"The Stock Market Carnage That You Have Been Waiting For Is Here"

"The Stock Market Carnage That You 

Have Been Waiting For Is Here"

by Michael Snyder

"A lot of people out there have been waiting for this stock market bubble to implode for a really long time. Well, the wait is now over. Stock prices have been falling for months, but what we have witnessed within the past couple of weeks has been absolutely breathtaking. Trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of paper wealth has been suddenly wiped out, and many investors are panic selling in a desperate attempt to lock in profits before the market completely collapses.

On Monday, the Dow lost another 600 points, but the really big news continues to be the staggering declines for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq… "The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 653.67 points to 32,245.70, or 1.99%. The S&P 500 fell 3.2% to settle at 3,991.24, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.29% to 11,623.25."

It has been stunning to see these sorts of numbers day after day. One long-time market veteran actually used the word “violent” to describe what we have been witnessing… “I’ve been in the markets for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. “It’s violent not just volatile.”

Sadly, she is right on target. Things have already gotten really crazy, but many believe that the most chaotic chapters of this market implosion are still ahead of us. The S&P 500 just dropped below 4,000 for the first time in more than a year, and I am already seeing people talk about what will happen when it falls to 3,000. As for the Nasdaq, it has already plummeted 27 percent from the all-time record high. Needless to say, that puts the Nasdaq well into bear market territory.

Tech stocks were crushed once again to begin the week, with some of the biggest names leading the way…"Rising rates continued to crush technology names such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which lost 3.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Amazon, Apple and Netflix all fell more than 5%, 3% and 4%, respectively, while Tesla and Nvidia plunged more than 9% each."

Ouch! And check out these numbers for all of 2022 so far…

Tesla: down 25 percent

Disney: down 30 percent

Amazon: down 34 percent

Facebook: down 41 percent

Uber: down 45 percent

Snap: down 50 percent

Netflix: down 71 percent

Of course Palantir has them all beat…"Palantir Technologies, which went public in September 2020 via a direct listing amid enormous hype and hoopla, has now earned a much coveted spot in my Imploded Stocks column. Today, Palantir reported another huge loss, this time $101 million, on $446 million in revenues, bringing its total loss over the past four years, to $2.86 billion. Its revenue outlook for Q2 was below what Wall Street expected. Shares [PLTR] kathoomphed 22% so far today, and 84% from the peak in January 2021, to $7.40 a new all-time low."

Investors are starting to figure out that trendy “tech companies” that regularly lose hundreds of millions of dollars are not actually good investments. Cryptocurrencies have been falling dramatically as well. Bitcoin and other cryptos were hammered really hard once again on Monday, and at this point Bitcoin is down almost 55 percent from the all-time high… "Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode. That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at around $69,000."

Those that bought Bitcoin low and got out in time ended up making a killing. But those that got in at or near the top of the market and just kept holding on are going to get absolutely eviscerated. Of course that is how the market works. You either eat or you get eaten.

As for what is ahead, many of the experts are fearing the worst. Here is just one example… “We expect markets to remain volatile, with risks skewed to the downside as stagflation risks continue to increase,” wrote Barclays’ Maneesh Deshpande. “While we cannot discount sharp bear market rallies, we think upside is limited.”

In the short-term, you would think that things should stabilize at some point. The fact that the Fed recklessly raised interest rates last week really shook a lot of people up, but that wave of panic should soon subside. The much bigger issue is the outlook for the U.S. economy moving forward. Interestingly, even corporate media outlets are now adopting a very negative tone about what is coming…"Inflation is at a 40-year high. Stock prices are sinking. The Federal Reserve is making borrowing much costlier. And the economy actually shrank in the first three months of this year.

Is the United States at risk of enduring another recession, just two years after emerging from the last one? Even without another unexpected “trigger event”, the U.S. economy should get progressively worse throughout the remainder of 2022. But as I have detailed in my last couple of books, I believe that we have entered a time in history when unexpected “trigger events” will come fast and furious.

Keep a close eye on the Middle East for the rest of this year, and we will all want to carefully watch how the global food crisis develops. When people don’t have enough food, violence tends to erupt. We saw this during the Arab Spring of 2011, and we will undoubtedly see similar eruptions in the months ahead. Only this time around, the food shortages that we are facing threaten to develop into a long-term phenomenon.

In all my years of writing, I have never been more concerned about what is in front of us. We have already been hit by crisis after crisis so far in 2022, but it looks like the second half of this year is going to be even crazier than the first half."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

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Related:

"Now We Are Being Warned That Shortages Of Diesel 

Fuel And Electricity Are Coming In The Months Ahead"

The Daily "Near You?"

Frankfort, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"If You Want To Know..."

 

"The Great Collapse is Finally Here - Cryptos, Stocks and Housing"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 5/10/22:

"The Great Collapse is Finally Here - Cryptos, Stocks and Housing"

"There is an amazing collapse happening in every single industry. It doesn’t make a bit of difference if you’re into crypto’s or stocks they are finally falling. From supply chain issues to inflationary spikes, it’s going to get worse."

"The Characteristic Human Trait..."

"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."

- Michael Crichton, "The Lost World"

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And never forget...

"If you want to tell people the truth, 

make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

- Oscar Wilde

"Rebranding Nazism"

"Rebranding Nazism"

by Roddy Keenan

"As a teacher of history, the topic of Nazi Germany is always one which generates numerous questions from students. How were the Nazis able to convince the public to vote for them? How did they convince the people to go along with their fascist agenda and barbaric policies? How was the Holocaust allowed to take place?

Despite discussing the role of propaganda and censorship, as well as the fear of opposing the Nazi regime, one still finds students often somewhat bemused. Moreover, many invariably argue that nowadays, due to social media, the Internet, and other methods of communication, the evils of Nazism could never succeed in flourishing again.

However, that is about to change. One only has to look at the manner in which the Azov Battalion, a fully-fledged Ukrainian Nazi militia, with significant influence, has been whitewashed in the space of ten weeks. Whereas prior to February 24th 2022, they were recognized as a neo-Nazi battalion, these fascists are now being portrayed as valiant defenders of an oppressed people, fighting bravely against insurmountable odds.

In the past, we have become only too well aware of the role played by the media and big tech in propagandizing and manufacturing consent. Whether it’s the mainstream media parroting establishment talking points, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube censoring dissenting views, or Paypal denying media outlets access to their own accounts apparently due to their political stances, Western disinformation full-spectrum dominance appears to be at its zenith.

Yet, the perennial Western purveyors of fake news, such as The New York Times, CNN and the BBC, declare themselves to be gatekeepers of truth, integrity and morality. And this, despite their lies which facilitated the slaughter and deaths of over a million men, women and children, in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

But still it goes on, right up to the present. From the Ghost of Kiev to Snake Island, the Collective Western media has acted as stenographers for the Western and Ukrainian regimes. The examples are too numerous to mention, but the media coverage of the air strike at a railway station in Kramatorsk provided a striking example of the overt and cynical propaganda role the western media has played throughout this conflict.

The missile strikes that killed over fifty people and injured more than one hundred were initially widely reported, with images on front pages across the Western media. However, within forty-eight hours the story had disappeared and barely received a mention. This was due to an Italian news team identifying one of the missiles as being of the type used by Ukrainian forces. The narrative of Ukrainians killing civilians obviously didn’t fit into the propaganda of the Collective West, and consequently, the dead and injured found instant irrelevance.

Now the Western media has turned its malevolent myth-making to the Nazi Azov battalion in the Ukraine. An overtly Nazi formation, descended from the Fascist Banderites of World War 2, it is now being staunchly defended by the Collective West.

Interestingly, it had been previously accepted that the Azov were a far-right, Nazi militia, and indeed, their presence and influence was widely viewed as a dark force within the Ukraine. It’s fascist rituals and regalia, worship of the fascist Stepan Bandera, and its adherence to Nazi ideology, left nobody in any doubt that these were committed fascists, and they were commonly described as neo-Nazis in numerous Western media outlets. However, since February 24th there has been a stunning shift.

Now, the fact that the Azov battalion is a Nazi organization is glossed over. The BBC, a propaganda arm of the British State, ran a nine-minute puff piece, arguing, almost pleading, that the Azov fighters were not fascists, but simply a battalion integrated into the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, MSNBC interviewed Azov Nazis teaching elderly women how to use weapons, and newspapers from the Financial Times to the New York Times are now portraying the Azov as brave defenders of the Ukraine.

An obvious aim of this shameless media operation is to delegitimize the Russian claims of denazification, by arguing that there is no Nazi problem in the Ukraine. Even on the rare occasion that the media refers to the ideology of the Azov units, and indeed, the presence of other fascist and far-right groups such as C14, Right Sector and Svoboda, it claims they have minimal impact on the politics of the Ukraine, pointing to their weak electoral performances. What they fail to point out, is that the mainstream’ parties are implementing policies that the fascists support. Moreover, the notion that parliamentary representation is a metric of influence is absurd when one looks at the likes of Al Qaeda and Isis.

In fact, a leader of the fascist group C14, Yevhen Karas, described the 2014 Maidan coup as a ‘victory of nationalist ideas’. He went on to assert that without the influence of fascist groups, Maidan would have been nothing but a ‘gay parade’. But this is now an inconvenient truth for the Collective West. Consequently, Azov and their fellow travellers are no longer Nazis or fascists. Instead, they are merely ‘misunderstood patriots’.

Of course, this is nothing new. When it comes to hypocrisy, the Collective West has it in spades. Whether it’s supporting the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, ISIS and AL Nusra in Syria, or the fascists in Ukraine, the Collective West has shown itself to be devoid of any morality when it comes to serving their own interests. Now, just as Isis and Al Nusra are ‘moderate rebels’, the fascists of Azov are well-meaning nationalist warriors.

So, according to our so-called liberal democracies, even though there might be bad Nazis, there are also good fascists, whose adherence to Nazism is just an ideological quirk. Obviously, those who are on our side are the good Nazis. And it’s the Collective West that always gets to decide who is who. But one thing is now evident – the blatant manner in which Nazism has been made palatable due to an unrelenting, systematic propaganda campaign, will answer those questions posed by students regarding how German Nazis were able to attain power in 1933 and to subsequently pursue the policies that they did.

‘Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds’, I was once told many years ago. The events of the past months have proven just how accurate that old adage is."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Victory Day in the Motherland" (Excerpt)

"Victory Day in the Motherland"

by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Excerpt: "Earlier today, I read that the Russian ambassador to Poland was hit by a paint bomb while laying a wreath for WWII fallen soldiers, with the culprits chanting: “fascist, fascist”! And I thought that is rich, on the day that Russia commemorates the 25-40 million Russian lives lost in WWII fighting fascism.

I don’t know how many of you ever saw Claude Lanzmann’s 1980’s 8-hour documentary “Shoah”, but I did at some point. It shook all of me, every molecule, and I will never watch it again. I come from the land of Anne Frank. What it told me was that nazism wasn’t just a German thing, it was the region, not the nation, it was where most Jewish people lived before Hitler and Goebbels came along.

Lanzmann interviewed scores of Polish people who were loudly proud of having pushed back Jews, trying to flee, onto the cattle trains bound for Auschwitz et al. That same mentality has prevailed in large parts of Ukraine as well over the by now 80 years or so. Just look at the map: that’s where this was happening. And the Russians defeated it in that part of the world, not western troops.

And when it was done, the role of the 25-40 million Russian deaths in it was denied in the west, because: communism vs capitalism. But of course Russia cannot just ignore or deny all those deaths, just because Hollywood wants to sell tickets to Saving Private Ryan. For Russia, WWII meant: never again. And for them that means something slightly different than for us. It’s not just never again fascism or nazism, it’s also that these two things are symbolic for having your motherland invaded from the west, and by the west. Never again. That is why Russia moved into Ukraine.

And they are convinced that NATO was getting ready, with the remaining nazis in Ukraine, to attack the Donbass and Crimea. Note: Russia has an excellent secret service. They’re not just guessing. 100s of 1000s of troops were amassing on their eastern border(s).

And now Zelensky is calling the Russians the nazis. That’s quite the about face. They lost all those lives fighting the nazis, only to become the nazis themselves. Labeled so by an actor who relies heavily on admitted, and tattooed, 2022 nazis to stay in power.

Western media, and governments, had a zillion predictions about what Putin would say yesterday, but still there was no mobilization of Russians, and no total war declaration. They were all wrong, again. But it helped get the clickbait up! Still, he would have said it if we did not announce his intentions!, us who have a direct line into his brain…

I’ll leave you with three full reports from today, so you can make up your own mind- something I always try to do. First, RT, for which I cannot provide a link (banned because it’s propaganda!), then Guardian and then BBC."

Please view this complete article here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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Related:

“Zelensky Is Trapped”

"Gonzalo Lira on the three forces in control of Ukraine’s “acting president”: the oligarchs who own him, the Nazis who will kill him if he doesn’t toe their line, and the State Department/CIA."

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968

"How It Really Is"

 

"Finding Some Empty Shelves At Meijer! What's Next? What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 5/10/22:

"Finding Some Empty Shelves At Meijer! 

What's Next? What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and are noticing a lot of empty shelves! We are here to check out sales, and are also witnessing some massive price increases in food! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Gregory Mannarino, SHocKer! The FED Is Laying The Ground Work For More QE! Warns Of 'Liquidity Issues'"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/10/22:

"SHocKer! The FED Is Laying The Ground Work 

For More QE! Warns Of 'Liquidity Issues'"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"This Diminutive Stature..."

"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste. This diminutive stature of mankind was daily sinking below the old standard."

- Edward Gibbon,

"The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire"

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"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."

- Christopher Hitchens

"Mass Psychosis - How An Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill"

Full screen recommended.

"Mass Psychosis -

How An Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill"

by After Skool

"In this video we are going to explore the most dangerous of all psychic epidemics, the mass psychosis. A mass psychosis is an epidemic of madness and it occurs when a large portion of a society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions. Such a phenomenon is not a thing of fiction. Two examples of mass psychoses are the American and European witch hunts 16th and 17th centuries and the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century. This video will aim to answer questions surrounding mass psychosis: What is it? How does is start? Has it happened before? Are we experiencing one right now? And if so, how can the stages of a mass psychosis be reversed?"

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Related:

"US Collective Suicide"

"Dismissing Reality"

"Dismissing Reality"

by David Marks

"Historians analyzing the Covid-19 pandemic will one day consider what was going on in the minds of those who supported a narrative that only served profits and power. Looking back, they will greatly appreciate the analysis of contemporary experts, particularly Mattias Desmet, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium. He is recognized as a leading thinker in his field, and has written over one hundred peer-reviewed academic papers.

Desmet has presented his understanding of human behavior in response to the pandemic and vaccine policies to forums and international media. His book on the topic, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", will be published in June of 2022. It examines the emotional climate that has allowed a singular, focused, crisis narrative that forbids dissenting views and relies on destructive groupthink.

The central tenet of Desmet’s evaluation of the emotional response to the pandemic rests on the psychological concept of mass formation. It is a general term that applies to individual, group, and crowd behavior as influenced by the manipulations and conduct of dominant social forces. The concept is not new - nor is it in any way a stretch to apply it in analyzing the extensive anxiety driving the attitudes and demeanor of billions of people during the world-wide pandemic.

Mass formation can be associated with mass psychosis, a disturbance in the minds of small or large groups - to the degree where there is a loss of contact with reality - often with an eclipse of morality and objectification of an imagined enemy. The hostile and dismissive response to Desmet’s perspective on the pandemic’s emotional climate is both fascinating and revelatory.

Enter The Media: Desmet was interviewed by a number of prominent individuals in a variety of media outlets, with his views on the current rise of mass formation taken seriously by some of the public and medical professionals with open minds. Detractors quickly appeared in an attempt to minimize his impact.

When Dr. Robert Malone, respected veteran expert in molecular biology and a pioneer in mRNA research, discussed and amplified Desmet’s theory on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” a threshold seemed to have been crossed. Mainstream media and medical websites went into high gear pronouncing mass formation as discredited and bunk. The distain for anyone invoking the term was overt. Medpage Today reported, “It sounds like the name of your friend's failed high school band.”

The vast majority of criticism had little to say about the reasonable theory that government representatives, a huge portion of the medical profession and at least one-third of the general population had fallen into a trance. And most importantly, there was no willingness to consider that there might be a powerful psychological force skewing judgement and provoking irrational behavior.

In a show of reflexive impulsive bias, media coverage claimed that the concept of mass formation did not exist. This response simply revealed how the process of mass formation blinds the minds of scientists and journalists.

Widely attributed press sources, including Reuters, quickly found experts who said that, “Mass formation psychosis is not an academic term recognized in the field of psychology, nor is there evidence of any such phenomenon occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic.” To ensure readers need not fear they were under any spell, they advised, “numerous psychologists have also told Reuters that such a condition is not officially recognized.”

Mass formation was also dismissed in a number of articles because it is not mentioned in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", a simplified clinical guide to individual psychiatric disorders that does not cover crowd psychology.

Not Necessarily The News: The blast of commentary was presented as objective news, yet the press response directly conflicts with the knowledge of prominent psychotherapists, including luminaries who enriched the modern understanding of the human psyche, such as Scipio Sighele, Gustave Le Bon, Elio Cannetti, and Hannah Arendt.

In his 1921 book on "Crowd Psychology and Ego Analysis", the founder of psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud, discusses mass formation and its ramifications, saying, “The strangest and at the same time most important phenomenon of mass formation is the increase in affectivity evoked in each individual (as) exaltation or intensification of emotion.”

The preeminent psychiatrist, Carl Jung, highlights mass formation in his prescient 1957 book, "The Undiscovered Self", on the state of mankind and the dangers of modern materialism. His perspective is foundational, relative to Desmet’s recent findings: “Under the influence of scientific assumptions, not only the psyche but the individual man and, indeed, all individual events whatsoever suffer a leveling down and a process of blurring that distorts the picture of reality into a conceptual average. We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world picture: it displaces the individual in favor of anonymous units that pile up into mass formations.”

Despite a wealth of historical precedents, the reaction to Desmet’s ideas was bizarre and unfounded. A renowned and respected psychotherapist had postulated that we might need to reconsider the unconscious response to lockdowns and mandates - and his ideas were summarily dismissed by the voice of the state.

The diagnosis is clear. Deriding mass formation and dismissing its influence during a global crisis is in itself a verification of the phenomenon. Mainstream media demonstrates how it perpetuates mass formation by indulging in another well-accepted psychological phenomenon: denial. Considering the degree of unwillingness to confront the reality of ineffectiveness and dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines, an evaluation of the news media’s response to the current plague can also be deemed delusional.

The Syndrome Persists: In recent decades, studies have shown that psychological problems are increasing geometrically. Rather than attempting to reverse this dysfunction, powerful forces in government and the corporate press continue to mislead and prey on an expanding susceptible population, who in the face of crisis, cling to authority. It is the vulnerability of dissatisfied populations that allows mass formation.

Desmet suggests that a number of factors, including; isolation, a sense that life is meaningless - and particularly free-floating anxiety, frustration and aggression - independently or in unison, can lead to mass formation and its repercussions.

Jung also viewed precursors to dysfunction in the context of a modern age where the “State” and “Scientific Rationalism” play critical roles in supporting mass formation, saying: “Science supplies us with, instead of the concrete individual, the names of organizations and, at the highest point, the abstract idea of the State as the principle of political reality. Apart from agglomerations of huge masses of people, in which the individual disappears anyway, one of the chief factors responsible for psychological mass-mindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics. He can only play the role of an interchangeable unit of infinitesimal importance.”

The concept of mass formation and its relevance to the pandemic are undeniable when our current crisis is examined carefully, particularly when the inadequacies and inconsistencies of prevention and treatment are analyzed and understood.

Vaccines were initially presented as the only viable way to stem a deadly disease. A subsequent admission that they did not stop transmission was revealed in the context that they continued to be effective and safe. Any serious analysis of these claims confirms this also is a fabrication.

There is an important and viable inquiry asking how a false and deadly narrative continues to be accepted. Policies supporting repressive controls and ongoing vaccination have no foundation other than nonsensical dictates and support from a public bolstered with questionable data, prodded to near-hysteria.

The very forces that are responsible for the false narrative can only take a defensive position when light is shed on their methodology. The dogmatic negation of the idea that a mass formation is responsible for blind compliance and irrational acceptance of dangerous therapies is striking and revelatory.

As time passes, the induced fear and coerced consent will continue to be exposed as part of a scheme promoting selfish interests, and verifiably nothing to do with good health. Eventually this epoch will be recognized for its essential impetus; the nefarious entrancement of a vulnerable world."

- https://www.rwmalonemd.com/

- https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/

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Very highest recommendation:

Full screen recommended.

"Are We Being Hypnotized, And Do We Like It?"

 - A Conversation with Professor Mattias Desmet, PhD

○

Freely download "The Undiscovered Self", by Carl Jung, here:

- https://fleurmach.files.wordpress.com/

"National Self-Perception"

"National Self-Perception"

by Jeff Thomas

"This above all: to thine own self be true."

"Bill Shakespeare had a talent for phrasing basic truths well, and this quote is no exception. (Even if you lie to others, don’t lie to yourself, or you’re in real trouble.) Much has been said about the American self-image, going back to its inception as an upstart nation that imagined it could succeed as a republic, as Athens had failed to do. And, indeed, the US encountered the same basic problem as Athens: having once created a republic – a nation in which the rights of the individual are foremost. Maintaining that condition is not only a constant battle, but extremely unlikely over time.

As a form of governance, a republic serves its people well; however, since it doesn’t provide its leaders with much in the way of aggrandizement or profit, its leaders are likely to do all they can to degrade the republic into a democracy. Once having accomplished that, they’re likely to do all they can to degrade it to tyranny. As Thomas Jefferson said, "History hath shewn that, even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." He anticipated that, given enough time, the nascent United States would devolve into a tyrannical oligarchy. It has now had that time and has become a tyrannical oligarchy.

It must be said that the US still displays the accoutrements of a proud republic, but, at this point, it’s for show only. The inner workings of the US are not that of a republic, nor even a democracy. The US is quasi-capitalist/quasi socialist amalgam that’s run by a corporatist oligarchy. Whilst it still has an elected president and congress, those individuals are, at this point, cardboard cutouts who are only allowed to pursue their personal pet projects if they fit in with the unelected Deep State that’s truly in charge.

It’s important to mention that the challenge to the republic began in George Washington’s first cabinet, through regular squabbling between the three cabinet members. But, although the deterioration continued for another hundred years, the US did not abandon its principle to stay out of world affairs for its first hundred years. That occurred by 1900, under the voracious nationalist appetite of one Teddy Roosevelt. The US government began its foray into empire and never looked back.

Through two world wars, the US wisely held back as European nations beat each other to pieces. Instead, they supplied the combatants with armaments and charged them in gold. In each war, by the time the US jumped in to win the day, their troops were fresh, their armaments were substantial and much of the wealth of Europe had been transferred to them, assuring that they’d prevail at the end of the war. Consequently, they ended the war the richest nation on earth, whilst the other nations lay in ruins, both physically and economically.

And so began the next era, one in which Americans saw themselves as the "winners" of the wars, as well as the king of the mountain. By 1958, Eugene Burdick and William Lederer had written their novel, "the Ugly American," which accurately presented American diplomats as presumptuous and arrogant. Although Messrs. Burdick and Lederer were both American, they were highly objective, and made the effort to see the US and its government as outsiders saw them.

Since that time, the US government has, if anything, expanded upon its presumption and arrogance, declaring in no uncertain terms that it regards itself as the world’s policeman and will enforce its power wherever it sees fit, globally. In recent decades, it’s demonstrated that conviction, by invading numerous far-flung nations, often for flimsy reasons and, indeed, sometimes for reasons that later proved erroneous. Tellingly, even when the US has been caught destroying a country for a trumped up reason, the US offered no apology, but continued its aggression.

Americans themselves appear to be of mixed opinion on this behavior. Some Americans recognize the presumptuous and arrogant manner of their leaders and decry such behavior and even fear where it may ultimately lead the US. Yet, others parrot their government’s position that a bit of milk may need to be spilt if the US is to "make the world safe for democracy." (They often proudly take this stance, even though invading a country halfway round the world, destroying its cities, killing its people and destroying its economy, only to install a puppet government, can hardly be called democracy.)

But, how does the world outside the US see the US? Well, many assume all Americans resemble their leaders – dangerous sociopaths, who represent a threat to the rest of the world. Others are more objective and recognize that the American people and the American leadership are not one and the same. This latter group tend to have greater sympathy for Americans themselves, whilst remaining guarded about their leaders.

However, generally speaking, the world at large observes US national behavior and sees the US as a whole as a potential (if not current) threat. Americans who might nod their heads at this statement are likely to think in terms of the Middle Eastern and Asian countries and they would be correct. However, it goes further than this.

As the "world’s policeman," the US government frequently decides to punish nations that fail to kowtow to it by applying economic sanctions. The US then advises its allies that they will be expected to do the same. It is at this point that those who had thought themselves allies of the US say, "Hang on, it may not cost you anything to apply these sanctions, but it costs us a great deal."

As Thomas Jefferson said, "History hath shewn that, even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." As an example, when the US applied sanctions to Russia, then required those sanctions to be supported by countries in the EU, and some in Europe said, "But we get most of our gas from Russia. If we support US sanctions, they may understandably cut off our gas. Unless the US can replace that gas, our people will freeze this winter."

Further, the US government is becoming increasingly pointed in its threats of warfare to those perceived adversaries that they’ve not yet invaded – a development that’s increased the nail-biting by both the governments and peoples of US allies.

So, what are we to make of all this? Well, such developments are nothing new historically. Throughout the ages, whenever an empire has become like the pawn in the photo above and has come to see itself as a king, arrogance and presumption have tended to have become the rule.

As tensions build, old allies attempt to hold their positions, but, when the volcano eventually does blow, they tend to head for the hills. It’s for this reason that, if and when an empire makes the fatal mistake of seeing itself as omnipotent, it learns (the hard way) that, first, it’s not as strong as it presumes and, second, that its allies were not prepared to be sacrificed for the sake of the self-proclaimed king.

It’s for this reason that, as Doug Casey has said, "Countries fall from grace with amazing speed." This can also be said for empires, and the US presently displays all the behavior of an empire that’s teetering on the brink of its own fall from grace.

Economically, politically, and socially, the United States seems to be headed down a path that’s not only inconsistent with the founding principles of the country, but accelerating quickly toward boundless decay. In the years ahead, there will likely be much less stability of any kind."

- internationalman.com

"It Was The Best Of Times..."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

- Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities"

Freely download "A Tale of Two Cities" here:

- https://www.gutenberg.org/files/98/old/2city12p.pdf

"The War Can Only End With More War"

"The War Can Only End With More War"

by The Good Citizen

"The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting

 each other – instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.” 

- Edward Abbey

"The youngbloods cry out with screams of mercy while prone in the sunflower fields of Lugansk. “The Cauldron is forming and soon we’ll be surrounded! When does it end!?” The big blue sky above ignores them. A nearby Azov officer hears them ask to surrender. Two by two the screamers get taken to the shallow side of a slope and shot in the back of the head. Final thoughts while gazing out to the horizon to take in their last breath: my death is happening because it was entirely preventable.

The entirely preventable war can only end with more war. The entirely preventable deaths can only end with more death. NATO’s orders. It was always going to end the way we know it will end. With more war.

The only thing they’re trying to prevent now is any narrative that undermines their aims to prevent it from ending. They say World War One was fought for reasons nobody really knows. The death and devastation were so unfathomable, so inconceivable, it was to be the war to end all wars. As long as people believe only war can end wars, then the war will only end with more war.

This war is being fought for reasons nobody with a functioning brain really believes. Democracy? Freedom? Insert all the laughing, crying, rolling on the muddy death fields of Ukraine emojis in the digital universe, plus all the facepalms, and pregnant men facepalms.

Forget the Nazis, the Oligarchs, the cocaine comic, the NATO clowns, the American empire war complex, the district of corruption, the demented diapered one, the EU tyrants begging for economic and energy catastrophes a la carte.

They all stand to gain from the blood of young Ukrainians, from their sacrifice for a set of conditions that were never going to be met even when all the world knew it before a single shot was fired. They played Russian roulette with a country and most people celebrating its sacrifice for global evil can’t point to it on a map. They all cry out in unison like one mindless drone across the earth: “Keep dying youngbloods! The war will only end with more war!”

Now we can see the wave rising at the border of Poland and Ukraine, on the horizon set for a prearranged destiny that nobody wants besides those with nothing to risk. All their instruments of war crossing the border will ensure that the war will surely end with more war.

You can see the wave of youngbloods across the muddy fields. They wore their boots out running for the Oligarchs safely in London. They were there in late February, forced to stay and fight. The young men in cheap nylon ski jackets, trapped in their national prison, kicked off the trains, stopped at the borders, told to go and die for the Oligarchs safely on their yachts in Monaco.

“Putin is evil young man, don’t you know that?” The youngbloods nod in agreement and move their gaze toward the ground utterly disgusted with themselves for nodding and not asking, “Why?”

The baby-faced boys of Kyiv fresh from their gaming chairs and Uber Eats delivery routes. Once giddily bouncing from school classes to casual conversations at cafes that young people have. A rifle stuffed into their hands, three days of performative training, and a swift shove to the meat grinders. Forcibly conscripted into the NATO death machine.

The war must continue and will only end with more war. Five hundred million for more war. Seven hundred million. Do I hear eight hundred million? Do I hear nine hundred?

There’s money to wash through the national laundering operations pouring forth from the U.S. Department of treasury like a fire hose plugged into the central bank of the fourth most corrupt country on earth. Too many pockets need lining before the youngbloods can be called back home from the fronts.

All wars really end with a negotiated peace. Not this one. The word peace is forbidden. So is the word diplomacy.

Even when Russia has mopped up the final villages for liberation in the Donbas and taken Odesa in the south, and the final Ukrainian Nazis are rounded up for trials and detention and a decade henceforth after all regions are flying the Trikolor flag, the Americans will be finding more weapons to send and demanding the comic find more youngbloods to sacrifice.

Their mothers and sisters sit in Polish and German refugee shelters, waiting for news. That dreaded news that no mother ever wants. It’s the waiting that’s most painful. The mothers know the Oligarchs agreed to the war. And the mothers know that western powers created the war. And the mothers know that the cocaine comic who ran on a peace mandate acquiesced to the war before showing his bloody fangs to the parliaments of the world begging for more weapons of war and more money and more cocaine and claimed “democracy” was at stake, as he was told.

And the mothers know it will be their sons who die for the Oligarchs, the western war powers, and the cocaine comic. They all dreamed of riches that could be justified by making Russia suffer and turning half of Ukraine into a post-apocalyptic hellscape. The mothers know their sons will be the ones to make their dreams come true.

And if they don’t know all this now, they will know it very soon one day after they get that call. And start asking questions. Why did my son have to die for this? Didn’t his dreams ever matter? How about my dreams for him?

It’s been two months in the fields, on the trucks, in the bombed-out concrete ruins of old brutalist apartment blocks, now gone forever. The only silver lining of the war. Thousands of youngbloods are already dead.

The living youngbloods are skinny, thirsty, tired. Their boots are worn down at the toes and heels. They haven’t showered for weeks. An American colonel yells orders at them with a southern drawl they can barely understand.

Soon the war will heat up. The eastern cauldrons will form. The Russians will surround them. The supply lines will grow thin and then stop and even with no water, food, or ammunition left to fight, the commands will come over the radios to the youngbloods of Ukraine, “The war will only end, with more war. Hold your positions.”

And the youngbloods who were conscripted into the NATO-CIA meat grinder will one day find themselves on some godforsaken pile of unfarmed dirt. They will look to their right flank and see Nazi hooligans that bullied and beat them at school and threatened to shoot them in the back if they deserted. Then to their left flank and see the pink flicking uvula of a screaming American Colonel they cannot comprehend, and in that moment of chaos and confusion and inevitable madness that they were forced into, they will grab their unloaded rifles and charge the Russian line.

A newfound burst of energy propels their skinny legs forward directly to the phalanx of Chechen warriors, eager to get their bayonets into Azov hearts. The youngbloods are racing, they’re in it, they’re moving now, they’re getting there. They haven’t felt more alive since they were told to die.

Their faces light up with smiles as they confront the inevitable, which finally makes sense as they meet it on their own terms, in their own way. As they hear the first cracks of Russian bullets overhead they turn to one another with the only sane weapon they have left and burst out in fits of raucous laughter. As youngbloods do."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"30 Facts About The Supply Chain Collapse That Will Make You Panic"

Full screen recommended.

"30 Facts About The Supply Chain Collapse 

That Will Make You Panic"

by Epic Economist

"Over the past few years, the global supply chain has fallen into a crisis that never seems to end: the industry has become extremely vulnerable to global events, consumers have been dealing with shortages and delivery delays, and uncertainty has become the new normal. Since the middle of 2020, strains in global production networks reflected the imbalances between the supply and demand of a wide range of goods and created several headwinds for the global economic recovery. From that point on, the world has started to suffer from soaring inflation, raw material shortages, rising commodity prices, and a massive spike in shipping and freight costs.

With every link of the supply chain impacting businesses both large and small, trying up with the globally disrupted supply chain evolution has been a recipe for disaster. While consumers have started to panic buy and hoard products once they realized empty shelves were becoming a common thing, companies have started to overorder and stockpile goods in anticipation of further supply chain bottlenecks. However, that has created even more shortages and pushed the price of virtually everything to historic highs.

Simultaneously the cost of sending containers from China to the US has reached astonishing levels over the past 24 months. For some trade routes, the price of standard 40-foot containers faced a 400 to 600 percent increase last year. In December 2021, the Economist estimated that the spot price of sending such a box from Shanghai to New York skyrocketed from $2,500 in 2019 to $15,000.

On top of that, the latest port closures have recently resulted in a significant slowdown in global manufacturing. They also exposed the weaknesses of an interdependent global trade system that has become way too entangled to be able to run smoothly. Problems continue to pile up on top of each other, and industry executives are warning that we haven't seen the worst of this crisis just yet. In other words, the global supply chain breakdown has only just begun.

Problems cannot be fixed overnight, and more and more issues continue to emerge with each passing day. Even if we experience moments of relative stability, a lot more turbulence is still ahead. As this perfect storm of factors continues to intensify, 2022 is right on track to be the worse year ever for supply chains. This means we should all prepare accordingly because at this point it only takes one single blow to interrupt the flow of goods across the world, and a recovery may not arrive until 2024. For that reason, in this video, we compiled some alarming numbers that expose the true extent of the global supply chain crisis."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"More Valuable Than Gold"

"More Valuable Than Gold"

Maybe it’s time to stock up on food…

by Jim Rickards

"It was another bloodbath on Wall Street today, as the three major indexes took another beating. Both the Dow and S&P are well into correction territory (down 10% or more from recent highs). The rate-sensitive Nasdaq lost over 4% today. It’s now mired in an official bear market (down 20% from its most recent highs), which will likely get worse before it gets better.

Markets will have their good days, but you can expect that the overall trend will remain down as long as the Fed is taking away the punch bowl. The Fed is now playing a desperate game of catch-up. Inflation is now at the highest levels since 1981. That inflation is not a one-month blip (the March 2022 CPI was 8.5%), but is part of an established trend. Inflation for the full-year 2021 over 2020 was 7.0%. Inflation in January was 7.5%, and in February was 7.9%.

In other words, the inflation trend is not only persistent, it’s getting worse. The Fed missed this trend entirely and is now racing to catch up. The Fed raised its target rate 0.50% at this month’s FOMC meeting. Another 0.50% hike is likely in June. Jay Powell seemed to rule out the possibility of a 0.75% rate hike, but the Fed is nonetheless tightening at an aggressive pace.

The Fed Is Destroying Money: Rate hikes will also be accompanied by reductions in the money supply of $80 billion per month or more. This is called quantitative tightening (QT) and is the opposite of the notorious quantitative easing (QE) that the Fed has practiced since 2008. The Fed is destroying money now.

Coming on top of the 0.25% rate hike in March, the May and June rate hikes will have pushed interest rates from 0.0% to 1.25% (or higher) in a mere three months. Combined with QT, this will be the fastest form of monetary tightening since the days of Paul Volcker.

Of course, the problem is that the Fed is tightening in the face of economic weakness. No surprise there: It’s a persistent habit of the Fed. The Commerce Department recently reported that first-quarter GDP in the U.S. declined 1.4% (annualized). The Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecasting tool estimates second-quarter 2022 growth in GDP will be 1.8%. If that second-quarter estimate stands, that means growth in the first half is pretty close to zero.

There’s little reason to believe that economic growth will accelerate over the second half of the year. The main reason is that the sanctions against Russia will continue, along with all the economic disruptions they’ve created.

Sorry, the Russians Aren’t Leaving: Bloomberg News tells us the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has declared that “sanctions against Russia will only be lifted after a complete withdrawal of its troops from Ukrainian territory.” There’s only one problem with that policy: The Russians aren’t leaving.

It remains to be seen how much Ukrainian territory Russia will seize and what the final terms of a peace settlement might be. But there’s no way Russia is withdrawing entirely from Ukraine. They have built a land bridge from Russia to Crimea at a high cost and are not giving it up. This means the sanctions will never be lifted (unless Baerbock and other Western policymakers changes their views). It also means there will be enormous destruction to global supply chains.

Then there’s China. We now know that lockdowns don’t work to stop the spread of COVID. But China is doubling down on its insane “zero COVID” policies anyway. It’s cracking down even harder in Shanghai, one of the world’s major trading hubs. There’s no end in sight. The impact of these lockdowns on global supply chains is profound. Chinese exports are at two-year lows, and it’s a serious drag on the global economy.

When considering the supply chain disruption from the war in Ukraine, and new pandemic lockdowns in China, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the U.S. economy may fall into a steep recession before the end of 2022. But as troubling as that prospect is, for many around the world it’ll be much worse.

The Coming Famine: Most analysts are aware that Ukraine and Russia together provide about 25% of all the grain exports in the world including wheat, barley and corn. That’s a huge percentage. But when viewed from the perspective of importing nations in Africa and the Middle East, the two warring parties provide 70–100% of the grain imported by those countries.

Among the largest importers are Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Jordan and many others. Together, those large importers have a combined population of 700 million people, or about 10% of the global population. There is no ready substitute for those imports.

The U.S., Canada and Australia are all major grain producers, but they already consume their grain domestically (mostly as animal feed to supply beef and pork) or have existing export markets that also rely on the grain.

This looming grain shortage is amplified by global shortages of fertilizer, which also comes from Ukraine and Russia to a great extent. Many farmers cannot get fertilizer at all, and those who can are paying twice–three times last year’s price. That will result in further grain shortages and sky-high food prices as the higher fertilizer costs (and transportation costs due to higher diesel prices) feed through the supply chain. The end state of these various forces is a potential humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions late this year and early next year.

It’s not a stretch to estimate that the total number who die of starvation as a result of this food shortage will be greater than the total number of people killed on the battlefields of Ukraine. So yes, the war can get worse. And it will.

Given today’s economic turmoil, people ask me if I'm buying gold. I am, but I've spent more time lately shopping for large-capacity freezers so I can stock up on food (I have three already). The food shortages should hit hard by this fall.

Buckle Up! Overall, the remainder of this year and 2023 will challenge investors in ways not seen since the Great Depression. We’ve grown accustomed to stock market declines of 20% and even 30%, (which happened in 2008, 2018 and 2020). But a real stock market crash can be 80% or greater (as happened from 1929–1932 and in the Nasdaq in 2000–2001). That’s the order of magnitude investors need to keep in mind.

The course for investors is clear. Equity exposures should be reduced. Allocations to cash should be increased significantly, perhaps as high as 30%. Allocations to hard assets including real estate, farmland, gold, silver and natural resources are a must. One way to keep a hand in the stock market but still bet on natural resources is to look at energy stocks and mining stocks; both sectors should outperform major indexes.

But if there is a severe recession, as I predict, there is one bright spot: Recession is often the one reliable cure for inflation. It’s a steep price to pay, but it can be effective. But there’s also the real possibility that we’ll suffer from both weak growth and inflation at the same time. We may be returning to that unpleasant combination of low growth and high inflation known as stagflation. If so, it will be a return to the late 1970s when the "misery index" was created to describe the stagflation combination of high interest rates and high unemployment at the same time. My advice is to buckle up."

- dailyreckoning.com

"The Greatest Crash in History is Coming - Prepare For Worst Case Scenario"

ThisisJohnWilliams, 5/9/22:

"The Greatest Crash in History is Coming - 

Prepare For Worst Case Scenario"

"The US Economy has done extremely well since 1776. We were the land of opportunity where people would come from all over the world to start businesses and enterprises and break into the middle class and many would later become rich and wealthy. However during that period there were many booms and busts in the economy, some led to a recession, some led to a depression. This crash I believe will be worse than any crash we have seen in our 250+ year history.

The America we once knew is gone, we are witnessing the entire labor and workforce quit and no one wants to work anymore. We are witnessing sky high food and labor costs, we are witnessing sky high rent prices and rising insurance rates as well as gas prices. Everything is going up except our production as a whole. We produce less yet demand much, much more. We are seeing countries like India, Russia, China and UAE build tight relationships and those countries as a whole hold half of the global population and most of the global exports.

We are watching America die and are watching the rise of other countries. In this great transformation we will see our living standards greatly change and most people don't realize what is coming."

- https://www.youtube.com/c/

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets: Crash! Crater! Meltdown! Really? Have A Look At This!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/9/22:

"Markets: Crash! Crater! Meltdown! 

Really? Have A Look At This!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Investors Lose Trillions Of Dollars Today, Everything Is Collapsing; Market Collapse Accelerates"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/9/22:

"Investors Lose Trillions Of Dollars Today, 

Everything Is Collapsing; Market Collapse Accelerates"

“Steer Clear Of Those Murder Holes”

“Steer Clear Of Those Murder Holes”

by Addison Wiggin

“That’s the thing about the collapse of civilization, Blake. It never happens according to plan… The end comes in unforeseen ways; the stock market collapses, and then the banks, and then there is no food in the supermarkets…”
 - Mark Raynor, "The Fridgularity"

"Just as I was cracking my knuckles in prep for today’s missive, I caught the opening 20-minute scene of Spielberg’s "Saving Private Ryan" on AMC – the greatest war sequence ever filmed. The first piece of advice Tom Hank’s character, Captain Miller, gives to his crew as they’re about to become target practice in their amphibious landing vehicles on Utah Beach is: “Steer clear of those murder holes”.

“Good advice,” I thought… Given we write about economics, politics, history and the financial markets. Murder holes, you say? Let us count the ones we’ve covered so far:

1. “Money Printing”

2. and it’s evil offspring “Inflation”

3. “Carbon Energy” (including “Sanctions” thereof)

4. “The Green New Deal”

5. “Supply Chain Issues” (including those caused by the “Pandemic”)

6. “Weakening Financials” (including in tech)

7. “Economic Recession”

8. And now… an impending “Food Shortage” in America - never! - caused by a conflux of “all of the above”.

We spoke with Mark Rossano this week on TWS. Mark is the CEO of C6 Capital Holdings. You’ll note C stands for carbon on the table of elements. 6 is carbon’s atomic weight. You can imagine where on the economic table Mark finds his bread buttered.

Mark has been covering supply chain challenges in the global food supply since 2017, well before the Pandemic shut down large swaths of the economy. He’s also been tracking naturally occurring floods, fires, droughts… And locust infestations. Yep, biblically epic locust infestations. One locust swarm in particular manifested in Sudan and survived its way on the wind all the way to SouthEast Asia.

Regardless of your thoughts on “global warming”, “climate change”, “green energy” or whatever politically orientated term is in vogue, Mark has been tracking the real world impact these disasters have on the food supply. Watch the full video, here, for the bigger picture:

"Should I be worried about food shortages here in the U.S.?”

Tomorrow, we’re going to trace a “glitch” in the supply of fertilizer to the Midwest at a critical period in the spring planting season."

"Follow your bliss,"

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Ddaig1_aA

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Unity"

Liquid Mind, "Unity"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula, officially dubbed IC 1805 and visible in the below view on the right, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized hydrogen.

Several young open clusters of stars populate the image and are visible above in blue, including the nebula centers. Light takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years. Studies of stars and clusters like those found in the Heart and Soul Nebulas have focussed on how massive stars form and how they affect their environment.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140211.html

The Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, "Do You Remember?"

"Do You Remember?"

"Do you remember still the falling stars

that like swift horses through the heavens raced

and suddenly leaped across the hurdles

of our wishes - do you recall?

And we did make so many! 

For there were countless numbers of stars: 

each time we looked above we were

astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,

while in our hearts we felt safe and secure

watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,

knowing somehow we had survived their fall."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

○

"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."

- Thornton Wilder

○

Do you remember?

"In The Time Of Your Life..."

"In the time of your life, live - so that in good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

- William Saroyan