"Economic Market Snapshot 7/8/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/8/24"

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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

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Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

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Jeremiah Babe, "Warning! Something Evil This Way Comes - Global War!"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/7/24

"Warning! Something Evil This Way Comes - Global War!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Free Download: Nevil Shute, "On The Beach"; Complete Movie

"On the Beach"

by Wikipedia

"'On the Beach' is a post-apocalyptic novel published in 1957, written by British author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war the previous year. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently.

The phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that means "retired from the Service." The title also refers to T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men", which includes the lines:

"In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And avoid speech

Gathered on this beach of the tumid river."

Printings of the novel, including the first 1957 edition by William Morrow and Company, New York, contain extracts from Eliot's poem on the title page, under Shute's name, including the above quotation and the concluding lines:

"This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper."

Freely download, "On The Beach", by Nevil Shute, here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

"On The Beach" complete movie.

"Although there'd been "doomsday dramas" before it, Stanley Kramer's "On the Beach" was considered the first "important" entry in this genre when originally released in 1959. Based on the novel by Nevil Shute, the film is set in the future (1964) when virtually all life on earth has been exterminated by the radioactive residue of a nuclear holocaust. Only Australia has been spared, but it's only a matter of time before everyone Down Under also succumbs to radiation poisoning.

 With only a short time left on earth, the Australian population reacts in different ways: some go on a nonstop binge of revelry, while others eagerly consume the suicide pills being issued by the government. When the possibility arises that rains have washed the atmosphere clean in the Northern hemisphere, a submarine commander (Gregory Peck) and his men head to San Diego, where faint radio signals have been emanating. The movie's all-star cast includes: Peck as the stalwart sub captain, Ava Gardner as his emotionally disturbed lover, Fred Astaire as a guilt-wracked nuclear scientist, and Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson as the "just starting out in life" married couple."

o

"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly." 

- Jim Quinn

Musical Interlude: Yanni, Live At The Acropolis, “Standing in Motion”

Full screen recommended.

Yanni, "Live At The Acropolis: 

Standing in Motion” 

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the below panoramic image are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left.

Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common site, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Not lucky at all- the image was timed to capture the rocket. What was lucky was how photogenic - and perhaps surreal - the rest of the sky turned out to be.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

"The Long Dark"

"The Long Dark"

by Chris Floyd

"We are in the Long Dark now. Both hope and despair are the enemies of our survival. We must live in the awareness that we might not see the light come back, without ceasing to work - with empathy, anger and knowledge - for its return.

We must be here, in the moment, experiencing its fullness (whatever its horrors or joys), yet be elsewhere, removed from the madness pouring in from every side, the avalanche of degradation. We must be here, now, but also in a future we can’t see or even imagine.

We must see that we are lost, with no clear way forward, no sureties or verities to cling to, no roots to anchor us, no structures within or without that will always keep their coalescence in the chaotic, surging flow.

We must live in discrete moments of illumination and connection, pearls hung on an almost invisible string winding through the darkness. Striving, always striving, but not expecting; striving without hope, without despair, without any certainty at all as to the outcome, good or bad.

These are the conditions of the Long Dark, this is what we have to work with, this is where we find ourselves in the brief time we have in this vast, indifferent, astounding universe. As I once wrote long ago, quoting the old hymn: “Work, for the night is coming.”

So do we counsel fatalism, a dark, defeated surrender, a retreat into bitter, curdled quietude? Not a whit. We advocate action, positive action, unstinting action, doing the only thing that human beings can do, ever: Try this, try that, try something else again; discard those approaches that don't work, that wreak havoc, that breed death and cruelty; fight against everything that would draw us down again into our own mud; expect no quarter, no lasting comfort, no true security; offer no last word, no eternal truth, but just keep stumbling, falling, careening, backsliding, crawling toward the broken light.

And what is this "broken light"? Nothing more than a metaphor for the patches of understanding – awareness, attention, knowledge, connection – that break through our darkness and stupidity for a moment now and then. A light always fractured, under threat, shifting, found then lost again, always lost. For we are creatures steeped in imperfection, in breakage and mutation, tossed up – very briefly – from the boiling, chaotic crucible of Being, itself a ragged work in progress toward unknown ends, or rather, toward no particular end at all. Why should there be an "answer" in such a reality?

What matters is what works – what pulls us from our own darkness as far as possible, for as long as possible. Yet the truth remains that "what works" is always and forever only provisional – what works now, here, might not work there, then. What saves our soul today might make us sick tomorrow.

Thus all we can do is to keep looking, working, trying to clear a little more space for the light, to let it shine on our passions and our confusions, our anger and our hopes, informing and refining them, so that we can see each other better, for a moment – until death shutters all seeing forever."

- http://www.chris-floyd.com/home/

Free Download: Erich Fromm, “The Fear of Freedom”

“Automaton Conformity”

by Erich Fromm

“In the mechanisms we have been discussing, the individual overcomes the feeling of insignificance in comparison with the overwhelming power of the world outside himself either by renouncing his individual integrity, or by destroying others so that the world ceases to be threatening. Other mechanisms of escape are the withdrawal from the world so completely that it loses its threat (the picture we find in certain psychotic states), and the inflation of oneself psychologically to such an extent that the world outside becomes small in comparison. Although these mechanisms of escape are important for individual psychology, they are only of minor relevance culturally. I shall not, therefore, discuss them further here, but instead will turn to another mechanism of escape which is of the greatest social significance.

This particular mechanism is the solution that the majority of normal individuals find in modern society. To put it briefly, the individual ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be. The discrepancy between “I” and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness. This mechanism can be compared with the protective coloring some animals assume. They look so similar to their surroundings that they are hardly distinguishable from them. The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self.”

- Erich Fromm, “The Fear of Freedom”

Freely download “The Fear of Freedom”, by Erich Fromm, here:

- http://realsociology.edublogs.org/files/

"The Wisdom Of Erich Fromm"

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society."

- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"

“If other people do not understand our behavior - so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being "asocial" or "irrational" in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain," which usually implies that the explanation be "understood," i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself - to his reason and his conscience - and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.”

- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"

“It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas and feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health.”

- Erich Fromm

“It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health. Just as there is a "folie a deux" there is a folie a millions. The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.”

- Erich Fromm, "The Sane Society"

"If There Is A Nuclear War Between The U.S. And Russia, Most Americans Will Die By Starving To Death"

"If There Is A Nuclear War Between The U.S. And Russia,

 Most Americans Will Die By Starving To Death"

by Michael Snyder

"Can you imagine what it would be like to literally starve to death? Most Americans believe that if a nuclear war with Russia actually happens the vast majority of the U.S. population will be instantly wiped out. But that is not what the science says. What the studies have shown is that only about 20 percent of the U.S. population will be instantly killed during a nuclear exchange. If you live near a military base or some other highly strategic target you will probably be among that 20 percent. Otherwise, it is likely that you will starve to death during the horrifying “nuclear winter” that follows.

A study released has concluded that average global temperatures would immediately drop by a whopping 13 degrees following a full-blown nuclear exchange… Firestorms would release ash and smoke into the upper atmosphere that would block out the Sun, resulting in crop failure around the world, according to researchers from Louisiana State University. In the first month following these catastrophic detonations, average global temperatures would plunge by about 13 degrees Fahrenheit, more than during the most recent Ice Age.

With much less sunlight reaching the Earth, the food chains in our oceans would collapse very rapidly… "The sudden drop in light and sea temperatures, especially from the Arctic to the North Atlantic and North Pacific, would kill algae - the bedrock of the marine food web. Researchers said that fishing and aquaculture would be halted by the creation of ‘essentially a famine in the ocean.’ And as average temperatures plummeted, very little would be able to be grown for an extended period of time.

Since the U.S. and Russia are both in the northern hemisphere, the northern half of the globe would be affected much more than the southern half of the globe. One study that was conducted in 2019 determined that temperatures in Iowa would ultimately stay below 0 degrees celsius for 730 days in a row…"A massive drop in temperature follows, with the weather staying below freezing throughout the subsequent Northern Hemisphere summer. In Iowa, for example, the model shows temperatures staying below 0°C for 730 days straight. There is no growing season. This is a true nuclear winter." (0 degrees Celsius equals 32 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Nor is it just a short blip. Temperatures still drop below freezing in summer for several years thereafter, and global precipitation falls by half by years three and four. It takes over a decade for anything like climatic normality to return to the planet.

Since so little food would be grown during this period of time, we would see starvation in the northern hemisphere on a cataclysmic scale…"In the 4,400 warhead/150 Tg soot nuclear war scenario, averaged over the subsequent five years, China sees a reduction in food calories of 97.2 percent, France by 97.5 percent, Russia by 99.7 percent, the UK by 99.5 percent and the US by 98.9 percent. In all these countries, virtually everyone who survived the initial blasts would subsequently starve."

So can you see why I am so passionate about avoiding a nuclear war?

The Russians can see where the proxy war in Ukraine is heading, and they are sounding the alarm. Dmitry Medvedev warned that this conflict “potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity”…"Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the US against trying to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine, saying that doing so would risk humanity since Moscow has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. “The idea of punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials is absurd. And potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram."

Here in the United States, there are a handful of politicians that soke out rationally about this war. One of them is Marjorie Taylor Greene…“The American people do not want war with Russia, but NATO and our own foolish leaders are dragging us into one. We should pull out of NATO,” said right-wing Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in a Twitter post on Thursday while referring to the Biden administration’s massive military aid to Ukraine as a “proxy war” against Russia that Americans have no appetite for."

Ukraine is the “new Iraq wrapped up with a pretty little NATO bow, with a nuclear present inside,” she further added in a series of tweets in which she has expressed fierce criticism of Washington’s response to the Ukraine conflict by sending billions of taxpayer dollars to the country and risking a potential nuclear war.

Sadly, she is right on target. The longer this war goes on, the greater the risk that it could eventually become a nuclear conflict. The Russians have been preparing for such a conflict for a very long time, and we learned that they have conducted more successful nuclear drills…"Vladimir Putin has staged nuclear drills with his road-launched intercontinental Yars missiles in a forest in western Siberia. The 7,500-mile range of the missiles means they would be capable of striking Britain or anywhere in Europe."

Meanwhile, our most recent missile test exploded just 11 seconds after launch…"A test missile launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California exploded seconds after being fired ,according to officials. The Minotaur II space launch vehicle exploded approximately 11 seconds after launching off the test pad at 11:01 p.m. local time, Vandenberg officials confirmed."

The U.S. desperately needs to develop new systems, because right now Minuteman missiles that went into service back in the 1970s still form the backbone of our strategic nuclear arsenal…"Vandenberg Space Force Base was testing the Air Force’s new missile rocket, expected to be used with the developing LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, according to The Tribune of San Luis Obispo County, Calif. Both are set to replace the U.S. military’s aging Minuteman missiles."

At this point, the Russian strategic nuclear arsenal is far superior to our own, and our anti-ballistic missile systems are not even worth comparing to what they possess. But most Americans don’t understand any of this. I was sounding the alarm about a military conflict with Russia long before the war in Ukraine ever started. Unfortunately, most of the population was not interested in such warnings.

Now a nuclear war with Russia has become a very real possibility thanks to the war in Ukraine, but most of the population is still not alarmed. Meanwhile, tensions on both sides continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, and that is an extremely dangerous game to be playing."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

And this is what we face...

"Russia Puts Its Longest Range Nuke-Capable Missile 

On Combat Duty, Nicknamed 'Satan II'"

By Tyler Durden

"Russia announced its Sarmat ICBMs are on "combat duty". RIA has quoted the head of the country's space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, to confirm: "the Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty." The nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system was previously touted by President Putin as being capable hitting "any target on Earth" - and is widely believed to be by far the longest-range missile in Russia's arsenal (or in the world for that matter). It's been nicknamed by NATO the "Satan II".

The Sarmat, which is in a "superheavy" class of missiles, has a short initial boost phase which gives it better ability to elude all conventional anti-missile defense systems, given this results in a much smaller window of time to track it. By design, its super long-range gives it the ability to reach targets thousands of missiles away in the United States or Europe.

According to its specifications, it's by far the heaviest missile Russia possesses - at over 200 tons - and heavier than all foreign competitors: This allows it to carry around 15 warheads, up to 750kt. (The bomb US dropped on Hiroshima was 15kt.) This would be enough to wipe out a country the size of France. It can also carry hypersonic missiles, rendering most missile defense systems ineffective.

It has reportedly been in development since 2009, and has been in testing phase for several years, some test flights of which may have failed. The Sarmat has been touted as being able to reach speeds of nearly 16,000 mph. Last year, after a successful test, Putin described: "The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and won’t have for a long time to come."

"This truly unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats and provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country," Putin added at the time. Without doubt, the timing of Friday's announcement is also meant to spook Western leaders, as nuclear rhetoric related to the Ukraine war continues to rise, particularly in the context of Moscow having positioned tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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"Meanwhile, the Russians have developed a new intercontinental ballistic missile that is the most advanced in the world by a wide margin. It is called “the Sarmat”, and it is absolutely frightening…"The Sarmat is a three-stage, silo-based, liquid-fuel, heavy ICBM with a reported range of 18,000 kilometers. Dubbed “Satan II” by NATO, the missile is a Russian-built replacement of the Soviet-era SS-18 “Satan” ICBM, which is reaching the end of its life cycle. The Sarmat reportedly can carry a 10-ton payload consisting of 10-plus multiple independent reentry vehicles along with penetration aids used to evade missile defenses. Moscow says the new missile can also carry several Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles. A single Sarmat can carry enough firepower to destroy an area the size of Texas."

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RS-28 Sarmat

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-28_Sarmat

11,000 mile range, 15 warheads, 15,880 mph speed...

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Full screen recommended.

"In the chilling broadcast the presenter also showed how the Kremlin's latest world-ending Satan 2 nuclear missile could also annihilate Britain. The warning comes as the Kremlin raised the prospect of devastating military strikes on Britain. Pro-Putin TV pundits previously threatened the use of the world ending RS-28 Sarmat missile – spouting its ability to wipe England from the map. And now raising further plans for all-out war, host Dmitry Kiselyov heralded Russia’s second option to “plunge Britain into the depths of the sea" with its “underwater robotic drone Poseidon”. In a chilling graphic he warned the missile would raise a giant tsunami wave up to 1,640ft high."

The 1,640 foot high tidal wave from a single Poseidon would destroy the entire East Coast of the United States from Maine to Florida inland as far as West Virginia. There is no possible defense against this. Do we really want to do this?

The Daily "Near You?"

Robstown, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "One"

"One"

"The mosquito is so small

it takes almost nothing to ruin it.

Each leaf, the same.

And the black ant, hurrying.

So many lives, so many fortunes!

Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances

down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.

Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour

before the slug creeps to the feast,

before the pine needles hustle down

under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.

How many, how many, how many

make up a world!

And then I think of that old idea: the singular

and the eternal.

One cup, in which everything is swirled

back to the color of the sea and sky.

Imagine it!

A shining cup, surely!

In the moment in which there is no wind

over your shoulder,

you stare down into it,

and there you are,

your own darling face, your own eyes.

And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,

touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,

and you know what else!

How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,

how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,

even your eyes, even your imagination."

~ Mary Oliver

"The Fire Of Reality..."

"Friedrich Nietzsche in ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ holds that only a few people have the fortitude to look in times of distress into what he calls the molten pit of human reality. Most, studiously, ignore the pit. Artists and philosophers, for Nietzsche, are consumed however by an insatiable curiosity, a quest for truth and a desire for meaning. They venture down into the bowels of the molten pit. They get as close as they can before the flames and heat drive them back. This intellectual and moral honesty, Nietzsche wrote, comes with a cost. Those singed by the fire of reality become ‘burnt children’ he wrote, eternal orphans in empires of illusion."

- Chris Hedges

Freely download "Beyond Good And Evil", by Friedrich Nietzsche, here:

- https://www.holybooks.com/

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"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, it's not a choice but a calling. Sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter from the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monster without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss, into the laughing face of madness."

- Fox Mulder, "X-Files"

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"Life, Reality..."

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.

It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.

It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.

It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.

And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."

- The Universe

“Reality is what we take to be true.

What we take to be true is what we believe.

What we believe is based upon our perceptions.

What we perceive depends upon what we look for.

What we look for depends upon what we think.

What we think depends upon what we perceive.

What we perceive determines what we believe.

What we believe determines what we take to be true.

What we take to be true is our reality.”

- Gary Zukav

"It's Not Such An Easy Business..."

“Over the years you get to see what a struggle life is for most people, how tough it is, how easy it is to be judgmental and criticize and stand outside of situations and impart your wisdom and judgment. But over the decades I've got more tolerant of people's flaws and mistakes. Everybody makes a lot of them. When you're younger you feel: "Hey, this person is evil" or "This person is a jerk" or stupid or "What's wrong with them?" Then you go through life and you think: "Well, it's not so easy." There's a lot of mystery and suffering and complication. Everybody's out there trying to do the best they can. And it's not such an easy business.”

- Woody Allen

"Dead Romans Agree: Don’t Let The Small Stuff Bother You"

"Dead Romans Agree: 

Don’t Let The Small Stuff Bother You"

by John Wilder

"I woke up this morning just irritated. No particular reason. In all fairness, it was entirely an internal feeling, and I imagine most people never noticed. I was nice and polite to nearly everyone I interacted with. And why not? None of them were my ex-wife. I wasn’t irritated with them, I was just irritated. There were no issues. I wasn’t in pain. No one around me was in particular trouble. Thankfully I’m not an electrician – people might dislike me not being positive at work.

As I thought about it, what was irritating me? I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. There was no rational reason at all. During a conversation lat night, though, I had a reason to quote Marcus Aurelius: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

Sure, Marcus Aurelius’ kid was an utter tool, but when you become Caesar at 18, well, it might tend to go to your head – think of Commodus as Miley Cyrus, 180 A.D. Back to Marcus, though. Marcus genuinely did his best for the Roman Empire. As near as I can tell, Marcus was a pretty good leader. And that little quote above wasn’t written for you and me. It was written for Marcus, by Marcus. He was reminding himself that the external things in the world had only the power he gave them. He was giving himself a pep talk.

Marcus Aurelius was right. In the conversation I was having lat night, the person was very upset (most of you don’t know the person, though specific readers in California and Indiana do – hi guys!). The reason she was upset? Nothing rational at all. So I quoted a dead Roman emperor. Did it help? I don’t know. I’m beginning to see a pattern where crying people don’t stop crying when I quote dead Roman emperors. I’m beginning to see why the kids call The Mrs. when they want actual human sympathy.

My irritation (I think) came from the same place. Nowhere. I felt fine (except for my right knee which is much better now) and the day generally went fairly well. I realized that the advice I gave was meant just as much for me as for the person I was talking to. I was just being irritated because I let myself be irritated.

Once I was done and realized I didn’t have to be irritated? My irritation disappeared. I know that the way I feel is (generally) my choice. I can choose how I feel: salty, Wednesday, or even drunk. The only reason that I’m not happy every morning is if I choose not to be happy on some particular morning.

Are there actual reasons why I might have different feelings? Sure. If I had mental problems (other than an unseemly affection for awful jokes and a desire to consciously be able to make my fingernails grow absurdly fast) that might be a reason to have a feeling other than what I choose.

Don’t know. I do know that there are people with actual mental problems. There’s proof: some people actually voted for Biden. But, going back to Marcus, that’s not external. Being sick or goofy enough to vote for Biden isn’t external.

Physical pain also is an internal source that can destroy moods. I once (for a few months) had sciatica. I was irritable enough every morning to chew nails and spit bullets. Then I discovered that I could work out for a few hours on an elliptical trainer to make the pain go away. A week later? I was fine. My irritation vanished along with my sciatica, never (hopefully) to return. That was nearly 15 years ago. Sure, I’ve felt pain since then, but most of it was the good pain from a hard workout. Heck, most days the worst thing that happened was the crisp morning breeze running through my back hair.

My mood depends on me. My attitude depends on me. Does that mean that I can’t see the actual situation we’re in? Of course not. I see a nation tearing itself apart. It’s worse: it’s not just a nation, Western Civilization seems to be happily thrashing about as it marches down a path to extinction.

Is that good? Of course not. Does it mean that I should walk around every day being sad? Of course not. I am doing, I assure you, everything I can think of to stave off that darkness. I mean, those memes won’t make themselves. And I am doing it cheerfully. I laugh every day. I smile because I know that most of the things that I worry about can have no power over me unless I give them that power.

Make your choices, and understand that while you might wake up irritated – it’s your choice if you wish to stay in that mood for a minute or an hour. Me? I like being happy, so I choose that, even in moments where it might not be appropriate. I might even need to stop high-fiving people at funerals.

So, I got started late typing this after a day I chose to just be irritated. And, I’m going to choose to end now. With a smile on my face. Go and have a great day. Most of the time, having a great day is just a choice. Choose wisely."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

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"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,

or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."

- Carlos Castaneda

"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "You Are Stuck With Joe Biden"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly AM 7/7/24

"You Are Stuck With Joe Biden"

"The people have spoken. Joe Biden has been selected as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States for 2024. All of the talk that he’s just going to miraculously be replaced is preposterous. There has been over $1 billion pledged to his candidacy that would have to be refunded."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"'The Sh*t Is Going To Hit The Fan On Monday':

 DC In Turmoil As Biden Says Only 'Act Of God' Will Dislodge Him"

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: A New Phase Of Hyper-Debt Has Already Arrived"

Gregory Mannarino, 7/7/24

"Markets, A Look Ahead: 

A New Phase Of Hyper-Debt Has Already Arrived"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Greg Hunter, "Pandemics, Financial Collapse, War & Terrorism Designed to Overwhelm"

"Pandemics, Financial Collapse, 

War & Terrorism Designed to Overwhelm"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Renowned radio host, filmmaker, book author and archeological dig expert Steve Quayle describes the evil demons of the Bible we are up against. He lays it out in a mind-blowing new DVD called “Earth in the Crosshairs.” Quayle contends, “The interdimensional Gates of Hell have opened, and the world is under attack by Satan and his demons.” How else could everything in the world go terribly wrong all at once?

There is war and military conflict in multiple places, a new Bird Flu pandemic brewing, terrorists and illegals are flooding across the southern US border and a little talked about financial meltdown that Quayle says is going to catch the vast majority off guard when it implodes. Quayle points out, “This is Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” You simply overwhelm the target with accusations and so many problems that you could be ‘Ricochet Rabit’ and try to duck everything coming, but you can’t duck it all, especially when it is all dumped on you at once. Again, this is Saul Alinsky, and the idea is to overwhelm the target. Hillary Clinton wrote one of her college papers on Alinsky. Now, you see this with the Obama nation of desolation. That’s what I call him. You see the entire taking over of communities. Look at all these Democrat prosecutors and mayors, and look at the absolute fraud that has been initiated against everybody. Anti-abortion people are praying and going to prison. Look at Donald Trump and all these false charges. Their entire reason for doing this is to bring total destruction to America.”

On the economic front, Quayle says, “This is a heavy responsibility for people to understand, and bank bail-ins are coming. We have so many banks on the problem list or the ‘watch list.’ Even Fed Chairman Powell said, ‘our debt is unsustainable.’ For the first time, all IRS revenue cannot cover the interest on the debt, which is $1.5 trillion. That’s trillion with a ‘T.’ Banks are desperate, and what I am seeing is people who have had full access to their money are being prohibited from wiring money out. A lot of people do not realize this, but banks now have the right, if they get into trouble, to bail themselves out with your funds.” Quayle’s sources say that both Japan and Germany are facing huge financial trouble right now, and either of them could start a daisy chain of financial implosion around the world at any time.

Quayle also brought up news about the construction of FEMA type camps popping up around the country. Quayle says they are not holding centers, they are extermination centers. There is much more in the 62-minute in-depth interview."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble who goes one-on-one with 

Steve Quayle as he talks about his new DVD called “Earth in the Crosshairs”.

- https://rumble.com/

o

The religiously based assertions and beliefs expressed by Hunter 

and Quayle are presented for your consideration. Believe what you will...

Canadian Prepper, "Something Unexpected Happened to Our Family... A WARNING About SHTF"

Canadian Prepper, 7/6/24

"Something Unexpected Happened to Our Family... 

A WARNING About SHTF"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "President Sleepy Joe Interview, Dazed And Confused; Broke Friends Moving Into Your House"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/6/24

"President Sleepy Joe Interview, Dazed And Confused; 

Broke Friends Moving Into Your House"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140828.html