Jeremiah Babe, 12/14/24
"Alert! Drone Crisis, What Is Really Going On?"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Drone Bombshell! Nuclear Bombs Smuggled Into USA?"
Canadian Prepper, 12/14/24
"Alert! Drone Bombshell! Nuclear Bombs Smuggled Into USA?
Radiation Detection Drones Active At Ports"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Justin Hayward, "I Heard It"
Full screen recommended.
Justin Hayward, "I Heard It"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.
In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."
"Grief..."
“The dictionary defines grief as: “Keen mental suffering or distress over affliction of loss; sharp sorrow, painful regret.” We’re taught to learn from and rely on books, on definitions, on definitives but in life, strict definitions rarely apply. In life, grief can look like a lot of things that bear little resemblance to sharp sorrow.
Grief may be a thing we all have in common but it looks different on everyone. It isn’t just death we have to grieve. It’s life, it’s loss, it’s change. And when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes, it has to hurt so bad. The thing we gotta try to remember is that it can turn on a dime. That’s how you stay alive when it hurts so much you can’t breathe. That’s how you survive. By remembering that one day, somehow, impossibly, it won’t feel this way. It wont hurt this much. Grief comes in it’s own time for everyone in it’s own way. So the best we can do, the best anyone can do, is try for honesty. The really crappy thing, the very worst part of grief is that you can’t control it. The best we can do is try to let ourselves feel it when it comes and let it go when we can. The very worst part is that the minute you think you’re past it, it starts all over again and always, every time, it takes your breath away.
According to Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, when we are dying or have suffered a catastrophic loss, we all move through five distinctive stages of grief. We go into denial because the loss is so unthinkable, we can’t imagine it’s true. We become angry with everyone. We become angry with survivors, angry with ourselves. Then we bargain, we beg, we plead. We offer everything we have. We offer up our souls in exchange for just one more day. When the bargaining has failed and the anger is too hard to maintain, we fall into depression, despair. Until finally we have to accept that we have done everything we can. We let go. We let go and move into acceptance.”
- “Grey’s Anatomy”
Chief Tecumseh, "So Live Your Life"
Full screen recommended.
RedFrost Motivation,
Chief Tecumseh, "So Live Your Life"
Read by Shane Morris
"When An Old Friend Takes Her Own Life"
"When An Old Friend Takes Her Own Life"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"When an old friend takes her own life, your own life is irrevocably diminished. What seemed to matter before no longer matters, and what seemed to make sense no longer makes sense. My friend had recently moved 1,000 miles away, to a town which had long extended a magnetic draw on her. But she knew no one there, and since her work was all done on computer, she toiled alone. Like any other human being in those conditions, she was lonely. Yes, she had a loyal companion in her dog, and two very close friends here in California, and a constellation of lesser friends like me; but it was not enough at a critical moment.
She'd had those moments before, and been saved: just as she'd gathered the pills to swallow, a friend had called, and she'd gotten past that moment of dark obsession. Of all the past days' memories and thoughts, one returns: what if I had sensed her despair and called her at that moment? And why didn't I sense her need for reassurance and human contact at that critical hour? I have often dreamed of her, and had done so just the week before; it was a vivid dream, not at all alarming, and I'd recounted it to her in an email. She'd made no response, and I'd given it no further thought. Was the dream a premonition? No; but perhaps it was a signal, if not of distress, then of some tendril of distress.
It is convenient is think our friends resilient, just as it is convenient for adults to believe children are resilient when turmoil or tragedy strikes the family. Yes, children are resilent--they are human beings. But they are not endlessly resilient, and their quiet after death or upheaval is not resilience or resolve, it is the numbing of terrible pain.
And so this false reliance on resilience nags at me; I was too self-absorbed to think through the underlying conditions in my dear friend's life, and how lonely she might feel. Her childhood was not positive, nor was her family more than grudgingly supportive; there were always squabbles over money and demands for fealty she could not meet. She was resilient, but only just so; and I should have been alert to the proximity of her limits.
But I am also keenly aware of the limits of my influence in her life; though we each wish with all our hearts that we could have saved her in that moment of supreme temptation and pain, there are limits to our influence.
If you think of your oldest, closest friends - I have known and loved her for 37 years now - then we cannot recall all the thousands of words exchanged or spoken, or the thousands of hours spent together. We recall some few words and scenes, and it is those few we have to cherish and ponder. But what caused us to recall those moments and not others?
We are ripe to influence and connection only rarely; even our closest friends only influence our thinking and emotions at certain unpredictable junctures. After the fact, often when things have gone awry, we remember what they told us, or the comment they made off-handedly, or perhaps most rarely, their earnestly offered advice which we'd promptly ignored.
And so I hold two uncomfortably conflicting truths: that I could have been, and should have been, a better friend to her these past few months, when she needed all her friends' presence and understanding. But feeling this, and knowing it to be painfully true does not alter the limits of my influence in her life. Perhaps I could have contacted her in just the right moment, when my call or words could have tipped her away from that terrible decision; but more likely, that is a vain hope of a heartbroken friend, looking back from the periphery of her life.
For there are limits to us, this poor amalgam of brain and emotion; yes, faith can help, pets can help, friends and family can help, medication can help, insight can help, resolve can help -but none of these, or all of them put together, is guaranteed to overcome the darkness within us at its bleakest. The sufferer must be attuned to that particular wavelength at that moment in time; and if they have spun beyond our reach, then our ability to save them is lost as well.
Those of you who were born with minds which don't follow the happier pathways, the easier pathways, know that the "normal" person cannot understand the despair felt by those prone to one or more of the many madnesses which plague the human mind and spirit. Yes, we all know despression and anxiety, but those blessed with standard-issue minds will never experience the bottomlessness the others experience.
In a peculiarity of natural selection, or God's will (perhaps, despite the false labeling imposed by language, they amount to the same thing), the human spirits with the most enthusiasm for life, the ones with the poet's spark, the ones with the keenest sensibilities and sensitivities to life, are the ones most often drawn to that terrible cliff of self-destruction.
Some may mock Thanatos, the urge to self-destruction, the yin to the will to live's yang, as illusion. But it is real, and if you have not felt it, then count your blessings.
It is ironic, and tragic, that the selfish among us, the bitter types who have soured on life and who tap an endless well of bile to blame others for their own difficulties, or those who always find the energy to trumpet their own self-glory, never end their own lives. They cling on, as if the will to sow discord and ego are indestructable. No, it is the fragile ones, the thoughtful ones, who are drawn to that dark edge, and who jump; for life is too painful to bear at times, and they think not of faith or the love of their friends and family, but of escape.
It is an illusion, a cherished one, and one I wish was true, that love alone can save a lovely soul in extremis. She was loved, dearly, and yet we who loved her could not save her. We cannot but wish with all our own lifeforce that we could have done so, but there are limits, even to love. How I wish I had felt an urge to pick up the phone and call her that day, that hour, in the hope that perhaps that simple act would have distracted her, or comforted her just enough to stay her hand. But I had felt no such urge, and so the moment was lost.
To wish for that is to wish for powers and strengths I do not possess; I am just another muddled, muddling-through human, struggling daily with my own weaknesses and demons, trying not to fail those I love in this life. But I cannot help but feel I failed her, and that haunts me, and will haunt me, even as I know that to want that power in her life is not the same as actually wielding it. Though it is natural to wish for a limitless ability to save such a dear soul, perhaps it is overstating our reach.
When an old friend takes her own life, then you come to know how little you knew of her and of her life in that distant town. There are limits on what a friend can know, at least a friend who is not in the inner circle; and perhaps even they cannot know.
We were close at times, something like cousins or perhaps at the very best, as she once told me, siblings; she had no brothers. There is no good analog or word for friendships with no romantic frisson between men and women. We did not look anything alike; I am tall and fair, and she was very petite, with skin and eyes far different from my own.
She was the much better writer, the one who deservedly won the notice of mentors and prize committees. In comparison, I am a plodder, the aspirant who rows along without attracting much notice because, well, I'm just not that good. I thought her beautiful, and liked looking at her; she had an enthusiasm for things, and life, which I admired and even envied at times.
Now she is gone, and my life is so much poorer. My only consolation, and it too is a poor one, is that I had just written her that I loved her very much, and had always loved her. She'd made no answering comment, for it was known, and understood; but I hope, in my secret heart, that it gave her some small solace to read it, and to know it was true."
"Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether
it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The Poet: David Whyte, "Sweet Darkness"
"Sweet Darkness"
"When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb tonight.
The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.
You must learn one thing: the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness
to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you."
- David Whyte,
"House of Belonging"
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.
The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors' need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.
The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.
We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home."
For those so inclined, this is a treasure trove of material. Enjoy!
"Luminarium"
"Luminarium"
“I have undertaken a labor, a labor out of love for the world, and to comfort noble hearts: those that I hold dear, and the world to which my heart goes out. Not the common world do I mean, of those who (as I have heard) cannot bear grief and desire but to bathe in bliss. (May God then let them dwell in bliss!) Their world and manner of life my tale does not regard: it's life and mine lie apart. Another world do I hold in mind, which bears together in one heart its bitter sweetness and its dear grief, its heart's delight and its pain of longing, dear life and sorrowful death, dear death and sorrowful life. In this world let me have my world, to be damned with it, or to be saved.” - Gottfried Von Strassburg
"A comprehensive anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Restoration and Eighteenth Century. This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.
Luminarium is the labor of love of Anniina Jokinen. The site is not affiliated with any institution nor is it sponsored by anyone other than its maintainer and the contributions of its visitors through revenues from book sales via Amazon.com, poster sales via All Posters, and advertising via Google AdSense.
For all materials, authorities in a given subject are consulted. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English are some of the general reference works consulted for accuracy of dates and details. Many of the materials collected here reside elsewhere. Quality and accuracy are concerns, and all materials are checked regularly. However, "Luminarium" cannot be held responsible for materials residing on other sites. Corrections and suggestions for improvements are encouraged from the visitors.
The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming - there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.
Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page "Medlit" and "Renlit" pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the "Sevenlit" site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for "lantern," because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered "luminaries" of English literature."
"Internet Sacred Text Archive"
"About Sacred Texts"
"All ancient books which have once been called sacred by man, will have their lasting place in the history of mankind, and those who possess the courage, the perseverance, and the self-denial of the true miner, and of the true scholar, will find even in the darkest and dustiest shafts what they are seeking for, - real nuggets of thought, and precious jewels of faith and hope."
- Max Müller, "Introduction to the Upanishads" Vol. II.
"This site is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.
This site has no particular agenda other than promoting religious tolerance and scholarship. Views expressed at this site are solely those of specific authors, and are not endorsed by sacred-texts. Sacred-texts is not sponsored by any religious group or organzation.
Sacred texts went live on March 9th, 1999. The traffic started to increase when sacred-texts was listed at Yahoo! under 'Society and Religion|Texts'. In its first year of operation sacred-texts had about a quarter million hits. By 2004, it was receiving well over a quarter million hits per day.
Today, site traffic often exceeds a million hits a day. Sacred texts is one of the top 20,000 sites on the web based on site traffic, consistently one of the top 10,000 sites in Australia, the US and India, and is one of the top 5 most visited general religion sites (source: Alexa.com).
The texts presented here are either original scans from books and articles clearly in the public domain, material which has been presented elsewhere on the Internet, or material included under fair use conditions in printed anthologies.
Many of the texts included here were originally posted in ftp archives or on bulletin boards before the growth of the World Wide Web and have been lost. In some cases, the texts were posted in such a form as to make them unusable by non-technically oriented users. Some of these texts were on the web at some point but have completely disappeared because the site they were posted on has closed. Thus the need for an archive which organizes this material in a persistent location.
From the start, we have had a special focus on remedying the under-representation of traditional cultures on the Internet. The site has one of the largest collections of transcriptions of complete books on Native American, Pacific, African, Asian and other traditional people's religion, spiritual practices, mythology and folklore. While many of these pre-20th century books are flawed due to orientalist or colonialist biases, they are also eye-witness accounts by reliable observers, typically at the moment of contact. These texts are crucial to the study of tribal traditions, and in many cases, the only link with the past. Locked up in academic libraries for decades, sacred-texts has made them freely accessible anywhere in the world.
We have scanned hundreds of books which have all been made freely accessible to the world. A comprehensive bibliography of the texts scanned at sacred texts is available here.
We welcome email regarding typographical or factual errors in any file at sacred-texts. Please write us if you spot an error; include the URL and a few lines of context so we can pin down the location.
While all due care has been taken in the reproduction of the texts here, none of the texts or translations here are represented to be sanctioned by any particular religious body or institution. We welcome advice as to errors of fact or transcription.
Some of the material here may be copyrighted. It is our hope that the copyright holders may allow these texts to be posted here in the public interest. If you are the copyright holder of record of a text which you believe has been archived at this site in error, please contact us at the email address listed at the bottom of this page. We have made a good-faith effort to determine the provenance of each text and apologize if we have posted a text in error. Note: If you are requesting the removal of a file, you must be the copyright holder of the file, and you must specify the exact URL of the file.”
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Fabulous, an absolute treasure trove! Enjoy!
"Only Human..."
And, of course, the universal and inevitable excuse…
“A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably
excuses himself to himself by saying, “I’m only human, after all.”
- Sydney J. Harris
Full screen recommended.
Billy Joel, "You're Only Human"
I've always wondered...
Everyone says “I'm only human…” compared to what?
"What A Real Leader Would Say"
"What A Real Leader Would Say"
by Paul Rosenberg
"It’s late summer in Anytown, USA: A small platform stands at the edge of a cornfield. A very average-looking person steps up to a microphone and speaks:
"Friends,
I stand here, not to praise you, but to acquaint you with reality, at least as well as I am able. Perhaps that means I should be run out of town. But if so, so be it; I’m tired of living according to someone else’s script… and perhaps you are too.
Like you, I’m continually inundated with slogans and outrages, each one calculated to make me do one thing or another. All of them have told me how to think and act, but none of them have asked what I wanted to be and do. And so I think we need to ask ourselves some basic questions: questions that don’t lead to pre-scripted reactions and narrowly-defined choices. So what, really, do we want? And where should we be headed?
The truth is, as impossible at it may seem, that if we can define what we really want, we can pretty well get it; if we can visualize where we really want to go, we can probably get there.
The great fact of our present situation, as frightening as it may be, is that we’ve transcended scarcity… that poverty and privation are no longer necessary. And by that, I certainly mean that they’re no longer necessary here in America, but I also mean they’re no longer necessary world-wide. For some hard facts to back this up, I recommend Julian Simon’s book "The State of Humanity." Just the graphs should be enough to convince you.
We already know how to produce more than enough food for every inhabitant of this planet, and then some. We know how to build enough houses, cars and so on. We know how to provide excellent medical care. Training and raw materials are no real problem either. The big reason why privation continues is that the systems we’ve been living under were designed for fighting over scarce resources. They continue by frightening populations, collecting their sacrifices, soothing them with promises, and regimenting human action. This last piece, regimenting human action, is of primary importance: Cooperation is the key to mass prosperity. However much it is restrained, that’s how much privation will remain.
Please understand that all governments, everywhere, share an operating statement that’s an embodiment of restraining human cooperation, and it is this: Do what we say or we’ll hurt you. Perhaps saying such a thing out loud is rude, and if so I apologize, but it’s true and important all the same.
So, our technology has given us everything we need for a planet-wide golden age. But in order to get it, we’ll have to reorganize ourselves. In specific, we’ll have to drop the ruling systems we’ve been sacrificing our lives to for thousands of years. And so again I say, we have to decide what we really want. All that talk of peace and love is nice, but are we willing to do what’s required to get it?
What I’d like you to understand is that, if we wanted to, we could step into a golden age. If we bothered to work at it, we’d go down in history as the generation that transformed humanity forever. Doing that, however, will involve the indignity of changing our minds in fundamental ways.
But for some people, perhaps, creating a golden age isn’t worth such indignity. And if so, I’ve just committed a terrible faux pas by making such a case openly. My apologies where applicable. To the rest of you I’m saying just this: We need to talk about these things. Isn’t it odd that the thought of losing scarcity should bother us so badly?
I think scarcity has become a psychological need. I’ll leave the details of this to psychologists and economists, but the systems ruling mankind, since the Bronze Age, have been built directly upon the assumption of scarcity. Should it be a surprise that our personal assumptions would have conformed over so many generations?
Now, rather than continuing on this subject at length, I’ll bring this to a close with a decades-old passage from Eric Hoffer. You can find it in his book, "The Ordeal of Change." Here it is: "Now that the new industrial revolution is on the way to solving the problem of means, and we can catch our breath, it behooves us to remember that man’s only legitimate end in life is to finish God’s work – to bring to full growth the capacities and talents implanted within us. A population dedicated to this end will not necessarily overflow with the milk of human kindness, but it will not try to prove its worth by proclaiming the superiority and exclusiveness of its own nation, race or doctrine."
That appeals to me, but perhaps that’s not what most of us want. We do, after all, have options. If we wanted to, we could go full-Caesar on a significant portion of the world, conquering, stealing the things we like and living it up, and probably for a considerable length of time.
You see, these are things we need to discuss. If we don’t, we’ll end up limping along the way we are, slowly declining and eventually seeing other people summon the guts to kick-start a golden age. I’d like us to build and plant and thrive, and to welcome others to thrive with us. If emotional discomfort is the price we must pay for it, I say we should pay it. You, of course, will make up your own mind. But please, and one last time: These are things we need to talk about. Thank you for not shooting me."
Please see:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Banks Are Furious"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 12/14/24
"Banks Are Furious"
"In this eye-opening episode, we explore the latest banking regulations targeting excessive overdraft fees, with the CFPB proposing a $5 cap that has banks furious. Plus, discover why billionaires are rushing to buy gold at unprecedented rates and what this means for your investment strategy. Learn about the shocking producer price index numbers that reveal the true state of inflation, despite what mainstream media reports. We also discuss the concerning rise of buy-now-pay-later services and their impact on consumer debt."
Comments here:
"Thinking About Collapse"
"Thinking About Collapse"
by The ZMan
"One of the interesting things about what is happening in Syria is that it is not just the fall of the government but a collapse of Syrian society. When Assad fled, everyone in his government went into hiding. The people running various parts of the system abandoned their posts, leaving no government at all. The money is worthless, so the economy has ceased to function.
Then you have the gangs of lunatics running around, supported by your tax dollars, making sure nothing is working. Now we are getting word that remnants of the military are forming up into war bands. Soon the various ethnic and religious groups will do the same and the result will be a war zone where lightly armed war bands fight with one another for control of increasingly worthless land.
In other words, Syria collapsed and went from a poorly functioning country to something like a fallen Bronze Age society. This is not just the fall of a government but the collapse of everything, which is not something we often see. The last example is Libya, which was not much a society before we killed Gaddafi. The most recent example is the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago.
That is the show this week. Societal collapse is a rare thing, but Syria is a good reminder that it can still happen. The conditions are pretty similar in all the big examples of collapse. Of course, once you start thinking about those conditions, the West begins to look a bit fragile. Syria is also a reminder that collapse always catches people by surprise, even those causing it."
Full show on Rumble:
Contents:
• Intro
• Syrian Collapse
• French Collapse
• Tsarist Collapse
• Soviet Collapse
• Collapse & Revolution
• The American Collapse
"Essential Reading"
"The 5 Stages of Economic Collapse”
by Dmitry Orlov
Excerpt: “Elizabeth Kübler-Ross defined the five stages of coming to terms with grief and tragedy as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and applied it quite successfully to various forms of catastrophic personal loss, such as death of a loved one, sudden end to one’s career, and so forth. Several thinkers, notably James Howard Kunstler and, more recently John Michael Greer, have pointed out that the Kübler-Ross model is also quite terrifyingly accurate in reflecting the process by which society as a whole (or at least the informed and thinking parts of it) is reconciling itself to the inevitability of a discontinuous future, with our institutions and life support systems undermined by a combination of resource depletion, catastrophic climate change, and political impotence.
But so far, little has been said specifically about the finer structure of these discontinuities. Instead, there is to be found continuum of subjective judgments, ranging from “a severe and prolonged recession” (the prediction we most often read in the financial press), to Kunstler’s evocative but unscientific-sounding “clusterf**k,” to the ever-popular “Collapse of Western Civilization,” painted with an ever-wider brush-stroke.
For those of us who have already gone through all of the emotional stages of reconciling ourselves to the prospect of social and economic upheaval, it might be helpful to have a more precise terminology that goes beyond such emotionally charged phrases. Defining a taxonomy of collapses might prove to be more than just an intellectual exercise: based on our abilities and circumstances, some of us may be able to specifically plan for a certain stage of collapse as a temporary, or even permanent, stopping point."
Please view this complete article here:
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“The 12 Rules of Survival”
by Laurence Gonzales
Excerpt: “As a journalist, I’ve been writing about accidents for more than thirty years. In the last 15 or so years, I’ve concentrated on accidents in outdoor recreation, in an effort to understand who lives, who dies, and why. To my surprise, I found an eerie uniformity in the way people survive seemingly impossible circumstances. Decades and sometimes centuries apart, separated by culture, geography, race, language, and tradition, the most successful survivors–those who practice what I call “deep survival”– go through the same patterns of thought and behavior, the same transformation and spiritual discovery, in the course of keeping themselves alive.
Not only that but it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are surviving being lost in the wilderness or battling cancer, whether they’re struggling through divorce or facing a business catastrophe– the strategies remain the same. Survival should be thought of as a journey, a vision quest of the sort that Native Americans have had as a rite of passage for thousands of years. Once you’re past the precipitating event– you’re cast away at sea or told you have cancer– you have been enrolled in one of the oldest schools in history. Here are a few things I’ve learned that can help you pass the final exam."
Please view this complete article here:
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"The Collapse Of Complex Societies"
"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."
Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here;
"Inevitable"
"Inevitable"
by Todd Hayen
"I used to believe that the only way we were going to get out of this mess was to flip sheep (apologies to those offended by my continued use of the word “sheep” - old habits die hard). Meaning that if we got everyone, or mostly everyone, to see what truly was going on, then we could stop the insanity. In other words, if everyone woke up there would be no more compliance, no more believing in the lies, no more falling into the agenda’s traps. Now I am not so sure.
It seems now that the only way this insanity will work its way out is either by a direct act of God or if we are willing to wait 1,000 years or so when it works out on its own. Maybe we just need to face Armageddon, let it happen, and try to live the best life we can before and while it’s happening. I don’t mean “give up,” I mean to still fight but focus the fight on things other than trying to flip sheep.
I know I’ve said this before, but now I am refining this idea a bit. Although I do believe once we know something, we can’t unknow it - meaning we can’t force ourselves into a state of denial and pretend all is rosy as the sheep tend to do (now that they’ve got Trump to feel dismal about, maybe they won’t be all rosy, but for the wrong reasons). But maybe we should stop focusing on it so much and try to get back to the basics of joyous living. Did I really just say that? No, of course not.
I have found myself envying the sheep. I recently had a friend on FB question something I had posted (a comment actually on someone’s meme about chemtrails). She had said she simply did not understand what was being said negatively about natural contrails that jets innocently leave behind. I turned her on to a James Corbett video interviewing Peter Kirby about chemtrails. She responded with the usual disbelief - “How could people be doing this without anyone knowing - purposefully poisoning the earth and all of the people on it?”
I didn’t push it and just said, “You seem to be enjoying your life, keep doing that and don’t let this cat out of the bag. Let it go.” It was the first time I did something like that, and it felt right. I had the opportunity to possibly flip a sheep, and I didn’t take it. I believe, however, that this “letting go” only applies to sheep. Whereas before, I wanted sheep to learn the truth about the world, now I am not so anxious to be the one to wreck their day. They will figure it out soon enough.
Maybe this is an old person thing, and I am just tired. I have no young kids to look out for like so many of you do. I have little other than myself to sacrifice if the world goes down the tubes. I am not going to be here that much longer anyway. Although I do think some of this bad stuff is going to start happening long before I die, I am not so sure of that either.
Will another scamdemic hit soon, will social credit scores, CBDC, and Digital IDs come upon us that quickly, and if they do, will they have the devastating effect we all believe they will? Will we soon be living like the folks in 1984 or Brave New World?
Now, I don’t think I am going to die before much of that, but maybe the worst of it will not hit for another 20 years. Most likely I will be gone before then. Unless I get some shiny new body parts which will soon be available, but if shiny new parts do become available, I doubt if I will be able to afford them. All I am saying is that we will be faced with it soon enough, and maybe before we are, we should forget about trying so hard to stop it. As I type this I am getting nauseous. What an old geezer-coward I’ve turned out to be.
If it was possible to flip sheep I would say let’s keep flipping them. But since it is not possible to even make a dent in that woolly armour, then I say forget it. Most of you, I believe, quelled this effort long ago.
Maybe fighting at all is useless. When a person has terminal cancer, isn’t there a rational point to stop the effort to beat it and just enjoy what you’ve got left? Is that really a deeply defeatist attitude? I think falling somewhere in the middle might be a consideration. For us, it is different. As I said a minute ago, we don’t have the option, like most sheep do, to slip into complete denial. What we know, we cannot unknow.
The sheep are also not all that happy, happy, joy, joy. They obviously think something is afoot. It is interesting to observe their “inaccurate” concern. In the states, it is all about Trump destroying democracy, the constitution, women’s rights, gay rights, trans rights, and the rights of anyone who is not white and Christian (and male). When Biden was around, it was also about destroying Putin and Russia’s rampage to conquer the world, as well as Palestine and Iran destroying Israel and Islam in general destroying every Jew on Earth. So, sheep have worries, too, but in general, they are distracted from the truth.
I have been confused recently (before the US election) trying to determine who these memes are referring to, Trump or Harris - memes predicting the end of democracy, etc. Both sides are being accused of the same things. One of my recent favourites was a meme of a wolf eating sheep while saying he would protect the sheep and only ate a few of them. The sheep respond by saying to one another, “This guy is going to protect us, he’s the one for us!” I commented to the poster, “Who are the sheep?” The person posting the meme liked my comment, obviously assuming I was on her side. They think we are sheep, too.
I am wondering if there is a less obvious way to continue this fight. Maybe just by trying harder to create community and be more accepting of contrary views. I do think we shrews are better at doing that. Since we have all been categorized Trumpsters (whether we are or not), it is much easier for sheep (who have all been categorized liberals and Harris supporters - which they may or may not be) to hate us and not give us the time of day. This is where the real problem lies.
I am afraid now with the election over, things will only get worse before they get better - assuming they ever will get better. Maybe it is time for us shrews to let go of sheep entirely - to attempt to create community without them. Not to reject them outright, but just not concern ourselves with them unless they voluntarily come into our fold. I don’t like the idea of “sides,” but I don’t think it is possible to ignore the fact that we are indeed polarized.
Although it may seem that I am suggesting we become complacent, I don’t think I am. We cannot become depressed though. When we fight, and then fail, and repeat that cycle, we can bring on depression. We must focus our efforts on success, not on things that are bound to fail, but rather on things we know we can be successful with. Like community, joy, and laughter coupled with a serious critical eye and a continued penchant for sniffing out the truth in a deeply illusional world.
I know it seems strange hearing this from me, Dr. Doom. I don’t have much to say in my writing other than pointing out negative aspects of our experience. I will continue to do this only because I think it is very easy for us to fall back to sleep. Maybe that is exactly what I am doing myself by writing this particular article. Maybe I have started to nod off, breathing in the intoxicating falsity of the good life still to be had that so many seem to be enjoying. If you feel the same, don’t let it happen. Stay awake."
o
Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here.
“Falling Off A Cliff”: This Chart Proves That We Are In A Major Economic Downturn Right Now"
“Falling Off A Cliff”: This Chart Proves That
We Are In A Major Economic Downturn Right Now"
by Michael Snyder
"The number of job openings in the United States has been “falling off a cliff”, and that is a major red flag. The last four years have been an economic nightmare for most Americans, and that is one of the primary reasons why Donald Trump won the election. But as we approach 2025, things are starting to get frighteningly bad. When the number of job openings in the U.S. drops by 2 million or more, that normally signals that we are either in a recession or that one is about to happen. Well, as you can see from this chart that was posted by Bravos Research on Twitter, we are witnessing a collapse in job openings that is absolutely unprecedented…
I was floored when I saw that chart. I knew that job openings were falling, but I didn’t know that things had gotten this bad. Not too long ago, there were about 12 million job openings in the United States. Unfortunately, here in the second half of 2024 that figure has fallen below 8 million…"There were an estimated 7.4 million unfilled jobs on the last day of September, a drop from August’s revised tally of 7.86 million openings, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest drop-offs in openings were in industries that have driven much of the job growth in recent years: health care and social assistance, and government, according to the report."
Meanwhile, major employers continue to shed workers all over the nation. For example, the U.S. lost a total of 78,000 manufacturing jobs during a recent three month period…"The manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs in October, bringing its tally of job losses to 78,000 over the past three months. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released its jobs report for October, which found that the manufacturing sector lost 46,000 jobs last month, according to the agency’s preliminary analysis. That followed a loss of 6,000 jobs in September, which is also a preliminary figure, as well as a decline of 26,000 jobs in August".
Every day, there are more layoff announcements in the news, and the number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits increased much more than experts were projecting last week…"The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time jumped significantly last week (from 225k to 242k – well above expectations of 220k) – the highest since the first week of October." On an un-adjusted basis, claims exploded higher (highest since January)…
Throughout the second half of this year, I have been arguing that the U.S. economy is rapidly heading in the wrong direction. Now we have even more confirmation that this is indeed happening. Once we get past the holiday season, retailers are going to be dropping like flies.
According to the Daily Mail, it appears that Party City could soon be forced to declare bankruptcy…"A major party and craft retailer with 850 stores across the nation is considering filing for bankruptcy. Party City has been faced with the possibility of mass closures just a little over a year after the company surfaced from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The celebration retailer, known for selling balloons and essential party supplies, is currently behind on rent at some of its locations, people close to the matter told Bloomberg."
And it is being reported that 670 Family Dollar stores have already been shut down…"Discount behemoth Dollar Tree has shuttered 670 of its underperforming Family Dollar stores so far, about two-thirds of the nearly 1,000 it plans to close, as it considers whether to sell or spin off the struggling chain. The Chesapeake, Virginia-based retailer provided an update on its portfolio optimization efforts when it reported is fiscal third-quarter earnings. Dollar Tree officials also said they were still reviewing options for Family Dollar, with no set deadline or timeline to complete that process."
Overall, thousands upon thousands of retail stores in the U.S. have been shuttered in 2024, and thousands upon thousands will be shuttered in 2025. In many areas of the country, the landscape is absolutely littered with once thriving businesses that have now been boarded up. More than a decade ago, I warned that we were headed for a future when impoverished areas of the U.S. would be filled with boarded up businesses and abandoned buildings. Now we are there.
On top of everything else, inflation is starting to surge once again, and one recent survey discovered that about a third of all U.S. households have been forced to cut back spending just to keep the lights on…"With the cost of things like food and housing still straining people’s budgets, many U.S. households over the past year have found themselves having to pare their spending on basic necessities just to keep the lights on at home.
That’s according to a recent Lending Tree study which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data from Aug. 20, 2024 to Sep. 16, 2024 to find the percentage of Americans 18 and older that had cut back on necessary expenses to pay their energy bill, kept their home at an unsafe or unhealthy temperature, or was unable to pay the full amount on an energy bill at least once over the preceding 12 months. The study found that more than 34% of respondents said they have had to cut back or skip spending on certain necessary expenses at least once over the past year in order to pay their energy bill."
As I discussed the other day, prior to the election most Americans believed that we were already in a recession. Since the election, conditions have only gotten worse. Many are hoping that our economic momentum can be reversed once the new administration takes over. We should all be hoping that is true. But right now we are on a freight train that is steamrolling in the wrong direction, and that is not good news at all."
"Moscow Christmas Markets - Walking in Red Square in 2024"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 12/14/24
"Moscow Christmas Markets -
Walking in Red Square in 2024"
"How does it feel to walk through the center of Moscow in December,
after the first snowfall of Winter? Join me as I walk through
the world-famous Moscow Christmas Markets in Red Square."
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Friday, December 13, 2024
Musical Interlude: Dan Fogelberg, "Nether Lands"
Full screen recommended.
Dan Fogelberg, "Nether Lands"
Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Drone Sitings Trigger Nationwide Panic!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/13/24
"Alert! Drone Sitings Trigger Nationwide Panic!
Europe Building Nuclear Bunkers; Iran Nuke Plan"
Comments here:
"Warning! Ominous Drones Flying Over America - Who Is Doing This And Why?"
Jeremiah Babe, 12/13/24
"Warning! Ominous Drones Flying Over America -
Who Is Doing This And Why?"
Comments here:
"600 Stores Closing: Kroger and Albertsons Merger Is Dead"
Orlando Miner, 12/13/24
"600 Stores Closing:
Kroger and Albertsons Merger Is Dead"
Comments here: