"95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness"

"95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness"

by Marc Chernoff

"At the cusp of a new day, week, month or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future. We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life's story. This process of self-reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we've been and where we intend to go. It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our long-term goals and happiness. The questions below will help you with this process. Because when it comes to finding meaning in life, asking the right questions is the answer.

1. In one sentence, who are you?

2. Why do you matter?

3. What is your life motto?

4. What's something you have that everyone wants?

5. What is missing in your life?

6. What's been on your mind most lately?

7. Happiness is a ________?

8. What stands between you and happiness?

9. What do you need most right now?

10. What does the child inside you long for?

11. What is one thing right now that you are totally sure of?

12. What's been bothering you lately?

13. What are you scared of?

14. What has fear of failure stopped you from doing?

15. What will you never give up on?

16. What do you want to remember forever?

17. What makes you feel secure?

18. Which activities make you lose track of time?

19. What's the most difficult decision you've ever made?

20. What's the best decision you've ever made?

21. What are you most grateful for?

22. What is worth the pain?

23. In order of importance, how would you rank: happiness, money, love, health, fame?

24. What is something you've always wanted, but don't yet have?

25. What was the most defining moment in your life during this past year?

26. What's the number one change you need to make in your life in the next twelve months?

27. What's the number one thing you want to achieve in the next five years?

28. What is the biggest motivator in your life right now?

29. What will you never do?

30. What's something you said you'd never do, but have since done?

31. What's something new you recently learned about yourself?

32. What do you sometimes pretend to understand that you really do not?

33. In one sentence, what do you wish for your future self?

34. What worries you most about the future?

35. When you look into the past, what do you miss most?

36. What's something from the past that you don't miss at all?

37. What recently reminded you of how fast time flies?

38. What is the biggest challenge you face right now?

39. In one word, how would you describe your personality?

40. What never fails to frustrate you?

41. What are you known for by your friends and family?

42. What's something most people don't know about you?

43. What's a common misconception people have about you?

44. What's something a lot of people do that you disagree with?

45. What's a belief you hold with which many people disagree?

46. What's something that's harder for you than it is for most people?

47. What are the top three qualities you look for in a friend?

48. If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?

49. When you think of home,what, specifically, do you think of?

50. What's the most valuable thing you own?

51. If you had to move 3000 miles away, what would you miss most?

52. What would make you smile right now?

53. What do you do when nothing else seems to make you happy?

54. What do you wish did not exist in your life?

55. What should you avoid to improve your life?

56. What is something you would hate to go without for a day?

57. What's the biggest lie you once believed was true?

58. What's something bad that happened to you that made you stronger?

59. What's something nobody could ever steal from you?

60. What's something you disliked when you were younger that you truly enjoy today?

61. What are you glad you quit?

62. What do you need to spend more time doing?

63. What are you naturally good at?

64. What have you been counting or keeping track of recently?

65. What has the little voice inside your head been saying lately?

66. What's something you should always be careful with?

67. What should always be taken seriously?

68. What should never be taken seriously?

69. What are three things you can't get enough of?

70. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

71. What fascinates you?

72. What's the difference between being alive and truly living?

73. What's something you would do every day if you could?

74. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?

75. Which is worse, failing or never trying?

76. What makes you feel incomplete?

77. When did you experience a major turning point in your life?

78. What or who do you wish you lived closer to?

79. If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?

80. What's something you know you can count on?

81. What makes you feel comfortable?

82. What's something about you that has never changed?

83. What will be different about your life in exactly one year?

84. What mistakes do you make over and over again?

85. What do you have a hard time saying "no" to?

86. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

87. What's something that used to scare you, but no longer does?

88. What promise to yourself do you still need to fulfill?

89. What do you appreciate most about your current situation?

90. What's something simple that makes you smile?

91. So far, what has been the primary focus of your life?

92. How do you know when it's time to move on?

93. What's something you wish you could do one more time?

94. When you're 90-years-old, what will matter to you the most?

95. What would you regret not fully doing, being, or having in your life?"

From the wonderful "Marc and Angel Hack Life" blog:

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"Never, Never, Never, Never..."

 

"Now is The Time To Get Busy and Act"

Full screen recommended.

City Prepping, "Now is The Time To Get Busy and Act"

"With so much discouraging information being thrown at us daily, it's important to focus on what's important and utilize the time we still have. Start your preparedness journey today, download the free "Start Preparing! Survival Guide" here: https://bit.ly/3xWhVwZ

"Fail Your Way To Amazing Things"

Full screen recommended.

"Fail Your Way To Amazing Things"

by Ekaterina Walter

"We, humans, are fascinating beings. We show mesmerizing courage in the face of some of the most incredible challenges in life, and yet, we can be easily stopped by a simple emotion such as fear of failure. We do realize, logically, that failure to fail in life stands in the way of us executing on our full potential. And yet we allow someone else’s definition of success or a fear of being judged consume us and prevent us from realizing our dreams. I recently gave a short, TED-style talk on the topic. I’ve included both the video, and the full transcript of the talk below.

"An executive was on his way to see the CEO. All kinds of thoughts were going through his mind. What went wrong? Why did this project fail? What did he miss? He was entrusted with a multi-million dollar project. Everyone knew it was a risk… everything new that hasn’t been tried before usually is. But it was a bold move, which, if worked, could really pay off. What now? Standing in front of his boss, he extended his hand with the letter of resignation. The CEO looked surprised, then slightly irritated. “You cannot be serious,” he said. “I just paid 2 million dollars for all of us to learn a valuable lesson. Now let’s go apply that knowledge and get us on the right path!”

Positive outcome. Great leadership too, wouldn’t you say? But it’s the fear of the opposite outcome that usually stops us from truly innovating, from not holding back.

FAILURE. Scary word, isn’t it?

Recently I radically changed my career. I have worked for Fortune 500 brands most of my professional career and earlier this year I took on a role of leading a start-up. And this question of failure came rushing back into my life. I was excited out of my mind with the possibilities. I never much doubted my abilities to get stuff done, especially when I am passionate about something. But there are always defining moments in your life that, no matter how confident you are, make you ask “But what if I fail?” I happened to ask it out loud in a conversation with a friend. A question to which he replied: “What is failure?”

Really? What is failure? This question always fascinated me. John Lennon tells a story about when he was in school and his teacher gave the class the assignment to write down what the kids wanted to be when they grew up. He wrote down “happy.” The teacher told him he didn’t understand the assignment to which he retorted that they don’t understand life. Maybe some of us just don’t understand the assignment? Or life?

Like I said, the question always fascinated me. So I talked to people about it, trying to understand what failure meant to them, what role it played in their lives. While writing about business innovation in my book “Think Like Zuck” I asked my interviewees that question yet again. And yet again when I thought hard about changing my professional path. And what I found was profoundly simple. Our definition of failure, and our path in life, is shaped by three things: Passion, Purpose, and Attitude.

Passion fuels everything in life: our energy, our ambitions, who we want to be. It fuels our actions. It shaped the lens through which we see the world. That lens helps us see (or miss) the opportunities in front of us and help shape our purpose. You see, I believe that every single one of us is an entrepreneur. We are capable of amazing things. Our potential is unlimited. The way to realize that potential is to crank up our passion inside us on high and never let up.

Our passion shapes our purpose. We are all created to make an impact and our passions define us, mold us into who we are. Once a person knows her true purpose there is no stopping her. Purpose gives us confidence, makes us fearless. Having meaning in your life is one of the most powerful forces a human being can be driven by.

And those two in combination – passion and purpose – affect your attitude. When you know who you are and what you want to achieve, your attitude shifts. It makes you sure, unstoppable. At that point you know no failure, you accept no failure but the path that gets you to your goal. You don’t sit around fearing failure, you are forging the path forward even through mistakes along the way. Are there times when you are frustrated by your trials and errors? Absolutely. Are there times when taking a wrong path sets you back. Yes! But you keep on going, doing what truly matters to you. And that is what’s intriguing. When your passion and purpose collide, they become a strong aphrodisiac. And that is when failure becomes non-existent.

Consider this number. 5,126. That is the number of prototypes it took James Dyson to successfully create a bagless vacuum cleaner. Dyson created a fail-less environment in his company. He challenges all his staff, especially his engineers, to be naïve, curious, downright silly. He invites them to challenge conventional wisdom, turn what we know on its head, explore what at the first glance seems impossible. One of Dyson’s bestselling products, Airblade dryer, was created while working on a totally unrelated product and trying out crazy ideas.

It took Steve Jobs nine years of investing in Pixar to make the world see how amazing computer animation can be. As a matter of fact, he attributes his being fired from Apple as one of the best things that happened to him and a reason he succeeded as Apple’s CEO later in life.

Flicker was supposed to be a gaming company. They failed at that miserably, but noticed that photo-sharing among their community is rather high, so they shifted gears and we now know Flickr as one of the most popular photo-sharing sites.

And what about individuals? Well, let’s see:

• Henry Ford went broke five times before he finally succeeded.

• Beethoven was proclaimed by his teacher as hopeless as a composer.

• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas and creativity. Disney went bankrupt several times before it succeeded as a company.

• Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow.”

• The Beatles were rejected by many music labels.

• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

• Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.

• Marilyn Monroe was told by a producer that she was "unattractive" and could not act.

And if you think that you are not Marilyn Monroe or Walt Disney, you may be right. But I know every single one of you is passionate about something, no matter how small it may seem in comparison with someone else’s passion or achievement. You matter to somebody. You are someone’s inspiration, someone hope. And if you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

Doubts kill more dreams that failure ever will. When we are kids, we were able to create, imagine, dream with no limits. We don’t doubt ourselves or our purpose. But when we get older, we are taught about responsibility and that maybe becoming an artist isn’t exactly a “safe and secure” profession. We move away from our passions and tell ourselves that it’s just a part of growing up. It is reality, we tell ourselves. But in reality, multiple studies showed that people who followed their hearts and led with purpose were way more likely to become independently wealthy vs. those who followed money and security.

Michael Jordan once said: “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

We need to define what failure means to us. As a matter of fact, we need to take the definition that was given to us by someone else and rip it up. And maybe you end up figuring out that that word doesn’t even exist and it’s just a series of small mistakes you make on the way to living your purpose. I encourage all of us to rip up what somebody else said we should be, think, do, and feel and throw it out.

And don’t doubt yourself. Heck, if you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits. Don’t settle. Find your passion, live your purpose, ignite a movement. Trust in who you are and walk the journey that is only yours. After all, if you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs. True failure is to not try at all. So I encourage you to let go of the fear and dare to fail, because you just might fail your way to amazing things."

- https://www.forbes.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"I Can See It All Very Clearly..."

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

- Jim Quinn

- https://austincountynewsonline.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: Market Meltdown? Crash? Something Else?"

Gregory Mannarino, 5/1/22:

"Markets, A Look Ahead: 

Market Meltdown? Crash? Something Else?"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Toto, I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore"

"Toto, I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore"

by Jeff Thomas

"Recently, an American colleague commented to me, “We no longer live in a democracy but a dictatorship disguised as a democracy.” Is he correct? Well, a dictatorship may be defined as “a form of government in which absolute authority is exercised by a dictator.” The US today is not be ruled by dictatorship (although, to some, it may well feel that way.) But, if that’s the case, what form of rule does exist in the US?

At its formation, the founding fathers argued over whether the United States should be a republic or a democracy. Those founders who later formed the Federalist Party felt that it should be a democracy – rule by representatives elected by the people. Thomas Jefferson, who created the Democratic Republican Party, argued that it should be a republic – a state in which the method of governance is democracy, but the principle of governance is that the rights of the individual are paramount. He argued that, “Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty one percent can vote away the rights of the other forty nine.”

At that time, Benjamin Franklin has been credited as saying, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.” Very well stated.

As Americans still legally vote, and it may well be that the voting is not altogether rigged, the US could be regarded as a democracy. Of course, to be accurate, it could also be defined as a bureaucracy – rule by officialdom, and/or a plutocracy – rule by the very rich. Both of these descriptions are undeniably accurate.

Another question that’s hotly debated is what sort of “ism” the US is living under. There’s a visible trend in new candidates to openly promote socialism. Historically, socialism has always been an excellent way to gain votes, as the socialist promises largesse to the average man that government will provide by robbing the rich. Not surprisingly, the average voter would find this prospect very attractive.

Socialist candidates in the US today base their argument for socialism on the premise that “capitalism has failed,” and that premise is providing them with great headway. They claim that prosperity for the American people is almost non-existent; that the middle class is shrinking and the small upper class is growing ever-richer.

These claims are undeniably true… but not because capitalism has failed. Vladimir Lenin stated that “Fascism is capitalism in decay.” He was quite correct. Fascism is a slow cancer that eats away at an economy. It transfers wealth to the largest, most politically influential corporations. Yet, the concept of fascism is greatly misunderstood today. Most anyone who decries fascism will describe symptoms such as jackboots and swastikas, but fail to offer an actual definition.

For a definition, we might ask Benito Mussolini, the father of national fascism. He stated, “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” By defining the term, we can conclude that the US is no longer a capitalist country and hasn't been one for a long time. The US began its slide into fascism in a major way around the time that income tax and the Federal Reserve were created – in 1913. These measures were the brainchild of the largest bankers of the day and the Fed still remains under the power of the major banks.

Over the last century, the Deep State, which is corporatist in origin, has grown and has done a first rate job of introducing a combination of socialism and fascism, a bit at a time. This has slowly destroyed the economy, education and the national moral compass, not to mention achieving the utter corruption of the political system. By contrast, capitalism is a free-market system, in which the economy, unfettered by the interference of governments, finds its own level at any given time. It fluctuates naturally, based upon supply and demand, each correcting the other with regularity.

But government edicts operate with force and permanence, constricting the natural flow of money, goods and services. Over time, regulations pile on top of regulations until the system becomes dysfunctional. Socialism, by its very nature, is a central restrictive force on the free market. Its logical conclusion is very visible in Venezuela today, where government regulation has produced such a stranglehold on the economy that it’s broken down in every way, resulting in dire poverty and even starvation.

But, as stated above, in the US, the Deep State has been thorough in its presentation of the US economy as a capitalist economy. In doing so, they’ve provided the encouragement of full socialism in the political realm. In the near future, the economy will begin to collapse under the weight of growing fascism and socialism. However, the blame will be laid at the feet of capitalism.

In my belief, the majority of Americans will be fooled into thinking that capitalism is the problem and that socialism will save the day. During the coming financial crisis, they'll dive in with both feet. Voters, even many of those who are moderate, will support socialist candidates. The first national election that occurs after the crisis has begun will result in an overwhelming victory for socialist and other leftist candidates. The next president will provide a plethora of socialist “solutions” to counter “the damage done by capitalism.”

But such a prediction does not require a crystal ball. This has happened many times before. The Athenian Republic ran into the same problem. The Roman Republic also deteriorated in this manner. As stated by Aristotle, “Republics decline into democracies and democracies decline into despotisms.” Quite so. It’s a natural progression.

And so, it shouldn’t be surprising if the more imaginative American were to observe, worriedly, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” He would most certainly be correct. Like the flag in the image above, the founding principles have been turned upside down and the rights of Americans have been shredded. “America,” as a concept, no longer exists in the USA. Its vestiges remain, but soon, they too will be on the way out.

Liberty always exists somewhere in the world, but it does tend to change location from time to time. Perhaps a final quote from late eighteenth century America would be of benefit – one from Thomas Paine. “My country is wherever liberty lives."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Related:

"‘We the People’ Are the New, Permanent Underclass in America"

"Bravery..."

“There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater. But sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life. That is the sort of bravery I must have now.”

- Veronica Roth, "Allegiant"

Free Download: Nevil Shute, “On The Beach”

“On The Beach”

by Nevil Shute

“Nevil Shute’s 1959 novel “On the Beach” is set in what was then the near future (1963, approximately a year following World War III). The conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all animal life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America.

From Australia, survivors detect a mysterious and incomprehensible Morse code radio signal originating from the United States. With hope that some life has remained in the contaminated regions, one of the last American nuclear submarines, the USS Scorpion, placed by its captain under Australian naval command, is ordered to sail north from its port of refuge in Melbourne (Australia’s southernmost major mainland city) to try to contact whoever is sending the signal. In preparation for this long journey the submarine first makes a shorter trip to some port cities in northern Australia including Cairns, Queensland and Darwin, Northern Territory, finding no survivors.

The Australian government makes arrangements to provide its citizens with free suicide pills and injections, so that they will be able to avoid prolonged suffering from radiation sickness. One of the novel’s poignant dilemmas is that of Australian naval officer Peter Holmes, who has a baby daughter and a naive and childish wife, Mary, who is in denial about the impending disaster. Because he has been assigned to travel north with the Americans, Peter must try to explain to Mary how to euthanize their baby and kill herself with the pill should he be killed on the ocean voyage.

The characters make their best efforts to enjoy what time and pleasures remain to them before dying from radiation poisoning, speaking of small pleasures and continuing their customary activities, allowing their awareness of the coming end to impinge on their minds only long enough to plan ahead for their final hours. The Holmeses plant a garden that they will never see; Moira takes classes in typing and shorthand; scientist John Osborne and others organize a dangerous motor race that results in the violent deaths of several participants. In the end, Captain Towers chooses not to remain with Moira but rather to lead his crew on a final mission to scuttle their submarine beyond the twelve-mile (22 km) limit, so that she will not rattle about, unsecured, in a foreign port, refusing to allow his coming demise to turn him aside from his duty and acting as a pillar of strength to his crew.

Typically for a Shute novel, the characters avoid the expression of intense emotions and do not mope or indulge in self-pity. They do not, for the most part, flee southward as refugees but rather accept their fate once the lethal radiation levels reach the latitudes at which they live. Finally, most of the Australians do opt for the government-promoted alternative of suicide when the symptoms of radiation-sickness appear.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

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Freely download “On the Beach”, by Nevil Shute, here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20131214

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"On The Beach", full movie:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HusewgIe_1k

Full screen recommended.

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Welcome to Fadedpage.com!

"Faded Page is an archive of eBooks that are provided completely free to everyone. The books are produced by volunteers all over the world, and we believe they are amongst the highest quality eBooks anywhere. Every one has been scanned, run through OCR software, proofed, formatted and assembled extremely carefully, using hundreds of volunteer hours. These books are public domain in Canada (because we follow the Canadian copyright laws), but if you are in another country, you should satisfy yourself that you are not breaking the copyright laws of your own country by downloading them. You are free to do whatever you like with these books, but we hope that mainly...you will enjoy reading them. FP now includes 6963 eBooks in its collection."

- https://www.fadedpage.com/index.php

"The Empire Of Lies, Operation Z, & The New Global Chessboard"

"The Empire Of Lies, Operation Z, & 

The New Global Chessboard"

by Pepe Escobar

"Especially since the onset of GWOT (Global War on Terror) at the start of the millennium, no one ever lost money betting against the toxic combo of hubris, arrogance and ignorance serially deployed by the Empire of Chaos and Lies. What passes for “analysis” in the vast intellectual no-fly zone known as U.S. Think Tankland includes wishful thinking babble such as Beijing “believing” that Moscow would play a supporting role in the Chinese century just to see Russia, now, in the geopolitical driver’s seat.

This is a fitting example not only of outright Russophobic/Sinophobic paranoia about the emergence of peer competitors in Eurasia – the primeval Anglo-American nightmare – but also crass ignorance about the finer points of the complex Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

As Operation Z methodically hits Phase 2, the Americans – with a vengeance – have also embarked on their symmetrical Phase 2, which de facto translates as an outright escalation towards Totalen Krieg, from shades of hybrid to incandescent, everything of course by proxy. Notorious Raytheon weapons peddler reconverted into Pentagon head, Lloyd Austin, gave away the game in Kiev: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

So this is it: the Empire wants to annihilate Russia. Cue to War Inc.’s frenzy of limitless weapon cargos descending on Ukraine, the overwhelming majority on the road to be duly eviscerated by Russian precision strikes. The Americans are sharing intel 24/7 with Kiev not only on Donbass and Crimea but also Russian territory. Totalen Krieg proceeds in parallel to the engineered controlled demolition of the EU’s economy, with the European Commission merrily acting as a sort of P.R. arm of NATO.

Amidst the propaganda dementia cum acute cognitive dissonance overdrive across the whole NATOstan sphere, the only antidote is served by sparse voices of reason, which happen to be Russian, thus silenced and/or dismissed. The West ignores them at their own collective peril.

Patrushev goes Triple-X unplugged: Let’s start with President Putin’s speech to the Council of Legislators in St. Petersburg celebrating the Day of Russian Parliamentarism. Putin demonstrated how a hardly new “geopolitical weapon” relying on “Russophobia and neo-Nazis”, coupled with efforts of “economic strangulation”, not only failed to smother Russia, but impregnated in the collective unconscious the feeling this an existential conflict: a “Second Great Patriotic War”.

With off the charts hysteria across the spectrum, a message for an Empire that still refuses to listen, and doesn’t even understand the meaning of “indivisibility of security”, had to be inevitable: “I would like to emphasize once again that if someone intends to interfere in the events taking place from the outside and creates threats of a strategic nature unacceptable to Russia, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning fast. We have all the tools for this. Such as no one can boast of now. And we won’t brag. We will use them if necessary. And I want everyone to know about it – we have made all the decisions on this matter.”

Translation: non-stop provocations may lead Mr. Kinzhal, Mr. Zircon and Mr. Sarmat to be forced to present their business cards in select Western latitudes, even without an official invitation.

Arguably for the first time since the start of Operation Z, Putin made a distinction between military operations in Donbass and the rest of Ukraine. This directly relates to the integration in progress of Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkov, and implies the Russian Armed Forces will keep going and going, establishing sovereignty not only in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics but also over Kherson, Zaporozhye, and further on down the road from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, all the way to establishing full control of Nikolaev and Odessa. The formula is crystal clear: “Russia cannot allow the creation of anti-Russian territories around the country.”

Now let’s move to an extremely detailed interview by Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, where Patrushev sort of went triple-X unplugged. The key take away may be here: “The collapse of the American-centric world is a reality in which one must live and build an optimal line of behavior.” Russia’s “optimal line of behavior” – much to the wrath of the universalist and unilateralist hegemon – features “sovereignty, cultural and spiritual identity and historical memory.”

Patrushev shows how “tragic scenarios of world crises, both in past years and today, are imposed by Washington in its desire to consolidate its hegemony, resisting the collapse of the unipolar world.” The U.S. goes no holds barred “to ensure that other centers of the multipolar world do not even dare to raise their heads, and our country not only dared, but publicly declared that it would not play by the imposed rules.”

Patrushev could not but stress how War Inc. is literally making a killing in Ukraine: “The American and European military-industrial complex is jubilant, because thanks to the crisis in Ukraine, it has no respite from order. It is not surprising that, unlike Russia, which is interested in the speedy completion of a special military operation and minimizing losses on all sides, the West is determined to delay it at least to the last Ukrainian.”

And that mirrors the psyche of American elites: “You are talking about a country whose elite is not able to appreciate other people’s lives. Americans are used to walking on scorched earth. Since World War II, entire cities have been razed to the ground by bombing, including nuclear bombing. They flooded the Vietnamese jungle with poison, bombed the Serbs with radioactive munitions, burned Iraqis alive with white phosphorus, helped terrorists poison Syrians with chlorine (…) As history shows, NATO has also never been a defensive alliance, only an offensive one.”

Previously, in an interview with the delightfully named The Great Game show on Russian TV, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had once again detailed how the Americans “no longer insist on the implementation of international law, but on respect for the ‘rules-based world order’. These ‘rules’ are not deciphered in any way. They say that now there are few rules. For us, they don’t exist at all. There is international law. We respect it, as does the UN Charter. The key provision, the main principle is the sovereign equality of states. The U.S. flagrantly violates its obligations under the UN Charter when it promotes its ‘rules’”.

Lavrov had to stress, once again, that the current incandescent situation may be compared to the Cuban Missile Crisis: “In those years, there was a channel of communication that both leaders trusted. Now there is no such channel. No one is trying to create it.” The Empire of Lies, in its current state, does not do diplomacy.

The pace of the game in the new chessboard: In a subtle reference to the work of Sergei Glazyev, as the Minister in Charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasia Economic Union explained in our recent interview, Patrushev hit the heart of the current geoeconomic game, with Russia now actively moving towards a gold standard: “Experts are working on a project proposed by the scientific community to create a two-circuit monetary and financial system. In particular, it is proposed to determine the value of the ruble, which should be secured by both gold and a group of goods that are currency values, to put the ruble exchange rate in line with real purchasing power parity.”

That was inevitable after the outright theft of over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves. It may have taken a few days for Moscow to be fully certified it was facing Totalen Krieg. The corollary is that the collective West has lost any power to influence Russian decisions. The pace of the game in the new chessboard is being set by Russia.

Earlier in the week, in his meeting with the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Putin went as far as stating that he’d be more than willing to negotiate – with only a few conditions: Ukrainian neutrality and autonomy status for Donbass. Yet now everyone knows it’s too late. For a Washington in Totalen Krieg mode negotiation is anathema – and that has been the case since the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine meeting in Istanbul in late March.

So far, on Operation Z, the Russian Armed forces have used only 12% of its soldiers,10% of its fighter jets, 7% of its tanks, 5% of its missiles, and 4% of its artillery. The pain dial is set to go substantially up – and with the total liberation of Mariupol and the resolution one way or another of the Donbass cauldron there is nothing the hysteria/propaganda/weaponizing combo deployed by the collective West can do to alter facts on the ground.

That includes desperate gambits such as the one uncovered by SVR – Russian foreign intel, which very rarely makes mistakes. SVR found out that the Empire of Lies/War Inc. axis is pushing not only for a de facto Polish invasion to annex Western Ukraine, under the banner of “historical reunification”, but also for a joint Romanian/Ukrainian invasion of Moldova/Transnistria, with Romanian “peacekeepers” already piling up near the Moldova border.

Washington, as the SVR maintains, has been plotting the Polish gambit for over a month now. It would “lead from behind” (remember Libya?), “encouraging” a “group of countries” to occupy Western Ukraine. So partition is already on the cards. Were that ever to materialize, it will be fascinating to bet on which locations Mr. Sarmat would be inclined to distribute his business card."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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Mr. Sarmat...

Click image for larger size.

"Vladimir Putin sent a chilling warning to the West by test-launching his fearsome ‘Satan II’ missile. Capable of striking a target 11,200 miles away, the nuclear-capable Sarmat RS-28 is said to be the world’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile. Russia has claimed its most powerful nuclear missile, the 16,000 mph hypersonic ‘Satan-2’, could destroy the UK. Sarmat has 16 550 kiloton warheads. One missile can destroy an area the size of France. Putin described the launch as a ‘big, significant event’ for Russia’s military and claimed the weapon can overcome all modern defense systems."

- https://whatsnew2day.com/

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Related:

"USA Targeting of Moskva Ship is Russia's "Pearl Harbor"...

Retaliation is Next"

"The Moskva Riddle"

"The Foreclosures Have Begun - High Interest Rates Have Killed Real Estate"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 4/30/22:

"The Foreclosures Have Begun - 

High Interest Rates Have Killed Real Estate"

"The real estate market is starting to crash. The foreclosures have begun even in the higher end communities. The adjustable rate mortgages are going to ravage the real estate market next. Talking about fact that people don’t want to admit that they can’t afford the properties that they actually live in."

"A Scary Theory About What's Coming..."

Canadian Prepper, 4/30/22:

"A Scary Theory About What's Coming..."

"A theory about the coming global conflict."

"Scariest Market I Have Seen; Lose Your Job, Lose Your House"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 4/30/22:

"Scariest Market I Have Seen; 

Lose Your Job, Lose Your House"

Musical Interlude: 2002, "The Calling"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "The Calling"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?

Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150426.html

The Poet: Robert Frost, "Acceptance "

"Acceptance"

 "When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud

And goes down burning into the gulf below,

No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud

At what has happened.

Birds, at least must know

It is the change to darkness in the sky.

Murmuring something quiet in her breast,

One bird begins to close a faded eye;

Or overtaken too far from his nest,

Hurrying low above the grove, some waif

Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.

At most he thinks or twitters softly, safe!

Now let the night be dark for all of me.

Let the night be too dark for me to see

Into the future. Let what will be, be."

- Robert Frost

Chet Raymo, “What Not to Believe”

“What Not to Believe”

by Chet Raymo

“In Stacy Schiff's biography of Cleopatra, I came across this epigraph from Euripides: "Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe." I have no idea which of Euripides' plays the quote is from, but it strikes me as a suitable source for reflection. Credulity is the default state of a human life. Children are born to believe, to accept as true what they are told by adults. An innate credulity has survival value in a dangerous world. If a grown-up says "There are crocodiles in the river," it is probably best to stay out of the water.

Skepticism, on the other hand, must be learned. I was late in realizing that I didn't have to believe the received "truth." My best teacher was a somewhat older Panamanian secular Jew I went to graduate school with at UCLA. We took our brown-bag lunches together in the university's botanical garden, and spent the hour talking about physics, religion, and the "meaning of life."

Moises was the first person I had encountered after sixteen years of Catholic education who mentioned the word "skepticism." "Why do you believe that?" he would ask, and often I had no answer except that it was what my family and teachers told me was true. The idea that I might actually examine the basis for my beliefs was a rather new concept. In matters of religion, like almost everyone else in the world, I had embraced uncritically the faith story into which I was born.

And thus began my search for "a judicious sense of what not to believe." When later, as a teacher, I wrote a little column for each issue of the college newspaper, I called it "Under a Skeptical Star," from a line of the Scots poet/scholar William MacNeile Dixon: "If there be a skeptical star I was born under it, yet I have lived all my days in complete astonishment." A liberating sense of what not to believe opened the door to a vastly more interesting world whose diverse and astonishing riches I continue to explore to this day."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"The Hand We're Dealt..."

“Bad things don’t happen to people because they deserve for them to happen. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s just… life. And no matter who we are, we have to take the hand we’re dealt, crappy though it may be, and try our very best to move forward anyway, to love anyway, to have hope anyway… to have faith that there’s a purpose to the journey we’re on.”

- Mia Sheridan

"A Long March Through The Night..."

"The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair."

- Bertrand Russell

"Time to Worry"

"Time to Worry"

by Brian Maher

“If we get a recession in 2022 or 2023,” The Wall Street Journal informs us, “it’ll be a mild one.” Just so. And if RMS Titanic strikes a North Atlantic berg en route to New York… it will only be a tiny one. The United States Department of Commerce reports that first-quarter gross domestic product contracted 1.4%. The shrinking was “unexpected” - at least by the experts among us. A Dow Jones survey of economists had divined a 1% quarterly gain.

What evils account for the 1.4% receding? Reports CNBC: "Rising COVID Omicron infections to start the year hampered activity across the board, while inflation surging at a level not seen since the early 1980s and the Russian invasion of Ukraine also contributed to the economic stasis."

Can They Ever Get It Right? Were Dow Jones’ surveyed economists unaware of rising Omicron infections? Of inflation at a level not seen since the early 1980s? Of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? We are reminded of an inept physician who perpetually misreads the vital signs. Some might label him a “quack.” In the interest of decorum, we will not. Yet he somehow retains his prestige, despite his multiple botchings.

These same experts insist that first-quarter returns are something of an aberration - that the contractionary forces will soon clear out. “This is noise; not signal,” insists Mr. Ian Shepherdson - chief economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics - “the economy is not falling into recession.”

Is It Actually Signal, Not Noise? Yet Simona Mocuta, chief economist with State Street Global Advisors, gives the alternate prognosis: "In retrospect, this could be seen as a pivotal report. It reminds us of the reality that… things are changing and they won’t be that great going forward."

Deutsche Bank - incidentally - forecasts a “significant recession” late next year. Its crackerjacks hazard the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates frantically to cage the inflationary menace presently running at large. We incline toward the Deutsche Bank position.

We note that the 10-year Treasury yield scaled 2.88% today… the highest level since 2018. Rising “growth stocks” such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix have elevated the overall stock market. Yet growth stocks are exquisitely sensitive to rising interest rates. And the same growth stocks that can push… can also pull.

Growth Stocks Giveth, Growth Stocks Taketh Away: Explains Mr Peter Tchir of Academy Securities: "Companies relying on future cash flow growth experience much greater risk as rates rise, and that has been the part of the market that has really driven returns in the stock market. That is why some parts of the market, like the Nasdaq-100, which is heavy in technology stocks, is getting hit much more than the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has [fewer] companies expecting outsized growth.

Perhaps we should not be surprised then that the stock market endured another hemorrhaging Friday. The Dow Jones gushed 939 crimson points. The S&P 500 shed 155… while the Nasdaq Composite bled 536 points of its own - a 4.17% devastation.

Growth stock Amazon initiated the bloodspill. Reports CNBC: "U.S. stocks fell Friday with the Nasdaq Composite on pace for the worst month since 2008, as Amazon became the latest victim in the technology-led sell-off… Amazon on Friday sunk about 14% - its biggest drop since 2006 - after the e-commerce giant reported a surprise loss and issued weak revenue guidance for the second quarter…"

The Nasdaq is down around 12%, on pace for its worst monthly performance since October 2008 in the throngs of the financial crisis. The S&P 500 is down more than 7%, its worst month since March 2020 at the onset of the COVID pandemic. The Dow is off by nearly 4% for the month. And so we wonder: Will interest rates march higher and higher?

Is the 40-Year Cycle Ending? Mr. Michael Hartnett is Bank of America’s chief investment strategist. The cycle is reversing, he claims. Both inflation and interest rates are heading the other way. Writes Business Insider: "The lower inflation of the last 40 years that sent interest rates down and stock market valuations higher has reached a turning point… “We believe we are at a secular turning point for both inflation & interest rates,” Hartnett and a team of BofA strategists said in a note Thursday."

But why? Hartnett and his team continue: We believe 2020 likely marked a secular low point for inflation and interest rates due to a reversal of deflationary secular factors, fiscal excess and an explosive cyclical reopening of the global economy creating excess demand for goods, services and labor."

What does the foregoing suggest for the stock market? Markets have witnessed eight major cycles dating to 1871. Investors hauled in the greatest gains - nearly all of them - in four cycles of the eight. Investors handed over their gains in the remaining four cycles. The silent thief of inflation robbed them. Importantly: The bulking majority of market gains across these cycles were harvested during disinflationary cycles - not inflationary cycles.

A Decade of Losses: What if Mr. Hartnett is correct? What if the 40-year cycle of declining inflation and declining interest rates is ending? What if both are streaking higher? It would suggest hard sledding for stocks during the coming years… as the cycle swings from disinflation… to inflation.

At present valuations, stocks could potentially plummet some 50% or more. And by some estimates, your odds of losing money in the stock market approach 100% - odds that would make the bravest fellow quail. So much for the following decade. What if we train our binoculars on the farthest horizon… 20 years out?

20 Years of Losses? Mr. Michael Carr instructs technical analysis at New York Institute of Finance. Says he: “Starting from this level, stocks are likely to disappoint over the next 20 years.” Twenty years? That is correct: "When the P/E ratio is near all-time highs, as it is now, the S&P 500 delivers annual returns averaging about 5% over the next 20 years. When the P/E ratio is near all-time lows, returns are about three times higher, averaging 15.4% a year over the next 20 years."

Yet as we are fond to say: Climate is what you can expect. Weather is what you actually get. Even the harshest bear market has its joys, as even the harshest winter has its thaws. And the Horae - the Greek goddesses of the seasons - are fickle and capricious beings. Their plans are not known to us. Yet we hazard the overall forecast is poor. Are you outfitted for heavy weather?"

- dailyreckoning.com

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