Chet Raymo, “The Sound And Fury”

“The Sound And Fury”

by Chet Raymo

“Not so long ago, I mentioned here Himmler and Heydrich, two of Hitler's most terrible henchmen. A friend said to me: "If there's no afterlife, no heaven or hell, then those two diabolical creatures got away with it. Their fate was no different than that of any one of their victims, an innocent child perhaps." And, yes, if there is no God who dispenses final justice, then we are left with an aching feeling of irresolution, of virtue unrewarded, of vice unpunished. Heydrich was gunned down by partisan assassins, and Himmler committed suicide a few hours before his inevitable capture, both fates arguably less tragic than that of their victims. How much more satisfying to think that the two mass murderers will spend an eternity in hell, while their victims find bliss.

This may not be a logically consistent argument for the existence of God, but it is certainly compelling. My friend says: "If there's no afterlife, then it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Of course, this emotive argument for the existence of God is balanced by another argument against his existence – the problem of evil: How can a just and loving God allow the existence of a Himmler or Heydrich in the first place. Here the argument is not just emotional, but consists of a thorny contradiction.

It comes down, essentially, to head vs. heart- what we would like to be true with all of our heart, vs. what our head tells us is an unresolvable conundrum. So each of us decides: To follow our hearts and make the blind leap of faith, or to follow our heads and learn to live with the sound and the fury. For those of us who choose the second alternative, the relevant words are that distressing coda, "signifying nothing." Our task is one of signification, of finding a satisfying meaning this side of the grave.

For many of us, that means finding our place in the great cosmic unfolding, and of recognizing that our lives are not inconsequential, that by being here we jigger the trajectory of the universe in some way, no matter how small, and preferably for the good and just. Yes, we make a leap of faith too, I suppose - that love, justice, and creativity are virtues worth living for - but at least it is a leap of faith that is not into the unknown, does not embody logical contradiction, and is consistent with what we know to be true, or at least as true as we can make it.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: J.R.R. Tolkien, "I Sit And Think"

"I Sit And Think"

“I sit beside the fire and think

Of all that I have seen,

Of meadow flowers and butterflies

In summers that have been.

Of yellow leaves and gossamer

In autumns that there were,

With morning mist and silver sun

And wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think

Of how the world will be

When winter comes without a spring

That I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things

That I have never seen,

In every wood, in every spring,

There is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think

Of people long ago,

And people that will see a world

That I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think

Of times there were before,

I listen for returning feet

And voices at the door.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/21/21: "Inflation Skyrocketing, Economy Cratering, Crude Surging, Dollar Falls, MORE!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/21/21:

"Inflation Skyrocketing, Economy Cratering, 

Crude Surging, Dollar Falls, MORE!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Groningen, Netherlands. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Majority Of Us..."

"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."

- Leo Buscaglia

"On The Verge Of The Unthinkable"

"On The Verge Of The Unthinkable"

by Michael Snyder

"Over the past couple of years we have become accustomed to expecting the unexpected, but soon we many have to start anticipating the unthinkable. In this article, I am going to be discussing a couple of potential scenarios that would have been unimaginable to the vast majority of Americans just a few short years ago. Unfortunately, our world is now changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking, and many things that were once “unimaginable” could soon become reality.

Let’s start by talking about the record-setting heat wave which is making the epic megadrought in the western half of the country even worse. Many western farmers planted crops this year hoping that weather conditions would eventually turn in their favor, but that has definitely not happened. In fact, at this point 88 percent of the West is experiencing at least some level of drought.

2021 has been the worst year of this multi-year megadrought so far, and last week was the worst week for this drought up to this point in 2021. Old temperature records were shattered all over the West, and some areas were already seeing triple digits by 8 o’clock in the morning… "The West is in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave this week, as all-time records were shattered and daily records broken in over a dozen states. Even by desert standards, the heat wave in the Southwest is atypical. On Thursday, the National Weather Service in Tucson tweeted that the city recorded a temperature of 100 degrees at 8:14 a.m., the second earliest time in the day recorded since 1948."

That is crazy. Can you imagine hitting triple digits before you have even finished your morning coffee? Summer had not even officially begun yet last week, and yet new all-time record highs were being established all over the place… "Record-breaking temperatures spread from California to Montana this week. On thursday, the all-time high temperature was tied in Palm Springs, California at 123 degrees, breaking the previous June record of 122 degrees.

Salt Lake City tied its all-time record high of 107 degrees. The old record was notably set in July - when temperatures are usually at their highest for the year in that region. This comes after daily record highs were broken Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in Salt Lake, each with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees."

We have never seen anything quite like this in the state of Utah. More than half of the state is in the highest level of drought, and thanks to dramatic water restrictions farmers are being forced to choose which of their crops will die… "With drastic limits placed on what little water he has, Tom Favero said he and many farmers along this west side of Weber County were forced to watch some crops die. “We’ve all made serious choices of what fields we can water and what we can’t,” Favero said."

Another Utah farmer that lost a lot of corn and an entire field of barley said that it really “hurts” to see his hard work go to waste… "Farmer Dean Martini pointed at one of his fields. “That corn there, where I can’t water, I don’t have the water. It makes me sick to see it go to heck like that.” With limits on amount and time, he said there wasn’t enough water flowing to make it across his fields. While some of the corn dried up, he had to let a whole field of barley go too. “It hurts buddy. That hurts,” Martini said.

Of course this is just the beginning. If this summer is as hot and as dry as they are projecting, we could see catastrophic crop failures all across the West. And that is really bad news, because the state of California alone produces more than a third of our vegetables and about two-thirds of our fruits and nuts.

A few years ago, hardly anyone would have imagined that we would be facing a crisis of this magnitude in 2021, but here we are. Paleoclimatologist Kathleen Johnson is quite “worried” about what will happen this summer, and she is warning that this drought is shaping up to be the worst the region has experienced “in at least 1,200 years”… I’m worried about this summer – this doesn’t bode well, in terms of what we can expect with wildfire and the worsening drought. This current drought is potentially on track to become the worst that we’ve seen in at least 1,200 years.

Now I would like to shift gears. A few years ago, hardly anyone would have imagined that we would be facing a very serious computer chip shortage in 2021. In particular, the most sophisticated chips are really in short supply, and what most people don’t realize is that “almost all” of them are made by a single company based in Taiwan… "Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chips are everywhere, though most consumers don’t know it.

The company makes almost all of the world’s most sophisticated chips, and many of the simpler ones, too. They’re in billions of products with built-in electronics, including iPhones, personal computers and cars - all without any obvious sign they came from TSMC, which does the manufacturing for better-known companies that design them, like Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. Because manufacturing those chips is so exceedingly complicated, other companies can’t just plop down new factories and start pumping out their own chips. Business leaders in the U.S. are now planning new factories, but it could take quite a few years before they are up and running."

So even under ideal conditions, the chip shortage will not be resolved for some time. But what happens if China invades Taiwan within the next several years? This is something that U.S. officials were warning about earlier this month… "Concerns are growing in Washington over the possibility that China could try to invade Taiwan in the next few years. Top U.S. military officers have warned in recent months that Beijing might try to make the explosive move this decade, and recent saber rattling, including a Chinese military amphibious landing exercise near the island, is further raising the alarm."

Can you imagine the chaos that it would cause for the global economy if the primary supply of advanced chips was suddenly cut off? According to the Wall Street Journal, TSMC currently makes “around 92% of the world’s most sophisticated chips”… "Its technology is so advanced, Capital Economics said, that it now makes around 92% of the world’s most sophisticated chips, which have transistors that are less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair. Samsung Electronics Co. makes the rest. Most of the roughly 1.4 billion smartphone processors world-wide are made by TSMC."

Without TSMC, the global economy as it is structured today would not be able to function. So the fact that China is being more aggressive than ever with Taiwan should deeply alarm all of us. For example, check out what happened just last week… "China has flown 28 warplanes into Taiwan-controlled airspace, the biggest sortie of its kind since the Taiwanese government began publishing information about the frequent incursions last year. The flights are widely seen as part of an effort by Beijing to dial up pressure on Taiwan, a self-governed democracy of about 24 million people off the Chinese coast that the Chinese government considers a part of China."

We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on foreign chips, but we did. And now experts are telling us that the chip shortage will last into next year under the best of conditions… "Dimitris Dotis, the Audi brand specialist at Audi Tysons Corner dealership in Virginia, summed up the situation to customers. “Almost all microchips that go into all new vehicles including Audi come from TSMC in Taiwan,” he wrote. “They expect bottlenecks in the supply chain to last through 2022.” Of course if China does decide to invade Taiwan, the U.S. military will respond, and that would mean no advanced chips for us for the foreseeable future.

In this article, I have shared just two potential scenarios which could soon plunge us into unthinkable nightmares. Needless to say, there are many, many more crisis points that bear watching right now as well. We have reached such a critical moment in our history, and I expect global events to accelerate even more as we head into the second half of 2021."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Vacci-Nation"

"Vacci-Nation"

by Ben Garrison

"In my latest book, “Make America Well Again,” I make a reference to Milton Friedman who said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

In the case of COVID-19, it began to look as if slave mask wearing would become permanent. Then mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports would also become permanent. Surely, that’s what the cabal running things behind the scenes wanted.

Fortunately more and more people are waking up to the Scamdemic. With a survivability rate well over 99 percent, it wasn’t really a pandemic at all. The mortality data were skewed to drive up the number of deaths. The PCR testing for the virus was serious flawed and inaccurate. People who died of flu and other ailments were declared dead of COVID-19 if they also harbored the virus.

Many states have dropped their mask mandates and less and less people are wearing them as summer approaches. Sunlight makes it nearly impossible to catch the virus outside. Fewer people are wearing the masks and that’s a good sign. Of course, businesses and restaurants are now saying masks for vaccinated people aren’t necessary but the unvaccinated still need to social distance and wear masks, but how can they enforce such a farce? Without the ‘your papers please’ intrusion there is no way to know. Besides, many states are passing laws prohibiting vaccine passports. Another good sign.

Many Americans remain ‘hesitant’ about getting COVID-19 vaccines, which are really jabs containing experimental gene therapy. The hesitant ones are the smart ones. States are tempting people to get the shots by means of bribery. Some are easily swayed to get inoculated by means of a glazed donut or free hamburger. In Ohio, they set up a lottery. The jabbed get a chance at winning one million dollars. Why the big press to get noxious substances injected into citizens that have proven severe side effects and even death?

Coronavirus weariness has set in. Americans have had it with the lies and power grabbing by hypocritical politicians who have been caught many times violating their own mask and social distancing mandates (Governors Whitmer and Newsom, for examples). Don’t take the dangerous inoculations. You are not a lab rat. Don’t wear the masks. Resistance the globalist control freaks. What will they do then? Gates will probably see to it that a more dangerous version of the virus gets trotted out. He’s already predicated it. Then they will cry for more lockdowns, mask wearing, and even more vaccines will be rolled out over and over again. Say no to Gates and Fauci. Instead of following their mandates, lock them up! Resist medical tyranny!"

- https://grrrgraphics.com/vacci-nation/

○

Related, highly recommended:

"What I Know (And Don’t Know) About SARS-CoV-2"

•

"Latest CDC VAERS Data for 12- to 17-Year-Olds Include 7 Deaths, 

271 Serious Adverse Events Following COVID Vaccines"

"VAERS data released today by the CDC showed a total of 358,379 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 5,993 deaths and 29,871 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and June 11, 2021."

•

Related, must read!

"Unthinkable Thoughts"

"Thinking Out Loud"

"Thinking Out Loud"

by Jim Kunstler

"Events are tending toward an unfortunate convergence that may leave the USA in a very reduced condition before the end of this year, while the “Joe Biden” government cripples all our institutions, especially the military, with race-and-gender mind-fu**ery as a distraction from its own coming and untoward collapse. The “president” is back from his toilsome travels through Europe, which included a summit meeting to butter-up Vladimir Putin, hoping to possibly use Russia as a buffer against an increasingly hostile China.

In a kind of comic reversal of George W. Bush’s first meeting with Vlad Putin - “I was able to get a sense of the man’s soul,” W said - this time, Vlad looked into “Ol’ Joe’s” eyes and probably saw the ghost of Konstantin Chernenko. You may recall Ol’ Konstantin led the foundering Soviet Union for about a year, his final months from Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, where emphysema, congestive heart failure, and cirrhosis of the liver laid him low. “Joe Biden” did not start smoking cigarettes at age nine, as Chernenko had, but when Vlad P Looked into his eyes, he probably saw a 15-watt bulb flickering within, and played him accordingly. After the summit, Vlad sized-up the “POTUS” as “professional” for the press - a witty snark, if ever there was one.

You can see a procession of events now marshaling up toward an epic storm of bad karma for this exceptional nation of ours turning the corner into summer and then the fall. Of course, the friendly news media is not fully reporting the latest institutional failure, that is, the perfidious behavior of US chief health official Dr. Tony Fauci who, with either stupefying naïveté or by some other motive, assisted China in the development of a bio-weapon, which China then loosed upon the USA (and everybody else). Net result: millions dead around the world, and an awful lot of people here now extremely suspicious of the vaccines being aggressively touted by the government. Meanwhile, the roughly half of the US population who took the vaxes now have to worry about what the active ingredient, a toxic spike protein, is doing to their hearts, blood vessels, brains, and other organs, and whether something worse awaits down-the-road. Has a trap been set? (We’ll get to that below.)

Just now, we have news of the strange case, revealed last week, of a “top Chinese counter-intel official,” a vice-minister of State Security, name of Dong Jingwei, defecting to the USA back in February. The strange part is that he came in from the cold to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) because he did not trust the CIA or the FBI to be outside China’s influence, and Dong sought protection from them. More American institutional failure? This raises a whole bale of questions, including whether Dong is a double-reverse disinfo agent, or what? It is rumored that he is proffering even more sordid dirt on “Joe Biden’s” son, Hunter, than is already known from the memo-and-email cache lodged on his infamous laptop-from-hell - not just sexual escapades while in China, but details of big money deals made for the Biden family business. And not just that, but heaps more dirt on other prominent political figures paid off by China. As if the US government is not already in a bad odor with at least half the country’s citizens.

This Chinese spy tale is ripening at exactly the same time that the Maricopa County, AZ, election audit concludes phase one of its operations - scaring the panties off of the DNC and its PR staff at MSNBC, CNN, and the WashPo - with a lot of noises coming in from Georgia and Pennsylvania about likewise conducting vote audits. All that, plus Dong’s garbage barge of toxic political dirt, suggests that “Joe Biden” will have an even shorter run than Konstantin Chernenko did. We may find ourselves in an intense constitutional crisis by mid-summer. Hold that thought….

While all that is cooking on one front burner, we also have the case of the US equity markets burbling away at bubblicious highs on another burner, and therefore primed for a nauseating boil-over. Would new and lethal government scandal supply the few extra therms for that? And by scandal, I mean something more like a broad loss of legitimacy and paralysis of the “Joe Biden” government. Also, how would a market train-wreck affect the credit markets? The US dollar? Whatever is left of the on-the-ground economy? Let’s just say it sure won’t act as a tonic for any of that; more like a slug of ethylene glycol. So now we're talking about a simultaneous government crisis and financial crisis.

Now, consider what might happen in the fall if a potent new strain, or “third wave,” of Covid-19 virus wafts across America. We’ve already seen speculation in the medical media that the residual action of mRNA “vaccines,” if exposed to yet another novel coronavirus, might tend to whack-out the immune response of those who got vaxed, killing them, as well as killing a new cohort of victims among the unvaxed, adding up to many millions of dead Americans. How would the country manage any of this along with a twin crisis of economy and government? We couldn’t even manage the pandemic when our institutions were supposedly still functioning.

And now, consider what might happen if China decides this is a good time to gain control of Taiwan (and the world’s leading chip manufacturers). A savvy friend of the blog writes: "They’ll hit Taiwan, Guam, Vietnam, South Korea, Philippines, Australia. Iran would move to secure the overland route from China to Africa. The Israeli/Saudi coalition could stop Iran but only if China didn’t help Iran. (Iran/China are far ahead of us in drone swarm warfare.)

China could overrun all of it in a matter of weeks and establish a deep defensive perimeter before we could effectively respond. More importantly they’ll hit our infrastructure so hard we’ll have a hard time hitting back effectively for years.

Last year pretty much exposed our weakness; now they’ll move to exploit it. They’ll not wait till 2030, as our fearless leaders are touting, otherwise we might have time to mend our ways. Tsun Tzu dictates they act now. My bet is they follow his guidance. It is the one area they are most predicable. Xi is following 'The Art of War 'to the letter so far.”

Kind of makes you take a deep breath and say, Whoaaaa…?

Those are known unknowns, as Mr. Rumsfeld liked to say. Add to that the known known of the mega-drought that has already developed in the American West and its implications for the food supply (not to mention the electric supply from the great western dams and the water supply to the western mega-cities). And add to that the extremely bad mood the various ethnic and racial groups remain in, due to the years-long DNC-Marxist fermentation of hatred among us. It all boils down to something that looks like an American collapse. Just sayin’. Also sayin’ it might be a really good time to lay in a few extra bags of rice, dried beans, and chili powder to make it edible."

- https://kunstler.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/21/21: "Must Know Updates - Stock Market, More"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/21/21:

"Must Know Updates - Stock Market, More"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Homelessness Is Becoming A Crisis Of Epic Proportions In The United States"

Full screen recommended.

"Homelessness Is Becoming A Crisis Of 

Epic Proportions In The United States"

by Epic Economist

"Can you imagine what your life would look like if you didn't have a home? For millions of Americans, this isn't something they need to imagine, because this is the reality they live in. Ever since health crisis' restrictions were put into place - triggering the widespread shutdown of U.S. businesses - unemployment rates have soared. In fact, America has seen an unemployment rate higher than at any time in the country’s history, including the Great Depression. As a multitude of workers started to struggle with job loss, many of them simply became unable to afford rent or mortgage payments. Millions are still at the brink of eviction, while others already lost their homes.

At this point, as the number of people without a home rapidly rose across the country, it has been hard to keep track of the real rate of homelessness. Recent estimates suggest that there are at least 1.5 million homeless people in the U.S., and over the past 12 months, even with the CDC's moratorium, that number never ceased to grow. While the wealthy engage in fierce bidding wars, pay over a million dollars above the asking price for a home, and purchase entire neighborhoods for a quick profit, affordable housing has become impossible to find. Rents have been ticking up too. And all of that is contributing to force more and more impoverished Americans into the streets with each passing day. What we're seeing in 2021 is rapidly becoming a crisis of epic proportions.

Believe it or not, this crisis is more severe in the wealthiest state of the nation. California’s homeless problem has been out of control for decades, but things have significantly worsened after the health crisis began. Approximately 160,000 homeless people currently live in the state, but many believe that the official figure is way too low. Even though California alone is known as an economic superpower, its high cost of living, lack of affordable housing, scattershot efforts with too many agencies, too much red tape, and the lack of a clear direction have all made tackling homelessness in the state even harder. However, the homelessness crisis is growing all over the country. What many Americans are failing to realize is that the reality of those who live in the streets right now is not so far away from those who live paycheck-to-paycheck. Sometimes, all it takes is one unexpected event to push a person straight into poverty.

With rich investors buying entire neighborhoods to transform them into rental units so that they can charge exceedingly high rent prices, and, on the other hand, low-income workers are effectively losing the opportunity to ever own a home due to this extremely competitive housing market, we're headed to a future where only those who can afford to pay expensive rents will have a roof over their heads. In case something happens and you lose your income, you might end up in the streets just as well. In about two weeks, the nationwide eviction moratorium will expire, and economists have been warning that millions more Americans could soon be forced out of their homes, in what they called an "eviction tsunami".

At least 5.7 million Americans, which represent almost 14% of all renters nationwide, had fallen behind on their rent in April. A study released by the National Equity Atlas exposed that tenants owed approximately $20 billion in rent, with low-income people among those worst affected. By May, over 40% of the 7 million tenants behind on rent at the time worried that they could be evicted in the next two months, according to the US Treasury. It's safe to say that now, the rate of tenants behind on rent payments is far greater.

This crisis is leaving a dark trail all over the nation. And even though some may argue that the government stimulus money may be helping these people, the truth is that the vast majority of the trillions that have been borrowed and spent over the past year were pumped into the financial system and never actually reached those who needed the most. Our leaders have managed to make life much harder for these people as inflation pressures have sent the price of everything up, and those at the very bottom of the economic food chain have been particularly hard-hit by rising prices. At this stage, it doesn't matter what politicians in Washington do, the homelessness crisis in the U.S. just seems to keep escalating. Millions of American citizens will sleep on the streets tonight, and many more will soon be joining them."

- Epiceconomist.com

"Housing Feeding Frenzy; FED Will Lose Control; Businesses Need Another Bailout; Obesity Crisis"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 6/20/21:

"Housing Feeding Frenzy; FED Will Lose Control; 

Businesses Need Another Bailout; Obesity Crisis"

Musical Interlude: 2002, “A Year And A Day”

Full screen recommended.

2002, “A Year And A Day”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance. This deep color image also shows the arms' obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars.

But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (right side) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of this field of view. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442."

- http://www.antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/

○

"Why Do We Look to the Stars?"

"The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us, there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

For as long as there has been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night.

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

- Carl Sagan

"Vulcan Guiding Principles"

"Vulcan Guiding Principles"

By Moon

"Ideally, do no harm. Harm speeds up the heat-death of the Universe, and indirectly, your own. More practically, do as little harm as possible. We are creations of a Universe in which entropy exists, and therefore see no way of escape, but we do not need to help it.

Harm no one’s internal, invisible integrities. Leave others the privacies of their minds and lives. Intimacy remains precious only insofar as it is inviolate: invading it turns it to torment. Reach out to others courteously: accept their reaching in the same way, with careful hands.

Do not murder. The spear in the other’s heart is the spear in your own; you are he. All action has reaction: what force you inflict, inevitably returns. The murder of the other is the murder of your own joy, forever.

As far as possible, do not kill. Can you give life again to what you kill? Then be slow to take life. Take only life that will not notice you taking it. To notice one’s own death increases entropy. To die and not notice it increases it less, but still does so.

Cast out fear. Cast out hate and rage. Cast out greed and envy. Cast out all emotion that speeds entropy, whether it be love or hate. Cast out these emotions by using reason to accept them, and then move past them. Use in moderation emotions that do not speed entropy, taking all care that they do not cause others pain, for that speeds entropy as well. Master your passions, so that they become a power for the slowing of the heat-death.

Do no harm to those that harm you. Offer them peace, and offer them peace again, and do it until you die. In this manner you will have peace, one way or another, even if they kill you. And you cannot give others what you have not experienced yourself.

Learn reason above all. Learn clear thought: learn to know what is from what seems to be. This is the key to everything: the truth of reality, the reality of truth. What is will set you free.”

Surak’s concept of cthia, the guiding principle of Vulcan society, as written by Diane Duane in her novel, “Star Trek: Spock’s World.”

 - http://www.moonhillproductions.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Tofino, British Columbia, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Matthew Schwartz, Spadecaller, “Ex Obscurum”

Full screen recommended.

“Ex Obscurum”

“From emotional turmoil, hatred, and addiction the miracle of recovery begins in this Spadecaller Video entitled “Ex Obscurum” (From Darkness). Featuring original poetry narrated by the author and visual artist, Matthew Schwartz. Composer Samuel Barber’s powerful musical score, adapted for the movie Platoon, (“Adagio for Strings”) sets the background for this spiritual exodus “From Darkness.”

- https://www.youtube.com/

“Ex Obscurum”

“Remnants of my arrogance

Crumbles like ancient paper.

Why have me suffer this way?

Knowing I’m unable to lift myself up?

My dreams of grandeur are dead.

Glory is no mortal treasure;

Only a mirage for a lost soul.

Booze and drugs do not know my pain.

My body is failing.

My skin yellow, my vision dim.

I come to you burned and beaten.

Still clinging to these toxic vines,

The last rays of sunlight fading.

Is something or someone listening?

Hear my prayer:

Cut from me these twisted limbs.

Or, let me perish and be free at last.

I’ve failed at both life and death,

Must I wallow in this hideous morass,

Giving back nothing of any worth?

Death should have come many times past.

Why have you thwarted my retreat?

This is no pardon for a man like me.

To change I’ve tried, but look at me:

On the floor begging for eternal peace.

Begging you for one final breath.

Is this the mercy that befits your loving omnipotence?

Should I live one more moment of one more day,

Let it be free from hate.

Let it be unspoiled by fear,

Unencumbered by shameful lies.


Let it be imperfectly human.

To the power of all powers I come here now.

Spirit over all spirits I need your help.

You have always known,

When like a burning match my life was flickering.

No mere accident has kept this heart beating.

Could these odds persist year after perilous year?

No! To your power I surrender. But what now?

The black spots on this leopard are many.

Only a stroke from your sacred brush could change me.

To one knee, I lift my broken body.

Salty tears wet my parched lips.

My dingy railroad flat on Second Street glows.

The fog clears from my blurry eyes.

The burden of my regrets and guilt lift away.

Loneliness and despair evaporate,

Like a dewdrop in the midday sun,

A voice within me, but not within calls.

Like thunder after a passing storm

The rumbling echo speaks softly:

“You are never alone. I love you enough to let you suffer.

I love you enough to let you choose between

Light or darkness;

Love or hate.”

- Spadecaller

- https://spadecallerpics.com/

"Be Like The Bird..."

“What matter if this base, unjust life

Cast you naked and disarmed?

If the ground breaks beneath your step,

Have you not your soul?

Your soul! You fly away,

Escape to realms refined,

Beyond all sadness and whimpering.

Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced

A moment sits and sings;

He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,

Knowing he has wings.”

– Victor Hugo

Greg Hunter, "Stock Market Cut in Half Soon – Charles Nenner"

"Stock Market Cut in Half Soon – Charles Nenner"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Renowned geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner made a huge call at the end of January 2020. Nenner said, “I am more worried about the market going down 40% than making 5% more on the upside.” The market topped a few weeks later (2% higher) and then plunged 38% for the next several weeks. Spot on call. Nenner also said he was “more worried about domestic civil unrest than war in a foreign land.” We had Antifa and BLM rioting, looting and burning in Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and many other cities for most of 2020. This was, yet, another spot on call. What’s Nenner seeing now? Nenner says, “ I have a chart going back to the 1900’s, and if you connect all the tops, the tops of 1929, top in the 1960’s, 1987, we are up to the trend line again. It seems very, very unusual to break a trend line that dates back for 100 years. So, risk is very high. We are totally out of the market. We have been out for three or four weeks. We have the same thing as before. People are more afraid to miss 4% on the upside than 50% on the downside. That’s human nature.”

How low can the market go from here? Nenner says, “20,000 or lower is my call.” I asked Nenner, “You think the market could get cut in half?” Nenner replied, “Yes.”

The next big call is on inflation. The Federal Reserve keeps telling the markets that inflation is “transitory.” Nenner contends inflation is here and will get much worse. Nenner explains, “If the Fed keeps the policy unchanged, the market is not going to like it because they think the Fed is not paying enough attention. For the moment, I agree with the Fed that the inflation fear is overdone. But based on my cycles, we are going to soon start a whole new cycle of inflation. There is a long term cycle on inflation. In a year or so, we are going to have a lot of inflation.”

Nenner says Bitcoin, at least for now, looks to be topped out. Nenner says, “I have no higher price target. We might have a new up cycle, but I don’t think the top ($64,000) is going to be taken out for a long time.”

On oil and natural gas, Nenner says, “We are out of oil right now, but I don’t think the bull market in oil is over yet. I think natural gas will start a long term up move soon.”

On gold and silver, Nenner says, “There is no bottom fishing in silver or gold. The bottom is weeks away. We might touch the bottom on gold at $1,670.” Longer term, Nenner still thinks gold will go past $2,500 an ounce, and silver will go up with it.

On the geopolitical front, Nenner says, “Everybody does whatever they want because nobody trusts the government. You don’t know where the danger is coming from, first from the left or the right. I think the left is more dangerous than the right. I see things deteriorating very fast because nobody knows what’s right of wrong anymore in the United States. It’s very worrisome. I think the world will take the United States on because they have no clue what they are doing anymore. This looks the same as before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because how stupid can you get. In the end, the United States will get its act together, but first, they have to be hurt very seriously.”

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One 

with renowned cycle analyst and financial expert Charles Nenner.

- https://rumble.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/20/21"

 

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/20/21"

○

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

○

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

Your guide:

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/20/21:

"Markets, A Look Ahead; Important Updates"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

○

A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

June 19th to 20th, Updated Daily

○

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."

○

Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

And now, the End Game...

○

Oh yeah...

"How It Really Is"

"A Realistic Attitude..."

"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."

- Philip José Farmer

"Real Glory..."

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact,

it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are,

what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

- Maya Angelou

“How Buster Douglas Beat Mike Tyson”

by johnnysmack7

“Going into the fight, Mike Tyson was the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He held the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. Despite the several controversies that marked Tyson’s profile at the time, such as his notorious, abusive relationship with Robin Givens; the contractual battles between longtime manager Bill Cayton and promoter Don King; and Tyson’s departure from longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, Mike Tyson was still lethal in the ring, scoring a 93-second knockout against Carl “The Truth” Williams in his previous fight. Most considered this fight to be a warm-up bout for Tyson before meeting up with then-undefeated number 1 heavyweight contender Evander Holyfield (who was ringside for the fight). Tyson was viewed as such a dominant heavyweight that he was not only viewed as the world’s top heavyweight, but often as the number one fighter in the world pound-for-pound (including by “Ring Magazine”), a rarity for heavyweights.

Buster Douglas was ranked as just the #7 heavyweight by Ring Magazine, and had met with mixed success in his professional boxing career up to that point. His previous title fight was against Tony Tucker in 1987, in which he was TKO’d in the 10th round. However, a string of six consecutive wins gave him the opportunity to fight Tyson. In the time leading up to the fight, Douglas faced a number of setbacks, including the death of his mother, Lula Pearl, 23 days before the fight. Additionally, the mother of his son was facing a severe kidney ailment, and he had contracted the flu on the day before the fight.”

- http://www.knockouts2sleep.com

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back.

That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”

- Vince Lombardi

Full screen recommended.

At 6:28 of this video Douglas takes a tremendous uppercut and goes down, kneeling to clear his head; you can see him wondering to himself if he should get up. No one at all expected him to, but he reached for something deep inside himself, found an inner strength perhaps even he was unaware of, and got back up to continue the fight. The rest, as they say, is history… and real glory. – CP

Must Watch! “It’s Game Over For Millions; Rental Homes Destroyed; Avoid Debt At All Cost; Landlords In Crisis"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 6/19/21:

“It’s Game Over For Millions; Rental Homes Destroyed; 

Avoid Debt At All Cost; Landlords In Crisis"

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in the high and far-off constellation of Cepheus. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.

NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the early 20th century at least nine supernovae, the death explosions of massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This remarkable portrait of NGC 6946 is a composite that includes image data from the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180224.html

The Daily "Near You?"

Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for stopping by!