Tuesday, June 18, 2024

"It's Not US... It's Russia!"

"It's Not US... It's Russia!"
“Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”
by Joel Bowman

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed,
our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
~ Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995), author of "Propaganda"

Bangkok, Thailand - "Tell a lie often enough... and people will learn to fill in the rest of the quote. (But that doesn’t mean they’ll understand the point of it.) By now gentle readers will have suffered the cringe-worthy video of the world’s Somnambulist in Chief, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., sleepwalking aimlessly around the grounds at last week’s G-7 summit in Puglia, Italy. In case you haven’t yet seen the footage, here’s a clip...
[Special Note: As we go to press, White House Propagandist in Chief, Karin Jean-Pierre, has falsely claimed the above video is a “deep fake” (meaning A.I. altered), a statement she had subsequently to retract… hey, props to KJP for preempting the exact point we were about to make further in this very article! Read on…]

Hostess with the Leastess: Poor ol’ Giorgia Meloni. Not only was the popular Italian prime minister and host of the revolving gabfest charged with shepherding Sleepy Joe back to the group...she had to stage a fête for what must surely be the slimiest bunch of political losers, lame ducks and lunatics disgracing the world stage today.
Right to Left: President of European Council Charles Michel (unelected eurocrat, fetid swamp creature)... German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (just lost EU parliamentary election)... Canadian President Justin Trudeau-Castro (lowest poll numbers in Canada in half a century)...French President Emmanuel Macron (just lost EU parliamentary election)... Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (host, member of the “hard-right,” highest approval rating for any EU leader)... United States President Sleepy Joe Biden (“Biden...?” “Biden...?” “Is there a President Biden here...?”)... Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (cabinet approval rating at 16%, calls to step down as PM)... British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (about to get a well-deserved trouncing in upcoming UK elections, candidate for worst Tory PM in modern history in a very, very tough field)...European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (unelected EU henchwoman, threatened Italian voters before Meloni’s election, “We have tools...”)

Pssh! No wonder Meloni extended a special, personal invitation to Argentina’s Javier Milei, who arrived a few days late after getting business done in his own backyard, down at the end of the world, first. (As to why El Señor would be seen cavorting with such a rabid cesspool of managerial collectivists, we’ll have to leave for another day...) But back to ol’ Sleepy Joe...

For concerned citizens... and even those unconcerned, who simply don’t like seeing doddering human mannequins drifting off into open, unsupervised spaces...the man’s behavior has become something of a problem. Whether it’s the sneggerlegerlainerwhachamadunnit gaffes... the aimless ambulatory misadventures... the pathological commitment to untruth... the weaponization of federal agencies... or the steely determination to avert the imminent onset of peace... even moderate Democrat voters are starting to realize...Obama’s third term has been his worst!

Here is the former/shadow president, coaxing “Weekend at Joey’s” off the stage at a celebrity fundraiser in Hollywood on Saturday night.
“Here we go, Joey. Let’s get a cup of 
warm milk into that ouchie belly, eh?”

On cue, the mainstream media lauded the event, crammed to the hilt with people who literally pretend to be other people for a living, as “the most successful fundraising event in the history of the Democratic Party.” With countless red carpet groomers behind him and zero felonies to his name, Team Obiden raked in a cool $28 million for the night. Taking a somewhat different tack, The Donald held a similar event a few weekends back... which involved 34 felony counts, zero celebrities... and $200 million raised. The media’s response: Yawn.

At this point, polls for the 2024 presidential race have Orange Man Bad ahead on both the national stage and in every single one of the battleground states. But moderates and sensible centrists needn’t start looking for short ropes and long drops just yet. The Democrats have an ace up their sleeve when it comes to combating inconvenient public perception...especially when it’s accurate. Which brings us to our latest installment of everyone’s nobody’s favorite game of mass delusion, cognitive dissonance and cerebral contortionism:

It’s not US... it’s Russia! Dear readers will recall favorite episodes from the recent past, including “The one where Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election... to Russia!” and “The one where it wasn’t the Fed’s money printing that caused inflation... it was Putin’s Price Hikes!” and “The one where we flat-out told you we were going to blow up the Nord Stream Pipeline... then Russia did it!”

Not to mention the popular, oft re-run classic, “The one where 51 top intelligence officials told American voters right before the election that Hunter Biden’s highly incriminating and totally legit laptop was really... ‘textbook Russian disinformation!’”

Having reliably sold the catchy “It’s not US... it’s Russia” slogan to the American public more times than we have room for in these pithy Notes, we were hardly surprised to learn that questions regarding Biden’s mental acuity would receive the same mass managerial treatment.

After last week’s unscheduled walkabout at the G7... and his increasing tendency for onstage rigor mortis... calls have come for the White House to publicly release the tape of the president’s conversations with special counsel Robert Hur, so voters can get a take on his mental fitness. Readers will recall it was special counsel Hur who recommended Biden not be prosecuted on classified document charges (remarkably similar to those Mr. Trump currently faces) on grounds that the president is merely “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Unfit for prosecution, in other words... but totally fit for another four years with his shaky Skeletor fingers on the nuclear button.

Already The New York Times has obliged, running a standard form article titled: “Russian Disinformation Videos Smear Biden Ahead of U.S. Election.” And now, from one of the interchangeable bobbleheads on MSNBC: “A huge part of the Mueller report [which found no evidence of Trump’s collusion with Russia] is Russian disinformation tactics, and one of the themes this election cycle is that Joe Biden is too old to lead. And so everyone is seizing upon this. And it is a classic disinformation tactic. And I think the best thing we can do is to prepare the American people for this false narrative.”

Did you get that, dear reader? Prepare to “be prepared.” On that note, we leave the final word today to The Father of Propaganda himself, Edward Bernays, who literally wrote the book Propaganda and who sure knew a thing or two about manipulating We, the Public:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
~ Edward L. Bernays, "Propaganda"

Bill Bonner, "Decline of the West"

"Decline of the West"
In 1999, the US owed $5.6 trillion. A lot of money. But still manageable. Now it owes $35 trillion. Much of this debt – a total of nearly $100 trillion, public and private – cannot be repaid.
by Bill Bonner

‘Look at China, with 1.5 billion people. India probably has more than that.
 And there are other nations in Southeast Asia... Indonesia... Pakistan... Bangladesh. 
It seems that the trends in development are gradually shifting in that direction.’
- Vladimir Putin

Paris, France - "America stands like a colossus on an increasingly slippery world. Last week, more grease was added. America’s landmark deal with Saudi Arabia expired. It was the deal made in the 1970s by Wall Street bond dealer extraordinaire, William Simon. In essence, it solved two problems at once - one for the US, the other for the Saudis. The US needed to export dollars. The Saudis needed to export oil. The agreement said that henceforth, if you wanted to buy Saudi oil, you had to pay in dollars. Then, the Saudis could immediately exchange them for US Treasury bonds.

But there was one other important point. The US would provide ‘security’ for the Saudi government. Presto! A ‘foreign entanglement’ of the sort the founding fathers warned against. TipRanks: "The petrodollar agreement, formalized after the 1973 oil crisis, stipulated that Saudi Arabia would price its oil exports exclusively in U.S. dollars and invest its surplus oil revenues in U.S. Treasury bonds. In return, the U.S. provided military support and protection to the kingdom. This arrangement was a win-win situation for both; the U.S. gained a stable source of oil and a  captive market for its debt, while Saudi Arabia secured its economic and overall security." 

The ‘deal’ was secret. The Saudis did not want the rest of the Arab world to know how closely they were working with Israel’s ally, the US. And even today, the ‘fact checkers’ say the deal was ‘fake news,’ that nothing formal ever existed which mandated the Saudis would sell oil only in dollar.

Formal or informal, the actual terms of the relationship have been away from the public for more than 40 years. But the sweetheart deal was part of the reason the US attacked Iraq rather than Saudi Arabia, following 9/11. The perps were almost all Saudis, not Iraqis. But Saudi Arabia was a major holder of US debt with a special status. That deal expired on June 9th, according to reports.

Decline of the West: Yesterday, we gave our opinion. The two leading candidates for the White House are equally unqualified for the job... but perfect for the mega-political challenge ahead. That is, we believe the ‘decline of the West’ began around the end of the 1990s. In 1999, you could have sold the 30 stocks in the Dow index and gotten enough money to buy 41 ounces of gold. Today, you’ll get only 17 ounces. In other words, the real value (measured in the gold) of America’s leading businesses has been more than cut in half. That’s a sign of decline. Not definitive... but suggestive.

In 1999, the US and its allies were on top of the world. The richest country in the world. The most admired. With the best technology. Coolest culture. The US had a balanced budget. And except for bombing the hell out of Serbia, it was more or less at peace. The Soviet Union had recently given up... leaving the West without a rival.

It was at that unlikely moment that America lost its footing. Elite firepower lobbyists took control of Congress. Balanced budgets and peace were soon things of the past... In 1999, the US owed $5.6 trillion. A lot of money. But still manageable. Now it owes $35 trillion. Much of this debt – a total of nearly $100 trillion, public and private – cannot be repaid. Instead, it and the fictitious wealth it represents will disappear as the credit cycle runs its course.

Nature is full of patterns. Once astride the world, a hegemon must find the hapless, hopeless leaders who will help it slide off. The US has found them. Neither Biden nor Trump will cut spending. Neither will withdraw from the role of global Alpha Nation. Neither wants to restrain the firepower industry or break the war mongers' grip on Congress.

How significant the end of the Saudi deal will be, in the near term, we don’t know. As a practical matter, the world's oil markets function in dollars. Both buyers and sellers have dollars and know that dollars are easily converted to any other asset they want. But the slippage is underway. Here’s this from Responsible Statecraft: "Global opinion of US goes down the toilet." "Dragged down in important part by disapproval over the U.S. position on the Gaza war, the popular image of the United States abroad has declined over the past year, according to a new poll of public opinion in 34 countries released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

The survey, the latest in an annual series that dates back more than two decades, also found that international confidence in U.S. democracy has fallen. A median of four in ten of the more than 40,000 respondents said U.S. democracy used to be a good model for other countries to follow but no longer is. That view was most pronounced in the ten European countries covered by the poll."

When you’ve got the gun in your hand, you don’t necessarily care what others think of you. But if the Top Gun, butt-kicking nation could remain in charge forever, we might be part of the Roman Empire, not the US empire. More to come..."

Freely download "The Decline Of The West", by Oswald Spengler, here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Are We Headed to World War 3?"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 6/18/24
"Are We Headed to World War 3?"
"Are we on the brink of World War III? In today's video, we dive deep into the alarming news that has slipped under the radar. The National Defense Authorization Act has introduced a mandatory Selective Service registration for adults aged 18-26, including women, for the first time in over 50 years! What does this mean for our future? Are we headed towards a nuclear conflict? Join me as we unravel the chaos our politicians are leading us into and the potential consequences on our lives and our children's lives."
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"Scott Ritter: Israel is Losing this War and Iran will Destroy the IDF on All Fronts"

Dany Haiphong, 6/18/24
"Scott Ritter: Israel is Losing this War 
and Iran will Destroy the IDF on All Fronts" 
"Former Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter analyzes Israel's grim future as regional forces begin to mount more pressure on the IDF to cease its gruesome war. What happens next may surprise you."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
OpenmindedThinker Show, 6/18/24
"Scott Ritter: 150,000 Lebanese Troops 
Prepares Biggest Surprise for Israel In July!"
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Adventures With Danno, "A Very Frustrating Trip To Meijer!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/18/24
"A Very Frustrating Trip To Meijer!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are 
noticing some frustrating prices on groceries."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 6/18/24
"Russian Typical (Dutch Owned) 
Supermarket: EUROSPAR"
"Join me on a tour of the Dutch owned Spar Supermarket in Moscow, Russia. 
Spar currently owns and operates 466 locations throughout the Russian Federation."
Comments here:

"Alert! 'NATO Will Fly F-16s'; N. Korea Exploding! Israel Amassing Nukes; Iran Sending Troops"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/17/24
"Alert! 'NATO Will Fly F-16s'; N. Korea Exploding! 
Israel Amassing Nukes; Iran Sending Troops"
Comments here:

Monday, June 17, 2024

Musical Interlude: Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

Full screen recommended.
Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

I've listened to this song 100 times, there's "something" here, 
you feel it, and if there are words for it I don't know them...
o
Full screen recommended.
Disturbed "The Sound Of Silence"
147 Million views

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Is our Milky Way Galaxy this thin? Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the spiral galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. 
An assortment of other background galaxies is included in the pretty field of view. Thought similar in shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 4565 lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.”

The Poet: David Whyte, "One Day"

"One Day"

"One day I will say
the gift I once had has been taken.
The place I have made for myself
belongs to another.
The words I have sung
are being sung by the ones
I would want.
Then I will be ready
for that voice
and the still silence in which it arrives.
And if my faith is good
then we'll meet again
on the road,
and we'll be thirsty,
and stop
and laugh
and drink together again
from the deep well of things as they are."

- David Whyte,
"Where Many Rivers Meet"

"The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.
And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see -
it is, rather, a light by which we may see - and what we see is life."
- Robert Penn Warren

"A Time Capsule From The 1930s: What's Different Now"

"A Time Capsule From The 1930s: 
What's Different Now"
"If we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family 
and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished."
by Charles Hugh Smith

"We're taking care of my 92-year old mother-in-law here at home. She has the usual aches and pains and infirmities of advanced age but her mind and memory are still sharp. Her memories of her childhood are like a time capsule from the 1930s.

My mom-in-law has always lived in the same general community here in Hawaii. She's never lived more than about 10 miles from the house where she was born (long since torn down) in 1931. Listening to her memories (and asking for more details) is to be transported back to the 1930s, an era of widespread poverty unrelated to the Great Depression. Many people were poor before the Depression. They were working hard but their incomes were low.

Prior to the tourist boom initiated by statehood and affordable airfare, Hawaii's economy was classically colonial: large plantations owned by a handful of wealthy families and/or corporations (known as The Big Five) employed thousands of laborers to raise and harvest sugar cane and pineapple. Pearl Harbor, Hickam air base and Schofield Barracks were large military bases on Oahu. Travel between islands was expensive (ferries) and each island was largely self-sufficient. Even taking a bus for the 12-mile ride to the island's sole city was a rare luxury, an excursion that occurred a few times a year.

Plantation workers were not yet unionized in the 1930s, and wages were around $20 a month for backbreaking field labor - work performed by both men and women. Typical of first and second-generation immigrant communities of the time, families were generally large. Six or seven children was common and nine or ten children per family was not uncommon. Many families lived in modest plantation-provided camps of two bedroom houses.

Gardens were not a hobby, they were an essential source of food to feed a table of hungry kids and adults. Candy, snacks, sodas, etc. were treats rserved for special occasions and holidays. Kids usually went barefoot because shoes were outside the household's limited budget.

Staples were bought at the company store (or one of the few privately owned groceries) on credit and paid off when the plantation paid wages.

Credit issued by banks was unknown. Neighborhoods (kumiai) might pool a few dollars from each family every year and offer the sum to the highest secret bidder or by lottery. Those households that scraped up enough to open a small business often worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (or equivalent: 14 hours 6 days a week).

Neighbors helped with births and deaths.

Since no one could even dream of owning a car, transport was limited. Children and adults walked or biked miles to school or work. Many sole proprietors made a living delivering vegetables, meat and fish around the neighborhoods. (This distribution system is still present in rural France where my brother and sister-in-law lived for many years). Each vendor would arrive on a set day / time and housewives could gather to buy from the proprietor's jitney or truck. Children could eye the few candies longingly, and if they were lucky, a few pennies would be given to them to buy a candy.

Locally baked bread was delivered by boys. Milk was delivered by small local dairies.

Nostalgia is a powerful force, but I don't think we can dismiss the general happiness of my Mom-in-law's childhood as airbrushed impoverishment. The poverty seems obvious to us now, but at the time it was normal life. Everyone was in the same general socio-economic class. The plantation manager lived in a mansion with servants, but those with wealth were few and far between. In other words, wealth and income inequality was extreme but the class structure was flat: the 99% had very similar incomes and opportunities - both were limited.

Employment was stable, community ties and values were strong without anyone even noticing, and everyone had enough to eat (though not as much as they might have wanted, of course).

This secure plantation structure of work and community was still firmly in place in 1969-1970 when I lived on the pineapple plantation of Lanai (and picked pineapple with my high school classmates in the summer), and so I was fortunate to experience it first-hand. My Lanai classmates speak fondly and with a sense of loss when they recall their youth. Life was secure and protected, and with unionization of the workforce, the wages sufficient enough for frugal households to save enough to send their children to college off-island.

I can personally attest that fond memories of 1970s plantation life are not distorted by nostalgia. These memories are accurate recollections of a far more secure, safe and nourishing place and time.

Compared to today, the typical 1930s diet was locally grown/raised and therefore rich in micro-nutrients. Grains such as rice and flour came from afar, but other than canned fish and similar goods, food was local and fresh. Little if any was wasted. People typically worked physically demanding jobs that burned a lot of calories.

There are many people 90+ years of age in our neighborhood. My Mom-in-law's brother - like many of the men in this age bracket, he was a World War II veteran of the famed 442nd unit -died last year at 96, despite smoking a half-pack of cigarettes daily until the end. A neighbor/friend just passed away at 99 (he was also a 442nd veteran). Our neighbor (cared for by her daughter and son-in-law, just like us) just turned 100. These people are generally healthy and active until the end of their lives.

If we look for causal factors in their advanced age and generally good health, we cannot ignore the high-quality, near-zero-processed foods diets of their youth and their strong foundations in community ties and values.

If we compare the financial and material wealth most enjoy today with the limited income and assets of the pre-war era, we would conclude they lived in extreme poverty and their lives must have been wretched as a consequence.

But if we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished and it was their lives that were rich in these essentials of human life.

The world has changed since the 1930s, of course. Materially, our wealth and options of what to do with our lives are off the charts compared to the 1930s. But if we look at health, security, well-being, community ties, social cohesion and civic virtue, our era seems insecure, disordered and deranging.

The irony is that those who have grown weary of our divisive, rage-inducing socio-economic system yearn for all that's been lost in the rise to material wealth and opportunities to spend that wealth. Those who grasp the emptiness of spectacle and material wealth and who have the means to do so are seeking the few enclaves that still have a few shreds of community and social cohesion left.

These enclaves then get listed on "best small towns in America" or "best places in the world to retire" and the resulting influx of wealthy outsiders destroys the last remaining shreds of what everyone came for.

I recently harvested some of our homegrown green tomatoes, and my Mom-in-law gave me a handwritten recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes from her collection. The first ingredient was "two tablespoons of bacon drippings." Um, okay, if we were all working 10-hour days hauling 80-pound loads of sugar cane on our backs, no problem, but we're a household of three seniors, 69, 70 and 92. I think we'll substitute two teaspoons of olive oil for the bacon drippings..."
o
Full screen recommended.
"1930s USA - Fascinating Street Scenes of Vintage America"
"Step back in time with us as we unveil a mesmerizing journey through 1930s America like you've never seen before! While the Dustbowl was heating up in the southwest, the country as a whole was fighting through the Great Depression. All the while, Americans were living their day-to-day lives, and getting on as best as they could. 

In this captivating video, we've meticulously colorized a collection of stunning photographs that capture the essence of a tumultuous yet resilient period in American history. From bustling cityscapes to serene countryside vistas, witness the contrast between hardship and hope that defined an entire generation. Discover the intricate details of everyday life as we explore the highways and byways of the past, complete with corner gas stations, storefronts, and bustling city streets. Journey through snapshots of the stunning architecture that emerged during this era, from Art Deco skyscrapers to quaint suburban homes. Each frame is a window into a world where innovation and creativity thrived despite adversity. 

Join us on this mesmerizing visual journey, as we honor the legacy of the past and celebrate the indomitable spirit of the American people. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to experience the 1930s in an entirely new light. Whether you are a history enthusiast, a lover of vintage aesthetics, or simply curious about the past, this video offers an immersive visual experience that will evoke a sense of nostalgia and leave you with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the human experience."
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Jeremiah Babe, "Car Payments Are Killing The Middle Class"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/17/24
"Car Payments Are Killing The Middle Class
Another Restaurant Is Done; US Faces Serious Threat"
Comments here:

"We're All Mad Here,,,"

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. 
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll,
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Oh, I know, I know, some days...lol

The Daily "Near You?"

Cleburne, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
- Steve Jobs,
Commencement Speech, Stanford University, 2005

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true...

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called "The Whole Earth Catalog", which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of "The Whole Earth Catalog", and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
"Listen to me. We're here to make a dent in the universe.
Otherwise why even be here?"
- Steve Jobs

"How Is One To Live..."

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”
- Barry Lopez

"Humanity, I Love You..."

"Humanity, I love you because when you're down
and out you pawn your intelligence for a drink." 
 - e.e. cummings

"Scott Ritter: Israel is Being Wiped Out and the IDF is Losing Big on All Fronts"

Danny Haiphong, 6/17/24
"Scott Ritter: Israel is Being Wiped Out 
and the IDF is Losing Big on All Fronts"
Former Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter reveals the truth about Israel's growing dilemma both on the battlefield and in the court of world public opinion. What happens next for Israel may shock you and this video breaks it all down.
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/17/24"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/17/24
"Ray McGovern: Dangers of Misreading Putin"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/17/24
"Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Putin's Offer of Peace"
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o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/17/24
"Alastair Crooke: Europe In Mutiny"
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Adventures With Danno, "Strange Prices At Walmart!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/17/24
"Strange Prices At Walmart! 
Food Shortage Updates & Some Empty Shelves!"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "A Very Serious Warning For Everyone"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/17/24
"A Very Serious Warning For Everyone"
"Here’s a very serious warning for everyone. You need to name a beneficiary on your bank accounts and retirement accounts. Some people have done this decades ago with people that are no longer in their lives getting the inheritance. This is catastrophic."
Comments here:

Robert Gore, "Small Black Bundles"

We all have too much to lose.
"Small Black Bundles"
by Robert Gore

"The Biden administration and NATO have steadily escalated participation in the Ukraine-Russia war. Recently, Biden authorized Ukraine missile attacks deeper into Russia’s territory using U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, which have a range of up to 190 miles. All of the expertise necessary to target and guide these attacks will come from the U.S. and NATO.

On May 22, Ukraine drones attacked two Russian nuclear early warning radars at Armavir. Much of the targeting and guidance expertise had to have come from the U.S. and NATO. Suddenly deprived of part of their ability to detect incoming threats, if the Russians had assumed the worse - that they were under nuclear attack and the drone strike was meant to cripple their command and control capabilities - the U.S. and NATO risked a nuclear response.

The U.S.-led alliance is at war with Russia, a fact that’s downplayed or ignored by American mainstream media. Being in a “hot” war with Russia increases the likelihood of nuclear war, triggered either accidentally or intentionally, beyond even the possibility that existed during the Cold War. That possibility was almost realized during the Cuban Missile Crisis. John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev demonstrated wisdom and courage in stepping away from the brink. Now, both sides are trash talking, threatening to use nuclear weapons. Their bluster increases the chances of nuclear war.

An American public that was recently scared into masks, social distancing, lockdowns, deadly experimental vaccines, and the evisceration of civil liberties by a germ about as dangerous as a bad flu bug seems blissfully unaware of the much more severe risks of nuclear war. American officials prattle on about “tactical” nuclear weapons, “escalatory dominance,” and “limited” nuclear war, oblivious to the reality that they control only one side of a chain of decisions to respond and escalate once a conflict goes nuclear.

It would be enlightening to review the effects of atomic bombs on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The following excerpts and quotes come from The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, Simon and Schuster, 1986, from a chapter titled “Tongues of Fire.” The Hiroshima bomb was the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT and the Nagasaki bomb 22,000 tons of TNT. Current thermonuclear, or hydrogen, bombs - predominantly deployed today - have an explosive force three orders of magnitude greater, measured in the tens of millions of tons of TNT, over 1,000 times as powerful. So far, these have never been used against humans.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, 8:16:02 local time, “Little Boy,” a uranium-235 gun-type fission bomb dropped from Enola Gay, an American B-29, exploded 1,900 feet above a hospital in Hiroshima. “Just as I looked up at the sky,” remembers a girl who was five years old at the time and safely at home in the suburbs, “there was a flash of white light and the green in the plants looked in that light like the color of dry leaves.” Pg. 713

The temperature at the hypocenter, the point on the ground directly below the explosion, was 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. "People exposed within half a mile of the Little Boy fireball, that is, were seared to bundles of smoking black char in a fraction of a second as their internal organs boiled away. “Doctor,” a patient commented to Michihiko Hachiya a few days later, “a human being who has been roasted becomes quite small, doesn’t he?” The small black bundles now stuck to the streets and bridges and sidewalks of Hiroshima numbered in the thousands." Pg. 715

The blast wave rocketed several hundred yards from the hypocenter at 2 miles per second before slowing to 1,100 feet per second, destroying everything in its path and throwing up a huge black cloud of smoke and dust.

"That boy had been in a room at the edge of the river, looking out at the river when the explosion came, and in that instant as the house fell apart he was blown from the end room across the road on the river embankment and landed on the street below it. In that distance he passed through a couple of windows inside the house and his body was stuck full of all the glass it could hold. That is why he was completely covered with blood like that" Pg. 716

Perhaps the black bundles’ instantaneous deaths were a blessing. From a grocer who escaped into the street: "The appearance of people, was... well, they all had skin blackened by burns. They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn’t tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. They held their arms [in front of them] and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. If there had been only one or two such people perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind - like walking ghosts. They didn’t look like people of this world. They had a very special way of walking - very slowly. I myself was one of them." Pgs. 717-718

From a young woman: "I heard a girl’s voice clearly from behind a tree. “Help me, please.” Her back was completely burned and the skin peeled off and was hanging down from her hips" Pg. 718

A young sociologist: "The most impressive thing I saw was some girls, very young girls, not only with their clothes torn off but with their skin peeled off as well. My immediate thought was that this was like the hell I had always read about." Pg. 718

A five-year-old boy: "That day after we escaped and came to Hijiyama Bridge, there were lots of naked people who were so badly burned that the skin of their whole body was hanging from them like rags." Pg. 718

A five-year-old girl: "People came fleeing from the nearby streets. One after another they were almost unrecognizable. The skin was burned off some of them and was hanging from their hands and from their chins; their faces were red and so swollen that you could hardly tell where their eyes and mouths were." Pg. 719

The burns, heat, and sounds of horror were unbearable. From a junior-college girl: "Screaming children who have lost sight of their mothers; voices of mothers searching for their little ones; people who can no longer bear the heat, cooling their bodies in cisterns; every one among the fleeing people is dyed red with blood." Pg. 719

Compounding the horror and agony were the fires and smoke. From a five-year-old girl: "The whole city was burning. Black smoke was billowing up and we could hear the sound of big things exploding. Those dreadful streets. The fires were burning. There was a strange smell all over. Blue-green balls of fire were drifting around. I had a terrible lonely feeling that everybody else in the world was dead and only we were still alive." Pg. 720

From a seventeen-year-old girl: "I walked past Hiroshima Station and saw people with their bowels and brains coming out." Pg. 721

To escape the raging fires, many people went to fire reservoirs or one of the seven rivers that flowed through Hiroshima. From a physician sharing his horror with Michihiko Hachiya, director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, who kept a dairy of the bombing and its aftermath: "I saw fire reservoirs filled to the brim with dead people who looked as though they had been boiled alive. In one reservoir I saw a man, horribly burned, crouch beside another man who was dead. He was drinking blood-stained water out of the reservoir." Pg 724.

From a young ship designer trying to reach a train station to return to his home in, of all places, Nagasaki: "I had to cross the river to reach the station. As I came to the river and went down the bank to the water, I found that the stream was filled with dead bodies. I started to cross by crawling over the corpses, on my hands and knees. As I got about a third of the way across, a dead body began to sink under my weight and I went into the water, wetting my burned skin. It pained severely. I could go no further, as there was a break in the bridge of corpses, so I turned back to the shore." Pgs. 725-726

From one of Dr. Hachiya’s patients: "The sight of the soldiers, though, was more dreadful than the dead people floating down the river. I came onto I don’t know how many, burned from the hips up; and where the skin had peeled, their flesh was wet and mushy.  And they had no faces! Their eyes, noses and mouths had been burned away, and it looked like their ears had melted off. It was hard to tell front from back." Pg. 726

From a man trying to help his wife escape the city: "While taking my severely-wounded wife out to the riverbank by the side of the hill of Nakahiro-machi, I was horrified, indeed, at the sight of a stark naked man standing in the rain with his eyeball in his palm. He looked to be in great pain but there was nothing that I could do for him." Pg. 725

Many of those who didn’t die in the first few days seemed to improve, but then sickened. American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who interviewed survivors, explained: "Survivors began to notice in themselves and others a strange form of illness. It consisted of nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite, diarrhea with large amounts of blood in the stools; fever and weakness; purple spots on various parts of the body from bleeding into the skin, inflammation and ulceration of the mouth, throat and gums, bleeding from the mouth, gums, throat, rectum, and urinary tract, loss of hair from the scalp and other parts of the body. Extremely low white blood cell counts when those were taken, and in many case a progressive course until death." Pg 731

It was radiation sickness, or what the Japanese called “atomic bomb illness.” "Direct gamma radiation from the bomb had damaged tissue throughout the bodies of the exposed. The destruction required cell division to manifest itself, but radiation temporarily suppresses cell division; hence the delayed onset of symptoms. The blood-forming tissues were damaged worst, particularly those that produce the white blood cells that fight infection. Large doses of radiation also stimulate the production of an anti-clotting factor. The outcome of these assaults was massive tissue death, massive hemorrhage and massive infection..." Pgs 731-732/

An estimated 140,000 were killed by the end of 1945 and 200,000 within five years from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bomb killed 70,000 by the end of 1945 and 140,000 within five years. For both cities, the five-year death rate was about 54 percent of the population. The percentage killed was an inverse function of distance from the hypocenter. At Hiroshima, almost 100 percent were killed at the hypocenter, and the percentage declined to “only” 10 percent two miles away from it. Property damage was extensive. Of Hiroshima’s 76,000 buildings, 70,000 were damaged, of which 48,000 were totally destroyed.

Many of the Americans who made the decision to drop the bombs thought it would prevent the massive loss of allied lives that an invasion of Japan presumably would have entailed. The destructive force of the bombs and the aftereffects of radiation were generally underestimated. Demonstrating to the world, particularly the Soviet Union, the power of the bomb, and preventing a Soviet invasion of Japan were at least as compelling as military necessity for dropping the bombs. Those who thought the bomb was unnecessary included General Dwight Eisenhower, General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral William Leahy, Major General Curtis LeMay, General Hap Arnold, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Brigadier General Carter Clarke, and Ralph Bard, Under Secretary of the Navy.

Almost eighty years later, it’s important to realize that as devastating and deadly as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were, they would be relatively tiny compared to what would happen today. The blast, fires, and radiation from one thermonuclear bomb, with a yield of 1,000 times that of the Nagasaki bomb’s 22,000 tons of TNT equivalent, would obliterate a city and surrounding countryside and kill tens of millions of people.

For America’s rulers, the other big difference between then and now is that the other side has its own bombs. Because some of the major nuclear powers’ missiles are carried on submarines, there is no way anyone’s response capability could be wiped out with a first strike. A nuclear strike against Russia or China would mean nuclear bombs dropped on American targets.

What should stop American rulers dead in their tracks is that Russia would be better able to withstand a nuclear attack than the U.S. Russian missiles are faster and more maneuverable and their antimissile technology is superior. Russia is much larger than the U.S. and has more room to hide. Their civil defense measures are far more extensive. Russia, as its history repeatedly demonstrates, knows how to play defense, even in the face of staggering losses.

Before the bomb, wars were often won by the side that was able to escalate to a point where the other side couldn’t match it. The World War I standoff was broken when the U.S. entered the war. The idea of escalatory dominance makes no sense when either side of a conflict can escalate to nuclear war and the other side can respond in kind. Seeking escalatory dominance risks escalatory annihilation of both sides, and perhaps of the entire global population.

These considerations would prevent, among rational people, any sort of threat or provocation that could lead to nuclear war. That the U.S. is playing nuclear chicken with Russia is all the proof one needs that its rulers are insane. They may take comfort from their supposedly bomb-proof bunkers and airborne command-and-control centers, but bombs detonated simultaneously in Washington, New York, and Silicon Valley would wipe them out before they ever reached those bunkers or jets.

Nothing is more insane than the desire to destroy one’s self. Among the West’s rulers, this subconscious desire manifests itself in their reaction to a global realignment of power. Their proxy war and sanctions against Russia have been disastrous failures. Russia and China lead a confederation of a majority of the world’s countries that threatens to eclipse the U.S.-led global billion. Western economies rest on a tottering foundation of debt. The totalitarian plans of globalist string-pullers are floundering on the plans’ inherent unworkability and the resistance of millions of people, empowered by decentralizing communications, computing, and weapons technologies (see “Ants at the Picnic,” Parts One and Two).

In their desperation, Western rulers have reached this point: “If we can’t rule the world, we’ll destroy it.” Facing the loss of their exalted positions and potential prosecution for their many crimes, don’t put it past this human excrement to start a nuclear war in a burst of terminal nihilism. Their cohorts in Israel (a nuclear power) may reach the same point in the Middle East - suicide is better than concession.

Even yesterday’s COVID cowards seem indifferent to today’s much more substantial dangers: instant incineration, boiled organs, skin peeling, eyeballs popping, ears melting, body-wide burns, deadly radiation sickness, and, for those that survive, the complete destruction of everything they have and their way of life. There would be hundreds of millions or billions of small black bundles. The death toll would be a several orders-of-magnitude multiple of COVID and its deadly vaccines’ combined final tally. Incidentally, climate would change for the worse, but the climate-change crowd seems unconcerned.

Many Americans may share their rulers’ death wish. Those of us who don’t must do what we can to stop the insane and their insanity. We can start by refusing to support any politician who advocates escalation in either Eastern Europe or the Middle East, rather than diplomacy, negotiations, and peaceful resolutions. Not one dime or weapon more should go to Ukraine or Israel, who both seek full-fledged U.S. military involvement in their wars - escalation that could lead to nuclear war and annihilation. There is no U.S. “interest” that justifies running that risk, certainly not an “interest” in maintaining a faltering empire.

Admittedly a political boycott of war-mongering politicians is only a small step, but it’s more than anyone’s doing now. The “movement” would gain membership after the first nuclear bomb detonates, but by then it may well be too late."

Bill Bonner, "Rotten Roots"

"Rotten Roots"
Great empires rise…and fall. And when the time comes, leaders must step up to 
the challenge. Corruption and dysfunction get worse. They must not stand in the way.
by Bill Bonner

Paris, France - "Just before we left Ireland, one of the magnificent old oak trees on the other side of the road toppled over. There it lay, branches broken, jumbled together on the ground... its rotten roots in the air, for all to see. We had no idea it was dying; until the roots were exposed, we saw only the healthy leaves and majestic, spreading limbs.

The politics of the 2024 election are simple enough. The Republicans are behind their man Trump. They’d probably prefer a different champion, but Trump has strong appeal among a large part of their voters. He’s not a conservative... but then, neither are Republican voters. The Democrats are behind their man Biden. They too would prefer to have a different standard bearer. But for better or worse, Biden is what they’ve got. Trump seems like a con man. Biden, like a doddery old fool.

The press is eagerly trying to catch one or the other in a ‘senior moment.’ The Telegraph: "Another off-day seemed to take place during this week’s G7 summit in Italy when he [Biden] appeared to wander off during a photoshoot with world leaders. As the president, who once again appeared to be completely frozen, turned to face the wrong direction, Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni intervened to usher him back in the direction of the photographer. Some may think that it’s cruel to point out these obvious frailties - but surely it is even more cruel to let him run again in his current state?"

The Mirror fires back: "Donald Trump grips railing for dear life in embarrassing video as he walks down stairs."

Both rascals are too old. Neither has a strong sense of where the country should go or a coherent agenda to get it there. Neither is likable or personally attractive. Neither seems very smart. Neither has a sense of history... nor a solid grasp of economics. Neither is suited to the challenge of the White House.

But both are perfect for the mega-political challenge... helping the US towards its rendezvous with catastrophe. Great empires rise…and fall. And when the time comes, leaders must step up to the challenge. Corruption and dysfunction get worse. They must not stand in the way. Arguably, America’s two geriatric nincompoops are just what history needs.

We sympathize with Biden. He’s only six years older than we are. But there’s a time to lead, and a time to let others lead. After watching a few video clips of Biden, appearing to be ‘out of it,’ we are left with the impression that the democrats will probably try a switcheroo before the election. At this stage, Biden is probably a negative for them.

Nobody has a bumper sticker with a heart and ‘I love Biden’ on it. Democratic voters just want him to win, either because they distrust Trump... or because they want to see the elites’ agenda continue without interruption.
 
A Real Leader: A real leader would have original ideas. He would suggest new approaches. He would propose solutions to the nation’s problems. He might go into a meeting and say “here’s what I think we should do.” While we have never been in a meeting with Joe Biden, we have a hard time imagining him doing that.

Biden, the man, is just a cut-out... a place-holder. We’ve never heard an original thought pass his lips, nor an insight worth remembering. Instead, his pensée is just much-rehearsed blah-blah, sticking with whatever talking points his handlers suggest.

After 50 years of blah-blah, Biden can do it without thinking. He may be fine in the presidential debates, for example, ‘a battle of wits between two unarmed opponents,’ where no honest thoughts are allowed. But there are times when something unexpected happens and you have to think; one of those times is bound to come sooner or later...

And if we’re right, Democratic party insiders won’t want Biden, the man, getting in the way of Biden, the sham. So, they must be looking for some relatively obscure, vaguely presentable substitute - much like Obama in 2008 - who will reliably keep the grift going without stumbling down the steps.

They needn’t worry. Donald Trump had four years to ‘drain the swamp’ and balance the budget. Instead, the swamp got deeper than ever... and the budget was never more out of balance. No agencies or departments or programs were shut down. Not a dollar of spending was cut. The Donald cut taxes (a cut the Democrats now preserve) but did nothing to diminish the power or wealth of the Imperial City.

At least Trump is what he appears to be - a genuine sleazeball. He craves attention and power... but has no idea what to do with it. No ideology. No philosophy. No plan. That’s what makes him acceptable, in a mega-political sense, to the elites of both parties. He has no ideas that will get in the way.

Yes, dear reader, both candidates are corrupt impostors. One promises more of the same. The other promises something different. But both, witlessly or willingly, will keep the jig up - more war overseas, more spending at home - transferring even more money and power to key, elite lobbies. The stock market looks healthy. GDP is positive. Unemployment is low. And the roots rot."

Jim Kunstler, "The Unites States of Go Figure"

"The Unites States of Go Figure"
by Jim Kunstler

"You realize, don’t you, that everything going on around the Ukraine fiasco on the NATO side is completely insane? The folks running the US government - Barack Obama and his witches’ coven - started the whole thing over there in concert with a gang of corporate players (BlackRock, sundry oil-and-gas companies, Haliburton types, arms-makers, bunch of big banks), plus the dastardly WEF for “guidance” (ha!), looking to grab the mineral wealth of Ukraine and, ultimately, of Russia itself. Nice try. Didn’t work out. Tons of money pounded down a rat hole.

Now, the chatter is that we (NATO) “can’t afford to lose.” Yeah? But we’re losing. Russia will hold the eastern Ukraine provinces and what’s left in the rest of Ukraine will be a failed state drained of men under sixty able to work at anything, bankrupt, broken. It will take a century, if ever, for Ukraine to recover from all that and the West will have gained nothing. Anyway, that’s the true prospect. And so, the West’s “solution” to that humiliating quandary appears to be: start a bigger war, right up to and including nukes. That’s good thinking there, Butch, said Sundance.

Why the European members of NATO wanted to go along with this nickel-plated clusterfuck is an abiding puzzle of history now, like who exactly bumped off JFK in 1963. Germany, the Euro club’s biggest economy, stood by listlessly while America blew up its supply of affordable natgas (the Nord Stream pipelines), which was an act of war by us against Germany. Apparently, Olaf Scholz went to our CIA station in Berlin for a haircut one day and came out with a lobotomy, staring blankly through the whole affair like a Hinterwälder steer on the killing floor. Meanwhile, goodbye industrial economy! Nice knowing you. Looks like it’s back to the fourteenth century, living on rough black bread, sleeping with the cattle under your house for heat in winter, fighting jihadis inside your town walls...

What is the purpose, you ask yourself, of this new world war we’re itching to start? And why now, exactly? The stupid answers may be the correct ones. To furnish an emergency pretext allowing “Joe Biden” (Barack Obama & Co.) to “postpone” the election? If so, I guess they want a hot civil war even more than WWIII, because that’s what they’ll get. Or is it just to complete the destruction of the USA, turning us into a failed state run by a tranny Mamluk-ocracy? Or is it, as Ed Dowd has averred, to cover up the imminent implosion of the US/ Euroland debt debacle?

To provide cover for all that, the West held a fake peace conference at a five-star resort in Switzerland last week - flutes of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut with langoustine mousse in puff pastry boats...to die for! (and you just might) - and you know how serious the USA was because we sent our ace problem-solver Veep Kamala Harris, who cackled and hee-hawed her way through a session or two and then...just...split the scene, mysteriously. Russia, was conspicuously not invited, by the way. Whose idea was that?

Mr. Putin marked the occasion by issuing a sane proposal to commence peace negotiations so plain, simple, and straightforward that even “Joe Biden” might have gotten the drift: 1) withdraw Ukrainian troops from Donbas territory that has joined the Russian Federation, and 2) agree that Ukraine not join NATO. The US and NATO instantly rejected it, on grounds unspecified. According to The New York Times own search engine this very morning (June 17), the newspaper hasn’t published a news story on the Ukraine War for the past five days. Go figure . . .
Click image for larger size.
While Veep Kamala Harris was yukking it up over the peace hilarity in Switzerland, “Joe Biden” went to the far more important celebrity fundraiser out in Hollywood, headlined by the likes of actors George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and late-nite snarkist Jimmy Kimmel, that is, certified experts on geopolitical conflict, united in the cause of “saving our democracy” from “the dictator Trump.”

“Joe Biden” declared that Donald Trump was bent on “retribution...he’s gonna get back at the people.” Roger that. But I think he meant that Mr. Trump might open some inquiries into how come the Democratic Party and its Intel blob ran one debilitating lawless hoax after another on our country for the past eight years while bankrupting it and destroying the medical system, the legal system, the currency, higher education, and the US military, not to mention jailing thousands on fake criminal charges and letting ten billion alien mutts into the country, many of them jihadis with dubious intentions.

But never mind all that. $30-million got raised in Hollywood to continue the game of pretend that “JB” is running for reelection. Pretend is what actors actually do, you see. They’re really good at it, and your job is to play along, suspend your disbelief. That’s the essence of showbiz. Of course, that chunk of the US population no longer mesmerized by CIA-sponsored disinfo ops is somehow rising implacably in every poll. World War Three might be the only answer for that, after all. In any case, Barack Obama himself even came out of the woodwork to lead the cheerleading among the stars in LA. And when the time came, he took the dazed, vacantly grinning “President Joe Biden” gently by the elbow and assisted him in shuffling offstage, demonstrating to the whole world how things really work in the United States of America."