Wednesday, July 12, 2023

"They Are All Quitting"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 7/12/23
"They Are All Quitting"
"The days of being normal or over. Companies are not hiring full-time workers, but we’re not supposed to be concerned. Businesses are hurting so bad that they’re squeezing money out of every place they can."
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The Daily "Near You?"

Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
And thank you from Casa Grande ;-)

The Poet: May Sarton, "Unison Benediction"

"Unison Benediction"

"Return to the most human,
nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,
the bewildered heart,
the angry mind:
and from the ultimate duress,
pierced with the breath of anguish,
speak of love.

Return, return to the deep sources,
nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,
to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness
and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.

Return to the most human,
nothing less will teach the angry spirit,
the bewildered heart;
the torn mind,
to accept the whole of its duress,
and pierced with anguish…
at last, act for love."

~ May Sarton

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave."

Full screen recommended.
 Kensington Journey, 7/12/23
"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave."

"Problems with drugs and crime on Kensington Ave, Philadelphia's most dangerous street. In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. Kensington's high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia's problems.

Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem."
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A comment: Shakespeare wrote in "Macbeth", "Hell is empty and all the devils are here." I once saw another quote about Hell, maybe Sartre, "This is Hell, cleverly disguised just enough to keep us from escaping." Look around, what do you see? Our society and economy, civilization itself is totally collapsing in every way, and it's doing it right now, and life as we knew it is already gone forever. The more I see, the more I think that thought about Hell just might be true...

Bill Bonner, "Off to the Poorhouse We Go!"

"Off to the Poorhouse We Go!"
America's finances continue to deteriorate... but who's to blame?
by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - “The last administration alone - the last guy who served in this office for four years - increased the total national debt by 40 percent in just four years.” - Joe Biden, remarks on the national debt ceiling in Valhalla, N.Y., May 10

Fox News leads off: "The U.S. national debt has increased by $1 trillion in the five weeks since President Biden signed a bill into law that effectively turns off the debt ceiling until 2025. On June 3, however, Biden signed legislation reflecting negotiations with House Republicans that requires a small spending cut next year and allows unlimited federal borrowing until 2025. With no debt ceiling in effect, federal borrowing jumped more than $350 billion in a single day and crossed the $32 trillion mark in less than two weeks."

Whee! It’s hi-ho…and off to the poorhouse we go!

A Dereliction of Duty: And who’s to blame? Donald Trump, who cut taxes and increased spending more than any president in history? Or Lyndon Johnson, who set the stage for America’s rush to bankruptcy with his ‘guns and butter’ programs – a war in Vietnam and the Great Society at home. Or was it Ronald Reagan? Or Barack Obama?

Or all those clowns in the House of Representatives who are supposed to be watching over our money? They dropped the ball. The Constitution gave them the “power of the purse.” But they’ve been derelict in their duty to protect the finances of the US government. And now, here’s the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: "…federal spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow to 29.1 percent over the next three decades. Driving a large part of that growth is spending on interest payments to service the national debt.

Net interest payments hit a nominal dollar record of $475 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and will nearly triple by FY 2033 to $1.4 trillion, growing to $2.7 trillion by 2043 and to $5.4 trillion by 2053. As a share of the economy, net interest will rise from 1.9 percent of GDP in FY 2022 to hit a record 3.2 percent by 2030 and more than double to 6.7 percent by 2053.

By 2051, spending on interest will be the single largest line item in the federal budget, surpassing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other mandatory and discretionary spending programs."

Late, Degenerate Empire: Wait. Is this something to worry about? Nah…it’s just business as usual. That is, it’s the business of a late, degenerate empire, squandering its most precious assets while desperately trying to ruin itself with the two sure-fire death-dealers – inflation and war. And who complains? Who sounds the alarm? The media…hardly a word. Congress…where have they been; isn’t it their job to make sure this doesn’t happen? The public? The voters? The bankers? The Fed?

Nah…nobody really cares. Because, everyone knows where this train is headed, and nobody wants to stop it. Instead, they want to get what they can, while they can. Buy Nvidia…beat Russia… stop China…and make sure we use the right pronouns…recycle our trash…and, by all means, don’t doff our hats and hang our heads when Stonewall Jackson’s name is mentioned.

Rick Rule interviewed us yesterday for his upcoming conference in Florida. (See note below for more info…) He asked an interesting question. Could we be wrong, he wanted to know? “Maybe, despite all our worries and criticisms of the powers-that-be…and all the theoretical effects of debt, money printing, deficits, bad trade policies and dumb governments… despite the approaching bankruptcy of the US government…and the decline and fall of the American empire…maybe it won’t happen. Maybe people will invent new technologies…new industries…and new ways of doing things…And those new things will overpower the dead, destructive weight of the political class."

Our reply: "Yes, of course people will invent new things. We’ll have new movies. New books. New apps. New gadgets. And some of them will be commercial successes. Some stocks will go up. Some people will make money. And won’t that be nice?

But there are forces of history…boom and bust…rise and fall…birth and death. These ‘megapolitical’ trends will be decorated and enlivened by people who invent things, and try to reform the system, but the deep currents of history won’t stop. 

There are always two opposite forces at work. One leads us forward – with win-win deals, aggregated in free markets, that lead to new wealth and civilized progress. But the other pulls us back to barbarism…with politics, violence, fraud – and win-lose deals that make us poorer. If we’re right…the win-losers now have the upper hand. They are tightening their grip…on the press…on our thoughts and on our money…on trade…on just about everything. And while they haven’t totally let slip the dogs of war…they are clearly headed for the kennel. Are we wrong about this? We hope so."

Greg Hunter, "Destroy America for One World Government"

"Destroy America for One World Government"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Award-winning journalist Alex Newman, author of the popular book “Deep State,” contends everything you are seeing from open borders to pushing the transgender ideology to war is all part of the push to destroy America and Christians for a One World Government hell on earth.

Newman says the riots in France are all part of the Deep State globalist game plan. Newman explains, “France has exploded in violence. They burned down historical sites. They have been looting, shooting fireworks at the police, and it’s been absolutely out of control. There is a reason why the globalists have been pushing mass migration. What I prove in the book, and it’s more and more obvious, this has every thing to do with undermining the nation state, undermining cohesive societies and really breaking up Christianity. This is very deliberate. It is calculated. What happens is people look around them and say, wow, I don’t share the same language, the came culture, the same religion, the same ideas, the same upbringing. We can’t even talk to each other. What’s the purpose of having the arbitrary line on a map that we call France or Sweden or Germany? Why not have a big European super state and then later a one world system. So, that’s what they are doing. The evidence is overwhelming. The globalists love what’s happening in France – destruction, polarization, shaking the grounds of society. You see churches burning, and this is very deliberate. By the way, the U.S. State Department was involved in training the agitators who have made this mess in France.”

Newman says that is also the plan in America. For proof, look at the wide open Southern border. Newman says, “Never in human history has a society imported a bunch of foreigners and then taught those foreigners that the country that they just moved to was oppressive and evil. That is exactly what a lot of these European governments are doing, and that’s exactly what the U.S. government is doing. They have the border wide open. They have dissolved the border on purpose. There have been at least 6 million illegal immigrants who have crossed the border since Biden has been in office.”

The UN is behind this one world government rule, and Newman points out, “The UN says we have to get rid of borders and nation states and first create regional governments and then a world government. That’s what this is all about. It’s very, very clear, and anybody who thinks America is going to be immune to this has not been paying attention. Again, the Southern border is wide open, and there are no signs that is going to change anytime soon.  Americans are so sick of this that a lot of Americans would be fine if the whole thing just collapsed. That is a very dangerous situation to be in. We have to recognize that we are dealing with criminals who have infiltrated our institutions that are the problem. It is that our institutions have been hijacked and weaponized. The perfect example is the persecution of the whistleblower and all of the protection given all of the cronies connected to the Bidens and the Clintons.”

In closing, Newman says, “Most of the problems we face today would go away if we could, once again, enforce the U.S. Constitution. It may look bleak, but we know God wins in the end.” Newman also takes a deep dive on the number one tool of the Deep State, and that is brainwashing your children under the guise of education. There is much more in the 38-minute interview."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with hard hitting journalist Alex Newman, founder of LibertySentinel.org and author of the book “Deep State,” that explains it all.

"How It Really Is"

 

"No Need To Wait"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 7/12/23
"No Need To Wait"
"The talk of recession coming down the road is ridiculous. The Recession is alive and well and it is already started. Costco executives stepped forward and admitted that people are not buying what they bought just a few months ago and especially a year ago."
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"Massive Shrinkflation At Dollar Tree! This Is Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 7/12/23
"Massive Shrinkflation At Dollar Tree! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Dollar Tree and are seeing a lot of grocery items that have shrunk in size. With many empty shelves in this store, we also notice they are adding a lot of higher priced items, which I'm not sure will do well here."
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"It Would Indeed..."


"'NATO, Our Nukes Are On Alert'; Russia To Call Bluff"

Canadian Prepper, 7/12/23
Full screen recommended.
"'NATO, Our Nukes Are On Alert'; Russia To Call Bluff"
Comments here:
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Scott Ritter, 7/12/23
"Ukraine, A Critical Analysis: Russia Will Invade Ukraine"
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Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 7/12/23
"Big Win For Russia; 'Ukraine Loses 26,000 Fighters, 
3,000 Arms In Counteroffensive' Despite NATO Aid"
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has revealed Ukraine's massive losses in counterattacks. According To Sergei Shoigu, Kyiv lost over 26,000 fighters and 3,000 pieces of armour in its counteroffensive. The Ukrainian army started its much-hyped counterattacks against Russia on June 4. But unlike the expectations of the West, the offensive failed to show any results."
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"We have a concept of domestic security and it's public, you can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used. So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it (the nuclear arsenal) can be used in accordance with our concept."
- Vladimir Putin
“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”
- Scott Russell Sanders

Folks, I fear our time for such reverence is here.
God help us, God help us all...

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

"Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 7/11/23"

VERY Strong Language Alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 7/11/23
"NATO: FU Ukraine, You Can't Come In"
"In today's broadcast Gerald Celente explains the 
deteriorating situation in Ukraine as well as the latest NATO updates."
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Gerald's in exceptionally fine form today! lol

"Close Your Bank of America Account Today; Escape From Las Vegas"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/11/23
"Close Your Bank of America Account Today;
 Escape From Las Vegas"
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Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "Oltremare"

Ludovico Einaudi, "Oltremare"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way.
Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.”

Chet Raymo, “The (Unattainable) Thing Itself”

“The (Unattainable) Thing Itself”
by Chet Raymo

“Clear water in a brilliant bowl,
Pink and white carnations. The light
In the room more like a snowy air,
Reflecting snow. A newly-fallen snow
At the end of winter when afternoons return.
Pink and white carnations- one desires
So much more than that. The day itself
Is simplified: a bowl of white, 
Cold, a cold porcelain, low and round,
With nothing more than the carnations there.”

"Simplicity. Morning. Forty minutes till sunrise. Coffee. An English muffin. Sit on the terrace. The sky a deep violet. Then rose. Then gold. Simplicity. The senses fill to overbrimming, displacing thought. The moment is sweet and pure. Distilled. The shackles of conscience fall away. One simply is.

“Say even that this complete simplicity
Stripped one of all one's torments, concealed
The evilly compounded, vital I
And made it fresh in a world of white,
A world of clear water, brilliant-edged,
Still one would want more, one would need more,
More than a world of white and snowy scents.”

Now I wait with my eyes fixed on that place along the horizon where the Sun will rise. The sky itself holds its breath, anticipates the flash of green. I try, I try to empty myself, Zenlike, to become an empty vessel for nature to fill. A gathering vessel, brilliant edged. To exist entirely in the moment, outside of time, this moment, just now, now, as the disk of the Sun bubbles up on the sea horizon, that orb of of molten gold.

“There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.”

It's no use, of course. No way to obviate the conscious mind. Perhaps a Zen master might do it, a mystic in transport, a drunken sailor who walks into a lamppost. Even as the Sun's disk inflates, swells, unaccountably huge, the mind parses, frames, construes. I close my eyes to shut out thought and the words fill up the space behind my eyelids. The thing itself is out of reach, the moment adulterated by mind. The blessing of consciousness. And the curse."

The Daily "Near You?"

Fishers, Indiana, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"16 Harsh Truths That Make Us Stronger "

"16 Harsh Truths That Make Us Stronger "
by Marc Chernoff

"1. Life is not easy. Hard work makes people lucky, it's the stuff that brings dreams to reality. So start every morning ready to run farther than you did yesterday and fight harder than you ever have before.

2. You will fail sometimes. The faster you accept this, the faster you can get on with being brilliant. You'll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won't work. So get out there and do something! Either you succeed or you learn a vital lesson. Win, Win.

3. Right now, there's a lot you don't know. The day you stop learning is the day you stop living. Embrace new information, think about it and use it to advance yourself.

4. There may not be a tomorrow. Not for everyone. Right now, someone on Earth is planning something for tomorrow without realizing they're going to die today. This is sad but true. So spend your time wisely today and pause long enough to appreciate it.

5. There's a lot you can't control. Wasting your time, talent and emotional energy on things that are beyond your control is a recipe for frustration, misery and stagnation. Invest your energy in the things you can control.

6. Information is not true knowledge. Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task a hundred times, but these discussions will only give you a philosophical understanding. You must experience a task firsthand to truly know it.

7. You can't be successful without providing value. Don't waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. When you're valuable to the world around you, you will be successful.

8. Someone else will always have more than you. Whether it's money, friends or magic beans that you're collecting, there will always be someone who has more than you. But remember, it's not how many you have, it's how passionate you are about collecting them. It's all about the journey.

9. You can't change the past. As Maria Robinson once said, "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." You can't change what happened, but you can change how you react to it.

10. The only person who can make you happy is you. The root of your happiness comes from your relationship with yourself. Sure external entities can have fleeting effects on your mood, but in the long run nothing matters more than how you feel about who you are on the inside.

11. There will always be people who don't like you. You can't be everything to everyone. No matter what you do, there will always be someone who thinks differently. So concentrate on doing what you know in your heart is right. What others think and say about you isn't all that important. What is important is how you feel about yourself.

12. You won't always get what you want. As Mick Jagger once sang, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need." Look around. Appreciate the things you have right now. Many people aren't so lucky.

13. In life, you get what you put in. If you want love, give love. If you want friends, be friendly. If you want money, provide value. It really is this simple.

14. Good friends will come and go. Most of your high school friends won't be a part of your college life. Most of your college friends won't be a part of your 20-something professional life. Most of your 20-something friends won't be there when your spouse and you bring your second child into the world. But some friends will stick. And it's these friends, the ones who transcend time with you, who matter.

15. Doing the same exact thing every day hinders self growth. If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. Growth happens when you change things, when you try new things, when you stretch beyond your comfort zone.

16. You will never feel 100% ready for something new. Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means you won't feel totally comfortable or ready for it.

And remember, trying to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. Strength comes from being comfortable in your own skin."

"Evil..."

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

- G. M. Gilbert

"Alas..."

Boobus Americanus, champion of willful ignorance.
They don't know because they don't want to know...
'One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless.'
- Henry Miller
 "Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day..."
Oh, we so deserve what we get...

"Burger King Stores Face Massive Threats As Fast Food Chain Files For Bankruptcy"

Full screen recommended.
"Burger King Stores Face Massive Threats 
As Fast Food Chain Files For Bankruptcy"
By Epic Economist

"Hundreds of Burger King restaurants in the United States are going to disappear in the months ahead as the company reports the bankruptcy of some of its biggest operators. A series of challenges are threatening its empire as one of the largest fast food chains in America and the world right now. New data reveals that Burger King is falling behind major rivals, including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s, as revenue shrinks and its restaurants continue to lose popularity amongst US consumers. The numbers indicate that the company’s problems are getting exponentially worse in 2023. That’s why today, we are going to expose the factors that are accelerating the demise of this popular brand.

Not one or two, but three major Burger King operators have filed for bankruptcy so far this year. The biggest franchisees in the state of Ohio, Utah, and Michigan have reported severe cash flow problems and a steep decline in foot traffic, sales volumes, and profits for years. They have been operating several stores at a loss, and about 400 of them are going to close doors for good this year. In addition, the company’s executives shuttered 124 underperforming locations between January and May, and another 63 restaurants were eliminated from its portfolio last month, according to reports released by Restaurant Dive.

In all, roughly 10% of Burger King’s 7,400 locations in America are likely to disappear in 2023, industry estimates reveal. Right now, corporate executives are pressuring collapsing franchisees to sell their stores to other operators instead of closing them, which could result in financial losses to the tune of $300 million. Last month, the company joined a filing alongside various creditors and vendors, to force a sale of the remaining units managed by struggling franchisees.

The fast food chain’s US store profitability has been declining for over a decade now. In fact, between 2010 and 2020, Burger King’s annual revenue decreased by 36%. In 2010, the brand made an average revenue of $2.5 billion, whereas that number was only $1.9 billion in 2022. Even before the COVID-19 Pandemic Burger King began to see a concerning decline in revenue. For instance, between 2012-2013 alone, the company’s revenue fell by 41.6%.

The Buy One, Get One for $1 and 2 for $6 promotions on Whoppers and chicken and fish sandwiches proved to be much less popular than the 2 for $5 deal the chain had in 2020, creating a "considerable year-over-year gap" in BK's earnings. Despite the strategy shifts announced by the chain, those moves didn't seem to be enough to help effectively boost its sales. In June, Burger King's domestic same-store sales grew by 1.1%, but this was a very disappointing gain when compared to its biggest competitor McDonald's, which grew its sales by 15%. Not to mention, Burger King lost its spot as America's second-largest burger chain. In 2021, Wendy’s surpassed Burger King to become the nation’s No. 2 burger chain by sales. According to Technomic data, Wendy’s system sales increased by 4.8% last year. Burger King, meanwhile, dropped by 5.4% to $9.6 billion.

It’s clear that the industry giant is not as financially healthy as we all thought and if there’s something that we learned from the retail apocalypse and the bank collapses of earlier this year is that there’s no company that’s too big to fail. A few bad quarters can bring down an empire that has been built over decades, let’s just hope that’s not the case with Burger King."
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"How It Really Is"

 

"It's Doomed To Fall"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 7/11/23
"It's Doomed To Fall"
"We are hearing about the central bank digital dollar being rolled out. Where will this happen first? Well, it looks like it’s going to be in Great Britain."
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Bill Bonner, "Italy's Ghost Towns"

Elizabeth inspects Sicily’s forgotten towns.
"Italy's Ghost Towns"
Bill and Elizabeth's road trip through Sicily's near-forgotten comunes...
by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - "After the wedding, we decided to do some exploration. We were intrigued by two towns – Castiglione di Sicilia…and Troina. The former aroused our curiosity as we drove through the lava fields around Mount Etna. There it was, on the top of a hill…far above the grape vineyards and wine groves below. And when we looked it up on the internet, we discovered that it was offering free houses. So, we decided to see for ourselves.

The other town, Troina, is interesting because it was the capital of the first Norman kingdom of Sicily and also because General George Patton waged a major battle there, in WWII, for control of the city. Both cities lie on the fringes of Mt. Etna, on what was known, in WWII, as the “Etna Line” which the Germans/Italians had fortified to stop the Allied advance towards Italy. We decided to do a circuit.

It did not take us long to discover that the interior of Sicily, in July, can be very hot, very dry, and very empty. But this discovery did not come until we realized that the whole country can also be very trashy. It reminded us of Latin America. Trash along the roads. Rusty tin. Unfinished buildings. The most striking thing however, at least along the coast, is the proliferation of low-rise apartment buildings…each apartment with its own balcony…each looks as though it were built in the ‘60s or ‘70s…and each is very ugly.

A National Emergency: Who lives in these places, we wondered? Italy’s population is falling. The average Italian woman has only 1.1 children – barely half as many as are needed to keep the population stable. The government has declared it a national emergency. Many small towns look abandoned. In the countryside, too, many old houses – including some very grand relics of the 19th century – are in ruins. The situation is so desperate that the towns are trying to attract residents by offering houses for free. Would we want to live in one? We decided to find out.

We headed south to Catania and then west up across the hilly country on the other side of Mt. Etna. Once away from the coast, there was almost no traffic. A driver, however, has to stay alert. The road switches back and forth, working its way up to the higher ground.

At the lower elevations are groves of olives and lemons…not especially well maintained. Then, as you get closer to Troina, the fields open up to more serious cultivation, with large, industrial-scale agriculture…and then, on the hillsides, to pleasant farms of wheat, hay, and other field crops. Often, the hills are so steep, it’s hard to see how tractors can get around; you see tire marks in the most improbable, and possibly dangerous places.
Tony’s Tale… The countryside is much prettier and less cluttered than the cities on the coast. Many old barns are abandoned. Houses too. Sheep and cattle graze. Farmsteads look well cared for. After about an hour of driving, Troina appeared on the top of a mountain ahead. At this point, we were beginning to ask questions. What in the world is the town doing there? The ground around it does not appear especially fertile or productive. Why would Norman raiders go there? And why did Gen. Patton bother to attack it? For all we can tell, it had no military importance at all.

We got a glimpse of what it must have been like to be one of Patton’s footsoldiers from a friend, many years ago. His name was Tony Caramela. He had been with the US troops that invaded Sicily…and then the boot of Italy. "I was driving a jeep. We saw a sign that pointed to “Caramela.” So, I had to drive over there. I didn’t even know there was such a town, but it must have been where we were from. I got there…I didn’t speak very good Italian, but enough to get around. I parked the jeep and showed a local guy my dog tags.

He asked what my father’s name was…and I told him. And then he said...‘Luigi!’ And it turned out he was my father’s cousin. And then dozens of people came out to meet us. They were all cousins...aunts…uncles…and they invited us to dinner…and made a pasta. It was great. Just like my grandmother used to make. No kidding.

After a couple of hours explaining what had happened to us in America, I had to get back to my unit. But when I came back to the jeep…all the wheels were missing. At that point, my cousin started yelling… ‘How can you do that to our cousin Luigi’…or something like that. And pretty soon, some guys came back with the wheels and put them back on."
When the War Was Over: The place seemed so marginal...so out-of-the way, it was hard to see why the Normans would have made it their headquarters. Even more improbable was that the US army would turn it into a battleground. But there were photos to prove it. Along the main street at the top of the ridge, there were photos of US soldiers relaxing on the city ramparts after the battle. There is also a photo of Italian soldiers surrendering to them. Curiously, the Italians look pretty happy with themselves. They did their duty; now their war was over.

There is also a bronze statue of the man who took the photos – Robert Capa. Capa was a civilian, the only civilian photographer at the Omaha beach landing, for example. He took photos, many of them famous, for US magazines. He died in 1954 when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam.

A museum in Troina advertises a full complement of Capa’s photos. But on this point, the tourist must be alert. Almost all museums, churches and other places you might like to visit are closed – at least when you want to visit them. This is probably a consequence of the fact that these are tourist attractions, but there are no tourists to be attracted to them.

Making our way up into town was not easy. You drive up, around, up…and up some more, through the narrow and twisty streets. And then you realize that you are stuck. You cannot go forward; the road is too narrow. And going back is treacherous. You are likely to slip off the steep, polished cobblestones and end up far below, upside down.

It was in such a predicament that we found ourselves in Troina, when a local woman happened upon the scene. This was remarkable in itself since we had seen no living human for the last half hour…and none in the town of Troina. It was a hot day. And it was 2 in the afternoon, so we assumed that they were all inside, avoiding the heat.

We asked her in Spanish…then in English. She understood neither, but got the gist of our question and suggested that we back up very slowly…and park the car along the side of the road, and walk up to the old part of town. Elizabeth got out of the car to guide us down, and after a few minutes, we were safely ensconced. The woman had meanwhile disappeared into the warren of medieval passage-ways...so we followed the main street. Silence. No cars. No voices. No air conditioners. No TVs.
The Loneliest Bartender in Town: And yet, there must have been some humans. While many of the houses appeared to be unused or abandoned, many were not. There were automobiles parked here and there…we had no idea how they got there. And many houses were handsome…with heavy stone, often adorned with crests or emblems. Some houses were marked ‘vende’ …many others would probably be for sale if the effort didn’t seem so futile. Just as there were no tourists, nor were there any eager real estate buyers. No one is going to ‘flip’ a house in Troina.

After thus walking up and up along the main drag, we finally came upon a mother and her daughter. They were in front of a large, institutional building that looked like it had been put up in the post-war years. The town seems to have enjoyed a building boom in the ‘60s…mostly repairing what was done by the US 1st Infantry. “Stop doing that,” the woman said to her daughter. The girl, about 14 or 15, was beating her head against a sign post. Elizabeth read the sign. “That’s a home for retarded children,” she explained.

We walked on. Finally reaching the town center, there was a museum, closed. There was also a Norman-era church…also closed. The town square featured tables, with umbrellas and chairs arranged on the plaza, so we could imagine happy people enjoying a café. But you had to use your imagination; the square was as empty of people as the rest of the town.

But there was a “pub”…and the door was open. We went in. The place was clean and spacious, with a wood paneled bar and comfy booths with picture windows looking out over Mt. Etna and miles of empty countryside. Again, we could imagine how nice it would be…if there were people in it. But there were no customers, just a young man tending the bar for no one. We ordered two espressos. “I can’t see why anyone would want to live here,” said Elizabeth. “You’d feel like a rat in an abandoned city.”

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”
“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”
- Voltaire

Col. Douglas Macgregor, "The Russians Have 750,000 Troops Ready To Strike"

Col. Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls 7/11/23
"The Russians Have 750,000 Troops Ready To Strike"
"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current 
geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
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Scott Ritter, 7/11/23
"The Heavy Brigade is Coming"
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Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 7/11/23
"Russia Lashes Out As NATO Eases Ukraine's 
Membership Process; Says 'Don’t Cross Red Line'"
"NATO's Vilnius Summit started with a big "Ukraine provocation" for Russia. NATO has eased Ukraine's membership process by reducing it to a one-step path. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said this has been done to send a clear signal on its commitment to secure Ukraine. The assurance comes ahead of the Ukrainian President's appearance at the summit. Meanwhile, Russia has warned NATO against crossing the "red line."
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And this is the absolute truth about Human nature.
Something in the DNA...We just can't help ourselves...
Full screen recommended.
Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"
"A visual journey into mankind's favorite pastime throughout the ages."

"Massive Price Increases On Meat At Meijer! Stocking Up On Deals! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 7/11/23
"Massive Price Increases On Meat At Meijer! 
Stocking Up On Deals! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are noticing that meat prices are starting to skyrocket! We are here to stock up on the best sales possible as the prices for groceries continue to rise in cost."
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Greg Hunter, "Normal is Over "

"Normal is Over "
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Analyst and financial writer John Rubino has been warning for years that a systemic crash was always in the cards because of the enormous unpayable debt buildup. The debt for America has never been more extreme. Now, there is a new wrinkle in the equation for an elite class wanting to hang onto power, and that is war – a nuclear war. Rubino says, “These neocon chickenhawk psychopaths who are running Biden’s foreign policy are going to try to extend U.S. domination around the world. 5% of the world’s population is going to rule the other 95% of the population in perpetuity. They see this as a ‘New American Century’ to be imposed by force, and they are willing to risk nuclear war to do that. It’s baffling.”

Even if there is no wider war, Rubino says a systemic crash is closer than ever because of the massive amount of debt that even the common man knows will never be paid back. Rubino says, “You cannot borrow the amount of money we have borrowed, it’s something like $700 trillion if you add everything in, it’s many times the GDP. You can’t take on that kind of debt and then go back to normal. Normal is over. This would be like you or me borrowing $20 million on credit cards. There is no way you can go back to normal. The guys in charge of monetary policy are pretending they don’t know that or they actually don’t know that. You can’t tell whether they are an idiot or an evil genius. It is clear that they are not correct when they say they can give us a ‘soft landing’ and get us back to organic sustainable growth. You cannot borrow this kind of money without a gigantic crisis to wipe out that debt.”

There is some good news as Rubino contends, “They are telling us bigger and bigger and more ornate lies. More and more people are starting to see through those lies.” Rubino says this is a phenomenon called a ‘trust horizon,’ and it is shrinking for most people. Rubino explains, “Right now, people are trusting fewer and fewer of those big distant systems, and they are looking closer to home. Would you trust the governor? Maybe not, but you might trust the mayor because they can meet the mayor and shake hands with him. You might trust the local farmers because you don’t trust the big food companies anymore. And that’s what is happening in society right now. The trust horizon is shrinking back to a local level.”

When it comes down to it, Rubino thinks we will all be facing only two choices to get rid of all the unpayable debt. Rubino says, “When the first domino falls and starts knocking the other dominos over, the government is looking at a 1930’s style deflationary depression as everybody defaults on their debt, or they come back with a gigantic bailout because it is the only other thing they can do. They give up on inflation and create as many new trillions of dollars that it takes to stop the bleeding. Then currencies start falling and inflation starts spiking, and basically, it’s game over.” One of these two choices is coming sooner than you think, according to Rubino. There is much more in the 40-minute interview."

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with financial 
writer John Rubino and his new enterprise called Rubino.Substack.com

Monday, July 10, 2023

"NATO Alert: 'Coalition Of The Willing'; Belarus Airspace; Serbia Stops Arms Exports"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/10/23
"NATO Alert: 'Coalition Of The Willing'; 
Belarus Airspace; Serbia Stops Arms Exports"
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"US Cities Look Worse Than Mad Max; Used Car Market Crash; Churches Have Sold You Out"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/10/23
"US Cities Look Worse Than Mad Max;
 Used Car Market Crash; Churches Have Sold You Out"
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"Food Manufacturers Are Shrinking Products! Shrinkflation Is Everywhere!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 7/10/23
"Food Manufacturers Are Shrinking Products!
 Shrinkflation Is Everywhere!"
"We expose the truth on food manufacturers and the massive shrinkflation going on, and explain how all of these major grocery stores are price gouging! We are starting to notice massive shrinkflation everywhere! It's getting rough out here as many families struggle to put food on the table!"
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Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Northern winter constellations and a long arc of the Milky Way are setting in this night skyscape looking toward the Pacific Ocean from Point Reyes on planet Earth's California coast. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, is prominent below the starry arc toward the left. Orion's yellowish Betelgeuse, Aldebaran in Taurus, and the blue tinted Pleiades star cluster also find themselves between Milky Way and northwestern horizon near the center of the scene.
The nebulae visible in the series of exposures used to construct this panoramic view were captured in early March, but are just too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. On that northern night their expansive glow includes the reddish semi-circle of Barnard's Loop in Orion and NGC 1499 above and right of the Pleiades, also known as the California Nebula."

Free Download: Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet"

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are
only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.
Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence,
something helpless that wants our love."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet"

"The Restless Heart" 
by Chet Raymo

In "Letters to a Young Poet", Rainer Maria Rilke writes: "We should try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue." To which I would add, let us trust the gifts that nature has given us- curiosity, attention, reason- and if our personal lives are destined for oblivion, then know that we have made of ordinary things something grander and more enduring. We are the transformers. We are bestowers of praise. "Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them," Rilke advises the restless young poet, echoing the great Catholic mystics: "And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

Is it enough? In the long history of humanity, no hope has been so enduring as personal immortality. At every time and in every place men and women have assumed they will live forever. It is our solace, our balm for the restless heart. Even Neanderthals, it seems, placed flowers in the graves of their dead, presumably to grace the afterlife.

But the lesson of modern biology is clear: Death is final. Do we lapse then into morbidity? Do we rage, rage against the dying of the light? We have art. We have science. Even a rhyme can thumb its nose at death, says Seamus Heaney. We can each of us try to live our lives as poetry, to add to the world an element of graciousness that is not strictly necessary, to leave behind a spoor of rhymes that marks our passage on the Earth.

Yes, the spirit is flesh, but the spirit is more than flesh. The spirit is flesh in interaction with a universe of almost unimaginable grandeur and complexity. The windows of the flesh are thrown open to the world. The spirit is a wind of awareness, a pool stirred by angels."

Some part of the spirit will linger after the flesh is gone, as memories in other flesh, as words, music, science, rhymes- as a world nudged slightly in its pell-mell course towards good or bad. But the self is mortal: This is the existential fact that agitates the restless heart. "We are biological and our souls cannot fly free," writes Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, summarizing what science has taught us about ourselves. He adds: "This is the essential first hypothesis for any consideration of the human condition."
Freely download or read online "Letters to a Young Poet",
 by Rainer Maria Rilke, here: