“Johannes Kepler is best known for figuring out the laws of planetary motion. In 1610, he published a little book called “The Six-Cornered Snowflake” that asked an even more fundamental question: How do visible forms arise? He wrote: "There must be some definite reason why, whenever snow begins to fall, its initial formation is invariably in the shape of a six-pointed starlet. For if it happens by chance, why do they not fall just as well with five corners or with seven?"
All around him Kepler saw beautiful shapes in nature: six-pointed snowflakes, the elliptical orbits of the planets, the hexagonal honeycombs of bees, the twelve-sided shape of pomegranate seeds. Why? he asks. Why does the stuff of the universe arrange itself into five-petaled flowers, spiral galaxies, double-helix DNA, rhomboid crystals, the rainbow's arc? Why the five-fingered, five-toed, bilaterally symmetric beauty of the newborn child? Why?
Kepler struggles with the problem, and along the way he stumbles onto sphere-packing. Why do pomegranate seeds have twelve flat sides? Because in the growing pomegranate fruit the seeds are squeezed into the smallest possible space. Start with spherical seeds, pack them as efficiently as possible with each sphere touching twelve neighbors. Then squeeze. Voila! And so he goes, convincing us, for example, that the bee's honeycomb has six sides because that's the way to make honey cells with the least amount of wax. His book is a tour-de-force of playful mathematics.
In the end, Kepler admits defeat in understanding the snowflake's six points, but he thinks he knows what's behind all of the beautiful forms of nature: A universal spirit pervading and shaping everything that exists. He calls it nature's "formative capacity." We would be inclined to say that Kepler was just giving a fancy name to something he couldn't explain. To the modern mind, "formative capacity" sounds like empty words.
We can do somewhat better. For example, we explain the shape of snowflakes by the shape of water molecules, and we explain the shape of water molecules with the mathematical laws of quantum physics. Since Kepler's time, we have made impressive progress towards understanding the visible forms of snowflakes, crystals, rainbows, and newborn babes by probing ever deeper into the heart of matter. But we are probably no closer than Kepler to answering the ultimate questions: What is the reason for the curious connection between nature and mathematics? Why are the mathematical laws of nature one thing rather than another? Why does the universe exist at all? Like Kepler, we can give it a name, but the most forthright answer is simply: I don't know.”
"The image that comes to mind is a boxing ring. There are times when you just want that bell to ring, but you're the one who's losing. The one who's winning doesn't have that feeling. Do you have the energy and strength to face life? Life can ask more of you than you are willing to give. And then you say, 'Life is not something that should have been. I'm not going to play the game. I'm going to meditate. I'm going to call "out". There are three positions possible. One is the up-to-it, and facing the game and playing through. The second is saying, "Absolutely not. I don't want to stay in this dogfight." That's the absolute out. The third position is the one that says, "This is mixed of good and evil. I'm on the side of the good. I accept the world with corrections. And may the world be the way I like it. And it's good for me and my friends." There are the only three positions."
- Joseph Campbell
o
"The Champ"
by CP
"Ding, ding, ding, you hear the bell for the start of the fight, hear the crowd, noisy, excited to see this rematch between you and Life. You're here, and still the Champ, right? Fought this guy so many times before, always beat him, too, though you took many a beating yourself in the process, each fight a little tougher, taking a little more out of you each time. You meet in the center of the ring... damn, has this guy grown somehow? He looks bigger, more muscled, and has a real confident look in his eye. So what? You're the Champ, still standing, right? Let'sget it on!
Ding, ding, ding, you meet him in the center of the ring, toe to toe, jabbing, bobbing and weaving, feeling each other out. He seems faster than you remember, while your own punches are a hair slower, not quite able to connect solidly, while his land solidly, crisply, heavily. He lands a tremendous body shot to your side, knocking the air right out of you, and you clinch him desperately, sucking in as much air as you can while he hammers away at you, your forearms blocking most, but not all, of those heavy, heavy punches.
Ding, ding, ding, the bell ends the round and you sit on your stool, hearing the trainers tell you how to fight this guy, "Don't clinch with him, he's too strong, he'll bust you up!" "Dance, man, side to side, bob and weave, don't give him anything to hit! Jab and dance away, jab, jab, jab..." words you've heard so many times before. You think of previous bouts with this guy, the loss of a job when you had a family to support, the bitter divorce, the deaths of loved ones, and every time he came wanting to knock your head off, but your will power, training and instincts always kept you standing at the end, still the Champ, right? But this time, something's not right, something's different somehow.
Yeah, time's gone by, not so young or strong as you once were, not as fast, don't recover as fast, but haven't been taken out yet, right? And everybody knows the rules, the only way he wins is to knock you out, you just gotta hang on, take his best shots and give him all you got until that bell rings for the end of the fight, and if you're still there, still standing, you win. Still the Champ, right? Round after round after round...
Ding, ding, ding, last round, you're feeling so tired, legs almost gone, no snap to the punches, but he looks fresh, strong, and bores in with a mean intent, landing hammer blows, knocking you back towards the corner where he wants you, you try dancing sideways, he cuts off the ring, no escape that way, and keeps coming in. A thunderous right cross lands smack on your chin, everything turns black for a second, legs about to go as the instincts kick in and you throw your body back out of the way, sucking in as much air as you can, shaking your head to clear the blurriness, but you're in the corner now, where he wants you, and here he comes with a vengeance, fast, strong, wanting the knockout, but you're still standing, still the Champ, right? Right?
"There is a dark agenda going on now to make sure you lose everything you have. If you're not careful and well-informed, the next decade may be full of financial woes. There are things that the government and the wealthy are hiding from you so that you can keep getting poorer and poorer no matter how hard you work. How prepared you are to gear up and save yourself is dependent on how much information you have, and that’s why we’re here.
"The American middle class is dying right before our eyes. In the past decade alone, middle-income earners lost more purchasing power than they did between 1970 and 1990. That’s all thanks to the rising cost of living in the United States, which pushed median home prices from $17,000 in the 70s to almost $450,000 today. Cars, healthcare, education, gas, utilities, and everything we consume have faced an exponential price increase, but incomes have only risen by 66% over the last five decades, and inflation continues to eat away a higher share of people’s pay every month.
The foundation that supports this group is crumbling, and that’s because more middle-class Americans than ever before are being left out of homeownership. Since 2020, about 11 million families that used to be in this income bracket are no longer a part of it as inflation has surged, reaching a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
Another crucial part of the American Dream this generation can not afford anymore is retirement. A September Bankrate survey found that more than half of Americans in the workforce feel 'behind' on their retirement savings. The nation’s retirement system is falling apart. And millions of middle-class people are downwardly mobile into poverty as they age. According to Aon Consulting Group, middle-class Americans ages 55 to 64 have an average of $82,000 in their retirement accounts, compared to the national average of $53,000. The problem is that they will need between eight and eleven times more in order to maintain their living standards in retirement. This means the median American household needs more than half a million more in their retirement account.
We are working harder than ever, but even with two incomes, it is hard to make ends meet. In 1985, the typical male worker could provide a family of four with healthcare, housing, transportation, food, and college savings on just 40 weeks of income. Today it requires 62 weeks. About 90% of people in this group say middle-class life has gotten more expensive while wages aren’t keeping pace, American Compass reports.
Moreover, even those in the “upper middle class” are now living paycheck to paycheck. A survey by Barron's found that 51 percent of people with an annual salary over $100,000 run out of money on a month-to-month basis. At the same time, the average middle-income household carries $10,170 in credit card debt, data from the New York Federal Reserve shows - and record numbers say they are worried about being cut off from access to loans.
Delinquency rates on credit cards, mortgages, and auto payments have all been ticking up as the level of household savings continues to drop. Last month, Sixty-day car payment delinquencies for people earning between $55,000 to $99,000 hit an all-time record of 6.1%, up from 5.8 percent in the prior month, according to data from Fitch Ratings. That’s the highest level of lateness since the company first started tallying rates in 1994, and just as all of the stats we reported today, it shows that middle-class Americans are being financially wiped out.
Some say that the American middle class is shrinking, or disappearing. But that doesn’t quite describe the depth of this crisis. The U.S. middle class has been destroyed by decades of failed policies that allowed the cost of living to become too unbearable for the average person. Now, we’re watching its slow and painful death happening all around us, and the entire country is going down with it."
"In recent weeks there have been numerous high profile bank “glitches”, accounts are being shut down without warning at a staggering rate all over the nation, and more institutions continue to get into very serious financial trouble. For a while, I was ignoring some of these reports because I thought they were isolated issues. But when you step back and take a bigger picture view of things, it really does appear that we have a major problem with the banks.
According to CNN, on Friday many of our largest banks “were hit by deposit delays”…"Multiple US banks were hit by deposit delays on Friday caused by an error at a payment processing network, according to the Federal Reserve. The Clearing House, which operates the Automated Clearing House system, which allows banks to send electronic payments to each other, experienced a processing error with a batch of bank transactions. Banks send everything from direct deposit paychecks to customer bill payments for mortgages and utility bills through the ACH system.
This caused a tremendous amount of distress, because paychecks were not showing up in the accounts of a lot of people. And considering the fact that more than 60 percent of the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck, that is a big deal.
Incredibly, some banks are still trying to fix the problem. The following is a message that PNC Bank posted on Twitter on Sunday…"Good morning, Amy. Due to an industry-wide delay with Federal ACH transactions, some ACH credits and debits, including some Direct Deposits, haven’t been processed. We recommend that you contact your employer or ACH originator for more information. Thank you."
There have been so many bank “glitches” this year. So why is this happening? Could this latest incident have been caused by a cyberattack? I wish that I had answers to those questions.
Meanwhile, banks all over the U.S. are suddenly shutting down thousands of accounts without any warning whatsoever…The reasons vary, but the scene that plays out is almost always the same. Bank customers get a letter in the mail saying their institution is closing all of their checking and savings accounts. Their debit and credit cards are shuttered, too. The explanation, if there is one, usually lacks any useful detail. Can you imagine how you would feel if your cards suddenly did not work and you did not have access to your money?
Right now, we are seeing a tsunami of “de-risking” by banks that is unlike anything we have ever seen before…Or maybe the customers don’t see the letter, or never get one at all. Instead, they discover that their accounts no longer work while they’re at the grocery store, rental car counter or A.T.M. When they call their bank, frantic, representatives show concern at first. “Oh, no, so sorry,” they say. “We’ll do whatever we can to fix this.” But then comes the telltale pause and shift in tone. “Per your account agreement, we can close your account for any reason at any time,” the script often goes. These situations are what banks refer to as “exiting” or “de-risking.” To me, this is one of the most alarming financial trends that I have seen in a long time.
On top of everything else, Citizens Bank in Iowa has become the sixth U.S. bank this year to go belly up. The following comes from a press release issued by the FDIC… "Citizens Bank, Sac City, Iowa, was closed today by the Iowa Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect depositors, the FDIC entered into a Purchase and Assumption Agreement with Iowa Trust & Savings Bank, Emmetsburg, Iowa, to assume all of the deposits of Citizens Bank.
The two branches of Citizens Bank will reopen as branches of Iowa Trust & Savings Bank on Monday during normal business hours. This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Citizens Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.
Depositors of Citizens Bank will become depositors of Iowa Trust & Savings Bank, so customers do not need to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage. Customers of Citizens Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Iowa Trust & Savings Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow its branch offices to process their accounts as well.
As of September 30, 2023, Citizens Bank had approximately $66 million in total assets and $59 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, Iowa Trust & Savings Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank’s assets."
U.S. banks are sitting on an absolutely colossal mountain of unrealized losses. So it is just a matter of time before more fail. And other types of financial institutions are also on shaky ground. In fact, the biggest publicly traded brokerage firm in the country has started giving large numbers of workers the axe…"Charles Schwab on Monday began laying off employees across the company. Schwab, the largest publicly traded US brokerage, didn’t disclose how many employees were affected in an internal message seen by The Wall Street Journal. Some remaining employees will have new jobs or managers, according to the message."
Of course layoffs are starting to pick up speed from coast to coast. According to Zero Hedge, the number of employed Americans went down by 348,000 last month… "Yes, payrolls may still be positive but the actual change in monthly employment isn’t. In fact, in October the number of employer Americans collapsed by 348K (per the Household Survey). This was the second negative print this year, and the 7th negative employment month since the covid crash. Ironically, since then, we have seen just one negative payrolls months which makes sense, since the nonfarm payrolls number is far less accurate and much more gamed due to its market-moving abilities. The plunge in employment coupled with the jump in unemployed workers (by 146K) is also the reason why the unemployment rate unexpectedly went up."
Economic turmoil is erupting all around us, and much more chaos is on the way. So I hope that you have prepared for very harsh economic times, because the pace of change is only going to get quicker from here."
"We just got a warning from JP Morgan that people are not ready for what is about to go down. There will be years of problems. The world's largest bank, with assets totaling $4 trillion, is raising alarms about the potential fallout from rising interest rates. From real estate to retail, no sector seems safe. But what does this mean for you and your hard-earned money? Don't worry, we'll break down the jargon and give you the straight talk on what's really going on."
"We are seeing more inside her step forward and tell us what’s going on with the companies that they work at. Today we hear more from Wells Fargo and Mr. Cooper. Cyber attacks shut down court houses. Plus, we hear about the EV hertz debacle. Plus more dirt."
"China’s grand strategy to take its turn at dominance over the global scene depends on bogging down the USA in four wars at once. How’s it working so far? Pretty darn well. Amazingly, China hardly had to lift a finger to make it happen — though it did write some bank checks to the soulless old grifter sitting in the White House. Our country has arranged its collapse and downfall masterfully on its own.
War No. 1: There was absolutely no need to start the war in Ukraine, you understand, which has by now not only bled Ukraine’s young male population to the bone, but drained our own military of field weapons and ammunition. After the Soviet collapse, Ukraine existed as a poor backwater in Russia’s orbit, causing no trouble for anyone — except itself, due to world-beating corruption — until the USA started a push to include it in NATO. Our neocons made it clear that the purpose of this was to hem-in and weaken Russia. (Why? “Reasons,” they said.) This policy alarmed and infuriated the Russians who made it clear that NATO membership wasn’t going to happen.
The US persisted, engineered a coup in 2014 against the Russian-leaning president Yanukovych, and spurred his replacements, first Poroshenko and then Zelensky, to pound the ethnic Russian provinces of the Donbas with rockets and artillery for years on end. Meanwhile, we trained, armed, and supplied a large Ukrainian army and refused to negotiate the NATO expansion in good faith until Mr. Putin had enough in 2022 and moved to put a stop to all this monkey business.
After some initial mis-steps, the Russians began to prevail in early 2023. Now, there is a general consensus that Russia controls the battle space with its superior ordnance and troop strength, and the conflict is close to being over. Our NATO allies are not hiding their disgust over the fiasco. Ukraine is wrecked. What remains is how the “Joe Biden” regime reacts to yet another major overseas humiliation. As I see it, Mr. Putin must do his level best to not rub it in, since our country is in the throes of a psychotic fugue and might be capable of world-ending craziness.
War No. 2: Little more than a month ago, the Middle East was thought to have reached a moment of praiseworthy stability, according to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. We awaited an upgrade of the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Then, the savage Hamas operation of October 7 blew it all up. The Israeli-Palestinian quandary seems to have no possible solution.
The Palestinians want their own state, of course, but they push to establish it in the entire territory that Israel occupies now. (From the River to the sea….) The Israelis have no intention of being pushed out, and they resist other possible divisions of the land there that might serve to satisfy the Palestinians wish for a country of their own. Israel understands that a basic tenet of jihadi Islam, expressed clearly and often, is to exterminate the Jews, and there is no way around that. Israel’s adversaries don’t seem to understand the meaning of “never again.”
Israel now must deal with the latest affront to its existence and its clear goal is to disarm and destroy the Hamas terror organization. To the world’s horror, they are going about it brutally in Gaza because Hamas is dug-in in a vast tunnel network under the civilian overlay of houses, shops, schools, and hospitals. What else might Israel do? Probably seal off the tunnel system with Hamas in it, creating a gigantic graveyard of Islamic martyrs — a recipe for future cycles of vengeance.
As you can see, there appears to be no way this ends well for anyone. Other big Islamic players wait on the sidelines, making only threatening gestures so far. I doubt that Iran will risk its oil infrastructure and its electric grid to intervene. And despite Mr. Erdogan’s drum-beating and his large army, the Turkish economy and currency (the lira) would collapse if he jumped in. Egypt has zero appetite for war. That leaves Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, on Israel’s northern frontier. If they amp things up enough, Damascus and Beirut could become ashtrays.
So, I would expect that Israel grinds on methodically to put Hamas out of business and the region returns to its miserable stalemate status quo until the next generation of angry Palestinians starts a new cycle of violence. Meanwhile, Israel has its own fractious internal political problems to contend with. And also meanwhile, the Palestinians and Israelis compete by birth-rate to out-populate the other side — a contest that might stop suddenly with the economic collapse of the US and Europe, and the end of current global economic relations, including an orderly oil trade, that has produced nearly a century of global super-prosperity allowing populations to expand as they have. (There is also Israel’s 90-percent Covid vaccination rate to consider, with its detrimental effects on health and reproduction.) In a desperate scramble for resources that follows, things that can’t go on, stop.
Bringing us to War No. 3: The US Government’s war against its own citizens. This has been going on since Mr. Trump stepped onto the scene, and has included a semi-successful war against Mr. Trump personally — except that not only has it failed to put him out of business as a politician, it has substantiated many of the claims he made about corrupt and perfidious government that resulted in his election in 2016. All of that has only enhanced his polling numbers. And the lawless, bad faith court cases lodged against him have demonstrated the US government’s grievous fall into willful malfeasance that has the DOJ arresting and unfairly persecuting hundreds of innocent Americans that support Mr. Trump.
A big part of the government’s war against US citizens has been the bizarre Covid-19 episode and the long-running effort by public officials to deceive the population about it, including lockdowns and destruction of small businesses, the dishonest suppression of viable treatments, gross censorship about the harms of the mRNA vaccines, and trickery around the origins of the vaccines in the back rooms of our Department of Defense.
Another front of this war is the wide-open Mexican border, a lawless state of affairs created as deliberate policy by our cabinet secretaries, and done at a time when there is tremendous animus against the US from many other nations who send thousands of sketchy young men into our country with no attempt by our border officials to determine who they are.
It looks like “Joe Biden’s” hash will be settled shortly when the House, reorganized under a young and vital new speaker, reveals the Biden family’s bank records and begins the process of impeaching the president for bribery. “Joe Biden’s” party pretends that this is not happening and appears to have no plan to deal with consequences. For the moment, they still stupidly tout him as their candidate for the 2024 election, another arrant falsehood you can add to the thousand-and one affronts against the public that this party has tried to put over. Many Americans suspect there will not be a 2024 election, specifically that whoever is president in the coming year will invoke yet another national emergency order to postpone it on spurious grounds. Many are also far from persuaded that the 2020 election that installed “Joe Biden” was honest and legitimate.
Which brings us to War No. 4: The American peoples’ war against a government gone rogue. Obviously, it is not underway yet, but it’s easy to see how it might develop. I think it could commence in the aftermath of a financial calamity that is visibly brewing in the debt markets. The net result will be a collapsed standard-of-living for everyone in the USA, the breakdown of supply lines and daily business, and a very sharp loss of legitimacy for the people who have been in charge of anything in this country.
We emerge from this catastrophe a nearly medievalized society with a steeply-reduced population, unable to resist China’s attempt to colonize us. Pretty scary, huh? Just let’s keep doing what we’re doing."
Poitou, Ireland - "It’s easy to get discombobulated by the propaganda press. The lurid headlines attract your interest like a kind of newsporn – fascinating, intriguing, but ultimately fake. The media wants to keep the narrative simple enough for a popular audience. You’re either with us or against us. Good guys vs. bad guys. Pro-Israel or anti-semitic. Orioles vs. Blue Jays. No middle ground…no ambiguity. It wants us to ask no questions…to take sides…to cheer for the hometown and curse the out-of-towners.
More to the Story: But there’s always more to the story. And in the financial world it’s always the “more to the story” that is most important. What ‘everybody knows’ is already fully priced. Investors have bought or sold, depending on what they read in the newspapers. Left under-priced and undiscovered are the things everybody doesn’t know. That’s where the big pay-off comes.
In the mortgage finance crisis of 2008, for example, everybody knew that house prices always went up. Except John Paulson. He knew they didn’t always go up. When they become grossly overpriced - so that the average family can no longer afford the average house – they tend to come down. His hedge fund bet against the housing market, and while 4 million people lost their homes, his fund reportedly made $20 billion.
Michael Burry is probably better known, since he was portrayed in the movie, ‘The Big Short.’ He, too, saw the ‘more-to-the-story’; he shorted (sold) mortgage debt and made $100 million for himself on the trade, and another $700 million for his investors.
In politics, the ‘more to the story’ is the part they don’t want you to know. Huge efforts – backed by billions of dollars – are spent to keep you from knowing it. People with ‘more to the story’ thoughts are calumnied as traitors, Russian assets (as Hillary Clinton said of Tulsi Gabbard), “racists,” or today’s favorite, “anti-semitic.” And for most people, who have neither the time nor the energy to look further, that’s all the story they need to hear. Spin efforts are usually successful. Russia, bad. Ukraine, good. Israel, good. Palestine, bad.
“Human Animals”: So, it must have been that when Irish ‘terrorists,’ led by the Fitzgeralds of Desmond, attacked the English in the 16th century. English, good. Irish, bad. Thousands were slaughtered as the Irish tried to push the invaders out of Munster. As many as a third of the population of the region died. Finally, in 1583, the Earl of Desmond died and the uprising was over…for a while.
Back in London, the ‘more to the story’ was unnecessary and unwelcome. The English had been attacked by Irish rabble. The ‘terrorists’ should be eradicated…exterminated. After all, they were little more than ‘human animals’ or even subhumans…some said they were the remnants of the Neanderthals who once inhabited all of Europe. And England had a right to defend itself!
Irish terrorists were a constant threat. They attacked English soldiers. They couldn’t be trusted. They were uncivilized. They spoke a barbaric tongue…and to top it off, they were Catholics, taking their cues from a hostile European Pope. How long would it be before they would invite the French or Spaniards into Ireland…and use it as a stepping stone for an invasion of England?
In 1594, the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill, had asked for help from Spain. Long promised, finally, four thousand Spanish troops managed to land at Kinsale in Southwestern Ireland…but ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the Irish winter.
Meanwhile, an “English” force from Dublin arrived…and made an alliance with an Irish contingent under Donogh O’Brien. Soon, the combined armies had the Spanish besieged in Kinsale. The Spaniards were running out of food, while the rebel Irish armies of O’Donnell and Maguire slugged through the autumnal mud, hoping to relieve them.
The final battle took place on the hills outside Kinsale as the Spanish anxiously awaited the outcome. It was decided by cavalry. The English cavalry attacked the Irish footsoldiers, who fought them off with the traditional ‘hedgehog’ formation of long spears. Unfortunately, as the English withdrew, the Irish cavalry, mounted on their scrawny ponies, thought they were in retreat; they charged wildly, hoping to cut them down as they fled. Instead, the English, with better, heavier horses and a more disciplined approach to warfare, turned and stood firm, absorbing the shock with hardly a flinch. Then, when the Irish withdrew they did so in poor order, giving the English an opportunity to inflict great damage. Seeing their cavalry defeated, the rest of the army fled.
No Mercy: Soon after, the Spaniards surrendered…and the surviving Irish took to the hills. At this point, the Irish were defenseless. Like Palestinians in Gaza, they could harass, but they could mount no serious challenge. Ireland was at the mercy of English troops…who had no mercy to give.
The Irish nobility was hunted down. Speaking Irish was forbidden. Catholics weren’t allowed to own land. The Irish justice system…its laws…its customs – all were outlawed. Many of the celtic nobles, what was left of them, fled the country. “The flight of the earls,” as it was called, left the island with few native leaders to counter the English.
In 1641, Irish ‘terrorists’ once again attacked the English…particularly settlers in the North. In what was to become a popular theme for political propaganda, cartoons showed the rebels impaling Protestant babies on their pitchforks! This gave the war mongers and land grabbers an excuse. Once again, more Irish land was confiscated and sold to fund the military campaign.
By the middle of the 17th Century Irishmen had a grim choice – ‘To Hell…or to Connaught.’ British historian John Morrill calls it ‘the greatest exercise of ethnic cleansing in modern European history;’ thousands of the surviving Irish had to pack up and move west – to the poorer land on the Atlantic coast. (Incidentally, their descendants, farming small plots in West Ireland, suffered most heavily in the Potato Famine 200 years later.)
Many Irish tried to escape the violence by going up into the mountains. In the first invasion, in the 12th century, the Irish fled into the forests, where they were known as ‘wood kerns’ (see Shakespeare, above). In the 17th century, they were known as ‘tories.’ Being a “tory” was itself punishable by death, with ‘tory hunting’ encouraged by the settlers. Meanwhile, the English troops burned crops and barns and took any animals or food stocks they discovered. The result was widespread famine.
But violence works! The brutal campaigns – especially Oliver Cromwell’s scorched earth approach – did the job. Ireland was pacified and ruled by an Anglo-protestant ‘Ascendancy’ for the next 300 years."
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI)is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding,safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
"20 Items That Will Be Impossible To Find This Winter"
"Americans have already begun stocking up on pantry staples for the coming winter, and retailers are already reporting some empty shelves and inventory holes for everyday essentials. Extreme weather events are starting to occur in many areas of the United States, and now unexpected emergencies can erupt overnight and cut our access to energy supplies, water, and stores in the months ahead.
For example, the U.S. power grid gets more vulnerable to outages amid falling temperatures. Prolonged blackouts can occur without notice, which highlights the importance of having portable power banks and solar chargers in your emergency stockpile so you can continue to use your devices and call for help if you need it. Oftentimes, people just remember about these items when something has already happened, and by then, it probably won’t be that easy to find them at stores or online. Make sure you have at least one backup energy source to rely on in case of emergency.
If you live in an area where it snows regularly, winter tires are essential. They provide better traction and handling in snowy and icy conditions, which means you’re less likely to get into an accident and less likely to spend money on repairs. Getting caught in a snow or ice storm and having the car break down somewhere can put you in a life-threatening situation. So if you haven’t changed your tires for the winter yet, now it’s a good time to do so because a few weeks from now, everyone will start doing the same and prices will follow the demand.
Households that use a wood stove or fireplace as the main heat source during the winter should start stockpiling firewood early to avoid facing the shortages that gripped the market in 2021 and 2022. Other supplies like charcoal, propane, and butane are already going up in price and becoming more scarce in several states, so keep close attention to inventory gaps at your local store because they won’t likely improve until the spring.
A lot of people in the U.S. are already stocking up on bottled water for the winter, and you probably should do it, too. Extreme weather events are about to hit several states over the coming weeks and months, so families must have a five-day supply of water at home with at least five gallons per person, or a gallon per person a day. Whenever a weather emergency hits or a problem impacts the functioning of supply chains, water distribution systems can be suddenly interrupted, delaying deliveries to the stores. That’s why this is the first product to face empty shelves, and why you should replenish your pantry right now instead of waiting for the last minute.
Are you ready for another chaotic winter? We must get ready for all of the potential scenarios, and restock our pantries before it's too late. We hope this time around, people are better prepared for the shortages and product stockouts at grocery and retail stores. Every year, some of the items we usually take for granted disappear for months due to production or distribution issues down the supply chain. That's why assessing your family's needs and preparing in advance can be so helpful. For that reason, today, we listed several products that will face higher demand and tighter supplies in the next few months. Here are 20 Essential Items To Stock Up On Before They Sell Out This Winter."
“What powers the Heart Nebula? The large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element: hydrogen. The red glow and the larger shape are all created by a small group of stars near the nebula's center. A close up in high dynamic range (HDR) spanning about 30 light years contains many of these stars is shown below.
Click image for larger size.
This open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, many dim stars only a fraction of the mass of our Sun, and an absent microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia.”
"If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names." - Elbert Hubbard
"What a chimera then is man!
What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! Who will unravel this tangle?" - Blaise Pascal
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