Jim Kunstler, "Poison Spiders at the Center of the Web"

"Poison Spiders at the Center of the Web"

by Jim Kunstler

“The same people accusing Trump voters of subverting democracy are the ones who cheated in every election since the 1960s, lied to get us into half a dozen stupid wars, created Covid in a lab, and then covered that up. You are free to tell them to STFU.” - Peachy Keenan

"You know why the judge let provocateur Ray Epps off the hook for his antics before and during the so-called J-6 “insurrection,” don’t you? Well, yes, it was partly because he was acting at the direction of blob officials, most likely the FBI, but possibly the CIA, Defense Intelligence, or some black-box fed outfit no one ever of (but somehow gets half a billion in funding every year). Ol’ Ray, pleaded to one year’s probation (no jail time), 100 hours of community service (checking books out at his local library?), and a $500 fine. Say, what? A speeding ticket on the Rockville Pike would probably cost you more.

You remember those videos of Ray on the DC street the day before the riot, importuning the crowd, a commanding presence with his military bearing and red hat, six inches taller than most of the other men around him, yelling, “Tomorrow we need to go into the Capitol, into the Capitol!” At which moment the crowd groaned “no-o-o-o... !” and then commenced chanting, “fed... fed... fed...!” They had his number. His use of the word need was especially beguiling, as in, who actually “needed” that to happen?

I’ll tell you one reason Ray didn’t get, like, twenty years, nor two years of pre-trial detention in the reeking, roach-infested DC lockup, or massive fines, like other J-6 defendants: Because he told his handlers in no uncertain terms that he would blow their cover and vivisect them publicly on the whole fed J-6 operation if they so much as made him show up in person for any proceeding — and, of course, he “attended” his sentencing by phone, in a Zoom meeting from a remote location.

Okay, I’ll tell you the actual reason that Ray Epps got the VIP powder puff treatment: It was to give half of America a poke in the eye with a sharp stick... the old double-barreled middle finger... a thunderous f*ck you, with the subtext: we can do anything we want to you and you can’t do anything about it... and we can rub your faces in it, too, ho ho... and then empty a bed pan over your head in case you’re not feeling sufficiently impotent and humiliated. And the purpose of all that is their hope to foment some act of genuine violent resistance against the blob to justify further lawless persecution of the blob’s enemies. They’re really hoping to set off a civil war to justify martial law in order to ensure a free and fair election.

The judge in the Ray Epps case is... wait for it... the fabulous judicial utility infielder, James Boasberg, now Chief Judge of the DC Federal District Court, a big cheese. Yes, the same rascal who sat on the FISA Court during the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” shenanigans, when they fed all manner of fake documents to that court to enable the FBI to conduct warrantless surveillance on Donald Trump’s campaign, and then afterwards on his presidency.

It was Judge Boasberg who let FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith off the hook with probation when he was charged with doctoring an email to conceal the fact that FBI target Carter Page had been an active CIA informer in Russia over the years, not just some schlub swanning around the fringe of the Trump Campaign. Getting a FISA warrant on Carter Page was tremendously advantageous to the FBI, because it enabled them to use the “three-hop rule,” meaning they could also surveil anyone else in the Trump retinue who Mr. Page had communicated with by phone or email.

The disposition of Ray Epps’s case also means there will be no further official inquiries into his behavior that fateful day 1/6/21. The principle of double jeopardy means he can’t be tried for the same thing twice. There will be no further inquiries into what he did that day and on J-6 itself when he appeared at the barricades on the Capitol grounds, apparently goading protesters to bust through them. It’s a dead letter. Chalk up a “W” for the blob.

But now, chalk up an “L” for the blob: Fani Wills, the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney, has been caught funneling more than half a million dollars to her love bunny, attorney Nathan Wade, after appointing him “special counsel” in the gigantic RICO case against Donald Trump and eighteen other defendants. Poor optics, as they say, and maybe a good deal more than that — such as prosecutorial misconduct. The fact that the lovestruck pair took Caribbean cruises together with that money may only be a minor part of the story. More will come out when Fani Willis answers the summons she has been served to give a deposition at the request of Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers in the Wades’ ongoing divorce proceeding.

More to the point, both Fani Willis and Nathan Wade (in her service) spent time consulting with lawyers at the White House before they filed charges against Mr. Trump. Mr. Wade was there on May 23 and November 19, 2022 talking to Joe Biden’s White House counsel for sixteen hours. Ms. Willis is shown by White House visitor logs to have been present for five hours a few months later, on February 18, 2023, a week after recommending charges to a Fulton County grand jury. The log states that she spent those five hours with veep Kamala Harris.

I doubt that is who she came to visit. My guess is that Ms. Willis spent those hours being coached by Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco, possibly joined by Mary McCord, a former head of the DOJ’s National Security division during the “Crossfire Hurricane” years, then “outside counsel” to the first House impeachment committee, then counsel to the House J-6 committee. It was Ms. McCord, in Trump Impeachment # 1, who arranged for then DOJ Inspector General Michael Atkinson to change the whistleblower rules, allowing for hearsay evidence, which gave a green light to NSA mole Eric Ciaramella to report on the infamous Ukraine phone call that he had not personally witnessed (but was fed a story on by Col. Alexander Vindman.) Nice work there. In other words, these two gals, Lisa Monaco and Mary McCord, are the poison spiders in the DOJ web of veteran seditionists.

This week there is also chatter as to whether Special Counsel Jack Smith might ever actually bring an official federal “insurrection” charge against Mr. Trump to facilitate his “branding” so as to get him kicked off the ballot around the country. I doubt that’ll work out for Mr. Smith, too. If such a matter ever went to trial Mr. Trump would enjoy the right to “discovery” of all sorts of evidence that the DOJ and the FBI would never allow to see the light of day. So, Jack’s stuck with his lame cases now on the docket which, believe me, will be going nowhere.

- https://kunstler.com/

A Blues Musical Interlude: John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus.

Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright blue O-type star above picture center. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across.”

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

"In A Nation Ruled By Swine..."

“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile - and the rest of us are f**ked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.”

- Hunter S. Thompson, “The Great Shark Hunt”

Gerald Celente, "Israel War Ramping Up, Oil Crisis Coming!"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 1/11/24

"Israel War Ramping Up, Oil Crisis Coming!"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/w

Jeremiah Babe, "There Is No Avoiding The Greatest Economic And Housing Crash In History"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/11/24

"There Is No Avoiding The Greatest Economic 

And Housing Crash In History"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Metamora, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "There Is Time Left"

"There Is Time Left"

 "Well, there is time left 

fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away

from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put ones foot into the door of the grass, which is

the mystery, which is death as well as life,

and not be afraid!

To set ones foot in the door of death,

and be overcome with amazement!"

~ Mary Oliver

"You Think..."

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”

~ Wendell Berry

Free Download: Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."

- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Freely download "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Ernest Hemingway, here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com

"Slowly. Then Rapidly"

"Slowly. Then Rapidly"

by Brian Maher

"In 1981 - 205 years after the nation’s birth - its debt first scaled $1 trillion. That is, the business was the work of 205 years. Today the work of 205 years reduces not to centuries… not to decades… not to years… but to months.

Consider: The nation’s debt attained an existingly delirious $33 trillion in September 2023. In January 2024 - a mere four months following the calamity - the national debt gallops to $34 trillion. Four months! No - under four months. The $33 trillion embarrassment was not attained until mid-September. The $34 trillion enormity was attained the opening week of January. Impossible. But there it is.

Five Years Ahead of Schedule: In January 2020 the Congressional Budget Office divined the nation’s debt would scale $34 trillion in 2029. A five-year misunderestimation! Yet that divination preceded the fantastic fiscal deluges attending the pandemic. In 2024 the torrents have scarcely relented. Mr. Eric Boehm of Reason magazine: "The debt has grown faster due to the unprecedented levels of fiscal stimulus unleashed during the pandemic and because baseline federal spending has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the federal government spent $6.1 trillion, up from $4.4 trillion in fiscal year 2019 (the last one before the pandemic). Federal revenue has climbed in recent years as well - $4.4 trillion last year, up from $3.5 trillion in 2019 - but those increases haven’t been large enough to keep up with the surge in new spending."

Has the pandemic not ended? Have not its savage lockdowns likewise ended? Both have ended, yes. Why - then - cannot the government of the United States revert to pre-pandemic spending? That 2019 spending was already lunatic. Why must the government of the United States sustain pandemic levels of fiscal lunacy in the post-pandemic period? In neither law nor equity can we discern an explanation. That is, in neither law nor equity can we discern a compelling explanation.

The business nonetheless proceeds - without let, without hindrance. Mr. Michael Peterson of the Peterson Foundation: "Looking ahead, debt will continue to skyrocket as the Treasury expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion more by the end of March." Slowly. Then rapidly.

Entering the Exponential Phase: The business begins to assume an exponential aspect. That is, it begins to increase at an increasing gait. Two hundred and five years to attain a $1 trillion debt, 10 years to attain a $3 trillion in debt, 10 additional years to attain a $6 trillion debt, 10 years after that to attain a $15 trillion debt, 10 additional years to attain a $27 trillion debt, three years to attain a $33 trillion debt, under four months to attain a $34 trillion debt.

Here is progress - of a very peculiar sort. How long until the nation’s debt surpasses $35 trillion? Three months - or less? How about $36 trillion after that? Then $40 trillion? Then $50 trillion? A $50 trillion economy can withstand a $36 trillion debt burden. It can likely withstand a $40 trillion burden. If the gods are kind… it may even withstand a $50 trillion debt burden.

But the United States economy is not a $50 trillion economy. It is - perhaps - a $27 trillion economy. Is economic expansion maintaining pace with this mushrooming debt? Alas… it is not.

Galloping Debt, Crawling Growth: Set to one side the rebound year of 2021. Not since 2005 has the gross domestic product exceeded 3% annual expansion. Meantime, the Congressional Budget Office projects average 1.8% annual growth through 2033. That is: Debt gallops, growth crawls.

Thus, as we have argued before: The Keynesian “multiplier” - the miracle of water into wine - has taken up division. It remains a multiplier only within the economics departments of ivied institutions and castles very high in the sky. As we have likewise noted before: "Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have indicated that annual economic growth slips 2% per year when the debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 60%. At 90%, growth is “roughly cut in half.” An outfit labeled the Committee for Economic Development argues a “responsible” ratio for a nation the size of the United States is 70%. What is America’s current debt-to-GDP ratio? Some 124%.

Democracy Dies in Debt: A certain Maya MacGuineas, presides over the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (do not laugh!). From whom: "Though our level of debt is dangerous for both our economy and for national security, America just cannot stop borrowing. This is a moment of consequence and continuing to refuse to pay our own bills will not lead us to where we need to be as a nation." Where do we need to be as a nation? We do not know. Perhaps the gutter?

The United States government - the taxpayers of the United States, that is - presently shovel out $2 billion each day to service existing debt. How much more must they shovel out as the nation’s debt takes its exponential leaps? We do not know. Yet the figure will be plenty handsome. Reports Mr. Bezos and his Washington Post: "Interest costs are already the fastest-growing part of the budget. Net interest costs - a nonnegotiable expense - nearly doubled as a share of federal outlays between 2020 and 2023, going from $345 billion, or 5%, to $660 billion, or 10%. (Defense, by comparison, cost $815 billion, or 13% of spending in 2023.)"

Perhaps democracy dies not in darkness as Mr. Bezos claims - but in debt. What will be left for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national offense and the rest of it? How will the United States afford its bread and its circuses? At the going rate… only with fantastic and herculean exertions. Uh-oh...

Meantime, some 30% of United States government debt is poised to mature this year. Much of this debt was taken on in a regime of drastically lower interest rates. Upon maturation it must be refinanced at today’s elevated rates. Consider for example the 3-month Treasury bill. The thing yielded nearly nothing in 2021. It presently yields over 5%. Meantime, the 10-year Treasury note yielded 0.50% in the hell-sent summer of 2020. It presently yields 4%.

For years and years the boy has yelled wolf. At $1 trillion of debt, at $2 trillion of debt, at every other trillion - now at $34 trillion. But the wolf has yet to appear. It has merely cast phantom shadows. We do not know when the snarling wolf will ultimately appear upon the stoop. Yet as noted above, the exponential function begins to apply. With it, the cascading effect - the spiraling effect. Slowly. Then rapidly…"

- https://dailyreckoning.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Prescription Medicine Shortages"

Adventures With Danno, PM 1/11/24

"Prescription Medicine Shortages & 

What You Need To Know! This Is Unbelievable!"

Prescription medications that are in a serious shortage right now, and what you need to know moving forward. This is unbelievable as this issue continues to just get worse.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Canadian Prepper, "Warning: 3 Major Red Flags; NATO Moves On Black Sea; Ukraine Nuclear Option; Lebanon About To Blow"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 1/11/24

"Warning: 3 Major Red Flags; NATO Moves On Black Sea; 

Ukraine Nuclear Option; Lebanon About To Blow"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "We're Not Going To Pay You"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 1/11/24

"We're Not Going To Pay You"

"What would you do if you lost your pension or your 

Social Security? Imagine saving for retirement and you lose it all."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Deals At Kroger This Week! Stock Up On These Items"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 1/11/24

"Deals At Kroger This Week! Stock Up On These Items"

"Taking you shopping with me to show all the 

different kinds of ways you can save money this week at Kroger!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

by Jeff Thomas

"In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky. The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed. If there were a shortage of, say, shoes, we could make do for months or even years. A shortage of gasoline would be worse, but we could survive it, through mass transport or even walking, if necessary.

But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbor with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbor and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.”

There’s no need to speculate on this concern yet. There’s nothing so alarming on the evening news yet to suggest that such a problem might be imminent. So, let’s have a closer look at the actual food distribution industry, compare it to the present direction of the economy, and see whether there might be reason for concern.

The food industry typically operates on very small margins – often below 2%. Traditionally, wholesalers and retailers have relied on a two-week turnaround of supply and anywhere up to a 30-day payment plan. But an increasing tightening of the economic system for the last eight years has resulted in a turnaround time of just three days for both supply and payment for many in the industry. This a system that’s still fully operative, but with no further wiggle room, should it take a significant further hit.

If there were a month where significant inflation took place (The Feds lie say 9.1%; really now at least 17%), all profits would be lost for the month for both suppliers and retailers, but goods could still be replaced and sold for a higher price next month. But, if there were three or more consecutive months of inflation, the industry would be unable to bridge the gap, even if better conditions were expected to develop in future months. A failure to pay in full for several months would mean smaller orders by those who could not pay. That would mean fewer goods on the shelves. The longer the inflationary trend continued, the more quickly prices would rise to hopefully offset the inflation. And ever-fewer items on the shelves.

From Germany in 1922, to Argentina in 2000, and to Venezuela in 2016, this has been the pattern whenever inflation has become systemic, rather than sporadic. Each month, some stores close, beginning with those that are the most poorly capitalized.

In good economic times, this would mean more business for those stores that were still solvent, but in an inflationary situation, they would be in no position to take on more unprofitable business. The result is that the volume of food on offer at retailers would decrease at a pace with the severity of the inflation.

However, the demand for food would not decrease by a single loaf of bread. Store closings would be felt most immediately in inner cities, when one closing would send customers to the next neighborhood seeking food. The real danger would come when that store also closes and both neighborhoods descended on a third store in yet another neighborhood. That’s when one loaf of bread for every three potential purchasers would become worth killing over. Virtually no one would long tolerate seeing his children go without food because others had “invaded” his local supermarket.

In addition to retailers, the entire industry would be impacted and, as retailers disappeared, so would suppliers, and so on, up the food chain. This would not occur in an orderly fashion, or in one specific area. The problem would be a national one. Closures would be all over the map, seemingly at random, affecting all areas. Food riots would take place, first in the inner cities then spread to other communities. Buyers, fearful of shortages, would clean out the shelves.

Importantly, it’s the very unpredictability of food delivery that increases fear, creating panic and violence. And, again, none of the above is speculation; it’s a historical pattern – a reaction based upon human nature whenever systemic inflation occurs.

Then… unfortunately… the cavalry arrives. At that point, it would be very likely that the central government would step in and issue controls to the food industry that served political needs rather than business needs, greatly exacerbating the problem. Suppliers would be ordered to deliver to those neighborhoods where the riots are the worst, even if those retailers are unable to pay. This would increase the number of closings of suppliers.

Along the way, truckers would begin to refuse to enter troubled neighborhoods, and the military might well be brought in to force deliveries to take place. (If truckers could afford $4.54 a gallon diesel fuel.)

So, what would it take for the above to occur? Well, historically, it has always begun with excessive debt. We know that the debt level is now the highest it has ever been in world history. (US debt as of January 9, 2024 $34,024,775,058,581.46. World debt as of December 2023: $307 trillion.) In addition, the stock and bond markets are in bubbles of historic proportions. They will most certainly pop.

With a crash in the markets, deflation always follows as people try to unload assets to cover for their losses. The Federal Reserve (and other central banks) has stated that it will unquestionably print as much money as it takes to counter deflation. Unfortunately, inflation has a far greater effect on the price of commodities than assets. Therefore, the prices of commodities will rise dramatically, further squeezing the purchasing power of the consumer, thereby decreasing the likelihood that he will buy assets, even if they’re bargain priced. Therefore, asset holders will drop their prices repeatedly as they become more desperate. The Fed then prints more to counter the deeper deflation and we enter a period when deflation and inflation are increasing concurrently.

Historically, when this point has been reached, no government has ever done the right thing. They have, instead, done the very opposite – keep printing. A by-product of this conundrum is reflected in the photo above. Food still exists, but retailers shut down because they cannot pay for goods. Suppliers shut down because they’re not receiving payments from retailers. Producers cut production because sales are plummeting.

In every country that has passed through such a period, the government has eventually gotten out of the way and the free market has prevailed, re-energizing the industry and creating a return to normal. The question is not whether civilization will come to an end. (It will not.) The question is the liveability of a society that is experiencing a food crisis, as even the best of people are likely to panic and become a potential threat to anyone who is known to store a case of soup in his cellar.

Fear of starvation is fundamentally different from other fears of shortages. Even good people panic. In such times, it’s advantageous to be living in a rural setting, as far from the centre of panic as possible. It’s also advantageous to store food in advance that will last for several months, if necessary. However, even these measures are no guarantee, as, today, modern highways and efficient cars make it easy for anyone to travel quickly to where the goods are. The ideal is to be prepared to sit out the crisis in a country that will be less likely to be impacted by dramatic inflation – where the likelihood of a food crisis is low and basic safety is more assured."

- https://internationalman.com/

The Poet: Langston Hughes, “Life Is Fine”

“Life Is Fine”

“I went down to the river,

I set down on the bank.

I tried to think but couldn’t,

So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!

I came up twice and cried!

If that water hadn’t a-been so cold

I might’ve sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator

Sixteen floors above the ground.

I thought about my baby

And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!

I stood there and I cried!

If it hadn’t a-been so high

I might’ve jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I’m still here livin’,

I guess I will live on.

I could’ve died for love -

But for livin’ I was born.

Though you may hear me holler,

And you may see me cry -

I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,

If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”

- Langston Hughes

"What Keeps You Going..."

The Band, "Shape I'm In"

Jeremiah Babe, "Everyone Will Feel The Pain, Get Prepared"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/10/24

"Everyone Will Feel The Pain, Get Prepared"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibration"

Full screen recommended.

Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibration"

"Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey. 528Hz positive energy healing music with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. These frequencies have a specific healing effect on your subconscious mind." Be kind to yourself, savor this extraordinarily beautiful video. Headphones recommended, not required.

"A Look to the Heavens..."

"Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. 

Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other ghostly apparitions, vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen at the right of the starry field of view. Inside the nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation. With the eerie hue of dust reflecting bluish light from hot young stars of NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula stands out against the dark just left of center. In the broad telescopic frame, these fertile interstellar dust fields stretch almost seven full moons across the sky."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

The Universe

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.

It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.

It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.

It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.

And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."

- The Universe

○

“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents. And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”

“Tallyho,”

The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”

- www.tut.com

"When One Cannot Be Sure..."

"When one cannot be sure that there are many days left, each single day becomes as important as a year, and one does not waste an hour in wishing that that hour were longer, but simply fills it, like a smaller cup, as high as it will go without spilling over."

- Natalie Kusz

"That One Chance..."

“You get that one chance; and damn it, you’ve got to take it! If there’s one lesson I know I will take with me for eternity, its that there are those things that might happen only once, those chances that come walking down the street, strolling out of a café; if you don’t let go and take them, they really could get away! We can get so washed out with a mindset of entitlement – the universe will do everything for us to ensure our happiness – that we forget why we came here! We came here to grab, to take, to give, to have! Not to wait! Nobody came here to wait! So, what makes anyone think that destiny will keep on knocking over and over again? It could, but what if it doesn’t? You go and you take the chance that you get; even if it makes you look stupid, insane, or whorish! Because it just might not come back again. You could wait a lifetime to see if it will… but I don’t think you should.”

- C. JoyBell C.

The Daily "Near You?"

East Dubuque, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Looking Forward"

"Looking Forward"

by Jeff Thomas

"Since its inception, International Man has offered prognostications about what the future will bring – economically, politically and socially. The principle writers of the publication have been at this for decades. Each one began by studying world economics and politics in order to make the best choices as to where to live, where to invest, where to store wealth, etc. Over the years, each one got better at researching, better at reading the signs and, ultimately, better at predicting future events.

But, today, we’re approaching a worldwide crisis point and the study that we undertook decades ago has become important for literally hundreds of millions of people who, whether they realize it or not, will soon be impacted by events in a major way.

The foremost concern for readers of this publication is that the world’s leading governments have become decidedly fascist and are rapidly heading in a totalitarian direction. There are a number of facets to this development, all of them disturbing: The elimination of personal privacy, the creation of capital controls, confiscation of wealth, the conversion to electronic banking as the sole form of currency, international taxation standards and the creation of a police state. (There are many, many more facets, but these few tend to be at the core of concern.)

We can expect to see all of these concerns come closer to reality in the near future. The events that bring them about will increase in both frequency and magnitude as we get closer. (Historically, this is always the case, as governments that are in trouble race to get controls in place, as their continued ability to control events unravels.)

In these pages, we do our best to provide projections as to “where it’s all headed” and how it will affect the reader. In doing so, we generally discuss events that we believe will occur sometime soon (within a year or two). Often, we delay discussing events that we’ve anticipated many years previously, because they’d appear to most people as being so unlikely that their prediction would seem absurd.

However, we’re getting much closer to the crisis and, consequently, much of what once might have seemed absurd may now look quite possible to more people. But, even now, we tend to confine our prognostications to the international crisis itself. We rarely discuss what the world will look like after the market crashes have occurred, after the currencies have failed, after the governmental systems have broken down.

So, let’s have a snapshot look at what the overall landscape might look like after the dust has begun to settle. What will some of the greatest powers in the world look like in, say, five to ten years’ time?

To begin, we’ll assume that the more catastrophic events of economic collapse have taken place in the world and we’ll be observing the subsequent knock-on effects – the deterioration that would occur thereafter. Historically, any government that’s leading up to a collapse invariably tightens controls to the max, as it’s aware that, following a collapse, it will lose control, either entirely or in part.

Once markets have collapsed, we can expect a deflationary trend that governments will respond to by creating massive inflation, very possibly leading to hyperinflation. At some point, we can expect to see a collapse in currencies, as a result of the unsustainable debt load – the heroin that has kept them going for decades. This is particularly important with regard to the US, as the US presently possesses the world’s default currency. A collapse in the dollar will send other currencies into a tailspin.

Following a currency collapse, it will no longer be possible for governments to continue to expand their debt loads, as there will no longer be any takers. In addition, government income streams will be diminished. As businesses decline, the tax revenue will be greatly diminished. Whether they like it or not, for the first time in their careers, political leaders will be forced to cut costs, and cut them dramatically.

So, where will they cut? In the US, Social Security represents 15% of recurrent expenditure; Medicare and Medicaid represent another 15%; poverty entitlements are another 10% and a further 15% goes to “defense,” or more accurately, “foreign aggression.” Together, that’s 55%, yet, to diminish any of these (with the possible exception of foreign aggression) would make the blood of Americans boil.

Interest on national debt represents another 9%, but that would quickly be defaulted on. Next to be cut would be the “non-essentials” – the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Immigration, plus prisons, drug control, conservation and national parks. Cuts in each of these would cause less civil unrest than diminishing the “big four” that make up 55% of the budget.

They would likely keep funding for Homeland Security, the IRS, and the Capitol Police and, in fact, would be likely to increase funding for all three. (Bear in mind that the Capitol Police is unlike any other police force; it is a virtual army, designed to protect legislators within the beltway from what will soon be classified as “domestic terrorism.”)

Along the way, those states that are net receivers of largesse from the federal government will find their allowances cut dramatically. This will mean that, for state and city governments, roads, garbage collection and departments such as Fire and Motor Vehicles, will all receive cuts, along with state and city police departments. This latter move will not only result in increased lawlessness, but will result in police themselves becoming more lawless, or a law unto themselves, sometimes acting in sympathy with the public against the central government, sometimes acting with aggression towards the public.

But these cuts will only be the beginning, as they will be insufficient to address the shortfall. Confiscations of bank accounts will take place, but they too will be insufficient. Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid will eventually be put into effect, along with cuts in Social Security (primarily through inflation). For the over 50% of people who are presently recipients of these mainstays of collectivism, the cuts will quickly create anger, unrest, then riots.

As stated above, veterans (some 10% of the population) will be unceremoniously dumped. They will react by joining those who protest the cuts. Those still employed in the armed forces and Homeland Security will be torn as to whom to side with. (Remember, the invasion of ancient Rome by the barbarians was made possible when the mercenary Roman soldiers simply walked away.)

In total, what we’re looking at is a government that will no longer have the level of control to operate an effective tax collection service, capital controls, or outbound migration, let alone to continue to aggress against other nations. The U.S., more than any other nation, is therefore most greatly at risk of holding itself together following a collapse. As stated in The Art of War, by Sun Tzu in the fifth century BC, “Those who are waging war should get rid of all the domestic troubles before proceeding to attack the external foe.” Essential advice today, as it was then.

It’s clear there are some ominous social, political, cultural, and economic trends playing out right now. Many of which seem to point to an unfortunate decline of the West. As space here is limited, we can only offer a thumbnail sketch of these events; however, it’s not essential that we labor over the fine details of conditions that will exist after the collapses have taken place. A sketch suffices to allow us to plan our own agenda – to locate ourselves geographically away from the hot spots and shift our investments into those things that might be likely to be more depression-proof. And we can move whatever wealth we might have to jurisdictions where its safety is most assured. Those concerns are more urgent than ever and the time remaining is decidedly uncertain."

- https://internationalman.com

"Better Take A Closer Look..."

 

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous

by letting the government take care of him,

better take a closer look at the American Indian."

- Henry Ford

"Geography Is Destiny"

"Geography Is Destiny"

by Brian Maher

"If you seek understanding of a nation’s foreign policy - and its political orientation - please consult a map. That is because the map - nine times of 10 - will yield you your answer. The map makes a mockery of theory. See the map and the scales will then go falling from your eyes. The map clarifies.

Why did Germany pick two mighty fights last century? Why is neighboring Switzerland so docile? Why is Russia so given to paranoia? Why did liberty sink root in the fertile political soil of Great Britain and its New World castoffs? Again, the map supplies the answers. Let us first consider the aforesaid Germany…

Naked Upon the North European Plain: Germany inhabits the North European Plain. This plain is a defenseless and nearly infinite expanse stretching from the English Channel in the West clear through to Russia’s Ural Mountains in the East. The geography is a massively extended pancake. Its flatness affords Germany little natural defense. Thus Germany stands exposed, naked upon the North European Plain.

To her southwest lies formidable France. To her east snarls the menacing Russian bear. Hence she is squeezed between the French and Russian vise, squeezed between two rivals. A conundrum!

Germany’s 1871 unification - with its vast military and industrial potential - alarmed both France and Russia. Sandwiched between them both, this French and Russian alarm in turn alarmed Germany. What if they leagued together… and besieged her from two sides? It is no exaggeration to argue that The Great War and its 1939 sequel represented German efforts to solve the riddle - to escape the vise grip. Historians decry the Kaiser and the moustached Austrian corporal for initiating both conflagrations. They might first blame the German geography.

Geography and Liberty: What about neighboring Switzerland? Why does she lack the bloodlusting aggression of her Teutonic neighbor? Again, geography holds the answer. Switzerland is heavily alpine, and famously so. And mountains are murder on marauders. These Alps form very high walls, behind which the Swiss can shelter. Switzerland has been trespassed by foreign armies, it is true. Yet the geographical explanation for her listless nonaggression remains valid. Is it any wonder then that liberty flourished so beautifully in Switzerland?

Unlike exposed-on-two sides Germany… vulnerable upon the North European Plain… Switzerland’s alpine defenses largely relieve it of invasion fears. In that geography liberty can plant itself. A people situated therein enjoys the luxury of peaceful pursuits under liberty’s reign. Liberty is unlikely to plant itself in a land perpetually subject to invasion. This land’s residents cannot afford the luxury of liberty. They must be forever on watch. They must adopt a more collective orientation. Again, geography forms a heavy influence. Shall we consider the Russian example?

The Mongols, the French, the Germans, Oh My: Like Germany, Russia sits on the open North European Plain. This of course exposes her to western invasion. Messieurs Bonaparte and Hitler exploited fully this vulnerability - the former in 1812 - the latter in 1941.

And to the east? Russia’s nearly infinite steppes stretch clear through to Mongolia. For what is Mongolia best known? Genghis Khan and the Golden Horde of marauding horsemen who terrorized Eurasia. Crossing these grassy seas, Mongol invaders besieged and conquered Russia. Thus Russia stands vulnerable to invasion from both east and west alike. History has demonstrated this fact to high effect.

Is it any wonder then why Russia appears so paranoid of territorial transgression? Is it any wonder why Russia is so jealous of its influence over Ukraine - and why the prospect of Ukrainian absorption into a western military alliance freezes Russia’s blood? We hazard it is no wonder whatsoever. This paranoia springs from Russian history. And Russian history has been written largely by geography. Let us now take up a geographical consideration of the United States…

God Smiles Upon the United States: God filled two oceans - Atlantic to the right, Pacific to the left - to moat it off from marauders. Russia may have its “General Winter,” it is true. The abovesaid Bonaparte and Hitler can attest to his superior generalship. Yet Russia’s General Winter is nothing against Admirals Atlantic and Pacific of the United States Navy. They keep any invader at length.

Meantime, God emplaced two geopolitical blanks against American land borders, two punchless bantams. One squats to the north, Canada. One sits to the south, Mexico. Imagine a cat bordered north and south by mice. That is the American position - a cat bordered by two mice.

God furthermore blessed the United States with vast tracts of fertile, bountiful land… an extended capillary system of internal waterways… natural harbors from which to send things out… and to take things in. What other nation has enjoyed such natural, God-granted riches? None can approach it. “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America,” concluded Germany’s Otto von Bismarck.

All available evidence indicates it is true. And of these God-blessed categories, we conclude God has most blessed the United States of America. She has absorbed more divine favor than the most foolish fool or the drunkest drunkard.

God’s Sense of Humor: Has God given the United States a Baltimore… a Detroit… a Cleveland? Has He populated its capital with rogues, rascals, cadges, chiselers, grifters and swindlers, with fools and drunkards? Well, friends, maybe He has. We must conclude that He has a mischievous, even puckish sense of humor, this God. He delights in pulling noses. Yet the central fact remains: He has nonetheless showered America with such immense natural extravagance.

In quiet moments, often in the small hours of night, we often marvel…Why are we so fortunate as to reside in this Eden, this El Dorado, this Elysium? Countless others in the world’s various hells are infinitely more deserving. But to proceed…

Much like Switzerland, the American geography sprouts people free to focus on freedom. Of course these people are free to make jackasses of themselves. They often do. But let it go for now. America’s liberty-leaning she shares with her mother, Great Britain. And again, here geography offers us insight.

English Liberty Because of the English Channel: The English Channel has proven an excellent moat. When was England last invaded? 1066? It is no surprise then that Great Britain gave us the Magna Carta. Its geography affords a freedom against invasion - and like Switzerland, an orientation toward political liberality.

Geography likewise blesses the Commonwealth it hatched. New Zealand is an island nation and Australia is a continent. Neither faces foreign harassment. And both like to talk about liberty (whether they mean it or not. Their COVID-era raids upon liberty were among the most extravagant on Earth). Would Great Britain or any of its offshoots soak themselves in liberty if their geographies were different? We hazard they would not. Imagine any of them sharing the German geography or the Russian geography. Their orientations would be more German or Russian than English, American, New Zealander or Australian.

We must conclude that a map will teach you far more about this world than a groaning bookcase of encyclopedias will teach you about this world. Is demographics destiny? Well then, geography is destiny. Close the book, we say - and open a map."

- https://dailyreckoning.com/

Bill Bonner, "Confidential Agents"

"Confidential Agents"

Secret agents, mysterious deaths and the rest of the story...

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "Nothing comes from nothing…no one comes from nobody…and there’s always more to the story; usually the important part of it. We were doing a little wondering about where we came from…or at least about the industry of which we’ve been a part for the last nearly 50 years. Its genesis – for our narrow little piece of it – began in the late 1930s.

Patrick Maitland was the 17th Earl of Lauderdale, by virtue of which he was also the clan chief of Clan Maitland. He went to Oxford in the early ‘30s…and then became a journalist, with a job with an obscure diplomatic newsletter, called The Fleet Street Letter. Thus did he join the hallowed company of hacks, has-beens, and occasional maverick geniuses in the newsletter trade. We acquired the Fleet Street Letter in 1993. Lord Rees-Mogg, our longtime business partner, became its chairman.

Back in the ‘30s…"The Heart of the Matter." Maitland saw the job of a newsletter then, as we do now, to get to the heart of the story…to reject the official propaganda and tell the truth in a way a mainstream rag cannot. And he did it by putting his own boots on the ground where there was most likely to be trouble.

In the mid-‘30s, Germany, Italy and Japan were ‘gunning up.’ Their leaders wore uniforms, held mass rallies, excited the masses and styled themselves as masters of war. But when Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich and reported that there would be ‘peace in our time,’ Mailtand had his doubts. He decided to find out for himself. He went to Italy. He watched. He listened. And when he returned to London, he reported that ‘peace’ was an illusion; Mussolini wanted war. Britain needed to get ready for it.

He was…of course…right. The mainstream press relies on advertising. And advertisers want the imprimatur of a mainstream publication. After all, if you see it advertised in The New York Times…it must be legit! Mainstream publications aim to keep both advertisers and readers happy by sticking with storylines that don’t challenge them or irritate them. Readers get what they want…what they expect…and what the paper wants them to have. Today’s New York Times, for example, passes along the elite, government line as news. ‘The Biden Administration did this…’ ‘Secretary of State Blinken said that…’ Etc.

Over on the editorial pages, columnists and cheerleaders explain why the elite view is correct and why opponents are silly, evil or stupid. Readers, with no alternative source of facts or opinions, fall in behind their thought leaders.

Newsletters, on the other hand, are written for the few, not for the many. They do not attempt to please advertisers; they have none. Instead, they present contrarian, alternative views…often views that make readers uncomfortable. They dig a little deeper…turn over rocks to see the slimy things beneath…and try to help readers understand what is really going on.

The Power and the Glory: Maitland scored another big coup…a ‘scoop’ as they say in journalism…after WWII. The US had demonstrated its devastating atomic bomb, kept under close guard. No other nation had it. But in 1950, Maitland was among the first to report that the Soviet Union had a working model. This was a big story. How did Maitland find out? We don’t know, but here’s a hint: he hired a very special journalist – this one from Cambridge – Kim Philby.

Here is where the story gets interesting. Philby was a Soviet spy, one of the “Cambridge Five” who infiltrated British intelligence and worked as moles for the Soviet secret police. He also wrote for the Fleet Street letter. Philby later worked at the British embassy in Washington. There, he got to know a young, gifted CIA agent named James Jesus Angleton. The two seemed to get along. What secrets they shared, we have no idea.

But Angleton was a hard-driving, divisive character. After a while he had divided the CIA into two factions…the pro-Angletons and the anti-Angletons. Angleton himself got to be a little weird and perhaps unreliable. He had been placed in charge of the CIA’s counterintelligence unit…where they sought to root out double agents. Soon, he was seeing them everywhere. He claimed that the Prime Minister of England, Harold Wilson, was a Soviet spy. Same thing for the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson. Rumor had it that in his zeal to identify potential enemies, he had ‘gone rogue.’ It was said that he worked with the mafia and with Cuban exiles.

At this time, the CIA was remarkably incompetent. It hatched more than 600 different plots to kill Fidel Castro. All of them were failures. Its Bay of Pigs operation was a disaster. John Kennedy, president at the time, was not even informed of the Bay of Pigs invasion until it was already underway. He was furious and vowed publicly to ‘smash (the CIA) into a thousand pieces.’ A few months later, he was assassinated. RFK, Jr. believes the CIA was involved in his uncle’s murder. Fingers pointed at Angleton.

Our Man in Maryland: By 1975, Sen. Frank Church had come to believe that it was time to bring the CIA under control. His ‘Church Committee’ held hearings and discovered that many of the rumors were true. One of the most important witnesses was, of course, the then director of the CIA, William Colby. Colby was granted a special privilege. As director of an on-going covert operation, his testimony was limited. But what he reported…and what he heard…was enough to make him want to clean house. He fired Angleton.

By this time, Kim Philby had defected to Moscow. And now Angleton was taking his retirement too – at least, so they announced. Privately, he was let back into the CIA in an off-the-record deal and presumably went back to doing whatever it was he was doing before.

A few years later, Bill Colby retired too. But he didn’t entirely stop working either. Instead, he joined us as a consultant. We were just trying to ‘connect the dots,’ as always. And we thought Colby may have some connections we lacked. But either he was too prudent to tell us very much…or he didn’t know very much.

When we met Colby it was usually at his house in Georgetown. But he also had a place in Maryland, down on the Chesapeake Bay. It was there, one day, that he fixed himself his usual breakfast. And then, for some inexplicable reason, he appears to have gone out in his canoe – leaving the breakfast untouched. A storm was blowing up. But that didn’t stop him. His body was found two days later…washed up on the beach."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

God help you, kids...

Dan, I Allegedly, "Cash for Keys is Back"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 1/10/24

"Cash for Keys is Back"

"Cash for keys is back in a very big way. People are being asked to move out of houses and they’re getting cash settlement instead of being evicted or being foreclosed upon. This is happening at a pace that we haven’t seen since the 200eight financial crisis."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/