Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 1/7/25
"Hypocrisy America: Alcohol, Don't Drink It;
Lock Down America But Keep Liquor Stores Open"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
"A Look to the Heavens"
"These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of island universes a mere 500 million light-years away. Also known as Abell 2151, this cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star-forming spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars. The colors in this remarkably deep composite image clearly show the star forming galaxies with a blue tint and galaxies with older stellar populations with a yellowish cast.
The sharp picture spans about 3/4 degree across the cluster center, corresponding to over 6 million light-years at the cluster's estimated distance. Diffraction spikes around brighter foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy are produced by the imaging telescope's mirror support vanes. In the cosmic vista many galaxies seem to be colliding or merging while others seem distorted - clear evidence that cluster galaxies commonly interact. In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe. "
Chet Raymo, “Angling For Happiness”
“Angling For Happiness”
by Chet Raymo
“There is a concept in physics called angle of repose. Set an object, a book say, on a plank. Now slowly tip up one end of the plank until the moment when the book just starts to slide. The angle between the plank and the horizontal is the angle of repose, where the component of the gravitational force down the plank becomes greater than the maximum friction force holding the book at rest. Or, in more evocative terms - as I write I am lying on the couch with the laptop in my lap, in perfect repose. If you started tipping up the couch, at some point I'd go sliding into a heap at the bottom. That's the angle of repose, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the angle of the end of repose.
This comes to mind because I just spent fifteen minutes on my knees in the yard watching ants excavate a nest in the ground. One by one they scurry out of the hole carrying a tiny grain of sand, which they dump in a ring around the hole. A circular pile. Now if the ants just dumped their burdens at the mouth of the hole, pretty soon the pile would get so steep that the sand grains would slide back into the hole. Instead, the circular ring gets higher and wider, with a slope that never exceeds the angle at which the grains will slip - the angle of repose. Now here's the thing: the ants almost invariably carry their grain to just beyond the top of the pile. If the grain slips, it will slide away from the hole. These tiny ants, hardly bigger than sand grains themselves, understand a little physics in their mysterious instinctive way.
Wallace Stegner has a novel titled "Angle of Repose." It is indeed an evocative phrase. In a job, in a relationship, in life itself, many of us instinctively seek that maximum degree of individual gratification that will satisfy emotional needs without doing violence to our essential repose, and that of those around us - the art of walking close to the edge, the thrill without the spill. Every day in the news we hear of folks - politicians or celebrities - who tipped the plank too far, whose lives went sliding into self-destruction, who failed to grasp, metaphorically speaking, something that a tiny ant instinctively understands.”
"All Alone..."
“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and – in spite of True Romance magazines – we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely – at least, not all the time – but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
- Hunter S. Thompson,
“The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman”
"100 Laws of Life So You Don't Screw Your Life Up Like I Did"
"100 Laws of Life So You
Don't Screw Your Life Up Like I Did"
"Unearth 100 life-changing laws distilled from the mistakes of those who came before us. These are the lessons hard-earned through the school of knocks. These laws are your roadmap to avoiding missteps and leading a more meaningful life."
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o
And a few others...
“Never hate your enemies. It clouds your judgment.”
- "Michael Corleone"
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
- John F. Kennedy
Gregory Mannarino, "We Are Being Thrust Directly Into A New Dark Age"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/7/25
"We Are Being Thrust Directly Into A New Dark Age"
Comments here:
o
Related context:
"How To Survive 'The Great Taking' in 2025"
by Nick Giambruno
"It’s a "scheme of central bankers to subjugate humanity by taking all securities, bank deposits, and property financed with debt." David Webb, a former hedge fund manager, and Wall Street insider, has blown the lid off a diabolical plan more than 50 years in the making in a shocking new book. He calls it The Great Taking. I consider it an urgent must-read (available for free here).
Here’s the synopsis: It is about the taking of collateral (all of it), the end game of the current globally synchronous debt accumulation super cycle. This scheme is being executed by long-planned, intelligent design, the audacity and scope of which is difficult for the mind to encompass.
Included are all financial assets and bank deposits, all stocks and bonds; and hence, all underlying property of all public corporations, including all inventories, plant and equipment; land, mineral deposits, inventions and intellectual property. Privately owned personal and real property financed with any amount of debt will likewise be taken, as will the assets of privately owned businesses which have been financed with debt. If even partially successful, this will be the greatest conquest and subjugation in world history.
Private, closely held control of ALL central banks, and hence of all money creation, has allowed a very few people to control all political parties and governments; the intelligence agencies and their myriad front organizations; the armed forces and the police; the major corporations and, of course, the media. These very few people are the prime movers. Their plans are executed over decades. Their control is opaque.
To be clear, it is these very few people, who are hidden from you, who are behind this scheme to confiscate all assets, who are waging a hybrid war against humanity. Webb shows how the dark forces behind central banking have spent the last 50 years meticulously putting the legal structures in place worldwide to sever property rights for securities.
Gone are the days of physical paper share certificates and bearer securities, where you had control and ownership of the asset. Today, your control and ownership have become increasingly distant as stocks, bonds, and other investments have been centralized away from account holders and rehypothecated - a slimy practice where financial institutions reuse an account holder’s asset for their own purposes, creating multiple claims on the same asset.
Contrary to what most brokerage account holders believe, they only have the appearance of ownership. If their broker goes bust, the stocks and bonds they think they own will be used to satisfy the other more senior creditors of their broker.
Webb shows how, during the 2008 financial crisis, a small broker in Florida went bankrupt. Instead of sending the clients’ securities to another broker, as had traditionally been the case, they were swept up by the bankruptcy receiver. But it’s not just some isolated small broker. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers set the case law precedent for secured creditors to take client assets in the case of insolvency. The most senior secured creditors are the most powerful financial institutions closest to the central banks - JP Morgan, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, etc.
The net effect of The Great Taking will be the biggest centralization of money and power in history as they take everyone’s securities during a future crisis. Though it’s not just securities, they will also take ANY asset financed by debt - like real estate, cars, and small businesses -as people become unable to service their debts. Webb provides all the details and proof in his book.
Here’s the bottom line. The most powerful people in the world have succeeded in subverting the property rights of securities and ensnaring most of the world with debt. The trap has been set, and the legal plumbing is in place.
All that is needed is a big crisis that will cause a tidal wave of bankruptcies, and the hidden forces behind the world’s central banks will be able to take everyone’s stocks, bonds, and any property financed by debt. All the assets people think they own in brokerage accounts, bank accounts, pensions, and other financial accounts could vanish overnight. Webb says, "There will be a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, you will not have a seat. It is designed to work that way."
The Poet: John O’Donohue, “In These Times”
“In These Times”
“In these times when anger
Is turned into anxiety,
And someone has stolen
The horizons and mountains,
Our small emperors on parade
Never expect our indifference
To disturb their nakedness.
They keep their heads down,
And their eyes gleam with reflection
From aluminum economic ground,
The media wraps everything
In a cellophane of sound,
And the ghost surface of the virtual
Overlays the breathing earth.
The industry of distraction
Makes us forget
That we live in a universe.
We have become converts
To the religion of stress
And its deity of progress;
That we may have courage
To turn aside from it all
And come to kneel down before the poor,
To discover what we must do,
How to turn anxiety
Back into anger,
How to find our way home.”
~ John O’Donohue,
from “To Bless the Space Between Us”
○
“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estes
"The Heart of Humanity"
"The Heart of Humanity"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and we will come out the other side. The last thing most of us want to hear or think about when we are dealing with profound feelings of sadness is that deep learning can be found in this place. In the midst of our pain, we often feel picked on by life, or overwhelmed by the enormity of some loss, or simply too exhausted to try and examine the situation. We may feel far too disappointed and angry to look for anything resembling a bright side to our suffering. Still, somewhere in our hearts, we know that we will eventually emerge from the depths into the light of greater awareness. Remembering this truth, no matter how elusive it seems, can help.
The other thing we often would rather not hear when we are dealing with intense sadness is that the only way out of it is through it. Sitting with our sadness takes the courage to believe that we can bear the pain and the faith that we will come out the other side. With courage, we can allow ourselves to cycle through the grieving process with full inner permission to experience it. This is a powerful teaching that sadness has to offer us - the ability to surrender and the acceptance of change go hand in hand.
Another teaching of sadness is compassion for others who are in pain, because it is only in feeling our own pain that we can really understand and allow for someone else’s. Sadness is something we all go through, and we all learn from it and are deepened by its presence in our lives. While our own individual experiences of sadness carry with them unique lessons, the implications of what we learn are universal. The wisdom we gain from going through the process of feeling loss, heartbreak, or deep disappointment gives us access to the heart of humanity."
Trey Pendley, "When Tomorrow Starts Without Me"
"Buying Time"
"Buying Time"
Author Unknown
"A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question? " "Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man. "Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?" "That's none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing? " the man said angrily. "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour? " pleaded the little boy. "If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour. " "Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"
The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't have time for such childish games. " The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?
After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. "Are you asleep son?" he asked. "No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy. "I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier, " said the man. "It's been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you daddy! " he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man. "Why did you want more money if you already had some? " the father grumbled. "Because I didn't have enough, but now I do, " the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? "
"The Truth About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure"
"The Truth About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure"
by Michael Snyder
"Signs that we were once a truly great nation are all around us. Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most magnificent domestic infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now it is literally falling apart all around us. Thousands of bridges are structurally deficient and there have already been some very high profile collapses. Hundreds of thousands of miles of highways and roads in the United States are in very poor shape. Aging sewer systems are leaking raw sewage all over the place, and children are being slowly poisoned by lead pipes that desperately need to be replaced. The power grid is hopelessly overloaded and is extremely vulnerable. Meanwhile, our ports, our dams, our subway systems, our bus terminals and our airports are crumbling right in front of our eyes. The truth is that our nation’s infrastructure says a lot about who we are. So what does America’s crumbling infrastructure say about us? Sadly, it says that we are a rusting, crumbling, decaying leftover from a better, more prosperous time.
When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration told us that “investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s”…"Public investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The World Economic Forum now ranks the United States 13th when it comes to the overall quality of infrastructure." So Congress passed a bill that gave the Biden administration more than $100,000,000,000 to spend on fixing our infrastructure. Honestly, I have no idea what they did with all that money.
In 2021, the official White House website was reporting that 45,000 bridges and 20 percent of our roads were in poor condition…"More than 45,000 U.S. bridges and 1 in 5 miles of roads are in poor condition, per the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2007, the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 and injuring 121." Well, fast forward a few years later and the Department of Transportation is still telling us that “over 40,000 bridges” are in poor condition…The Department of Transportation considers 6.8% of the over 600,000 bridges it tracks and rates to be in “poor” condition. That doesn’t sound too bad on a percentage basis, but it’s over 40,000 bridges in total."
And it appears that the condition of our roads has actually gotten worse in many states. For example, Consumer Reports says that almost half of all urban roads in the state of California are not currently in acceptable condition…"Despite an enormous yearly disbursement for highways that tops $21 billion, the Golden State manages to keep just a little more than half their urban roads in acceptable condition. However, this is an outsized job since, in addition to 840 miles of coastline, California boasts more miles of urban roads than any other state and has the second-highest mileage of rural roads in the country. Data from the National Highway Administration shows California’s roads are the most traveled in the U.S., so it makes sense that the state also has the second-highest number of motor vehicle-related fatalities in the country."
Back in 2021, the Biden administration also made a big deal out of the fact that millions of Americans were getting their tap water through lead pipes…"Millions still get water from lead pipes, despite the fact that exposure to lead has irreversible health effects; in 2015, a state of emergency was declared in Flint, Michigan as citizens learned that their water supply contained toxic levels of lead." So why didn’t the Biden administration fix this problem?
An article that was published late last year revealed that the EPA is estimating that “more than 9 million service lines” are still made out of lead…"The EPA estimates that more than 9 million service lines are made of lead, a neurotoxin that can cause nervous system damage, learning disabilities and other health problems, especially in children. If lead pipes corrode, as in the infamous case of Flint, Michigan, they can poison drinking water." While no amount of lead exposure is safe, the federal rule now requires utilities to notify the public and improve corrosion treatment if lead in their water exceeds 10 parts per billion. Some homes in Syracuse, New York, recently tested at 70 parts per billion.
Our politicians are constantly telling us that they just don’t have enough money to get everything done. Personally, I would really love to see exactly what the Biden administration spent more than 100 billion dollars of infrastructure money on. Have you traveled through any of our airports lately? Compared to other industrialized nations, they are a complete and utter joke. Why can’t we have beautiful airports, modern subway systems, functional roads and bridges, and safe water coming out of our taps?
More tax revenue is collected in America than anywhere else in the world, and so we certainly deserve the best infrastructure. When I bring up the topic of taxes, most people immediately think of the federal income tax. But the truth is that there are literally dozens of different taxes that they use to extract wealth out of us…
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Gift Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Payroll Taxes
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
School Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer Registration Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
When you take all forms of taxation into account, some Americans actually end up handing over more than 50 percent of their incomes each year. So our politicians have no excuse for not fixing our infrastructure. But even though they extract money from us in dozens of different ways, our infrastructure crisis just seems to keep getting worse. In some areas of the country, roads that were once paved have actually been transformed into gravel roads because they are cheaper to maintain.
Our crumbling infrastructure is a perfect metaphor for our crumbling society as a whole, and it is time for the American people to start demanding better from all levels of government."
"How It Really Is"
"If only"... you don't stop because you can't stop.
If you do it's all over. It's all over anyway, you're just buying time.
Tell me I'm wrong...
"Something Incredible Is Happening In The Center of Moscow!"
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Window To Moscow, 1/7/25
"Something Incredible Is Happening
In The Center of Moscow!"
"Friends, welcome to my YouTube channel Window to Moscow! Today we are exploring stunning winter Moscow. We take you on a mesmerizing journey through the snowy streets during Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. A picturesque evening stroll through this iconic Russian city, decked out in holiday decorations and filled with holiday cheer! We will walk with you from the Bolshoi Theatre (Petrovka Street, Tverskoy District) through Manezhnaya Square to Red Square, through Nikolskaya Street to Zaryadye Park and to Novaya Street on Christmas Eve with a New Year's mood. Experience the magic of winter in Moscow with this 4K HDR video of a snowfall-covered city center. Come with me through the streets of the Russian capital! Discover Moscow nightlife in 2025 and feel the charm of this iconic city at night with Christmas decorations and lights. Enjoy watching!"
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"Major Red Flags: Americans Can't Afford Homes, Consumer Debt Is Surging as Delinquencies Rise"
Full screen recommended,
World Affairs In Context, 1/7/25
"Major Red Flags: Americans Can't Afford Homes,
Consumer Debt Is Surging as Delinquencies Rise"
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o
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 1/7/25
"I Was Laid Off 8 Months Ago And Still Can't Find A Job!"
"We have seen a tremendous amount of layoffs over the past year and at the same time, companies are slowing way down on new hires due to the sluggish economy. This is leaving many people unemployed for a lot longer than originally anticipated and forcing many to rely on savings and credit cards to get by until they can find a job."
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Gregory Mannarino, "Updates: Global Inflation/Currency Devaluation Is Going To Get Much Worse Even Faster"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/7/25
"Updates: Global Inflation/Currency Devaluation
Is Going To Get Much Worse Even Faster"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Time to Pay More - End of an Era
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 1/7/25
"Time to Pay More - End of an Era
"Banks have quietly written off $46 billion in credit card debt - a shocking revelation about the state of consumer finances. Join me on a road trip through Nevada where I share this breaking financial news and explore the closure of iconic casinos like Whiskey Pete's. From New York's controversial new congestion tax to Apple's $95 million Siri settlement, we're covering the latest developments affecting your wallet. Plus, get an insider's look at why major banks like Chase, Citibank, and Capital One are dealing with unprecedented credit card defaults. #congestiontax #WhiskeyPetes #iallegedly
As we head into 2025, I break down what these financial warning signs mean for the average American and share practical tips to protect your finances. Whether you're concerned about rising costs, debt management, or making smart investment decisions, this video provides crucial insights for navigating today's economic challenges."
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Bill Bonner, "Lamb Chops"
"Lamb Chops"
The Mega-Maga negotiations will end up much like the
Continuing Resolution intended to keep the government funded
until March. It is 1,500 pages of special privileges and giveaways.
by Bill Bonner
"May he come down like rain on the mown grass
Like showers that water the earth
In his time shall righteousness flourish
And abundance of peace
Til the moon shall be no more."
- Psalm 72
Baltimore, Maryland - "The great moment approaches. One big beautiful bill... and our problems are over. (At least, that was the promise on Sunday. By Monday, the Great Helmsman may have changed course.) Agence France Presse: "Top US Republican eyes swift passage of Trump priority mega-bill. The speaker of the US House said Sunday he was pushing an "aggressive" timeframe for getting a multi-trillion-dollar bill addressing immigration, tax cuts and more to Donald Trump's desk by April, within his first 100 days in office."
And here’s the Wall Street Journal: "Republicans Lean Toward ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ for Trump Agenda. Republicans look increasingly likely to try combining all of their top legislative priorities - tax cuts, spending cuts and border security - into a single large bill, aiming to push President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda through Congress in one fell swoop. The one-bill approach attempts to unite the Republican Party’s disparate factions, and it could require months of delicate negotiations to find the balance of policies that satisfies nearly everyone. The GOP will have a 53-47 Senate majority and, at best, a 220-215 House advantage after vacant seats get filled."
Mike Johnson: "At the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill. And there’s a lot of merit to that because we can put it all together - one big up or down vote - which can save the country quite literally because there are so many elements to it. And it’ll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right."
This is very different from the approach taken by Javier Milei in Argentina. He declared balanced budgets were ‘non-negotiable.’ And he stuck with it, producing the first balanced budget in 123 years.
Back in the USA, is three months’ of ‘delicate negotiations’ actually going to find the ‘balance of policies that satisfies nearly everyone?’ Or is this just a pack of wolves, deciding which lamb to eat first? Most likely, the Mega-Maga negotiations will end up much like the Continuing Resolution intended to keep the government funded until March. It is 1,500 pages of special privileges and giveaways...
Baltimore gets money to fix its bridge... $10 million was set aside for a candy museum... while $5 million was the price tag on a study of the mating habits of frogs. A billion here, a billion there... and pretty soon, we’re talking about real money.
And the same people who patted each other on the back for that monstrosity... who approved 2024’s near-$2 trillion deficit and dug the $36 trillion debt crater in Washington...those wolves and jackals... members of Congress... lobbyists... policy wonks... rich donors... and the propaganda media...they’re now going to take the vegetarian option?
Will the lobbyists for the firepower industry admit that they really don’t need so much of the public’s money? ‘Heck, we don’t really need full spectrum dominance, after all,’ they might say; ‘we’ll just protect the country...’
And senior citizens... will the selfless geriatrics generously give up their cushy pensions and medical benefits? ‘Hey, we know the country is in a tough spot... what with owing so much money and all. So we’ll do our part to help. We’ll take a trillion dollars less.’
Congress; will it turn down a pay hike? Will Israel and the Ukraine make peace and tell the US to keep its money?
And how about those Silicon Valley billionaires, who invested millions to help Donald Trump to get elected? Their donations paid off last time. Latin Times: "A study conducted by professors and researchers from various institutions demonstrates that firms are more likely to get approved [for exemptions from Trump’s tariffs] if they have donated to the Republican Party. In contrast, firms found to be supporting Democratic campaigns were much less likely to receive approval. They’re expecting another good return on their investment. Instead, seized by community spirit and runaway altruism, will they suddenly go straight? ‘We’re already billionaires,’ they might say, ‘The country probably doesn’t need our whiz-bang technology, anyway. And using it to dispense propaganda and track Americans is probably unconstitutional..’"
Yes, we look forward to that glorious day when the parasites and grifters get on-board with a big, beautiful, Mega-Maga bill. But we won’t hold our breath..."
Monday, January 6, 2025
Canadian Prepper, "Alert! 2 Weeks, Iran War, Crash Coming, Bird Flu Spreads, Trudeau Out! NATO invades Russia Again!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 1/6/25
"Alert! 2 Weeks, Iran War, Crash Coming, Bird Flu Spreads,
Trudeau Out! NATO Invades Russia Again!"
Comments here:
God help us, folks, God help us...
Jeremiah Babe, "Economic Booby Traps Being Set, America Will Pay A Severe Price"
Jeremiah Babe, 1/6/25
"Economic Booby Traps Being Set,
America Will Pay A Severe Price"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"This fantastic skyscape lies near the edge of NGC 2174 a star forming region about 6,400 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Orion. It follows mountainous clouds of gas and dust carved by winds and radiation from the region's newborn stars, now found scattered in open star clusters embedded around the center of NGC 2174, off the top of the frame.
Though star formation continues within these dusty cosmic clouds they will likely be dispersed by the energetic newborn stars within a few million years. Recorded at infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, the interstellar scene spans about 6 light-years. Scheduled for launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is optimized for exploring the Universe at infrared wavelengths."
Chet Raymo, “When The Morning Stars Sing Together”
“When The Morning Stars Sing Together”
by Chet Raymo
“A Chinese proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Which might be an acceptable epigraph for this blog. I can’t imagine anyone coming here looking for answers. Certainly, providing answers is the last thing on my mind. I would like to think you come for song.
We are, I think, by and large, a community who distrusts answers, at least answers that are vehemently held. We are made uncomfortable by stridency. By dogma. By the desire to proselytize. We wear our truths lightly, gaily, as a song bird wears its feathers. We are grateful to those who push back the clouds of ignorance and hold the reins of passion. With Blake, we sing their praises, a song we have spent a lifetime learning. We sing to celebrate. We sing because we have a song.”
"Toxic People..."
"Toxic people systematically destroy others because if they cannot bask in the light then no one else deserves to. Lost people suffer in their darkness, happily dragging your light down into their personal hell so you can listen to all their woes. Soulless people, lacking empathy, suck the light from others to taste that which they can never understand. People can't be helped until they want to be helped. You can't be there for others who need you if any one of these types destroy you. Save yourself... it's not a sin to love from a distance."
- L.M. Fields
"Looking for a Reason to Believe: The Benefit of the Doubt Is Cracking"
"Looking for a Reason to Believe:
The Benefit of the Doubt Is Cracking"
By Paul Rosenberg
"Those of us who pursue positive change are very often frustrated. We see the necessity of change all too clearly, and we can explain how it should come about, but it never seems to happen. The truth, however, is that change does come; it just comes more slowly than we’d like, and in ways that differ from those we imagined.
One real change I like to point out is the passing of blind trust in politicians. In the 1950s and ‘60s, most people spoke of politicians with respect and even with reverence. Now it’s almost standard for people to agree that they’re liars and thieves. That’s a very significant change, even if it did take several decades to unfold.
So, a significant change has occurred in our time, and over a very broad base. Still, most people are hanging on, and often desperately, to old ways that should really be abandoned.
The Automatic Benefit of the Doubt: It’s a bit troubling to see how blindly, and for how long, people give the benefit of the doubt to hierarchy and its operators. They can know that a system is abusing them, and they can complain about it at length, but still they grasp at reasons to keep believing in it. Here’s what I mean:
• During the bad spots of the Middle Ages, people would be abused by the clergy but say, “If only His Holiness knew!”
• During the reign of the USSR, people in the Gulag would often say, “If only Stalin knew!”
• In our time, people hold Political Party A or Political Party B as grave evils, while pretending that the combination of A + B is good and noble.
Still, such blind biases do eventually break. Stalin, after all, is gone, along with his USSR. The Protestant reformation broke the domination of the Church. And the delusions of our time will die as well.
“Still, I Look to Find a Reason to Believe”: If there were such a competition, I’d nominate Rod Stewart’s song, "Reason To Believe," as the Anthem of the Age. Regardless of how badly they are abused, people have a very hard time letting go of their hierarchies; they’ve taken emotional refuge in them, after all. Even when sharp pain forces them to examine the hierarchy that constantly tells them, “Obey or we’ll hurt you,” the impulse to maintain belief erupts. Here’s how the song expresses it:
"If I listened long enough to you,
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true.
Knowing that you lied,
straight-faced while I cried.
Still I look to find a reason to believe."
Humans have a real problem with that last line: looking for reasons to believe. It flies in the face of both logic and honesty, but people not only do it, but vigorously defend it. As for specific reasons to believe, they’re endless. Seldom are humans quicker and cleverer than when justifying their previous actions.
Why This Is a Good Sign: When people are desperately grasping for reasons to believe, it’s because the benefit of the doubt is cracking beneath them. Otherwise, why would they fight so wildly? The circumstances of our modern world are propelling people toward this break. Every time a ruling system tells gigantic lies, censors the public square, surveils their own people and frightens the masses for their own benefit, belief in their system cracks a little.
More and more people are conceding that it’s not just “one bad actor” here or there, but that Joe Stalin really is evil, that the clergy really is corrupt, and that hierarchies are abusive by nature. The whirlwind of distractions and slogans arrayed against moral clarity are losing their effectiveness. Little by little, humanity’s blind devotion to authority is cracking. Someday, it will break."
o
Rod Stewart, "Reason To Believe"
"What Happens When We Die"
"What Happens When We Die"
by Maria Popova
"When my atheist engineer grandfather died, my atheist engineer grandmother leaned over the body in the hospice bed that had contained half a century of shared life and love, cradled the cranium in which his stubborn and sensitive mind had dwelt, and whispered into the halogen-lit ether: “Where did you go, my darling?”
Whatever our beliefs, these sense-making playthings of the mind, when the moment of material undoing comes, we - creatures of moment and matter - simply cannot fathom how something as exquisite as the universe of thought and feeling inside us can vanish into nothingness.
Even if we understand that dying is the token of our existential luckiness, even if we understand that we are borrowed stardust, bound to be returned to the universe that made it - a universe itself slouching toward nothingness as its stars are slowly burning out their energy to leave a cold austere darkness of pure spacetime - this understanding blurs into an anxious disembodied abstraction as the body slouches toward dissolution. Animated by electrical impulses and temporal interactions of matter, our finite minds simply cannot grasp a timeless and infinite inanimacy - a void beyond being.
Pillars of Creation, Eagle Nebula, Messier 16
Even Walt Whitman, who could hold such multitudes of contradiction, could not grasp the void. “I will make poems of my body and of mortality,” he vowed as a young man as he reverenced our shared materiality in his timeless declamation that “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” It was easy, from the shimmering platform of his prime, to look forward to becoming “the uncut hair of graves” upon returning his own atoms to the grassy ground one day.
But then, when that day loomed near as he grew old and infirm, “the poet of the body and the poet of the soul” suddenly could not fathom the total disbanding of his atomic selfhood, suddenly came to “laugh at what you call dissolution.” And then he did dissolve, leaving us his immortal verses, verses penned when his particles sang with the electric cohesion of youth and of health, verses that traced with their fleshy finger the faint contour of an elemental truth: “What invigorates life invigorates death.”
I wish I could have given my grandmother, and given the dying Whitman, the infinitely invigorating "Mr g: A Novel About the Creation" (public library) by the poetic physicist Alan Lightman - a magical-realist serenade to science, coursing with symphonic truth about our search for meaning, our hunger for beauty, and what makes our tender, transient lives worth living.
Toward the end of the novel, Mr g watches, with heartache unknown in the Void predating the existence of universes and of life, an old woman on her deathbed, the film of her long and painful and beautiful life unspooling from the reel of memory, leaving her grief-stricken by its terminus, shuddering with defiant disbelief that this is all. “How can a creature of substance and mass fathom a thing without substance or mass?” wonders Mr g as he sorrows watching her succumb to the very laws he created. “How can a creature who will certainly die have an understanding of things that will exist forever?”
And then, as a faint smile washes across her face, she does die. Lightman writes: "At that moment, there were 3,147,740,103,497,276,498,750,208,327 atoms in her body. Of her total mass, 63.7 percent was oxygen, 21.0 percent carbon, 10.1 percent hydrogen, 2.6 percent nitrogen, 1.4 percent calcium, 1.1 percent phosphorous, plus a smattering of the ninety-odd other chemical elements created in stars.
In the cremation, her water evaporated. Her carbon and nitrogen combined with oxygen to make gaseous carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which floated skyward and mingled with the air. Most of her calcium and phosphorous baked into a reddish brown residue and scattered in soil and in wind.
But then we see that every atom belonging to her - or, rather, temporarily borrowed by her - truly does belong to everything and everyone, just as you and I are now inhaling the same oxygen atoms that once inflated Walt Whitman’s lungs with the lust for life: "Released from their temporary confinement, her atoms slowly spread out and diffused through the atmosphere. In sixty days’ time, they could be found in every handful of air on the planet. In one hundred days, some of her atoms, the vaporous water, had condensed into liquid and returned to the surface as rain, to be drunk and ingested by animals and plants. Some of her atoms were absorbed by light-utilizing organisms and transformed into tissues and tubules and leaves. Some were breathed in by oxygen creatures, incorporated into organs and bone.
In a passage evocative of the central sentiment in Ursula K. Le Guin’s spare, stunning poem “Kinship,” he adds: "Pregnant women ate animals and plants made of her atoms. A year later, babies contained some of her atoms… Several years after her death, millions of children contained some of her atoms. And their children would contain some of her atoms as well. Their minds contained part of her mind.
Will these millions of children, for generations upon future generations, know that some of their atoms cycled through this woman? It is not likely. Will they feel what she felt in her life, will their memories have flickering strokes of her memories, will they recall that moment long ago when she stood by the window, guilt ridden and confused, and watched as the tadr bird circled the cistern? No, it is not possible. Will they have some faint sense of her glimpse of the Void? No, it is not possible. It is not possible. But I will let them have their own brief glimpse of the Void, just at the moment they pass from living to dead, from animate to inanimate, from consciousness to that which has no consciousness. For a moment, they will understand infinity.
And the individual atoms, cycled through her body and then cycled through wind and water and soil, cycled through generations and generations of living creatures and minds, will repeat and connect and make a whole out of parts. Although without memory, they make a memory. Although impermanent, they make a permanence. Although scattered, they make a totality."
Here we are, you and me, Walt and Alan, my grandmother who is and my grandfather who is no more - each of us a trembling totality, made of particles both absolutely vulnerable and absolutely indestructible, hungering for absolutes in a universe of relatives, hungering for permanence in a universe of ceaseless change, famished for meaning, for beauty, for emblems of existence. Out of these hungers, out of these contradictions, we make everything that invigorates life with aliveness: our art and our music, our poems and our mathematics, our novels and our loves."
"Real Courage..."
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
~ "Harper Lee", "To Kill a Mockingbird"
"Stop Believing"
"Stop Believing"
by Jeff Thomas
"In 1776, Thomas Jefferson was asked to create a draft for a founding document for what was to become the United States. In his second paragraph, he said. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." So firm was the vision of America’s founding fathers that this statement represented their collective belief that the twenty-eight signatories accepted it without any change in wording.
Could the same be said today? Do Americans possess a collective belief today? Do Americans perceive the word "rights" collectively? How about "liberty?" Would a random sampling of Americans generate the same definition of such words? Or, considering that most Americans who are unable to answer such simple questions as, "What state is New Your City in," how many Americans would respond to a request to define these words with no more than a blank stare?
But why should this be? Only a generation or two ago, Americans enjoyed educational standards that were exemplary in the world. Yet, today, it’s universally accepted that Americans have been dramatically "dumbed-down" to such an extent that a majority of high school graduates are not even proficient in simple math and grammar skills. More worrisome is the fact that the basic beliefs of Americans have been transformed from relative certainty to being both arbitrary and confused. Let’s look at a few of these:
Religious faith: Most people imagine that they possess a basic understanding of right and wrong. Yet Americans often readily excuse Muslims for crimes against women, as they are merely "practicing their religion." Similarly, rap artists can be forgiven for misogyny, as their endorsement of abuse is classified as "cultural." Therefore, religious "conviction" actually becomes flexible depending upon whom it applies to.
Further, although roughly three-quarters of Americans see themselves as Christians, merely identifying oneself as a Christian may be sufficient to be accused of being antisemitic or racist. No logic is needed to explain this accusation; to be accused is to be guilty.
Family: For decades, welfare has helped to eliminate marriage, as a woman receives more welfare if there is no man present. During the COVID pandemic, parents discovered that their children are being indoctrinated by schools in ways parents never approved. Further, they were routinely told that the schools had greater authority over choice of information than parents. Parents are responsible for paying the expenses of the child, but the school is responsible for deciding what the child believes.
Biology: Here, belief becomes even more confused. Americans are told that men can be women and vice versa. All that’s required is to "identify" as the opposite gender, and it becomes an accepted fact. But it doesn’t stop there. There are no longer two genders; there are scores of them – so many that no one can remember them all, yet young people are continually fearful that they may refer to one of their classmates as one gender, mistaking the classmate’s self-perception and inviting shame from other classmates. LBGTQ+ has become a nightmare of confusion – an ever-morphing labyrinth that no one can get correct at this point.
Equality: Possibly one of the loftiest of beliefs is that of equality. Yes, we are all different in countless ways, but the concept of equality suggests that all people should have equal opportunity. It’s then up to the individual what he does with that opportunity. But equity inserts the word "fair." In practice, this has come to mean that, to be fair, we must ignore equality and embrace preference and prejudice.
Those with darker skin must receive greater entitlement, and those with lighter skin must experience shame. Those who are male must be diminished socially unless they identify as women, in which case, they may enjoy an advantage in sporting competitions. Those who are from a racial or ethnic minority must be given preference or even sole access to designated job opportunities. As George Orwell famously stated in his book "Animal Farm", "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
So, what’s happening here? Is it simply that people are questioning traditional beliefs more than before? Are they becoming more open-minded and willing to consider alternative perceptions? Well, no. If that were true, then those who held a conventional view would not be shamed by those who did not. Students who defend conventional beliefs are expelled from their schools. Employees who defend conventional beliefs have been fired from their jobs merely for thinking "incorrect" thoughts. Those who decide not to get vaxxed can expect to have their basic rights removed.
There is a concerted movement, led by the media but supported by much of the public, to question conventional beliefs and eliminate them. So, is there a new set of beliefs that are meant to supplant the old beliefs? Well, not really. Last week, there were 52 genders; this week, there are 74. How about next week?
At this point, the average individual, try as he may (I hope that’s an acceptable pronoun), is likely to say, "Jeez, I don’t know what to believe anymore." And there we have it… the entire point of the re-education of belief. The point is to create such a level of confusion that people not only cease to voice their beliefs but eventually do away with their beliefs, agreeing with whatever they’re told to believe… for the moment. In doing so, a compliant populace is created. If totalitarian rule is to be accomplished, people must, above all, be compliant. They must willingly (and immediately) agree with whatever belief is being foisted upon them.
But for what purpose? Well, without belief, the individual is, in fact, not an individual. He is merely a useful tool of the state. Let that thought sink in a bit. This is the point at which it becomes necessary to step back and take in the big picture. When any state has reached the point that it grooms its people to cease to have beliefs, it has already gone far beyond the point of validity.
At such a point, the populace is faced with a very unpleasant choice of possible ways forward: The first is to rebel against the state in some form. The second is to bail out – to leave one’s country in hopes of finding greener pastures elsewhere. If both of these choices are too daunting to consider, there is a third choice. Submit."