Friday, May 3, 2024

Bill Bonner, "Follow the Money"

"Follow the Money"
Free Speech is the easiest and simplest of the Bill of Rights protections. 
The Constitution says plainly that “Congress shall make no law” 
that restricts our right to express ourselves.
by Bill Bonner

"Randall Mindy: The truth is way more depressing. They’re not even smart enough to be as evil as you’re giving them credit for.
Kate Dibiasky: Would you please, just stop being so [bleep] pleasant? I’m sorry, but not everything needs to sound so goddamn clever or charming or likeable all the time. Sometimes we need to just be able to say things to one another. We need to hear things! Look, let’s establish, once again, that there is a huge comet headed towards Earth."
- "Don’t Look Up" (2021)

Dublin, Ireland - As the nation keeps its head down... its eyes on its own feet...it rejects the principles that made it great…and the comet speeds up.

Setting aside Social Security contributions, the federal budget has not been in the black since the 1970s. The US dollar - a real money backed by gold - was replaced with ‘Federal Reserve Notes,’ (IOUs from the Fed), in 1971.

Free enterprise has turned into managed enterprise... subject to control by Congress, the White House and bureaucrats in hundreds of agencies and departments, with mountains of paperwork and a plethora of rules and regulations. Just try to open a mine or factory in California!

Free Speech is the easiest and simplest of the Bill of Rights protections. The Constitution says plainly that “Congress shall make no law” that restricts our right to express ourselves.

But here, in the news from yesterday... Congress is proposing just such a law. And it has the support of a majority of our elected representatives. First Amendment... first schmamendment... Washington Post: "House passes divisive antisemitism bill as GOP denounces campus protests."

"GOP leaders this week announced plans for new oversight investigations of elite universities where - in the words of House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) - “pro-terrorist anti-Semites [are] taking over.” And on Wednesday, they passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which its advocates said would empower the federal government to crack down on anti-Israel protests on campuses by codifying a definition of antisemitism..."

If this passes, we will still be free to criticize Albanians... Indonesians... or even those “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” in France. But when it comes to Israelis, we will hold our tongues... lest we say too much. The deciders will determine what is permissible to say and what is not.

We remind readers that we have nothing to add to the discussion of stupidity or venality of Congress... or to mass murder, Zionism, war in Ukraine, white supremacism, racism, anti-semitism or any other kind of ‘ism.’ Who’s right? Who’s wrong? It’s not for us to say. We’re just looking at how the dots connect... and wondering when the debt comet is going to strike.

The question for us is not whether the proposed law is ‘good’ or ‘evil’... but what it means. Why would the elected representatives of ‘The People’ want to throw overboard a constitutional protection that has served us well for 233 years? Why now?

Why would they want to ditch a common sense rule - such as, don’t spend more than you can afford - when everyone knows it is crucial to our financial security?

Why would they want to entangle the US in fights all over the world... where it cannot win, has no clear objective... and no real business getting involved in the first place?

At a practical, readily-understood level, the answer is simple: Follow the money. The Guardian: "A handful of pro-Israel groups fund political campaigns in support of individual candidates in US elections, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a powerful force in American politics. Before the 2024 election, Aipac plans to spend tens of millions of dollars against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, whom it deems insufficiently supportive of Israel."

Take representative Don Bacon, for example. He seems like a decent fellow. But he knows which side his bread is buttered on. He has received about a quarter of a million dollars from Pro-Israel donors. Naturally, he does what he is paid to do. “Whatever Israel wants ... we should be there to help,” he says.

And here we find the definition of corruption in the late, degenerate US empire. Tom Emmer, mentioned above, valiantly stands up for truth... at least for the part of it his paymasters want to be heard. Who butters his bread? Surprise, surprise... his largest single campaign donor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Neither Bacon, Emmer, nor any other member of Congress may be particularly corrupt. The rot is deeper and more pervasive than that; decisions are made at the behest of special interests, not the US public. And it is not just the Israelis who have Congress bought and paid for. Here’s Breitbart:

“People talk about how, you know, the Democrats are the problem, or the Republicans are the problem in Washington. And, you know, presidencies come and go and the swamp still remains the same,” [Brody] Mullins explained. “So, we wanted to dig deeper and say, ‘What’s really at the core of the problems in Washington?’ and we look at the lobbying community.”

Corporate lobbyists spend so much money on Washington, they have both parties in their pockets and they really get passed, whatever they want for the last 40 or 50 years... corporations are spending to change public policy in ways that help companies, but hurts the rest of us. Follow the money."

"Warning: Now Entering The Accelerated Collapse Stage Of The Nation Once Known As 'America'”

"Warning: Now Entering The Accelerated Collapse
Stage Of The Nation Once Known As 'America'”
by Mike Adams

"We Americans no longer have a nation. We no longer have a functioning representative government, honest elections, a free press or a fair justice system. From here, the collapse only accelerates more quickly, and right now, we are being simultaneously overrun by illegal invaders as well as a theocratic tyrannical regime that's weaponized against the thoughts and speech of the American people. The spiral of collapse is now entering a rapid acceleration stage, and there's no rescuing this nation before the collapse."
View video here:

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Gerald Celente, "Crackdown On Freedom Escalating; Dragflation Coming"

Very Strong Language Alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 5/2//24
"Crackdown On Freedom Escalating; 
Dragflation Coming"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, "FantasyLand Is Over, We're In Big Trouble; There Is No Tomorrow"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/2/24
"FantasyLand Is Over, We're In Big Trouble;
 There Is No Tomorrow"
Comments here:

"He Cannot Help..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"

Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed. In this cavity tall pillars and round globules of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still forming. Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining filaments and walls of gas and dust.
The Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). This picture involved over 12 hours of imaging and combines three specific emitted colors emitted by sulfur (colored as red), hydrogen (yellow), and oxygen (blue).”

"We WERE There..."

"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."
- Orson Scott Card
 
"Now the voices and the sound of movement were gone, and the stream could be heard running quietly under its banks. The air was full of the scent of water and of flowers. She walked, quiet, while the house began to reverberate: a band had started up. She walked beside the river while the music thudded, feeling herself as a heavy, impervious, insensitive lump that, like a planet doomed always to be dark on one side, had vision in front only, a myopic searchlight blind except for the tiny three-dimensional path open immediately before her eyes in which the outline of a tree, a rose, emerged then submerged in dark. She thought, with the dove's voices of her solitude. Where? But where. How? Who? No, but where, where… Then silence and the birth of a repetition. Where? Here. Here? Herewhere else, you fool, you poor fool, where else has it been, ever…?"
- Doris Lessing

"Shaya's Home Run"

"Shaya's Home Run"
by Rabbi Paysach Krohn

"In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school careers, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs. There are a few children who attend Chush for most of the week and go to a regular school on Sundays. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, “Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything that Hashem [G-d] does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is Hashem’s perfection?” The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish and stilled by his piercing query.

“I believe,” the father answered, “that when Hashem brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child.” He then told the following story about his son Shaya. Shaya attends Chush throughout the week and Yeshivah Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway on Sundays. One Sunday afternoon, Shaya and his father came to Darchei Torah as his classmates were playing baseball. The game was in progress and as Shaya and his father made their way towards the ball field, Shaya said, “Do you think you could get me into the game?”

Shaya’s father knew his son was not at all athletic, and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen in, it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked, “Do you think my Shaya could get into the game?”

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, “We are losing by six runs and the game is already in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.” Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field, a position that exists only in softball. There were no protests from the opposing team, which would now be hitting with an extra man in the outfield.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded and the potential winning runs on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shaya was told to take a bat and try to get a hit. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible, for Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so that Shaya should at least be able to make contact.

The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shaya. As the next pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far and wide beyond the first baseman’s reach. Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first! Shaya, run to first!” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head, as everyone yelled, “Shaya, run to second! Shaya, run to second.”

Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran towards him, turned him towards the direction of third base and shouted “Shaya, run to third!”

As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya, run home! Shaya, run home!” Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit the “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

“That day,” said the father who now had tears rolling down his face, “those 18 boys reached their level of perfection. They showed that it is not only those who are talented that should be recognized, but also those who have less talent. They too are human beings, they too have feelings and emotions, they too are people, they too want to feel important.”

That is the exceptional lesson of this episode. Too often we seek to find favor and give honor to those who have more than us. But there are people who have fewer friends than we, less money, and less prestige. Those people especially need attention and recognition. We should try to achieve the level of perfection in human relationships which the boys on the ball field at Yeshiva Darchei Torah achieved. Because if children can do it, we adults should certainly be able to accomplish it as well."

The Daily "Near You?"

Washington, DC, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"

Full screen recommended.
"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"
"Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim."

"A Realistic Attitude..."

"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer

Dan, I Allegedly, "None of Us are Safe! Billions Vanish in New Scams"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly PM 5/2/24
"None of Us are Safe! Billions Vanish in New Scams"
"Uncover the shocking reality on why you should be on high alert! I delve into a recent scandal involving skimmers at Walmart. With over 27,000 transactions compromised, the stakes have never been higher. But that's not all—the economic turmoil doesn't stop there. From massive layoffs at big names like Tesla and Google to the precarious state of the job market, I'm breaking down everything you need to know to safeguard your financial future."
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"The West That Was," Part 5

"The West That Was," Part 5
by Paul Rosenberg

"When law was sovereign: All of us in the modern West grew up believing that we were living under “the rule of law.” The truth, however, is that the rule of law – the sovereignty of law – ended a couple of centuries ago. And by losing it, we lost a primary driver of our civilization. The sovereignty of law was never perfect, of course… it had to be applied by actual human beings… but it engaged the better aspects of human nature and thrived along with them. The systems that replaced it, on the other hand, thrive mainly upon human weaknesses.

What “rule of law” means to people today is that a single set of rules applies to everyone equally. That’s not remotely true in practice, of course, but that failure doesn’t make the concept bad: implementation in the real world always introduces problems. What makes our “rule of law” deeply and even fatally flawed is the part that’s not included in the slogans: the fact that a small group of law-makers stand above the law, not below it. Unlike the rest of us, if the law-makers don’t like the way the law applies to them, they are free to change it, and can nearly always do so without consequences.

In the old days of Western civilization, no one was above justice. Law was sovereign over everyone. And that version of law was not made; rather, it was discovered. The judges of that era didn’t write edicts, they discovered and explained what was just or unjust in particular cases.

That sounds foreign and even wrong to many modern people, but it worked very well for more than a thousand years; in certain areas of modern legal systems it still functions. But to make this idea clear, there is one thing you must understand… something that strikes moderns as terribly foreign and even impossible, even though it founded Western civilization and maintained it over most of its run: Law, in those days, was not legislation. In fact there was no legislation of our kind over all those centuries.

The law books that were published at the time were collections of the reasonings noted above, not edicts and threats of force. And just to buttress this statement, consider that when English philosopher Jeremy Bentham died in 1832, he was hailed as “the founder of modern legislation.” Legislation, previously, was a collection of legal findings, put together into one group for convenience.

You should also bear in mind that from the founding of Western civilization until about 1800 AD, there were no democracies. In fact, if you check quotations from the American founders, you’ll find them saying that democracy had always failed and would always fail.

Having grown up within a culture that holds democracy and rule of law as untouchable and unquestionable gods, this may disturb you, but it’s true, and the old way was actually far better at organizing human affairs. The material advantages we have now (cars, medicine, etc.) didn’t come to us via democracy; they came to us through brave and dedicated individuals and the accumulation of hard-won knowledge.

Once Upon A Time…Our civilization formed in the vacuum left behind by Rome. There were few real rulers exercising power upon Europeans in those days. Very often, the “king” had no fixed court and traveled around with a collection of armed men; and where the king wasn’t, power wasn’t. Historian Robert Latouche, for example, noted that there was a “state of anarchy which prevailed in Gaul throughout the whole of the Merovingian period.” In another place he writes, “Never in our history has the conception of the state known so complete an eclipse.”

The Europeans of the 6th through the 10th centuries had to forge a new society by themselves, not at the urging of self-glorious leaders. And so they created their methods of attaining justice on a town-by-town basis, as historian R.H.C. Davis noted: "Even the law might change from village to village; a thirteenth-century judge pointed out that in the various counties, cities, boroughs, and townships of England he had always to ask what was the local customary law and how it was employed before he could successfully try a case.

Law, then, was built from the ground, up. It addressed actual disputes that arose among the people… after the fact. People sought judges to solve existing problems, not to solve future problems before they occurred. Even kings had to acknowledge this original model of law if they hoped to be taken seriously. A king was held to be a worthy ruler if he upheld the law, and unworthy if he did not. The law, then, was above the ruler; it was sovereign.

On top of that, the universal standard for justice in this era (and this was well noted among English jurists) was “the reasonable man.” So long as you were reasonable, and your actions defensible with reason, you really didn’t have to worry about legal problems.

And this is very important to understand: Under Western civilization’s original model, you faced a comprehensible world. That spawns a far healthier and more productive state of mind than the modern one, which revolves around hundreds of thousands of pages of law that not even a collection of the greatest judges and lawyers actually know… and thousands of armed enforcers standing ready to use violence for the breaking of any one of them.

Even through the 19th century, many people clung to the old model, as economist Friedrich Hayek recalled: "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." This is what life was like when legal systems were developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals, rather than through legislative statutes or executive edicts.

In Our Time: Beginning in 1800 or so, a new model of governance was imposed upon the West. Under it, law became the edicts of the powerful, and it was called legislation. Supposedly the new system placed the people in control, but that was never actually true. For the most part it was just a flattering slogan. When law became legislation, the sovereignty of law was ruined. From that point on, rulers were no longer subject to the law – they created the law. And they could change the law however they saw fit. They were firmly above it.

For the past few centuries, “the law” has been under the control of smallish groups of rulers; thus it became something wholly different from what it had been. This change transferred sovereignty to the winners of popularity contests, aka, politicians.

And so our modern world hasn’t really been “Western civilization” for quite some time. It has been a hybrid civilization, missing one of its original pillars. As a result, the people of the West no longer have the confidence that their civilization once cultured. Rather, they’ve been made to feel inadequate. But when law was sovereign, people just like them – their direct ancestors – encountered a comprehensible world, in which they were fit participants."

"The West That Was," Part 4

Click image for larger size.
"The West That Was," Part 4
By Paul Rosenberg

America, 1776: "The development of the American colonies moved in an arc. They began with a lot of oppression (after the old world model), shook it off as the arc rose toward 1776 and the revolution, then headed slowly back down. My job today is to give you some feel of the times, and I’ll begin with some background.

Perhaps the most important accident of the early America period was a British policy that later became known as salutary neglect. This salutary (healthful) neglect began in 1722, when a Whig named Robert Walpole became the king’s chief minister. The Whigs held what we might call libertarian opinions, and Walpole wanted to govern loosely, to avoid government meddling, and to let natural forces bring prosperity to England. Under Walpole, many of the regulations upon American trade were simply ignored. This policy lasted, more or less, until 1760, after which the impositions we normally associate with the American Revolution began.

The most enduring expressions of this line of development came from George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. But more important than the words of the most eloquent Americans were the words and deeds of working people. In 1773, for example, the people of Hubbardston, Massachusetts, a town of about 300, published this in a declaration:

"We are of the opinion that rulers first derive their power from the ruled by certain laws and rules agreed upon by rulers and ruled, and when a ruler breaks over such laws...and makes new ones...then the ruled have a right to refuse such new laws and  to judge for themselves when rulers transgress."

In Worcester, a town of a few thousand, a similar letter was published at about the same time:
"It is our opinion that mankind are by nature free, and the end design of forming social compacts  was that each member of that society might enjoy his life and property, and live in the free exercise of his rights  which God and Nature gave."

Notice in both these cases, that we are seeing working men and women making firm and confident pronouncements about the world.

At the same time, a group of creditors, lawyers, and judges (again, people of the political means) posed a threat to the small farmers and artisans of Worcester county. In response, the people formed their own legal system, abandoned government courts and used arbitration to resolve their disputes.

Events like these were common all through the colonies. These people believed in their individual right to judge the world and to act upon it without permission, and that’s the first thing to understand about this era: These people had been far enough from power, and for long enough, that they felt they had the right to judge it.

This was the real revolution, according to John Adams, a man deeply and even centrally involved. He maintained that it had almost nothing to do with the external events. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated August 24, 1815, he wrote this: "What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

The Americans of 1776, then, or a large number of them, had moral and political references outside those authorized by power. Upon consideration, they had no interest in being ruled by the English king. And while they weren’t particularly looking for a war (at least most weren’t) they did want the king’s enforcers to leave."

The outside points of reference these people had were primarily two: The Bible and John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. The Bible is a large book, written by a significant number of people over many centuries. And while it can be used to support all sorts of ideas, it places rulers in a highly critical light, and as less righteous than the virtuous poor.

Locke’s "Second Treatise on Government" is a fundamental work of political theory, and should still be read by most everyone. (It’s not long and the old language isn’t that hard to understand.) The American founders (Sam Adams in particular) revered it and referred to it often.

To understand this moment, then, we need to understand the mind of someone who looks at current events from a point outside of them. Looking at the world as an outsider reduces the power of propaganda. And if the ruler doesn’t have myths and legends that will make the masses swell with emotion, he’s left with convincing people to slave their lives away for his benefit. And that’s precisely what failed in the colonies.

The British Americans of 1776 had lost their bias toward rulership. They no longer gave it the benefit of the doubt at all times. The began to see power for what it was, not what it was promoted as. As a result, power could no longer hold its grip. The farmers, mechanics and so on lost their awe for “the institution,” and walked away from it. The Americans who still supported the king were mainly those who had something go gain from it (a considerable percentage), and, of course, those who wanted to believe the old myths.

Bear in mind that Americans had been fending for themselves for a long time. They knew from actual practice that they really didn’t need the king.

Three Underlying Factors: As we know, the colonists weren’t allowed to walk away, nor were they allowed to vote on secession. Rather, they were forced to fight, and that requires a far deeper conviction than most people possess; that’s why despised rulers stay in power: working people simply don’t want to engage in fights to the death (that’s what war is). And so rulers – employing men who will fight to the death – have a massive advantage… an advantage allows them to abuse without consequence for long periods of time.

The American colonists were able to transcend that advantage, and walk into gigantic fights to the death, because of three primary factors:Religious faith. This is a large subject by itself, but beneath it lies a simple observation: The people who display serious courage are overwhelmingly people of faith. These may not be deeply observant people, but they do have beliefs. This is obviously a complex subject, but the observation holds, and there is clearly an internal organizing power to beliefs. And very certainly these people had strong beliefs; that was a crucial part of their ability to stand up to the king’s armed men.

Deep drives. Deep psychological drives, like the need for heroic and historic meaning, compel us. By far most humans have lived and died without suitable outlets for such desires. That is, they find no accessible ways to overtly change the world. The rebellion against the British, however, gave these colonists such an opportunity. Moreover, their pressures toward this were somewhat higher than the same pressures we feel today. Beyond the electronic perma-distractions of our time, these people faced shorter and less certain lifespans than we do. If you have one shot at a historic life and few years in which to take it, you’re as likely as not to jump upon the opportunity at hand. And so these people did.

An acceptance of the tragic aspect of life. This goes hand in hand with the above, but it’s a bit different. Death was more of a companion in pre-modern times. Babies often died, infections could sometimes be deadly, and so on. More than that, people frequently died at home, where other family members would see it up close. It seems to me that our modern separation from death is perhaps better for us, but it has definitely insulated us from the tragedy of life. These people, then, accepted that tragedy was part of life, making it easier for them to step into a tragic war.

Understanding The Culture:Moving along from the outer aspects of the West of this era, let’s look at the more important part: The culture of the time, incorporating the daily lives and thoughts of these people. There’s a lot to understand, of course (these people were fundamentally as complicated as we are), but we do have a number of telling aspects to look at.

Intellectual life. Intellectual life in the American colonies took place primarily in churches, taverns and newspapers. Newspapers were more or less unconstrained after 1735, were very widely read and were generally well-written. The urban populace was well informed, as were most of the farmers, albeit some days later than the cities, owing to delivery times.

The churches were likewise centers of intellectual life. Firstly, of course, were the weekly sermons, which were taken very seriously (many were transcribed and published) and also related to current events. As I’ve noted before, churches were strongly attended and a place where most people dealt with serious thoughts for at least an hour or two every week. And, quite contrary to Europe, American Christians of different sects learned, even if grudgingly, to get along, as Historian Merrill Jensen wrote: "The back countrymen were of various religious sects, and while perhaps not tolerant by conviction, they were so on necessity on the frontier where so many religious groups had settled."

The taverns were where men went to discuss, argue about and plan the events of their times. A very large percentage of the American rebellion from Britain was forged in the taverns of America. And yes, the consumption of alcohol, per capita, was quite a bit higher at this time than it is today.

On the whole, we can say that the people of this era took their ideas very seriously, and were quite willing to act upon them. Between the “no myth” issue we covered in The West That Was #3 and the fact that they had been so substantially on their own, the came to find importance and meaning in important ideas.

Commercial life. The American colonies had what we can call a strongly bourgeois culture. That is, it was a culture dominated by shopkeepers, small farmers, mechanics and merchants. Many other commercial activities existed, but these were the most common.

Slavery and large farms (plantations) accounted for a good deal of commerce in the South, of course, but even there the bourgeois model was strong. For example, in 1766 the rebellious Sons of Liberty of Charleston, South Carolina (a slave state), were composed of, “six carpenters, three painters, three clerks, two blacksmiths, two coach-makers, two saddlers, two wheelwrights, a glass-grinder, one carver, one upholsterer, one butcher, one tailor, one schoolmaster, and one merchant.”

This “shopkeeper” model of life creates an assumption of self-reliance, as well as assumptions of capability. These are strongly positive ways for people to view themselves, and the colonists embodied a great deal of it… another of the forces that made them feel competent to judge kings.

Liberation from class. European life, during this era, was strongly class-based. The aristocracy was separated from the peasants by law and treated very differently. City life differed frequently, but the vast majority of the populace remained rural in the 18th century.

Americans in the 18th century were very clear on the fact that they had far more opportunity than their relatives back in Europe. Their self-images often featured this fact and their actions were very often impelled by either gratitude for it, or a need to show they deserved it.

The arts. The usual comment about arts in the America colonies is that they were miserable. To an extent this was true, as survival in the wilderness (which is what most of America was in those days) leaves little room for the production of fine arts. Still American homes featured reproductions of European art, even good reproductions. More than that, however, music was a significant business in the colonies."

"What Would A Nuclear War Look Like?"

"What Would A Nuclear War Look Like?"
by Jeff Thomas

"For eight years, NATO has backed puppet rulers in Ukraine, funded attacks on Donbass, repeatedly violated the Minsk Treaties, outlawed the speaking of Russian in the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics, and has destroyed democratic opposition and free media in Ukraine, leaving it a one-party government, essentially owned and financed by the US and administrated by US operatives. Not much subtlety there. Yet, somehow, the US has managed to convince the people of the US and other Western countries that Russia is the bad boy, is out of control and must be stopped.

In spite of all the above, Russia remained stoic and sought continually to keep a lid on the situation. It did, however, state firmly that the "red line" would be if Ukraine were to go nuclear, becoming a direct threat to Moscow. That would not be tolerated. Surely, this was a sober heads-up to any sensible country that the one thing that must not happen would be for Ukraine to go nuclear. After all, once that Pandora’s Box was opened, the last barrier to possible nuclear war would be crossed.

For eight years, Russia had been goaded again and again by the West, yet they did not take the bait. Then, in February of 2022, at the annual Munich Security Conference, the President of Ukraine announced his intent to make Ukraine a nuclear country. Five days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Immediately, the US propaganda arm went into operation, and for months, even as Ukraine was consistently losing the war, at every turn, the Western media renewed its claims that the war was turning; that Russia was faltering, and the heroes of Ukraine were beating back the Great Bear.

But all the above is old news. Why, at this juncture, should we be reviewing it? Well, its continued significance is that NATO (or the US – they are virtually interchangeable at this point) has, from the beginning, behaved recklessly with the prospect of nuclear conflict. Are they mad? Or are they so foolish as to think that they have some sort of "edge" in a nuclear conflict? Or do they see this as a game of one-upmanship in which the only important concern is which antagonist has the greater bluster?

We can only speculate as to the answer to this quandary. But, setting this aside, we should be questioning, a) what is the likelihood that the West would be so foolhardy as to actually push the button and, b) what would the outcome look like?

As to the first question, considering that it’s now becoming increasingly evident that the West have been misrepresenting the progress of the war; that the trained forces are spent and replacements cannot be trained fast enough to go against the experienced Russian forces, the US is going to have to come up with another plan… and it will need to be something dramatic. At this point, the one card they have not played is the nuke card.

They’ve claimed that the Russians have been either firing on or causing explosions in the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant that they have held for some time. In essence, they’re being accused of bombing themselves in a facility that has long-since been taken. At this point, not many listeners are buying this explanation. So, what do they have left in their toolbox?

I’ve long felt that, as an end-run, what the West might do would rely on an old favorite technique – a false flag attack. Create a narrative and videos of an attack on, say, Kiev by Russia with a small nuclear warhead. Then announce that the warhead had been fired, killing hundreds of thousands. Then let loose the pre-prepared media blitz and invoke Article 5, justifying nuclear warfare. It just might turn the tide of sympathy. But it would also open a door that could not once again be closed.

For decades, both Russia and the US have had large numbers of nukes aimed at each other, with a system of timed releases. Once the first button is pushed, interrupting the progression is difficult. So, as to that second question – "What would a nuclear war look like?" there are many studies, but the most illustrative one I’m familiar with was produced by Princeton.
Full screen recommended.

Well, each major US city would be targeted with multiple ICBMs, each big enough to destroy it. Most of the US would be carpeted with other ICBMs. The US would be destroyed within a few hours. An estimated 90 million people would be killed initially.

Those at ground zero would be vaporized. Those on the periphery of a bomb could escape if they were to get to concrete shelter very quickly. They would then need to remain sealed up for weeks, if not longer, until the majority of fallout had settled. It would be a gamble as to when exiting the building would be safe.

The northern border of the US would be destroyed, taking in Canadian border cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto. The southern border, with Mexico, would also go.

Next would be the movement of fallout. As the video shows, those who live in or near a direct target would have no hope, but as can be seen, there are locations outside the US that are not targeted at all. Those locations that have no strategic advantage would not be targeted. So, if you were located in, say, Jamaica, you would not be hit, but, just as importantly, the Caribbean weather system – the trade winds – would carry any northern fallout away from you, as would the Gulf Stream.

Better still, the world is separated at the Equator by two weather systems that do not mix. Fallout in the north will be unlikely to travel to the south. If you’re located in South America, there are very few likely targets. It’s unknown whether, say, Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires would be targets, but if not, South America may be the best place to be in the Western Hemisphere. If anything, Europe and the Middle East would fare worse than North America.

Finally, there is the question of nuclear winter. No one can know whether this would last months or years and whether it would be localized or global. Nuclear war is not a certainly, yet the West has been dangerously rattling sabres as though they are invincible and only others can be destroyed. This is quite false.

We cannot be certain that nuclear war will be undertaken, but if so, it will be quick. There will be no time to create an escape plan. You must already be in a location that you deem to be as safe as possible."
A must view article by Jim Kunstler:
Full screen recommended.
Annie Jacobsen and Lex Fridman, 5/2/24
"How A Nuclear War Starts: Second-by-second Timeline" 
Comments here:
o
"NUKEMAP"
"NUKEMAP is a web-based nuclear weapons effects simulator. I created it in 2012 (and did all programming, design, and research on it). Since then it has had many updates to its effects model and capabilities. It has been used by over 20 million people globally, and has been featured in both academic and general-audience publications and television shows for depicting nuclear weapons effects"
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"Pepe Escobar: Russia And Iran's Counter To US-Israel F-35 Nuclear Attack; NATO VS Multipolarity"

Full screen recommended.
Danny Haiphong, AM 5/2/24
"Pepe Escobar: Russia And Iran's Counter To
 US-Israel F-35 Nuclear Attack; NATO VS Multipolarity"
"Journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar joins to discuss his breaking story which caused controversy regarding an attempted Israel's nuclear strike on Iran, as well as his latest travels and reporting from the multipolar world and NATO's war against it."
Comments here:

Scott Ritter, "Crumbling Israeli Front; Russia-China Building A New Middle East Region"

Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, AM 5/2/24
"Crumbling Israeli Front; 
Russia-China Building A New Middle East Region"
Comments here:

Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel. So be it...

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Kroger Deals Right Now!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 5/2/24
"Massive Kroger Deals Right Now!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are finding some of the best sales we've seen in years. Get your notepad ready and follow along as who knows when we will ever see these deals again."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Pull Your Cash Out Now! The Banking System Is Much Worse Off Than We Think!"

Gregory Mannarino, 5/2/24
"Pull Your Cash Out Now! 
The Banking System Is Much Worse Off Than We Think!"
Comments here:

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

"Breaking! May 5th NATO F-16s Enter War With Russia; Los Angeles Nuclear Detonation Drill"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/1/24
"Breaking! May 5th NATO F-16s Enter War With Russia; 
Los Angeles Nuclear Detonation Drill"
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "It's Over...We're In Trouble!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 5/1/24
"It's Over...We're In Trouble!"
"We're in trouble as multiple different 
everyday items are on massive recalls!"
Comments here:

"Starbucks Is Crashing, Another Ominous Warning; Americans Fear Losing Their Job This Years"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/1/24
"Starbucks Is Crashing, Another Ominous Warning;
 Americans Fear Losing Their Job This Year"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Black Velvet Flirt"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Black Velvet Flirt"

Be kind to yourself, relax, enjoy this...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The southern Milky Way appears spectacular in this composite image taken from Mangaia, the most southerly of the Cook Islands. Few sources of light pollution exist here, home to only 500 people.
The two bright stars at the Milky Way’s center are Alpha (left) and Beta Centauri. They point to Crux the Southern Cross. Near the horizon, two of the satellite galaxies of our Milky Way, the Small (left) and Large Magellanic Clouds are easy to spot.”

"The Grand Inevitability of Unavoidable Endings"

"The Grand Inevitability of Unavoidable Endings"
by Doug “Uncola” Lynn

"It is true people are known by their actions. We are what we do. Or, more specifically, we are what we do and not what we say we’ll do. Actions speak louder than words. It means if the swamp were to be truly drained, there would have been a steady progression of media revelations indicating genuine results during the Trump administration. Therefore, to quantify any progress of swamp draining, I collated headlines in a series of articles posted in the spring and summer of 2018. The objective at that time was to identify actual trends prior to the midterm elections based upon reported news, instead of political spin, empty promises, smoke and mirrors.

The final compilation of the series of articles was posted on September 1, 2018 and was entitled “Destination in Sight”. It summarized specific trends in accordance with previous monthly postings and there were two prominent progressions identified: 

1.) The advancement of Socialism and
2.) The technological ascendency of Orwell’s Big Brother.

Accordingly, over the past few years, we have witnessed corrupt manifestations of sheer political power, seemingly, crashing in waves – each one higher than the last as measured by historical consequence: Russiagate, the Mueller investigation, impeachment, Covid,  and then a stolen election paired to a propagandic media narrative which has warped reality for millions of Americans.

At this point, it didn't matter whether President Trump was a real swamp fighter, a naïve dupe, or a symbol of (misplaced?) hope to his supporters. In truth, the tsunamis of trends were formed decades ago in America and have since grown larger than any campaign platform or presidential administration.

In an article from March of 2018 entitled “Destiny Looms: Choose Your Way or it Drags You”, three responses to the New World Order were explored which could be summarized as follows:

1.) Fight the empire.
2.) Sell out.
3.) Or choose one’s battles carefully and deliberately.

At the end of that piece, these words were posted: In any scenario, the civil divorce will be ugly and America’s children will suffer. Looking back, could there have been any other outcome? Given human nature, perhaps it was always inevitable. Maybe it’s just time. Even if one wanted to fight, how can they know they’re not fighting against destiny or something bigger; battling against that which was unavoidable anyway? What if America’s seemingly psychotic breakdown is more spiritual in nature? Because, right now, it does seem as if the Perception Puppets are dreaming a new reality; like an incantation.

Another one of my articles considered the phrase “It is what it is” as representing either resignation or acceptance in the face of circumstances beyond one’s control; with acceptance defined NOT as surrender, per se, but, instead, as honest realism. Like a flower, a nation was planted onto the fertile ground. It grew and blossomed under the midday sun but now wilts and dies. The seasons come and go. The sun rises and sets. We are born, we flourish and fade. Everything turns.

The truth is, no matter who was president, vaccinations were, at the very least, strongly encouraged by means of economic pressure; and, at most, submission to medical tyranny will be mandated in order to travel, work, shop, buy, or sell.

In his four-act drama “Man and Superman”, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw penned the following quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. And has that not been the Story of Man since the first campfire? But what kind of progress? Isn’t that a most important consideration?

In the 1974 film “The Godfather Part II”, a conversation occurred between the mafia boss, Michael Corleone, and the Jewish gangster, Hyman Roth, amidst the backdrop of the Communist revolution in Cuba:
(Michael Corleone): I saw a strange thing today. A rebel was being arrested by the military police. And rather than be taken alive he exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed himself and took a captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren’t.
(Hyman Roth): What does that tell you?
(Michael Corleone): They could win.

That exchange adequately summarizes why fanatical revolutionaries have overturned societies throughout history: because they are true believers and fully committed to victory. William Butler Yeats in his poem “The Second Coming”, wrote:

"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

And so many other times throughout history has the road to hell been paved by utopian dreams as honest men with common sense succumbed to silent normalcy-bias while being restrained with unjust rules applied specifically on them. The Covid pandemic was unleashed by psychopaths who demanded the plebeians to submit for reasons of safety. The irony is ridiculous. 

This is tyranny. There is a reason why America floundered as the neo-Bolshevists rose. It was because half the country tried to play by the rules in order to save the country while the other half had long-desired the nation to dissolve so a One World Order could coagulate as a phoenix rising from the ashes.

It’s like that old story where two women were fighting over a baby and the judge told them to cut it in two so each woman could keep half. The evil woman was fine with that proposition because she would rather the child die than lose custody to the other woman. But when the good woman chose to rescind her claim so the baby could live, the judge knew then who was the real mother.

America was the baby, Dear Reader, but now the republic is dead; torn in half by bad actors. The result will be a war with many fronts turning neighbor against neighbor, friend into foe, and as families are irredeemably divided. The line has been crossed so there’s no going back. And, sadly, the momentum is on the wrong side. For those who understand that battles cannot be won simply by playing defense, a question remains: What can be won?

The nation was lulled to sleep through prosperity; and those waking up now will soon realize it is far too late to save the republic. The people have perished by the wrong vision as faux-conservative leaders have surrendered to the enemies gathered at the gate.

All politics are, indeed, truly local – now more than ever. And much can still be done as the sun sets. For some, relocating to a red state may be a priority. For others, it may be to seek out like-minded dissidents in their area. And, still, for others, it may be to close the circle on their preps including acquisitions of food as well as supplies for energy/power, first-aid, and defense.

Entire red regions, and counties possessing constitutionally-committed law enforcement agents, could, potentially, be fortified in a balkanized America, and primarily through the coordination and cooperation of existing civil administrations. But the heads of select institutions and agencies will need to work together quickly and decisively for any micro-constitutional republics to achieve self-sufficiency before Mordor swallows all.

The answers are not in the problem. The answers are in the answer. It means compromise is a strategy for failure. Now is the time to rise; to shine like stars at midnight."

"Biden Navigates America Into A Trade War With China And A Nuclear War With Russia"

"Biden Navigates America Into A Trade War 
With China And A Nuclear War With Russia"
by Mike Adams

"Russia now warning that America's "decision-making centers" will be destroyed if U.S./NATO troops are deployed in Ukraine. A video from a prominent Russian broadcast network also says that France will be obliterated and the UK will be inundated with a radioactive ocean tsunami, set off by Russia's massive nuclear weapons underwater drones.
China, meanwhile, is fed up with America's insane demands which attempt to dictate to China how much they're allowed to produce and which countries they can sell products to. China is now threatening a massive retaliation which could mean a currency war, trade war or even a physical war that attacks U.S. Navy assets in the Pacific. Joe Biden and the Democrats are plunging America into TWO wars at the same time. And America won't survive if this trajectory isn't stopped."
View video here:

"Israel is Losing the War on All Fronts as Iran, Russia and China Build New Middle East"

Scott Ritter, 5/1/24
"Israel is Losing the War on All Fronts as Iran, 
Russia and China Build New Middle East"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Galway Kinnell, "Another Night in the Ruins"

"Another Night in the Ruins"

"How many nights must it take
one such as me to learn
that we aren't, after all, made
from that bird that flies out of its ashes,
that for us
as we go up in flames,
our one work is
to open ourselves,
to be the flames?"

~ Galway Kinnell