"Banks are Ripping Us Off! - Beware of the Hidden Fees"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, AM 2/21/22:

"Banks are Ripping Us Off! - Beware of the Hidden Fees"

"Beware of the hidden fees. They are everywhere and the tighter the economy gets the more we have these ridiculous fees. From Banking, Entertainment, Travel to everyday shopping we have hidden fees that we have to combat."

"How It Really Should Be"

"The Devil’s Work"

"The Devil’s Work"

by The Zman

"There is an old expression that has fallen out of favor in the post-scarcity age, but it may be the key to understanding the current crises. That expression is, “Idle hands do the Devil’s work.” When people do not have anything productive and useful to do with their time, they are more likely to get involved in trouble and criminality. A variant of this is “The Devil makes work for idle hands.” The idea there is if you want to avoid Old Scratch, then make sure you keep yourself useful to God.

The source of these proverbs is unknown, but variations of them go back to the early middle ages, so it is probable they evolved with Christianity. It is not unreasonable to think the idea is universal to civilization. After all, every human society has had to deal with the idle, lazy, and troublesome. Making sure these people are kept too busy to cause trouble is one of those primary challenges of civilization. Every ruler has known that too many idle young men is bad for his rule.

Even in the smaller context, this is something we instinctively know. In the workplace, people with too much free time get into trouble. If the IT staff has too much free time, they start tinkering around with the stuff that is working and before long that stuff stops working and the system goes down. A big part of what goes on inside the schools is to keep the kids and the teachers busy. Home schoolers have known for years that the learning content is just a few hours a day. The rest is busy work.

The point here is that people of all ages need a purpose, something that occupies their mind and their time. If something useful and productive is not filling that need, then something useless or unproductive will fill the void. For most people this may be a hobby or leisure activity. For others, it often means a useless activity is turned into something important. Elevating the mundane to the level of the critical and then creating drama around the performance of the mundane activity.

This is what we see in our political class. The ruling class of every society has a ceremonial role, a procedural role, and a practical role. Outside of a crisis like a war or natural disaster, the political class is performing its duties in the same way a line worker in a factory preforms his role. In popular government this means the pol shows up at public events. He performs the tasks his office requires like signing papers and casting votes. He helps grease the wheels when they need grease.

Into the 20th century, most of our political offices were part-time jobs. State legislatures met for a short period during the year. Otherwise, the legislators were back home doing their jobs. Executive positions like governor and president were fulltime jobs, as they were in charge of the civil service and in the case of president, commander-in-chief of the military. Within living memory, Washington DC would empty out in the spring and remain empty until the fall when Congress returned.

What we see today is politics at all levels has become a full-time job, but one with less to do when it was considered a part-time job. Congress, for example, is something close to a 24-hour drama now. The politicians and their retinues are now doing politics as a full-time obsession. Yet almost all of what they do is unnecessary. In fact, much of what they do is harmful. Very few things passed by Congress enjoy the support of the majority of the people or even a large plurality.

It is not just that these part-time jobs have been made into full-time obsessions. It is that much of what we used to need from government is now filled by individuals, ad hoc networks, and the private sector. Much of what government does is actually done by private contractors on government contracts. One of the ironies of the post-Cold War world is that the federal workforce has declined relative to the population, while the number of people employed in politics has gone up.

Then there is the fact that much of what government does could be automated or simply eliminated entirely. The services that are required like renewing licenses and paying fees can all be automated. In many cases they have been, but that did not result in fewer people, as we see in the dreaded private sector. Instead, it resulted in more idle hands looking for a purpose. On the political side, much of what Congress does could also be eliminated or automated.

What has happened in the last 30 years is we have grown the idle class at the top of our society and while decreasing their necessity. Much of what goes on in our politics is make work designed to get public attention. Think about it. If the cable news channels were shuttered and the social media platforms run by the oligarchs were closed, what would change in America? Nothing of practical importance. Our world would get quieter and there would be a boom in forgotten hobbies.

American political culture evolved during the Cold War to fight communism and prevent a nuclear war. Those were important tasks that occupied the minds and hands of the political class. Once those things went away, those idle hands searched about for a new crisis. Health care, Gaia worship, Islam and now invisible Nazis have been used to keep the idle hands of the political class busy. In the process, the political class has been driven mad and is threatening the rest of society."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"You Better Decide..."

“A wise man once said you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it. What he meant is nothing comes without a price. So before you go into battle, you better decide how much you’re willing to lose. Too often, going after what feels good means letting go of what you know is right, and letting someone in means abandoning the walls you’ve spent a lifetime building. Of course, the toughest sacrifices are the ones we don’t see coming, when we don’t have time to come up with a strategy to pick a side or to measure the potential loss. When that happens, when the battle chooses us and not the other way around, that’s when the sacrifice can turn out to be more than we can bear.”

- “Dr. Meredith Grey”, “Grey’s Anatomy"

“'Joe Biden' Wins World War Three"

“'Joe Biden' Wins World War Three"

by Jim Kunstler

"Woo-wee, that was a close call, huh? But remind me: what was the war supposedly about? Protecting Ukraine’s hallowed border? Bwahahahaha…! Borders? We don’t care about no steenkin’ borders (especially our own border). Upholding the sacred honor of NATO? Really? Who exactly would be punished if the US tries to shut down the Nord Stream-2 pipeline that will send much-needed Russian natgas to gasless Germany? (Did you guess our NATO ally, Germany?) Would Germany suddenly discover that the pipeline is none of America’s business? I think so.

Anyway, what’s the beef in Ukraine? Its easternmost Donbas region has rebelled against administration by Kiev. At America’s direction, Kiev harasses the majority ethnic Russian population there with US-made weaponry. Yet Ukraine’s president Zelensky claims he doesn’t want to antagonize Russia, and certainly wants his much-stomped-upon country - the doormat of Europe - to not get stomped-on all over again in any hypothetical war. Ukraine is already an economic basket-case, supported only by CIA-sponsored grifting operations.

Enter Monsieur Macron of France. After two years of antagonizing his countrymen with lockdowns and put-downs, he needs a boost for the national election forthcoming in April. So, he has heroically sued Mr. Putin of Russia for a Ukraine “ceasefire.” Note: the Russians haven’t fired. Anyway, that opened the way for a proposed “summit” meeting between “Joe Biden” and Mr. Putin - when the Russians feel like it. They’re playing it a little coy for the moment, letting the West twist slowly, slowly in the wind. If a summit does happen, what will the two summiteers talk about? Mr. Putin will reiterate that the US and NATO made a solemn promise (in writing) to not expand NATO along Russia’s borderland in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell apart, and y’all reneged on that… and now it stops with Ukraine… really… got it?

“Joe Biden” will not have a coherent response. Maybe he’ll want to talk ice cream flavors or dogs. He is, as the Russians say, not negotiation-worthy, though he can be trotted out for photo ops. But “Joe Biden” needs a big win so he can brag on something in his State of the Union address. His Democratic Party is looking everyday more and more like some hell-borne spawn of Satan bent on wrecking what’s left of the old USA. Everything they’ve done since 2016 has degraded the life of the nation - weaponizing the “Intel Community,” queering a national election, besetting the people with race-and-gender mindf**kery, and inflicting the deadly “vaccines” on the population to “fix” the Fauci-created Covid-19 crisis. Never has the country seen a president so obviously incompetent and unpopular. The people backstage running him like an animatronic automaton are in a panic.

By default, then, the summit meeting will be game-set-and-match, Mr. Putin, only both parties will pretend that it’s some kind of moral victory for “JB,” while Russia gets exactly the terms it seeks: Nord Stream-2 will be completed and Germany will get natgas; there will be no additional stupid sanctions and get rid of the old ones; and the US will close up its CIA shop in Kiev and quit all the pointless antagonism. There will be peace in that corner of the world. And then, on cue, the West’s financial system will implode.

Yes, that’s what is actually going on in the background. That roar you hear is bad credit whooshing out of the banks. It looks like we’re going to get both a ripping inflation and a collapse of equities and assets all at once - with a side-dish of disappearing livelihoods, vaporizing pensions, and sinking standards-of-living. One surmises that all the meshugas over Ukraine was designed as a distraction from the financial disorders now at hand. The news media has faithfully played the Ukraine story to the max while ignoring the growing disarray in North America.

The Toronto Star barely even reported today on the weekend dispersion of truckers in Ottawa - like it never happened… a kind of national hallucination. The big rigs are gone from the streets around Parliament Hill, but one suspects the action isn’t over. Mr. Trudeau’s stupid vaxx mandates are still in place and every passing day more is known about their inefficacy and ghastly after-effects. Nor has the national legislature of Canada voted, as required, in support of the Emergencies Act - meaning that the financial punishments inflicted on the truckers and their supporters was arguably illegal.

Down here in the Land of the Free our truckers are marshaling for the Great US Trucker Convoy of 2022 outside of Barstow, California, to proceed eastward-ho Wednesday morning for our nation’s capital. The notorious fences are back up around the Capitol building. No doubt, the feds will try to shut down the bridges across the Potomac, but there are plenty of back doors into the District. Will “Joe Biden” resort to the same financial intimidation tactics that Mr. Trudeau pulled on his truckers - go after their bank accounts and confiscate assets? Let’s hope the US truckers learned that lesson from the Great White North and have made other arrangements. What if the DC police attempt an Ottawa-style beat-down against our badass truckers? To paraphrase the old American folk song goes: I wouldn’t want to be them on that dreadful day…"

- https://kunstler.com/

"Holding On To Something..."

Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something."

Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?"

Sam: "That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."

- Samwise Gamgee,

"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

“Fourth Turning 2022 - Bad Moon Rising” (Part 4)

“Fourth Turning 2022 - Bad Moon Rising” (Part 4)

by Jim Quinn

"In Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this article I examined the power of propaganda and the use of fear to invoke a mass formation psychosis on millions of weak-minded victims of global elitist psychopaths weaponizing a flu as part of their plot to Reset the world as lords of a global fiefdom, with the lowly peasants owning nothing and being happy to be permitted to live. The trillions in debt created by central bankers and debased political hacks, play acting as wise all-knowing leaders, are also part of the plan to crash the global economy and further the aims of these globalist billionaires and their parasitic front men.

The third segment of this unholy trinity has been the engineered civic decay spawned by the traitorous deeds of politicians, who have encouraged the invasion of over two million illegal freeloaders, aided domestic terrorists (BLM & Antifa) in burning and looting our cities for a year, facilitated the teaching of degeneracy to our children, and have pitted family against family, friend against friend, employer against employee, over a Big Pharma experimental therapy that doesn’t do anything but enrich those peddling it, injuring and killing millions, and tearing the last vestiges of our civil society to shreds.

In this fourth and final installment I will try to anticipate what global disorder dynamics will come into play during the remainder of 2022 and beyond, impacting the level of violence and bloodshed before this Fourth Turning reaches its fateful climax. As Strauss and Howe warned 25 years ago, the risk of catastrophe would be high, and a positive outcome was far from guaranteed. We have entered the most dangerous phase of this Crisis, where decisions by dementia ridden puppet presidents, foreign dictators, central bankers, billionaire hedge fund managers, and billionaire software makers pretending to be medical experts, will determine the future course of history.

“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.” – Strauss & How, "The Fourth Turning"

“History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Losing in the next Fourth Turning could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – perhaps even our nation – might never recover.” – Strauss & Howe, "The Fourth Turning"

When reading these foreboding words regarding the potential tragic outcomes for this Fourth Turning, it is easy to dismiss as ridiculous and nothing but fear porn. The reason younger generations reject the possibility of all-encompassing war is because the last Fourth Turning ended 77 years ago and most people who experienced the horror of World War II have died, extinguishing any direct knowledge of the conflict, initiating the cycle of war once more. Each Fourth Turning has its own dynamics, catalyzing events, and individuals which propel the crisis towards its convulsive climax.

The U.S. hasn’t been in a major conflict since 1945, only military industrial complex created regional wars, designed to keep the hundreds of billions flowing to the defense industry and politicians in their pockets. War has been nothing but a racket for decades, but Fourth Turnings always plunge the nation into a chaotic life and death struggle, with a grand conflict to determine the future course of history. There are currently neocon chicken hawk warmongers in positions of power, along with bought journalistic whores pushing false narratives about Russia, who aren’t satisfied with peace, pushing for war. This cyclical extreme is destined to lead to war.

“The ancients believed that each cyclical extreme, mirroring the hopes and fears of the other, helps generate the other. The night longs for the day, the day for night. In war, people yearn for relief from strife, leading to peace. In peace, people yearn to champion what they love, leading to war.” – Strauss & Howe, "The Fourth Turning"

The global disorder sweeping the world is multi-faceted, but it is all interconnected and can be tracked back to Soros, Schwab, and their globalist billionaire cabal. Never ending war is good business in an empire of lies. When in doubt about the intentions of politicians, world leaders, mainstream media talking heads, and self-proclaimed military experts, always follow the money.

As Smedley Butler proclaimed during the last Fourth Turning, war has always benefited the rich, while young men die on battlefields as cannon fodder. The CIA initiated regional Middle East conflicts, propelled by CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and the rest of the government-controlled media, have kept the hundreds of billions flowing to the military industrial complex for decades and coffins arriving at Dover airbase.

“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.” – Smedley Butler

The current drumbeat for war being disseminated by Biden, his handlers, congressional psychopaths on both sides of the aisle, the neocon media, and Soros bribing “experts” to support war against Russia, is the perfect example of the ruling class trying to engineer a war to add to their fortunes and distract from their vile machinations. George Soros acknowledged, in an interview with CNN, that he actively contributed to the overthrow of former Ukrainian President, and ally of Putin, Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

The CIA and Soros installed their puppet Poroshenko as the illegitimate president, prompting Mr. Putin to annex Crimea, as Obama and his effeminate Secretary of State blustered and did nothing. Meanwhile Biden and his family harvested millions, peddling his influence for financial gain.

Soros’ foundation is most certainly funding the disinformation campaign about Putin invading Ukraine at any moment. While the current president of the Ukraine, NATO, and Putin have attempted to defuse the situation and assure the world an invasion is not imminent, the Biden administration and the neocons in Congress and the media continue to beat the drums of war and spew propaganda in an effort bolster the bottom lines of arms dealers and billionaires pulling the strings behind the curtain. The war pigs will always rapaciously feed at the bottomless trough of fiat slop provided by the Fed and feckless whore politicians.

Most of the global disorder is purposely created by the ruling oligarchs, to keep billions flowing into their coffers, while their puppet central bankers keep their printing presses operating at hyper-speed generating the debt necessary to keep waging endless war. War might be a racket, but debt creation is the lifeblood of the racket, and the Fed is the racketeer. The captured corrupt politicians occupying D.C. at the behest of the monied interests who selected them to be “elected” by the clueless dupes thinking their vote mattered, sell their souls to the highest bidder.

Transferring the tax dollars absconded from you at gunpoint (aka the tax code) into the pockets of arms peddler conglomerates can only be done with the acquiescence and succor of Powell and his electronic printing press. The never-ending creation of debt is the lifeblood of war and the root of the global disorder engulfing the world.

The hyperbolic screeching from Biden, Blinken, their band of petulant pretender foreign affairs “professionals”, those in the pockets of the military industrial complex, the toadies in the corporate media, and neo-cons who have never met a war they didn’t want to wage, is pushing this country towards conflict with a nuclear power led by a serious man who will not be intimidated by amateurs.

Despite the fact the Ukraine has no strategic interest to the United States, Biden’s handlers are having him threaten, bluster, and ratchet up the invective towards Russia and Putin, as if this is nothing more than a harmless game of Risk they played as kids. Their propaganda efforts are producing the desired effect, just as it has done during the two-year flu fear-fest. Even though there is absolutely no threat to our nation or security, almost three quarters of Americans think we will go to war in the next twelve months. That $770 billion defense budget needs to be spent somehow.

While the Ukraine situation approaches the boiling point, the focus on China has been diverted, especially with their least watched Olympics in history winding down. China has been at war with U.S. for at least a decade, infiltrating our universities, buying influence in our medical, media, financial industries, positioning Manchurian candidates throughout our political system, controlling media messaging, stealing our military and technology secrets, and destroying our economy with their bio-weapon virus.

This behind the curtain warfare has begun to blossom into traditional warfare, with the posturing and threats regarding Taiwan. China and Russia have been increasingly teaming up economically, financially, and militarily to create a buffer against U.S. global hegemony which has been unimpeded since 1946, the end of the last Fourth Turning. There is a distinct chance America’s crumbling empire of debt will not retain its world dominance when the climax of this crisis ensues over the next five to ten years.

Global disorder encompasses more than just major global war between superpowers, with multiple scenarios involving Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Iraq capable of igniting a broader conflict and driving oil prices into the stratosphere. The wars fought since the last Fourth Turning have been nothing more than skirmishes, despite the immense death, destruction, and financial cost of waging those wars.

A winner takes all struggle to the death confrontation is what brings a Fourth Turning to its bitter end, with the victor taking the spoils and writing the history, while the vanquished is left in ruins. As we begin 2022 most people are oblivious to the potential level of violence and bloodshed likely over the next few years. Americans were just as oblivious in 1860 and then eighty years later in 1940. The level of anger towards tyrannical government leaders sweeping the globe will be channeled and directed for good or bad in the very near future.

Fourth Turnings occur because human nature never changes. Those who rise to power are always driven by power, control, and wealth. Their egos are large, and they are driven by greed and seeking the accolades of others. Their hubris and influence seeking are often more powerful than their intellect or moral character.

Mistakes in judgement or failure to recognize the intent of their enemies, often leads to disastrous consequences for their citizens. We are currently facing situations on multiple fronts, where having a senile puppet president puts the world in mortal danger. Biden’s calamitous domestic record after one year is leading his handlers to push for a foreign conflict to distract from their imploding domestic agenda and economy destined for recession before the end of the year.

Most countries in the western world, along with China & Russia, also have economic problems created by politicians playing the roles assigned to them by Schwab and the globalist Davos billionaires. The cataclysmic actions taken by these spineless corrupt flunkies and feckless central bankers acting on behalf of the Wall Street cabal, have destroyed global economies, extinguished small business entrepreneurs, ignited raging inflation (devastating the finances of the poor and working class), ruined global supply chains, drove energy prices higher, and have insured a global recession within a year.

What do politicians and dictators do when their economies are falling apart? They look for a foreign conflict in order to rally the ignorant masses around the flag. And then someone does something stupid and all hell breaks loose. When hell breaks loose it’s not the politicians or central bankers who will die in battle, it’s our sons used as cannon fodder to feather the nests of globalist billionaires hiding in their secure penthouse suites or behind high walls with armed guards. Global tyrants in pissing matches are a major driver of global disorder, but when the tyrants start pissing on their own subjects, a new level of disorder is unleashed.

The totalitarian measures being inflicted upon Canadian citizens exercising their freedom to peacefully protest illegal vaccine mandates should be a wake-up call for all Americans. Trudeau and his jackboots are trampling the rights of good people. He has pulled off his socialist mask to reveal himself to be a full-fledged communist dictator, wielding a truncheon against blue collar truck drivers, women, children, and using the full force of his despotically seized “emergency” powers to seize bank accounts and destroy the lives of people who are the backbone of the Canadian economy.

This entire manufactured health “crisis” has been used by Schwab’s acolytes like Trudeau, Ardern, Macron, and the other WEF Global Young Leader graduates, to implement the Great Reset by destroying their countries in order to build back better, where they own it all and we own nothing.

The western world has been socially engineered and propagandized into enemy camps, with those cherishing freedom, liberty, free speech, and the Bill of Rights at odds with those insisting on total government control, mandates, regulations, censorship, and the use of force to inflict their beliefs upon everyone.

The divide in this country, Canada and across Europe has never been wider, with daily skirmishes across social media, at school board meetings, in workplaces, and increasingly in the streets, is threatening to breakout into full-fledged civil war, with the flames fanned on a daily basis by the treasonous scum in the corporate media spreading lies, misinformation, and malicious contempt for societal norms in order to create chaos, hatred and havoc.

With those pulling the strings of society purposely trying to tear down institutions, invoke the insanity of woke prophets (profiteers), destroy the lives of those who dare stand up to their insane ideology, and using fear to control the masses, only a minority of freedom loving patriots stand in the way of our nation’s destruction.

It seems clear to me the level of internal and external chaos on a global scale is approaching a crescendo and it will not dissipate before war breaks out within our borders and across the world. With global supply chains already broken, energy and food prices skyrocketing, and shortages of technology components, the fragility of our just in time supply system is in peril. The Canadian Freedom Convoy has inspired millions around the world to resist their authoritarian statist overlords.

Truckers are the lifeblood of our economic system, and if they refuse to drive those trucks our society will self-destruct rapidly. Beating and imprisoning those who sustain your society is not a brilliant strategy, but that is what Trudeau, and his ilk are doing. When the hordes of starving peasants descend upon the gated estates of the ruling class, all of their theoretical build back better bullshit won’t do them a damn bit of good. They have provoked this conflict, but are they sure their police thugs and woke military recruits will have their back permanently?

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?” 

- George Orwell, "1984"

Trudeau, Biden, Macron, Johnson, and lesser tyrants like Newsom, Whitmer, Murphy, Lightfoot, and DeBlasio have used the plandemic as the means to seize power through illegal emergency power declarations and have no intention of relinquishing this ill-begotten authority unless forced to do so by the people they are suppressing and abusing. Schwab and the globalist billionaires he represents trained and indoctrinated most of the global leaders who are now attempting to implement a controlled demolition of western democratic societies and the market based financial systems which had given rise to increasing prosperity until the dawn of this century.

When republics devolve into democracies the seeds of its destruction are planted and when free market capitalism mutates into a globalist scheme of corporate fascism, permanent enslavement or revolution are the only two options for the citizens. Blood will need to be shed before these petty tyrants are rightfully eliminated from power.

- Thomas Jefferson

At this point, the question remains as to how much bloodshed and whose blood will be spilled before this Fourth Turning reaches its historic culmination. The catalyst for this Fourth Turning was, and still is, the self-induced destruction of our financial system by evil men seeking ungodly material wealth on earth. Everything the ruling class has done since 2008 has been to prop up a bankrupt system in order to retain their wealth, power, and control.

They have run out of runway and are about to crash the global economic system. It looks increasingly likely it will happen in 2022, as they have created an unsolvable financial dilemma, which insures a recession/depression and the extinguishment of trillions in faux wealth in the stock market and housing market.

Their arrogance and egotistical belief in their own intellectual powers make them think they can pull off this controlled demolition unscathed, while retaining their positions of power through utilizing the levers of propaganda, police state thuggery, military might, surveillance state technology, and certainty the willfully ignorant masses will do as they are told. Of course, the best laid plans of tyrants don’t always pan out as expected.

A global recession, stock market crash, and supply chain implosion will set off an uncontrollable chain reaction which will ignite the global conflagration and lead to civil and global war. We were warned, but most did not heed the portent to prepare. There will be no way to escape what is coming, but we must realize who stands on the side of good and who embodies the evil currently in control of our government, media, universities, military, medical and financial institutions.

“The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – "The Fourth Turning", Strauss & Howe

It is easy to dismiss or ridicule the terms good and evil because there has been a concerted effort by the political class and their media mouthpieces to blur the distinction between the two, just as they have done by fostering the belief abnormal immoral behavior should be celebrated and promoted, while normal moral behavior should be scorned and ridiculed. The religious based concepts of good and evil are clear and concise, therefore they do not allow lackey politicians and the true ruling class of elites the leeway to lie, cheat and steal their way to power, control, and wealth. These terms have meaning and usefulness in assessing the character and integrity of those we associate with and those we elect to represent our interests.

The last two years have not been a medical emergency, but a test of critical thinking skills and the ability to discern between liars, thieves, money whores, and the forces of evil versus truth tellers and those committed to freedom, liberty, and the forces of good.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of the bravest truth-telling men of the 20th Century, understood the concepts of good and evil better than anyone, as he was exposed to the excruciating evilness of the Soviet Union and the communist henchmen who carried out Stalin’s evil doctrine of imprisonment and murder. Both good and evil reside in the human heart, and it is our free will which leads us towards the light or the darkness.

Our world has become shrouded in darkness, with evil permeating from every fiber of our WEF indoctrinated leaders and the globalist elites (Schwab, Soros, Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, et.al.) running the world. The world is awash in nurtured falsehoods, perpetual disinformation, fake news, fear propaganda, and outright lies. It’s enough to drive a good person mad. We can not bow down to evil. Solzhenitsyn and Orwell saw communism for what it was – pure evil. We must cling to the truth at all costs, no matter the consequences, for our children and their children.

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” - George Orwell, "1984"

As I have laid out, the battle between good and evil has already commenced, with an uncertain outcome hanging in the balance. Human beings and their nature have not changed across the centuries. They are susceptible to emotions and miscalculations. With the level of global disorder at extremes, some world leader is going to make a mistake and initiate the next bloody chapter of this Crisis. That is a certainty. Each Fourth Turning has seen huge technological advancements which make killing and destruction far easier and lethal.

If and when war comes, it will be less likely to be on a traditional battlefield and more likely to be waged by government sanctioned computer hackers paralyzing key infrastructure, the power grid, satellites, the internet, and your linkage to modern day niceties. There will be no Pickett’s Charge or D-Day Invasion. Starvation and freezing to death are more likely than glorious battlefield victories. It is doubtful any of us are truly prepared for the type of war which will be waged. And that’s if some reckless tyrant doesn’t use their nukes, commencing an Armageddon scenario.

Strauss & Howe offered four sobering conclusions to our current Crisis, likely to play out over the next five to ten years. All the exertions of good people, following the path of righteous truth, should be focused on defeating the evil forces, allowing a new High to commence, leaving our children with a renewed republic and hope for the future. It’s all we can do.

1.This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck.

2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

3. The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"California Self Destruction; Economic Carnage Everywhere; Venice Beach Homeless; Trouble Coming"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, Late PM 2/19/22:

"California Self Destruction; Economic Carnage Everywhere;

 Venice Beach Homeless; Trouble Coming"

Musical Interlude: Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Full screen recommended.

Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Life, magnificent Life...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.

 

Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131025.html

"The Only Final Sin..."

"In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime 

is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."

- Hunter S. Thompson

"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies"

"No Ways Tired in A Sea of Lies"

by Chris Floyd

"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies. One of the hardest things to accept is that the reality of our world is buried under so many layers of official deception and well-cultivated public ignorance about our history and our political system. Even if you break through somehow, momentarily, and hold up a fragment of the truth, most people have no context for dealing with it. It's like a bolt from the blue, they can't process the information. And so the sea of lies closes over us again, and again, and again. And yet the reality of our future appears on the horizon, denial be damned, an irresistible tsunami of destruction, changing all our lives forever.

These are the facts, and they can't be altered. But how to respond to this catastrophe? Shall we weep, moan, rend our garments, cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes? Shall we sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of republics? Shall we cower in the shadows and sing glamorous dirges for the Lost Cause, for vanished glories and broken dreams?

Or shall we come out fighting, unbowed, heads high, laughing fools to scorn, rejecting at every turn the moral authority of murderers and thieves to rule our lives, determine our reality, act in our name? Let's dispense with lamentation - give not a single moment to that emotional indulgence - and get right back to work, more determined than ever to bear down harder, dig deeper and excavate the radioactive nuggets of truth still glowing beneath the slag-heap of ruin.

Let's fight, let's reject, let's resist - without violence, the weapon of the stupid, the hormonal secretion of evolutionary backsliders in thrall to the chemical soup in their heads, dull primitives dressing up their ape-lust for power with scraps of religion, philosophy and cant. Let's fight these pathetic, malfunctioning wretches who lay their hands on our world and rape it like beasts in a mindless rut. Fight them with the truths we find, exposing their crimes and deadly hypocrisies to the people they've suckered, perverted and betrayed.

This is not an insurmountable task, no matter how impervious the Machine - that monstrous conglomeration of judicial bagmen, Congressional rubber stamps, psychopathic media moguls, dopehead radio ranters, sex-crazed theocrats, war profiteers, think-tank bleaters, Wall Street sharks, oilmen, Moonies, gun nuts and woman-haters - might appear at the moment.

I don't know what else we can do, except to keep on telling as much of the truth as we can find, to anyone who will listen: reclaiming reality, fragment by fragment, one person at a time. It's an endless task- maybe a hopeless task- but the alternative is a surrender to the worst elements in our society- and in ourselves. It's worth the fight. Let's take it on. In the words of the old spiritual, let us be in no ways tired. The road back to sanity starts now."

- http://chris-floyd.com/

Live Stream: "2/20/22: What Is Happening In Ottawa Today?"

Full screen recommended.

Live Stream: "2/20/22: What Is Happening In Ottawa Today?"

Musical Interlude: Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey”

Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey”

“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was

a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.”

- Abraham Maslow

"We will get by, we will get by, we will get by,

we will survive..." Never, ever give up!

The Daily "Near You?"

Kannapolis, N. Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Eugene O'Neill, "Free"

"Free"

"Weary am I of the tumult, sick of the staring crowd,

Pining for wild sea places where the soul may think aloud.

Fled is the glamour of cities, dead as the ghost of a dream,

While I pine anew for the tint of blue on the breast of the old Gulf Stream.

I have had my dance with Folly, nor do I shirk the blame;

I have sipped the so-called Wine of Life and paid the price of shame;

But I know that I shall find surcease, the rest my spirit craves,

Where the rainbows play in the flying spray,

'Mid the keen salt kiss of the waves.

Then it's ho! for the plunging deck of a bark, the hoarse song of the crew,

With never a thought of those we left or what we are going to do;

Nor heed the old ship's burning, but break the shackles of care

And at last be free, on the open sea, with the trade wind in our hair."

- Eugene O'Neill

○

Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"

"The $2.3 Quadrillion Global Timebomb"

"The $2.3 Quadrillion Global Timebomb"

By Egon von Greyerz

"Credit Suisse is hours from collapse and the consequences could be a systemic failure of the financial system. Disappointingly, my dream last night stopped there. So unfortunately I didn’t experience what actually happened.

As I warned previously in an article on Archegos and Credit Suisse, investment banks have created a timebomb with the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives monster. A few years ago, the BIS (Bank of International Settlement) in Basel reduced the $1.5 quadrillion to $600 trillion with a pen stroke. But the real gross figure was still $1.5q at the time. According to my sources, the real figure today is probably over $2 quadrillion. A major part of the outstanding derivatives are OTC (over the counter) and hidden in off balance sheet special purpose vehicles.

Leveraged Assets Just Go Up In Smoke: The $30 billion in Archegos derivatives that went up in smoke over a weekend is just the tip of the iceberg. The hedge fund Archegos lost everything and the normal uber-leveraged players Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Nomura etc lost at least $30 billion. These investment banks are making casino bets that they can’t afford to lose. What their boards and top management don’t realize or understand is that the traders, supported by easily manipulated risk managers, are betting the bank on a daily basis.

Most of these ludicrously high bets are in the derivatives market. The management doesn’t understand how they work or what the risks are and the account managers and traders can bet billions on a daily basis with no skin in the game but massive potential upside if nothing goes wrong.

Deutsche Bank – Derivatives 600X Equity: But we are now entering an era when things will go wrong. The leverage is just too high and the bets totally out of proportion to the equity. Just take the notorious Deutsche Bank (DB) that has outstanding derivatives of €37 trillion against total equity of €62 billion. Thus the derivatives position is 600X the equity. Or to put it in a different way, the equity is 0.17% of the outstanding derivatives. So a loss of 0.2% on the derivatives will wipe the share capital and the bank out!

Now the DB risk managers will argue that the net derivatives position is just a fraction of the €37 trillion at €20 billion. That is of course nonsense as we saw with Archegos when a few banks let $30 billion over a weekend. Derivatives can only be netted down on the basis that counterparties pay up. But in a real systemic crisis, counterparties will disappear and gross exposure will remain gross. So all that netting doesn’t stand up to real scrutiny. But it is typical for today’s casino banking world when depositors, shareholders and governments take all the downside risk and the management all the upside.

So let us look at the global risk picture in the financial system:

The $2.3 quadrillion above is what the world is exposed to when this timebomb explodes. That is the total sum of global debt, derivatives and unfunded liabilities. When all the dominos start falling, and no one can meet their obligations, this is what governments are left to finance. Yes, they will print this money and much more as deficits mount exponentially due to collapsing currencies. But the MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) clowns will then find out that printed money rightfully has ZERO value.

If these clowns studied history they would learn that MMT has never worked. Just check the Roman Empire 180-280 AD, France in the early 18th century, or the Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, Argentina and Venezuela in the 19th and 20th centuries.

So when Fiat money dies, how much gold is required to repair the damage? If we look at the cube below with all the gold ever produced in history, we see that it is 198,000 tonnes valued at $11 trillion.

Below the cube the total central bank and investment gold is shown. This amounts to 77,000 tonnes or $4.3 trillion. That sum represents 0.2% of the total debt and liabilities of $2.3 quadrillion as shown in the Timebomb.

The $4.3 trillion gold value is at a gold price of $1,750 per ounce. This minuscule 0.2% of liabilities obviously is far too small to support global debt. A 20% gold backing of total liabilities would be a minimum. That would be 100X the current 0.2% or a gold price of $175,000.

I am not forecasting this level or saying that it is likely to happen. All I am doing is looking at the total risk that the world is facing and relating it to the only money that will survive. Also, measuring the gold price in dollars serves no purpose because when/if this scenario happens, the dollar will be worthless and the gold price measured in worthless dollars at infinity."

- https://goldswitzerland.com/

○

Let's see... all these transactions were bought on margin, and of course generated fat commissions for these psychopaths. If the value drops 20% margin calls are automatically issued, and the buyer is required to pay the difference within 24 hours to bring the value back to the maintenance margin. This is why the FED is in a desperate "inflate or die" mode of buying everything in sight. If they don't, an explosively cascading tsunami of margin calls will bankrupt everything, everything... What's the total of 20% margin calls on $2.3 QUADRILLION? - CP

"This Very Moment..."

“Hope is always about the future. And it isn’t always good news. Sometimes, hope can imprison us with belief or expectation that something will happen in the future to change our lives. Similarly hopelessness isn’t always about despair. Hopelessness can bring us right into this very moment and answer all of life’s most difficult questions. Who am I? Where am I? What does this mean? And what now?”

- Daniel Gottlieb

“Luminarium”

“Luminarium”

by Anniina Jokinen

“This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one. Many works from Medieval, Renaissance, Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries can be found here.

The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming - there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.

Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page “Medlit” and “Renlit” pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the “Sevenlit” site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for “lantern,” because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered “luminaries” of English literature.

I wanted the site to be a multimedia experience in the periods. I find it easier to visualize what I am reading when there is a small illustration or a tidbit about the background of the author or his work. The music and art of the period serve to complement one’s rational experience of the site with the emotional. There are people who write to me who seem to think that if something has a beautiful wrapping, it cannot possibly have scholarly insides. But I do not see why something scholarly cannot at the same time be attractive. It is that marriage of form and function, so celebrated during the Renaissance, for which my site strives.”

- http://www.luminarium.org/

•

This is a unique source of endless wonder, a treasure, for those who

love the English language. You’ll spend many enjoyable hours here…

- CP

“The Web Gallery of Art”

“The Web Gallery of Art”

“The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.

The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors’ need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.

The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.

We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home.”

- https://www.wga.hu/