"8 Signs That Demonstrate How Truly Bizarre Our Society Is Becoming"

"8 Signs That Demonstrate How 

Truly Bizarre Our Society Is Becoming"

by Michael Snyder

"In “The Wizard of Oz”, at one point Dorothy tells her dog that she has “a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”. She had been dropped in a strange new world that was crazier than anything she had ever imagined. Needless to say, many of us feel the exact same way. We’re not in the America that we grew up in anymore. Instead, we now live in a country that appears to be a cross between a really bad science fiction movie and a freak show. Sadly, the pace of change has now reached an exponential rate, and things will get even more insane during the years that are ahead of us. The following are 8 signs that demonstrate how truly bizarre our society is becoming…

#1 Facial recognition technology is now being implemented on a widespread basis. For example, the official TSA website is openly admitting that the TSA is starting to use facial scanning technology at airports nationwide…

TSA introduced facial recognition technology into the screening process at select airports. The facial recognition technology represents a significant security enhancement and improves traveler convenience. A traveler may voluntarily agree to use their face to verify their identity during the screening process by presenting their physical identification or passport. The facial recognition technology TSA uses helps ensure the person standing at the checkpoint is the same person pictured on the identification document (ID) credential. Photos are not stored or saved after a positive ID match has been made, except in a limited testing environment for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology.

The agency is using second-generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2) scanners as travelers enter the screening process. This technology assists Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) in verifying the authenticity of a traveler’s ID credential, as well as their flight status and vetting status. TSOs must direct all passengers to the proper lane, either TSA PreCheck® screening, standard screening, or enhanced screening. The CAT-2 units are currently deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide, and will expand to the more than 400 federalized airports over the coming years.

#2 The elite want to make national borders meaningless, and that is quickly becoming the case. So many people from foreign countries have moved into the Twin Cities area in Minnesota that authorities are being forced to put up signs explaining that peeing, pooping and rape are not allowed while riding public transportation…"Peeing and pooping while riding on Metro Transit vehicles falls under the “illegal” category, according to the signs. “Transit property is not a public restroom,” the new rules read. They also explain to riders that sexual assault is illegal. “Sexual contact without consent is forbidden,” the rules state.

#3 Do you remember Michael Cassidy? He was the guy that beheaded the statue of Satan at the Iowa Capitol, and now he is being charged with a hate crime…"Michael Cassidy has been charged with a hate crime for beheading a statue of Satan at the Iowa Capitol. Cassidy drove up to Iowa after the Satanic display was erected in the state capitol and took it down. He will be arraigned on February 15. Polk County prosecutors charged Cassidy with felony third-degree criminal mischief, saying that he acted “in violation of individual rights” under Iowa’s hate crime statue, the Des Moines Register reports."

#4 In Montana, one family just had their 14-year-old daughter permanently taken away from them because they wouldn’t allow her to transition to a different gender…"A Montana mom and dad who lost custody of their daughter after they refused to transition her gender have told DailyMail.com the ordeal ‘has torn their family apart.’ Krista Kolstad revealed the family’s nightmare began when they received a call that their 14-year-old daughter Jennifer told friends at school that she wanted to commit suicide in August 2023.

Later that night, Child Protective Services (CPS) went to the Kolstad’s home in Glasgow to inspect the house and interview Jennifer, later determining that she needed to transition to get better. Republican Governor Greg Gianforte was confronted about this case, and he is actually defending the decision.

#5 Sticking with Montana, it is being reported that a “bioagent superlab” in the state is doing experiments with “Ebola, Lassa fever, Nipah, and even the plague”…"Distressing new images show animals being infected with deadly pathogens at a US lab with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Photos and footage obtained by watchdog White Coat Waste show scientists at the Rocky Mountain Lab sedating monkeys and pigs – and carrying out experiments with deadly viruses. White Coat Waste has described the lab as a “bioagent superlab” that infects animals with highly contagious and deadly diseases – such as Ebola, Lassa fever, Nipah, and even the plague.

#6 During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Ted Cruz asked Mark Zuckerberg why Instagram users are given the option to “see results anyway” when attempting to pull up images of child sexual abuse… He then held a blown-up screenshot of an Instagram prompt that asks users if they want to ‘get resources’ or ‘see results anyway’ when browsing harmful images. The warning read ‘these results may contain images of child sexual abuse’, with an explanation underneath.

‘You gave users two choices: “Get resources or see results anyway”,’ Cruz said, speaking directly to the Meta founder. ‘Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?’, barely pausing long enough for the Meta founder to respond.

#7 We have been warned for a long time that a cashless society is coming, but now we have reached a point where thousands of businesses all over the United States have already gone cashless…"Aaron Bateman pulled out a few $20 bills to pay for a taco lunch in the nation’s capital. To his surprise, his money was no good in the city where money is printed. Surfside, a popular 24-hour Mexican eatery, doesn’t take cash. No cash means no register for robbers to empty out, no bills for workers to slip into their pockets and no change counting holding up lines.

The global cashless movement has reached Washington, where a growing number of fast-casual and other establishments are saying no to greenbacks in favor of plastic and mobile payments. Sweetgreen, the national salad chain, went cashless in most of its locations last year. Other cashless spots include a frozen yogurt shop downtown, a posh wine bar and a beer store.

#8 Would you allow someone to put a computer chip in your head? Well, it is really starting to happen. This week, we learned that the very first “brain chip” has been implanted in a human subject…"Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a human in a preliminary clinical study. If research studies continue to look promising, devices like these could one day be a “game changer” for people with limited motor function, experts told ABC News. Neuralink says its goal is to help people living with debilitating conditions, including paralysis, communicate and control external devices with their thoughts. The patient who received the implant is “recovering well,” Musk said in a post on X Tuesday."

What do all of these eight things have in common? Each one of them shows that the agenda of the elite is rapidly advancing. We are living in a society that they are designing for their twisted purposes and that represents their twisted values. The good news is that we live at a time when all of their plans and programs will soon come crashing down. The elite will not succeed in creating the world that they so desperately desire, and evil will not triumph in the end."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"Emergency Alert! The War Has Begun, There's No Turning Back! Iran Drops A Bombshell; WW3 Leak; Samson Option"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 2/2/24

"Emergency Alert! The War Has Begun, There's No Turning Back! 

Iran Drops A Bombshell; WW3 Leak; Samson Option"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Alert! Major War Brewing, We Never Learn"

Jeremiah Babe, 2/2/24

"Alert! Major War Brewing, We Never Learn"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Housing Crash Is Coming! Mortgage Rate Is About To Pop The Housing Bubble"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist 2/2/24

"Housing Crash Is Coming! 

Mortgage Rate Is About To Pop The Housing Bubble"

"The housing market is in terrible shape. Not even the highest mortgage rates in nearly 23 years - can stop the continued climb of home prices. In case you haven't realized, affordability has never been worse. People can't afford to buy a home, and they can't afford to rent a home. However, throughout history, there has always been a boom and bust cycle throughout the real estate market, and at some point within this year, there might be another crash. BE PREPARED FOR STARVATION…"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: The Moody Blues, "The Voice"

The Moody Blues, "The Voice"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of island universes a mere 500 million light-years away. Also known as Abell 2151, this cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star-forming spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars. The colors in this remarkably deep composite image clearly show the star forming galaxies with a blue tint and galaxies with older stellar populations with a yellowish cast.

The sharp picture spans about 3/4 degree across the cluster center, corresponding to over 6 million light-years at the cluster's estimated distance. Diffraction spikes around brighter foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy are produced by the imaging telescope's mirror support vanes. In the cosmic vista many galaxies seem to be colliding or merging while others seem distorted - clear evidence that cluster galaxies commonly interact. In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140625.html

Chet Raymo, “Very, Very, Very, Very, Very...”

“Very, Very, Very, Very, Very...”

by Chet Raymo

"In a short story that was published posthumously in the New Yorker, the inestimable Primo Levi meditated on the limits of language. The story was called “The Tranquil Star.” He writes "The star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous," and realizes immediately that the adjectives have failed him: “For a discussion of stars our language is inadequate and seems laughable, as if someone were trying to plow with a feather. It's a language that was born with us, suitable for describing objects more or less as large and long-lasting as we are; it has our dimensions, it's human. It doesn't go beyond what our senses tell us.

Until fairly recently in human history, there was nothing smaller than a scabies mite, writes Levi, and therefore no adjective to describe it. Nothing bigger than the sea or sky. Nothing hotter than fire. We can add modifiers: very big, very small, very hot. Or use adjectives of dubious superlativeness: enormous, colossal, extraordinary. But, really, these feeble stretchings of language don't take us very far in grasping the very, very, very extraordinarily diminutive or spectacularly colossal dimensions of atomic matter or cosmic space and time. We can overcome the limitations of language, Levi say, "only with a violent effort of the imagination."

I spent more than forty years trying to find ways to violently stretch the imaginations of my students (and myself) to accommodate the dimensions of the universe revealed by science. I would project onto a huge screen a photograph of a firestorm on the Sun, then superimpose a scale-sized Earth, which fit comfortably inside a loop of solar fire. I would take the class into the College Quad here near Boston, where I had set up a basketball to represent the Sun, then gathered 100 feet away with a pinhead Earth; we walked together with our pin in the great annual journey of the Earth, and looked through a telescope at the marble-sized Jupiter than I had previously installed at the other end of the long Quad (the next closest star system would have been a couple of basketballs in Hawaii). We walked geologic timelines that took us from one end of the campus to the other.

In one of my Globe essays I used this analogy: “Imagine the human DNA as a strand of sewing thread. On this scale, the DNA in the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a typical human cell would be about 150 miles long, with about 600 nucleotide pairs per inch. That is, the DNA in a single cell is equivalent to 1000 spools of sewing thread, representing two copies of the genetic code. Take all that thread - the 1000 spools worth - and crumple it into 46 wads (the chromosomes). Stuff the wads into a shoe box (the cell nucleus) along with - oh, say enough chicken soup to fill the box. Toss the shoe box into a steamer trunk (the cell), and fill the rest of the trunk with more soup. Take the steamer trunk with its contents and shrink it down to an invisibly small object, smaller than the point of a pin. Multiply that tiny object by a trillion and you have the trillion cells of the human body, each with its full complement of DNA.”

Or this description from 'Waking Zero': “The track of the Prime Meridian across England from Peace Haven in the south to the mouth of the River Humber in the north is nearly 200 miles. If that distance is taken to represent the 13.7 billion year history of the universe, as we understand it today, then all of recorded human history is less than a single step. The entire story I have told in this book, from the Alexandrian astronomers and geographers to the present-day astronomers who launch telescopes into space, would fit neatly into a single footprint. If the 200 miles of the meridian track is taken to represent the distance to the most distant objects we observe with our telescopes, then a couple of steps would take us across the Milky Way Galaxy. A mote of dust from my shoe is large enough to contain not only our own solar system but many neighboring stars.”

But as hard as one tries, the scale of these things escape us. If one could truly comprehend what we are seeing when we look, say, at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photo above, which I have done my best to convey to myself and others in a dozen ways, it would surely shake to the core some of our most cherished beliefs. Just as our language is contrived on a human scale, so too are our gods.” - http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Time To Move On..."

“How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us; there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown.”

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Bill Bonner, "Artificial Information"

"Artificial Information"

Fake brains, crazy numbers and wishful thinking...

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Have you watched Taylor Swift en flagrante, naked as a jaybird, performing lewd sex acts? We haven’t either. But it’s all over the internet, in AI-enhanced, fake porn.

Investors are so excited – about the financial possibilities, of course – they believe Nvidia (makers of AI chips) is worth 33 times SALES. To put that in perspective, you have to stand way back…a quarter of a century back. There were 28 ‘dot.com’ businesses selling for more than 10 times sales back then. Today, there are 38.

Such prices show a level of faith in the future that is not only extraordinary, but insane. Death will have no dominion. No one will ever stub his toe. And beer will not go flat. At 33 times sales, in order to earn back the purchase price, you’d have to pay out 100% of SALES until 2057.

But it imagines that revenues come without cos…as if the company paid no wages, no overhead, no taxes, no parking fees, no travel, no business lunches or memberships, no advertising, heating, air conditioning, charitable contributions, legal fees, R&D, bonuses, consulting contracts or any other expense of any other kind. And not just one year…but for 33 years!

Crazy Numbers: It also assumes that there will be no competitors to steal Nvidia’s customers and arbitrage away its profits…nor will there be any tech advances that turn Nvidia’s promising new tech into yesterday’s discarded old tech. In short, it assumes a world unlike our own.

This point was made by Scott McNealy when his firm, Sun Microsystems, was trading over 10 times sales back in the Dot.com days: "Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don’t need any transparency. You don’t need any footnotes. What were you thinking?That’s right, you don’t need a financial analyst, accountant, or a Wall Street psychic. The numbers speak for themselves. And they say: ‘this is crazy.’"

This week, we looked at why the Information Revolution has been such a flop. In summary, any information above and beyond what you really need when you really need it, is a liability, not an asset. It must be assayed, sorted and stored – at the expense of your time and money. The internet consumed an enormous amount of time and gave back little – other than distraction, entertainment, and misinformation – in return.

So, along comes AI. Its promise is that it will tell you what’s true or false, real or fake…naughty or nice. That’s why Nvidia stock is so expensive. People think AI will free us from the tyranny of the Information Age. Ask anything…and it shall be delivered unto you.

The Fake Brain: We asked AI-powered ChatGPT what it considered the great promise of AI. Readers may want to skip over this, but here’s the answer from AI’s fake brain:

• "AI is considered important for several reasons, and its potential impact on the human race is significant. Here are some key reasons why AI is considered crucial and how it can benefit humanity:

• Automation and Efficiency: AI has the ability to automate repetitive tasks, allowing humans to focus on more creative, strategic, and complex activities. This can lead to increased efficiency in various industries, reducing errors and improving overall productivity.

• Problem Solving: AI systems can analyze large datasets and complex patterns to identify solutions and make predictions. This can be valuable in fields such as healthcare, finance, and research, where AI can help discover insights that may be challenging for humans to uncover.

• Innovation: AI technologies have the potential to drive innovation across various sectors. From self-driving cars to personalized medicine, AI can contribute to the development of new technologies and solutions that enhance our daily lives.

• Assistance in Decision Making: AI can provide valuable insights and data analysis to support decision-making processes. This is particularly beneficial in areas like business, healthcare, and finance, where informed decisions are crucial.

• Accessibility and Inclusivity: AI has the potential to create more inclusive solutions by addressing challenges and providing assistance to people with disabilities. For example, AI-powered technologies can help individuals with visual impairments navigate their surroundings or access information.

• Scientific Advancements: AI can accelerate scientific research by processing vast amounts of data, simulating experiments, and identifying potential areas for exploration. This can lead to breakthroughs in fields such as medicine, climate science, and materials science.

• Addressing Global Challenges: AI can be applied to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges, including climate change, poverty, and healthcare. It can help optimize resource allocation, improve disaster response, and contribute to sustainable development.

• Personalization and User Experience: AI can enhance user experiences by personalizing content and services based on individual preferences and behaviors. This is evident in recommendation systems, virtual assistants, and personalized learning platforms.

However, it's essential to approach the development and deployment of AI responsibly, considering ethical implications, privacy concerns, and potential biases. Striking a balance between harnessing the benefits of AI and addressing associated challenges is crucial for ensuring its positive impact on the human race."

Sounds like blah, blah to us.

A.I. BS: AI is a tool. It will be useful to some. Some will use it to save time (thereby increasing productivity.) Some will use it to waste time and talent. On balance, it will probably do more harm than good, but who knows?

Here’s Laurie Segall on CNN, gushing about the risks: "We are in an era where it’s not just our data that’s up for grabs, it’s our most intimate qualities: Our voices, our faces, our bodies can all now be mimicked by AI. Put simply: Our humanity is a click away from being used against us."

And if it can happen to Swift, it can happen to you. We rate the odds that it can happen to us as pretty low. But we don’t want to find out otherwise. We might have some ‘splaining’ to do.

But don’t worry. Congress is on the case. And here – like supporting unnecessary wars and spending non-existent money – is where Republicans and Democrats come together. At this week’s hearing in Washington, Josh Hawley, Laphonza Butler, Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar and Lindsey Graham all got to grandstand…letting the voters know that their hearts and minds, if they had any, were in the right place. Yes, they may support wholesale massacres in other parts of the world, but here at home they don’t want anyone harmed by social media. It sounded like the kind of BS you’d get from AI.

But if any group of people could make social media, and AI, even less appealing than it already is – they’re the ones to do it. “You don’t care about people; you care about profits,” said Ms. Blackburn to Mark Zuckerberg, providing insight. “Does your user agreement still suck,” asked Mr. Kennedy, providing humor.

“I’m so tired of this,” said Ms. Klobuchar. “It’s been 28 years … since the start of the internet. We haven’t passed any of these bills [to ignore the First Amendment in order to regulate and control social media]…, because everyone’s ‘double talk, double talk.’ It’s time to actually pass them.”

So it went. And wait for it. AI-powered mischief makers will soon have a deepfake image of Senator Graham saying something truly, appallingly stupid. And how will we know the difference?"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures With Danno, "Empty Shelves At Dollar Tree!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 2/2/24

"Empty Shelves At Dollar Tree! 

This Is Not Good! What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog, we are at Dollar Tree and are noticing empty shelves everywhere! This is not good as we continue to see many items disappear at many Dollar Tree stores."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

Dan, I Allegedly, "Is The Next Black Swan Here?"

Dan, I Allegedly 2/2/24

"Is The Next Black Swan Here?"

"The man that called the 2008 global housing debacle has come out to tell us that the next black Swan is here. It is the massive debt that’s about to explode. This looks ominous."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"The US Has A $6 Trillion Problem 

Over The Next Twelve Months"

by James Hickman

Excerpt: "Yesterday the Treasury Department announced that they expected to increase the national debt by a whopping $760 billion this quarter alone… and another $202 billion next quarter. In short that means almost $1 trillion added to the national debt just in the first half of this year. And, again, these are the Treasury Department’s own estimates. Obviously, that’s a pretty horrible result; even a senior Treasury official acknowledged that they have “significantly increased” their bond sales and the national debt. Not that they’re doing anything to stop the trend.

But there’s an even greater risk that the Treasury Department faces this year that is hardly being discussed anywhere. Over the next twelve months, more than $6 trillion in existing US government debt is set to mature… and will need to be paid back somehow.

So, to give you an example, back in 2014, the federal government issued $264 billion in 10-year Treasury notes. Well, it’s now 2024, i.e. ten years later. Meaning that $264 billion worth of 10-year notes issued in 2014 will become due and payable this year.

In 2017, they issued $368.8 billion worth of 7-year notes. And those 7-year notes issued in 2017 are due and payable this year.

You get the idea. The point is that the total sum of Treasury Bonds, Notes, and Bills outstanding that will become due and payable this year exceeds $6 trillion. So, in ADDITION to the $1 trillion in NEW debt that they’re forecasting just in the first six months of 2024, the Treasury Department is also going to have to pay back $6 trillion of existing debt.

Naturally the Treasury Department doesn’t have $6 trillion lying around to pay back its bondholders. So instead of paying anyone back, they just borrow new money to repay the old money. Now, this doesn’t actually increase the national debt. If they borrow $6 trillion in new bonds, but then pay back $6 trillion in old bonds, the net change to the debt is ZERO. So, what’s the problem?"

Full article here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Be Ready - They Will Kill Millions!"

Gregory Mannarino, 2/2/24

"Be Ready - They Will Kill Millions! 

On The Eve Of Another War"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Free Download: Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front”

Ask her if it was worth it...

o

“You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment

taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.”

“We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill.”

- "Paul Baumer", "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)

Freely download “All Quiet on the Western Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque, here:

- http://explainallquietonthewesternfront.weebly.com/

o

Jim Kunstler, "War Delirium"

"War Delirium"

by Jim Kunstler

"Pity the poor president. “Joe Biden” must decide now whether to go to war with Iran or Texas. Which will it be? Or might it be both? That Governor Abbot turns out to be the Putin of the purple sage! How does he dare interfere with the orderly flow of new voters - fine people! - across that filthy little river of his? Does he not understand that we need at least a couple million more live bodies allocated around the swing states to ensure a free and fair election?

What does Hunter (“the smartest person I know”) make of Dad’s quandary, I wonder. With enough eau-de-coca on-board, Hunter must think in Biblical terms... great flowing Jacobean passages of elevated language: "In my father’s house are many mansions: Verily, verily, I say unto you, somewhere there is a room I left that little baggie in, but where? The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Dad."

Well, forget Hunter. Everybody else has, thank goodness, at least for now. Let’s face it: having a rage-filled addict in the family is tiresome. Anyway, Merrick Garland has got him covered with “an on-going investigation.” (Questions? Sorry, can’t answer any.)

“Joe Biden,” in his on-going delirium-of-age wanders from room to room in the empty mansion that is his mind. "How did I get in this room?" he wonders. "And how do I get out of it? Can somebody please point the way?" Alas, his position is the loneliest in the world. There is no one to point the way out. There is only this ceaseless wandering from room to room in this vast emptiness. Where is the room with Texas in it? The room where Iran sleeps? The room where Ukraine lies a’gasp with a sucking chest wound? Watch out, he’ll start shouting soon. Calling Dr. Jill: Code Blue!

The world may be a disaster these days, but the White House is a bigger disaster. Can you name the White House chief of staff? Betcha can’t. Know why? He never, ever comes out and speaks to that mob in the press room. He might have to answer some difficult questions, such as: if the president’s brain is switched off more than half the time, who decides what to do with that ‘nuclear football’ they carry around with him. Is it...you? By the way, the chief of staff’s name is Jeff Zients. Ever heard him? Of course not. He has a page on “X”. The most recent thing he posted was July, 25, 2023. Good thing not much has happened since then.

The question then: should “Joe Biden” just go ahead and nuke Texas? “JB” is thinking: What good is the place with that Putin wannabe running it? Buncha cattle and those ridiculous hats! The official head-gear of white supremacy! Probably millions of them down there, clutching their beloved guns! I’ve got news for you. Wanna play hardball? We’ve got F-16s. Try shooting one of those Vipers down with your 30-ought-6 when it’s coming in low over Plano on after-burners at eleven hundred miles an hour, bristling with Sidewinder missiles. Anyway, for a nice strip steak, go to Kansas City. Fuggedabowt Texas. Kaboom! Not a joke!

As for Iran...another $6-billion could keep them quiet for a while. Turns out that mullahs really like money. Do you know how many virgins you can buy for $6-billion here on Planet Earth? Why blow yourself up for them? Especially since you don’t know for a hundred percent sure that there is a place called heaven, or that it’s mainly a seraglio? By the way, why does our country (that’d be the USA) have all these little military outposts scattered around the desert wastelands of Jordan, Syria, and other lands of the Middle East? Did the one called Tower Two that got blown up a few days ago have a target painted on it? Might as well have. You think the “other side” doesn’t have satellite imagery of the terrain? Kind of looks like we’re asking for trouble. And, also by the way, how come two of the three US soldiers killed there were girls? Is that how we do war these days? With a girlie army? Who actually thinks that’s going to work?

Apparently, “Joe Biden.” Be advised: there is chatter coming out of this mysterious White House about bringing back the military draft. Remember what that is, Boomers? Remember Country Joe and the Fish singing: “Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.” That was back in the Vietnam days. Fifty-thousand-plus KIA. Only now we’ll be drafting girls (and probably some boys who want to be girls). I guess we’ll figure out now how gung-ho Gen Z really is.

You didn’t ask, but things are not going so well in our remote-control war in Ukraine against Russia (Putinland). Our Zelensky team (we own it) got completely rope-a-doped, punched itself out, its knees are buckling. Victoria Nuland, the renowned State Department girlie war-hawk, says she’s confident that Congress will pass the new $61 billion aid package for the Z-team, according to Radio Free Europe, the blob’s official propaganda outlet. The blob wants you to think that Putin wants to turn all of Europe into Putinland. I’m sure. Tori Nuland probably thinks we can save Ukraine with the fabulous girlie army and some snazzy new drones from McDonnell Douglas. Hey, it’s war, war, war. Bomb them all - Iran, Russia, Texas - and let God sort them out.

Speaking of blob propaganda outlets, here’s a doozy from blob tentacle The New York Times this Friday morning to boost your morale. Blob suck-up, Stephen Colbert, the late-night TV genius-level jester last seen dancing in a chorus line costumed as Covid-19 vaccination syringes, informs us that “Joe Biden” is catnip to the ladies because his aviator Ray-bans remind them of Robert Stack in "The High and the Mighty." Silly me, I thought they loved the president for his mind. You know, “Joe Biden” is running for re-election. No, really. Not a joke.

Stephen Colbert imitated President Biden talking with women: “They love that thing where I’m the last one standing between them and the Supreme Court putting a GoPro in their uterus.” Credit: CBS

- https://kunstler.com/

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up for 2/2/24"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up for 2/2/24"

Iran War, Border War, CV19 Vax War, Economic War

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Iran proxies attacked a US military base in Jordan this past week, killing three and injuring 30. It was a drone attack, and war hawks want to strike back. Senator Tommy Tuberville says, “This war is getting ready to happen.” Iran says it will strike back, and there is no end in sight with the violence erupting all over the Middle East. Are we already in biblical end times?

The FBI has been warning about terror attacks coming to the US. No doubt it is the open Biden border policy letting in all sorts of unvetted people, and yes, some have had terror ties. Joe Kent is running for Congress in Washington’s 3rd congressional district. Kent is a retired officer of the United States Army Special Forces and says Iran has already “infiltrated our wide-open southern border.” What is the FBI doing to prepare for the coming attacks, and why are they not hunting down terror suspects now? Meanwhile in Texas, Governor Abbott is stopping some of the illegal aliens. Biden wants to open it all back up, but Governor Ron DeSantis and other states are sending Texas national guard troops to keep it closed. This Fight is far from over.

Another week and has passed with more who died suddenly with no cause of death reported. It’s the work of Professor Mark Crispin Miller and the numbers of the dead and sick are exploding. Professor Miller can hardly keep up, and with more than 700 million CV19 injections in the USA alone, the peak in deaths and injuries is not going to happen until 2026 according to Martin Armstrong.

Finally, the all-time high stock market is making people feel like the economy is doing great. A look under the hood of the record-breaking stock market and you seek a Federal Reserve worried about the banking system, out of control spending in Washington D.C. and a commercial real estate problem that is now imploding all around the world. A so-called “tsunami of office loan defaults” are coming and this could take out several big global banks. Could this start a daisy chain of financial implosion? Make no mistake, Fed Head Jay Powell is worried, and he is not cutting interest rates any time soon. There is much more in the 51-minute newscast."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 

stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 2/2/24:

- https://rumble.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "America Is Falling Into A Cesspool"

Jeremiah Babe, 2/1/24

"America Is Falling Into A Cesspool; 

Cities Vandalized; Renters Fall Behind"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "The End"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 2/1/24

"The End"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "It's About To Get Worse! Be Prepared!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 2/1/24

"It's About To Get Worse! Be Prepared!"

"Many people's budgets are thinning out due to very high prices in our grocery stores and beyond. We're noticing stores get overly packed on the first of the month which is a sign everyone is being careful and stocking up on food as soon as the paycheck comes."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Music of the Night: East of The Full Moon"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, 

"Music of the Night: East of The Full Moon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Large galaxies and faint nebulae highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image. M81 is gravitationally interacting with M82 just below it, a big galaxy with an unusual halo of filamentary red-glowing gas. 

Around the image many other galaxies from the M81 Group of galaxies can be seen. Together with other galaxy congregates including our Local Group of galaxies and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the M81 Group is part of the expansive Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies. This whole galaxy menagerie is seen through the faint glow of an Integrated Flux Nebula, a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our Milky Way Galaxy."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080512.html

"Write Your Worries On The Sand"

“I walked slowly out on the beach.

A few yards below high-water mark I stopped and read the words again: 

WRITE YOUR WORRIES ON THE SAND.

I let the paper blow away, reached down and picked up a fragment of shell. 

Kneeling there under the vault of the sky, I wrote several words, one above the other.

Then I walked away, and I did not look back. I had written my troubles on the sand. 

The tide was coming in.”

- Arthur Gordon

"And I Ask..."

 

The Poet: James Broughton, "Having Come This Far"

"Having Come This Far"

"I've been through what my through was to be,

I did what I could and couldn't.

I was never sure how I would get there.

I nourished an ardor for thresholds,

for stepping stones and for ladders,

I discovered detour and ditch.

I swam in the high tides of greed,

I built sandcastles to house my dreams.

I survived the sunburns of love.

No longer do I hunt for targets.

I've climbed all the summits I need to,

and I've eaten my share of lotus.

Now I give praise and thanks

for what could not be avoided,

and for every foolhardy choice.

I cherish my wounds and their cures,

and the sweet enervations of bliss.

My book is an open life.

I wave goodbye to the absolutes,

and send my regards to infinity.

I'd rather be blithe than correct.

Until something transcendent turns up,

I splash in my poetry puddle,

and try to keep God amused."

- James Broughton

“Thucydides in the Underworld”

“Master, what gnaws at them so hideously 

their lamentation stuns the very air?” 

“They have no hope of death,” he answered me…” 

- Dante Alighieri, “The Inferno”

“Thucydides in the Underworld”

by J. R. Nyquist

“The shade of Thucydides, formerly an Athenian general and historian, languished in Hades for 24 centuries; and having intercourse with other spirits, was perturbed by an influx into the underworld of self-described historians professing to admire his History of the Peloponnesian War. They burdened him with their writings, priding themselves on the imitation of his method, tracing the various patterns of human nature in politics and war. He was, they said, the greatest historian; and his approval of their works held the promise that their purgatory was no prologue to oblivion.

As the centuries rolled on, the flow of historians into Hades became a torrent. The later historians were no longer imitators, but most were admirers. It seemed to Thucydides that these were a miserable crowd, unable to discern between the significant and the trivial, being obsessed with tedious doctrines. Unembarrassed by their inward poverty, they ascribed an opposite meaning to things: thinking themselves more “evolved” than the spirits of antiquity. Some even imagined that the universe was creating God. They supposed that the “most evolved” among men would assume God’s office; and further, that they themselves were among the “most evolved.”

Thucydides longed for the peace of his grave, which posthumous fame had deprived him. As with many souls at rest, he took no further interest in history. He had passed through existence and was done. He had seen everything. What was bound to follow, he knew, would be more of the same; but after more than 23 centuries of growing enthusiasm for his work, there occurred a sudden falling off. Of the newly deceased, fewer broke in upon him. Quite clearly, something had happened. He began to realize that the character of man had changed because of the rottenness of modern ideas. Among the worst of these, for Thucydides, was that barbarians and civilized peoples were considered equal; that art could transmit sacrilege; that paper could be money; that sexual and cultural differences were of no account; that meanness was rated noble, and nobility mean.

Awakened from the sleep of death, Thucydides remembered what he had written about his own time. The watchwords then, as now, were “revolution” and “democracy.” There had been upheaval on all sides. “As the result of these revolutions,” he had written, “there was a general deterioration of character throughout the Greek world. The simple way of looking at things, which is so much the mark of a noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous quality and soon ceased to exist. Society had become divided into two ideologically hostile camps, and each side viewed the other with suspicion.”

Thucydides saw that democracy, once again, imagined itself victorious. Once again traditions were questioned as men became enamored of their own prowess. It was no wonder they were deluded. They landed men on the moon. They had harnessed the power of the atom. It was no wonder that the arrogance of man had grown so monstrous, that expectations of the future were so unrealistic. Deluded by recent successes, they could not see that dangers were multiplying in plain view. Men built new engines of war, capable of wiping out entire cities, but few took this danger seriously. Why were men so determined to build such weapons? The leading country, of course, was willing to put its weapons aside. Other countries pretended to put their weapons aside. Still others said they weren’t building weapons at all, even though they were.

Would the new engines of destruction be used? Would cities and nations be wiped off the face of the earth? Thucydides knew the answer. In his own day, during an interval of unstable peace, the Athenians had exterminated the male population of the island of Melos. Before doing this the Athenian commanders had came to Melos and said, “We on our side will use no fine phrases saying, for example, that we have a right to our empire because we defeated the Persians, or that we have come against you now because of the injuries you have done us – a great mass of words that nobody would believe.” The Athenians demanded the submission of Melos, without regard to right or wrong. As the Athenian representative explained, “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” 

The Melians were shocked by this brazen admission. They could not believe that anyone would dare to destroy them without just cause. In the first place, the Melians threatened no one. In the second place, they imagined that the world would be shocked and would avenge any atrocity committed against them. And so the Melians told the Athenians: “in our view it is useful that you should not destroy a principle that is to the general good of all men – namely, that in the case of all who fall into danger there should be such a thing as fair play and just dealing. And this is a principle which affects you as much as anybody, since your own fall would be visited by the most terrible vengeance and would be an example to the world.”

The Athenians were not moved by the argument of Melos; for they knew that the Spartans generally treated defeated foes with magnanimity. “Even assuming that our empire does come to an end,” the Athenians chuckled, “we are not despondent about what would happen next. One is not so much frightened of being conquered by a power like Sparta.” And so the Athenians destroyed Melos, believing themselves safe – which they were. The Melians refused to submit, praying for the protection of gods and men. But these availed them nothing, neither immediate relief nor future vengeance. The Melians were wiped off the earth. They were not the first or the last to die in this manner.

There was one more trend that Thucydides noted. In every free and prosperous country he found a parade of monsters: human beings with oversized egos, with ambitions out of proportion to their ability, whose ideas rather belied their understanding than affirmed it. Whereas, there was one Alcibiades in his own day, there were now hundreds of the like: self-serving, cunning and profane; only they did not possess the skills, or the mental acuity, or beauty of Alcibiades. Instead of being exiled, they pushed men of good sense from the center of affairs. Instead of being right about strategy and tactics, they were always wrong. And they were weak, he thought, because they had learned to be bad by the example of others. There was nothing novel about them, although they believed themselves to be original in all things.

Thucydides reflected that human beings are subject to certain behavioral patterns. Again and again they repeat the same actions, unable to stop themselves. Society is slowly built up, then wars come and put all to ruin. Those who promise a solution to this are charlatans, only adding to the destruction, because the only solution to man is the eradication of man. In the final analysis the philanthropist and the misanthrope are two sides of the same coin. While man exists he follows his nature. Thucydides taught this truth, and went to his grave. His history was written, as he said, “for all time.” And it is a kind of law of history that the generations most like his own are bound to ignore the significance of what he wrote; for otherwise they would not re-enact the history of Thucydides. But as they become ignorant of his teaching, they fall into disaster spontaneously and without thinking. Seeing that time was short, and realizing that a massive number of new souls would soon be entering the underworld, the shade of Thucydides fell back to rest.”

- https://www.financialsense.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Halfweg, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. Thanks for stopping by!

"That's All There Is..."

"Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.

Kate Lockley: And now you do?

Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.

Kate Lockley: Yikes. It sounds like you've had an epiphany.

Angel: I keep saying that, but nobody's listening."

- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0512846/quotes

"The Silence of the Damned" (Excerpt)

"The Silence of the Damned"

Our leading humanitarian and civic institutions, including 

major medical institutions, refuse to denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

This exposes their hypocrisy and complicity.

by Chris Hedges

Excerpt: "There is no effective health care system left in Gaza. Infants are dying. Children are having their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Thousands of cancer patients and those in need of dialysis lack treatment. The last cancer hospital in Gaza has ceased functioning. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women have no safe place to give birth. They undergo cesarean sections without anesthesia. Miscarriage rates are up 300 percent since the Israeli assault began. The wounded bleed to death. There is no sanitation or clean water. Hospitals have been bombed and shelled. Nasser Hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza, is “near collapse.” Clinics, along with ambulances – 79 in Gaza and over 212 in the West Bank – have been destroyed. Some 400 doctors, nurses, medics and healthcare workers have been killed — more than the total of all healthcare workers killed in conflicts around the world combined since 2016. Over 100 more have been detained, interrogated, beaten and tortured, or disappeared by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli soldiers routinely enter hospitals to carry out forced evacuations – on Wednesday troops entered al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and demanded doctors and displaced Palestinians leave – as well as round up detainees, including the wounded, sick and medical staff. On Tuesday, disguised as hospital workers and civilians, Israeli soldiers entered Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank and assassinated three Palestinians as they slept.

The cuts to funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - collective punishment for the alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack of 12 of its 13,000 UNRWA workers - will accelerate the horror, turning the attacks, starvation, lack of health care and spread of infectious diseases in Gaza into a tidal wave of death."

Full article here:

- https://www.unz.com/

o

"US-Israel Implement Plan to Cut Food, 

Water and Medicine to Gaza"

Now defend that, if you dare...

"Bruce Springsteen on Surviving Depression and His Strategy for Living Through the Visitations of the Darkness"

"Bruce Springsteen on Surviving Depression and 

His Strategy for Living Through the Visitations of the Darkness"

by Maria Popova

"It starts with a low hum that adheres itself to the underbelly of the hours like another dimension. Gradually, surreptitiously, the noise swells to a bellowing bass line, until it drowns out the symphony of life.

It can last for days or months or entire seasons of being. It visited Keats frequently in his short life, leaving him with a mind empty of ideas and hands heavy as lead. It rendered Lorraine Hansberry “cold, useless, frustrated, helpless, disillusioned, angry and tired.” It drove Abraham Lincoln to the brink of suicide.

If you are lucky enough, if you have the right aids of science, social support, and chance, one day you look over the shoulder of time and, like the poet Jane Kenyon, gasp in grateful incomprehension: “What hurt me so terribly all my life until this moment?” But until that moment comes, as William Styron so vividly observed in his classic bridge of empathy, “the gray drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain.”

Among the legion of us soaked by the drizzle is one of the most beloved artists of our epoch, whose music has made life brighter and more livable for generations.

In his memoir, "Born to Run" (public library), Bruce Springsteen writes about his father’s “long, drawn-out depressions,” often so debilitating that he could not rise from bed for days, and about his own tumble toward the edge of the abyss quarried by his genetic inheritance and the darknesses of his childhood, and about what kept him from falling. “God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God,” John Lennon reflected in his most personal interview, but no outside “they” - no critic, no cry from the public - ever measures up to the inner chorus of anguish that most cruelly lowers an artist from the pedestal of their creative power and into the pit of depression.

In a particularly vivid vignette from the period just before he finally sought help, Springsteen writes: "My depression is spewing like an oil spill all over the beautiful turquoise-green gulf of my carefully planned and controlled existence. Its black sludge is threatening to smother every last living part of me."

Even Springsteen’s favorite books reflect this lifelong undertone of black. But it is in his BBC Desert Island Discs appearance that he opens up most candidly about his experience of depression and his life-honed coping mechanisms for it. He reflects: "Ive developed some skills that help me in dealing with it, but still - it is a powerful, powerful thing that really comes up from things that still remain unexplainable to me."

After noting that much of it is pure biochemistry, and can therefore be greatly salved by biochemical interventions, he considers the psychological skills that have helped him temper the onslaught and offers a Buddhist-like strategy of unresistant presence with the flow of experience on its own terms, laced with a gentle admonition against the trap of blamethirsty projection:

"Just naming it [helps]… What most people tend to want to do is, when they feel bad, the first thing you want to do is to name a reason why you feel that way: “I feel bad because…” and you’ll transfer that to someone else “…because Johnny said this to me,” or “this happened.” And, sometimes, that’s true. But a lot of times, you’re simply looking to name something that’s not particularly nameable and if you misname it, it just makes everything that much worse.

So my “skill” is sort of saying, “Okay, it’s not this, it’s not that - it’s just this. This is something that comes; it’s also something that goes - and maybe something I have to live with for a period of time. But if you can acknowledge it and you can relax with it a little bit, very often it shortens its duration."

Complement with Bloom - a touching animated short film about depression and what it takes to recover the light of being - and Tim Ferriss on how he survived his suicidal depression, then revisit Robert Burton’s centuries-old salve for melancholy and two centuries of beloved writers - including Keats, Whitman, Hansberry, Carson, and Thoreau - on the mightiest antidote to depression."

- https://www.themarginalian.org/

o

Bruce Springsteen, "Jungleland"

"How It Really Is"

 

"US National Debt Clock"