Wednesday, April 24, 2024

"Ignorance, Its Uses and Nurture"

"Ignorance, Its Uses and Nurture"
by Fred Reed

"Democracy may not be the silliest idea concocted by man but, for anything larger than a small town, it is crackpot. It consists in the idea that a public, on average knowing almost nothing, can choose leaders in popularity contests among provincial lawyers who know little more and are required to know nothing, except how to get elected.

In a democracy, this ignorance is both a protected quality, like motherhood and a valued resource. By common consent, the ruled do not look too closely at the mentality of elected rulers, and the rulers speak solemnly of the wisdom of the people, who have none. Reporters will ask, “Senator, what are your views on Afghanistan?” but never, “Senator, where is Afghanistan?” or “Can you spell Afghanistan?”

To plumb the depths of democratic puzzlement, we might, by means of polls, ask how many voters can name three cities in China apart from Beijing, Shanghai, and Hongkong. Or how many can name even those cities. Or how many know even one date in Chinese history, or can name a single province. Yet they know that China is perfectly dreadful and dangerous.

Ask what countries border on the Caspian or Black Sea. Or, seriously, how many have ever heard of the Caspian. In today’s politics, these are not quiz-show trivia but influence Washington’s choice of our next war.

See how many have heard of the Minsk Accords. If they have not, they lack a hamster’s grasp of the Ukraine war. What they think they know probably comes through CNN and MSNBC, assiduous hawkers of the not so.

Gallup: Twenty-one percent of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth.

Fifty-four percent of Americans read below the sixth-grade level.

A good bet is that the lower third in intelligence of the population know nothing at all of international affairs and exceedingly little of national. Given the appallingly poor schools in the cities, another good bet is that the proportion of blacks cognizant of international geography or politics is vanishingly low. Since Latin American cardiac surgeons and system programmers do not swim the Rio Bravo to pick oranges in Florida, the Hispanic percentage is unlikely to be greatly better. Taken as wholes, none of these three groups is remotely qualified to vote.


“While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one.

n reading, 628 Patterson High School students took the test. Out of those students, 484 of them, or 77%, tested at an elementary school reading level. That includes 71 high school students who were reading at a kindergarten level and 88 students reading at a first-grade level. Another 45 were reading at a second-grade level. Just 12 students tested at Patterson High School, were reading at grade level, which comes out to just 1.9%.

While people who read political columns online are likely of intelligence above the average, i wonder how many who rail against capitalism, socialism, fascism, racism, and terrorism can define the words.

I recently checked the bios of the members of the House committee on China to see how many read, write, or speak Chinese. None. Thus do we make policy regarding the most important foreign country on the planet.

A friend, a former US Senator, once estimated, dead seriously, that ninety percent of the Senate doesn’t know where Myan Mar is. If you and I, dear reader, do not know this, it probably doesn’t matter. The Senate engages in foreign policy.

It is important to note that intelligence does not by itself confer the capacity to vote. I know people way into the upper percentiles who do not have the time or the interest to worry about foreign policy, for example. There are engineers, neurosurgeons, mathematicians, journalists, musicians and artists, whose minds just don’t run in political directions, especially involving obscure countries on the other side of the world. Neurosurgeons have families who merit attention, journals to read to keep up with their fields, perhaps a hobby or two, and don’t have much left over to worry about a new Russian pipeline across Mongolia, wherever that is.

People I have met of IQ 190 or better, maybe four (of whom I assuredly am not one), have had the memory and analytical capacity to, I think, approximate an understanding of politics, history, and so on. These people are so rare as to be almost nonexistent. The rest of us at best can know bits and pieces.

For example, my knowledge of Caucasian politics consists entirely in the fact that Washington wants to put military bases in Georgia to help surround Russia. I am blankly ignorant of Congressional and state politics, agricultural policy, or much about what Blackrock is doing around the world. There is too much to know, and too little wit to know it with.

If we ignore exceptions and degrees, the public can be regarded as a vast semi-comatose polyp that knows only whether it is comfortable or cold and wet and has enough to eat. If the economy is good, people will vote for incumbents, whether these have any responsibility for the prosperity or not. If wars can be fought without inconveniencing them, in places not actually within their visual horizon, they will pay scant attention. They will not concern themselves with education as long as their children get good grades, however unrelated to anything learned. Their interests are local, though they can be stirred up over this football team or that, this Trump or that Biden, or morality plays about police brutality or the righteous heroism of Ukrainians.

Taking into account the aforementioned poor education, controlled media, and American anti-intellectualism – Americans seem to dislike the obviously intelligent – and you have a polity utterly incapable of anything approaching functional democracy. Rev the people up over the Superbowl or morality tales about the Ukraine or Russia and they will do anything desired. Roll over. Bark. Beg. Nothing to it."

Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Costco!"

Full Screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/24/24
"Stocking Up At Costco!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Costco and are stocking up on a lot of different grocery items!  We show how we get the most out of our membership, making it totally worth it!"
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 4/24/24
Travelling with Russell, 4/24/24
"I Went to Russia's Largest Food Expo:
 PRODEXPO 2024"
"Prodexpo 2024 is the largest international show of food and drinks in Russia and Eastern Europe. Bringing togther more than 2000 companies to showcase food and drinks. ProdExpo is Russia’s largest showcase of alcoholic beverages and wines from more than 30 countries."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "You Will Never Own a Home"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 4/24/24
"You Will Never Own a Home"
"Redfin just conducted a wild survey that showed that most people 
have basically given up on the fact that they will ever own a home. 
Will you ever own a home? "
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Crisis Zone: On The Edge Of A Total Debt Market Meltdown"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/24/24
"Crisis Zone: 
On The Edge Of A Total Debt Market Meltdown"
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Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/24/24
"Live! Never Let Your Guard Down! 
Hold The High Ground And Be Ready For Anything!"
Comments here:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

"'Will Destroy Israel If...': Iran's Big Threat To Jewish State After Tit-For-Tat Attacks"

Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 4/23/24
"'Will Destroy Israel If...': 
Iran's Big Threat To Jewish State After Tit-For-Tat Attacks"
"Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi threatened Israel of annihilation in case the Jewish State launched an attack on the Islamic Republic. The statement from Raisi came during a visit to Pakistan, according to IRNA news agency and comes at a time when tensions are running high between the two sides following tit-for-tat military strikes."
Comments here:

Iran can do it too, even without Hezbollah's 200,000 missiles.
 Tel Aviv will look like Gaza and the israeli Occupation Force will be obliterated.
Israel will cease to exist...
Inshallah. So be it.

Canadian Prepper, "A Warning From A Wise Old Man, 'The Trigger Event For WW3 Is This..."

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, Posted 4/23/24
"A Warning From A Wise Old Man, 
'The Trigger Event For WW3 Is This..."
This video was filmed 48 hrs BEFORE the Israeli 'token' retaliatory strike, another 
accurate prediction for JS. Watch the whole video to learn the longer time of events.
Comments here:

Kurt Vonnegut, "Requiem"

"Requiem"

“The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice and a sense of irony,
might now well say of our abuse of it,
"Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do."

The irony would be that we know what we are doing.

When the last living thing has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up perhaps
from the floor of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done. People did not like it here.”

- Kurt Vonnegut
o
"The civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and sky. In our tenure on this planet, we have accumulated dangerous, evolutionary baggage propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. We have also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience, and a great, soaring passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity.

Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet earth. But up and in the cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits. National boundaries are not evidenced when we view the earth from space. Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.

There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably into self-destruction. I dream about it... and sometimes they are bad dreams."
- Carl Sagan

Gerald Celente, "The Inmates Are Running The Asylum!"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, The Trends Journal, 4/23/24
"The Inmates Are Running The Asylum!"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

"Mass Graves in Gaza Show Israelis Are Worse Than Nazis"

"Israel is Evil personified.
Israel is Evil embodied."
- Scott Ritter

Full screen recommended.
Richard Medhurst, 4/23/24
"I Thought I'd Seen Everything in Gaza, But This..."
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Richard Medhurst, 4/22/24
"Mass Graves in Gaza Show 
Israelis Are Worse Than Nazis"
Comments here:

Full screen recommended.
"The One Video Israel Really
 Doesn't Want You To See"
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, "The Average Household Is F****d, The Biggest Mistake You Can Make Is Believing The Lie"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/23/24
"The Average Household Is F****d, 
The Biggest Mistake You Can Make Is Believing The Lie"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Oceans of Life"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Oceans of Life"

"The Pale Blue Dot"

Full screen recommended.
"The Pale Blue Dot"

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
- Carl Sagan

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries, some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy. Also known as NGC 772, the island universe is over 100,000 light-years across and sports a single prominent outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait. 
Its brightest companion galaxy, compact NGC 770, is toward the upper right of the larger spiral. NGC 770's fuzzy, elliptical appearance contrasts nicely with a spiky foreground Milky Way star in matching yellowish hues. Tracking along sweeping dust lanes and lined with young blue star clusters, Arp 78's large spiral arm is likely due to gravitational tidal interactions. Faint streams of material seem to connect Arp 78 with its nearby companion galaxies."

"Sometimes..."

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that has nothing to do with you, this storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up the sky like pulverized bones.

You have to look! That’s another one of the rules. Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”
- Haruki Murakami

“Closing your eyes won’t make the awfulness go away. It may be that nothing will. But dwelling on it, dreading the evil, playing out the misery in your head – doesn’t this feed the monster? You can’t close your eyes to life, but you can choose where your gaze lingers.”
- Richelle E. Goodrich

"Dollar Tree’s Price Hike Sparks Consumer Concerns: The End Of An Era"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 4/23/24
"Dollar Tree’s Price Hike Sparks Consumer Concerns: 
The End Of An Era"
"Dollar Tree is causing commotion with its recent price update. True dollar prices are a thing of the past in Dollar Tree. The discount giant is raising prices again, with some items as high as $7. The company also announced that the sister brand Family Dollar will close nearly a thousand stores starting this year. Are you still going shopping at Dollar Tree when prices rise to $7 an item?"
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The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Darkness Falls"

"Darkness Falls"

"Darkness falls upon Humanity
and faces become terrible things
that wanted more than there was.

All our days are marked with
unexpected affronts - 
some disastrous, others less so,
but the process is
wearing and continuous.

Attrition rules.
Most give way,
leaving empty spaces
where people should be.
And now,
as we ready to self-destruct,
there is very little left to kill,
which makes the tragedy
less and more,
much, much more."

- Charles Bukowski

Chet Raymo, “Hanging On”

“Hanging On”
by Chet Raymo

“I change the desktop image on my laptop every now and then, generally when I come across a new image I like. In the last year or so you’ll remember that I wrote about Caravaggio’s “The Rest on the Flight Into Egypt” and Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid.” Live with an image for a while and it’s inevitable that you learn something from it. Here is the painting I’ve had as my desktop in recent weeks, Winslow Homer’s “Snap the Whip”, 1872, one of America’s sentimental favorites.

A simpler, more innocent time. Boys at recess, barefoot in the grass. Hand-me-down clothes. Autumn wildflowers, trees turning to red and gold. A fumbling Ulysses S. Grant is in the White House, the country is at peace after a horrendous civil war, and the Panic of 1873 and subsequent depression is still in the offing. Anyway, all of that political and economic stuff is a bit of a pother and far away. The sun is high in the sky, there’s an apple in the pocket, and only the oldest boy is thinking yet about the eternal mystery that is girls.

Yes, a lovely sentimental anecdote to the busy rancor of our own time, the incessant noise of the television, the attack ads, the news of war. How blissful to be twelve years old again, fit and healthy with the grass between your toes. Never mind that these boys had a life expectancy at birth of about 40 years, and that many of them had probably already lost a sibling or parent; when the sun’s out, and it’s recess, and you’ve got eight pals to play with…

But that’s not why I like the painting. I love the way the arc of the whip reflects the curve of the hill. The vanishing point of the red schoolhouse and three white shirts – everything converges on the two adults in the distance, the grown-up world that inevitably awaits.

Between the three boys who anchor the whip and the six who resist the centrifugal force that breaks the chain is the schoolhouse, the open door and window bracketing the anchor’s grip. Maybe it’s because I was a teacher all my life, but I like to think that the “message” of the painting has to do with education, with what goes on when the boys and girls are called back inside by the teacher’s bell – the glue that holds a civil society together when the whiplash of events threatens to tear us apart. Not indoctrination. Rather, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, the basic skills that enable an individual to explore the world creatively. History, geography and science, with their lessons of diversity, tolerance and respect for empirical fact. The ameliorating influence of poetry and art. And one of these boys, maybe the oldest in the center, will become a teacher himself, maintaining an unbroken chain of accumulated knowledge that anchors us to the past and propels us together into a mutually supportive and secure future.”

The Daily "Near You?

Pensacola, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"A Sad Fact..."

"A sad fact, of course, about adult life is that you see the very things you'll never adapt to coming toward you on the horizon. You see them as the problems they are, you worry like hell about them, you make provisions, take precautions, fashion adjustments; you tell yourself you'll have to change your way of doing things. Only you don't. You can't. Somehow it's already too late. And maybe it's even worse than that: maybe the thing you see coming from far away is not the real thing, the thing that scares you, but its aftermath. And what you've feared will happen has already taken place. This is similar in spirit to the realization that all the great new advances of medical science will have no benefit for us at all, thought we cheer them on, hope a vaccine might be ready in time, think things could still get better. Only it's too late there too. And in that very way our life gets over before we know it. We miss it. And like the poet said: The ways we miss our lives are life."
- Richard Ford

"A $250 Million War Game and Its Shocking Outcome"

"A $250 Million War Game and Its Shocking Outcome"
by Nick Giambruno

"At a cost of $250 million, Millennium Challenge 2002 was the largest and most expensive war game in Pentagon history. With over 13,500 participants, the US government took over two years to design it. The exercise pitted Iran against the US military. Washington intended to show how the US military could defeat Iran with ease.

Paul Van Riper, a three-star general and 41-year veteran of the Marine Corps, led Iranian forces in the war game. His mission was to take on the full force of the US military, led by an aircraft carrier battle group and a large amphibious landing force in the Persian Gulf. The results shocked everyone…

Van Riper waited for the US Navy to pass through the shallow and narrow Strait of Hormuz, which made them sitting ducks for Iran’s unconventional and asymmetric warfare techniques. The idea is to level the playing field against a superior enemy with swarms of explosive-laden suicide speedboats, low-flying planes carrying anti-ship missiles, naval mines, and land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, among other low-cost but highly effective measures. In minutes, Van Riper emerged victorious over his superior opponent and sank all 19 ships. Had it been real life, 20,000 US sailors and marines would have died.

Millennium Challenge 2002 was a complete disaster for the Pentagon, which had spent a quarter of a billion dollars to set up the extensive war game. It produced the exact opposite outcome they wanted. So what did the Pentagon do with these humbling results? Like a child playing a video game, they hit the reset button. They then rigged and scripted the game so that the US was guaranteed to win.

After realizing the integrity of the war game had been compromised, a disgusted Van Riper walked out mid-game. He then said: "Nothing was learned from this. And a culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future."

The main lesson of Millennium Challenge 2002 is that aircraft carriers - the biggest and most expensive ships ever built - wouldn’t last a single day in combat against even a regional power like Iran. Russia and China would have an even easier time dispatching them. They are overpriced toys. That means the US has wasted untold trillions on military hardware that could prove to be worthless in a serious conflict. Nonetheless, the US government still parades aircraft carriers around the world from time to time to try to intimidate its enemies. However, it’s a flawed strategy prone to catastrophic results if someone calls their bluff.

While Millennium Challenge 2002 occurred more than 20 years ago, it is of paramount importance today. Iran has substantially improved its asymmetric and unconventional warfare capabilities. It’s doubtful the US military would fare much better today than 20 years ago. In short, war with Iran today could be even more disastrous than the Millennium Challenge 2002 simulation.

Unfortunately, war with Iran is an increasingly probable outcome as tensions in the Middle East are at their highest point in generations and are trending higher. Previously, I lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for several years while working for an investment bank. The experience was effectively an advanced training course in Middle East geopolitics. Today, it helps me see the big picture in the region… and unfortunately, it isn’t pretty. I think the next big war in the Middle East is coming soon and could be the biggest one ever. It will focus on Iran."

"What Are The Facts?"

“What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the un-guessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” - Robert A. Heinlein

“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.”
- Carl Sagan

And always remember...
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "Sherlock Holmes"

Hey, who lied and told you any of this was easy?

"The West That Was," Part 2

Full screen recommended.
"The West That Was," Part 2
by Paul Rosenberg

America, 1910 - "1910 was well before my own time, of course, but I knew at least ten people who lived through it as adults, and discussed the era at some length with one of them, my great uncle Dave. And so this is an era I feel I can still reach out and touch.

One of the more interesting things about this era regards our separation from it. The great event that forged this divide was World War I, which is greatly under-appreciated in modern discourse. Schools cover World War II in great depth, but run through World War I fairly quickly. World War I, however – “The Great War” – changed human affairs and human consciousness far more than World War II did. The world before and the world afterward were very different places.

Bear in mind, however, that in 1910, people lived very similarly to the way we do. They (particularly in the cities) lived in houses with central heating, refrigerated their food, and ate the same foods we eat today. They had newspapers, affordable and rapid transportation, access to medical care, telegrams (delivery in an hour or two was common) and so on. Even movies and radio were starting to spread. Cars were arriving, as were electricity and telephones. Airplanes were starting to appear in the skies. Railroads went almost everywhere.

To give you a feel for daily life in 1910, here is a list of family expenses kept during November of that year: According to US News Money, the Cleveland Foundation calculated a family budget for 1910 that included:

• Food: $28 per month.
• Utilities: $4 per month, including fuel, light, and ice for the ice box.
• Insurance: $1, presumably life insurance.
• Streetcars: $1.50 per month.
• Clothing: $9 per month.
• General household expenses: $1 per month, which is equivalent to $23.38 today.
• In 1910, cars cost an average of $2,214, and cars built in the 1910s lasted about 5–7 years. In 1915, a home cost about $3,200, which is equivalent to $75,600 in 2015 dollars. 

A major characteristic of this world was that people tended to be significantly more confident. And the primary reason for that was that their world was comprehensible. More or less all the factors of their daily lives were understandable. Even their scientific discoveries were understandable, provided that one was willing to get the necessary books and read them. It’s telling that television, just a few years later, was invented by a farm boy (Philo T. Farnsworth), whose knowledge came largely from reading magazines.

There is a critical difference between the person who sees the world as comprehensible and the person who does not:Understanding the world, we tend to make plans to accomplish our goals, and then pursue them, confident that we can (or at least are likely to) reach those goals. Feeling overcome by a world we cannot understand or rely upon, we hunker down in place. Not knowing what may or may not work, we pull back our horizons, hold on to whatever we do have and refuse to let go, even when letting go may get us something better. Those who can comprehend the world believe they can improve it, and so they insert their will into it.

What It Was Like: I’ve always liked the way Bill Buckler described this era in The Privateer: "There was a golden world which developed between 1815 and 1914. Over that century and with the interruptions of a few short wars a general peace had been the main feature. An immense optimism covered the world, economically underpinned by the Classical Gold Standard. Gold coinage, though often of different weights in different countries, WAS money. The entire western world was a form of payments union in the sense that Gold was money.

Governments were small; tiny compared to today. What taxes existed were almost imperceptible. The US had no income tax. Privacy, property and contracts were sacrosanct.

As I’ll often say, the people of this era often behaved foolishly, but they made their errors in a different and better context than we make ours in today. And the world between about 1815 and World War I was a type of golden age. And in fact, the technical wonders we enjoy would have been impossible without these people bringing them forward to us.

Between 1919 and 1935 or so, a great deal of human life was arranged in response to World War I and its pointless horrors. And the fact is that the West, in general, lost its confidence in this era. Sensitive commentators at the time (such as Virginia Wolfe) made note of it, and we see it from a number of people who reminisced about it. For example, economist Friedrich Hayek recalled this:

It used to be the boast of free men that, so long as they kept within the bounds of the known law, there was no need to ask anybody’s permission or to obey anybody’s orders. It is doubtful whether any of us can make this claim today. Hayek was not wrong about this. The law was simple in 1910 (legislation hadn’t yet overtaken the common law), and even beyond the rules you knew, law’s universal standard was “the reasonable man.” So long as you were reasonable, and your actions defensible with reason, you really didn’t have to worry very much about the law.

And regardless of the Victorian image of the time, there were many independent movements toward radical progress. Author Leonard Woolf wrote about the movement he was involved with this way: "We were not part of a negative movement of destruction against the past: We were out to construct something new; we were in the van of builders of a new society which should be free, rational, civilized, pursuing truth and beauty. It was all tremendously exhilarating."

Nor were women entirely silent. Here is a passage from Mary Wollstonecraft: "To be a good mother - a woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow." I often think of this time as The Near Miss of 1900. I’m convinced that if somehow that moment had been continued, we’d be living far better and more happily than we are.

As I’ve noted in other places, a major source of our world’s confusion arises from our money. If that sounds odd, please bear in mind that money is the primary tool of our survival, being half of every transaction for food, housing and so on.

In 1910, new money had to be pulled from the ground with difficulty. And that difficulty kept it honest. It couldn’t be created by decree, which changed the tone of everything from taxes to stocks and bonds. More importantly, it kept the working man in a position of importance.

The next time you go through an old city, look at the grand homes that were built in this era, then consider this: Those homes were built by grocers, mechanics, longshoremen and bakers. As a result, working people carried more dignity than they have since. Hard work and prudence paid in those days, and there was no tax on income to siphon away one’s surplus. The hard-workers of this era made loans rather than begging for them. This informed not only their attitudes regarding themselves, but the mating strategies of the young.

In 1910, the young man went out to earn his “nest egg,” and thereby convinced the girl to marry him. There were myriad exceptions and failures, of course, but this was the standard model and could not have stood if it had been impossible. And, in fact, it was ridiculed and expelled a decade or two later, once the war and the income tax changed conditions so that very few could rise to it.

In Part One of this series we said that the Americans of 1960 still believed in their culture. These people certainly shared in that, but they believed in themselves in a deeper way than the Americans of 1960 did, and certainly far more than most people believe in themselves today."

Part 1:

"How It Really Is"

Oh how it really is, lol...

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Meijer!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/23/24
"Massive Price Increases At Meijer!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are noticing some massive price increases on groceries and other products. It continues to get rough out here as many families continue to struggle to put food on the table!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Different Russia, 4/23/24
"2 Big Bags of Food for $ 18!
 Food Prices in Russia Today"
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"Mass Layoffs Are About To Tear Millions Of Families Apart"

Full screen recommended.
The Economic Ninja, 4/23/24
"Mass Layoffs Are About To Tear Millions Of Families Apart"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Banking Crisis 2024 - No Cash and No ATMs"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 4/23/24
"Banking Crisis 2024 - No Cash and No ATMs"
"Dive into "The Ultimate Cash Crisis: What You MUST Know!" People are adapting to life without cash, banks and ATMs. Discover the innovative solutions people are adopting and why keeping cash on hand is more crucial than ever! Not only are bank branches closing, but they’re absolutely limiting the amount of cash that people can take out of the bank. We are going to a cashless society."
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"Alert! Don't Panic But This Nuclear Leak Is Serious; Russia Threatens US Planes; End Game Is Close"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/22/24
"Alert! Don't Panic But This Nuclear Leak Is Serious;
 Russia Threatens US Planes; End Game Is Close"
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Monday, April 22, 2024

MUST VIEW! "Mass Graves in Gaza Show Israelis Are Worse Than Nazis"

Richard Medhurst, 4/22/24
"Mass Graves in Gaza Show 
Israelis Are Worse Than Nazis"
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Full screen recommended.
"The One Video Israel Really
 Doesn't Want You To See"
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Jeremiah Babe, "Markets Up Today As The Economy Crashes, Millions Can't Pay Their Bills"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/22/24
"Markets Up Today As The Economy Crashes,
 Millions Can't Pay Their Bills"
"Markets up today ignoring war, debt, massive bubbles a commercial real estate crisis, people living pay check to pay check these markets are a complete rigged fantasy that are guaranteed to collapse."
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"A 1960s Musical Interlude"

Mason Williams, "Classical Gas" (1968)
o
Full screen recommended.
Paul Mauriat, "Love is Blue" (1968)
o
Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit" (1967)

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large, dusty, spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this rich telescopic image. The field of view spans nearly 2 degrees, or about 4 times the width of the Full Moon, toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus.
About 13 million light-years distant, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. But X-ray and infrared observations reveal even more high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945.”

"The Only Animal..."

"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is
struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be."
- William Hazlitt

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

"There Is Time Left"

"Well, there is time left –
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life,
and not be afraid!
To set one's foot in the door of death,
and be overcome with amazement!”

~ Mary Oliver

"There Comes A Point..."

 

The Daily "Near You?"

Port-of-Spain, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Thanks for stopping by!

"High Alert! Putin Rushed To Kremlin For Emergency Meeting Over NATO"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 4/22/24
"High Alert! Putin Rushed To Kremlin
 For Emergency Meeting Over NATO"
"Sources tell Redacted that Russian President Putin was rushed to the Kremlin for an emergency war meeting in the middle of the night. What's going on? Are US troops launching a surprise attack on Odessa? Col. Douglas MacGregor joins Redacted with the latest."
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Canadian Prepper, "'Civil War': Secret Meaning Predicts What's Coming!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/22/24
"'Civil War': 
Secret Meaning Predicts What's Coming!"
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"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt"

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt"
by Jeff Thomas

"Some people are more observant than others. Some are more capable of thinking outside the box than others. Whether this is by nature or nurture is a moot point. When we are children, we tend to look upon the world in all its wonder. We are amazed at what exists and we absorb it like a sponge. Then, when we are in our teens, we begin our second wave of discovery. We begin to pay more attention to the things that we find confusing; we become absorbed in issues like world hunger, warfare and political strife. These situations seem senseless and we repeatedly ask, "Why should these things be?"

Typically, in our twenties, we have not yet found any solid answers and our mood turns from interest to anger. We tend to gravitate toward liberal philosophy, as liberal philosophy tells us what we would most like to hear; that these terrible things should not exist and that we should take every step available to us to end the injustices of the world – at whatever cost to ourselves and others.

Most of us continue in this approach for several years, but in our thirties we begin to recognize that, no matter how many steps are taken in this effort, the problems seem to be self-renewing and, at that point, a split occurs in philosophical outlook. Many people cease to grow at this point, as they do not want to live in a world where it is necessary to accept that suffering of one type or another is perennial. They may become increasingly stubborn in this view and, from this point on in life, tend to dig in their heels increasingly and fail to continue to grow in their understanding of the world.

However, there are others who decide that, no matter how unpleasant reality is, we will continue our pursuit of it. For those of us who do follow this (admittedly less pleasant) path, the true nature of life begins to unfold. Somewhere in our forties, it dawns on us that our thinking is no longer liberal. We may well find that our former liberal friends may treat us like traitors to the cause and we may even become pariahs to them. (Churchill said, "If you are not a liberal when you are twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative when you are forty, you have no brain." A lot of truth in that.)

Somewhere in our fifties, if we have remained diligent in our study of mankind, it all begins to gel and we begin to have a real grasp of the interrelationship of business, politics, the haves and have-nots, the whole ball of wax. We begin to recognize that there will always be those who are inspired leaders, but that there will also be those who are uninspired usurpers. There will always be those who are eager to be producers and, likewise, there will always be those who would prefer merely to consume.

From this point on in our lives, we increasingly recognize that this state of affairs is perennial, that human nature will assure that the same verve that existed to create the Roman Empire exists today, just as the same waste and decadence that destroyed it also exists today.

When I was in High School, I read George Orwell’s "Animal Farm". I remember how impressed I was that he had set his novel in a farmyard and that his characters were farm animals. Orwell had consciously simplified an otherwise confusing world by boiling it down to the smallest format he could think of. In that book, when the animals gained their freedom from the "oppression" of the farmer, they were filled with high-mindedness. In order to forever remind them of what they stood for, they painted on the barn, "All animals are created equal."

The greatest revelation of the book, for me, was when the pigs, who had become the government, altered the sign under cover of darkness to say, "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." I remember thinking, "This is where the rot sets in. I must never forget this. For the rest of my life, I will need to be watching for this change in leadership approach."

Unfortunately, it is a fact that the majority of people truly do not want to be bothered with this effort of continual reassessment of the governmental situation. In every country, in every era, the majority genuinely prefer leaders who make big promises, regardless of whether the promises will ever be delivered upon. Every country in every era has its "chicken in every pot" slogan to hang on to.

In the late eighteenth century, America became heated up over the "oppression" of King George (whose taxation, incidentally, was far lower that today’s taxes) and, eventually, openly rebelled. It has often been said by historians that, if there was a specific moment at which the move to become the United States truly began, it was when Patrick Henry stated in the House of Burgesses, "Give me Liberty or give me death."

As we all know, the American people gained their independence and, after a fair bit of stumbling, set forth on a course of prosperity, based upon excellent natural resources and an excellent work ethic. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a war was fought, not over slavery, but over who would control the economy of the future – the northern industrialists or the southern plantation owners. The north won and the latter half of the nineteenth century saw the greatest expansion the world had ever seen. In this period, America settled the entire continent and dramatically sped up the pace of the industrial revolution. This was done without income tax or a Federal Reserve, confirming that these factors are not necessary for progress and prosperity.

Then in 1913, the pigs rewrote the sign on the barn.

A decade later, American bankers (with the support of the government) put into motion the largest scam ever to be perpetrated upon Americans. It was an unqualified success, with an unfortunate byproduct being the Great Depression. In 1999, the American bankers (again with the support of the government) put into place an almost identical scam, which has proven to be an even bigger success and (I believe) will ultimately result in an even more devastating depression.

In 1999, The Democratic US president, with the support of the Republican US Congress, repealed the Glass Steagall Act, which would allow the scam of the 1920’s to be repeated, only on a grander scale. The "pigs", in effect, rewrote Patrick Henry’s inspiring statement. From 1999 on, the slogan has, effectively, been, "Give me liberty or give me debt," and the governments, both democratic and republican, have encouraged and provided the latter.

On any given day, we can turn on our televisions and watch the news programs, which continually feature Republican political advisors and Democratic political advisors argue with each other over whether all the damage that has been done was done by the other side. Neither side gives an inch to the other. Americans watch this game of ping pong endlessly play out with no conclusion, yet, at election time, they must make a choice.

Most Americans today treat the two political parties the way they would treat sports teams. Just as no self-respecting sports fan would own both a Yankees and a Red Sox hat, so every American supports one political team or the other, and along the way, that support becomes so all-encompassing that there is no room for doubt. Blind conviction becomes the norm.

In 1787, Alexander Tyler, an Englishman, commented on the new US experiment as a democracy. He said, "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." His prediction has proven astonishingly accurate, with the last step yet to be played out.

The debt that crippled Rome two thousand years ago, and that crippled every major power since that time, is now crippling the US. Today, all Americans are aware of the problem, and almost all are hoping that, somehow, the problem will go away. It will not. In every country, in every era, it is not in the interests of the "pigs" to fix the problem. It is in their interest to allow the situation to play itself out until it ultimately crashes. Tyler was extraordinarily astute. He understood that all great powers have a shelf life. They also have a process by which they are created, then thrive, then become corrupted, then decline, then fall into ruin. This process is as perennial as the grass.

The pundits will continue to rail with righteous indignation on television. The two political sports teams will continue to kick and gouge each other, but the outcome of the game is already cast in stone.

So, is this the end of the world as we know it? Yes and no. It is not the end of the world, just the end of the world as we know it. Whenever the leading power in the world falls, others are already in the wings, rising. And so it is today. Americans who are alive today have never known a situation in which their country was not the top dog in the world, and so it is hard to imagine a different world. For those who are not American and who do not reside in the US, it is easier to see a truer picture. With the collapse of the US (and Europe), there is still a very big world out there, waiting in the wings. Some second- and third-world countries are, admittedly, doing badly. However, others are getting by nicely. And still others are thriving.

Yes, there is a bright future ahead, but, sadly, not in America; at least not for many years. Those who were described in the first paragraph of this article as being more observant are already looking away from America into the future. For the first time since the eighteenth century, those who are pursuing the bright future are walking away from America, not toward it."

"It's A Mess, Ain't It?"

Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?"
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: "Well, if it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."
- "No Country For Old Men"

Oh, the mess is here alright...and you ain't seen nothin' yet...
Brace for impact.

"World War III Prelude: The Middle East"

Full screen recommended.
OpenmindedThinker Show, 4/22/24
"Israel Panics! Dozens Of Russian Warplanes 
Arrive In Iran; Putin Seeks Revenge!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Douglas Macgregor, 4/22/24
"Urgent: Nuclear Risks In Israel-Iran 
War Have Terrible Consequences"
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o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter,4/22/24
"Huge Escalation Is About To Happen In 
Middle East After US Sends $26B To Israel"
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"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures With Danno, "Outrageous Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Unbelievable!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/22/24
"Outrageous Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Unbelievable!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Aldi and are noticing some massive price increases on groceries and other products. It continues to get rough out here as many families continue to struggle to put food on the table!"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "We Are In A Silent Depression"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/22/24
"We Are In A Silent Depression"
"Regardless of what we’re being told, you have to look at all the businesses and the facts around us. We are in a silent depression. There are massive amounts of layoffs. People are closing at a pace. We are seeing the inability for people to purchase real estate and to even buy household goods. Everyone has been affected by this and it’s only getting worse."
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Gregory Mannarino, "The Next Phase (We Lose); Mass Currency Devaluation And Rapidly Expanding War"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/22/24
"The Next Phase (We Lose); 
Mass Currency Devaluation And Rapidly Expanding War"
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