12/24
"Our Dog Mimi Almost Died, Big Medical Bill; 
WW3 Could Start This Weekend"
Comments here:

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light. 
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”

"The Day Has Been So Full Of Fret And Care..."

“The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand upon our fevered head, and turns our little tear-stained faces up to hers, and smiles; and though she does not speak, we know what she would say, and lay our hot flushed cheek against her bosom, and the pain is gone. Sometimes, our pain is very deep and real, and we stand before her very silent, because there is no language for our pain, only a moan. Night’s heart is full of pity for us: she cannot ease our aching; she takes our hand in hers, and the little world grows very small and very far away beneath us, and, borne on her dark wings, we pass for a moment into a mightier Presence than her own, and in the wondrous light of that great Presence, all human life lies like a book before us, and we know that Pain and Sorrow are but angels of God.”
- Jerome K. Jerome

"Warning: Israel’s Dangerous Game with Iran - Ukraine Joining NATO Spurs War With Russia"

Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano, 4/12/24
John Mearsheimer, "Warning: Israel’s Dangerous Game with Iran - 
Ukraine Joining NATO Spurs War With Russia"
Comments here:

"Will Much Of The Middle East Soon Be Turned Into 'A Pile Of Smoking, Radioactive Rubble?'”

"Will Much Of The Middle East Soon Be Turned 
Into 'A Pile Of Smoking, Radioactive Rubble ?”
by Michael Snyder

"Most people have absolutely no idea how close we are to a nightmare scenario in the Middle East. Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that Bloomberg was reporting that an Iranian attack on Israel was “imminent”. At that time we were waiting for the other shoe to drop in the Middle East, and we are still waiting. Ynet News is claiming that Iran was “ready to launch its attack on Israel” but had a change of heart before it pulled the trigger…

"Iran was ready to launch its attack on Israel but decided to change or postpone it by a few days, likely after warnings from the Biden administration. Overnight, the official Iranian news agency Mehr posted on X that that Iran temporarily grounded all air activity over Tehran’s airspace starting from midnight due to “military maneuvers.” Mehr also shared a video showing missiles with the caption “Maybe tonight… Stay tuned.” The agency quickly deleted both items.

I think that the Iranians realize that if they strike Israeli territory there will be an overwhelming response from the IDF. And Joe Biden is promising “ironclad” support for Israel if the Iranians attack…"US president Joe Biden on Wednesday vowed that American support for Israel is ‘ironclad’, amid fears the Middle Eastern nation will soon be attacked by Iran.

‘As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. Let me say it again: ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel security,’ Biden said at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Biden’s top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, affirmed his words and told Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant on a phone call that the US would stand behind Israel if Iran decides to attack.

Does this mean that we will be at war with Iran the moment that Iranian missiles start hitting targets inside Israel? Because that is what it sounds like. I can understand how the possibility of war with the United States would make the Iranians think twice. But even though they may have hesitated, they are clearly not backing down yet.

On Thursday, Iranian leaders did confirm that they fully intend to “punish” Israel in the days ahead…"Tehran must retaliate for the deadly attack on its consular compound in Damascus last week because the U.N. Security Council failed to condemn the strike or take any action against Israel, Iran’s U.N. mission said in a statement posted Thursday on the X platform. “Had the U.N. Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated,” the statement said."

So some sort of an attack is definitely coming. If Iran hits targets that are outside the land of Israel, that may not spark an all-out war in the region. But if Iran hits targets inside the land of Israel, that will literally push us to the brink of the unthinkable.

Earlier today, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio posted the following message on social media…"Iran wants to launch a large scale attack from their own territory against #Israel Israel will respond instantly with an even more severe counterattack inside of Iran. What happens next is the most dangerous Middle East moment since 1973."

I agree with his assessment except for one thing. I believe that what we are facing is far more dangerous than anything that we witnessed in 1973. One British news source is reporting that a war simulation that was “crafted by military and security experts” indicates that all-out war is likely if Iran starts hitting targets inside Israeli territory…"Iran and it’s terror proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis all have powerful long-range, high-precision rockets which they use to hit key Israeli targets.

Israel hits back and is fighting off Iranian proxies on a frontline in Syria and Lebanon near its border while striking Iran by air. Tel Aviv appeals to the US several times for intervention but with no luck becomes isolated in its fight against Iran. According to the simulation, nuclear weapons are likely to be used as the conflict progresses…

Eventually it resorts to a non-lethal nuclear detonation in an attempt to make Iran surrender, which it does not. A desperate Israel eventually launches 50 nuclear weapons towards Iran, who unleashes its own nuke ambush against an air base with US troops. The war game simulation ends here with a conflict that would involve Syria, Lebanon, even Yemen and could reduce large parts of the Middle East to a pile of smoking, radioactive rubble."

In the entire recorded history of the world, we have never seen a war like this. Can you imagine the chaos that would erupt all over the globe if major cities in the Middle East were reduced to piles of “smoking, radioactive rubble”? Let us hope that the war simulation described above is not accurate. But without a doubt, we have entered a danger zone.

Once Iran and Israel start lobbing missiles at one another, there will be no turning back. For a long time, I have been warning my readers that an apocalyptic war in the Middle East would be coming. Now we are almost there.

My hope is that the Iranians will back down and that their response to Israel will turn out to be very weak. If that turns out to be the case, that could buy us a little bit more time. But one way or another, I believe that this is the year when the Middle East descends into chaos. So buckle up and hold on tight, because it appears that things are about to get really crazy."
o
Full screen recommended.
"Iran To Attack Israel With 100 Drones, Dozens Of Missiles,
 U.S Takes Big Action As War Begins"
Times Of India, 4/12/24
"Recent developments in the Middle East have heightened concerns of a potential conflict, with major players engaging in diplomatic efforts to ease tensions. The US, Germany, and Turkey are among those urging Iran to reduce hostilities with Israel, while the US deploys its aircraft carrier Eisenhower closer to the region. As fears mount and countries issue travel warnings, the situation remains tense. Stay updated on this evolving situation."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Marana, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Thought..."

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
- Bertrand Russell

"Five percent of the people think;
ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."
- Thomas A. Edison.

"The Long Dark"

"The Long Dark"
by Chris Floyd

"We are in the Long Dark now. Both hope and despair are the enemies of our survival. We must live in the awareness that we might not see the light come back, without ceasing to work - with empathy, anger and knowledge - for its return.

We must be here, in the moment, experiencing its fullness (whatever its horrors or joys), yet be elsewhere, removed from the madness pouring in from every side, the avalanche of degradation. We must be here, now, but also in a future we can’t see or even imagine.

We must see that we are lost, with no clear way forward, no sureties or verities to cling to, no roots to anchor us, no structures within or without that will always keep their coalescence in the chaotic, surging fl
ow.

We must live in discrete moments of illumination and connection, pearls hung on an almost invisible string winding through the darkness. Striving, always striving, but not expecting; striving without hope, without despair, without any certainty at all as to the outcome, good or bad.

These are the conditions of the Long Dark, this is what we have to work with, this is where we find ourselves in the brief time we have in this vast, indifferent, astounding universe. As I once wrote long ago, quoting the old hymn: “Work, for the night is coming.”

So do we counsel fatalism, a dark, defeated surrender, a retreat into bitter, curdled quietude? Not a whit. We advocate action, positive action, unstinting action, doing the only thing that human beings can do, ever: Try this, try that, try something else again; discard those approaches that don't work, that wreak havoc, that breed death and cruelty; fight against everything that would draw us down again into our own mud; expect no quarter, no lasting comfort, no true security; offer no last word, no eternal truth, but just keep stumbling, falling, careening, backsliding, crawling toward the broken light.

And what is this "broken light"? Nothing more than a metaphor for the patches of understanding – awareness, attention, knowledge, connection – that break through our darkness and stupidity for a moment now and then. A light always fractured, under threat, shifting, found then lost again, always lost. For we are creatures steeped in imperfection, in breakage and mutation, tossed up – very briefly – from the boiling, chaotic crucible of Being, itself a ragged work in progress toward unknown ends, or rather, toward no particular end at all. Why should there be an "answer" in such a reality?

What matters is what works – what pulls us from our own darkness as far as possible, for as long as possible. Yet the truth remains that "what works" is always and forever only provisional – what works now, here, might not work there, then. What saves our soul today might make us sick tomorrow.

Thus all we can do is to keep looking, working, trying to clear a little more space for the light, to let it shine on our passions and our confusions, our anger and our hopes, informing and refining them, so that we can see each other better, for a moment – until death shutters all seeing forever."
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Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”

“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”
by MN Gordon 

“In 1976, economist Herbert Stein, father of Ben Stein, the economics professor in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, observed that U.S. government debt was on an unsustainable trajectory. He, thus, established Stein’s Law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Stein may have been right in theory. Yet the unsustainable trend of U.S. government debt outlasted his life.  Herbert Stein died in 1999, several decades before the crackup. Those reading this may not be so lucky.

Sometimes the end of the world comes and goes, while some of us are still here. We believe our present episode of debt, deficits, and state sponsored economic destruction, is one of these times.. We’ll have more on this in just a moment. But first, let’s peer back several hundred years. There we find context, edification, and instruction.

In 1696, William Whiston, a protégé of Isaac Newton, wrote a book. It had the grandiose title, “A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things.” In it he proclaimed, among other things, that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet. Mr. Whiston took his book very seriously. The good people of London took it very seriously too. Perhaps it was Whiston’s conviction. Or his great fear of comets. But, for whatever reason, it never occurred to Londoners that he was a Category 5 quack.

Like Neil Ferguson, and his mathematical biology cohorts at Imperial College, London, Whiston’s research filled a void. Much like today’s epidemiological models, the science was bunk. Nonetheless, the results supplied prophecies of the apocalypse to meet a growing demand. It was just a matter of time before Whiston’s research would cause trouble…

Judgement Day: In 1736, William Whiston crunched some data and made some calculations. He projected these calculations out and saw the future. And what he witnessed scared him mad. He barked. He ranted. He foamed at the mouth to anyone who would listen. Pretty soon he’d stirred up his neighbors with a prophecy that the world would be destroyed on October 13th of that year when a comet would collide with the earth.

Jonathan Swift, in his work, “A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London on a Rumour of the Day of Judgment,” quoted Whiston: “Friends and fellow-citizens, all speculative science is at an end: the period of all things is at hand; on Friday next this world shall be no more. Put not your confidence in me, brethren; for tomorrow morning, five minutes after five, the truth will be evident; in that instant the comet shall appear, of which I have heretofore warned you. As ye have heard, believe. Go hence, and prepare your wives, your families, and friends, for the universal change.”

Clergymen assembled to offer prayers. Churches filled to capacity. Rich and paupers alike feared their judgement. Lawyers worried about their fate. Judges were relieved they were no longer lawyers. Teetotalers got smashed. Drunks got sober. Bankers forgave their debtors. Criminals, to be executed, expressed joy.

The wealthy gave their money to beggars. Beggars gave it back to the wealthy. Several rich and powerful gave large donations to the church; no doubt, reserving first class tickets to heaven. Many ladies confessed to their husbands that one or more of their children were bastards. Husbands married their mistresses. And on and on…

The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Wake, had to officially deny this prediction to ease the public consternation. But it did little good. Crowds gathered at Islington, Hampstead, and the surrounding fields, to witness the destruction of London, which was deemed the “beginning of the end.” Then, just like Whiston said, a comet appeared. Prayers were made. Deathbed confessions were shared. And at the moment of maximum fear, something remarkable happened: the world didn’t end. The comet did not collide with earth. It was merely a near miss.

The experience of Whiston, and his pseudoscience prophecy, shows that predictions of the end of the world come and go while people still remain. Sometimes the fallout of these predictions, and the foolishness they provoke, is limited. Other times the foolishness they provoke leads to catastrophe. Here’s what we mean…

“In the long run we are all dead,” said 20th Century economist and Fabian socialist, John Maynard Keynes. This was Keynes rationale for why governments should borrow from the future to fund economic growth today. Of course, politicians love an academic theory that gives them cover to intervene in the economy. This is especially so when it justifies spending other people’s money to buy votes. Keynesian economics, and in particular, counter-cyclical stimulus, does just that.

U.S. politicians have attempted to borrow and spend the nation to prosperity for the last 80 years. Over the past decade, the Federal Reserve has aggressively printed money to fund Washington’s epic borrowing binge. Fed Chair Jay Powell confirmed that the Fed will pursue policies of dollar destruction to, somehow, print new jobs.

The world as it was once known – where a dollar was as good as gold – has come and gone. Today, in life after the end of that world, we are witnessing the illusion of wealth, erected by four generations of borrowing and spending, crumble before our eyes. Moreover, contrary to Keynes, in the long run we are not all dead. In fact, in the long run we are all very much alive. And we are all living with the compounding consequences of shortsighted economic policies.”