Wednesday, March 6, 2024

"17 Words That Changed My Life Forever"

"17 Words That Changed My Life Forever"
by Jerry Clark

“I remember several years back I heard something that changed my life forever. Up until that point I had been struggling through life – doing everything the hard way. I couldn’t figure out why my life wasn’t going the way I felt it should be. I saw some people going through life effortlessly and seemingly with less tension and frustration while I was wondering if I could ever straighten out the mess my life had turned out to be. I was behind on my dreams, my promises, and my bills. Then one day I was listening to a tape and the lady was talking about the power of having dreams and goals and all of the other stuff that those motivational speakers talk about. By that point I had listened to hundreds of such tapes, but it seemed as if nothing worked for me.

Probably the only reason I was listening to that one was because I had developed a habit of listening to cassette tapes while driving my car. The statement the lady said was simple and I think I had even heard it somewhere before but this time a light bulb went on in my head. I remember stopping the tape and rewinding it over and over again to hear the 17 words she said. I couldn’t believe it was so basic and simple. I was looking for something sophisticated and complicated. I thought I had to attend a $10,000 seminar. I didn’t know I could find it on a $10 tape program.

I’m taking the time to tell you all of this preliminary information because when I tell you the 17 words, I really want you to get it and get it NOW! Because if you get it NOW, your life will never be the same. You will be using the same principle that all who have became wealthy before you have used. Even those who became wealthy and can’t tell you how they did use this same principle without even being aware of what they are doing. Well, are you ready for the 17 words that made a powerful and positive impact on my life and on the life of tens of thousands of individuals who have achieved unimaginable success? Of course you are… Well, here they are…

For things to change, you must get a 
picture of what you want them to change to. 

Yes, it’s as simple as it sounds and as easy as it seems… Don’t try to make it any complicated than this because it will only frustrate you.

You must know exactly what you want and the more specific and clear you can get, the better. This is important because Human Beings are Teleological in nature… In other words, we move towards the pictures we constantly hold in our minds. Let me give you an example… Suppose you went to the store and bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle but it didn’t have a picture on the box of what the end result should look like.

Would you have a much harder time putting the picture together? Of course. You may eventually figure it out; however, the person who has a clear picture of what the end result should look like will be more than 100 times ahead of you. The question is are they 100 times ahead of you because their IQ is 100 times greater? Is it because they are 100 times better looking than you? Maybe it’s because they live 100 times closer to the person who created the puzzle? Ohh, I know – they were one of the first students to take the Evelyn Woods mind-expanding speed-reading and comprehension course right? If none of this is true then what is?

Yes, the person who had the clear and specific picture of what the outcome was supposed to be was simply operating in accordance to how our brain works. It moves towards the pictures we hold in our mind. It’s interesting because once you know exactly what it is you are moving towards, you seem to automatically know the steps to take or the necessary steps will soon become noticeable.

Your brain's subconscious mind, operating similar to a magnet, will start to attract in your direction the conditions, people, and circumstances that will help you move closer to the mental picture you maintain in your mind and it will repel all of those things that do not correlate to the picture you have in your mind. Therefore, the people who are clear and specific about what they want are using the powers of the Universe to assist them. This is, indeed, an awesome power. A person who knows how and uses this awesome power of the Universe to his or her advantage is a person who is working smart. A person who struggles every day trying to move closer to the success that they have no idea how it’s supposed to look is a person who is working hard.

Based on your observations over the years, do you think that most people are working hard or working smart? People who just work hard day in and day out without a clear picture of what they are moving towards are about as exciting as a tulip. Even though they may seem to be willing to work hard and put in the hours, they don’t seem to have much life in them. And people want to follow people who seem to have some life in them. If they want to find people who don’t seem to have much life in them, all they have to do is go to their job. People will follow people who look like they know where they are going and look like they are excited about the journey.

You must understand that your strength comes from knowing what you want. This will ignite the fire inside of you and enable you to borrow from the promise of the future so you can engage in the activities today that will move you closer and closer to what you want. It will enable you to go through the trials and tribulations that may be necessary so you can arrive at your destination. But remember the journey will be more important than the destination because in the journey you will become the person you require to become to finally arrive at your destination. So when you reach your destination, look at the person you have become and set a new destination so you can continue to grow and develop.

Whatever you do, just always remember that for things to change, you must get a picture of what you want them to change to. These are the "17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"… why not allow them to change yours too?”

"How Easy It Seems Then..."

“A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose.”
- George R.R. Martin

"How It Really Is"

 



"Israel - Palestine War Update 3/6/24"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/6/24
"Alastair Crooke Analyzing Israeli 
and Hezbollah Border Confrontations"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 3/6/24
"Hamas & Hezbollah Simultaneously Bombarded 
Israel After The Cairo Negotiations Failed"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 3/6/24
"Hezbollah Creates Mayhem In Israel; 
IDF Choppers Deployed, Foreign Nationals Hit In Missile Attack"
"Hezbollah's latest missile barrage on Israel killed one foreigner and injured nine others. Medics said the dead and wounded were all foreign laborers working in a local orchard. The wounded were evacuated by chopper to hospitals in North and Central Israel. Israeli officials said Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles near the border community of Margaliot."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "You Are Being Scammed Into A Death Sentence"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/6/24
"You Are Being Scammed Into A Death Sentence"
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"The Monstrous Thing..."

“The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off."
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"

The Poet: gk thomas, “Wretched of the Earth”

For the 14,000 slaughtered children of Gaza...
“Wretched of the Earth”

“Poor kids,
wretched of the earth,
why should we feed you?
Why shouldn't we empty our sea of
bullets into your swollen bellies or
poison you with toxic chemicals
or depleted uranium?
Why should we care,
we who are living well?

Where is it written in stone
that you deserve better?
Or that we are not animals
subject to the law of nature:
kill or be killed?

You suspect us of being cruel,
but we are kind.
Our god tells us so.
It is yours that lies.

So you cry at night,
shivering in the cold
or sell yourselves
for a slice of bread.
What is that to those of
us who are living well?”

-  gk thomas
o
God damn to Hell the psychopathic monsters doing this genocide!
Hell is not hot enough, and eternity is not long enough...
And eternal shame and disgrace on America for allowing and supporting this horror!
You and I and all of us paid for every goddamned bullet!

“Who Are The Animals? The IDF Behaving As Animals!”

Full screen recommended.
Middle East Eye, 3/6/24
“Who Are The Animals? The IDF Behaving As Animals!”
"Political commentator and presenter Ana Kasparian spoke on the incident of the Israeli 'massacre' that killed over 100 Palestinians seeking food in Gaza City. She said “Everything that we have looked into does not show Palestinians behaving as animals, it shows the IDF behaving as animals.” Kasparian repeated her question of “Who are the animals?” saying she was sick and tired of people referring to Palestinian civilians as animals."
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"Israel is Evil personified. Israel Is Evil embodied."
- Scott Ritter

Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel...

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! German Leaders Moved To Nuclear Bunker; Russia Nationwide Sirens; Macron 'We Are At War'"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/6/24
"Alert! German Leaders Moved To Nuclear Bunker;
 Russia Nationwide Sirens; Macron 'We Are At War'"
Comments here:

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Gerald Celente, "Hate Israeli Genocide? You're An AntiSemite!"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/5/24
"Hate Israeli Genocide? You're An AntiSemite!"
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Jeremiah Babe, "From Retirement To Working As A Walmart Greeter"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/5/24
"From Retirement To Working As A Walmart Greeter"
"Many people who retired early may find themselves in need of a job when the 
Fed pulls the plug on the stock market and investors watch their stocks crumble."
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Bill Bonner, "Debt Ruins"

"Debt Ruins"
When the past overtakes the present, the future is doomed...
by Bill Bonner

"There’s a great deal of ruin in a nation."
~ Adam Smith

"How about this from Fortune: "Hotshot Wharton professor sees $34 trillion debt triggering 2025 meltdown as mortgage rates spike above 7%: ‘It could derail the next administration’ Among the illustrious nameplates adorning the offices of Ivy League business schools is one Joao Gomes. A Wharton Business School finance professor, Gomes is issuing a warning cry many of his peers so far have chosen to ignore: America’s burgeoning public debt mountain.The gist of Gomes’ warning is that the ruin of America is bound to come from its $34 trillion of debt. The more current income you have to devote to past spending, the less you have left over for current spending. Not to put too fine a point on it, but people with less money to spend are poorer.

In more immediate terms, the feds have to borrow more and more money in order to pay the interest on their $34 trillion debt pile and continue their excess spending. They inevitably compete with private borrowers and drive up interest rates.

That ‘70s Show: Yesterday, we remembered the 1970s. In 1979, the going rate for a mortgage was 12.9%. Today, there’s $12 trillion of mortgage debt. Much of it is fixed, at very low rates. Sales have dried up, because, for the sellers, it would mean taking on a new mortgage at much higher rates.

The adjustment to higher rates takes time. Already, the housing industry is not building as many houses as it used to, because it can’t sell them. And buyers aren’t buying like they used to either, because they can’t afford them. With a median house price of $435,000 (up from $25,000 in 1970!), a mortgage at 12.9% would mean monthly payments – interest only – of $4,676. The median household income is only about $6,000; doesn’t leave much to live on.
Even at 7%, the mortgage payment – around $3,000/mo. – is more than most people can afford.

Most likely, house prices will go down as demand for expensive houses shrinks. But mortgage rates are likely to continue going up as the demand for credit increases. At some point – Professor Gomes says it will come next year – a debt crisis will begin. The economy will fizzle and spark…then, die like a wet flame.

We’ve been warning about public debt – off and on – for the last 50 years. This gives us some street cred in the doom and gloom industry. But most people think our clock has stopped. A half century is ‘long term;’ they assume that if nothing bad has happened in 50 years it’s not going to happen at all. A few gray-beards remember the post-WII experience. The debt/GDP ratio then was as high as it is now. But…lo…no catastrophe followed. Instead, the debt went down and the economy boomed.

No End in Sight: Mightn’t that happen again? Very unlikely. The WWII debt was different. It was entirely driven by the war. Households and businesses – unable to buy anything – saved their money. By the end of the war, they were flush with real money and ready to spend, invest, and build. Come the Japanese surrender, military spending plummeted and civilian spending soared.

Today, the situation is almost the opposite. Consumers and businesses are deep in debt too. And whatever ‘war’ we are engaged in, there is no end in sight. But it all takes time to play itself out. You can boil an egg in 3 minutes. You can watch a movie in an hour and a half. But neither wine nor whiskey matures overnight. And Rome wasn’t destroyed in a fortnight. You might see Halley’s comet in the night sky and then keep watching for it. After a few years, you would give up. The comet had gone off into the black universe, you might conclude, never to be seen again. But you gave up too soon. It comes back every 75 years or so.

Even jumping out of an airplane leaves you seemingly suspended in air…as if time had stopped. And yet, no matter how long it takes, you’re going to end up on the ground.

It took the US 190 years to accumulate its first $1 trillion of debt. But now the ‘ground rush’ begins; time speeds up. The US adds $1 trillion in debt every few months. The latest projections show national debt at $60 trillion by 2034. That would put the interest expense around $3 trillion. You reach for the rip cord. But it’s not there. The insiders benefit from federal spending…and they control Congress. No parachute is available.

One way or another, the past will get what’s coming to it. Patience."

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero),
 "Footprints On The Sea" 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Where did this big ball of stars come from? Palomar 6 is one of about 200 globular clusters of stars that survive in our Milky Way Galaxy. These spherical star-balls are older than our Sun as well as older than most stars that orbit in our galaxy's disk. Palomar 6 itself is estimated to be about 12.5 billion years old, so old that it is close to - and so constrains - the age of the entire universe. 
Containing about 500,000 stars, Palomar 6 lies about 25,000 light years away, but not very far from our galaxy's center. At that distance, this sharp image from the Hubble Space Telescope spans about 15 light-years. After much study including images from Hubble, a leading origin hypothesis is that Palomar 6 was created - and survives today - in the central bulge of stars that surround the Milky Way's center, not in the distant galactic halo where most other globular clusters are now found."

"Our First Duty..."

"No one today likes truth: utility and self interest have long ago been substituted for truth. We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality."
- Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev

"Just A Coincidence?"

"Watch this and have your mind blown. Its like who ever wrote this episode of X-Files knew what was about to happen and was trying to tell us all. Whoever wrote the script for this episode has to be a time traveler or a senior deep state operative who revealed the entire plan just for giggles. NO ONE could simply imagine this in 2016..."

OMG...Covid! Astonishing, incredible truth... HOW?

"Costco Products Face Explosive Price Increase As CEO Reports A Large Number Of Challenges"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 3/5/24
"Costco Products Face Explosive Price Increase
 As CEO Reports A Large Number Of Challenges"

"Costco is quietly raising prices again, and this is making customers from all over the country really furious. Executives warn that even more increases are on the horizon as the company implements a series of changes this year. Higher grocery prices have been a major topic of concern for American families since the pandemic. Despite all the talk about deflation, U.S. consumers are still spending on average $1,000 more on the same basket of basic items they used to buy four years ago.

During his final days at Costco, Galanti suggested that while the warehouse club wants to offer the most competitive prices, it is not above grabbing wider margins when the right opportunity presents itself. In other words, Costco doesn't always keep its margins thin on the items it sells, but it looks to keep prices marginally lower relative to its rivals.

So far in 2024, grocery price increases have outpaced overall inflation. Families are now paying 25% more for groceries than they were prior to the pandemic, compared with 19% overall inflation. About five categories drove nearly 30% of grocery inflation. They are beef and veal, poultry; non-frozen non-carbonated juices and drinks, fresh fruits and vegetables, and snacks, according to the report.

Such elevated costs for food are hitting American families harder higher than ever before. From February 2023 to February this year, low-income families have been hit the hardest by rising grocery prices, and they have spent on average 31% of their income on food, compared with 23% for middle-class households, and only 8% for wealthier ones, data shows.

“I think people are waiting for prices to return to what they call ‘normal’ - and with the exception of a few things, - we’re not going to see that. We’re going to see prices stabilize at this level, and that’s likely it,” said Dawn Thilmany, an agricultural economist and professor at Colorado State University. That's sad news for everyone struggling to get by month after month. But that's the new reality we're in and, at the end of the day, Costco is just a small fish in a sea of vicious creatures."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Rock Port, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Life Has No Victims..."

“Life has no victims. There are no victims in this life. No one has the right to point fingers at his/her past and blame it for what he/she is today. We do not have the right to point our finger at someone else and blame that person for how we treat others, today. Don’t hide in the corner, pointing fingers at your past. Don’t sit under the table, talking about someone who has hurt you. Instead, stand up and face your past! Face your fears! Face your pain! And stomach it all! You may have to do so kicking and screaming and throwing fits and crying – but by all means – face it! This life makes no room for cowards.”
- C. Joybell C.
o
"Rocky's Inspirational Speech to His Son"

"All Earthly Empires Die"

"All Earthly Empires Die"
by Bill Bonner

"'Amor fati' was Nietzsche’s famous expression. It is a Latin phrase with connections to the Stoic writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Literally translated, it means “love of fate.” It is a white shoe yearning for mud. It is a turkey looking forward to Thanksgiving. Or an investor stoically preparing for a bear market.

We use the term to describe the grace and courage you need to meet a complex, unknowable, and uncontrollable future. You don’t know whether the Earth is warming or cooling… whether it is good or bad… or whether you can do anything about it. You don’t know who’s doing “equal work.” You don’t know what equality is… how to measure it… or what to do about it. You don’t know who the bad guy is. It may even be you. It recognizes that we are all God’s fools, living in a world of ignorance, headed towards we don’t know where. Using our brains, we can make progress in our physical, material world. Technical thinking yields pyramids and Eiffel Towers.

Ignorance Everywhere: But there is another part of life, which has a mind of its own. It does not bend readily to our desires or yield to our intelligence. It is the part of life whose purposes are unknown. The first and most important Commandment, according to Jesus, was not to fight it, but to love it.

But ignorance can be a charm. You just have to take it seriously. And appreciate it. Recognizing your own ignorance will inform your newfound modesty. You will be aware of it. And fiercely proud. Nobody will be humbler than you are! And since you are so chummy with ignorance, you will see it everywhere – in every headline, every public announcement, every speech on the floor of the Senate… and every crackpot comment from every dummy voter in the empire.

In private affairs, you reduce uncertainty by getting as close to the subject as possible. That is, you avoid secondhand “news” and try to find out for yourself. The more you know about a company, for example, the more confident you can be about investing in it. That’s why the insiders always have the inside track, an advantage that is increased by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s phony “level playing field” propaganda. In public affairs – policy discussions, economics, politics – as you get closer, you become less cocksure. That is, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

In an interesting university study, people were asked to pick out Ukraine on a map… and whether they approved of military intervention in that country. Curiously, the further off they were on the geography (the average guess was 1,800 miles off), the more they favored forceful intervention. In public affairs, ignorance and confidence vary inversely.

Moral Certainty: When we first moved to Baltimore in the 1980s, we noticed this phenomenon in another context. Baltimore was a disaster. Crime, drugs, poverty, venereal disease, broken homes, unwed mothers, corruption – name a social problem; Baltimore had it. And while its leaders had been noticeably unable to solve any of these problems right in their own back yard, the city’s politically correct politicians were loud and clear on one issue: apartheid had to end… in South Africa. Had they ever visited South Africa? Could they find it on a map? Probably not. But they were sure they knew how to make it a better place.

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority,” wrote Baltimore’s own H.L. Mencken. “The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’”

“I am not too sure,” would eliminate many of the world’s myth-driven, self-inflicted ills – pointless wars, dumb arguments, pogroms, persecutions, and lynchings. And reckless spending of other people’s money.

Imagine a wise Hitler entertaining the idea of building Auschwitz as a “final solution” to the “Jewish problem.” “Hmmm… I’m not too sure that would solve it… In fact, I’m not too sure there is a problem!”

Imagine Simon de Montfort readying to attack the town of Albi to exterminate the “heretics.” When told that half the people in the town were good Catholics, de Montfort replied: “Kill them all. God will recognize His own.” Suppose he had thought twice… “Hmmm… Maybe this is not such a good idea… Maybe killing people is not what Christianity is all about… Maybe the heretics aren’t so bad… Maybe I’ll take the afternoon off.”

Unwarranted Confidence: The barroom blowhard… so sure he is right about everything… is generally the dumbest guy in the place. And the most dangerous. He’s the one who will stir up a mob… and get himself elected president. The whole system of modern public policy is built on false knowledge and unwarranted confidence. The elite claims to know what is best for you. That is how every politician can claim his proposals would “benefit the American people.” But the only program that would benefit the American people would be to let them decide for themselves what would benefit them. Give them back their money. Stop bossing them around. End the wars. Stop the empire. But who would suggest such a thing?

A book that appeared in 2018, "Psychology of a Superpower: Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy", by political scientist Christopher Fettweis, argued that power really does corrupt, and that when a nation or an empire gets too much power, its elite develops new opinions.

Rather than seeing itself as one of many nations that must get along with each other, its elites begin to see that they have a special role to play. They become the one, “indispensable” nation, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it. They are the world’s only hope in combatting evil, which they do, as then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo elaborated, with “the righteous knowledge that our cause is just, special, and built upon America’s core principles.”

Thus endowed with a special mission and special powers, and subject to the special rules of the only nation with a trillion-dollar-per-year military/empire budget, the elite develop, in Fettweis’s judgment, a fatal combination of unrestrained hubris, unrealistic paranoia, and unrepentant ignorance. They see danger everywhere, without undertaking any serious study (they assume knowledge comes automatically with raw power). And they think they have not only the right, but the means, to do something about it, even if the danger is largely fantasy.

Damned to Hell: But people always come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. “All earthly empires die,” wrote St. Augustine in 413, a few years before the Vandals destroyed his city and finally brought down the Roman Empire in the West.

The elite contribute, by taking up the myths that help it die. Certainty and ignorance vary proportionally, both on the individual and on a national level. The surer a nation is of its myths… its exceptionalism… its manifest destiny… its policies… and its position at the right hand of God… the more it is damned to Hell."

"Who Will Prevail in World War 3? Exploring the 7 Key Battlefields" (Excerpt)

"Who Will Prevail in World War 3? 
Exploring the 7 Key Battlefields"
by Nick Giambruno

Excerpt: "Total war between the world’s largest powers reshuffled the international order defined by the previous world wars. Total war between the largest powers today - Russia, China, and the US -means a nuclear Armageddon where there are no winners and only losers. That could still happen despite nobody wanting it, but it’s not the most likely outcome.

World War 3 is unlikely to be a direct kinetic war between the US, Russia, and China. Instead, the conflict will play out on different levels - proxy wars, economic wars, financial wars, cyber wars, biological wars, deniable sabotage, and information wars. In that sense, World War 3 is already well underway, even though most don’t recognize it. Below, I’ll look at the seven domains World War 3 is playing out on and analyze which side has an advantage."
Full article is here:

"The World Is A Dangerous Place..."

"If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity."
- Albert Einstein

"Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it.
Right is right even if only you are doing it."
- Author Unknown

"How It Really Is"

 

Scott Ritter, "Israel Has Just Done The Unthinkable... We Can't Allow This To Continue"

Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 3/5/24
"Israel Has Just Done The Unthinkable... 
We Can't Allow This To Continue"
Comments here:

"Israel Is Evil personified. Israel Is Evil embodied."
- Scott Ritter
o
"Israel Plumbs New Depths of Genocidal
 Depravity in the Weaponization of Forced Starvation"
"Transforming Gaza into a moonscape has nothing to do with ‘self-defense’. And it doesn’t have anything to do with vengeance either. It’s all about the land; seizing the land from its indigenous owners and incorporating it into a Greater Israel. That’s what Zionism is, a messianic ideology that blinds its adherents to the suffering of others, and turns intelligent, responsible people into heartless brutes capable of unimaginable savagery."
o
Rabbi Weiss denounces Israel’s 
atrocities in Palestine’s Gaza.

Gregory Mannarino, "A Super-Meltdown Will Occur In The Debt Market, And It Cannot Be Stopped"

 Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/5/24
"A Super-Meltdown Will Occur In The Debt Market, 
And It Cannot Be Stopped"
Comments here:
o
Related:
"Never Go Full Weimar: America’s Monetary Base 
Has Grown 6 Times Larger Since 2008"
By Michael Snyder
Excerpt: "A lot of people have been waiting for a meltdown of America’s financial system, but the truth is that it is already in the process of melting down. As you will see below, the size of the monetary base in the United States has gotten more than six times larger since 2008. If we continue down this road, it won’t be too long before we start looking like Germany during the Weimar Republic. But if we stop creating money at a feverish rate, we won’t be able to service our debts and we will plunge into a very deep economic depression. Those that run things desperately want to avoid short-term economic pain, and so they just continue to take the easy way out. Unfortunately, taking the easy way out time after time will only lead to heartache."
Full article here:

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! NATO F-35s Enter Warzone! Russian Warship Sunk! Leaders Warn WW3 Imminent! Bridge Attack"

Canadian Prepper, 3/5/24
"Alert! NATO F-35s Enter Warzone! Russian Warship Sunk!
 Leaders Warn WW3 Imminent! Bridge Attack"
Comments here:

Travelling with Russell, "Moscow Elite Department Store Tour: Petrovsky Passage"

Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 3/5/24
"Moscow Elite Department Store Tour: Petrovsky Passage"
"Where do Russia's Elite going shopping? Discover with me Petrovsky Passage in Moscow, Russia. What does a Moscow Elite Department Store look like inside? How does it feel to shop on Millionaires Row in Moscow, Russia?"
Comments here:

Monday, March 4, 2024

Jeremiah Babe, "Walmart Warning: Who Is Gonna Buy All This Stuff?"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 3/4/24
"Walmart Warning: Who Is Gonna Buy All This Stuff? 
Credit Card Rejections Explode, Big Trouble"
Comments here:

"When Will They Learn?"

"When Will They Learn?"
by Jeff Thomas

"Dependency upon government is a disease. Once it has been caught, it becomes chronic and does not reverse itself in a population until the system collapses under its own weight. For many years, frustrated colleagues of mine who are either conservative or libertarian have posed the rhetorical question, "When will those liberals learn?" Surely, at some point (they reason), liberals will recognise that bailouts, entitlements, and a "planned" society simply do not work. It's not even a question of whether liberalism is a laudable concept. The problem is that it just… doesn't… work.

Of course, my colleagues are correct in their appraisal of the liberal concept. Unfortunately, they are gravely mistaken in their belief that there comes a point at which the liberal "bubble" pops and suddenly all liberals wake up and smell the coffee.

Truth be told, as long as governments can benefit from maintaining a strong liberal consciousness in their citizenry, and as long as they can count on the media to maintain that consciousness, it will always be possible to convince liberal thinkers that, whatever negative events have taken place in a given country, they are the fault of the "enemy"—the non-liberal contingent.

But, surely, when there is clear-cut evidence that liberal policies have failed, liberals must accept that liberalism is an economic and social dead end. No, I'm afraid not. Let's look at how just three examples are likely to play out—not as we'd like to see them play out, but how they will play out in reality.When the bailouts end, the economy will collapse. Liberals will then grasp that bailouts do not work. Not so, I'm afraid. Although endless QE is as implausible as perpetual motion, when it is finally halted, the economy will inevitably crash, and crash badly -made worse by QE. Will liberals then realize the failure of QE? No, they will only argue that the only problem was that it was halted - that, had it continued, it would eventually have saved the day.

No liberal will hazard a guess as to what amount of QE or length of time would have created salvation; however, the blame for the crash will be placed squarely at the feet of the greedy One Percent, whom the liberals will say "engineered the end of QE in order to impoverish and enslave the middle class." Liberals will be more committed than ever to government spending as a solution.When cities such as Bradford in the UK or Detroit in the US reach fiscal collapse, liberals will realise that ever-increasing entitlements are simply not sustainable, that such tax-based benefit programs drive out thriving industries, leaving the poor behind, in a dying metropolis. Again, this will not happen. Instead of learning the obvious lesson, liberals will redouble their belief in collectivism. They will reason that the government had successfully protected inner city workers through benefit programs. However, big business, wanting to create slaves of workers, sent jobs overseas, to countries where enslavement by the rich is still possible.

By doing so, they removed tax dollars from the system, causing the impoverishment of inner-city dwellers, destroying their lives. Rather than abandon social programs as ineffective, liberals will set about creating massive relocation programs, such as moving the disenfranchised inner-city people to areas where there is sufficient local business for taxation to continue supporting those on public assistance. In so doing, those areas that were previously economically viable will also be bled to the point of fiscal failure, spreading the disease. However, the liberal conclusion will remain the same: "The problem is the greedy rich." 

When the government has fully morphed into a dictatorial police state, liberals will realize that governmental overreach has destroyed their liberty. Again, this will not be the liberal view when the time comes. Instead, they will conclude, as they do now, that freedom is a small price to pay for safety. They will, therefore, not only accept, but encourage the government to redouble its Gestapo approach every time a lone gunman fires into a classroom. And any single such incident will be cause for a nationwide ramping-up of policing. (If no lone gunman appears on the scene just prior to a planned ramping-up, a suitable incident can always be created by the government.)

In each of the above cases, nothing is learned by liberals, except that they were right all along: "Don't trust the conservatives. They are evil and will destroy all good in society." These three examples should be sufficient to demonstrate that there will be no magic day when liberals figure out the failings of collectivism. In fact, quite the opposite will be true. Just as any government benefits from its own expansion of power, so governments and the media propaganda systems will ensure good that the EU and US will only become more liberal over time.

Throughout history, a basic truism has been evident: Dependency upon government is a disease. Once it has been caught, it becomes chronic and does not reverse itself in a population until the system collapses under its own weight.

A good example of this is East Germany in the early 1990's. In 1987, US President Reagan famously delivered the words in Berlin, "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall." His words were heard so loudly that Mister Gorbachev did, indeed, tear down the wall. Almost immediately, West Berliners, thrilled to be reunited with their brothers to the East, created thousands of job opportunities for East Germans. East Germans were equally thrilled, anticipating that they might now have larger apartments, higher pay, and possibly own televisions and cars. However, East Germans did not respond well to the standards of the West, feeling that employers were too harsh in their requirements and the benefits were not what they had been used to. East and west re-unified, but the transition was not a smooth one.

But, before we place all the criticism on liberals, it is well to note that, in both the EU and US, conservatives often tend to be just as dogmatic in their assessments. Whilst conservatives arguably may have a better grasp than liberals as to fiscal realities, they, too, are continuously programmed to adhere to a fixed group of perceptions.

Conservatives and liberals are both programmed to maintain ongoing opposition to each other. Conservatives are perceived as greedy and evil by liberals; liberals are perceived as naïve and stupid by conservatives. The more they can be polarized from each other, the more governments may make use of the polarity as a distraction from their own actions. The more conservatives and liberals place the blame on each other, the more governments may present themselves as the referee, whist, in fact, they do all they can to expand the mutual animosity.

When people are angry, they do not think straight. The angrier they become, the more reason goes out the window. Consequently, the more a government can stir up its minions to attack each other, the more power the government has to impose ever-greater controls on the population. In a conservative administration, a government will institute greater social controls. In the following liberal administration, the government will institute greater economic controls. And the police state will be increased under both administrations.

The net effect is overall increased dominance by government. Under the two-party system, this dominance is not only tolerated by the populace, but encouraged. The day never comes when a people convince their government to "lighten up." Relief only comes when an overly-powerful governmental system collapses under its own weight."

Bill Bonner, "The Burden of Memory"

"Antigone", by Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927)
"The Burden of Memory"
Lessons from the past about losses in the future...
by Bill Bonner

"Then reflect, my son: you are poised,
once more, on the razor-edge of fate."
~ Tiresias, Antigone

Youghal, Ireland - "What should an old man do? What should he be? No longer raising children. No longer a captain of industry nor even a cog in the machine. No longer fit for battle or lead man in a rom-com. What is his role? Is it not to remember?

In ancient Ireland, ‘seanachies’ were employed to recall the lessons of the past. Wisemen, poets, and tellers of tales reminded kings and commoners of the great heroes of the past, their triumphs and their defeats. Some were real historical figures. Some were mythological. Scholars differ on what was real and what was not.

They told the story of the Great Queen Mebh (Maeve) of Connaught and the Cattle Raid of Cooley. She is the archetype of the independent, powerful, lusty modern woman. She’s also notable for having 7 sons, each of them named Maine. She wanted Ulster’s best bull; but this set off a familiar cycle of negotiation, treachery, murder, mayhem and war.

And who can forget the mighty Cuchulainn…who single handedly defended Ulster against Mebh’s armies? He had himself tied to a standing stone so he would be sure to die on his feet. They had their moments of glory…and their tragic flaws. Poised on the razor’s edge – all of them.

The Duty of Memory: And now, what should an old man do? Shouldn’t he remind and warn... and remember…the great snowstorm of ’58…the great drought of ’62…the flood of ’75?  Shouldn’t he tell his grandchildren to stock up on firewood…and head for high ground? Shouldn’t he recall the bear market of ’66-82…the crash of Japanese stock market in 1990…the inflation of the ‘70s…and the Vietnam War?

Watching for sin with one eye and error with the other…shouldn’t the two eyes come together in a studied warning: ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you?’ Of course, the young will ignore his unbidden advice. But so what? Just because his counsel is unwelcome doesn’t diminish his duty to give it out plain and simple. And like old, blind Tiresias, he can turn on his heels with a bit of dignity and a little mockery: "Just send me home. You bear your burdens, I’ll bear mine. It’s better that way, please believe me." Later, he can have the pleasure of saying “I told you so.”

There are few advantages of old age. The ‘I-told-you-so’s are one of them. Yes, you can get discount tickets at some theaters…get in free at some museums and the all-you-can eat buffet at 5 pm at some restaurants. But the big advantage is that you have seen more Big Losses. You know what they look like.

What Could Go Wrong? King Creon ignored the blind, old man and went on to suffer the Big Loss. He lost a son and a niece. (This is Greek tragedy, after all.) And if you are over the age of 70, you’ve probably seen some Big Losses yourself. Marriages that broke up, companies that broke down…people who went broke…crashes…murders…massacres…mistakes…lies…vain and transitory glories. And all of us are always perched on a razor’s edge of fate…the sides so close together we can barely tell them apart… And yet, toppling over in the wrong direction can be tragic.

Remember the disappointment felt by investors after the stock market boom ended in 1966…the shock of inflation in the ‘70s…and the debacle of the Vietnam War? In 1966, investors had the Nifty Fifty as their version of today’s Magnificent 7. They were supposed to be ‘one decision’ investments that you could have and hold until death did you part. They were the best companies, in the best stock market, in the best economy, during the best decade, in the best nation in history. Eastman Kodak, 3M, Procter and Gamble – they had the best technology…and so much money; they could hire the best engineers and managers. What could go wrong?

And yet, where did they go after 1966? Nowhere. The group of favorites was more or less flat for the next 16 years. And that was in nominal dollar terms. Adjusted for inflation, investors lost 70% to 80% of their money.

And then came the ‘70s. Inflation came in waves, not just in one single episode. The first splash arrived in 1969, when prices shot up 6%. Then, inflation went down to 3%…and the feds said it was over. But the next wave, in 1974, pushed prices up at a 12% annual rate. After that wave crested, inflation went down to around 6%, and again people said there was no further need to worry about it. The final soak didn’t come until 1979 – 10 years after the first one, with inflation at a 13% rate. If the pattern holds, the next big wave will come in 2032…with the dollar losing about 70% of its value between now and then.
Standard Abandoned

Through much of this period, 1966 to 1975, a morbid absurdity hung over the US – the Vietnam War. The idea was to keep the domino from falling over. Those of us over 70 may recall friends who went to ‘Nam’ and never came back alive. And the US squandered so much money on the war, President Nixon felt obliged to go ‘off the gold standard’ – setting in motion the financialization of the economy…the huge rise in debt…and the approaching bankruptcy of the US empire.

We remember the arguments in favor of continuing the war, now used to prolong the proxy war against Russia: we had to maintain our ‘credibility,’ by stopping them [communists] there; otherwise, we’d have to face them in California. To turn away would be appeasement. (The closest we got, personally, to Vietnam was patrolling the coast of California in a US navy cruiser. Had the North Vietnamese actually had a blue water navy, and had they used it to launch an assault across the vast Pacific, we were ready for them.)

In the event, the domino fell and nobody cared. Americans now take vacations in Vietnam and buy cheap T-shirts and running pants from Vietnamese mills. A trillion dollars down the rathole…a million dead …apparently, for nothing. Yes, like old, blind Tiresias, we’ve seen our share of misery, crackpottery, and jackassery. Shouldn’t we say something?"

Judge Napolitano, "Scott Ritter: How Close Are We To Global Confrontation?"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/4/24
"Scott Ritter: How Close Are We To Global Confrontation?"
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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Children In Time"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Children In Time"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, toward the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. A total of 90 hours of exposure time have gone in to creating this expansive view of the nebula.
Combining narrow band image data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, it shows remarkable details of the Helix's brighter inner region about 3 light-years across. The white dot at the Helix's center is this Planetary Nebula's hot, central star. A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry."

The Poet: Wendell Berry, "Leavings"

"Leavings"

“In time a man disappears
from his lifelong fields, from
the streams he has walked beside,
from the woods where he sat and waited.
Thinking of this, he seems to
miss himself in those places
as if always he has been there.
But first he must disappear,
and this he foresees with hope,
with thanks. Let others come.”

- Wendell Berry
“Perhaps as he was lying awake then, his life may have passed before him – his early hopeful struggles, his manly successes and prosperity, his downfall in his declining years, and his present helpless condition – no chance of revenge against Fortune, which had had the better of him - neither name nor money to bequeath – a spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment, and the end here! Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, “Tomorrow, success or failure won’t matter much, and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil.”
- William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair”

"The Trouble With Most People..."


"The Trouble With Most People..."

"Kaufman thought his public health students at the Kennesaw State University might know more than high schoolers. During the same week, he conducted an ad hoc survey in class, “How many of you believe the American dream is dead?” He asked his class of about 25 students. “Ninety percent raised their hands,” said Kaufman. “I was just blown away.”

He asked his college students what the American dream was. Not getting an answer, he defined it for them, “The American dream is, in this country, if you work hard, you sacrifice, and you never quit, you will find some type of success in your life.” After giving the students his definition, he tried again, “How many of you still believe the American dream is dead?” Still, 90 percent raised their hands.

“If you believe the American dream is dead in this country, why are you sitting in a college classroom?” he asked. The class was silent. Students looked shocked, and one said he hadn’t thought about that."
"Back when I taught at UCLA, I was constantly amazed at how little so many students knew. Finally, I could no longer restrain myself from asking a student the question that had long puzzled me: ''What were you doing for the last 12 years before you got here?''
- Thomas Sowell
"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. 
The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think.
The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; 
he confuses it with feeling."
- Thomas Sowell
"The trouble with most people is that they think with their
hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."
- Will Durant
"It takes considerable knowledge just to 
realize the extent of your own ignorance."
- Thomas Sowell