StatCounter

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

"Return of Kabuki – If We Let It"

"Return of Kabuki – If We Let It"
by Eric Peters

"To understand why the Face Diapers are coming back it is necessary to understand why they appeared in the first place. More precisely, why they were forced onto faces. Last year around this time, it was necessary to create the image of a “pandemic” and more than that, the image of near-universal agreement that there was a “pandemic.” Both were achieved by forcing practically everyone to walk around with a thing around their faces formerly seen only on the faces of the mentally ill – outside of surgical suites. It gave the visual of a national Hantavirus ward, sans the Hantavirus.

And of course, sans the bodies stacking up like cordwood. “The cases! The cases!” were stacked up instead.
The problem with that was – and remains – that there are still a lot of people who can distinguish between a “case” and a corpse. These people could see that the bodies weren’t stacking up like cordwood, that hospitals were not overflowing with dying supplicants.

They also knew – as in knowledge, a thing distinct from belief, as in religion – that if they weren’t sick, they couldn’t transmit sickness and that it is sick (in the head) to walk around with a rag over their faces pretending to be sick or pretending to be in dread of sickness or because others are crippled by hypochondria – an obsessive fixation on and fear of getting sick.
They also knew that even if they did get this putative sickness, unless they were over 70 and not in good health, they stood a 99.8 percent chance of not dying.

To live – and look – as if they were over 70 and not in good health made no sense to them. It would be like a not-handicapped person using a cane or a competent driver limiting his driving to no faster than 25 MPH and only down to the corner store and back because some old people can’t see very well anymore and they lack the skills to competently drive 75 on the highway.

In addition, they also knew – once again, as opposed to believing – that wrapping a dirty old bandana around their faces doesn’t impede viral particles any more than a chain link fence thwarts mosquitos – and for that matter, neither does the “mask” that most of the population has been wearing, these things being dust masks of the sort used by people on construction sites and even if of the N95 variety, poorly fitted or fiddled with by fingers all day long – and after all day long suffused with schnott and far more disgusting than palliative.

These people, if given the free choice, would choose not to perform this sick kabuki – it being disgusting and absurd – and by not performing it, the sight of them would have prevented the image of a “pandemic” and the appearance of near-universal belief in the existence of one – each reinforcing the other – from ever having successfully implanted.

Which would have thwarted all of the evil impositions visited upon the people of this country, most especially little kids – who (unlike some adults) are more easily terrorized and traumatized and also much more helpless, in that they have to do what the adults tell them to do. Thus they were denied the usual childhood normalcy of friends and school, “locked down” like lepers and taught by the sick adults around them to regard others as lepers. The damage done in this regard is nothing shy of catastrophic and will take years to undo, if it ever is undone.
Some of the more suggestible would of course have Diapered up, regardless. But the sight of lots of faces – and no bodies stacking up – would have tempered the fear of many of these, who probably would have removed their Diapers, too.

None of that could be tolerated. It is why Diapers were “mandated.” And it is why Diapers are about to be “mandated” again – and already have been, in places like Los Angeles and St. Louis.

This time, because there are lots of people who know that the “vaccines” being pushed on them are – like the Face Diapers – of dubious value (people who have taken them are still getting sick) as well as known to be more dangerous than any other “vaccine” ever allowed into general circulation, having already caused thousands of deaths as well as thousands of serious complications and who knows what else in the months and years to come.

They know the “vaccine” pushers have an enormous profit motive and they know the “vaccine” manufacturers are legally immunized from the consequences of any harms their “vaccines” cause. They are rightly cautious on account of all of that and rightly suspicious of the used car salesman/time-share condo hard-sell. They are also sick of the lip-snarling and threats – increasingly overt – that they’d better roll up their sleeves, or else. It makes a thinking person wonder what these drug pushers are up to.

Thus, millions of prudent, sensible people have not rolled up their sleeves – and so, the Diapers are to be re-imposed. As a punishment – and as a cudgel.

The punishment is obvious. Most people loathe being made to walk around – and go to work – with a disgusting and degrading rag over their faces. The resumed wearing thereof – and accompanying restrictions – will be the “incentive” used to coerce the rolling-up of sleeves. The renewed social pressure of seeing everyone, almost, wearing the disgusting, degrading things will be deployed to demoralize and thus, defeat, the populace by wearing them down. But there is a new element, this time.
The “vaccinated” will also be forced to Diaper Up and this will infuriate them. They will regard – they are being told to regard – those who have not rolled up their sleeves as the source of their woes and of their sickness (it does not occur to them, apparently, to ask why they are still getting sick if the “vaccine” works).

They are being egged-on by the TeeVee and horrid people like the governor of Alabama and the mayor of New York and of course, above them all, the horrible little docktor who stands at the apex of all of this, to loathe and despise the people who have not rolled up their sleeves. The Diapered-vaccinated will demand “action.” And “action” they will get. It is a pogrom in the making.

We are standing precariously on the razor’s edge. Things could go either way. They will go the sane way if enough people simply refuse to kabuki this time. The last time, it was perhaps understandable why they kabuki’d. They didn’t know. They may have been afraid. Many just didn’t want to raise a fuss and figured if they didn’t this would pass.
It will be forever, if they kabuki this time.

It cannot be overstated. Do not put on a Face Diaper this time. Refuse to do it and don’t be ashamed to not do it. Do not give in to the fear – or the pressure. Even at the risk of your job. Your job will not matter if they succeed. Arizona Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins understands this. He has announced his job is not worth his rights – or his life: “Never thought I would say this, but being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the NFL.”

And if we succeed, there will always be another job – one that doesn’t require abominable obedience rituals as the price of employment.

Not one inch. Give no ground on this. Stop deferring to other people’s hystericized feelings. Refuse to be cowed by their neurotic assertions about the harms not being caused. Insist on your right to not be harmed for the sake of their fears. The time for tolerance is ended. Enough is enough. This madness has got to stop. We have it in our power to stop it. We can have our lives back – if we don’t let them take them away. By refusing, this time, to put the god-damned thing on."

The Daily "Near You?"

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Thanks for stopping by!

Chet Raymo, “Thinking About Thinking”

“Thinking About Thinking”
by Chet Raymo

“It is not easy to live in that continuous awareness of things which alone is true living," wrote the naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch. And, of course, he was right. Our brains are separated from the world by a permeable membrane. Attention flows outwards. Sense impressions flow inwards. Of this two-way traffic- this awareness- we create a soul.

At this moment, as I sit at my desk on a hillside in the west of Ireland, I try to be aware. Sunlight streams across my computer keyboard; eight minutes ago these photons were on the surface of the sun. A Pholcus phalangioides spider spins its web under the shelf above the desk; I touch the web with a pencil point and the spider does a dervish dance. Outside the window, clouds scud in from the Atlantic; there will be rain in the afternoon.

Continuous awareness: It can be exhausting. Which is why, I suppose, we sometimes wish for the mind to go blank, for the windows of the soul to close, for darkness to fall. Fortunately, the one thing we don't have to attend to is awareness itself. The brain does its thing without the least bit of conscious control on our part. And a good thing, too; if we had to attend to what is going on in the brain when we attend to the world, we'd... We'd go nuts.

Nothing we know about in the universe approaches the complexity of the human brain. What is it? A vast spider web of neurons, cells with a thousand octopuslike arms, called dendrites. The dendrites reach out and make contact at their tips with the dendrites of other cells, at junctions called synapses. A hundred billion neurons in the human brain, with an average of 1,000 dendrites each. A hundred trillion octopus arms touching like fingertips, and each synapse exquisitely controlled by the cells themselves, strengthening or weakening the contact, building webs of interlinked cells that are knowledge, memory, consciousness- self.

A hundred billion neurons. That's more brain cells than there are grains of salt in 1,000 one-pound boxes of salt. A roomful of salt grains, floor to ceiling. Each in contact with hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of others. The contacts flickering with variable strength. Continuously. Unconsciously. Never ceasing. Remembering. Forgetting. Feeling joy. Feeling pain. Thinking. Speaking. Lifting a foot, moving it forward, putting it down again. Flickering. A hundred trillion flickering synapses. Just thinking about it is exhausting.

Neuroscientists are busy trying to figure it all out. Some folks would say that bringing the scrutiny of science to bear upon the human soul is the height of presumption. Others would say that the more we learn about what makes our brains tick, the more we stand in awe at the mystery of soul.

The sheer complexity of the human brain makes any adequate description a daunting task. Which is why some neuroscientists choose to work with simpler organisms- sea snails, for example- to get a grip on the basic structure and chemistry. In recent years, new scanning technologies enable neuroscientists to watch live human brains at work. Active neural regions flicker on the screens of computer monitors as subjects think, speak, recite poems, do math. Continuous awareness, displayed on the screen of a scanning monitor, can look like a grass fire exploding across a prairie.

Still other scientists attempt to model the brain in silicon, building electronic circuits called neural networks that mimic the activity of the brain as it creates constantly changing webs of neurons. So far, no electronic network begins to approach the complexity of the human brain, but the time is not far off when silicon brains will rival brains of flesh and blood. Just trying to make it happen teaches us a lot about how human brains work.

Perhaps the most exciting research is that of the scientists who study the biochemistry of neurons: How do the cells regulate synaptic connections to build new neural webs? One big surprise is just how much of the "thinking" of neurons is done by the dendrites, those hundreds of spidery arms that connect neurons to one another. DNA in a neuron's nucleus sends messenger RNA down along the dendrites to active synapses, where they are translated into proteins that regulate the strength of synaptic connections. Tiny protein factories in the dendrites are apparently key to learning and memory. Once the regulation of these protein factories is understood, drugs that ameliorate some kinds of hereditary mental retardation might be possible. As will drugs that help all of us to learn and remember. Are we ready for "smart" pills? Memory pills?

What all this amounts to is awareness of awareness. For the first time in the history of consciousness, the machinery of awareness has been turned upon itself. As neuroscientists have discovered, thinking about thinking is not easy. Thank goodness we don't have to think about thinking to think.”

"Reality Avoidance"

"Reality Avoidance"
by Morris Berman

"It’s quite amazing how the news is endlessly about filler, which is what I call it. Very little of this has anything to do with reality, which the Mainstream Media and the American people avoid like the plague. What then is real?

1. The empire is in decline; every day, life here gets a little bit worse; all our institutions are corrupt to varying degrees; and there is no turning this situation around.

2. A crucial factor in this decline and irreversibility is the low level of intelligence of the American people. Americans are not only dumb; they are positively antagonistic toward the life of the mind.

3. Relations of power and money determine practically everything. The 3 wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 50% of the population, and this tendency will get worse over time.

4. The value system of the country, and its citizens, is fundamentally wrong-headed. It amounts to little more than hustling, selfishness, narcissism, and a blatant disregard for anyone but oneself. There is a kind of cruelty, or violence, deep in the American soul; many foreign observers and writers have commented on this. Americans are bitter, depressed, and angry, and the country offers very little by way of community or empathy.

5. Along with this is the support of meaningless wars and imperial adventures on the part of most of the population. That we drone-murder unarmed civilians on a weekly basis is barely on the radar screen of the American mind. In essence, the nation has evolved into a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by mindless millions.

Most Americans hide from these depressing, even horrific, realities by what passes for ‘the news’, but also by means of alcohol, opioids, TV, cellphones, suicide, prescription drugs, workaholism, and spectator sports, to name but a few. This stuffing of the Void is probably our primary activity. In a word, we are eating ourselves alive, and only a tiny fraction of the population recognizes this."
"There is only one basic human right, 
the right to do as you damn well please.
And with it comes the only basic human duty,
 the duty to take the consequences."
- P. J. O'Rourke

"How It Really Is"

"Mission Disaster"

"Mission Disaster"
By Bill Bonner

NORMANDY, FRANCE – "We’re exploring the Brave New World ahead. In preview, we don’t think you’re going to like it. You’ll recall that a free economy does what individuals, families, businesses, and investors want it to do. It responds to these billions of different private purposes, aggregating them into the “economy” that we see. A “mission economy” is a different thing. It does what it is told – by the elite few who control the government. Inevitably, the mission is a disaster.

Big and Bold: In his many speeches in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler laid out a “big and bold mission” for Germany. He was prefiguring economist Mariana Mazzucato (author of "Mission Economy") – along with le president de la France, Emmanuel Macron… the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde… as well as The Atlantic editor David Frum…and assorted members of the U.S. Democratic Party – by nearly a century.

Hitler made it clear that the purpose of an economy was to serve the interests, not of the individual, but of “the Volk,” whose collective desires were channeled by Nazi Party chiefs, the Reich, and most importantly, himself. The economy thus became the servant of the elite who controlled the German government… and of their “mission.”

Of course, Hitler was far from alone. Earlier in the century, the Soviets had put their economy to work on a collective mission, too – to destroy capitalism and build a workers’ paradise on the debris. That worked about as well… but with an even higher body count. Yet, comparing anybody with Hitler… or any other government program with his monstrous mission… is considered not just bad taste, but a sin worthy of de-platforming or defenestration.

And as far as we know, neither Ms. Mazzucato, Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden, or Christine Lagarde have begun to grow a mustache. The only thing they have in common with the Fuhrer is an idea. That is the idea we were wondering about as we sat in a café in Paris on Saturday…

False God: Nature Magazine lauded Ms. Mazzucato’s book, "Mission Economy," because it “put public purpose first.” The problem with the “public purpose” is, however, that it is not of the public’s choosing. Did the German public see its mission as invading Poland, the Soviet Union, France, Greece, and North Africa? Did the Russians want 70 years of crushing Soviet central planning? Did Americans really want to spend 20 years and $2.3 trillion getting their butts kicked in Afghanistan?

And isn’t that the Big Bamboozle… the false god who stabs us in the back, over and over…? The Bonaparte who rallies his troops on the banks of the Rhine… or the Hitler on the banks of the Oder… for a great campaign of conquest? Isn’t that the Vladimir, the Che, the Hugo, or the Mao who reorganize society completely (for the benefit of the people, of course)? Or the Oliver Cromwell, Pope Urban, or Osama bin Laden… who make it their mission to destroy the infidels… and be done with the non-believers?

And isn’t it the darkness settling over the planet once again… its shrouds laid out by the woke and the witless… who are ready to depress, deport, and de-platform anyone who gets in their way?

New Contagion: Getting in their way now are the unvaccinated. And here, The New York Times snuffs a few more candles: "As Virus Cases Rise, Another Contagion Spreads Among the Vaccinated: Anger". "As coronavirus cases resurge across the country, many inoculated Americans are losing patience with vaccine holdouts who, they say, are neglecting a civic duty or clinging to conspiracy theories and misinformation even as new patients arrive in emergency rooms and the nation renews mask advisories.

The country seemed to be exiting the pandemic; barely a month ago, a sense of celebration was palpable. Now many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaccinated children and worry that they are at risk themselves for breakthrough infections. Rising case rates are upending plans for school and workplace reopenings, and threatening another wave of infections that may overwhelm hospitals in many communities."

Yes, here they are again – good versus evil. The obedient people take their medicine. And the hold-outs… the non-conformists… do not. They are beyond the pale… beyond reason… pariahs… outcasts… to be shunned and dissed. Tomorrow, what happens to dissenters when the economy gets into mission mode. Stay tuned…"

"Clear Focus Ambient Space Music for Concentration - Isochronic Tones"

"Clear Focus Ambient Space Music for Concentration - 
Isochronic Tones"
by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

"Ambient electronic space music with low-intensity beta and alpha wave tones for clear focus. Headphones are NOT required for this video. You can listen to this track with your eyes open while studying, reading or doing other activities which require a good level of concentration.

This is a brainwave entrainment music track using isochronic tones combined with music. The music has also been embedded with amplitude entrainment effects, where the music is subtly distorted and vibrates in unison with the same frequency of the isochronic tones. This helps to add further strength to the entrainment effect. If brainwave entrainment is a new concept for you, there is some information about it here: https://www.mindamend.com/
This works, as simple as that, and might give you an understanding edge in surviving what's happening, which will get much, much worse. There is no escape. Prepare yourself... - CP

"The Danger of Forgetting the Lessons of the Past"

"The Danger of Forgetting the Lessons of the Past"
By Bill Bonner

"We refer to Planet Earth, 2021. It is not even safe for cats! Think of all we’ve discovered. Over many, many centuries… in hundreds of very disturbing and illuminating real-world experiments… and with millions of people suffering lives of poverty and early death to carry them out… we must have learned something.

What exactly? That you can’t get rich by spending more than you earn. That you can’t just “print” fake money without distorting and destroying the real economy. That if you want to be prosperous, you must respect property rights and contracts… and keep taxes, inflation, and government under control…That capitalism – which is really nothing more than accumulated experiments condensed into a vernacular of rules, customs, and institutions – works. Central planning, on the other hand – with major capital allocation and distribution decisions made by people with no “skin in the game” – does not. When you forget these basic lessons, you risk destabilizing your society and setting off a runaway chaos that makes you poorer and less safe.

Painful Lessons: But despite their treasure of experience and insight, people try hard to forget. And in last month’s issue of The Bonner-Denning Letter, our coauthor Dan Denning described a world gripped by a major bout of amnesia. [Paid up Bonner-Denning Letter subscribers can catch up here.  To subscribe, click here.] 

It has forgotten where it came from and how it got to where it is. And now, it is condemned to relearn thousands of years’ worth of painful lessons. Its money is fake. Its interest rates are determined by bureaucrats and experts, not by buyers and sellers of credit. Its governments spend far more than they can afford. Its leading economists and politicians live in a fantasy world, where they think they can command markets to do whatever they please. And its world-improvers are bound and determined to remake our whole society according to their own claptrap ideas.

Prepare to suffer! Your earnings (both from selling your time and saving your money) will be repressed, says Dan. Your costs, meanwhile, will rise mercilessly.

Clumsy Ideologues: Want to know what it might be like? Just look at Venezuela. Once the richest people of Latin America, desperate Venezuelans have been reduced to gnawing on cats and dogs, by some accounts. The Miami Herald reports: "In the city’s dump, more evidence of hunger-driven desperation: dismembered dogs, cats, donkeys, horses and pigeons have been found since last year, all skinned or plucked, with signs of having been eaten, according to the city’s garbage teams. “Sometimes we only find the animal’s heads, guts and legs. We used to see this very little in the past, but this practice is now out of control and on the rise,” said Robert Linares, who works in waste disposal at the dump for the city."

And now… despite the compiled wisdom of generations’ worth of trial and error… and the example of Caracas, right in front of our eyes… much of the modern, developed world seems to want to re-run the experiment.

Coming soon, to garbage dumps near you, is more proof of what we know already – that money and economies are too delicate to be manhandled by clumsy ideologues. Yes, we are a long way from feline fricassée in the U.S. But looking ahead, we may want to begin sharing recipes."

"Of All Tyrannies..."

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. "
- C.S. Lewis

Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 7/28/21

Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/28/21:
"Today Is FED Day, And The Big Secret 
That You Are Not Supposed To Know"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/28/21:
"Freefall: The FED To Maintain Emergency 
Monetary Policy For Foreseeable Future"

“The Paradox Of Time”

“The Paradox Of Time”

“Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go; 
Or else, were this not so, 
What need to chain the hours, 
For Youth were always ours? 

Time goes, you say? – ah no! 
Ours is the eyes’ deceit 
Of men whose flying feet 
Lead through some landscape low; 
We pass, and think we see 
The earth’s fixed surface flee - 
Alas, Time stays, – we go! 

Once in the days of old, 
Your locks were curling gold, 
And mine had shamed the crow. 
Now, in the self-same stage, 
We’ve reached the silver age; 
Time goes, you say? – ah no! 

Once, when my voice was strong, 
I filled the woods with song 
To praise your ‘rose’ and ‘snow’; 
My bird, that sang, is dead; 
Where are your roses fled? 
Alas, Time stays, – we go! 

See, in what traversed ways, 
What backward Fate delays 
The hopes we used to know; 
Where are our old desires? 
Ah, where those vanished fires? 
Time goes, you say? – ah no! 

How far, how far, O Sweet, 
The past behind our feet 
Lies in the even-glow! 
Now, on the forward way, 
Let us fold hands, and pray; 
Alas, Time stays, – we go!”

- Henry Austin Dobson
“Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen? To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed? But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?”
- Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, “The X-Files”

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"; "Sounds Of Silence"; "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"
Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds Of Silence", 1966
Simon & Garfunkel, "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Greg Hunter, "Complete Collapse of Everything"

"Complete Collapse of Everything"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Analyst, financial writer and professional trader Rick Ackerman points out that you cannot underestimate the extreme amount of debt and money printing propping up the economy. Ackerman thinks, “It’s an inflationary bubble, and that’s why I think it’s going to bust. I think it’s going to last as long as the bull market lasts. Companies go out and borrow money to buy back their own shares. It feels like a perpetual motion as far as a bull market in stocks, but even that ends. It’s created a bubble, and bubbles only pop.”

Ackerman warns, “The inflationary juggernaut is going to eventually unwind. The biggest one is a derivatives market with a conservatively estimated value of $2 quadrillion. Any way you cut it, it’s probably around ten times the size of trade in goods and services. So, the question is why do you need a financial machine of that size to support real goods and services that is only 10% of that? The obvious answer to that is because the business of planet earth is not making things and selling services, it’s shuffling paper. So, we’ve leveraged everything to death, and where does that go? Eventually, it has to collapse. When it collapses and we wipe quadrillions of dollars of phony inflated financial wealth off the books, what kind of inflation are we going to have then? It’s a complete collapse of everything, yes, everything.”

Ackerman contends other areas that will also collapse are “Social Security, pension funds and health care.” Ackerman goes on to say when it comes to pensions, for example, like the bankrupt pensions from the State of Illinois, Ackerman says, “You are not talking about inflating financial assets. You are talking about sending out millions of checks every month to every single State of Illinois employee. That truly is money from trees. You’ve got to ask yourself, how long can that go on? That’s real money. That’s not bull twaddle money pumping up stocks. It’s checks being mailed out every month. When Illinois gets bailed out, you’re going to have another 22 states in almost as bad of shape coming with their hands out saying where’s ours? It can’t happen. It can’t happen politically, it can’t happen monetarily, it simply just can’t happen. So, what you have in the pension system, and this applies to Social Security too, you have this enormous deflator. It basically means we are not going to get paid all the benefits that we paid into.”

What should the common person invest in? Ackerman says, “Take the things everyone hates, and set one against the other. I like Treasury bonds (cash) and gold. Any disaster scenario or even a bullish scenario is not going to hit gold and bonds both. In all scenarios, it’s hard to see a way for both of those to crash, and I think you have good upside potential with gold and Treasuries going up at the same time. You have to have bullion in your portfolio I think.” In short, not losing in a severe market meltdown is a big win when everybody else is being destroyed. Ackerman likes silver, too."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with analyst
Rick Ackerman, who is a professional trader famous for “Ricks Picks.”

"Economic Growth is Completely Fake - Imminent Collapse Coming"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, PM 7/27/21:
"Economic Growth is Completely Fake - 
Imminent Collapse Coming"
"Things are very precarious in this fake market right now. Bad news does not mean a thing anymore. People need to get ready because the stock market cannot continue at the pace that is going. They collapse is imminent. I am in Laguna Niguel California right now."

Gerald Celente, "The Trends Journal": "Idiot's Delight - Duh! I do what they tell me."

Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, "The Trends Journal":
"Idiot's Delight - Duh! I do what they tell me."
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times ahead."

"Financial Experts Are Clueless As US Declines Rapidly; Economy Will Shut Down"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 7/27/21:
"Financial Experts Are Clueless As US Declines Rapidly; 
Economy Will Shut Down"

Musical Interlude: Cesar Benito, “Tema de Sira”

Full screen recommended.
Cesar Benito, “Tema de Sira”

"Memories, important yesterdays, were once todays.
Treasure and notice today."
- Gloria Gaither

"A Look to the Heavens"

“First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak.
From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree. Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.”

"Huxley vs. Orwell"

"Huxley vs. Orwell"
by Neil Postman

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one...
   

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism... 


Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance...

   
Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy...

   
As Huxley remarked in 'Brave New World Revisited', the civil libertarians and the rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In '1984,' Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In 'Brave New World,' they are controlled by inflicting pleasure...


In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."
Huxley was quite obviously correct...

"In Three Words..."

 

The Poet: David Wagoner, "Getting There"

"Getting There"

"You take a final step and, look, suddenly
You're there. You've arrived
At the one place all your drudgery was aimed for:
This common ground
Where you stretch out, pressing your cheek to sandstone.

What did you want to be?
You'll remember soon.
You feel like tinder under a burning glass,
A luminous point of change.
The sky is pulsing against the cracked horizon,
Holding it firm till the arrival of stars
In time with your heartbeats.
Like wind etching rock, you've made a lasting impression
On the self you were,
By having come all this way through all this welter
Under your own power,
Though your traces on a map would make an unpromising
Meandering lifeline.

What have you learned so far? You'll find out later,
Telling it haltingly like a dream,
That lost traveler's dream under the last hill
Where through the night you'll take your time out of mind
To unburden yourself
Of elements along elementary paths
By the break of morning.

You've earned this worn-down, hard, incredible sight
Called Here and Now.
Now, what you make of it means everything,
Means starting over:
The life in your hands is neither here nor there
But getting there,
So you're standing again and breathing, beginning another
Journey without regret
Forever, being your own unpeaceable kingdom,
The end of endings."

~ David Wagoner

The Daily "Near You?"

Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

“Your Whole Life Is Borrowed Time”

“Your Whole Life Is Borrowed Time”
by David Cain

“I can’t remember if this is a real movie plot, or if I just want it to be. A man with a boring job is on his way to work when his attention is caught by some unexpected detail in his otherwise familiar routine – a peculiar insect, a pattern in the concrete, a cryptic slogan on a t-shirt. This detail seems extremely significant to him, but he doesn’t know why.

The strange sight wakes him up from the autopilot-mode by which he has been living his life. He is suddenly aware, for the first time, how complex and interesting his local high street is, and he stops to take it in. Around him pass hundreds of distinctly different people, each a unique individual, driven by some unseen personal motivation. Shops are filled with thousands of trinkets, tools, snacks, and books. Delivery trucks roll past, music plays from somewhere, buildings rise above him. The scene is miraculous to him.

As he surveys the street, he witnesses something surreal: another version of himself is walking away from him, towards his usual bus stop, evidently not having had this same moment of self-awareness. For reasons he is never told, at that moment his life had apparently split in two. However, his double does not make it onto the bus: as he waits, an air conditioning unit falls from a window above, killing him instantly. In a very unexpected and unstorylike way, his life ends.

The man has no idea what has happened, and never receives an explanation. The authorities never identify the person beneath the air conditioner, and the man never tells anyone what he witnessed because nobody would ever believe it. There is nothing to do but carry on with his life. But he is a changed man.

Every morning he is amazed to find another whole day awaiting him. Every meal, every phone call, every greeting from his doorman feels like an undeserved gift, as though he’d mistakenly been given the honeymoon suite at a hotel. He feels grateful even for his problems.

None of the details of his life have changed, except one thing. He now lives with an awareness that he was never truly entitled to be alive; he just happened to be, and still is. His ability to breathe, see, feel, and make choices now seems to him like an unearned, arbitrary status- one that he may freely enjoy, but which can be revoked at any time without explanation. He hopes he never loses this sense that his life is essentially a bonus round, consisting entirely of borrowed time, not just from the day of his strange experience, but from the beginning.
I once attended a networking event for entrepreneurs, in Toronto. The host had booked a private room beneath a restaurant in Greektown. I was early, so I spent some time in a nearby park, then checked out the shops and restaurants on Danforth Avenue. I stopped in front of a church to tie my shoe. I remember being nervous about meeting a bunch of new people. Of course, it went fine and I had a good time. I had interesting conversations with entrepreneurs in all sorts of spaces: fitness, web development, beard grooming, venture capital. The food was excellent.

The experience was distant enough from my normal routine that, during the event, I was struck by how easily we find ourselves in moments we could not have pictured. For all the certainty we feel when we plan for (or ruminate about) the future, life unfolds in ways that are ultimately unpredictable. We just end up places. Two weeks after that event, a deranged man with a gun walked down the same stretch of Danforth Avenue and shot fourteen people at random, then shot himself.

I don’t mean to sound dramatic. It wasn’t a close call, at least for me. I’m sure a hundred thousand people walked down that stretch of road in the weeks surrounding the incident. There are people who literally dodged the bullets. But when I watched videos of eye-witness accounts, including some in front of the church where I tied my shoes and the corner where I nervously loitered, it gave me a vital bit of perspective: I happen to be alive, and there’s no cosmic law entitling me to that status. Being alive is just happenstance, and not one more day of it is guaranteed.

This thought instantly relieved me of any angst over that particular day’s troubles: technical issues on my website, an unexpected major expense, an acute sense that I’m getting old. Those problems remained, and they are real problems. But they immediately became only relatively important. They lost their sense of absolute importance. In fact, any personal problem I could think of now seemed to be a small, aesthetic complaint about the grand, mysterious gift of being randomly, unfairly alive that day.

This perspective made it easy to tackle the problems I could, and live at peace with the others, all with a breezy sense that this is just a bonus round anyway. Despite the awful news, it was a productive and enjoyable day, and I would like to live all my days that way. That was a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the breezy feeling now comes and goes – too many years of seeing my latest dilemma as absolutely important, rather than just relatively important.

This “I could be dead” perspective isn’t a sentimental thinking exercise. I think it’s a more honest view of our ever-tentative situation, one that respects the impersonal, flippant way in which fate handles our lives. The shooting just forced me to see my day in that way, but a random crime is only one of many possible (and still possible) endings. There are always speeding cars, rare diseases, gas explosions, and treacherous stairwells. And none of these events, when they do happen, are negotiable.

The universe is not at all sentimental – aliveness is always going to be an arbitrary status that can be revoked at any time. No recourse, no due process.

Equally mysterious is that our lives began at all. As my favorite philosopher, Douglas Harding, tried to remind us before he died: “It’s the very last thing, isn’t it, that we feel grateful for: having happened. You know, you needn’t have happened. You needn’t have happened. But you did happen.”

And we needn’t still be happening. But we are. I suppose the trick is to remember that fact even in the throes of our worst moods and toughest dilemmas. Maybe I’ll get a reminder tattooed on my wrist, for whenever my complaints start to seem absolutely important: This is borrowed time, all of it. Would you rather give it back?”

"I Don't Pretend..."

“I don't pretend we have all the answers.
But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.”
- Arthur C. Clarke

Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 7/27/21

Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/27/21:
"The Economy Continues To FREEFALL... 
Stay On The Right Side Of This"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/27/21:
"Must Watch! The IMF Warns Again; 
Be Ready For Another Economic Shutdown"

"How It Really Is"

 

"America Is Only One Step Away From A South African-Style Social Implosion"

"America Is Only One Step Away From A 
South African-Style Social Implosion"
by Brandon Smith

"On the global news front I have been watching one event with special attention, mainly because it seems like almost no one else is – I am speaking of course about the social and economic collapse in South Africa that has been escalating over the past couple weeks. What is strange to me is that certain parallels between South Africa and the US are being summarily ignored. Basically, the South African situation is a more exaggerated version of what is happening in America, and we need to consider if it is merely a preview of future events as the extra financial protections in the US begin to fall away.

On the global news front I have been watching one event with special attention, mainly because it seems like almost no one else is – I am speaking of course about the social and economic collapse in South Africa that has been escalating over the past couple weeks. What is strange to me is that certain parallels between South Africa and the US are being summarily ignored.

Basically, the South African situation is a more exaggerated version of what is happening in America, and we need to consider if it is merely a preview of future events as the extra financial protections in the US begin to fall away.

Cultural Marxism And Social Unrest (The Reparations Con): South Africa’s government under the ANC (African National Congress) was already going full communist in 2018-2019 before the covid pandemic. Under proposed amendments to the constitution, they demanded that “reparations” be taken from white farmers in the form of land grabs, which would then be redistributed to black citizens. This is the classic critical race theory argument – That because colonialism once existed, all beneficiaries and their supposed descendants owe dues to the descendants of indigenous people who lost their lands. The problem is, only the descendants of WHITE colonists are required to pay dues.

This is exactly the same path that socialists/Marxists in the Democratic Party are pursuing in the US, with some states and cities demanding reparations for blacks be written into law because of slavery nearly 200 years ago. The reparations movement is tiny, but like all other social justice initiatives it is gaining power because politicians and corporations are supporting it artificially. Why? That’s easy: It’s all about divide and conquer.

I think my take on it is simplified, but I feel this needs to be said because CRT and social justice lunatics tend to over-complicate issues in order to distract from certain fundamental realities. Black and brown people invaded each other’s lands and enslaved their neighbors for thousands of years before white people ever showed up on the scene. White people were made slaved within certain civilizations for many centuries as well, and yes, it was just as bad for them as it was for black slaves in America. Slavery and colonialism has NEVER been relegated to only one race or ethnicity. This is historic fact.

But, that’s all forgotten in the bizarre justifications of critical race theorists. Why are white people the only people that are supposed to pay reparations when the whole world has been killing each other for land and resources since the beginning of recorded history?

Frankly, if your ancestors lost a bunch of land centuries ago to colonists, then perhaps they should have fought harder for it. You don’t get to suddenly wave your hand and magically claim it back centuries later by default through government enforced eminent domain just because your ancestors sucked at self defense. Go back in time and tell your great-great-great-grandparents to “Get Good.”

Of course, today’s communists don’t really fight for anything, at least not directly. I might respect them a little if they did. Rather, they loudly whine that they are “victims” even though they are not, and then demand they be given free stuff for life even though they never earned it. And, since free stuff has to be taken from somewhere, the people that have things are attacked through color of law even when they did nothing wrong and earned every cent they own.

Communists steal from others through government proxy and by claiming victim group status. They work hand-in-hand with the very politicians and corporate oligarchs they say they despise. The governments and corporations do it because they can use the Marxist mob as a social weapon to strike fear in their ideological adversaries (conservatives), and the SJWs do it because they can feed on the scraps from the big boy’s table and use government to forcefully redistribute wealth into their own pockets. It’s kind of a win-win, at least for a while. Eventually the low level commies get nailed to a wall or sent to a gulag when they are no longer useful, but that’s a tale for another time…

As international outrage developed over the proposed land confiscation mandates and accusations of reverse racism started to spread, the ANC dialed back their rhetoric and adjusted legislation to confiscate land that was “abandoned, unused or posed safety risks”. Let’s set aside the fact that these requirements are arbitrary and could still be abused by the government to take away land from white owners; for now we just need to acknowledge that racial tensions were high in a country which has been working hard to deal with its recent segregationist history. The social justice communists made things much worse, not better, as is always the case.

As we saw last summer with the $1 Billion in damages caused by the “mostly peaceful” BLM riots, racial conflict is an effective weapon for the elites to create chaos. After all, BLM received most of its initial funding through the Ford Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. They are a fabricated movement built around false critical race theory claims, but they are enough of a movement to enact violence on a nationwide scale.

Covid Lockdowns And Vaccine Totalitarianism: The South African government’s response to covid is brutal and ongoing. The lockdowns are some of the most strict in the world with curfews, zero gatherings indoors or outdoors, alcohol bans and restrictions on travel through certain areas. A large majority of the population has been blocked from participation in the normal economy. The public has been awaiting economic relief for over a year, but the hype and fear mongering around the “Delta variant” has dashed all hope. Lockdowns returned in full force in June.

There is NO EVIDENCE that the Delta Variant is as deadly or more deadly than the original iteration of covid, and covid’s overall IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) is a paltry 0.26% according to the CDC and other independent studies. Meaning, draconian lockdowns are still being implemented over a virus that 99.74% of people will easily survive.

Riots in Johannesburg and elsewhere erupted, with over 200 dead and billions in property damage and theft. In this case, it is hard to outright condemn the looting because the government continues to block citizens from earning a living in the name of stopping covid.
Full screen recommended.
This is on top of South Africa’s already high poverty level and the fact that, unlike the US with its world reserve currency, South Africa does not have the same ability to print stimulus checks from thin air to placate the masses and hide the damage.

Not surprisingly the ANC refuses to acknowledge that the primary cause of the riots has been their own lockdown policies. Instead, they have blamed the the crisis on the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court charges as the trigger. This may have added gasoline to the fire, but it was not the cause. When the government is actively sabotaging the ability of millions of people to work and feed their families the only other option left for most is theft, or revolution.

Supply chains in the country have been completely disrupted and the only retail outlets with stock are those protected by the military or those protected by business owners armed with guns and baseball bats. Only 6% of the population is allowed to own firearms under South Africa’s gun control bureaucracy and red tape. The government has a near monopoly on force and it is unlikely that the mobs will change much in terms of policy, but they do make life hell for the rest of the population.

The civil unrest in this region is, in my opinion, a preview of what is to come in the US and other western nations. We have already seen riots in France, Italy and other parts of the western world over legislation that would make the experimental mRNA vaccines mandatory through vaccine passports. I would point out that the liberty media has warned OVER AND OVER that governments would try to enforce vaccine passports and make vaccines mandatory. We were called “conspiracy theorists” for this; now we are proven right once again.

Covid laws will lead to unrest in the US, just as they have led to unrest in South Africa. The Biden Administration continues to push for total vaccination of Americans despite all science running contrary to his initiatives and claims. As I outlined in my article ‘Biden’s Vaccine Strike Force Plan Stinks Of Desperation’, the facts on covid do not support vaccine mandates or passports, and this is why around half the US population continues to defy the restrictions and refuses to take the jab. The only reason why medical tyranny has been beaten back in the US is because around 50% of US households are armed. We are not yet South Africa because of our gun rights, so be thankful for the millions of gun owners out there creating a deterrent to tyranny.

The goals of the establishment will remain, however. They are going to continue to ignore the fact that Covid’s death rate is a mere 0.26% of those with confirmed infections. They are going to continue to ignore the fact that natural immunity is a part of herd immunity. They are going to continue to ignore the fact that covid infections and deaths dropped off a cliff in January of 2021 well before the vaccines were rolled out in the US. And, they are going to continue to ignore the fact that the experimental mRNA vaccines have no long term testing to prove they are safe for humans.

The science is unimportant to them. Covid is only a tool for gaining control. They do not care about public safety in the slightest.

Economic Decline And The Dark Cloud Of Inflation: There are some differences between the US and South Africa in terms of motivations and economy, but the gap is not as wide and some might think. The US is exhibiting similar signs of decline in terms of poverty, small business closures and inflation.

South Africa’s unemployment rate and poverty rate appears much higher, but the US has the ability to hide real poverty through temporary stimulus measures, welfare programs and eviction moratoriums. When the covid checks run out and evictions return, we are going to see a massive spike in poverty levels in the US once again. Furthermore, core price inflation has hit 30 year highs due to trillions in money printing and dollar devaluation, along with struggling supply chains. For now, increased demand created by covid checks is giving the illusion that the economy is in recovery, but just as home sales are now plunging after a short term spike, so too will demand in most sectors of the economy.

This does not mean that prices will fall with demand, however. For example, lumber prices are in decline as demand lessens, but after rising by 300% in some areas they have a long way to go and will probably never go back to their pre-pandemic levels. We are now seeing the same dynamic happening in housing sales vs. house prices. When demand is falling but price inflation continues to rise or remains high, this is a sign of a stagflationary crisis. And if this is the case, then the US economy will falter dramatically in the coming months, leading to poverty levels similar to South Africa. Money printing is a temporary fix that leads to longer term disasters.

It is also only a matter of time before a covid variant (like the Delta variant) is used as an excuse to bring back lockdowns across the country. And make no mistake, they will attempt harsher and harsher mandates similar to those in South Africa in order to intimidate people into submitting to the jab and the passports. At this stage, the US government will have not only mass riots on their hands, but also an armed rebellion. Undoubtedly, supply chains will crash if they have not already been disrupted by lockdowns or a related financial crisis.

The question at that point will be this: Who will rebuild? If it’s the elites and the covid cult, then freedom will disappear forever. If it’s liberty minded people, then there might be a chance to bring our civilization back from the brink. Everything depends on who is left standing after the chaos subsides.

South Africa is a warning to Americans: Do not get too comfortable. Do not get complacent. Be ready for the next shoe to drop. Prepare accordingly, and understand that a fight is coming. The establishment will place its bets that the unrest and economic disaster will create manufactured consent. They believe that the public will be sufficiently desperate and will beg for totalitarianism as a solution. Do not find yourself among the desperate, and if you can, organize your community to weather the storm.

Finally, always remember who the people are that caused this mess in the first place. Rioters and looters are going to be a problem, but they are not the true enemy. The people behind the curtain need to be dealt with if we are ever going to find peace again."

Monday, July 26, 2021

“Alarming Signs Point to Trouble; Unemployed Make $35 Per Hour; Housing Boom Cools Down, Crisis Next”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 7/26/21:
“Alarming Signs Point to Trouble; Unemployed Make $35 
Per Hour; Housing Boom Cools Down, Crisis Next”