"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI)is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding,safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
"The ultimate “good for you” is to be dead. At least that is what it would be if some outside authority, or entity, was watching our human behaviour and assessing what looks to be the “best” for us - meaning that if we are dead, nothing bad can happen to us. I would assume that if we fed all of the information a typical human life creates into a supercomputer, and then asked it “What is the best state of being for a human being” it would spit out, “that it never be born, and if alive, it would be safest, (best, good,) for it to be dead.”
The next notch down from this perfection would be to live in a bubble, literally. Apparently, there are some people who have no immune systems who have to do this (remember the Seinfeld episode, “The Bubble Boy”?)
The next notch down is to be a recluse, to live on some little patch of land, in a little house, and venture out only into your local neighborhood to buy fish sticks, Twinkies, and RC Cola. You would never fly in a plane, and never drive as well.
The next notch down is the spot that most people seem to wish they occupied. This place in the sun is actually sunless. Or at least as sunless as you can make it. Here we find gobs of sunscreen, dark glasses on cloudy days, heavy coats in the fall, and umbrellas in summer. We find ourselves avoiding nearly everything that can be avoided, except the things, of course, that actually do harm us, like McDonalds’ “Big Macs” and a nice can of Diet Coke. Here we avoid travel to dicey countries (which includes nearly all of them), if we travel at all. We avoid being in the same room with someone who is coughing or sneezing or looking the least bit odd, and we essentially avoid taking any risks whatsoever. Nearly everything is dangerous, and it is best to avoid anything unknown, dubious in nature, or not recommended by the guys and gals in white coats with the antique medical device hanging around their neck.
A person at this level of existence is alive but certainly not living. Why are people into this? Well, once again, we can thank Mr. Agenda.
Before I was “awakened” I used to muse at this phenomenon and wonder how it could have happened naturally and organically. I thought about all the men clambering on board boats and planes to go to Europe to fight in the trenches in 1917, as well as in 1941. I thought of the scads of pioneers setting out on the perilous journey across the American continent during the decades after the Civil War. I thought of the untold numbers who left the comfort of their homes (which at the time probably wasn’t all that comfortable) to hazard the jungles of Central America to work on the malaria-infested Panama Canal, and the same untold numbers of brave men and women who set out on various journeys in dark and dangerous parts of the world to pursue fame and fortune, or to lend their humanitarian hand in helping others less fortunate.
Where are all of these people today? Sure, there are a few left, but nowhere as many as there used to be. Now most people are terrified to step out of their house, and if they are told by Big Brother to avoid coming close to other humans, or to wear a piece of paper or cloth over their quivering face, they do so frantically and obediently. Did this decline in chutzpah happen as a natural consequence of social evolution? No. I don’t think so. Now I believe it is part of the plan - the agenda.
Ol’ Dr. Paranoia’s mind at work again. Maybe so, but I suspect there are a lot of you out there in the same psych ward as me. Not only have we been dumbed down, but our natural sense of “joie de vivre” has been all but entirely sucked out of our collective soul. I see this particularly in men, which needless to say have been a major focus of the agenda. But, of course, it is found in all of us, men and women alike.
We have become a nation (or nations) of wimps. When a Covid particle allegedly enters a room, we jump up on the nearest chair and shriek, much like the proverbial fragile women of the Victorian age presumably did when they saw a mouse (if they did this, it was probably all an act to help men feel more manly). Only difference is that you can see a mouse, but you must be told the Covid particle is in the air. And guess who told us? Yep, Mr. Agenda. We are wimps. Enough said. And the agenda wishes us to be wimps because fear is the devil’s greatest and most effective weapon.
Along with fear, there is the carrot - a reward for behavior, or even an enticement to comply by convincing us whatever we are expected to comply with is good for us. And not only us, but for everyone! So, the vaccine is good for us because it keeps us from getting a deadly disease (or so we are told). Wearing masks is good for us, and keeping a “social distance” is good for us. All these things keep us safe, wearing latex gloves, sloshing poison disinfectant on our hands, and staying at home out of the swarm of Covid nasties flying about on the street. We must do what we can to live safe lives, safe from all the horrible things that nature wants to throw at us. Always remember, the agenda tells us, nature is our enemy.
And this is only part of it. We are now protected from everything because just about everything wants to take a chunk out of us. Not only that, but it isn’t even good for us to own things, because owning things is a pain, and makes our life difficult. It is much easier to just rent stuff. It is also good for us to be lazy and avoid doing anything at all. Why not play virtual games rather than travel, why not have that conference that took us to Las Vegas every year in our bedroom on Zoom? Why not have therapy virtually, or even visit our doctor through the computer or phone?
Why not get a salary paid by the government for doing nothing? How about getting an advanced academic degree without having to go to any classes? What about winning a gold medal in women’s swimming when you are a man and can beat all those little ladies’ times in your sleep? Sure, it is best for us not to drive too much or have to go out of town to meet friends or go to that cool restaurant that’s 20 miles away. It’s safer and better for us to work at home too. In fact, why not just stay at home and do everything there, and have every meal there, even if we want a nice evening without having to stay at home, which used to be a nice visit to a beautiful restaurant, with maybe some nice live music. Nope. Now it’s Uber Eats. That’s good too. It’s all good for us, safe, convenient, takes no effort or skill, and fun. We’re happy, right? Anyone know where you can buy a nice, cheap, plastic bubble?"
"Nobody Gets Out Alive From Climate Engineering Disaster"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Climate engineering researcher Dane Wigington says huge lies are being told daily to cover up the speed in which the climate is imploding on a global scale. Sure, there have been all sorts of ways harm has been done to the environment, but Wigington contends the biggest single cause of damage being done to the planet right now is man-made climate engineering being sprayed from the skies. Wigington explains, “The bottom line is we are fighting for our lives right here and right now. The current paradigm is over. It’s in the death throws. The oceans are dying. The insects are dying. Plankton is dying. Our atmosphere is changing radically. Nothing can adapt to changes at this speed. Again, we are talking about toxic elements that should never be in our atmosphere. We know there are patented processes for chemical ice nucleation. They have openly announced they are doing this. If you bring this up, they spit out the conspiracy mantra from the fact-less and the fearful, and they don’t do any investigation whatsoever. Since when do we have winter storms coming out of the record warm Gulf of Mexico? We had water temperatures in Florida of 101 degrees. That is the same temperature range that Jacuzzi recommends for their hot tubs. It killed everything - everything.”
Wigington says people need the truth, and they need to wake up because time is running out for the world you grew up in. Wigington says, “We have layer of layer upon layer of total insanity by a military industrial complex that is completely out of control. If we remain on this course, none of us will be here much longer. I don’t care who rolls their eyes, walks away and tells themselves they don’t believe it. Unfolding events will tell you otherwise. Refusing to acknowledge climate engineering being the single most damaging human activity in this moment in time. How can these environmental groups ignore this massive destructive part of the equation? It’s because they want to protect their 501(c)(3) non-profit. GeoEngineeringWatch.org thinks that is criminal hypocrisy. On the current course, nobody gets out alive, and that includes those who think they are going to go underground and ride this out. We have caused a certain amount of planetary heating, and climate engineering is making that worse. We have triggered this feedback loop and triggered these massive methane explosions. It covers the planet and traps heat like a layer of glass. That heat causes more methane releases and causes more heating. That is a feedback loop, and we have about 50 of those kinds of feedback loops occurring.”
Wigington asks, “What does it take to wake people up and show them we are fighting for our lives? We have AccuWeather and Weather Channel, and if it was not so tragic and terrible, it would be comical to watch the Weather Channel climate engineering cover-up actors try to explain away why it is snowing in 40 degrees on the ground and it is 50 or 60 degrees up in the sky. Their job seems to be, at this point, to cover the tracks of the climate engineers. This is ludicrous."
In closing, Wigington does hold out some hope, but it is going to take the public waking up. Wigington says, “In the (GeoEngineeringWatch.org) movie “The Dimming,” I always try to make this point, and that is anyone of us could be the final grain of sand that can trigger the landslide of awakening. That means if we learn to fight effectively and efficiently, and that does not mean pointing to the sky and ranting, but passing on credible data. That can be done for free from your own home computer. Share links to “The Dimming” (a free film which already has more than 6.2 million views). Send that link out to Congressmen and anyone because you are planting a seed that will be forced to grow. I want to stress that, it will be forced to grow. So, we are not powerless, and those controlling things are not gods. We can make a difference. We absolutely can make a difference.” There is much more in the 51-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with climate researcher Dane Wigington, founder of GeoEngineeringWatch.org, with an update on the calamity geoengineering is causing.
“In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just above the image center, houses several of these massive stars and has itself changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.”
"There were a few Comments here about herons, from right around the world. What is the power of this bird to touch our minds and hearts? The naturalist Aldo Leopold was intimately familiar with the cranes of Wisconsin, cousins of our New England great blue heron, the Irish gray heron, and Adam2's aosagi from Japan, and wondered about their ability to move us so deeply. In A Sand County Almanac he watches as a crane "springs his ungainly hulk into the air and flails the morning sun with mighty wings." Our ability to perceive beauty in nature, as in art, begins with the pretty, he says, then moves into qualities of the beautiful yet uncaptured by language. The beauty of the crane lies in this higher realm, he proposes, "beyond the reach of words." Words may fail, but poets have tried to capture the ineffable.
John Ciardi sees "a leap, a thrust, a long stroke through the cumulus of trees" and stops to praise "that bright original burst that lights the heron on his two soft kissing kites."
Theodore Roethke observes a heron aim his heavy bill above the wood: "The wide wings flap but once to lift him up. A single ripple starts from where he stood."
In Chekhov's "The Three Sisters", sister Masha refuses "to live and not know why the cranes fly, why children are born, why the stars are in the sky. Either you know and you're alive or it's all nonsense, all dust in the wind."
“Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be a human. Maybe, we’re thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe, we’re thankful for the things we’ll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.”
“What is the point of you? What is your worth? And by worth I am not talking about your financial value, I am talking about something much more significant than that. So, I ask again - what is your worth? And you won't find the answer in any scripture or church - you won't find it even in this book. Because no external power can give you the answer to something so incredibly existential in nature.
If you want to know your worth, ask yourself, what are you without your bank account? The worth of a person lies in character. The same goes for a nation and the same goes for a world. Therefore, a nation's worth lies not in the value of its currency, but in the character of its people. And it all begins with the individual - it all begins with you. Your character holds not just the worth of your own life, but that of the lives of your people as well. So, feel like it's the feeling of your society and act like it's the action of your society.
But mark you, here I do not mean, feeling and acting like the society, rather, I am asking you to feel, think and act as an original, brave and conscientious human being, so that you become the very emblem of humanhood in front of others, for them to draw their life’s inspiration from. Doing what the society wants, makes you a second hand human - wanting the society to do what you want, makes you a narcissistic bigot - but being an embodiment of humanhood without any expectation from others, is what makes you a sentient human.”
- Abhijit Naskar
“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”
"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget."
“Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”
"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
"The Middle East is short of exploding. "Report: Egypt warns Israel Rafah offensive may lead to suspension of peace treaty" – Times of Israel, Feb 10 2024. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have added their voices to a rising tide of criticism of a planned Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that such a campaign was forthcoming.Netanyahu announced Friday that he had ordered the Israeli military to present the cabinet with a plan to both evacuate the city’s civilian population - augmented by over one million refugees from the strip’s north and center - and destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions in the area.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Egyptian officials warned the decades-long peace treaty between Egypt and Israel could be suspended if Israel Defense Forces’ troops enter Rafah, or if any of Rafah’s refugees are forced southward into the Sinai Peninsula.
In addition, Saudi Arabia - which has already conditioned normalization with Israel on an end to hostilities and steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state - issued a statement Saturday warning of “the extremely dangerous repercussions of storming and targeting the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip,” given the city being “the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of people.”
Reuters reported that in an effort to forestall a massive influx of refugees, Egypt has over the past two weeks stationed some 40 tanks near its border with Gaza, after having reinforced the border wall since the beginning of hostilities, both structurally and with surveillance equipment.
On Friday, Israel’s Channel 12 also reported that IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was opposed to Netanyahu’s plan for a swift Rafah campaign, saying that although the military is technically capable of such an operation, it would be unwise to undertake it without coordination with the Egyptians and plans for the city’s massive refugee population.
Plans are made to react to an onslaught on Rafah: "Sayyed Nasrallah Receives Iranian FM, Discuss Latest Regional Developments" - Al Manar, Feb 10 2024. "The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, received the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian,Amir-Abdollahian and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah discussed a variety of issues regarding the developments in the region and the situation in the Gaza Strip during the meeting.
"Iran: Missile Parade; Skydiving With Palestine Flag;
'Death To USA, Israel' Banners"
"Iran used 'Islamic revolution' anniversary celebration to send a warning to Israel and the USA. Iran showcased a range of its ballistic missiles, including Martyr Haj Qassem and Sejjil. Simorgh satellite carrier was also displayed as part of the 'revolution' anniversary fest. Palestine was the prominent theme in pan-iran celebrations of 'Islamic Revolution' anniversary."
"'Sitting Ducks': Israeli Leader Lashes Own Troops
As Hezbollah 'Ready For War With Radwan Force'"
"In a shocking turn of events, an Israeli leader has called his own forces "sitting ducks." The mayor of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, said that Israelis are acting like "sitting ducks" with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force on the border. Stern also urged Israelis not to return to Kiryat Shmona amid Hezbollah fears. The potential war between the IDF and Lebanon's Hezbollah holds a grim reality for Israel, according to a 300-page report by experts at Reichman University."
"Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”
“I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.”
"We are seeing garbage loans from car dealerships. People are getting car loans for 84 months where they are paying $2550 a month. Plus, we are seeing ridiculous loans for 96 months and they are as high as $3000 a month."
"How Is World Reacting To Israel’s Assault On Rafah?"
"Witnesses in Rafah report a surge in air raids, prompting residents to flee nearly 20 kilometers to the central part of the Gaza Strip as Israel intensifies its assault. Palestinians in Rafah express fears of an imminent ground invasion, raising concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe, while Prime Minister Netanyahu signals a timeline for the operation to wrap up before the start of Ramadan on March 10. Despite warnings and anticipation of a potential "massacre" by Hamas, many Palestinians in Rafah express determination to stay, fearing another Nakba or "catastrophe," and potential permanent displacement.
The international community, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UNICEF, the United States, and the United Kingdom, reacts to Israel's assault on Rafah with deep concern, urging restraint, intervention, and caution against large-scale offensives to avoid harm to civilians."
Evil incarnate, and the whole world watches and does nothing! Like the UN they hypocritically express their "deep concern", and DO nothing! Arabs, where are you? Iran, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE...millions of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of precision missiles and you DO nothing!
If I said what I really think and feel they'd delete this blog in a heartbeat...
And so he does: "Look, Platero, so many roses are falling everywhere: blue, pink, white, colorless roses… You’d think the sky was crumbling into roses… You’d think that from the seven galleries of Paradise roses were being thrown onto the earth… Platero, it seems, while the Angelus is ringing, that this life of ours is losing its everyday strength, and that a different strength from within, loftier, more constant, and purer, is causing everything, as if in fountain jets of grace… Your eyes, which you can’t see, Platero, and which you are mildly raising skyward, are two beautiful roses."
Together, poet and donkey traverse the Andalusian countryside in a state of rapturous harmony with each other and the living world: "Through the low-lying roads of summer, draped with tender honeysuckle, how sweetly we go! I read, or sing, or recite poetry to the sky. Platero nibbles the sparse grass of the shady banks, the dusty blossoms of the mallows, the yellow sorrel. He halts more than he walks. I let him.
[…]
Every so often Platero stops eating and looks at me. Every so often I stop reading and look at Platero."
This longing for the infinite accompanies the young man and the old donkey as they cross the hills and valleys on their daily pilgrimages: "The evening extends beyond its normal limits, and the hour, infected with eternity, is infinite, peaceful, unfathomable."
Again and again, Platero’s presence magnifies the poet’s relishing of beauty, deepens his contact with the eternal: "I remain in ecstasy before the twilight. Platero, his black eyes scarlet with sunset, walks gently to a puddle of crimson, pink, and violet waters; he softly immerses his lips into the mirrors, which seem to liquefy as he touches them."
“And when they found our shadows (grouped ‘round the TV sets), they ran down every lead; they repeated every test; they checked out all the data in their lists. And then the alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed, but on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise they logged the only explanation left: This species has amused itself to death.” - Roger Waters
“Apathy and indifference are nurtured in the modern age as most peoples’ free time is frittered away with worthless trivia like ball games, computer games, movies and soaps, and fiddling with their mobile phones. These distractions might be fun, but after most of them you’ve learnt nothing of any value, and remain ignorant, malleable and suggestible, which is just how the elites want you.” – Clive Maund
“A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed… When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” – Dresden James
“A lie gets halfway around the world before
the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
– Winston Churchill
"30 years ago (1985) Neil Postman (a professor of communications arts and sciences at New York University – until his death in 2003) wrote the best-selling book “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”. (Free download below.) The book exposed, among other things, the subtle but profound dangers to the developing mind from the mesmerizing (and addictive) commercial television industry.
The lessons from that book have essentially been ignored by the amoral and corrupted sociopathic capitalist system that says “damn the torpedoes/full steam ahead” and blindly and greedily promotes unlimited growth no matter what the costs and who or what gets hurt long–term in the resource-extractive, exploitive and permanently polluting processes.
But Postman’s thesis applies even more strongly today to the current internet/computer/ age-inappropriate, pornographic sex and pornographic violence-saturated televangelist/political-contaminated media reality with which the prophetic Postman was properly alarmed.
SOMA, the Drug That Predicted Prozac by 50 Years: In the classic “Brave New World” (1932) Aldous Huxley wrote about the new form of totalitarianism that has now come to pass in the developed world, thanks to the privatized profit-driven, drug, medical and psychiatric corporations whose practitioners were once (naively or altruistically?) mainly concerned with relieving human suffering and trying to holistically and permanently cure their distressed patients’ ailments (rather than lucratively “managing” said “clients” as permanently paying consumers of unaffordable prescription drugs). Nearly 30 years after he wrote the book, Huxley said,
“And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.” Neil Postman’s very last sentence of his book concerned the prescription drug-infested victims of the new form of totalitarianism that Huxley had described in “Brave New World”.
Of course, Huxley’s book was all about his imaginary psychotropic drug SOMA that Prozac’s makers and promoters in the late 1980s to falsely claim to make its swallowers “feel better than well”. One of the characters in Brave New World said: “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always Soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always Soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears; that’s what Soma is.”
Postman ended his book by writing: “What afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.” A couple of years after the publication of Postman’s book, Roger Waters (of “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” fame) released a “concept” album that was inspired by the book. He titled the album “Amused to Death”. The lyrics of the title track are as follows:
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