"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.

The galaxy’s protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872′s spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

"The Life You Have Left..."

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.

Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”

~ Leo Babauta

○

“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

To be or not to be.

Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice.

Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume

and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?"

- Chuck Palahniuk

○

"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,

who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"

- Stephen Levine

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Darkness Falls"

"Darkness Falls"

"Darkness falls upon Humanity

and faces become terrible things

that wanted more than there was.

All our days are marked with

unexpected affronts - 

some disastrous, others less so,

but the process is

wearing and continuous.

Attrition rules.

Most give way,

leaving empty spaces

where people should be.

And now,

as we ready to self-destruct,

there is very little left to kill,

which makes the tragedy

less and more,

much, much more."

- Charles Bukowski

"Arrogance is Bliss"

A 23 kiloton tower shot called BADGER, fired on April 18, 1953, at the 

Nevada Test Site, as part of the Operation Upshot–Knothole nuclear test series.

"Arrogance is Bliss"

Extraordinary claims from those lacking extraordinary evidence...

by Joel Bowman

"Knowing that you do not know is the best.

Not knowing that you do not know is an illness."

~ From the "Tao Te Ching", by Lao-Tzu (poem 71)

Asheville, North Carolina - "Our subject matter for today is one we know all too well: ignorance. It is a condition that strikes indiscriminately. Whether male or female... abled or crippled... straight or gay... even two-spirited, one-armed eco-sexuals... we all, each and every unique snowflake among us, are susceptible to sudden and prolonged bouts of human-level nescience, which is to say, “unknowledge.” (Of course, some will experience stronger symptoms than others...)

Yes, gentle reader, the harsh prognosis applies to whites, blacks and Asians alike... to string beans and shrimps... to fatsos and chopsticks... to Democrats, Republicans and the mentally stable, too. We mention all this not (only) to poke fun... but to offer some measure of relief to anyone laboring under the notion that there walks among our floundering species a chosen omniscient cohort, possessed of a knowledge both infinite and immaculate.

Au contraire!

To Hades in a Handbag - While it is true that we live in the so-called Digital Age, with heretofore unimagined access to information of every kind, not all of it is of equal, enlightening value. This may be of grave concern, as in the hands of fatally stupid people, even a little information can be a dangerous thing.

We might harness nuclear energy to power the world, for example, or blow the whole thing to Hades. Truly it must be said, when it comes to raw imbecility, to feeble-mindedness, thick-headedness and outright nit-wittedness, few creatures in the animal kingdom so distinguish themselves quite like man.

Speaking of our fellow sapiens, let us begin at the bottom of the pile. It is general election season, after all, that time of the Olympiad when the political class cranks up the dial on the Hubris-O-Meter to eleven (out of five), seemingly to test the credulity of its long-suffering constituents. How often we hear extraordinary claims fall from the lips of these self-assured snollygosters... pretending to “know” all manner of unknowable matter… unfailingly backed up by an equally extraordinary lack of evidence.

MAGA...A: One candidate claims to know how to “Make America Great Again (Again)”... despite having done nothing of the sort during his first go around. Another promised he’d “Finish the Job” moments before dropping out. And now a third, replacement pantsuit announces, vaguely, “We are not Going Back,” leaving one to wonder where on earth she’s been…

But to begin our little segment here, it was President Donald Trump, with a jerrycan in one hand and a match in the other, who poured $8.4 trillion worth of kerosene onto America’s raging national debt inferno, something conservatives once pretended to care about. The self-described “King of Debt” spent like a drunken Democrat during his term in office, adding 60,000 jobs to the federal payroll over that time, all while claiming to be “draining the swamp.” He inked almost $4 trillion worth of “pandemic relief legislation,” including $3 trillion in what were essentially helicopter checks, a number that would make Mr. Bernanke himself blush.

It’s true that (in part due to the unrestrained spending spree), the labor force participation rate inched up slightly during Mr. Trump’s first few years, but the increase was negligible, from about 62.7% when he took office in Jan. 2016 to 63.3% when covid came to town... The ensuing pandemic panic sent that rate plummeting (to a low of 60.1% in April of 2020), before it recovered over time, in part while another dunderhead, President Biden, was fiddling in office (allowing him to erroneously claim that it was his own unalloyed genius which had driven a natural mean reversion and not, as was the case, pre-pandemic jobs being refilled as some – though by no means all – folk eventually went back to work). 

There has been little mention of this metric since, of course, as it has quietly resumed its downward trajectory. Having peaked around the time Pets.com was exciting faint hearts, it has been steadily falling for a quarter of a century.

Mr. Trump’s “greatest economy of all time” claim is dubious, too. After all his bluff and bluster, average annual GDP growth under The Donald was almost exactly in line with his bombastic predecessor (2.3% per year)... and, it looks like, his sleepy successor, too (~2.2% projected).

Like the labor force participation rate, American GDP growth has been in steady retreat – through administrations red and blue – since shortly after the end of WWII. While annual growth rates averaged about 4% during the ‘50s and ‘60s, they drifted lower in the ‘70s and 80s, to about 3%, before fizzling to around 2% by the end of the century, where they have languished for the past two decades. Presidents come. Presidents go. Only debt, deficits and decline remain...

Despite…not Because: Astonishingly to many, this seemingly inexorable march continues while the world’s mighty entrepreneurs and techno-whizzes are busily bestowing their beneficent bounty upon us... the dot com boom (and bust)... the fracking revolution vs. federal bans... social (and anti-social) media... cryptomaina vs. flailing fiat flimflamia... Artificial Intelligence and good ol’ fashioned human stupidity...

How, with such a cornucopia of goods and services at our trembling fingertips, from Netflix to Amazon... Uber to Alphabet (Google)... Tesla to Nvidia to NFTs and beyond... could our dear leaders fail to lead us to the promised land?

It will surprise few readers of these pages to learn that we thrive as a species not because of the genius intervention and omniscient central planning of our elite overlords... but despite them. It is not the state which grants us our liberties and the largesse that derives from the exercise thereof. Rather, it is a special knowledge which lies beyond the grasp of all would-be rulers...

Which brings us full circle to the inexhaustible subject at hand: all that which we do not (and cannot) know. It is not difficult to track the history of collective stupidity at the political level. Even the noblest of undertakings are fraught with danger.

You may begin an experiment confabulating with Franklins and Washingtons, Jeffersons and Hamiltons, Adams and Madison, for example, and within a devolutionary blink of the eye, wake to find yourself surrounded by Bushes and Obamas, Trumps and Bidens...and staring down the harrowing possibility of a Harris.

How did it come to this? And where to from here? More on all we don’t know in Friday’s installment. Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Freely download the "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, here:

- https://terebess.hu/english/tao/LeGuin.pdf

"The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson"

"The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson"

by Paul Rosenberg

I’ve made no secret of my admiration of Thomas Jefferson, and today I’d like to show you at least part of why. And so I’ll give you a collection of my favorite Jefferson passages. There was considerably more to the man than just his writings, but this will give you enough to appreciate. And please remember that he came up with these thoughts between 200 and 250 years ago.

"State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules." (Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787)

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." (Letter to Archibald Stuart, December 23, 1791)

"There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive." (Letter to Edward Dowse, April 19, 1803)

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." (Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819)

"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." (Letter to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824)

"How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovernment and selfish interests." (1825)

"The unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion would soon convince all men that they were born not to be ruled – but to rule themselves in freedom." (Letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826)

"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million people, collected together, are not under the same moral laws that bind them separately." (1816)

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed." (Letter to Lafayette, April 2, 1790)

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty."

"I have the consolation to reflect that during the period of my administration not a drop of the blood of a single fellow citizen was shed by the sword of war or of the law." (Letter to papal nuncio Count Dugnani, February 14, 1818)

"I never consider a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." ("The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson", 1900)

"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." (Letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800)

"Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid." (Letter to Edward Dowse, April 19, 1803)

"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?" (Innaugural Address)

"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs." (Letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." (Bill to Establish Religious Freedom 1779)

"I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

"Truth… seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome." ("Notes on Religion", October 1776)

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give." (Letter to Alexander Donald, February 7, 1788)

"I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision." (Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787)

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling future generations on a large scale." (Letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816)

"The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead." (Letter to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1813)

"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone." (Letter to John Adams, January 11, 1817)

"A development of this reasoning will reveal the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others… The precepts of philosophy, & of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his examinations into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head." (Letter to Benjamin Rush, April 12, 1803)

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but it cannot separate them." ("Summary View of the Rights of British America," 1774)

- https://freemansperspective.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Golden Valley, Arizona, USA. Thanks or stopping by!

"The Minds Of Men..."

"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste. This diminutive stature of mankind was daily sinking below the old standard." 

- Edward Gibbon, 

"The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire"

o

"All of the available data show that the typical American citizen has about

as much interest in the life of the mind as does your average armadillo."

- Morris Berman

Apologies to armadillos for the comparison...

"The Fourth Turning: What Every Boomer Patriot & “Prophet” Needs To Understand - Post-Haste!"

"The Fourth Turning: What Every Boomer Patriot &

 “Prophet” Needs To Understand - Post-Haste!"

by State Of The Nation

Excerpt: "Editor’s Note: The following prescient essay on “The Fourth Turning” was published 14 years ago and much has transpired which has borne out that “the final turning of the screw” is now taking place. Therefore, it behooves everyone, young and old, rich and poor, smart and foolish to take heed of what is upon US. That “US” is these once United States of America.

There’s an old adage: “Whenever America catches a cold, the rest of the world comes down with pneumonia.” Which means that when The Fourth Turning hits the USA hard, as it will with the climax of the 2024 election cycle, the entire planetary civilization will also get busted upside the head with a four-by-four. And why shouldn’t it in light of the utter depravity to which Western civilization has sunk. See: Shocking French Depravity On Full Decadent Display During Degenerate Olympics

What’s the critical point?

If you don’t know about, and believe in, and understand “The Fourth Turning” by now, you had better, because otherwise you will soon feel like you have been hit like a ton of bricks before you have been run over by a freight train. And, for many folks, even that is a gross understatement. See: HUGE Changes Coming To Planet Earth."

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

- https://stateofthenation.co/

"The Fall Of An Empire - What Are They Desperately Trying To Hide From Us?"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/31/24

"The Fall Of An Empire - 

What Are They Desperately Trying To Hide From Us?"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Something Like Reverence"; "It Is Our Fate..."

"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person, one cannot exist in full consciousness, without having to have a showdown with ones self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in ones mind what matters and what does not matter."

- Dorothy Thompson

o

“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”

- Scott Russell Sanders

Folks, I fear our time for such reverence has come.

And so, we bravely face it. God help us, God help us all...

o

Full screen recommended.

Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, "Amazing Grace"

"Ayatollah Says 'Severe' Revenge Coming For Israel Killing Hamas Leader On Iranian Soil"

"Ayatollah Says 'Severe' Revenge Coming

For Israel Killing Hamas Leader On Iranian Soil"

by Tyler Durden

"The world just woke up to a new Middle East on Wednesday which stands on the precipice of major war between Iran and its proxies and Israel, following the overnight Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the top political leader of Hamas, during an inauguration event for Iran’s new president. Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, and an Iranian security guard were killed reportedly while in the Iranian capital. Hamas has since condemned the "treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran."

Iran is vowing "severe" punishment, with the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, announcing in English and Farsi on X, "The criminal, terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our territory and has caused our grief, but it has also prepared the ground for a severe punishment." And Iran's newly sworn-in president Masoud Pezeshkian in a statement cited in state media said the country will "defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act."

Taking out Haniyeh was the second high-profile assassination attributed by Israel in a matter of hours, following the Tuesday airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military leader and right-hand man to Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Fuad Shukr. That attack was massive and on a neighborhood and buildings in the south of the capital, with Lebanon’s Health Ministry saying three people, including two children, have been killed, with at least 74 wounded. Emergency workers are still searching under the rubble, and thus the civilian death toll is likely to rise further.

And now there are emerging reports of another Israeli air raid - this time on Syria's capital of Damascus (unconfirmed) - with likely casualties. A large cloud of smoke was seen rising over the Damascus suburb of Sayyidah Zaynab at around 3pm local time. It is an area which sees a constant influx of Iranian religious pilgrims, and Israel has bombed it frequently, saying each time it is targeting Iranian military assets and proxies.

Adding to this volatile mix, the US military also overnight launched its first military action in Iraq in months, reportedly striking militia combatants who attempted to launch a drone attack. The Pentagon is calling the new military action a defensive airstrike.

The US State Department and US administration have reportedly expressed confusion at the rapid series of Israeli actions in the last hours..."How can Israeli-Palestinian mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?" Stated Qatar's Prime Minister.

Blinken said he didn’t know what was going on. Israel doesn’t tell him. https://t.co/6FaTLUEcOP - Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) July 31, 2024 Iraq's pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Authority confirmed casualties, saying, "Forces affiliated with the 47th Brigade… were exposed to an explosion of unknown nature, which resulted in the martyrdom of a number of people and the injury of others."

So in the last 24 hours there has been military action by Israel or the US in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding "the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah," according to a readout.

View from the destruction in the aftermath of the Israeli attack on the Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik: View from the destruction in Haret Hreik, Lebanon Zionist terrorists bombed this civilian building which led to the martyrdom of 2 children and one woman.

  pic.twitter.com/QT29bGH6ws - War Monitor (@WarMonitors) July 31, 2024

Still there is no official comment from Israel over the Haniyeh killing, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has convened his security cabinet as regional threats of revenge mount over the high profile assassinations. An Israeli government spokesman has said, "We are on extremely high alert for Iranian retaliation."

Without doubt, this throws the prospect of any hostage negotiations in total disarray and the temperature of conversations within the White House and State Department are likely high. Secretary Blinken has said "We were not aware of or involved in the attack on Haniyeh." Times of Israel correspondents have said ordinary Palestinians are exhausted from war and exasperated: "War-weary Palestinians in Gaza mourn the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Some say it will complicate efforts to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel. “This man could have signed the prisoner exchange deal with the Israelis,” says Saleh al-Shannar, who was displaced from his home in northern Gaza. “Why did they kill him? They killed peace, not Ismail Haniyeh.”

Meanwhile, Russia has condemned the Israeli killing of the Hamas leader, saying "dangerous" consequences are likely: "Russian Foreign Ministry: Those behind the assassination of Hamas leader were aware of the dangerous consequences this would have for the region." - Reuters- War Monitor (@WarMonitors) July 31, 2024

Many observers already concluded long ago that Netanyahu doesn't actually want a quick resolution to the Gaza war, but is indeed intent on fighting until Hamas is eradicated, even if that puts the remaining hostages in jeopardy. This has been the constant criticism of his domestic political rivals and the hostage victims' families. All that Washington officials have said so far is statements saying they are 'very concerned' at these developments. Middle East analyst Rami Khouri has expressed the feeling of many Arab leaders in the region, saying that the latest assassination shows that Israel is "a runaway killing machine."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

o

"In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful."

"Following this bitter, tragic event which has taken place within the borders of the Islamic Republic, it is our duty to take revenge. I offer my condolences to the Islamic Ummah, the Resistance Front, the courageous, proud people of Palestine, and in particular to the family and loved ones of Martyr Haniyeh and of one of his companions who was martyred beside him. May Almighty God elevate their ranks. Martyr Haniyeh was willing to sacrifice his honorable life in this dignified battle for many years. He was prepared for martyrdom and had sacrificed his children and loved ones on this path."

"In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful."

"Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him do we indeed return." (Quran 2:156).

- Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader

o

"Iran To Carry Out 'Special Military Operation' Against Israell"

by State Of The Nation"

"Using terminology similar to their ally, Russia, Iran announced just moments ago they will be conducting a “Special Operation” against Israel, in response to Israel launching a missile attack upon Tehran which killed a Hamas Leader. Details are very sparse right now, but the announcement of a Special Operation has been made. “The response to the assassination will in fact be a tougher special operation aimed at instilling deep regret in the perpetrator” – Iran’s United Nations envoy said this morning.

Yesterday, “someone” (presumed to be Israel) allegedly fired a cruise missile from an aircraft outside of Iran, which hit a home in Tehran, killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh at a home in Iran’s capital, Tehran. (Story Here). The victim of the assassination had just returned from attending the Inauguration of Iran’s new President. Below is an image of the place where the assassination occurred:"

- https://stateofthenation.co/

The Chris Hedges Report, "A Diary of Genocide w/ Atef Abu Saif"

Full screen recommended.

The Chris Hedges Report, "A Diary of Genocide w/ Atef Abu Saif"

"In this first episode of the new and independent iteration of The Chris Hedges Report, Palestinian novelist Atef Abu Saif and Hedges explore Saif's experiences under siege by the Israelis in Gaza, and the meaning behind them, in a substantive and powerful conversation. Through it, the texture of the genocide and the damage it inflicts on its victims is captured, as Saif’s eloquence and vulnerability reveals the weight of the tragedy in a way only facts and data simply cannot."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel, 

you psychopathically degenerate monsters...

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he 

who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without 

protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

-  Martin Luther King Jr.

Dan, I Allegedly, "The National Debt Hits $35 Trillion - How Bad Is It Really?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/31/24

"The National Debt Hits $35 Trillion - 

How Bad Is It Really?"

"Woo hoo. Our national debt is growing by leaps and bounds and it is just about to hit $35 trillion. That is insane. Now JP Morgan steps forward and they’re concerned for the first time."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping Trip To Big Lots!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 7/31/24

"Shopping Trip To Big Lots!"

"In today's vlog, I take you shopping with me to Big Lots to check out some different grocery options, some new items, and some hidden treasures you can only find here. I also do a review on a couple of products and share my experience with you."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Adventures With Danno, PM 7/31/24

"Bye-Bye Boar's Head! 7 Milion Pounds Affected!"

"Boar's Head Meats expands recall to 7 million pounds.  

This massive recall affects the entire United States and beyond!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell , 7/31/24

"Russian Typical (Dutch Owned) Supermarket: SMART"

"Discover with me what a Russian typical discount supermarket looks like inside. SMART is a new Hard Discount supermarket chain fast developing in Russia. Owned by EuroSPAR, the Dutch Supermarket chain."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Israel Airstrikes Iran, Top Leader Assassinated; Emergency Meeting In Tehran; WTF?!"

Canadian Prepper, 7/30/24

"Alert! Israel Airstrikes Iran, Top Leader Assassinated;

 Emergency Meeting In Tehran; WTF?!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"9 Israeli 'Best Heroes' Soldiers Raped/Sodomized a MAN!"

"Riots Erupt At Israeli Military Bases After

IDF Reservists Arrested For Sex Abuse Of Prisoner"

By Blueapples

Excerpt: "As the tug-of-war between Israeli and Hamas representatives are engaged in during peace talks has reached another stalemate, new accusations of brutality committed by the IDF threaten the progress of those negotiations. However, these accusations have not been the product of Hamas' negotiation tactics. Instead they have arisen out of Israel as its military police has taken action against its own servicemen. Reports indicate that Israeli Military Police have detained nine IDF reservists on suspicion of severe sexual abuse against a Palestinian prisoner in their custody. The reservists are accused of sexually abusing the Palestinian prisoner so severely that injuries he sustained to his rectum have left him unable to walk. Those injuries required the prisoner to be transferred from Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert to a hospital in Beersheba, which is located in southern Israel."

Full, absolutely disgusting article, here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com

"Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir condemned the arrest of the soldiers as "shameful" and called them the "best heroes." He said the message to the world should be this: "Light treatment of terrorists is over. Soldiers need to have our full support.” In other words: prisoners shall expect to be raped to the point of hospitalization."

- https://coyoteprimeblog2.blogspot.com/

- https://www.middleeasteye.net/

Purely Evil monsters...and America pays for 

it all to support these cockroaches...WTF!

"Massive Inflation Crisis: This Is A Huge Warning To Americans"

Full screen recommended.

The Atlantis Report, 7/30/24

"Massive Inflation Crisis: 

This Is A Huge Warning To Americans"

"Inflation is no longer just a term used in economics; it's now a harsh reality that's changing the finances of many Americans. The current inflation crisis is affecting households across the nation. Many people have to rethink their budgets, lifestyles, and long-term financial goals. Recent data shows that Americans now think they need to earn more than $150,000 every year to live comfortably, according to a Bankrate survey. This high amount clearly shows how inflation has increased the cost of living, impacting things like housing, groceries, healthcare, and education."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Free Elections? Got No Money, Got No Chance! America Is Run By The Robber Barons"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 7/30/24

"Free Elections? Got No Money, Got No Chance! 

America Is Run By The Robber Barons"

The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing 

global current events forming future trends.

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"This Is What The Final Stages Of A Bubble Economy Look Like Just Before A Collapse"

"This Is What The Final Stages Of A Bubble Economy 

Look Like Just Before A Collapse Happens"

by Michael Snyder

"How does it feel to be living on the edge of a bubble just before it bursts? Ever since the days of the Great Recession, our leaders have been going to extremes that we have never seen before as they attempt to keep our failing economy propped up. The Federal Reserve has created trillions upon trillions of dollars out of thin air and pumped it into the financial system. Our politicians in Washington have been on the greatest debt binge in the history of the world, and as a result our national debt has soared to truly horrifying levels. On Monday, our national debt reached 35 trillion dollars, and even the New York Times is admitting that it is growing “more quickly than many economists had predicted…

"America’s gross national debt topped $35 trillion for the first time on Monday, a reminder of the nation’s grim fiscal predicament as legislative fights over taxes and spending initiatives loom in Washington. The Treasury Department noted the milestone in its daily report detailing the nation’s balance sheet. The red ink is mounting in the United States more quickly than many economists had predicted as the costs of federal programs enacted in recent years have exceeded initial projections.

To mark this milestone, the House Budget Committee released some numbers about how rapidly our debt has been growing over the last 12 months…$196 billion in new debt per month:

$6.4 billion in new debt per day.

$268 million in new debt per hour.

$4.5 million in new debt per minute.

$74,401 in new debt per second."

The third number in that list really stands out to me. $268 million dollars is being stolen from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day, and hardly anyone seems to care. We are literally committing national suicide. When a government borrows money which must be paid back later, prosperity in the future is being sacrificed for more prosperity in the present.

We were 10 trillion dollars in debt when Barack Obama entered the White House, and now we are 35 trillion dollars in debt. We have literally destroyed the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have, but all of this borrowing has allowed us to enjoy a standard of living that is far higher than what we actually deserve. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where economic conditions are steadily getting worse even though our government continues to pile up mountains of new debt.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness in the U.S. has been growing by an average of about 10 percent a year since the pandemic ended…"According to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), since the end of the pandemic, we have experienced an average of 10% a year growth in homelessness. By the end of 2023, the U.S. hit its highest reported level in history since they began tracking it in 2007."

That same report says that the four states that have the largest problems with homelessness are California, New York, Florida and Washington…"The largest populations of homeless people are mainly in four states: California, New York, Florida and Washington. New Hampshire and New Mexico saw the largest increases in homeless people, with 52% and 50% respectively. New York came in third, moving up by 39% since the last survey."

In addition to growing homelessness, we are also seeing poverty and hunger rise all over the nation…"Combined data released last month from federal agencies found the U.S. is facing growing rates of poverty and food insecurity. In 2023, more than 12% of the nation was living below the poverty line and nearly 13% said they didn’t have enough to eat. Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said, “More people are becoming homeless for the first time.” This increase is due to people becoming un-housed faster. “They have no place to go so they end up on the streets.”

Our national debt has gone from 10 trillion dollars to 35 trillion dollars since Barack Obama first entered the White House, and our economy is still crumbling. This represents an epic failure of historic proportions. We have accumulated the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and most of the population is still struggling.

But all of this money has created an immensely painful cost of living crisis. Today, there are six major U.S. cities where you will only be able to live a middle class lifestyle even though you are making $200,000 a year…"Earning $200,000 a year might seem like enough to live a life of luxury. But in six of the 25 biggest US metros, rampant inflation in the past two years means this six-figure salary is only enough to be middle class."

Of course the vast majority of Americans will never make $200,000 a year. In fact, most Americans are just barely scraping by. As I discussed last week, one recent survey discovered that 71 percent of U.S. adults are stressed out about their “ability to afford everyday expenses”…"71% of Americans say they’re stressed by their ability to afford everyday expenses. Americans most regularly spend money on groceries, phone bills, utilities, gasoline and rent/mortgage payments. Grocery bills frustrate Americans more than any other regular expense. Utilities, rent/mortgage payments, gasoline and insurance payments round out the top five most annoying expenses."

Are you constantly stressed out about your finances? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse from here. Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have set the stage for a colossal collapse. The bubble we have been riding will inevitably burst, and once that occurs the consequences will be absolutely excruciating.

Here in 2024, red flags are popping up on an almost daily basis. For example, shares of Ford Motor Company recently plummeted by 18 percent on a single day due to very disappointing results…"The last time shares of Ford Motor dropped by more than 18% in a day, as they did last week, the U.S. automotive industry was on the brink of bankruptcy during the Great Recession. Ford, which avoided bankruptcy in 2008-2009, is far from any sort of such disaster, but the freefall in shares after the company missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations is the leading example of the uphill battle automakers face for the remainder of the year."

As conditions get even worse during the second half of this year and beyond, our leaders will attempt to stabilize things by doing even more of what they have already been doing. But that will just make the cost of living crisis even worse, and it will just make our long-term problems even worse. Of course our long-term problems are rapidly becoming our short-term problems. The entire system is convulsing with tremors, and our bubble economy is slowly but surely heading toward a date with oblivion."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "I'm Boycotting The Satanic Olympics; Cash Strapped Customers Aren't Buying Big Macs"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/30/24

"I'm Boycotting The Satanic Olympics; 

Cash Strapped Customers Aren't Buying Big Macs"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: David Gates, "Suite: Clouds and Rain"

David Gates, "Suite: Clouds and Rain"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"M82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through ensuing supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving a prodigious outflow. Evidence for the superwind from the galaxy's central regions is clear in sharp telescopic snapshot. The composite image highlights emission from long outflow filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues. Some of the gas in the superwind, enriched in heavy elements forged in the massive stars, will eventually escape into intergalactic space.

Triggered by a close encounter with nearby large galaxy M81, the furious burst of star formation in M82 should last about 100 million years or so. Also known as the Cigar Galaxy for its elongated visual appearance, M82 is about 30,000 light-years across. It lies 12 million light-years away near the northern boundary of Ursa Major."

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

The Poet: William Stafford, “Starting With Little Things”

“Starting With Little Things”

“Love the earth like a mole,

fur-near. Nearsighted,

hold close the clods,

their fine-print headlines.

Pat them with soft hands -

Like spades, but pink and loving; they

break rock, nudge giants aside,

affable plow.

Fields are to touch;

each day nuzzle your way.

Tomorrow the world.”

- William Stafford

"A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness"

"It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive."

- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"

•

"A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness"

"If I have harmed anyone in any way

either knowingly or unknowingly

through my own confusions

I ask their forgiveness.

If anyone has harmed me in any way

either knowingly or unknowingly

through their own confusions

I forgive them.

And if there is a situation

I am not yet ready to forgive

I forgive myself for that.

For all the ways that I harm myself,

negate, doubt, belittle myself,

judge or be unkind to myself

through my own confusions

I forgive myself."

"Effort and Understanding: Having It Easy"

"Effort and Understanding: Having It Easy"

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"When we view the lives of others and think they have it easy, we are not seeing the whole of their life or the story they are presenting. Our lives are an exercise in facing challenges. We dream the grandest of dreams as youngsters only to discover that we must cultivate copious inner strength and determination in order to meet our goals. Our hard work does not always yield the results we expect. And it is when we find ourselves frustrated by the trials we face or unable to meet our own expectations that we are most apt to take notice of those individuals who appear to accomplish great feats effortlessly. Some people’s lives seem to magically fall into place. We can see the blessings they have received, the ease with which they have attained their desires, their unwavering confidence, and their wealth. But, because we can never see the story of their lives as a whole, it is important that we refrain from passing judgment or becoming envious.

Throughout our lives, we glimpse only the outer hull of others’ life experiences, so it’s tempting to presuppose that the abundance they enjoy is the result of luck rather than diligent effort. In a small number of cases, our assumptions may mirror reality. But very few people “have it easy.” Everyone must overcome difficulties and everyone has been granted a distinctive set of talents with which to do so. An individual who is highly gifted may nonetheless have to practice industriously and correct themselves repeatedly in order to cultivate their talents. Their myriad accomplishments are more likely than not the result of ongoing hard work and sacrifice. You, no doubt, have natural abilities that you have nurtured and your gifts may be the very reason you strive as tirelessly as you do. Yet others see only the outcome of your efforts and not the efforts themselves

Our intellects, our hearts, and our souls are constantly being tested by the universe. Life will create new challenges for you to face each time you prove yourself capable of overcoming the challenges of the past. What you deem difficult will always differ from that which others deem difficult. The tests you will be given will be as unique as you are. If you focus on doing the best you can and making use of the blessings you have been granted, the outcome of your efforts will be a joyous reflection of your dedication."

- http://www.dailyom.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Blue River, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Go Down Swinging..."

"We lose those battles as often as we succeed. The key, though, win or lose, is to never fail. And the only way to fail is not to fight. So fight until you can't fight anymore. Never let go. Never give up. Never run. Never surrender. Fight the good fight, you fight even when it seems inevitable you're about to go down swinging." 

- "Amelia Shepherd", "Grey's Anatomy"

Adrian Lester, "Hamlet", "To be or not to be..."

Adrian Lester, "Hamlet", "To be or not to be..."

"Adrian Lester speaks "Hamlet’s" soliloquy from act III, scene 1, in which the prince reflects on mortality and considers taking his own life. To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we asked leading actors to perform key speeches from his plays."

"Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to 

whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.