“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance, and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic, you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.”
"Is America Becoming Fascist? Government Spies Are
Watching You From Some Of The Least Expected Private Companies"
Companies are getting rich by contracting with the
government to keep tabs on your movements and actions 24/7.
by Leo Hohmann
"In fascist America, many of the corporations we do business with on a daily basis are in fact acting as secret agents of the government. Facebook, Istagram, Google-YouTube, TikTok, etc., are all working with the government at every level. Your education data, your health data, your financial data, almost all of it can be requisitioned by the government at a moment’s notice and it will be turned over.
But some companies are turning over your personal data where you would least expect it. Remember, the very definition of fascism is when the private sector corporations are colluding with government agencies to oppress the people. Keep that in mind as we look at a shocking story that broke over the weekend that impacts almost every American.
The Daily Mail, citing an article in Forbes magazine, has a shocking story about FedEx using AI-powered cameras installed on its trucks to serve as the watchful eyes of police departments nationwide. The private postal-delivery firm has partnered with a $4 billion surveillance startup company based in Georgia called Flock Safety, Forbes reported:
"FedEx’s Secretive Police Force Is Helping
Cops Build An AI Car Surveillance Network"
"Forbes has learned the shipping and business services company is using AI tools made by Flock Safety, a $4 billion car surveillance startup, to monitor its distribution and cargo facilities across the United States. As part of the deal, FedEx is providing its Flock surveillance feeds to law enforcement, an arrangement that Flock has with at least four multi-billion dollar private companies. But publicly available documents reveal that some local police departments are also sharing their Flock feeds with FedEx - a rare instance of a private company availing itself of a police surveillance apparatus."
Flock specializes in automated license plate recognition and video surveillance, and already has a fleet of around 40,000 cameras spanning 4,000 cities across 40 states. FedEx has teamed up with the company to monitor its facilities across the U.S., but under the deal it is also sharing its Flock surveillance feeds with law enforcement. And it is believed to be one of four multi-billion-dollar private companies with this type of arrangement. Critics liken the move to rolling out a mass surveillance network – as it emerged that some local police departments are also sharing their Flock feeds with FedEx.
Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the ACLU, told the Virginian Pilot: “There's a simple principle that we've always had in this country, which is that the government doesn't get to watch everybody all the time just in case somebody commits a crime.” He adds that, “The United States is not China. But these cameras are being deployed with such density that it's like GPS-tracking everyone.
In response to Forbes' report that FedEx was part of Flock's nationwide surveillance system, he told the outlet: “It raises questions about why a private company…would have privileged access to data that normally is only available to law enforcement.” He went on to describe it as “profoundly disconcerting.” Flock Safety's cameras are used to track vehicles by their license plates, as well as the make, model, and color of their cars. Other identifying characteristics are also monitored, such as dents and even bumper stickers.
Lisa Femia, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that FedEx's participation is open to abuse because private firms are not subject to the same transparency laws as police. This, she told Forbes, could “leave the public in the dark, while at the same time expanding a sort of mass surveillance network.” The Shelby County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee confirmed its partnership with Flock in an email to Forbes, stating: “We share reads from our Flock license plate readers with FedEx in the same manner we share the data with other law enforcement agencies, locally, regionally, and nationally.” He also confirmed his department had access to FedEx’s Flock feeds.
So, in essence, FedEx is an arm of the government. More accurately, it’s the eyes and ears of the government. Treat it accordingly. If you’re able to install a gate across your driveway that would require them to leave packages there, do it. If not, make sure all garage doors, blinds, etc., are closed whenever you are expecting a delivery from this company."
"You don't have to be an expert to understand that economic conditions are deteriorating all over the country. We can see that things are going terribly wrong every time we go grocery shopping and prices are higher, or when we are going to fill in our tanks and fuel prices have gone up by 15% within a week. Our monthly bills are taking a larger share of our pay, but officials insist that inflation is subsiding and that Americans are consuming more than ever before. They may be under that impression because many corporations have been reporting record profits. But when it comes down to personal finances, most people are deeply struggling, and a large portion of our population is not happy about the direction our nation is heading. Over the past 30 days, we have received quite a bit of troubling news, and economists are warning that the outlook for the rest of 2024 is very bleak. In today's video, we're going to expose 15 signs that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than anyone has thought. So get ready for another reality shock because the truth about our economic situation is more alarming than what we are being told."
“The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” Here you have the sage conclusion of Mr. Charles Munger, aged 99 and one-half years when he died on November 2023. Mr. Munger was of course the business partner of Warren Buffett and legendary vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. This ancient drew his conclusion from many, many decades of penetrating and microscopic observation. Penetrating and microscopic observation, that is, of man in action. And he concluded that the world is not driven by greed - but by envy. Envy. What human vice ranks fourth among the seven lethalist sins? That is correct. The answer is envy - the acid emotion of envy.
“Hate the Man Who Is Better Off Than You Are”: “The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence,” argued economics journalist Henry Hazlitt long ago: “Hate the man who is better off than you are.” He continued: "Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence or stupidity."
The History Pages Are Filled With Envy: “Hate the man who is better off than you are…” History is a detailed diary of this very hatred. The French Revolution. Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. China’s Cultural Revolution. Perhaps even America’s unfolding cultural revolution of its own. We cite but some examples. They all set out to right wrongs. They mostly ended up wronging rights.
The right to life itself was often among them. How many lives has envy claimed throughout time? We cannot furnish a specific answer. Yet the answer runs to many, many, many millions - you can be certain of it.
Jealousy Isn’t Envy: Here let us distinguish jealousy from envy…The two are siblings - yet they are not twins. It is said a man is jealous of his betters. Yet look closer. The average man harbors no jealousy for the great man. The average man is not jealous of the Alexanders of this world. He is nor jealous of the Caesars of this world. He is not jealous of the Napoleons of this world. He may envy them… yet he is not jealous of them.
That is because the world’s Alexanders, Caesars and Napoleons are men stamped from a finer metal. The average man - inwardly - acknowledges this metal is not in him. The sparrow understands its place is not among the soaring eagles. Rather, the subject of the average man’s jealousy is his peer - the average man.
Jealousy: As we have argued before: The average man is not jealous of the champion golfer who once shot 60. He understands the feat is beyond him. But he is jealous - not envious that is, but jealous - of the fellow duffer in his weekend foursome who once broke 80. He is not jealous of the Hollywood movie actor who hauls in the unattainable beauty. He is jealous instead of his acquaintance who captured the pretty-enough gal he himself set his cap for - the 7.5 out of 10 gal.
Is the average man jealous of a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk with their billions and billions? He is not. He harbors little ambition to gather such fortunes as theirs. Again, he may envy them. Yet he is not jealous of them.
Of whom is he jealous? He is jealous of the other fellow who got the promotion over him — and the raise. The Sage of Baltimore - H.L. Mencken - once defined a wealthy man as “a fellow who earns $100 more than his wife’s sister’s husband.” Be assured, the wife’s sister… and her husband… feel that $100 sharply.
Envy Is Never Contented: Envy, jealousy, jealousy, envy - they perceive only what they lack. They do not perceive what they have. That is, envy gives a man a mighty itch. This itch he forever scratches. It is never soothed.
Today’s average fellow lives grandly and royally compared with actual royalty of yesteryear. Next to them he wallows in a sort of luxury scarcely conceived 100 years ago. Could old Louis XIV cool himself with air conditioning devices against the savage summer heat? He could not. Today’s average man can. Could Louis board a jet airplane that could deliver him half a world away within hours? He could not. Today’s average man can.Could the same Louis stare at a television screen as live images from even the most distant parts tickle and delight him? Again, he could not. And again, today’s average man can.
Yet the envious man of today does not rate himself against the royalty of yesterday. He rates himself against what he believes to be the royalty of today. And against this royalty he finds himself lacking.
The Never-ending Chase: A man’s eye is forever glued to the next rung of the ladder… to the prettier plum just out of reach… to the greener grass just opposite the fence. A poor man may aspire for the middle class. But once he finds himself lodged therein, discontentment soon bubbles within him. It is not enough. He lights out for the upper classes. If by grace he attains it, he at once takes notice of the floor above him. And he begins another merry chase up the ladder. There is always another.
Such is man. He focuses not on what he has… but on what he lacks. He is forever climbing ladders. Here we do not criticize him. It is this ceaseless striving that accounts for all material progress. A contented civilization does not erect skyscrapers, amass empires or rocket into space. Only a striving, discontented civilization erects skyscrapers, amasses empires or rockets into space. And only striving, discontented men get on in this world.
Envy Can Be Costly: We hazard envy can wreck a man’s wealth as easily it can wreck his soul. That is because envy is an emotion that rips the reasoning capacities from him. And men of emotion are the market’s dupes. Nearly every time they are taken by reasoning men.
Can envy poison your investments? Yes it can, argues Mr. Marcelo Perez of Alhambra Investments: "In a day and age where… keeping up with the Joneses (or the Kardashians, or the Windsors) is no longer a silent, Sisyphean struggle but a top-rated TV series or Netflix special, it is only natural for this poison to seep into the investing world…"
YouTube stars dole out “investment strategies” left and right, extolling the benefits of the newest and coolest moneymaking venture, as per views, of course. Message boards are full of posts containing stock and option trades that yielded percent returns in the hundreds and thousands, over the course of no more [than a] few days. Virtually riskless, they say…
And even if we are skeptical, we become befuddled with amazement, consumed by “Why not me?” We are driven by envy as much as we are by greed. We see that our neighbor is excelling, or so we think, so we change our own course, or regret that we didn’t take the plunge.
The Siren Call of Envy: By our lights, envy is a thing to be resisted in this world. Yet it exerts a very heavy gravity upon it. It is very difficult for most to resist the tug. Perhaps we should all chain ourselves to our mainmast, like the ancient Ulysses. We should plug our ears against envy’s siren cries. Thus we can navigate clear of the destroying rocks that have claimed other men. Can we do it, collectively? Again, in this fallen world of sin… it is not easy. Yet we might recall the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”
"Albert Camus on How to Live Whole in a Broken World"
by Maria Popova
"Born into a World War to live through another, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died in a car crash with an unused train ticket to the same destination in his pocket. Just three years earlier, he had become the second-youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize, awarded him for literature that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience” — problems like art as resistance, happiness as our moral obligation, and the measure of strength through difficult times.
Camus addresses this with poetic poignancy in an essay titled “The Wrong Side and the Right Side,” found in his altogether superb posthumous collection "Lyrical and Critical Essays" (public library). In a prescient admonition against our modern cult of productivity, which plunders our capacity for presence, Camus writes:
"Life is short, and it is sinful to waste one’s time. They say I’m active. But being active is still wasting one’s time, if in doing one loses oneself. Today is a resting time, and my heart goes off in search of itself. If an anguish still clutches me, it’s when I feel this impalpable moment slip through my fingers like quicksilver… At the moment, my whole kingdom is of this world. This sun and these shadows, this warmth and this cold rising from the depths of the air: why wonder if something is dying or if men suffer, since everything is written on this window where the sun sheds its plenty as a greeting to my pity?"
Echoing the young Dostoyevsky’s exultant reckoning with the meaning of life shortly after his death sentence was repealed (“To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart,” Dostoyevsky wrote to his brother, “that’s what life is all about, that’s its task.”), Camus adds:
"What counts is to be human and simple. No, what counts is to be true, and then everything fits in, humanity and simplicity. When am I truer than when I am the world? What I wish for now is no longer happiness but simply awareness. I hold onto the world with every gesture, to men with all my gratitude and pity. I do not want to choose between the right and wrong sides of the world, and I do not like a choice. The great courage is still to gaze as squarely at the light as at death. Besides, how can I define the link that leads from this all-consuming love of life to this secret despair? In spite of much searching, this is all I know."
So, you look around in horrified astonishment at how totally insane it all really is, how the never ending bad news is everywhere you look, how truly hopeless it really is, and know there's nothing at all you can do about it, can't save anyone, can't even save yourself. So you remember what they said and how you need to be, and carry on...
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority,
but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
- Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
“That millions of people share the same forms of
mental pathology does not make these people sane.”
- Erich Fromm, "The Sane Society"
“Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing
yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.”
- Jim Butcher, "Changes"
And yet, sometimes, at the end of another long day,
your defenses are just worn out and you lose control and feel like this...
Full screen recommended.
The Trashmen, "Surfin' Bird - Bird is the Word," 1963
"Well, the news media tells us at 70 million people will travel over 50 miles this Fourth of July. The numbers really don’t look good. Four and 10 say that they will not travel this summer at all."
"(These are deranged ramblings, perhaps of psychiatric interest. If pressed, Fred will deny authorship and possibly bring an action for defamation. Beware.)
These days, not unreasonably I think, people wonder whether artificial intelligence will produce an electronic being superior to, well, us. Others of darker imaginings ask whether we don’t face the arrival of a real-life Terminator. Science fiction? These days, it has a short shelf life. Actually, the superior being has probably already happened, if so far in bits and pieces. Let us consider what these bits are, and their assembly into a Terminator, whom we will affectionately call Arnold. First, Arnold’s mental capacities. Then, is robotic physicality.
Breadth of knowledge is usually thought a sign of intelligence. Arnold, with a Wifi link in his head, would know everything on the internet, books, history, quantum physics, the weather in Chengdu, geography, and just about everything else. Yes, I know, we are all used to this and it looks like mere lookup and not intelligence. Wait a minute. With his Wifi link, Arnold could translate fifty or sixty languages into each other, in seconds. If I could do that, you would think me quite a bright fellow. We are used to it, and people are never impressed by what they are used to.
Computers have beaten the world’s best players at chess and Go and defeated the national Jeopardy champion. If the victorious machines are not online, they easily could be. These capacities are usually regarded as requiring intelligence.
Since all of these things happened at least three days ago, they are ho-hum and not too interesting. But then we have to consider – drum roll, squalling of trumpets – Chatgpt and suchlike. Chat is the omnipotent humanizer, combining all the foregoing into a great Being. Chat can hold conversations, write essays and poetry often indistinguishable from those produced by humans and, weirdly, containing literary insight and psychological perceptiveness. So why is something – Arnold’s head in this case – that knows everything, writes business proposals and collegiate term papers, speaks fifty languages, does graduate-level mathematics, and plays championship chess, not superior to the common run of humanity? Note that as lagniappe that Arnold’s head as herein described can generate images from text, talk in different voices, write songs, and perhaps sing them.
Now let us consider Arnold’s more-corporeal being. Here we will ponder Boston Dynamics, the robotics-design firm. The company has produced Atlas, a robot remarkably similar to the Terminator when its pseudo-flesh was stripped away. The video is worth watching. Atlas, doubtless the Terminator under an assumed name, is an actual, really and truly, functioning humanoid robot. He walks, does gymnastic flips, finds stuff where it is and carries it to somewhere else. It is, so far as I know, the first potentially scary robot. If it can find a box, carry it upstairs and put it on a table, it could find an intruder in the warehouse, carry him downstairs to the basement, and stuff him into a wood chipper.
Full screen recommended.
(Boston Dynamics does not offer Atlas for this purpose.) Yet. In fact it just retired him as obsolescent and presumably is working on something more alarming.
Just now, Atlas seems an engineering exercise. He certainly cost a megabundle to figure out. But should he prove profitable for some purpose, such as guard duty or actual work, in mass production his cost would drop sharply. His metal parts are unlikely to cost horrendously. Software, once written, is almost free. Here I speculate, but the code for housekeeping –making him walk, see things, and so on, may be aboard, but if he were equipped with Wifi and Chatgpt, all of that would come wirelessly. If, say, a hundred thousand were built for industrial use, which is what Elon Musk has in mind for his Optimus robots, they would be controlled by the local buyer’s Wifi, unless bad guys hacked them and ordered them to do bad things, or simply planted code so that at a later date they could be ordered to go on a rampage or do something nefarious.
Skynet.
OK, that’s silly. I think. But Apple updates the software of millions of iPhones now with little effort. Why not hundreds of thousands of humanoid robots? Could evil hackers tell them to stuff bosses into the wood chipper? This could be a major selling point.
But if these things become practical, as Elon Musk promises, what does a warehouse manager make of mechanical workers that quote Hamlet to him? Or human workers make of Arnolds who work twenty-four seven without rest, except to recharge, who remember where everything is infallibly, and do complex calculations in milliseconds?
Or, a robot could be a cute little panda, becoming best friend to your daughter of four years. Chatgpt is well beyond just answering recorded questions. Kind of creepy, a child becoming emotionally attached to a being not really a being. I assume that a little girl cuddling a doll knows it isn’t a real baby. Hmmmm.
As a minor but related note, Audible.com now sells audiobooks read by a computer. I have listened to a couple of them, and could not tell the voices from human.
It is worth bearing in mind that robotics advances rapidly, and artificial intelligence is in its infancy. Image recognition is now routine, understanding of speech by computers well developed. I encounter estimates that humanoid robots suitable for factory work will cost twenty thousand dollars in mass production. These things are some way from being useful as, say, soldiers, but “some way” may mean fifteen years. If you consider the cost of human soldiers – recruiting, training, feeding, and explaining to their mothers why they are dead –buying robotic soldiers and storing them in warehouses looks a good thing if practical.
Methinks the world doth change overmuch. Many today in their fossil years remember Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist radio, which we knew to be impossible because vacuum tubes could never be made small enough."
"Sky News Investigations Reporter Jonathan Lea sits down to talk with a “free-thinking” and “opinionated” artificial intelligence, Ameca Desktop. “Ameca is driven by the same artificial intelligence behind Chat-GPT,” Mr Lea said."
"We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so."
"NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race -
Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?"
by Tyler Durden
"Thursday night's presidential debate mortally wounded President Biden's political career, and now the New York Times has hammered a significant nail in the coffin -- publishing an editorial bluntly declaring that "the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election."
With this development, Biden's departure from November ballots is taking on an air of inevitability. At the same time, Team Trump is reckoning with what may have been a strategic error -- enabling a premature kill shot that could leave Trump facing a worse matchup.
Repeatedly emphasizing President Trump's supposed "enormous...danger" to the country, the Times editorial board wrote that Biden is "engaged in a reckless gamble" with America's future, saying "it’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes."
You don't have to respect the Times to appreciate the enormity of a cornerstone liberal media institution declaring an incumbent Democratic president mentally incapable of running for re-election. This move by a "newspaper of record" will embolden other leftist entities and elected officials to do the same, and the momentum is likely to only grow stronger as the snowball effect gathers force.
After the panic on cable news last night, the DNC brought out presidents Obama and Clinton to re-endorse Biden. Now MSNBC is falling back in line with the “one bad night” narrative. But it was too late to stop the NYT. The horses are out of the barn and can’t all be put back in. pic.twitter.com/4t2HnauCQD— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) June 28, 2024
Here are some more pointed highlights:
"Voters cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago."
"The president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years."
"Biden insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible. The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test."
"Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader....The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race."
Whistling past his boss's political graveyard, Biden-Harris co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN, "The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him” -- a reference to the Times backing Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.
At this point, the post-debate glee at Trump campaign headquarters is likely infused with some angst. Presidential races are all about the matchups, and Trump couldn't have asked for a more favorable opponent than Biden. That's now in jeopardy.
In our debate preview, we warned that frontrunner Trump may have made a major strategic error in agreeing to an extraordinarily early date for the first debate: "Trump may come to regret agreeing to a debate that's far earlier in the presidential election calendar than normal - indeed, before either party has even had its nominating convention. If tonight's debate puts Biden's mental decline under the national spotlight, the Democratic Party...may scramble to persuade Biden to leave the race with dignity and replace him with someone else."
Now, as that exact scenario is playing out, the Trump campaign is feebly trying to steer Democrats away from benching Biden and subbing in the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Responding to the Times editorial, the Trump campaign told NBC News that Biden is the "incumbent president, he is the Democrat nominee, he has also said he won’t drop out, it’s too late to change that.” Don't bet on it."
"Joe Biden is 81 years old. That’s just three years older than Donald Trump. But Biden looked 20 years older than Trump at last week’s presidential debate. And between his blank stares and rambling responses, it’s no contest. Between the two, Trump looks far better fit to serve. Even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman noted, “Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election… it’s time for Joe to keep the dignity he deserves and leave the stage at the end of this term.”
Frankly, whatever your politics… whatever you think about Biden personally… If his handlers continue to prop him up, it’ll be nothing short of elder abuse. It’s become that obvious. And it’s a disgrace to a man who has served in office for so long.
“About 70 million light-years distant, gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 289 is larger than our own Milky Way. Seen nearly face-on, its bright core and colorful central disk give way to remarkably faint, bluish spiral arms. The extensive arms sweep well over 100 thousand light-years from the galaxy's center.
At the lower right in this sharp, telescopic galaxy portrait the main spiral arm seems to encounter a small, fuzzy elliptical companion galaxy interacting with enormous NGC 289. Of course spiky stars are in the foreground of the scene. They lie within the Milky Way toward the southern constellation Sculptor.”
“I’m sure I have referenced here before the poems of Grace Schulman, she who inhabits that sweet melancholy place between “the necessity and impossibility of belief.” Between, too, the necessity and impossibility of love.
Belief and love. They have so much in common, yet are as distinct as self and other. How strange that two people can hitch their lives together, on a whim, say, or wild intuition, knowing little if nothing about the other’s hiddenness, about things that even the other does not fully understand and couldn’t articulate even if he did. Blind, deaf, dumb, they leap into the future, hoping to fly, and, for a moment, soaring, like Icarus, sunward. The necessity of wax. The impossibility of wax. We “fall” in love, they say. Schulman: “We slog. We tramp the road of possibility. Give me your arm.”
"When I was a puppy I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was "bad," you'd shake your finger at me and ask "How could you?" - but then you'd relent and roll me over for a bellyrub.
My housetraining took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed, listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be any more perfect. We went for long walks and runs in the park, car rides, stops for ice cream (I only got the cone because "ice cream is bad for dogs," you said), and I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.
Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. I waited for you patiently, comforted you through heartbreaks and disappointments, never chided you about bad decisions, and romped with glee at your homecomings, and when you fell in love.
She, now your wife, is not a "dog person" - still I welcomed her into our home, tried to show her affection, and obeyed her. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement. I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them, too. Only she and you worried that I might hurt them, and I spent most of my time banished to another room, or to a dog crate. Oh, how I wanted to love them, but I became a "prisoner of love."
As they began to grow, I became their friend. They clung to my fur and pulled themselves up on wobbly legs, poked fingers in my eyes, investigated my ears and gave me kisses on my nose. I loved everything about them, especially their touch - because your touch was now so infrequent - and I would have defended them with my life if need be. I would sneak into their beds and listen to their worries and secret dreams. Together we waited for the sound of your car in the driveway. There had been a time, when others asked you if you had a dog, that you produced a photo of me from your wallet and told them stories about me. These past few years, you just answered "yes" and changed the subject. I had gone from being your dog to "just a dog," and you resented every expenditure on my behalf.
Now you have a new career opportunity in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You've made the right decision for your "family," but there was a time when I was your only family.
I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the animal shelter. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said "I know you will find a good home for her." They shrugged and gave you a pained look. They understand the realities facing a middle-aged dog or cat, even one with "papers."
You had to pry your son's fingers loose from my collar as he screamed "No, Daddy! Please don't let them take my dog!" And I worried for him and what lessons you had just taught him about friendship and loyalty, about love and responsibility, and about respect for all life. You gave me a goodbye pat on the head, avoided my eyes, and politely refused to take my collar and leash with you. You had a deadline to meet and now I have one, too.
After you left, the two nice ladies said you probably knew about your upcoming move months ago and made no attempt to find me another good home. They shook their heads and asked "How could you?"
They are as attentive to us here in the shelter as their busy schedules allow. They feed us, of course, but I lost my appetite days ago. At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you - that you had changed your mind - that this was all a bad dream... or I hoped it would at least be someone who cared, anyone who might save me. When I realized I could not compete with the frolicking for attention of happy puppies, oblivious to their own fate, I retreated to a far corner and waited.
I heard her footsteps as she came for me at the end of the day and I padded along the aisle after her to a separate room. A blissfully quiet room. She placed me on the table, rubbed my ears and told me not to worry. My heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come, but there was also a sense of relief. The prisoner of love had run out of days. As is my nature, I was more concerned about her. The burden which she bears weighs heavily on her and I know that, the same way I knew your every mood.
She gently placed a tourniquet around my foreleg as a tear ran down her cheek. I licked her hand in the same way I used to comfort you so many years ago. She expertly slid the hypodermic needle into my vein. As I felt the sting and the cool liquid coursing through my body, I lay down sleepily, looked into her kind eyes and murmured "How could you?"
Perhaps because she understood my dogspeak, she said "I'm so sorry." She hugged me and hurriedly explained it was her job to make sure I went to a better place, where I wouldn't be ignored or abused or abandoned, or have to fend for myself - a place of love and light so very different from this earthly place. With my last bit of energy, I tried to convey to her with a thump of my tail that my "How could you?" was not meant for her. It was you, My Beloved Master, I was thinking of. I will think of you and wait for you forever. May everyone in your life continue to show you so much loyalty."
"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."
"Biden Debate Disaster, War Exploding, Economy Tanking"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"I could not see that Joe Biden scored a single blow on President Trump in the CNN debate on Thursday night. Biden held his own in the debate that preceded the 2020 Election, but in this debate, he showed how much he has declined. He mumbled many of his answers and could not mount a single defense to President Trump telling him “We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been.” Trump beat Biden over the head on the problems the open Southern border has caused America: crime, debt, drugs, inflation or all of the above. Trump said everyone in the military who had a hand in the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 “should have been fired, and you did not fire a single person.” Trump also said we have been “living in Hell for the past three and a half years,” and “If Biden is elected again, we won’t have a country left.” Biden had no comeback for this or any other of Trump’s debate points.
So, Trump won hands down. Call it a blowout. It was like a football team beating an opponent 100 to 3. Now, everybody knows (including the Democrats) Biden cannot be President. In a way, I feel sorry for Biden, but I feel way sorrier for the “Hell” we are living in here in America under the Biden policies. Remember that Martin Armstrong predicted the Dem party wanted Biden to do terrible in the debate with Trump so they could justify replacing him on the 2024 ticket. They got their wish.
War is exploding and intensifying everywhere. Cluster bombs dropped on Russian in Crimea, and the Hezbollah conflict in Northern Israel will make the Gaza conflict look like a party. Hezbollah has thousands of rockets that can hit any target in Israel. So, will Israel wipe them out first? Iran is now mobilizing for war against Israel. Will you see regular Iranian troops going up against Israel? As far as Russian reprisals for the cluster bomb attack, it looks like Putin is not taking the bait to widen the war and go nuclear just yet. Putin still wants a Ukrainian ceasefire. If Trump was in office, this would have never happened. Trump said this in the CNN debate, and that was yet another point Biden had no comeback for.
The Fed did a so-called “stress test” on 31 of the biggest banks in America. Some reported they passed with flying colors, and others said this stress test showed the big banks are “weaker” than in the past. It sure feels like somebody is lying because the FDIC just said at the beginning of June that 63 banks are on a so-called “watch list” because they have more than a half trillion dollars in sour debt. The FDIC list of problem banks is secret, which does not inspire confidence, and the transparency is like looking through mud. Also, Michael Snyder has just put up a list of 11 signs that the economy is tanking. Third on his list is “When Banks get into trouble, they start closing branches. So far this year, US banks have closed more than 400 branches all over the country.” As I said, somebody is lying about the health of the banks and the health of the US economy. There is more in the 41-minute newscast."
