Monday, May 2, 2022

'It's Not Until The End..."

“Using time, pressure and patience, the universe gradually changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds. You’re being worked on too, so hang in there. Just because something isn’t apparent right now, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. It’s not until the end do you realize, sometimes your biggest blessings were disguised by pain and suffering. They were not placed there to break you, but to make you.”
- “The Angel Affect”

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”
- Richard Bach

Bill Bonner, "The River of No Returns"

"The River of No Returns"
by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "The great ‘River of No Returns’ – Amazon.com – went over a waterfall on Friday. Forbes: "Shares of Amazon collapsed Friday after the e-commerce monolith reported worse-than-expected earnings spurred by high inflation and lingering supply chain constraints, pushing the stock down more than 30% below its record high and extending a slate of massive losses among formerly high-flying technology firms."

Amazon stock tumbled 14% Friday to $2,485, logging its worst day since 2014 and wiping out about $210 billion in market value. Spurring the losses, the Seattle-based giant on Wednesday reported an unexpected loss of $3.8 billion in the first quarter, or $7.38 per share, significantly worse than the $8.36-per-share profit analysts were expecting and much lower than the profit of $8.1 billion a year earlier.

But what did you expect? Nature imposes symmetry. And in a market economy that means this: Those stocks that go up the most in a boom are the ones that go down the most in a bust.

The First Shall be Last: There are always market leaders. Some companies stand out. Either because they have snazzy new technologies or better business models. And they seem unstoppable… indestructible. They’re the companies everyone knows. And they can afford to hire the very best talent. Then, with the leading engineers and innovators on the payroll, they should be able to meet challenges better than their competitors – including adapting to new innovations as well as developing the next big technologies.

At least, that’s what investors expected from IBM, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Kodak, Sears, Coca Cola and Xerox. These companies were members of a group of sizzling stocks from the 1960s – the Nifty Fifty. They were ‘nifty’ because they grew faster, and made more money for investors, than other stocks. And they had brands that looked unbeatable.

Who could resist “Avon calling?” Who didn’t know that “things go better with Coke?” Who didn’t shop at Sears? What office didn’t have a Xerox machine? But just as day begets night, so does success beget failure. When the big breakthrough in photo technology – digital imagery – came along, for example, did Kodak lead the way? Nope. And when women wanted perfumes and make-up with a little more chic – was Avon on the case? Nope… it was French brands – Givenchy and Dior – that gave them what they wanted. And who led the world into the laptop computer/tablet/I-phone age… IBM? Nope again; it was MicroSoft and Apple.

Similar retrospectives could be written about any of the Nifty Fifty companies. The common feature was the symmetry. They went up… then they went down.

As a group, the Nifty Fifty outperformed on the way up. Then, when the ‘60s boom turned into the ‘70s bust, they outperformed again… on the way down. From Bridgeway Partners: "The recession of 1973 – 1975 ushered in a period of low economic growth, and with it a bear market…. the S&P 500 fell by over 14% in 1973 and lost over 26% in 1974. But the Nifty Fifty stocks fell even more, dropping over 19% and then 38% in those two years. Markets did recover somewhat after that, and the S&P 500 gained on average about 2.5% annually over the five years from 1973 – 1977. But the Nifty Fifty still lagged, with five-year average returns of -4.4%. … those Nifty Fifty stocks with the highest P/E at the peak tended to have the lowest subsequent returns."

The Amazon of the ‘60s: Sears is the one we know best. Growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, we shopped at Sears. Everyone did. If Sears didn’t have it, you didn’t need it. In the 1950s, the Sears catalog was more than toilet paper. It was a ‘Consumer Bible’ where all that was good in American industry was on display. It showed us the latest fashions, gadgets, appliances and precision tools – everything that set America so far ahead of its competitors. In it you could find everything you were looking for… and much more than you never knew you wanted.

The Sears’ Christmas catalog – the “Wishbook” – was a marvel of marketing to children. It kept them occupied for days, making careful notes and comparisons. Richard Sears was a century ahead of Jeff Bezos. His catalog was the paper-era precursor of Amazon. And his company, with its huge customer base, its expertise and its purchasing power… was the retailer Numero Uno... in the top retail market in the world.

In the 1960s, Sears expanded its network of brick-and-mortar stores. They were innovative, car-oriented outlets, typically away from the city centers. Frequently, they were anchor tenants in huge malls. And they were built from the inside out – focused on the shoppers’ experience inside the stores – often without windows to the outside world.

Unlike Amazon, Sears owned its own brands – Kenmore, Craftsman, Diehard, and many others. It developed its own “Discover” credit card. It had its own insurance, auto repair, and investment subsidiaries. Sears had a huge lead on its competitors. It had plenty of money. And it had management non-pareil. But there’s an old saying on Wall Street (that we just made up): “When unstoppably brilliant management confronts the symmetry of market forces, bet on symmetry. “

As recently as April 2007, one hundred and fifteen years after its founding, a share of Sears Holdings would have cost you $193. On Friday, the price was 5 cents."

"To Really Ask..."

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world – few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”
- Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”

Musical Interlude: Justin Hayward, "Doin' Time"

Justin Hayward, "Doin' Time"

"They tell me that the sun comes up every morning,
They tell me that there's people out on the streets,
But why is life so cruel?
(He's doin' time)

They tell me, Man, he tops the list in Creation,
He takes his place as uncrowned king of the world.
But why is Man so cruel?
(He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?)

Oh, Prince of peace we need you now,
Give us a sign to show us how...

Locked in her room the lover mourns her betrayer,
(It's such a shame, he took the blame)
Seems even love possesses treachery too.
But how can love be cruel?
(He's doin' time,
He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?
It's such a shame, he took the blame.)

Seems this old world has lost its way,
On such a torn and troubled day...

Locked in her room
The lover mourns her betrayer.
(He's doin' time, ain't it a crime?)
Seems even love possesses treachery too.
(It's such a shame, he took the blame)
But how can love? But how can love?
But how can love be cruel?
(He's doin' time, he's doin' time)"

The Daily "Near You?"

Sherman, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"I Would Rather Have..."

"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."
- Nadezhda Mandelstam

"1st Ave Walkthrough: East Village, NYC is Becoming a Dead Mall"

Full screen recommended.
Louis Rossmann, "1st Ave Walkthrough: East Village, 
NYC is Becoming a Dead Mall"

"We Are Headed for a Hard Landing with the Economy"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 5/2/22:
"We Are Headed for a Hard Landing with the Economy"
"Everything points to big problems in the global economy in a very hard landing. May is going to be a horrific month because the fat is going to start raising interest rates and we’re going to realize that the supply chain problems are not going to get better and are only going to get worse."
Related, highest recommendation:
"There’s going to be a lot of text here, so all you smooth-brain apes who are on Reddit, a text based website, yet are still too retarded to read, can skip to the end where there will be a very short summary, a bottle of milk from your mother, and a blankie."

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 
6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"
by Ryan Matters

"Edward L. Bernays was an American business consultant who is widely recognized as the father of public relations. Bernays was one of the men responsible for “selling” World War 1 to the American public by branding it as a war that was necessary to “make the world safe for democracy”. During the 1920s, Bernays consulted for a number of major corporations, helping to boost their business through expertly crafted marketing campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion.

In 1928, Edward Bernays published his famous book, "Propaganda", in which he outlined the theories behind his successful “public relations” endeavours. The book provides insights into the phenomenon of crowd psychology and outlines effective methods for manipulating people’s habits and opinions. For a book that’s almost 100 years old, "Propaganda" could not be more relevant today. In fact, its relevance is a testament to the unchanging nature of human psychology.

One of the key takeaways of the book is that mind control is an important aspect of any democratic society. Indeed, Bernays maintains that without the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”, democracy simply would not “work”.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.

In "Propaganda", Bernays draws on the work of Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his uncle!), outlining the power of mass psychology and how it may be used to manipulate the “group mind”. If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?

I recently explored this topic in an essay about how occult rituals and predictive programming are used to manipulate the collective consciousness, influencing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of large groups of people, resulting in the creation of what occultists call “egregores”. Here I have extracted some key insights from Bernays in an attempt to show how his book "Propaganda" is, in many ways, the playbook used by the globalist cryptocracy to process the group mind of the masses.

1. If You Manipulate The Leader Of A Group, The People Will Follow: Bernays tells us that one of the easiest ways to influence the thoughts and actions of large numbers of people is to first influence their leader. If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.

In fact, one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology is that the “group mind” does not “think”, rather, it acts according to impulses, habits and emotions. And when deciding on a certain course of action, its first impulse is to follow the example of a trusted leader.

Humans are, by nature a group species. Even when we are alone, we have a deep sense of group belonging. Whether they consciously know it or not, much of what people do is an effort to conform to the ideals of their chosen group so as to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging.

This exact method of influencing the leader and watching the people follow has been used extensively throughout the last few years. One notable instance that comes to mind is the horrendously inaccurate epidemiological models created by Neil Ferguson, which formed the basis for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown policies. Once Johnson was convinced of the need to lockdown and mask up, the people gladly followed.

2. Words Are Powerful: The Key To Influencing A Group Is The Clever Use Of Language: Certain words and phrases are associated with certain emotions, symbols and reactions. Bernays tell us that through the clever and careful use of language, one can manipulate the emotions of a group and thereby influence their perceptions and actions. By playing upon an old cliché, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.

The clever use of language has been employed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to great effect. An obvious example of this was when the definition of “vaccine” was changed to include injections utilizing experimental mRNA technology. You see, the word “vaccine” is associated in the public mind with a certain picture – that of a safe, proven medical intervention that is not only life-saving but absolutely necessary.

If governments had told people to go get their “gene therapies”, the vast majority of the public would likely question the motives behind such a campaign; they would feel extremely skeptical because the phrase “gene therapy” is not associated with the same images, emotions and feelings as “vaccine”.

The same goes for the word “pandemic”, the definition of which was also changed. The word “pandemic” is generally associated in the collective consciousness with fear, death, chaos and emergency (largely thanks to Hollywood and the myriad virus films it has released over the years).

3. Any Medium Of Communication Is Also A Medium For Propaganda: Any system of communication, whether phone, radio, print, or social media, is nothing more than a means of transmitting information. Bernays reminds us that any such means of communication is also a channel for propaganda. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda.

Bernays goes on to stress that a good propagandist must always keep abreast of new forms of communication, so that they may co-opt them as means of deliberate propaganda. Indeed, systems that most people would associate with freedom of speech and democracy are none other than means of circulating propaganda. Facebook fact-checkers, Big Tech censorship and YouTube’s Covid banners certainly fall into this category.

Other examples of this include the recent algorithm updates made by various search engines (including Google and DuckDuckGo) to penalize Russian websites. Although this should come as no surprise (Google has been engaging in this type of “shadow propaganda” for many years).

4. Reiterating The Same Idea Over And Over Creates Habits And Convictions: Although Bernays terms this a technique used by the “old propagandists”, he, nonetheless, recognizes its usefulness. It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction.

Repeating the same idea or the same “mantra” again and again is a form of neuro-linguistic programming aimed at instilling certain concepts or emotions into the subconscious mind. Indeed, people who are feeling sad or depressed are often advised to repeat to themselves an uplifting saying or affirmation.

There are many examples of this simple, yet effective, technique being used to great effect over the last few years. Think Q’s “trust the plan”, the globalist favourite, “build back better” or the incessant repetition of that twisted phrase, “trust the science”. Included in this category are the 24/7-in-your-face death statistics and case numbers, aimed at promoting the illusion of a pandemic.

There are more obvious examples of this as well, such as news anchors in different areas all reading from the exact same script.

5. Things Are Not Desired For Their Intrinsic Worth, But Rather For The Symbols That They Represent: After studying why people make certain purchasing decisions, Bernays observed that people often don’t desire something for its usefulness or value, but rather because it represents something else which they unconsciously crave. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.

Bernays gives the example of a man buying a car. From the outside, it may appear as if the man is buying the car because he needs a means of transport, but in actuality, he is buying it because he craves the elevated social status that comes with owning a motor vehicle.

This idea, too, applies to the events over the last few years. For example, masks are a symbol of compliance. Everyone knows they don’t work but they wear them because of their desire to “fit in”, and to be seen as an upstanding citizen who follows the rules. Covid-19 injections are also a symbol and many people choose to get them because they have a desire to avoid being called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “conspiracy theorist”.

6. One Can Manipulate Individual Actions By Creating Circumstances That Modify Group Customs: Lastly, Bernays tells us that if one wishes to manipulate the actions of an individual, the most effective way to do so is to create circumstances that engender the desired behavior. What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? […] He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars. The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom.

For example, why all of a sudden does everyone “stand with Ukraine”? According to Bernays, it’s not because there is a war going on and innocent people need our love and support, but rather because it is the new “group custom” to do so. The process of altering group customs begins from the top down. In every nation or social clique, there are leaders, public figures and influencers. Manipulating those with the most sway eventually filters down into the public mind. That is why when a celebrity decides to wear something extravagant on the red carpet, a whole new trend can arise overnight.

Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid saga and then the Russia-Ukraine war, the media were quick to circulate stories of celebs “catching Covid” and urging people to stay home, or public figures condemning Russian actions and calling for stricter sanctions (which just so happened to hurt the West more than they hurt Russia).

The Propaganda Playbook: The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology. Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, "Propaganda."

That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis."
Freely download "Propaganda", by Edward L. Bernays, here:

"More Focused Than Ever At 60!"

"More Focused Than Ever At 60!"
by Tom Purcell

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” Those are the clever words of British humorist Terry Pratchett, who couldn’t have explained the aging process more succinctly. I know his words are true because I turned 60 this week. It’s a heck of a thing to have burned through six decades already. If I’d known 60 years would go by so fast, I would have taken worse care of myself.

Time is a humbling thing. I know now my greatest accomplishment - aside from an uncanny ability to catch grapes in my mouth no matter how far or high my friends throw them - was becoming a bouncer at the legendary Rathskeller pub at Penn State.

When I was half this age, I was certain I knew everything. I was cocky and brash and incredibly wrong. Now, I realize I know very little, but the things I do know, I know well.

I know that fame is a waste of time - and excess wealth, too - as they bring with them more problems than either are worth.

You don’t who your friends really are until your money is gone. And if you ever do anything stupid as a famous person, social media will broadcast it all over the world.

Several studies have been done on the subject of happiness. Having just enough money to save a little for a rainy day and go out with the love of your life a few times a month is all the money you really need.

It’s friends and loved ones that bring us real wealth. It’s the laughter we can only enjoy with our closest friends - people we know we can count on no matter how difficult our lot becomes.

It’s the love we enjoy from our closest family members, friends, and lifelong spouses and partners - the people we attend weddings, holiday events and special occasions with - all of our most memorable experiences.

And it’s not just people. Why I waited until the age of 59 to get another dog - last having one as a child so many years ago - is possibly the most bone-headed decision I ever made. Somebody said God removed the wings from pets like my best buddy Thurber, so that nobody would know they are angels. This guy makes me laugh out loud every single day - something I didn’t realize I was failing to do until he entered my life.

When we are young, we dream of big houses, and we hope to impress total strangers. As we grow older and wiser, we realize none of that matters. We realize that time is going by way too fast and that every single moment is precious.

I was sick as a dog with a nasty flu weeks ago and, brought to my knees, I went through a paradigm shift. I decided I never want to waste another healthy moment. I started eating healthier than ever. I exercise daily. I go for walks with Thurber. I turn in at a decent hour, so I wake refreshed at 5:40 every morning ready to dive into the new day.

All I want to do now is write well, read great literature and learn how to love better, give back more, laugh harder and spend every moment with people I love as though it were the last moment I had to live. Maybe it’s time to alter Pratchett’s clever quote: “Inside every old person is a wiser person trying to make great things happen with whatever God-given time he has left!”
"More focused at 60?" Well I'm 70 and doing alright, thank you, lol
First time ever you see me in 14 years of blogging, at 65 in that pic. 
Yeah, doing ok... and intend to keep it that way, too...
- CP

"How It Really Is"

“'Disinformation' is Just a Boot in Your Face"

“'Disinformation' is Just a Boot in Your Face"
by Jim Kunstler

"Since Elon Musk pounced on Twitter, are you not amazed to see just how dedicated to the suppression of speech the Left is? Censorship is the Left’s very spark-of-life. Everything they stand for is so false and lawless that truth magnetically repels them. Now, this may surprise you, but truth and reality are joined at the hip, so when you work hard to suppress one, you are also stomping the face of the other. “Disinformation” just means anything that the Left doesn’t want you to say out loud.

The truth is that everything the Left stands for these days is some kind of a hustle - which is the cheap street version of a racket, meaning an effort to extract something of value from you dishonestly. It’s the only way they know how to operate. It necessarily and chiefly depends on the deployment of lies, which, by definition are propositions at odds with reality. The more they traffic in lies, the further they must distance themselves from reality and try to coerce you to go along with evermore absurdity: mostly peaceful riots… men-with-ovaries… free and fair elections… insurrection… conspiracy theories… Lia Thomas in the fast lane… safe and effective vaccines… Believe it or else!

The Left ends up at war with reality. That adds up to a bad business model for running a society, and the results are now plain to see. What in the USA is not failing these days? Our Potemkin economy of nail parlors, porn sites, pizza huts, casinos, drugs, and helicopter money? Our reckless relations with other countries? Public and higher education? Medicine? Financial markets? The sputtering engine of government under a phantom president? It’s all sinking into chaos and incoherence. For now, food just costs more than ever; wait until it’s simply unavailable. Nobody will care about anything else after that.

All this failure requires cover stories, narratives. Russia did it! Covid-19 did it! White supremacists did it! Trump did it! Narrative failure would equal failure of the Left altogether, so the Left requires the sturdiest possible apparatus for suppressing counter-narratives that lean in the direction of reality, its enemy. The Left found that apparatus in social media, the new vehicle for political debate, especially Twitter, which was so easily, blatantly, and dishonestly manipulated backstage by mysterious code ninjas. Twitter enjoys subsidy relations with government that incline it to do the government’s bidding. In effect, the government enlisted Twitter to undermine and over-ride American’s first amendment protections, by proxy.

Now we have the Disinformation Governance Board to be run by a TikTok musical comedy star, Nina Jankowicz, an instant laughingstock, since retailing disinformation has been her main occupation in the scant years she’s been on the Deep State scene. Ms. Jankowicz is a notorious RussiaGate hoaxer and psy-op agent in the October 2020 emergence of Hunter Biden’s laptop. She has zero credibility as anything but a professional falsifier. Her Disinfo Governance Board has no authority to regulate anything. It’s just a lame charade that can only draw more attention to the Left’s hatred of truth and reality. The Left pretends that free speech is a threat to civilization because, as usual, they are projecting psychologically. Their world is a mirror. In fact, the Left is a threat to civilization.

Behind all this is the growing panic in the Left that they are culpable for an enormous raft of crimes committed against their own country, and will eventually end up in court, in prison, or worse. Mr. Durham is just the leading edge of what will eventually be a heavy blade of judgment falling down on their necks. He’s busy sorting out the “Russia collusion” flimflam that turned into a coup to oust Mr. Trump, but that is only the beginning. In November, the Democrats will lose control of Congress and its oversight powers of agency operations, and in 2023 there will be inquiries galore into the neo-Jacobin craziness imposed on our country by the folks behind “Joe Biden.”

That includes such dicey matters as the several years malevolent mismanagement of Covid-19, which looks more and more like a deliberate effort to kill a large number of citizens, and then moving along to the behind-the-scenes official support for those 2020BLM/Antifa riots, the ballot shenanigans around the last presidential election, the colossal failure to enforce border security (featuring Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis), the Biden Regime’s conduct in provoking and prolonging the war between Russia and Ukraine, and (not least) the overseas moneygrubbing of President Biden’s family, as documented in Hunter’s laptop. I’m sure I left a few things out.

If Mr. Biden is still on-the-scene in January next year, he’ll be the first president not only impeached but convicted and removed by the Senate. And if for some reason he avoids criminal prosecution for treason out of some pitiful need for the government to maintain official decorum before the rest of the world, his brothers and his degenerate son may not be so lucky."

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/2/22: "Important Updates: Gold, Silver, Crude, Slammed"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/2/22:
"Important Updates: Gold, Silver, Crude, Slammed"

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! What's Next? - This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 5/2/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! 
What's Next? - This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog we are at Aldi and are seeing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

"Economic Market Snapshot PM 5/2/22"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"Economic Market Snapshot 5/2/22"
Updated as available.
MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates
CNN Market Data:

CNN Fear And Greed Index:
Latest Market Analysis, Updated 5/2/22
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
April 29th to May 2nd
Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah...
And now... The End Game...

Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"
"This Spadecaller Video ® features Leonard Cohen's 
music, "Anthem", and the artwork of Matthew Schwartz."

"We Are Like Nature: The Mirroring World"

"We Are Like Nature: The Mirroring World"
by The DailyOM

"As humans, our lives are completely intertwined with the cycles and rhythms of nature. Nature is a mirror, inspiring and teaching us, deepening our sense of belonging in the world. Wherever you look, you can see that our patterns and the patterns of the natural world are the same. You can find this resonance in every form, from molecules to plants and animals and to planets. We live our lives according to the same principles as the trees, the mountains, the clouds, and the birds.

We begin our lives in the womb, folded in on ourselves like the bud of a flower. We can see our whole lives in the mirror of this natural form. When we emerge from the womb, we slowly begin our unfolding, just as the flower begins to open its petals. At its prime, the flower draws many insects to it and also the eyes of appreciative humans. When the flower's petals begin to fade and its life cycle comes to an end, it ceases to hold itself upright and returns to the earth. Traditionally, we return to the earth, just as all plants and animals do. Like flowers, we leave behind seeds in the forms of children and other gifts only we could have given. They continue to unfold even after we are gone. Rebirth is encoded into our lives, and death is just one part of the cycle.

Look around you, and you will find connection and insight. Notice how your moods shift from one to another like the sky shifts from bright blue to turbulent grays. Your thoughts are like clouds, appearing, changing shape, passing through, and then disappearing without a trace. The rain cleanses the sky, just as an emotional release cleanses your mind. The sky itself is your eternal awareness, unchanging underneath all these permutations. Let it reflect back to you your own abiding perfection.

As you walk through the world, find your own metaphors for connectedness in nature. Flesh them out fully and follow them as they lead you through the mystery and intelligence of life."

"It’s About Time"

"It’s About Time"
by Edward Curtin

"Isn’t it always? With the start of World War III by the United States “declaring” war against Russia by its actions in Ukraine, we have entered a time when the end of time has become very possible. I am speaking of nuclear annihilation.

I look down at my great-uncle’s gold Elgin pocket watch from the 19th century. His name was John Patrick Whalen, an Irish immigrant to the US who fled England’s colonialist created famine in Ireland. It tells me it is 5:15 PM on April 21, 2022, a date, coincidentally, with a history. No doubt John looked at his watch on this date in 1898 when the United States, after the USS Maine exploded from within in Havana harbor (a possible false flag attack), declared war on Spain in order to confiscate Spanish territories – Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. One colonial power replaced another and then proceeded over the long decades to wage war and slaughter these island peoples.

Imperialism never dies. It is timeless. One hundred and twenty-four years go by in a flash and it’s still the same old story. In 1898 the yellow press screamed Spanish devils and today it screams Russian devils. Then and now the press called for war. If the human race is still here in another 124 years, time and the corporate media will no doubt have told the same story – war and propaganda’s lies to an insouciant and ignorant population too hypnotized by propaganda to oppose them.

This despite the apocalyptic sense that permeates our lives because of demonic technology and its use to transform humans into machines who can’t think clearly enough to perceive reality and realize the threat posed by that quintessential technological invention – nuclear weapons.

This is not uplifting, but it’s true. The nuclear weapons are primed and ready to fly. The US insists on its first-strike right to launch them. It openly declares it is seeking the overthrow of the Russian government. Russia says it will use nuclear weapons only if its existence is threatened, which has become increasingly so because of US provocations over a long time period and its current expanding arming of Ukraine’s government and its neo-Nazi forces.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin and its Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov have just warned the US that such involvement has made nuclear war a “serious” and “real” risk, in Lavrov’s words “we must not underestimate it,” which is a mild form of diplomatic speech. Putin said that Russia has made all the preparations to respond if it senses a strategic threat to Russia and that response will be “instant, it will be quick.” The US response is to shrug these statements off, just as it has done so for many years with Putin’s complaints about NATO forces moving up to its border. Incredibly, Biden has said, “For God’s sake, this man (Putin) cannot remain in power.”

Despite endless media/intelligence anti-Russian propaganda – “a vast tapestry of lies,” to use Harold Pinter’s phrase – many fine writers have provided the historical details to confirm the truth that the US has purposely provoked the Russian war in Ukraine by its actions there and throughout Eastern Europe, which the mainstream media avoid completely. This US aggressive history against Russia is part of a much larger history of imperial hubris extending back to the 19th century.

I will therefore here follow Thoreau’s advice – “If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?” – since how many times do people need to hear lies such as “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” in order to justify wars of aggression around the world. The historical facts are very clear, but facts and history don’t seem to matter to many people. Pinter again, in his Nobel Address, bluntly told the truth about the US’s history of systematic and remorseless war crimes: “Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.” Which is still the case.

So time is my focus, for the last days have arrived unless there occurs a radical awakening to the obvious truth that the US government is pushing the world to the brink of disaster in full awareness of the consequences. Its actions are insane, yet insanity has become the norm. Insane leaders and a catatonic, hypnotized public lead to disaster.

I write these words with an old fountain pen, a high school graduation gift, to somehow comfort and remind myself that when we were this close once before in October 1962, Kennedy and Khrushchev miraculously found a solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis; and to find hope now, and that when my time is up and I join John Patrick in the other world, things will have changed for my children and grandchildren. It is admittedly the hope of a desperado.

The last few years of the Covid-19 propaganda have served to further distort people’s sense of time, a distortion years in the making through the introduction of digital technology with its accompanying numerical time clicks and its severing of our natural sense of time that is tied to the rising and falling of the tides and the turning of the days and seasons, a feeling that is being lost. Such felt sense of time’s texture could be slow or faster, but it had limits. We now live in a world without limits, which, as the ancient Greeks knew, demands payback.

For years before Covid-19, the sense of speed time was dominant, supported by the politically-introduced state of a constant emergency after September 11, 2001 with the urgency to hurry and keep up or one would fall behind. Keep up with what was never explained. Hurry why?

Fast and faster was the rule with constant busyness that served the very useful social function of leaving no time for thinking, which was the point, but it made many feel as though they were engaged. And constantly alert for “terrorists” to come knocking. Thus the long wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc., all of which continue via various subterfuges. Then, presto, all this frenzied time sense came to a stop with the 2020 lockdowns, when time got very slow, but not slow in the natural sense but an enforced slowness. People were locked up. Not only was it stupefying but stultifying and an existential drag.

This went on for two years with the prisoners allowed short respites only to be rounded back up and locked down again. Jabbed and jolted was the plan. When will it ever end? was the common cry, as despair and depression spread and scrambled minds led to suicides and mindless screen entertainment. This was planned education for a trans-human future in which the cell phone will be central to totalitarian control if people do not rebel.

Those behind the Covid-19 and war propaganda are fanatical technocrats who seek total control of the world’s population through digital technology. Now they have temporarily let the people out of one type of cell and dramatically sped up time with frantic war propaganda against Russia. The great English writer John Berger said it perfectly: "Every ruling minority needs to numb, and, if possible, to kill the time-sense of those whom it exploits. This is the authoritarian secret of all methods of imprisonment."

Everyone is now doing time while scrolling messages on the walls of their cell phones. A twisted, convoluted, distorted, mechanical time in which it seems that there is no history and the future is an endless road of more of the same.

Some say we have all the time in the world. I say no, that we have entered a new time, perhaps the end-time, when the world’s end is a very real possibility. Hypnotized people can agree to anything, even mass-suicide, unless they snap out of it. This can only happen with a return to slowness in the old sense, when people once felt time in their hearts’ rhythms attuned to the rising and falling of nature’s reality. Time to think and contemplate the fate of the earth when nuclear war is contemplated. Yes, “We must not underestimate it.”

It’s about time.

Isn’t it always?"

Sunday, May 1, 2022

"Worldwide Stockpiling and Panic Buying Commences"

Canadian Prepper, 5/1/22:
Full screen recommended.
"Worldwide Stockpiling and Panic Buying Commences"
"Food prices expected to skyrocket 50% according to world bank, surplus is being panic bought, limits and price restrictions being put into place, a New leader may hold the nuclear briefcase, submarines are on the move and Moldova is next... get ready set go!"

God help us, folks...
Related:

"Prepare, The New Depression Has Emerged; Home Prices Keep Falling As Homebuyers Vanish"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/1/30:
"Prepare, The New Depression Has Emerged;
 Home Prices Keep Falling As Homebuyers Vanish"

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "'Divenire', Live at Royal Albert Hall, London"

Full screen recommended.
Ludovico Einaudi, 
"'Divenire', Live at Royal Albert Hall, London"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus.
Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright blue O-type star above picture center. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across.”

The Poet: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses"


"Ulysses"

"There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me -
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"

"Consider The Following..."

"Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.

Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others' happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace- anxiety, doubt, disappointment- these things are definitely less. In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense.

What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness. A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities"
- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

"Container Shipping Supply Chain Faces The Deepest Crisis Ever As Massive Disruptions Emerge"

Full screen recommended.
"Container Shipping Supply Chain Faces The 
Deepest Crisis Ever As Massive Disruptions Emerge"
by Epic Economist

"The container shipping supply chain remains in the deepest crisis it has ever seen. As the massive backlog of containerships stuck outside Chinese ports is cleared to start sailing again, disruptions are rippling globally, and industry executives are warning that it will take several months to unwind the catastrophic logjam that is now forming. US ports are already scrambling with record volumes of cargo, a shortage of manpower, and truck drivers to deliver the goods across the nation. So if you find empty shelves again in the coming weeks – don’t be surprised. They're making a comeback (with a vengeance). In fact, we’re also being told to expect a fresh round of price hikes all across the board – from food to consumer goods to energy. And those new increases will not only impact people’s monthly budgets, but they’re also threatening to leave over 20 million Americans without power and basic supplies over the next couple of weeks.

Authorities of the port of Shanghai, which has been running at about half of its capacity for a month due to a citywide lockdown, have announced that operations will be resumed this week. But congestion has already increased by 40% at the key exporting hub. Right now, it is taking an average of 111 days for goods to reach a warehouse in the U.S. from the moment they’re ready to leave an Asian factory, nearing the record of 113 set in January, and more than double the trip in 2019, according to freight forwarder Flexport.

And while US ports are getting crowded with imports once again, supermarket and grocery shelves are becoming increasingly emptier. According to Datasembly, a research firm that tracks grocery and retail pricing, roughly 30% of grocery products are out of stock, marking an 11% increase from November 2021 levels. In some states, out-of-stock rates are even higher. In Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington, they surpassed 40%. Compounding the challenge for Americans, consumers are also spending more money on many of the same goods they're used to buying. To make things worse, as the global energy supply chain breakdown accelerates, skyrocketing prices for gas and diesel, coupled with labor shortages in the trucking industry, are also exacerbating supply-chain headaches that will only serve to increase food costs for Americans.

That means trouble for more than 20 million families in the United States. All across the country, many households are drowning in utility debt. Now, these households are about to face widespread power shutoffs. Advocates say that when a family is shut off from power, they cut back on food, medicine, and other essentials in order to get reconnected as quickly as possible. In many cases, they completely lose access to everyday goods and fall into a debt spiral.

All of these price hikes are eroding our purchasing power and leaving us with absurd energy and grocery bills. As port congestion intensifies and global supply chain problems compound, the simultaneous breakdown of our food and energy systems is likely to bring a lot more pain for American families in the near-term, and spark long-lasting damages that will stay with us for decades."
Related:

The Daily "Near You?"

Collinsville, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Humanity Today..."

"Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life."
- Edward O. Wilson