Jeremiah Babe, 7/2/24
"RFK Jr. Dining On Dogs; Locked Out Of
Your Bank Account; All Hell About To Break Loose"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Gerald Celente, "Independence Day? Pay Your Taxes, Do What You're Told"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 7/2/24
"Independence Day?
Pay Your Taxes, Do What You're Told"
The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times.
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"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.”
The Poet: William Stafford, “Starting With Little Things”
“Starting With Little Things”
“Love the earth like a mole,
fur-near. Nearsighted,
hold close the clods,
their fine-print headlines.
Pat them with soft hands -
Like spades, but pink and loving; they
break rock, nudge giants aside,
affable plow.
Fields are to touch;
each day nuzzle your way.
Tomorrow the world.”
- William Stafford
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse On The March" (Excerpt)
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
On The March" (Excerpt)
by Jim Quinn
“The least-bad scenario is a hard landing, global recession
worse than the 1930s. The worst-case borrows from the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, famine, pestilence, and death.”
- Kenneth S. Deffeye
“When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”
- Eric Hoffer
Excerpt: "I don’t pretend to be a biblical scholar or have any particular expertise in interpreting scriptures, and certainly not the Book of Revelation, supposedly written by John of Patmos during the reign of Roman emperor Domitian sometime between 81 AD and 96 AD. But I did suffer through twelve years of Catholic school, with plenty of time reading the bible for homework assignments. I know many people take everything in the bible literally. I do not adhere to that understanding. I believe most, if not all, of the bible is parables and symbolism written by men as a means to guide early Christians in how they should live their lives. The wisdom imparted by these writers is vast and deep. The Book of Revelation is the most apocalyptic, mysterious, and prophetic.
I would agree with scholars who say Revelation does not refer to actual people or events but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. But, as our modern-day world seems to be coming apart at the seams, the battle between good and evil is reaching a zenith, only seen at crucial turning points in history.
The scale of propaganda designed to mislead the public, scope of deceit exhibited by our hand-picked leaders, level of wickedness in the purposeful destruction of economic systems based on climate crisis lies, purposeful infliction of pain and suffering upon the masses through destruction of conventional food and energy structures, implosion of the financial system due to incompetence and/or willfully malicious motivations, and incessant provocations of Russia and China designed to ignite a global conflagration, are all part of one demonic plan.
Knowing we are reaching the most violent phase of this Fourth Turning and this kind of horrendous whirlwind has occurred during the fall of previous empires, does not make it any easier to confront or endure.
As the stock market implodes, draining the retirement savings of working men and women once again, inflation rages out of control, pushing lower and middle class families to the brink, our senile Trojan horse president, implements a country destroying agenda at the behest of his globalist handlers designed to incite a civil war, and the Deep State/Military Industrial Complex attempts to monetize Ukraine and Taiwan to fill their coffers with billions in war profits, the world teeters on the brink of a collapse which will make the Great Depression/World War II era seem like a walk in the park.
And very few people see it coming or are prepared in any way for the consequences. They have spent too much time in government school indoctrination centers, soaked up too much propaganda spewed by the corporate legacy media doing the bidding of those in power, have been misinformed and misled by the left wing Silicon Valley social media conglomerates, and are too distracted by their gadgets, social media likes, fake reality TV, and modern day sports circuses.
I’m certainly not predicting the end times or second coming of Christ, but the parable of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sure seems applicable in this modern-day Crisis – the latest times that try men’s souls. We are in a time of Crisis, just as we were in the 1780’s, 1860’s, and 1940’s, all 80 years apart. The 2020’s will also go down in history as a time of fateful decisions, great battles, heroes, villains, and ultimately a purging of the existing social order - to be replaced by something better or far worse."
Full article is here:
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
by International Man
"International Man: The decline of Western Civilization is on a lot of people’s minds. Let’s talk about this trend.
Doug Casey: Western Civilization has its origins in ancient Greece. It’s unique among the world’s civilizations in putting the individual - as opposed to the collective - in a central position. It enshrined logic and rational thought - as opposed to mysticism and superstition - as the way to deal with the world. It’s because of this that we have science, technology, great literature and art, capitalism, personal freedom, the concept of progress, and much, much more. In fact, almost everything worth having in the material world is due to Western Civilization.
Ayn Rand once said "East minus West equals zero." I think she went a bit too far, as a rhetorical device, but she was essentially right. When you look at what the world’s other civilizations have brought to the party, at least over the last 2,500 years, it’s trivial. I lived in the Orient for years. There are many things I love about it - martial arts, yoga, and the cuisine among them. But all the progress they’ve made is due to adopting the fruits of the West.
International Man: There are so many things degrading Western Civilization. Where do we begin?
Doug Casey: It’s been said, correctly, that a civilization always collapses from within. World War 1, in 1914, signaled the start of the long collapse of Western Civilization. Of course, termites were already eating away at the foundations, with the writings of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It’s been on an accelerating downward path ever since, even though technology and science have been improving at a quantum pace. They are, however, like delayed action flywheels, operating on stored energy and accumulated capital. Without capital, intellectual freedom, and entrepreneurialism, science and technology will slow down. I’m optimistic we’ll make it to Kurzweil’s Singularity, but there are no guarantees.
Things also changed with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Before that, the US used gold coinage for money. "The dollar" was just a name for 1/20th of an ounce of gold. That is what the dollar was. Paper dollars were just receipts for gold on deposit in the Treasury. The income tax, enacted the same year, threw more sand in the gears of civilization. The world was much freer before the events of 1913 and 1914, which acted to put the State at the center of everything.
The Fed and the income tax are both disastrous and unnecessary things, enemies of the common man in every way. Unfortunately, people have come to believe they’re fixtures in the cosmic firmament. They’re the main reasons - there are many other reasons, though, unfortunately - why the average American’s standard of living has been dropping since the early 1970s. In fact, were it not for these things, and the immense amount of capital destroyed during the numerous wars of the last 100 years, I expect we’d have already colonized the moon and Mars. Among many other things.
But I want to re-emphasize that the science, the technology, and all the wonderful toys we have are not the essence of Western Civilization. They’re consequences of individualism, capitalism, rational thought, and personal freedom. It’s critical not to confuse cause and effect.
International Man: You mentioned that the average American’s standard of living has dropped since the early 1970s. This is directly related to the US government abandoning the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been able to debase the US dollar without limit. I think the dollar’s transformation into a purely fiat currency has eroded the rule of law and morality in the US. It’s similar to what happened in the Roman Empire after it started debasing its currency. What do you think, Doug?
Doug Casey: All the world’s governments and central banks share a common philosophy, which drives these policies. They believe that you create economic activity by stimulating demand, and you stimulate demand by printing money. And, of course, it’s true, in a way. Roughly the same way a counterfeiter can stimulate a local economy.
Unfortunately, they ignore that, and completely ignore that the way a person or a society becomes wealthy is by producing more than they consume and saving the difference. That difference, savings, is how you create capital. Without capital you’re reduced to subsistence, scratching at the earth with a stick. These people think that by inflating - which is to say destroying - the currency, they can create prosperity. But what they’re really doing, is destroying capital: When you destroy the value of the currency, that discourages people from saving it. And when people don’t save, they can’t build capital, and the vicious cycle goes on.
This is destructive for civilization itself, in both the long term and the short term. The more paper money, the more credit, they create, the more society focuses on finance, as opposed to production. It’s why there are many times more people studying finance than science. The focus is increasingly on speculation, not production. Financial engineering, not mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering. And lots of laws and regulations to keep the unstable structure from collapsing.
What keeps a truly civil society together isn’t laws, regulations, and police. It’s peer pressure, social opprobrium, moral approbation, and your reputation. These are the four elements that keep things together. Western Civilization is built on voluntarism. But, as the State grows, that’s being replaced by coercion in every aspect of society. There are regulations on the most obscure areas of life. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in his book, the average American commits three felonies a day. Whether he’s caught and prosecuted is a subject of luck and the arbitrary will of some functionary. That’s antithetical to the core values of Western Civilization.
International Man: Speaking of ancient civilizations like Rome, interest rates are just coming off the the lowest levels they’ve been in 5,000 years of recorded history. Trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds trade at negative yields. Of course, this couldn’t happen in a free market. It’s only possible because of central bank manipulation. How will artificially low interest rates affect the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: It’s really, really serious. I previously thought it was metaphysically impossible to have negative interest rates but, in the Bizarro World central banks have created, it’s happened.
Negative interest rates discourage saving. Once again, saving is what builds capital. Without capital you wind up as an empty shell - Rome in 450 A.D., or Detroit today - lots of wonderful but empty buildings and no economic activity. Worse, it forces people to desperately put their money in all manner of idiotic speculations in an effort to stay ahead of inflation. They wind up chasing the bubbles the funny money creates.
Let me re-emphasize something: in order for science and technology to advance you need capital. Where does capital come from? It comes from people producing more than they consume and saving the difference. Debt, on the other hand, means you’re living above your means. You’re either consuming the capital others have saved, or you’re mortgaging your future.
Zero and negative interest rate policies, and the creation of money out of nowhere, are actually destructive of civilization itself. It makes the average guy feel that he’s not in control of his own destiny. He starts believing that the State, or luck, or Allah will provide for him. That attitude is typical of people from backward parts of the world - not Western Civilization.
International Man: What does it say about the economy and society that people work so hard to interpret what officials from the Federal Reserve and other central banks say?
Doug Casey: It’s a shameful waste of time. They remind me of primitives seeking the counsel of witch doctors. One hundred years ago, the richest people in the country - the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and such - made their money creating industries that actually made stuff. Now, the richest people in the country just shuffle money around. They get rich because they’re close to the government and the hydrant of currency materialized by the Federal Reserve. I’d say it’s a sign that society in the US has become quite degraded.
The world revolves much less around actual production, but around guessing the direction of financial markets. Negative interest rates are creating bubbles, and will eventually result in an economic collapse.
International Man: Negative interest rates are essentially a tax on savings. A lot of people would rather pull their money out of the bank and stuff it under a mattress than suffer that sting. The economic central planners know this. It’s why they’re using negative interest rates to ramp up the War on Cash - the push to eliminate paper currency and create a cashless society.
The banking system is very fragile. Banks don’t hold much paper cash. It’s mostly digital bytes on a computer. If people start withdrawing paper money en masse, it won’t take much to bring the whole system down. Their solution is to make accessing cash harder, and in some cases, illegal. That’s why the economic witch doctors at Harvard are pounding the table to get rid of the $100 bill. Take France, for example. It’s now illegal to make cash transactions over €1,000 without documenting them properly.
Negative interest rates have turbocharged the War on Cash. If the central planners win this war, it would be the final deathblow to financial privacy. How does this all relate to the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: I believe the next step in their idiotic plan is to abolish cash. Decades ago they got rid of gold coinage, which used to circulate day to day in people’s pockets. Then they got rid of silver coinage. Now, they’re planning to get rid of cash altogether. So you won’t even have euros or dollars or pounds in your wallet anymore, or if you do, it will only be very small denominations. Everything else is going to have to be done through electronic payment processing.
This is a huge disaster for the average person: absolutely everything that you buy or sell, other than perhaps a candy bar or a hamburger, is going to have to go through the banking system. Thus, the government will be able to monitor every transaction and payment. Financial privacy, even what’s left of it today, will literally cease to exist.
Privacy is one of the big differences between a civilized society and a primitive society. In a primitive society, in your little dirt hut village, anybody can look through your window or pull back the flap on your tent. You have no privacy. Everybody can hear everything; see anything. This was one of the marvelous things about Western Civilization - privacy was valued, and respected. But that concept, like so many others, is on its way out…
International Man: You’ve mentioned before that language and words provide important clues to the collapse of Western Civilization. How so?
Doug Casey: Many of the words you hear, especially on television and other media, are confused, conflated, or completely misused. Many recent changes in the way words are used are corrupting the language. As George Orwell liked to point out, to control language is to control thought. The corruption of language is adding to the corruption of civilization itself. This is not a trivial factor in the degradation of Western Civilization.
Words - their exact meanings, and how they’re used are critically important. If you don’t mean what you say and say what you mean, then it’s impossible to communicate accurately. Forget about transmitting philosophical concepts.
Take for example shareholders and stakeholders. We all know that a shareholder actually owns a share in a company, but have you noticed that over the last generation shareholders have become less important than stakeholders? Even though stakeholders are just hangers-on, employees, or people who are looking to get in on a shakedown. But everybody slavishly acknowledges, "Yes, we’ve got to look out for the stakeholders." Where did that concept come from? It’s a recent creation, but Boobus americanus seems to think it was carved in stone at the country’s founding.
We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, "A pox upon stakeholders." If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders."
Editor’s Note: This is going to be the most turbulent decade in US history…The 2020s will be more dangerous than the 1930s, the 1940s, and even the 1860s. That's because severe crises are brewing on multiple fronts and converging. The whole system will have a complete reset, and soon. It could be the BIGGEST thing since the founding of the USA."
Dan, I Allegedly, "Proof That the Economy is Collapsing in Real Time"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 7/2/24
"Proof That the Economy is Collapsing in Real Time"
"I'm bringing you proof that the economy is collapsing NOW! Industries are downsizing, jobs are disappearing, and companies are shipping out. From John Deere moving 600 jobs to Mexico to the brutal layoffs across various sectors, it's clear we're in a severe economic freefall. I delve into alarming WARN Act notices, share staggering job loss numbers, and highlight how businesses are bracing for the worst."
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"All Palestinian Prisoners To Be Executed And Shot In The Head"
"All Palestinian Prisoners To Be Executed And Shot In The Head"
"The Minister of National Security of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, says he plans to introduce legislation in the Knesset which reads: "All Palestinian prisoners to be executed and shot in the head." – The Minister of National Security of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir
Watch this monster say it himself!
"Israel is Evil personified. Israel is Evil embodied."
- Scott Ritter
OMG... God damn these psychopathically degenerate monsters to Hell!
And YOU, Americans, pay for it all, every bullet, every bomb, every tank, everything!
All that blood's on YOUR hands too! Eternal shame and disgrace on us all...
Gregory Mannarino, "Another Pandemic? Count On It! We Are Being Set Up!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/2/24
"Another Pandemic? Count On It!
We Are Being Set Up!"
Comments here:
o
Related:
"Bird Flu - Another Attempt to Control
the Food System and Make a Profit"
"Let the fearmongering begin (again)! Propaganda efforts are making people believe humans can die from the bird flu and that we must “do our part” in preventing the next global pandemic. Wear masks, social distance, sanitize everything, get tested, get vaccinated… It’s kind of like “COVID-19,” but now in dairy cows!"
Full, highly recommended article here:
o
What is the risk? What do the latest data demonstrate?
"If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone"
"If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You
Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone"
by Michael Snyder
"If you are really struggling with the high cost of living, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. In recent months, I have been hearing from so many people that feel like they are drowning financially. Have you experienced a palpable sense of panic when you compare your rising bills to the level of income that you are currently bringing in? So many people out there are stressed out of their minds because it has become such a struggle to pay the bills each month. As I discussed a few days ago, a typical U.S. household must now spend $1,069 more a month just to buy the exact same goods and services that it did three years ago. Over the course of an entire year, that is almost an extra $13,000 dollars. Month after month, prices just keep going higher, but those that are running things continue to insist that everything is just fine. No, everything is not just fine.
Last week, a TikTok video about rising grocery prices at Walmart quickly garnered more than a million views. The person that made the video found a grocery order that he had placed two years ago, and he decided to hit the “Reorder All” button to see what that same order would cost today…
Full screen recommended.
A recent TikTok video has gone viral, showing a user’s surprising experience with Walmart’s grocery prices. The user explained in his video that he tried to use the “Reorder All” button for an order he placed two years ago, which originally cost $126.67. To his shock, the same order would now cost $414.39. I was quite stunned by this video. Many of the things that I regularly purchase at the grocery store have doubled or more than doubled in price, but in this case the total cost of the grocery order had more than tripled…
The TikTok (@sewerlidd) explained that the original $126.16 purchase was for a month’s worth of groceries, which included 53 items. “A whole month of groceries just for me,” he said in the video. The total was updated to $414.39, almost quadrupling. “I feel like I’m going to be sick,” he said. Needless to say, this video has generated a ton of discussion online.
When Walmart was asked about this, they responded by saying that the primary reason there was such a difference is because the person that made the video was attempting to order “discontinued items”…"Walmart representatives have responded, stating that the claims in the video are not accurate. According to them, the discrepancies in prices are due to discontinued items rather than actual inflation." But this explanation certainly did not satisfy everyone. Another person hit the “Reorder All” button on an old order, and that order went from $180 back then to $430 today…
Viewers expressed both shock and frustration in the comments. “Now I feel a little less gaslit about grocery prices because it has gone crazy, and it’s not just me!” wrote one person. “Walmart, can you explain yourself, please,” added another. A fellow shopper said they used to spend $180 for two weeks’ worth of groceries and are now spending over $430 for the same amount.
If you think that the price of groceries is not a problem, I have a challenge for you. Fill up a grocery cart all the way to the very top with items that you typically eat, and try to keep the final bill under 300 dollars. If you are smart, you can do it, but it won’t be easy.
In the old days, you could buy a used vehicle for 300 dollars. Now, many people burn through more than 300 dollars in just one trip to the grocery store. This is just one of the reasons why inflation has become such a huge political issue.
According to Gallup, inflation was not really considered to be an important issue at all prior to 2022…"For the third year in a row, the percentage of Americans naming inflation or the high cost of living as the most important financial problem facing their family has reached a new high. The 41% naming the issue this year is up slightly from 35% a year ago and 32% in 2022. Before 2022, the highest percentage mentioning inflation was 18% in 2008. Inflation has been named by less than 10% in most other readings since the question was first asked in 2005."
The last three years have been an inflationary nightmare, and no matter how much our leaders try to deny it, a lot more inflation is on the way. Things are particularly bad in our major cities. In fact, it is being reported that Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the United States by a wide margin…"The New York borough of Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the U.S. - and the cost of living in the No. 2 place isn’t even close.
The cost of living in Manhattan is more than twice the national average. The second- and third-most expensive places are Honolulu and San Jose, California, but in comparison, they are much more affordable. Manhattan is 24% more expensive than Honolulu and 30% more expensive than San Jose."
It isn’t a big mystery why this is the case. When our leaders pumped trillions upon trillions of dollars into the system, the financial markets benefitted greatly. So Manhattan is swimming in cash, and prices there have gone into the stratosphere.
Many of us relentlessly warned about what would happen when our leaders flooded the system with cash, and now we are facing economic distortions that are extremely painful. For most Americans, prices have been rising much faster than their paychecks. As a result, our national standard of living has been steadily declining. And now we have entered a time when it appears that economic conditions are really slowing down.
For example, it is being reported that Ford is preparing for yet another round of layoffs…"Ford Motor is preparing for a new round of layoffs for its salaried workers in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company in March last year announced plans to reduce structural costs of up to $3 billion at its gas-powered vehicle unit. In August, Ford said it would cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India."
Over the past several years, our politicians in Washington have borrowed and spent trillions upon trillions of dollars, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve have pumped trillions upon trillions of dollars into the financial system. All that did was buy us a little more time. All that did was delay the inevitable. Now we are facing a crisis of absolutely epic proportions, and the economic suffering that we are currently experiencing is nothing compared to the economic suffering that is ahead of us."
"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"
"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"
by Jeff Thomas
"Just as people go through a lifespan that consists of different stages, so empires tend to follow a pattern of stages. They tend to start off slowly, making progress as a result of industriousness, understanding that progress is dependent upon hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit. This is important to understand, as it’s the one essential in the growth of a nation. No nation becomes an empire through complacency or a lack of productivity. Welfare states do not become empires, although most empires end up as welfare states. So, if that’s the case, what is the progression? And more importantly, what does this mean, considering the dramatic changes that are now unfolding in much of the world?
Prosperity: As stated, prosperity is created through a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit throughout a significant portion of the population. This is what brings about wealth creation – a condition in which people invest their time and money in a business enterprise that reaps profit. The profit is then re-invested to expand upon that success.
In the early stages of prosperity, those who create the wealth are revered, as the goods and services they create benefit all, even those who may be less ambitious or less imaginative and may never become business leaders themselves. But inevitably, there will be those who seek to prosper to the exclusion of others. This trend was seen around 1900 in the US – a time when the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs figured out that, if they banded together, they could buy both political parties. That would mean that, regardless of which party held power, the government could be counted on to pass laws that would protect their monopolies and make success increasingly more difficult for the competition.
Wealth Disparity: Of course, the objective of this would be that there would be a small number of individuals and corporations at the very top, who would be in a position to split up the pie amongst themselves and throw the crumbs to those beneath them. Over time, this would lead to those at the very top becoming inordinately wealthy, well beyond what would be normal for their level of investment. And very few new individuals and corporations would be able to break into this cabal. Only those who could add to the size of the pie would be allowed in.
Resentment: Not surprisingly, this, over time, would lead to resentment amongst those who were left out of the loop. When this became generational, with minimal change, the "greedy rich" would become the most hated segment of the population. Those who come to understand that they will never be able to advance to the top layer would come to regard themselves as "disenfranchised." This in turn results, eventually, in the awareness that the "little man" represents the majority of voters, which is then capitalized upon by opportunistic political candidates.
Increasingly, there are cries by political hopefuls for the one percent to be taxed. With every election these promises are renewed. And each time out, greater demands are made by the politicians. Of course, the one percent are already running the show on both sides of the aisle and can make sure that they are taxed very little, if at all. But someone must be made to cough up, so politicians go after the middle class, taxing them increasingly until, after decades of increases, they are squeezed to the limit. As Vladimir Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."
At this point the wealth disparity is at a peak and the resentment turns to anger. Those, who for decades have been promised a "fair share," realise that they have instead been sold out. And here’s where it gets interesting. Traditionally, once the population became resentful enough that the system was in jeopardy, those few who comprised the ruling elite were likely to essentially say, "Let them eat cake." This, ultimately, would lead to their downfall. But today, we have the illusion of democracy, which allows for a different paradigm.
Collectivism: From the time of the French Revolution onward, we have had the construct of collectivism to work with. Rather than defy the little man, defeat him by being seen to agree with him. Create political figures who call out for a re-engineering of society: "An equal outcome for all. Take the wealth from the wealthy who stole it and give it back to the little man." Such platitudes sell well when resentment has hit its peak.
But the secret benefit for the ruling elite is that the new breed of politician works for the one percent, just as politicians always have. And collectivism benefits the one percent even more than any free-market system could. Under it, the little man is not raised up, as promised. Instead, the middle class is beaten down to the same level as the little man, creating uniform poverty. As Winston Churchill stated, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Therefore, it should come as no surprise to us that, when an empire such as the US begins to unravel, the ruling elite who actually own the country are ready and eager to create a transition that will appear to benefit the little man but will, instead, enslave him to a greater degree than he ever could have imagined.
So, it should come as no surprise to us that in recent months, the US has witnessed a carefully orchestrated drama in which the poster boy for the greedy rich – the US president – goes down in flames. And the heroes of the play appear centre stage, providing a litany of collectivist promises that will bring cheers from the populace. And so the trap is sprung. A totalitarian future disguised as a panacea.
As P.T. Barnum said, "There’s a sucker born every minute," and there is no greater sucker than a voter who actually believes that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. His vain hope is that, even though every collectivist government in history has failed to deliver on its promises and has, instead, resulted in uniform misery, this time it will be different, and the new government will deliver on the now-hackneyed empty promises. The new paradigm was as inevitable as it will be long-lived and ultimately destructive."
Bill Bonner, "A Dirty Business"
"A Dirty Business"
The West is setting itself up for a huge credit crisis. Central banks will still be able to
fund their operations. But they won't be able to protect the value of their own currencies.
by Bill Bonner
"Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
And whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars,
Whose sages are silenced,
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero,
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture..."
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
London - "On the steps of the old church, stood an old man, with an old flag... honoring the death of an old soldier. The deceased was also an old friend. The day was warm. But the inside of the stone church was cool. There were about one hundred mourners. Ignoring the alarming headlines, we took time out in the middle of a work day to say goodbye.
France is in an uproar. The Daily Mail: "France battles to keep Le Pen from power: Panicking President Macron calls crisis meeting to defeat National Rally as socialists urge French leader's supporters to back them and 'do everything to prevent' hard-right election victory on Sunday." The ‘hard’ right may not be as steely as the crisis mongers claim. All over Europe (as in America), the ‘right’ is on the rise. Often called a ‘populous,’ ‘nationalist,’ or simply ‘right wing’ movement, it is easily mistaken for a real change of direction.
But a fundamental change of direction would mean reversing the growth of government, reducing its spending and backing away from its wars. The ‘populists’ have various ideas on these subjects - some good, some bad - but as far as we know, none really favors a fundamental change. And as far as we can tell, nothing that they offer will derail the coming financial debacle.
The West is setting itself up for a huge credit crisis. Central banks and central governments will still be able to fund their operations... and will still be able to boost (nominal) asset prices. But they won’t be able to protect the value of their own currencies. Shrewd investors — including foreign central banks - are preparing by buying gold. We are too.
Meanwhile... we were saying goodbye to an old friend...We sang our hymns. We said our prayers. We took the host but not the cup... (they do not share the wine in French Catholic services). And at the end... we lined up to sprinkle holy water on the casket. It was then that we noticed: something was missing. Pierre was a retired colonel in the French Army. Typically, the government honors its soldiers with a flag draped over the coffin. But there was no flag.
We knew Pierre from the church choir. We both sang bass. Pierre had no ear for music. So, we put him in the center... where he could follow along. “It can be a dirty business,” Pierre had told us, speaking of his lifelong military profession.
People look to the government to reduce the uncertainty in their lives. They don’t necessarily like their government. Still, they much prefer to be robbed by their own leaders, systematically and more-or-less peacefully, than to suffer violence, rapine and theft at the hands of foreign invaders. Then, the elites praise their men in uniform…but use them to leverage their own power and increase their own wealth.
General Smedley Butler, twice winner of the medal of honor, saw first-hand how it works: "I spent thirty three years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers."
It was the Algerian War that most troubled Pierre. By 1956, there were 400,000 French troops in the North African country. They were called in to help put down a rebellion by local ‘terrorists.’ Fresh from their defeat in Indo-China, the French army nevertheless pioneered many of the tactics that would later be used by the US in Vietnam - the helicopter, napalm and ‘strategic hamlets’ - with equally dismal results.
“The Algerian War was obviously unwinnable,” he told us. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. It was also destroying the French army. We were expected to do things that weren’t right. Torturing prisoners to get information. Ignoring civilian casualties. Retaliating for murders with more murders.
An army can win against another army. It can’t win against terrorists... or call them ‘freedom fighters,’ if you want. Because the harder it cracks down, the more people support the terrorists. Then the army begins to act like a police force...not a real army. And usually, a corrupt and brutal police force. It can keep a lid on things... even for a long time. But not forever.”
Whether it was Pierre’s choice... or his family’s... we don’t know. But Pierre’s coffin was bare."
"Scott Ritter: Israel Will Be Destroyed In A War With Hezbollah"
George Galloway, 7/1/24
"Scott Ritter:
Israel Will Be Destroyed In A War With Hezbollah"
Comments here:
Monday, July 1, 2024
"Alert! Nuclear Code Crisis; Belarus Prepares For NATO Invasion; Israel Training To Nuke Iran!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/1/24
"Alert! Nuclear Code Crisis; Belarus Prepares
For NATO Invasion; Israel Training To Nuke Iran!"
Comments here:
Jeremiah Babe, "A Root Canal Would Bankrupt Most Americans Today, Half Of America Doesn't Have $500"
Jeremiah Babe, 7/1/24
"A Root Canal Would Bankrupt Most Americans Today,
Half Of America Doesn't Have $500"
Comments here:
"Americans Are Being Forced Out Of Retirement As They Can't Take Care Of Themselves Financially"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 7/1/24
"Americans Are Being Forced Out Of Retirement
As They Can't Take Care Of Themselves Financially"
"Typically, when we think of retirement, we imagine kicking back and relaxing, but that's not the case for many struggling retirees. If you've been to a grocery store, department store, or fast food restaurant lately you probably have noticed an increase in elderly workers. That's because the current economic climate is forcing millions of senior citizens to come out of retirement. According to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, Americans are ‘unretiring’ en masse due to the rising cost of living.
Janette Campbell is one of them. The former teacher, who retired at the age of 62, dreamt of taking care of her grandchildren and traveling the world during her golden years. However, life didn’t work out that way for the senior Chicago resident. Living on a fixed retirement income, Campbell soon realized that she couldn’t keep up with all of her bills - especially her monthly mortgage payment. Her only option was to get a part-time job to be able to make ends meet.
Now aged 74, Campbell is working for United HomeCare, a non-profit home health and community care organization. She must use a walker to get around the office, where she spends her days checking emails, making calls and putting together promotional material — activities far from what she envisioned for her retirement. “I couldn’t afford to pay my mortgage and I didn’t want to be left out in the street homeless,” she told CBS Chicago, arguing that she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to fully retire.
For countless retirees living on a fixed income, making hard choices between paying their bills or buying food or medicine is something they have to make all too often. It's all about the rising cost of living, said Isaura Betancourt, the regional coordinator for SER National. "A lot of people are struggling. They retired and are forced into coming back into the workforce."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"The photographer had this shot in mind for some time. He knew that objects overhead are the brightest - since their light is scattered the least by atmospheric air. He also that knew the core of our Milky Way Galaxy was just about straight up near midnight around this time of year in South Australia. Chasing his mental picture, he ventured deep inside the Kuipto Forest where tall radiata pines blocked out much of the sky - but not in this clearing. There, through a window framed by trees, he captured his envisioned combination of local and distant nature. Sixteen exposures of both trees and the Milky Way Galaxy were recorded.
Antares is the bright orange star to left of our Galaxy's central plane, while Alpha Centauri is the bright star just to the right of the image center. The direction toward our Galaxy's center is below Antares. Although in a few hours the Earth's rotation moved the Galactic plane up and to the left - soon invisible behind the timber, his mental image was secured forever - and is featured here."
"Our Moral Compass..."
"The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments,
is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason."
- Samuel Pisar
"I think we need to be human. Nobody is objective. We need to go in and be human - especially today, especially given everything that's happening around us, especially given the divides between populations that are growing and what's at stake in terms of our collective humanity, and the fact that our moral compass is broken."
- Arwa Damon
"Moral compass?" Surely you jest! Look around!
This is 'Murica, fool!
"Even With Good People..."
"'Cause even with good people, even with people that
you can kinda trust, if the truth is inconvenient,
and if the truth doesn't, like, fit, they don't believe it. "
- Marie Adler
don Miguel Ruiz, “The Power of Doubt”
“The Power of Doubt”
by don Miguel Ruiz
“Have you ever asked yourself if something you heard was actually true? Have you ever wondered if someone was lying to you, or worse yet, have you ever wondered, “Am I lying to myself?” Do you believe those voices in your head that are giving you opinions? Do you tend to believe other people’s opinions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will understand when being skeptical is a good thing.
Right now, you’re delivering a message to yourself and to everyone around you. You’re always delivering messages, and you’re always receiving messages from one mind to another mind. But the most important messages are the ones you deliver to yourself. What are those messages? The word is a force you cannot see, but you can see the manifestation of that force, the expression of the word, which is your own life. The way to measure the impeccability of your word is to ask yourself: Am I happy or am I suffering? If you’re suffering, it’s because you’re telling yourself a story that isn’t true, but you believe it.
When you look at yourself in a mirror, do you like what you see, or do you judge your body and use the word to tell yourself lies? If you believe that you are not attractive enough, then you believe a lie, and you are using the word against yourself, against the truth.
Is it really true that you are too heavy or too thin? Is it really true that you are not beautiful? If you’re telling yourself: “I’m fat. I’m ugly. I’m old. I’m not good enough. I’ll never make it,” then be skeptical. Don’t believe yourself, because none of these messages come from truth, from life. These messages are distorted; they’re nothing but lies. The truth is, there are no ugly people. There’s no universal book of law where any of these judgments are true. Every judgment is just an opinion - it’s just a point of view - and that point of view wasn’t there when you were born.
Everything you think about yourself, everything you believe about yourself, is because you learned it. You learned the opinions from Mom, Dad, siblings and society. They sent all those images of how a body should look; they expressed all those opinions about the way you are, the way you are not, the way you should be. They delivered a message, and you agreed with that message. And now you think so many things about what you are, but are they the truth?
What is the truth and what is the lie? Humans believe so many lies because we aren’t aware. We ignore the truth or we just don’t see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn’t allow us to perceive the truth, what really is. We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.
In our development, as we grow throughout our lives, the structure of our beliefs becomes very complicated, and we make it even more complicated because we make the assumption that what we believe is the absolute truth. We never stop to consider that our beliefs are only a relative truth that’s always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory. As children, we are innocent; we believe almost everything that we learn, but everything that we learn isn’t true. We put our faith in lies, we give them power, and soon those lies are ruling our lives.
Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun. There is nothing to justify, nothing to believe. You have no mission except to enjoy life. You are here just to be, for no reason. Then the only thing you need to be is the real you. Be happiness. Be love. Be yourself. That’s wisdom. It’s the complete acceptance of yourself just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else just the way they are. The reward is your eternal happiness.
But first you have to unlearn a lot, and you only have one tool to do this. That tool is doubt. Being skeptical is an important part of recovering what you really are because it uses the power of doubt to break all those spells you’ve been under. Whenever you hear a message from yourself, or from someone else, simply ask: Is it really true? With the power of doubt, you challenge every message you deliver and receive. You challenge every belief that rules your life. Then you challenge all the beliefs that rule society, until you break the spell of all the lies and superstitions that control your world.
Once you recover all the power you invested in lies, you can see what is real; you can feel what is real. Even though lies still exist, you no longer believe them. You don’t believe everything anymore, but you can see, and what you can see is the truth. The truth doesn’t need you to believe it. The truth simply is, and it survives – believe it or not. Lies need you to believe them. If you don’t believe lies, they don’t survive your skepticism, and they simply disappear.
Centuries ago, people believed that the earth was flat. Some said that elephants were supporting the earth, and that made them feel safe. The belief that the earth was flat was considered the truth, and almost everybody agreed, but did that make it true? It was nothing but a superstition, and I can assure you that we still live in a world of superstition. The question is: Are we aware of it?
Wherever you go, you will hear all kinds of opinions and stories from other people. You will find great storytellers wanting to tell you what you should do with your life: “You should do this, you should do that, you should do whatever.” Don’t believe them. Be skeptical, but learn to listen and then make your choices. Be responsible for every choice you make in your life. This is your life; it’s nobody else’s life, and you will find that it’s nobody else’s business what you do with your life.
For centuries, there have been prophets who predicted big catastrophes in the world. Not that long ago, there were people who predicted that in the year 2000 all the computers would fail and society as we know it would disappear. The day arrived, and what happened? Nothing happened. Thousands of years ago, just like today, there were prophets who were waiting for the end of the world. At that time, a great master said: “There will be many false prophets who claim to be speaking the word of God. Don’t believe.” You see, being skeptical is nothing new. Doubt takes you behind the words and helps you to discern the truth from lies. And this is a good thing.”
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