Wednesday, June 26, 2024

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

"Trapping Wild Pigs"
by Jeff Thomas

"Most of us would like to assume that we’re smarter than pigs, but are we? Let’s have a look. Pigs are pretty intelligent mammals, and forest-dwelling wild pigs are known to be especially wily. However, there’s a traditional method for trapping them. First, find a small clearing in the forest and put some corn on the ground. After you leave, the pigs will find it. They’ll also return the next day to see if there’s more.

Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence.Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side. Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate.

At first, the pigs will run around, trying to escape. But if you toss in more corn, they’ll eventually calm down and go back to eating. You can then smile at the herd of pigs you’ve caught and say to yourself that this is why humans are smarter than pigs. But unfortunately, that’s not always so. In fact, the description above is the essence of trapping humans into collectivism.

Collectivism begins when a government starts offering free stuff to the population. At first, it’s something simple like free education or food stamps for the poor. But soon, political leaders talk increasingly of "entitlements" – a wonderful concept that by its very name suggests that this is something that’s owed to you, and if other politicians don’t support the idea, then they’re denying you your rights.

Once the idea of free stuff has become the norm and, more importantly, when the populace has come to depend upon it as a significant part of their "diet," more free stuff is offered. It matters little whether the new entitlements are welfare, healthcare, free college, or a guaranteed basic wage. What’s important is that the herd come to rely on the entitlements. Then, it’s time to erect the fence.

Naturally, in order to expand the volume of free stuff, greater taxation will be required. And of course, some rights will have to be sacrificed. And just like the pigs, all that’s really necessary to get humans to comply is to make the increase in fencing gradual. People focus more on the corn than the fence. Once they’re substantially dependent, it’s time to shut the gate.

What this looks like in collectivism is that new restrictions come into play that restrict freedoms. You may be told that you cannot expatriate without paying a large penalty. You may be told that your bank deposit may be confiscated in an emergency situation. You may even be told that the government has the right to deny you the freedom to congregate, or even to go to work, for whatever trumped-up reason.

And of course, that’s the point at which the pigs run around, hoping to escape the new restrictions. But more entitlements are offered, and in the end, the entitlements are accepted as being more valuable than the freedom of self-determination.

Even at this point, most people will remain compliant. But there’s a final stage: The corn ration is "temporarily" cut due to fiscal problems. Then it’s cut again… and again. The freedoms are gone for good and the entitlements are then slowly removed. This is how it’s possible to begin with a very prosperous country, such as Argentina, Venezuela or the US, and convert it into an impoverished collectivist state. It’s a gradual process and the pattern plays out the same way time and again. It succeeds because human nature remains the same. Collectivism eventually degrades into uniform poverty for 95% of the population, with a small elite who live like kings.

After World War II, the Western world was flying high. There was tremendous prosperity and opportunity for everyone. The system was not totally free market, but enough so that anyone who wished to work hard and take responsibility for himself had the opportunity to prosper. But very early – in the 1960s – The Great Society became the byword for government-provided largesse for all those who were in need – free stuff for those who were disadvantaged in one way or another.

Most Americans, who were then flush with prosperity, were only too happy to share with those who were less fortunate. Unfortunately, they got suckered into the idea that, rather than give voluntarily on an individual basis, they’d entrust their government to become the distributor of largesse, and to pay for it through taxation. Big mistake. From that point on, all that was necessary was to keep redefining who was disadvantaged and to then provide more free stuff.

Few people were aware that the first sections of fence were being erected. But today, it may be easier to understand that the fence has been completed and the gate is closing. It may still be possible to make a hasty exit, but we shall find very few people dashing for the gate. After all, to expatriate to another country would mean leaving all that free stuff – all that security.

At this point, the idea of foraging in the forest looks doubtful. Those who have forgotten how to rely on themselves will understandably fear making an exit. They’ll not only have to change their dependency habits; they’ll have to think for themselves in future. But make no mistake about it – what we’re witnessing today in what was formerly the Free World is a transition into collectivism. It will be a combination of corporatism and socialism, with the remnants of capitalism. The overall will be collectivism.

The gate is closing, and as stated above, some members of the herd will cause a fuss as they watch the gate closing. There will be some confusion and civil unrest, but in the end, the great majority will settle down once again to their corn. Only a few will have both the insight and temerity necessary to make a dash for the gate as it’s now closing.

This was true in Argentina when the government was still generous with the largesse, and it was true in Venezuela when the entitlements were at their peak. It is now true of the US as the final transition into collectivism begins. Rather than make the dash for the gate, the great majority will instead look down at their feed and say, "This is still the best country in the world," and continue eating the corn."

"And I Ask..."

 

"Few Really Ask..."

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world – few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”
- Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”

11 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is In Far Worse Shape Than Most People Think by Michael Snyder

"11 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is In 
Far Worse Shape Than Most People Think"
by Michael Snyder

"Unless you are living under a bridge or you are eagerly drinking the kool-aid that the mainstream media is dishing out, you probably understand that the economy has been struggling. Survey after survey has found that the American people are deeply dissatisfied with how the economy has been performing, and as a result it has become the number one issue this election season. But even though a large portion of the population is not happy about how things have been going, the truth is that the situation is far more dire than most people realize. Just this week we have received quite a bit of very troubling news, and the outlook for the months ahead is very bleak. The following are 11 signs that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than most people think…

#1 Just like in 2008, delinquencies are on the rise. In fact, credit card delinquencies have now reached the highest level that we have seen in more than 10 years…"Meanwhile, more consumers aren’t making loan payments on time. Credit card delinquencies have hit their highest level in over a decade, and auto delinquencies are also spiking. This could prove to be yet another tripwire for the stock market, as consumer spending accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity."

#2 The commercial real estate crisis just continues to escalate. An article that originally appeared in the New York Times claims that major Wall Street banks have “begun offloading their portfolios of commercial real estate loans hoping to cut their losses”…"Some Wall Street banks, worried that landlords of vacant and struggling office buildings won’t be able to pay off their mortgages, have begun offloading their portfolios of commercial real estate loans hoping to cut their losses. It’s an early but telling sign of the broader distress brewing in the commercial real estate market, which is hurting from the twin punches of high interest rates, which make it harder to refinance loans, and low occupancy rates for office buildings — an outcome of the pandemic."

#3 When banks get into trouble, they start shutting down branches. So far this year, U.S. banks have closed more than 400 branches all over the country…"US banks closed 51 branches across the country in the first three weeks of June. The figures suggest banks are committed to increasingly offering their services online and axing costly bricks-and-mortar locations. More than 400 bank branches have closed so far in 2024."

#4 Big companies are laying off workers from coast to coast. For example, approximately 500 Texas truckers just lost their jobs when a large logistics company abruptly shut their doors for good…"A truck and logistics company has abruptly shut – affecting 2,000 workers – just three years after being bought by private equity. Out of the blue, staff at US Logistics Solutions were given news on Thursday that they were out of a job and would also not get their paychecks on Friday. Around 500 were truck drivers, and the rest a mixture of warehouse, dock and office workers at the Humble, Texas- based company."

#5 The Dallas Fed Services Index has now been in negative territory for 25 months in a row…"This is the 25th straight month of contraction (sub-zero) for the Dallas Fed Services index and judging by the respondents’ comments, there is a clear place to point the finger of blame"

#6 The “restaurant apocalypse” just continues to intensify. This week, we learned that Hooters has suddenly decided to permanently shut down close to 40 “underperforming” locations…"The Atlanta-based sports bar chain, Hooters, abruptly shuttered dozens of “underperforming” restaurants across the U.S., as it joins a growing list of eateries facing the harsh realities of inflation and changing consumer habits, according to reports. Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) reported that word began to spread on Sunday evening that Hooters locations in places like Bryan, Texas; Lakeland, Florida; and Louisville, Kentucky were closing abruptly, with nearly 40 restaurants in the U.S. shutting their doors."

#7 Retail chains continue to go belly up at a staggering rate. Today, it was being reported that two large retailers in the Northeast have made a decision to file for bankruptcy…"Two sister chains that sell sporting goods have filed for bankruptcy as retailers continue to struggle. Bob’s Stores, which sells athletic and casual clothing, and outdoor gear retailer Eastern Mountain Sports together have 50 stores across the northeast of America."

#8 We just learned that consumer confidence in the U.S. dropped lower this month…"US consumer confidence teetered slightly in June as Americans grew a little warier about the future, new data released Tuesday showed. The Conference Board’s latest consumer confidence index dipped to 100.4 in June from a downwardly revised level of 101.3 in May."

#9 The initial consumer confidence reading has been revised down in 7 of the last 8 months.

#10 Housing in the U.S. is now more unaffordable than it has ever been before…"The housing cost burden has hit a record, according to a new report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Home prices are now 47% higher than they were in early 2020, with the median sale price now five times the median household income, according to the study."

#11 As I discussed yesterday, the homeless population in the city of Chicago tripled from January 2023 to January 2024…"The number of Chicagoans living in city shelters or on city streets tripled between January 2023 and January 2024, according to the annual survey used by federal officials to track homelessness, city officials announced Friday."

Those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest by the harsh economic conditions that we have been experiencing. Homelessness, poverty, hunger and theft are all on the rise, and many of those that serve struggling communities say that they are being absolutely overwhelmed because they simply do not have sufficient resources to meet all of the needs.

Sadly, I am entirely convinced that this is just the beginning. I believe that conditions will eventually become much harsher as the economy continues to deteriorate during the months ahead. But Joe Biden and his minions insist that everything is just great. In fact, they would like you to believe that the economy is “booming” right now. You can believe that if you want, but the cold, hard numbers that we keep getting directly contradict the endless stream of propaganda that we are constantly being fed."

"How It Really Is"

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." 
- Mark Twain

“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio

Bill Bonner, "Dry Land"

"Dry Land"
In the US, the Swamp has spread from under 10% 
of the US economy in 1930 to close to 50% today.
 As the Swamp expands, less and less dry land is left for private life.
by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "We are watching events in Argentina. Like a political prisoner in a dark cell, we listen to the explosions and hope the revolution goes our way. An old friend, Rob Marstrand, lives in Buenos Aires. He’s been paying attention too... and betting heavily on Javier Milei’s success at rocking the boat.

He reports that the legislature (or, the ‘rats’ nest’ as Milei calls it) was given a huge reform package, designed to reduce the reach of the Argentine feds. After weeks of trimming... massaging... and horse trading, the measure reached the Senate. And there, it was debated from 10 a.m. until early in the morning the next day.

While this was going on, mobs formed in the streets and set cars on fire... including one with a reporter in it. Rob reports: ‘It was a tawdry spectacle, but a reminder of a universal truth. Members of the militant and petulant hard left don't sit quietly when they don't get their own way. They go out and break things.’ Finally, the vote was taken. It was dead even. So, the Vice President, Victoria Villarruel, who presides over the Senate, cast the deciding vote... and the measure passed.

Was it all that Milei wanted? Was it ‘mission accomplished?’ No, of course not. But it was a giant step forward. Rob reports: "It's a good start. And if economic growth starts to rebound in the coming months, and ordinary people start to feel the benefits fairly soon, and hopes of a better future become embedded, then the country has a real chance of creating a virtuous circle of economic success.

I remain mildly optimistic, which is a big change from the deep pessimism I felt last year, as the country barrelled towards hyperinflation. But I recognize that there's still plenty that could go wrong. The crucial thing is that Milei's reforms start to bear economic fruit before the struggling populace loses patience. But even getting inflation down to normal levels will be a big win, to allow average wages to catch up with prices, and no longer fall behind every month."

Fruit? Here comes a juicy peach. Bloomberg: "Argentina monthly inflation slows to lowest level since 2022." "Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent last month, less than economists estimates for five percent and the lowest level since January 2022. Monthly inflation in Argentina slowed to its lowest level in May since early 2022, capping the fifth straight cooler print under President Javier Milei as market doubts linger that the trend can be sustained."

While far from a definitive victory, a slower pace of price increases marks another positive development for Milei... after the majority of his economic reforms passed through the Senate... in a pivotal vote.

All over the world, dreamers and schemers turn their lonely eyes to the pampas. Nation states have become larger, more ambitious, more controlling, and more and more powerful. Taxes, debt, inflation, regulations, rules — the thicket of restrictions and permissions gets denser and denser. In the US, the Swamp has spread from under 10% of the US economy in 1930 to close to 50% today. As the Swamp expands, less and less dry land is left for private life. Argentina is the only country on earth making a serious drainage effort.

Deng Xiaoping approved the ‘capitalist road’ in 1979... and then, Mikhail Gorbachev liberated Eastern Europe in 1991. Milei aims to lead the first and only peaceful, intentional liberation since the fall of the Berlin Wall. If he succeeds, it not only points the way to more successful turnarounds - maybe even in the US - but also to enormous potential profits. Big money was made in both Chinese stocks... and in Eastern European stocks.

After 1999, the Warsaw stock market rose eight times. The Shanghai index, meanwhile, rose from only 128 in 1991 to almost 6,000 in 2007... now back down to 3,000. And Argentina’s Merval Index is already up a stunning 47% year-to-date. Stay tuned."

Adventures With Danno, "Strange Prices At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 6/26/24
"Strange Prices At Sam's Club! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Sam's Club and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices as it continues to get rough out here for many struggling families trying to put food on the table!"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Warning: Why Buying a House Will Never Be the Same"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 6/26/24
"Warning: Why Buying a House Will Never Be the Same"
"We're diving into something HUGE that will change the real estate game forever. On July 1st, a new housing law will hit California, and trust me, house flippers don't want you to know about this! Senate Bill 968 (AB 968) will require all house flippers to disclose every single bit of work done on a property in the last 18 months, including building permits and contractor information. This is going to shake things up BIG TIME, especially for those cutting corners to make a quick buck. You won't believe the chaos this will cause – lawsuits, halted escrows, and more! My friends in the flipping business are already freaking out. If you're thinking about buying a house or are just curious about the real estate market, you need to watch this video."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 6/26/24"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/26/24
"Rapidly Worsening Liquidity Crisis, 
Full-On Banking Crisis; FED Pumping The System"
Comments here:
o
Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/26/24
"Nations/Governments Stock Piling Food?
 What Do They NOT Want You To Know"
Comments here:

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! 'Leave While You Can' Canada Warns; Nuclear Dirty Bomb; Russia's Emergency Call

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/25/24
"Alert! 'Leave While You Can' Canada Warns;
 Nuclear Dirty Bomb; Russia's Emergency Call With USA"
Comments here:

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Jeremiah Babe, "Warning! Big Bank Losses Are Coming; California Is Going Out Of Business; Hooters In Trouble"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/25/24
"Warning! Big Bank Losses Are Coming; 
California Is Going Out Of Business; Hooters In Trouble"
Comments here:

Gerald Celente, "Presidential Reality Show! The Great Debate: Daffy Duck VS Goofy, That's All Folks!"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 6/25/24
"Presidential Reality Show! The Great Debate:
 Daffy Duck VS Goofy, That's All Folks!"
The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing 
global current events forming future trends.
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "I Was Wrong...It's About To Get Ugly! Food Prices Skyrocketing!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 6/25/24
"I Was Wrong...It's About To Get Ugly! 
Food Prices Skyrocketing!"
"Food prices are starting to skyrocket again, making it even more 
difficult for people already struggling due to inflation, and many other factors!"
Comments here:

"10 Big Restaurant Chains Closing Multiple Locations Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 6/25/24
"10 Big Restaurant Chains 
Closing Multiple Locations Right Now"

"In recent years, the restaurant industry has been navigating through a storm of challenges, each wave more tumultuous than the last. Picture this: vibrant dining rooms once filled with laughter and the clinking of glasses now stand eerily quiet, shadows of their former selves. The pandemic was a wrecking ball, swinging with relentless force, shuttering doors and dimming neon signs across the globe. As the world ground to a halt, so did the lifeblood of countless eateries, leaving restaurateurs grappling with empty tables and silent kitchens.

Yet, COVID-19 was just the beginning. Supply chain disruptions turned sourcing ingredients into a high-stakes scavenger hunt. Prices soared, and the simple act of buying meat, vegetables, and even basic cooking oil became a daily battle against inflated costs and scarce availability. Add to this the labor shortage, an exodus of workers leaving behind a gaping void in an industry built on human touch and service. Restaurants have found themselves in a tug-of-war for talent, offering unprecedented wages and benefits just to keep their doors open.

The result? A seismic shift in the landscape of dining. Beloved chains, once cornerstones of comfort and convenience, are now facing the unthinkable: the need to close stores to stay afloat. It's a dramatic reshuffling, an industry on the brink, fighting to adapt, survive, and maybe, just maybe, thrive once more. As we dive into the stories of these ten restaurant chains, it’s clear that the battle for survival is far from over, and the casualties are mounting. Without further ado, let's check out this list!"
Comments here:

"You Can't Taper a Ponzi Scheme"

"You Can't Taper a Ponzi Scheme"
by Nick Giambruno

"You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme." Financial commentator and Bitcoin pioneer Max Keiser originally said these simple yet profound words. A Ponzi scheme is an unsustainable scam that relies on a continuous influx of new money to keep it going. The scheme collapses if the flow of new money slows down or tapers.

Many believe the Federal Reserve is running what amounts to a giant Ponzi scheme. That’s because the US government’s obscene spending and skyrocketing debt have reached an inflection point where the whole system will collapse unless the Fed pumps an ever-increasing amount of new fake money into the system. Government spending is the leading cause of the problem. However, the government cannot even slow the growth rate of spending, let alone cut it. Here’s why.

The biggest expenditures for the US government are so-called entitlements. It’s unlikely any politician will cut these. On the contrary, I expect them to continue growing as the last Baby Boomers enter retirement in 2031. With the most precarious geopolitical situation since World War 2, so-called defense spending seems unlikely to be cut. Instead, it is all but certain to increase. Income Security is a catch-all category for different types of welfare. That’s unlikely to be cut too.

Efforts to reduce expenditures will be meaningless unless it becomes politically acceptable to cut entitlements, national defense, and welfare. Further, interest expense is exploding higher. The federal interest expense recently exceeded $1 trillion for the first time and is shooting higher. That means the interest expense is already bigger than defense spending and everything else in the budget except for Social Security, which it will also likely exceed soon.
Click image for larger size.
The cost of debt service (interest expense) is taking up a larger portion of the budget, leaving less for other expenditures. That means the government has to borrow increasingly larger amounts to maintain basic functions. The situation is compounded by the fact that the more the US government borrows, the larger the interest expense on the federal debt, which causes it to borrow even more. Borrowing money to pay debt service is the inflection point in the debt spiral, and the US is at that point.

Here's the bottom line with the budget. Expenditures have nowhere to go but up. But don’t count on increased revenue to offset these increases in expenditures. Even if tax rates went to 100%, it would not be enough to stop the deficits—and the debt needed to finance them—from growing.

The truth is, no matter what happens, the debt will not stop growing. It’s not even going to slow down. The debt is increasing exponentially. The only way the US government can continue to finance itself is for the Fed to create ever-increasing amounts of fake money. If the Fed doesn’t provide more monetary accommodation to lower interest rates, the growing interest expense will bankrupt the US government… and bring down the entire debt-based economy with it. In short, the Fed must print ever-increasing quantities of fake money, or the system will collapse.

Ludwig von Mises, the godfather of free-market Austrian economics, summed up the Fed’s dilemma: "There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

The US government will not voluntarily "abandon credit expansion," as Mises puts it because Washington is dependent on issuing increasing amounts of debt to pay for the ever-growing costs of Social Security, national defense, welfare, and interest on the federal debt. As Max Keiser succinctly said, "You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme."

That means their only choice is to debase the US dollar by ever-increasing amounts until, as Mises puts it, the "final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." That’s why I am convinced extreme currency debasement is the inevitable outcome of the debt spiral. All the rest is noise.

Michael Saylor captured the essence of the situation when he said, "The road to serfdom consists of working exponentially harder to earn a currency that is growing exponentially weaker."

I believe rampant currency debasement will be the most important investment trend of this decade, and it will devastate most people. The worst of it could go down soon… and it won’t be pretty. It will result in an enormous wealth transfer from savers and regular people to the parasitic class—politicians, central bankers, and those connected to them. Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—because they failed to see the correct Big Picture as their governments went bankrupt. Don’t be one of them."

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"

Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this deep telescopic field of view. The cosmic scene spans about three Full Moons, captured in dark skies near Jalisco, Mexico, planet Earth. About 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest large galaxy cluster to our own local galaxy group. Prominent here are Virgo's bright elliptical galaxies from the Messier catalog, M87 at the top left, and M84 and M86 seen (bottom to top) below and right of center.
M84 and M86 are recognized as part of Markarian's Chain, a visually striking line-up of galaxies vertically on the right side of this frame. Near the middle of the chain lies an intriguing interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known to some as Markarian's Eyes. Of course giant elliptical galaxy M87 dominates the Virgo cluster. It's the home of a super massive black hole, the first black hole ever imaged by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope."

"'Life Doesn’t Owe Anyone a Damn Thing'; or 'Handle Hard Better'"

"'Life Doesn’t Owe Anyone a Damn Thing'; 
or 'Handle Hard Better'"
by Justin Smith

“We all wait in life for things to get easier. It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better. That’s what happens. Most people think that it’s going to get easier. Life is going to get easier. Basketball is going to get easier. School is going to get easier. It never gets easier. What happens is you become someone who handles hard stuff better. And if you think life when you leave college is going to all of a sudden get easier because you graduated, and you got a Duke degree, it’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder. So make yourself a person that handles hard well.” ~ Kara Lawson, Head Coach for Duke University Women’s Basketball Team and Graduate of the University of Tennessee [July 5th 2022]

An incredible number of Americans today have been coddled, pampered and fed a sense of entitlement from birth that continued into their early adulthood, making them always look to others or the government for help in acquiring their needs and wants. They have been raised without a backbone, weak-willed and dependent; and so, whenever they find themselves to be in a minority, they more often than not petition the federal and state governments, protest and riot, in order that their particular concerns are proactively pursued and implemented as favored, privileged and superior, no matter how insane, from destroying humanity by way of transgenderism or energy and job-killing fallacious “climate change” policies.

From my earliest memories, I saw hard men, laughing, loving, fighting hard and playing just as hard, as they’d rise each day to head out to work, in the mines, the forests, office buildings and on the nation’s lines of defense, and in particular I recall learning something of worth from each of them, much as I did from my Granddad Spurge, who was a coal miner and a stone mason. They were a hardy bunch of industrious scrappers, who pulled up their sleeves and worked hard to make a better life for themselves and their children, to build better communities, a better America.

But what passes for young “men” today is but a mere shadow of men of worth from better days gone by, what with their feminine appearances and their aversion to doing anything to break a sweat. And aside from weak bodies, too much coddling has made their minds work in a new, cunning devious manner, in which they waste enormous amounts of effort sidestepping real work and figuring out how to get something for nothing rather than perform an honest day’s work to pay for bills they make, without any intention of ever repaying, such as student loans.

Half of America seems content to allow Uncle Sam to make life better for them and their children via the welfare system and the government cheese, even tho’ it means a life of subsistence, just scraping by. Although today, many have developed gaming the system into a real art, whereby they live just about as good as anyone working a full-time job, complete with HUD homes, EBT cards, late model cars, color T.V.s and government purchased cellphones.

Life doesn’t owe any of us a thing, regardless of the circumstances and station of our birth. The miracle of your birth alone doesn’t mean you are automatically owed a job, a house, a bed or a single meal after you are a grown adult and supposedly capable of doing for yourself. You’re not owed recognition and understanding for simply existing, and neither are you owed success and comfort, abundance and happiness or immunity from the problems, pain and suffering that is simply a part of the human condition, and you certainly aren’t due any money you haven’t earned through your own sweat and effort, not from me, the American taxpayers or the U.S. government.

The only thing anyone should expect from The Government, if we are to accept the Contract found in our Constitution, are those things enumerated in its original form, and in that sense, we are owed a strong, affirmative and fierce defense of our Inalienable God-given Rights, as expressed and defined in the Bill of Rights, to be left alone to our own devices to live and thrive as free born Americans, without interference from The Government and its agents where no real harm is being done.

People aren’t created equal in the very real definition of the word and life has never been fair to anyone, and yet, the constant refrain heard all across all levels of American society today, from the ranks of the Mau Mau Marxist-Maoist totalitarians, those lovers of “democracy”, is “the world is so unfair”. They were evidently raised to believe “all men are created equal” in the context of the Declaration of Independence meant they are somehow guaranteed equal outcomes in everyday life, instead of the simple “equality under the law” as intended. And their voices are now amplified by an out-of-control regime that seeks to use their envy to complete the fundamental transformation of America, by any means necessary, no matter how unconstitutional or illegal they might be and are currently proving to be.

Standing on one’s own two feet and making your way through the merit of your own knowledge and work are now a thing of the past, as the poorest results in school and on the job are given the same weight and worth as the best and everybody gets a participation trophy. And in its place, envy, greed, sloth, gluttony, lies, sex and murder, the destroyer of worlds, are the rule, for a generation indoctrinated through Marxist-Maoist multiculturalist doctrine and propaganda, taught from kindergarten through university, who are now driven by an unhinged hate and anger directed at white society and capitalism.

This, in part, is the reason we see whole cities, controlled by the Marxist-Maoists and the totalitarian minded, enacting new “laws” that make the theft of anything $900 or less a misdemeanor, giving way to thousands of groups of poorly taught, undisciplined, predominantly black “youths” rampaging, rioting and looting numerous times a day, taking $900 dollars worth of merchandise nine times a day, if not more, taught racism and hatred and driven by envy and greed. It’s the reason cities across America are folding up, shriveling like a crop attacked by locusts and dying on the vine where once they thrived, back when our people, indeed our youth, had more pure hearts and moral directions and had not strayed far and away from America’s Christian roots.

Over the past thirty years, the nutcases of the Democrat Party have advocated a pathologically negative agenda for America that is based on destroying the Founding and revising history to portray early America as evil and worth casting on the ash-heap of history. Accelerating their plans through the public education system, an entire generation of America’s youth have been brainwashed to believe our planet is dying due to manmade CO2 and “climate change”, in defiance of actual science, and as if that isn’t enough, we are all constantly inundated with one alarm after another raised over racism — even as reverse racism against whites is now advocated, capitalism — which hasn’t really existed in America for over 100 years, homophobia / gender bigotry, capitalist oppression — even tho’ our system is economic fascism, and the fallacious assertion that White Supremacist Nazis are ascending in every community in America.

The real problem found within the ranks of the Takers? They just can’t face the fact that life isn’t easy for anyone, especially the Makers; and it never has been, although exceptions can be found in those born into wealth. But even the wealthy are weighted with life’s problems, if of a different variety, much as the old adage says that “money can’t buy you love or happiness”, even if it does buy you a line of coke and hookers, in a sad sort of dystopian world of a different immoral construct.

The routines many of us indulge in daily have made the largest percentage of Americans, a fairly large majority, complacent and apathetic, caring next to nothing on matters of government and whether or not they are actually living free.

Americans rise each morning, check their emails and cellphones, shower, shave and maybe brush their teeth, to rush off to their same, everyday, boring regular job that may or may not quite pay the bills, grabbing their $7 dollar cup of Starbucks special latte of the day, to do a job they find meaningless. At day’s end, they may grab some overpriced fast-food on the way home, to relax and maybe drink a cheap beer or glass of whiskey, while they watch The Voice — or is it porn [?] — call some friends to complain over how bad things are, and then simply watch some news, ’til they call it a night, sleeping fitfully and rising the next morning to do it all over again, and everyday afterward, year after year, until one day someone hands them their walking papers or a copper watch upon their “retirement”.

Too many live under the delusion that they should be able to drive brand new $60k cars, own $400k homes complete with the most exquisite adornments and furniture on their $15 per hour paycheck at McDonald’s, having never put forth the effort to gain useful knowledge demanded by skilled and professional career positions, in order to make themselves more valuable to society on the whole, and thus able to demand a salary that would allow them to buy all the trappings of such success. Instead, they cast an envious eye in the direction of the Makers and scheme on how to take what they want, by any scheme, any illegal act, any means necessary. They believe their mere existence entitles them to other people’s property, just because deep down in their black little souls, they really, really want it — just not enough to go after it the right way.

Our youth have lost all sense of shame and seem fine with getting anything they want, right when they want it, no matter how they come to acquire it. They never learned that something worth having is worth the work it takes to purchase, as if stuff is just supposed to fall from the heavens and land in their lap.

Things of real worth don’t come easy.

Sure. Not everyone has the intelligence and capability to become a surgeon, but if that’s your dream, you will never know if you could have been one, until you try — same for anything else that any of you are dreaming of being, no matter if you dream of being a content farmer or a successful writer. Whatever you want in life, put forth the effort to achieve competency in that field and then go do it.

If you want something of worth in life, stop depending on others. Venture out on your own in some business or capacity you love, rather than settling to work for someone else your entire life. And for your own sake, quit wallowing in self-pity over bad circumstances created by your own bad choices.

As Ms Lawson notes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDzfZOfNki4) at one point: "Any pursuit in life, if you want to be successful, it goes to the people that handle hard well. Those are the people that get the stuff they want. People that wait around for easy, you probably see them at the bus stop. They’re waiting on the easy bus to come around. Easy bus never comes around. Go handle hard.”

Too many parents, too many schools, too many churches have failed America by failing to teach them that hard times won’t break you if only you have the right state of mind on life — that there is a loving God — and no one will ever find a fulfilling or positive way of life by looking to The Government for answers and solutions. Our society stopped teaching the youth how to be strong and independent somewhere along the way, as the tyrant-wannabes persisted in teaching “everyone is a victim”; but the fact remains today, anyone can be a proud survivor of hard times, if only they persevere and never give-up and never give-in to defeat, choosing to ultimately succeed and live good, prosperous and happy lives."

Chet Raymo, “The Silence”

“The Silence”
by Chet Raymo

“The hiding places of my power
Seem open; I approach, and then they close;
I see by glimpses now; when age comes on,
May scarcely see at all, and I would give,
While yet we may, as far as words can give,
A substance and a life to what I feel…”

“These few lines from Wordsworth’s “The Prelude” leapt off the page at me. They capture well enough what my life has become. All those years of teaching, of writing in the Boston Globe, were years of sharing public knowledge, knowledge that had been vetted by the scientific community. The work was not about me. The teacher was me, the writer was me, but what I taught and wrote was reliable, consensus knowledge of the world. A student in my classes or a reader of my newspaper columns would have been hard pressed to know my politics or my religion or the nature of the questions that came in the darkest hours of the night. And that is the way it should have been; that was my homage to objectivity.

Those were valuable years, years of building up a sturdy polder in the sea of mystery, a place to stand with a firmness of foot. And now, in retirement, with time on my hands - and on my mind - I find myself more inclined to explore what Wordsworth called “the hiding places of my power.” I approach. They close. I touch with my hand the surface of the pond that Pat wrote about the other day; my hand comes out of the depths to meet me. I see by glimpses. It is, I suppose, a kind of forgetting. With the forgetting comes a certain freshness. My fingertip touches the surface of the world from above and from below, and concentric circles spread outwards, rippling, like a soundless sound, and I struggle, in words, as best I can, to give a substance and a life to what I feel.

This does not mean, I trust, that I am going soft, finding supernaturalist religion or getting all New Age squishy as “age comes on.” I keep my feet planted on solid fact and read my weekly “Science” and “Nature” along with my Wordsworth. No, it is rather a simple freedom to explore the hiding places, attending to private particulars as opposed to public universals, listening for the small voice that whispers from the nooks and crannies of yet unassimilated reality.

There is a passage in “The Prelude” where a young Boy (the poet?), standing in evening air by the glimmering lake, makes a mimic hooting with his hands to his mouth and the owls answer. Twooo-twooo. And the reply. Twooo-twooo. Then, unaccountably, the answers cease. And in the silence the boy becomes more keenly aware than ever of water, rocks, and woods, and mountain torrents, “that uncertain heaven, received into the bosom of the steady lake.” Thoreau has something similar. He rejoiced in owls; their hoot, he said, was a sound well suited to swamps and twilight woods. The interval between the hoots was a deepened silence, suggesting, to Thoreau, “a vast and undeveloped nature which men have not recognized.” It is that that I now attend: the deepened silence between the hoots.”

"The Trouble With Most People..."

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

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

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

"Learning from Ants"

"Learning from Ants"
by Jeff Thomas

"If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti-Mask. Vax vs. Anti-vax. Rich vs. poor. Man vs. woman. Cop vs. citizen. [Etc.] The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar… and why?"

The above observation by Shera Starr cannot be improved upon. And yet, the answer to the question is fairly simple. But let’s first take a look at this anomaly. It’s natural to identify with some individuals more than others. That tendency occurred before Homo sapiens came into being. In addition, the tendency for animals to group into families or packs also predates humans.

We tend to want to be around those who behave the way we do and have the same perceptions as we do. That only makes sense. We wish to surround ourselves with those who are unlikely to surprise and possibly even endanger us by behaving in a fashion that we would not ourselves choose. This is the basis of trust – an essential in group or herd mentality. And being a part of a group or herd brings to us increased safety.

So, what then, of those who are not within our group or herd? How do we relate to them? Well, any nature program that covers animals gathered around a water hole can provide that answer. We see a small group of wild pigs drinking alongside a group of wildebeests. Neither species is predatory, so they learn to recognize that, even though one group is made up of savannah-living grazers and the other are forest-living foragers, they can easily co-exist, which will increase the ability of both species to use the water hole at the same time.

We might also see a group of hyenas using the water hole, but we notice that the prey animals all seek to keep a distance between themselves and the predatory hyenas. Everyone understands that they are all at the water hole for the same reason and it makes sense to share, even if, in another situation, they are natural enemies. In fact, in most of nature, we see that species adapt to a condition of mutual tolerance in order to be able to coexist.

No surprise, then, that Homo sapiens got on the mutual tolerance bandwagon in its formative stages and, for the most part, has remained that way. But it is also true that predators develop dual habits. They may exercise tolerance at the water hole, but at some point, they mean to make a meal of their water hole neighbors. And when doing so, many species create associations with others of their kind to hunt.

This, too, is true of humans. Most of humanity seeks to live in a spirit of cooperation with others. In the countryside, people erect walls and fences to establish boundaries, then find it expedient to respect such divisions in order to live in peace. Even in cities, people who live cheek by jowl in the same building respect each other’s privacy for the most part. Even if they do not become friends, they either remain polite or ignore each other.

Although there are always exceptions, for the most part, mankind behaves in a manner that is based upon "getting along." He might argue with others, but for the most part, he understands that cooperation generally should be the objective, as it’s in his best interests. But why, then, are we seeing in so many of the countries of the First World, a rapidly increasing polarity amongst people. Ms. Starr is exactly correct. Those who would be most inclined toward mutual tolerance have, in recent years, become so polarized that they cannot so much as get together with their own families for the holidays without getting into heated arguments.

Why are people of today so solidly in one of two camps? Can this be blamed on the rise of the internet? Well, no, the internet has become the source of a plethora of opinions and perceptions. And more than closing people off to polarized "A" and "B" choices, the internet has served to broaden public discourse.

Of course, most people express distrust for the media, particularly those networks that purportedly deal in "news." What passes for news today is far from objective information that the viewer can then assess at his leisure. On one network, we view unceasing diatribes against one political party. Then we turn the channel and view unceasing diatribes against the opposing party. In turning on the News, we arrive at Indoctrination Central. But if we really pay attention objectively, we discover that the same programs are dictating to us that it is either our humanitarian duty to vax, or that vaxxing will enslave us to globalists who will inject us with microchips. They are also our source for the opposing beliefs that warfare is essential to protect us against those who seek to destroy us, or that it will be the wars themselves that will destroy us.

In fact, all of Ms. Starr’s concerns find their source in the media. When we ask the question, "Who is shaking the jar… and why?" we find that those who control the media are at the source of the polarization of people, especially in the First World. As to the "Why?" the answer is so simple that it’s often overlooked. Like the ants, the more a people can be made to fight each other, the easier it is to subjugate them. And since the effort to polarize people has become so massive, we can only conclude that the ultimate objective will be to implement a far greater level of subjugation, in an abnormally short period of time.

Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. white. Man vs. woman. Divide and conquer. In such a socio-political climate, the challenge will be to keep your wits about you. As the jar is shaken on a daily basis, it will be vital to recognize that those who control the media are creating a war between the pigs and the wildebeests. This is something that is not desired by either species, but as Hermann Goering stated, "Why, of course the people don’t want war." They must be goaded into it if those who are pulling the stings are to achieve greater subjugation.

In the coming years, this trend can be expected to become far worse than at present. The challenge will be to escape the jar if you can. Find a location where the state of warfare is less pronounced, or if this is not possible, seek a location within the jar that’s away from the fray. Those who fall for the bait – who buy into rabidly supporting one political party or another, or who allow themselves to be angered at an entire race, or who are conned into hatred of an entire gender – will prove to be the greatest casualties of subjugation."

Gregory Mannarino, "The U.S. e-CON-omic Con Job Is Worsening Faster!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/25/24
"The U.S. e-CON-omic Con Job Is Worsening Faster!"
Comments here:

"The Worst Of Them All..."

"Science may have found a cure for most evils,
but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -
the apathy of human beings."
- Author Unknown
"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.  When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination - indeed, everything and anything except me."
- Ralph Ellison, "Prologue to Invisible Man"
Full screen recommended.
Phil Collins, "Another Day In Paradise"

The Daily "Near You?"

Concord, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"There's So Much More To Life..."

And there's so much more inner satisfaction than
enduring the relentlessly ongoing horror show of the world.
See the 3 posts below, explore other aspects of life.
Discover yourself...

"The Web Gallery of Art"

"The Web Gallery of Art"

"The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.

The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors' need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.

The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.

We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home."
For those so inclined, this is a treasure trove of material. Enjoy!