Jim Kunstler, "In It to Spin It"

"In It to Spin It"

by Jim Kunstler

"We’re done accommodating you lunatics. It’s time for actual adults to return to the room and supplant the squalling squalor you have inflicted upon us, our economies, our cultures, and our institutions.” - El Gato Malo on Substack

"Imagine: President “Joe Biden,” on the deck behind his Rehoboth Beach house Sunday evening before a most consequential week. He just declared to the nation that only an “act of God” will prevent him from running for re-election. Dr. Jill has gone inside for another martini, extra-dry, no vermouth, no ice, no olive... no glass. Chief advisor, Hunter Biden, just drove into Wilmington “to pick something up,” he said. Chocolate chip ice cream melts in the bowl on “JB’s” lap as he endures another Parkinsonian frozen rapture. His gaze is fixed on the gray-green Atlantic, a blank horizon, much like his current career prospects.

As happens often these days, he slips off to sleep. In his dream, a red phone is ringing.

“Who’s this...?” he says.

“Me, God. Thought it was time you and me had a little chat. You can’t be serious ’bout this re-election thang.”

“I’m defending our democracy. Gotta stay in. Defeat Hitler.”

“Democracy my ass! You channelin’ Hitler yourself a little too much lately. How it is you laid ninety-seven indictments on my dawg DJT? You done George Floyded da man!”

“But... but... the insurrection - ”

“Insurrection my ass! Why you keep sayin’ dat.”

“If you repeat stuff enough, people believe it.”

“Who told you that?”

“Andrew Weissmann.”

“Oh, really? I kicked his ass outa my house more’n four thousand years ago. He ain’t nothin’ but trouble. Who told you to listen to him?”

“Lisa Monaco and Mary McCord.”

“Oh? Them two! Just so you know, I canceled they retirement plan up here with me. They goin’ to the other place wid Weissmann. Now, I got news for you, Joey: Ima have to take yo’ ass out dis election.”

“But why? I’ve accomplished so much. Did you see me at Gettysburg, beating those insurrectionists?”

“I see everything. Didn’t see you around dat day.”

“What about when I stormed the beaches at Normandy?”

“Naw. You was in a playpen, going goo-goo-goo. Look, Joey, here’s the deal: remember you said ‘God bless America’ in all them speeches you made?”

“We all say that. Anyway...”

“Maybe y’all go through the motions, but I got responsibilities, know what I’m sayin’? I been tryin’ and tryin’ to bless dis land but yo’ bunch making’ it mighty difficult for me. So, news flash: yo’ ass is out de race. Official act from yours truly. Sorry.”

“But... but... that’s... that’s racist!” the President stutters as his dream dissolves in a vapor.

Dr. Jill is shaking his shoulder, rather harshly.

“I heard that! Don’t even dare think of dropping out,” she says. “Or you’ll never get another bowl of ice cream ever again! Do you read me?”

“Yeah, Okay! Okay!” Anyway...”

And so it goes in the twilight hours of our forty-sixth president. At least Rob Reiner hasn’t asked him to step aside. At this point, it looks like nobody’s in a position to save our democracy until and unless they do something to save the floundering Democratic Party. All hands are on deck in our nation’s capital. Congress is even coming back from vacation today. So much desperate chatter is rising out of the Potomac Swamp that it’s like a deadly miasma infecting everyone! What on earth to do now?

There are Plans A, B, C, D, E...Only one problem: they all look like variations on a Chinese fire drill. Let the demented bastard run and hope for the best? Please! You thought the debate was bad? And the Stephanopoulos colloquy was unnerving? Imagine the gaffes and flubs to come in the months ahead. For instance, the convention in Chicago... “Joe B” freezes up for five long minutes at the podium mid-acceptance speech like a defective android in a sci-fi movie... “Joe B” takes a header off the stage at a Midwest state fair... “Joe B” challenges a quadriplegic veteran in a wheelchair to a push-up contest...

Then there is... the Kamala question. Could she, uh, step into the breach, if it... you know... had to be? She comes with a dowry of over $250-million in campaign contributions, which no other candidate has dibs on. Quite a temptation. But the cackling? The vapid word-salad? The record of accomplishment?

Would Hillary even allow that? I said uh-hey (hey), you (you), get offa my cloud! Hillary is lurking so quietly in the background she’s like one of those self-camouflaging bottom-feeder fish pretending to be a rock, with a coy little tendril dangling in front of her garage-size mouth to lure the little fishies in... before... chomp chomp! But, has she plumb worn out her welcome in American politics? Is she a fazed cookie? You can’t help but see a big, bold letter “L” on her forehead lately. She might, arguably, be even more loathed by more voters than Mr. Trump at this point.

Then there’s the idea put out just over the weekend to stage an insta-bliz primary before the August Dem Convention. With the condition of “positive-only” campaigns. Does that mean no Hitler-talk? Can’t wait to see how that works out.

Finally, there’s the novelty solution to this fine mess: “Joe Biden” stays in the race, bumps Kamala, installs Barack Obama in the veep candidate slot, they romp, then somewhere around January 21, 2025, “JB” bows out... and cazart! It’s back to the Good ol’ days with President Obama again! What a play! Genius! You see, the 22nd Amendment only says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Doesn’t say anything about getting elected veep and then being elevated to president by happenstance. If that doesn’t save our democracy, I don’t know what will.

We’re in for fast-moving developments this week. I’ll update here as necessary."

- https://kunstler.com/

Bill Bonner, "The Judgement of Paris"

"The Judgement of Paris"

In business as in war, or in marriage for that matter,

 there are no guarantees. Things go awry. Things change.

by Bill Bonner

Bordeaux, France - "Thomas Jefferson visited the Bordeaux area in 1787 and noticed that many of the best wine estates had names such as Boyd... Barton...Dillon... Lynch... and, where we dined last night, Kirwan.

It might have turned out so differently. That is, if the Spanish had been better organized, better informed, better supplied and better captained. At the critical battle of Kinsale, they might have landed their army at the right place... put more men on the job... and had more guns. For that matter, it would have helped if the Irish had been more on-the-ball too. They had three ‘Hughs’ – Hugh O’Donnell, Hugh O’Neill and Hugh McGuire — all rushing to aid the Spanish. But they were too little, too late and no match for the more disciplined English.

That was at the beginning of the disastrous (for the Irish) seventeenth century. At the end of it they suffered another huge defeat. The Battle of the Boyne was part of a larger war in which James II fought his own daughter and her husband, William III for the English crown. But for the Irish it was a fight to throw off the English and recover the right to own property and practice their Catholic faith.

Again, the Irish suffered a defeat. William had brought trained soldiers from Holland and Denmark (he didn’t trust the English) who proved very effective against the Jacobite locals and their French allies. These two battles - and the wreckage wrought by Oliver Cromwell between them - caused many of the Irish to flee here, to Bordeaux, France... and set themselves up in the wine business.

We came for a wedding. So, we drove from our place in Poitou down a long, twisty road. After a couple of hours, we arrived at the Gironde River and were surprised to find that there was no bridge. Instead, cars lined up to get on a ferry for the river crossing to the Pauillac region on the other side. Already, there was something slightly antique about the ferry crossing, reminiscent of an earlier era.

The land is mostly flat. Not especially attractive. In some places, it seems a little down-at-the-heels, reminding us of rural Sicily or Spain. Canals cut across the fields, partly for drainage and partly to take the wine casks to market. Good grape-growing land is extremely expensive, but much of the land is too low and swampy to plant.

Already, by the eighteenth century, Bordeaux was enjoying a booming business. It boomed even further when Irish entrepreneurs got into the act and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson gave the wine very favorable reviews. Prosperous vintners and wine merchants built their great houses... now on the labels of expensive wines…usually with marvelous stone entryways.

In business as in war, or in marriage for that matter, there are no guarantees. Things go awry. Things change. That’s why it is never a good idea to pay too much for a stock... or a wine estate. For a time, Bordeaux was the leading exporter of wine. Called ‘claret,’ by the English…and still listed as ‘claret’ on the menu at Garrick Club in London…it was shipped to British colonies all over the world.

But then, the colonies began producing their own wine. In bulk. The famous ‘Judgement of Paris’ - a blind tasting of wines from all over the world - proved that California wines were actually as good or better than those from Bordeaux. Australia, Chile, and Argentina also became leading exporters... with their own distinctive products. Bordeaux no longer has the wine market to itself... and many of the leading wine estates are not as profitable as they once were. Still today, amid the sunny shabbiness of the pine trees are some grand and glorious chateaux standing out against the landscape.

A friend, a member of the extended Rothschild family, now resident in New York, got married on Saturday to a girl from Boston. Baroness Philippine de Rothschild died in 2016, but the family still owns a few chateaux in the area, including the Chateau de Kirwan, founded by an Irishman in the eighteenth century, which was the site of the reception.

Weddings and funerals are the key landmarks in our lives. Marriage plants the seed of new life. Death cuts it down. Marriages may fail; death never does.

The peculiarity of this marriage is that it was here in France. Both bride and groom are American. And the service was conducted in English, by a French priest. Perhaps old Bordeaux has found a new business - as a wedding venue. The seventeenth century church - St. Didier - was beautiful... and the bride, advancing slowly down the aisle, flanked by both father and mother, gliding over the smooth stones... with the sun streaming through the large doors behind them... was stunning. Regards..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"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

o

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/

o

"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."

o

RS-28 Sarmat

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

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

o

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/

○

"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"

○

"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