Sunday, July 24, 2022

The Poet: Fernando Pessoa, “I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I don’t know if the stars rule the world,
Or if Tarot or playing cards
Can reveal anything.
I don’t know if the rolling of dice
Can lead to any conclusion.
But I also don’t know
If anything is attained
By living the way most people do.

Yes, I don’t know
If I should believe in this daily rising sun
Whose authenticity no one can guarantee me,
Or if it would be better (because better or more convenient)
To believe in some other sun,
One that shines even at night,
Some profound incandescence of things,
Surpassing my understanding.

For now...
(Let’s take it slow)
For now
I have an absolutely secure grip on the stair-rail,
I secure it with my hand –
This rail that doesn’t belong to me
And that I lean on as I ascend...
Yes... I ascend...
I ascend to this:
I don’t know if the stars rule the world.”

- Fernando Pessoa

"The True Dream..."

“Maybe we accept the dream has become a nightmare. We tell ourselves that reality is better. We convince ourselves it’s better that we never dream at all. But, the strongest of us, the most determined of us, holds on to the dream or we find ourselves faced with a fresh dream we never considered. We wake to find ourselves, against all odds, feeling hopeful. And, if we’re lucky, we realize in the face of everything, in the face of life the true dream is being able to dream at all.”
- Dr. Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy"

"U.S. Moral Compass"

"Moral compass?!"

 Fool! Surely you jest... this is 'Murica!

Must Watch! "Car Repos Pile Up On Auto Auction Lots; We Are In A Full Blown Collapse"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 7/24/22:
"Car Repos Pile Up On Auto Auction Lots; 
We Are In A Full Blown Collapse"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Streator, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Yet Now..."

“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”
- Arthur C. Clarke, “Glide Path”

"Reality Avoidance"

"Reality Avoidance"
by Morris Berman

"It’s quite amazing how the news is endlessly about filler, which is what I call it. Very little of this has anything to do with reality, which the Mainstream Media and the American people avoid like the plague. What then is real?

1. The empire is in decline; every day, life here gets a little bit worse; all our institutions are corrupt to varying degrees; and there is no turning this situation around.

2. A crucial factor in this decline and irreversibility is the low level of intelligence of the American people. Americans are not only dumb; they are positively antagonistic toward the life of the mind.

3. Relations of power and money determine practically everything. The 3 wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 50% of the population, and this tendency will get worse over time.

4. The value system of the country, and its citizens, is fundamentally wrong-headed. It amounts to little more than hustling, selfishness, narcissism, and a blatant disregard for anyone but oneself. There is a kind of cruelty, or violence, deep in the American soul; many foreign observers and writers have commented on this. Americans are bitter, depressed, and angry, and the country offers very little by way of community or empathy.

5. Along with this is the support of meaningless wars and imperial adventures on the part of most of the population. That we drone-murder unarmed civilians on a weekly basis is barely on the radar screen of the American mind. In essence, the nation has evolved into a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by mindless millions.

Most Americans hide from these depressing, even horrific, realities by what passes for ‘the news’, but also by means of alcohol, opioids, TV, cellphones, suicide, prescription drugs, workaholism, and spectator sports, to name but a few. This stuffing of the Void is probably our primary activity. In a word, we are eating ourselves alive, and only a tiny fraction of the population recognizes this."

"Five Months Into The Special Military Operation – A Summary" (Excerpt)

"Five Months Into The Special Military Operation – A Summary"
by The Saker

Excerpt: "Five months ago, on February 24th, Russia began what she called a “special military operation” (SMO). In very simple terms, this is what Russia has achieved so far: Ukraine has lost about 20% of its territory, about 3 thousand towns and villages, half of the gross national product, and a third of coal production. It completely lost access to the Sea of Azov, and traffic through the Black Sea ports froze due to fighting and mining of waterways. The number of refugees has reached 7 million (source).

But these factoids don’t even begin to tell the full story. There would be many ways that this story could be told, but to begin I want to list a few elements of the official western narrative which have now faceplanted and nobody sane would take seriously. I will present a few them in no specific order (and I will ignore the most idiotic ones, including that Putin is dying of cancer or very sick (check here for 50 headlines about this!) – he is not, to the great chagrin of the CIA – or that Shoigu wants to overthrow him).

“Russia is losing the war, was defeated by the Ukronazis near Kiev, she is running out of ammunition and supplies and is about to collapse”. First, if you look at the size of the Russian force which took the Antonov airport near Kiev (one airborne regiment) and the size of the force which moved by land towards that airport, you can easily convince yourself that this force was not intended to attack or invade Kiev. This force did exactly what it was intended to do, it forces the Ukronazis to move forces to protect Kiev and, thereby, it pinned them down just long enough to establish air superiority, attack and cut off the forces near and in the Donbass, destroy the Ukrainian C4I and almost the entire Ukrainian air force. This took just a few days and once that mission was completed, these forces withdrew as they had literally nothing to gain by staying in place. If anything it is the Ukrainian side which is running out of weapons, supplies and soldiers (more about that later). The Russians have all the firepower they need for many years ahead.

“Russia had to change her plans and tactics because of the heavy losses suffered by the Russian military early in the operation.” Actually, there is a grain of truth here, but not the correct explanation. As I have mentioned several times, the special military operation is “special” because it is an operation which is not a regular combined arms operation. The Russians began the SMO with fewer soldiers than the opposing side, and they privileged maneuver and long range strikes over the taking and holding of towns and cities. Most crucially, the Russians very deliberately tried all they could to minimize Ukrainian casualties and to preserve the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure (unlike the “democratic” countries out there who first destroy power plants, bridges, water stations, etc. to inflict the maximum of “shock and awe” on the civilian population!). The Russians could have easily turned, say, Kiev into Baghdad or Belgrade under US/NATO bombs, but they deliberately chose to save as many lives and civilian infrastructure as possible, even at the cost of lives of Russian soldiers).

[Sidebar: a perfect example is the small town of Avdeevka, near Donetsk, which is heavily fortified and from which the Ukronazis shell not only Donetsk, but also other towns such as Makeevka killing people and destroying the civilian infrastructure every day. The Russians could use their TOS-1A “Solntsepyok”, airborne FAE, FAB-3000 bombs, heavy mortars and plenty of other weapons to simply turn all of Avdeevka into a lifeless desert. But here is the problem: Avdeevka is full of civilians, including relatives of LDNR combatants. Furthermore, if Russia used such weapons, it would only feed the Anglo-Zionist propaganda to create a “victastar” city à la Sarajevo or even accuse the Russians of a Srebrenica-like “genocide”. The precedent of Bucha is something which limits the Russians in two major ways: first, it makes it almost impossible to retreat, now that we know that the Ukronazis will massacre all the “collaborators” in the area left by Russian forces and, second, it means that any major strike, no matter how militarily justified, will be turned into a “massacre” just like in Bosnia, Kosovo or Syria.

What apparently did take the Russians by surprise is the willingness of the Ukrainian forces in some towns to attack the Russian columns even though the local authorities seemed to have indicated to the Russians that, like in, say, Kherson, their city would not resist. Simply put, they chose the Mariupol model rather than the Kherson model. This choice was mainly dictated by the very powerful Nazi death squads who would at best arrest anybody negotiating with Russia and, at worst, simply shoot them on the spot. The Russians found plenty of bodies of executed Ukrainian soldiers.

But this does not tell the full story either. The truth is that by the laws of warfare the Ukraine lost the war in less than a week."
Read full article here:
Hey Good Citizen, you're paying at least $60 billion for this mess instead of
 helping the desperate We the People. Don't you want to know the truth about it?

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Vax Lies – Greatest Trust Destroyer in Human History"


"CV19 Vax Lies – 
Greatest Trust Destroyer in Human History"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Steve Kirsch was a Big Tech CEO who retired from his job after he was double vaxed for Covid 19. Not long after, he learned the entire injection and Covid narrative did not match the science or the facts. The vaccines, for example, were not safe and effective as he was led to believe. Healthy people he knew were dropping dead after they were vaxed. So, Kirsch who holds two degrees from MIT, started a quest to learn everything about CV19 and the so-called vaccines used to treat it. In the process, he became a warrior for truth and posted his cutting-edge journalism and analysis that exposed huge Covid19 lies on his wildly popular Substack.com site. Kirsch explains, “I actually look at the science to see if that backs up what the recommendations are, and every time, I am surprised to find out the actual science doesn’t match what we are being told. This is true for the vaccines, this is true for the masks, and for basically any of the interventions we have been told about. The ‘six feet rule,’ even something as simple as that, you can’t find a paper that says it’s 6 feet as opposed to 7 feet, or 5 feet or whatever. It’s much more complicated than that.”

Kirsch says, “Whenever I have an audience, I ask people, ‘How many people in your household died from Covid?’ There will be one hand or two hands. Then I ask, ‘How many people do you know died from the Covid vaccine?’ The last time I asked that question, it was a 7 to 1 ratio. 7 times more people reported a death from the vaccines. If they are wrong even by a factor of 10 it is still a disaster beyond proportion. I saw a tweet from a doctor saying how much longer are we going to pretend that these (vax death) incidents are just bad luck? He is basically saying we know the vaccine is causing this, but we can’t speak out because we will be fired and have our hospital privileges revoked. We will have our licenses to practice medicine revoked. This is why you are not seeing doctors who realize this speaking out. They all have to remain silent.” Kirsch goes on to say, “This is the biggest catastrophe in American history. Even a member of the EU parliament recently said this. She said these vaccines are the biggest disaster ever.”

The massive amount of victims of this vaccine fraud are waking up to the fact they have been poisoned and murdered. Kirsch says, “They are not going to be happy. I don’t want to predict what they are going to do, but a lot of people are going to be extremely upset. I think at minimum, they will not trust anything from the CDC, FDA and NIH ever again. That’s at a minimum, and they won’t trust the mainstream media either. They won’t trust representations from Congress because most of the people in Congress are saying get your vaccine. This will destroy trust in the mainstream media, Congress, in the mainstream medical community, in government agencies and medical science in general. It will be the greatest trust destroyer in human history, these Covid vaccines. This is not just in the U.S., this is worldwide. When people figure out that they were told by their government to take a shot that was way more likely to kill them than to save them, people are going to be livid. It won’t just be a few people that will be livid, it will be a lot of people.” There is much more in the 1-hour and 10-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter from USAWatchdog.com as he goes
 One on One with CV19 truth warrior Steve Kirsch:
Related:

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: The Biggest LIE Ever Sold"

Gregory Mannarino, 7/24/22:
"Markets, A Look Ahead: The Biggest LIE Ever Sold"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"Massive Price Increases At Walmart! This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 7/24/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Walmart! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing massive price increases on most products! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:

Saturday, July 23, 2022

"I Will..."

 
And so will you... Never give up!

"Peak Focus Soft House Study Music with Beta Isochronic Tones"

Full screen recommended
"Peak Focus Soft House Study Music with Beta Isochronic Tones"
by Jason Lewis

Headphones Are Not Required
What does this track do? A soft house upbeat study music mix with beta wave isochronic tones. Part of my peak focus for complex tasks series.Designed to produce a deep focus mental state while studying or working. This session stimulates Beta, SMR and Alpha, alternating in 2 minute increments to help keep the user relaxed and engaged. Note: SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) relates to the frequency range between 12 – 15Hz. It’s associated with sensory processing and motor control. Stimulating this can result in relaxed focus and improved attention. This session is meant to speed up the brain while keeping the left hemisphere dominant (good for attention, concentration and reducing emotional response and hyperactivity). ADD and similar disorders are often characterized by “slow-wave” EEG patterns, particularly in the left frontal region. As such, this session stimulates the left brain hemisphere with Beta frequencies and the right with SMR.

Can it be used to help with studying and if so, when should you listen to it? Yes, it can be helpful to use while studying, and if you read through the many comments about this track, you’ll see that many people have successfully used it for studying. You can either listen to it while you are studying, to get your brain into a good mental state when you need it. Or if you are someone that gets a bit distracted by music while studying, listen to it just before you begin.

How Loud Should The Volume Be? There is varying advice and opinions on the impact of volume with brainwave entrainment, with some saying the louder it is the more impact it has. From my own experience, my advice is to play it at a volume level you feel comfortable with. The main thing to consider is that it should be loud enough to hear the repetitive isochronic tones, so you don’t want it so quiet you can hardly hear them. But you also don’t want it so loud that its uncomfortable for you. Somewhere in the middle is my recommendation.

Use this session in the morning or afternoon, to train your brain for better cognition, such as clearer and faster thinking. You can either sit somewhere quiet and comfortable with your eyes closed and give your brain a nice workout, or you can also listen to this while doing an activity that requires a boost in concentration, like studying.

How long should you listen for to get a good effect? It takes around 6 minutes for your brainwaves to fall in step with the tones and become entrained. It then takes time to be guided along the frequency range used in the track. Listening to about half way through is the minimum in my opinion, but 30 minutes is the optimum and preferred length to listen for.

IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Drink some water – Make sure you are well hydrated before listening to brainwave entrainment.
WHY? Your brain is made up of around 75% water, so it needs plenty of water to function well. When you stimulate your brain in this way, you’re increasing electrical activity and blood flow in the brain and giving your brain a good workout, so it can be a good idea to drink before listening, so that your brain can fire on all cylinders.

• It is not recommended to listen to this while driving or operating machinery.
WHY? Brainwave entrainment involves a process of stimulating your brainwaves and changing your mental state. While this is safe to do and use in normal situations, it can sometimes zone you out during the track, as you focus in on the sound of the tones. This could result in you being distracted temporarily, which is not a good thing while you’re driving or operating machinery. Some people also experience tingling and other sensations from the stimulation. While that might feel quite nice sitting in a comfortable chair at home, it could cause you to be distracted while driving and result in an accident.

• It is not recommended to listen to this while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or any mind altering substance.
WHY? When your brain is under the influence of drugs or alcohol it’s not operating to it’s full capacity, and you react differently to stimulation and situations, compared to when you are sober. So as a precaution and because I don’t know how you will react in that situation, I recommend you do not use it in that situation.

• Who should NOT listen to this audio? Those who should not listen to this video/audio include: Those who are prone to or have had seizures, epilepsy, pregnant or wear a pacemaker should NOT listen to this video/audio.
WHY? There is insufficient research data in this area, so as a precaution, if you are among the categories listed above, I would recommend you consult a doctor or medical professional before listening to this video/audio.”
Whether you want to know it or not we're all in the fight of our lives, for our lives. Some of you reading this will not survive, and I may not either, so I for one will take any edge I can get, and so should you. This works, I suggest you use it.
- CP

Gonzalo Lira, "Zelensky Is About To Be Assassinated By The Americans"

Gonzalo Lira, 7/23/22:
"Zelensky Is About To Be Assassinated By The Americans"
"Because I've lost access to all my accounts and channels to the SBU (Ukraine's secret police), I don't have any way to promote my content, so please be so kind as to share this video with anyone whom you think might learn something. GL"
My only other social media: https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968
Comments here:

"The Sun Has Riz"

"The Sun Has Riz"
Soaring temperatures prompt the president to 
declare war... on energy independence.
by Joel Bowman

“The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet.”
~ Old hobo saying

Austin, Texas -  "We’re on the road today, dear reader, headed west from the Lone Star State’s largest city, Houston, toward her quaint capital, Austin. It’s a fine day for a road trip... even as the sun beats down mercilessly overhead. The mercury will rise to 103 degrees Fahrenheit by high noon.

Happily, we are not making the journey in a horse-drawn wagon. Or riding the rails. Or traipsing it on foot, with or without a ball and chain around our ankle. Instead, we drive a modern automobile... with an internal combustion engine capable of producing the power of 300 horses (give or take a few old Jacks and Rubys). Our ride gets 25/miles to the gallon on the broad, open highways; 19 in the city. It’s comfortable, easy going. And most importantly, we’re not likely to fall from our saddle, landing face down in the dirt, dazed and confused with heat exhaustion.

Moreover, in an embarrassment of riches that is none of our own making, we enjoy air conditioning, regular pitstops for beef jerky, iced coffee and bottled water, plentiful, potable and transported to the middle of nowhere from some far off natural spring. The station attendants are friendly, loquacious, and wish us well on our journey. And when we mount our ride once more, a cheerful soundtrack spurs us on toward the horizon...

"You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can't remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

(Granted, our view from the window was of the piney woods blending into hill country... with nary a desert in site).

Such are the myriad pleasures, amenities and conveniences afforded us in the modern world. The industrial revolution, aided in no small part by cheap, plentiful, energy-dense oil, catapulted man into an age that would have been unrecognizable to all but the wealthiest kings and sultans of bygone eras.

The Gift Horse’s Mouth: What does Modern Man do, having been gifted this incredible bounty? Does he pause, even for a moment, to consider how difficult his life might be without... oh, say... fertilizer for his crops, fuel for his jet planes, grease for his factories, even buttons for his shirt? And what about his medicines? Petrochemicals are used to manufacture his analgesics, antihistamines, antibiotics, antibacterials. Even his solar panels depend upon petroleum-based resins and plastic components in their photovoltaic cells. Any “gee, thanks for that” or “isn’t this pleasant, not freezing to death or frying alive”? Nah...

As of Friday, President Joe Biden had stopped short of declaring a full blown “climate emergency,” but signaled to democratic lawmakers that, in the absence of congressional support, he would forge ahead on his own. From the Associated Press: "Washington (AP): [A Climate Emergency declaration] would allow Biden to redirect spending to accelerate renewable energy such as wind and solar power and speed the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The declaration also could be used as a legal basis to block oil and gas drilling or other projects, although such actions would likely be challenged in court by energy companies or Republican-led states."

Meanwhile, the administration has moved to block oil and gas production on federal lands - where a quarter of American oil is produced – and introduced a five year offshore lease plan that would effectively block offshore drilling in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Even on private land, the regulatory landscape is hardly conducive to free-flowing energy independence. From RealClearEnergy: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks the authority to ban fracking, but is considering regulating America’s most productive and cost effective oil field into irrelevance. The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico accounts for 40% of America’s oil production and 15% of its natural gas production. Undeterred by the Supreme Court’s recent rebuke of its industry-remaking regulations, the EPA is contemplating using ozone standards to force Texas and New Mexico to curb oil drilling, potentially jeopardizing 25% of America’s gasoline supply."

And yet even if the administration encouraged more domestic drilling (in contrast to the president’s repeated calls for OPEC to pump more oil), that oil must be refined to turn it into gasoline and diesel fuel. However, in the face of increasing renewable fuel mandates, gasoline and diesel refining capacity in the United States has been declining for years, as many refineries are either closing or converting to biofuel refineries.

American workers/voters/drivers who wish to raise the question of energy independence – and $5 per gallon gas prices – with their elected president will have to catch him when he’s not off fist-pumping the Saudi Crown Prince or sending delegations to Venezuela to make hat-in-hand requests. “Please, Mr. Maduro... can we have some more?”

Musical Interlude: Moby, "Love Of Strings"

Full screen a must!
Moby, "Love Of Strings"
Life... magnificent, precious Life.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"How did galaxies form in the early universe? To help find out, astronomers surveyed a patch of dark night sky with the Very Large Telescope array in Chile to find and count galaxies that formed when our universe was very young. Analysis of the distribution of some distant galaxies (redshifts near 2.5) found an enormous conglomeration of galaxies that spanned 300 million light years and contained about 5,000 times the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dubbed Hyperion, it is currently the largest and most massive proto-supercluster yet discovered in the early universe.
A proto-supercluster is a group of young galaxies that is gravitationally collapsing to create a supercluster, which itself a group of several galaxy clusters, which itself is a group of hundreds of galaxies, which itself is a group of billions of stars. In the featured visualization, massive galaxies are depicted in white, while regions containing a large amount of smaller galaxies are shaded blue. Identifying and understanding such large groups of early galaxies contributes to humanity's understanding of the composition and evolution of the universe as a whole."

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. 

With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance.

Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

"The Truth..."

"When we're headed toward an outcome that's too horrible to face, that's when we go looking for a second opinion. And sometimes, the answer we get just confirms our worst fears. But sometimes, it can shed new light on the problem, make you see it in a whole new way. After all the opinions have been heard and every point of view has been considered, you finally find what you're after - the truth. But the truth isn't where it ends, that's just where you begin again with a whole new set of questions."
- "Grays Anatomy"

'If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.'
- Oscar Wilde

The Poet: David Whyte, "The Opening of Eyes"

"The Opening of Eyes"

"That day I saw beneath dark clouds
The passing light over the water,
And I heard the voice of the world speak out.
I knew then as I have before,
Life is no passing memory of what has been,
Nor the remaining pages of a great book
Waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things,
Seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years of secret conversing
Speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees
Before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
As if to enter heaven and finding himself astonished,
Opened at last,
Fallen in love
With Solid Ground."

~ David Whyte, 
"Songs for Coming Home"

"Promise Me..."

 

“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”

“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”
by MN Gordon

“In 1976, economist Herbert Stein, father of Ben Stein, the economics professor in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, observed that U.S. government debt was on an unsustainable trajectory. He, thus, established Stein’s Law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Stein may have been right in theory. Yet the unsustainable trend of U.S. government debt outlasted his life.  Herbert Stein died in 1999, several decades before the crackup. Those reading this may not be so lucky.

Sometimes the end of the world comes and goes, while some of us are still here. We believe our present episode of debt, deficits, and state sponsored economic destruction, is one of these times.. We’ll have more on this in just a moment. But first, let’s peer back several hundred years. There we find context, edification, and instruction.

In 1696, William Whiston, a protégé of Isaac Newton, wrote a book. It had the grandiose title, “A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things.” In it he proclaimed, among other things, that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet. Mr. Whiston took his book very serious. The good people of London took it very serious too. Perhaps it was Whiston’s conviction. Or his great fear of comets. But, for whatever reason, it never occurred to Londoners that he was a Category 5 quack.

Like Neil Ferguson, and his mathematical biology cohorts at Imperial College, London, Whiston’s research filled a void. Much like today’s epidemiological models, the science was bunk. Nonetheless, the results supplied prophecies of the apocalypse to meet a growing demand. It was just a matter of time before Whiston’s research would cause trouble…

Judgement Day: In 1736, William Whiston crunched some data and made some calculations. He projected these calculations out and saw the future. And what he witnessed scared him mad. He barked. He ranted. He foamed at the mouth to anyone who would listen. Pretty soon he’d stirred up his neighbors with a prophecy that the world would be destroyed on October 13th of that year when a comet would collide with the earth.

Jonathan Swift, in his work, “A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London on a Rumour of the Day of Judgment,” quoted Whiston: “Friends and fellow-citizens, all speculative science is at an end: the period of all things is at hand; on Friday next this world shall be no more. Put not your confidence in me, brethren; for tomorrow morning, five minutes after five, the truth will be evident; in that instant the comet shall appear, of which I have heretofore warned you. As ye have heard, believe. Go hence, and prepare your wives, your families, and friends, for the universal change.”

Clergymen assembled to offer prayers. Churches filled to capacity. Rich and paupers alike feared their judgement. Lawyers worried about their fate. Judges were relieved they were no longer lawyers. Teetotalers got smashed. Drunks got sober. Bankers forgave their debtors. Criminals, to be executed, expressed joy.

The wealthy gave their money to beggars. Beggars gave it back to the wealthy. Several rich and powerful gave large donations to the church; no doubt, reserving first class tickets to heaven. Many ladies confessed to their husbands that one or more of their children were bastards. Husbands married their mistresses. And on and on…

The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Wake, had to officially deny this prediction to ease the public consternation. But it did little good. Crowds gathered at Islington, Hampstead, and the surrounding fields, to witness the destruction of London, which was deemed the “beginning of the end.” Then, just like Whiston said, a comet appeared. Prayers were made. Deathbed confessions were shared. And at the moment of maximum fear, something remarkable happened: the world didn’t end. The comet did not collide with earth. It was merely a near miss.

The experience of Whiston, and his pseudoscience prophecy, shows that predictions of the end of the world come and go while people still remain. Sometimes the fallout of these predictions, and the foolishness they provoke, is limited. Other times the foolishness they provoke leads to catastrophe. Here’s what we mean…

“In the long run we are all dead,” said 20th Century economist and Fabian socialist, John Maynard Keynes. This was Keynes rationale for why governments should borrow from the future to fund economic growth today. Of course, politicians love an academic theory that gives them cover to intervene in the economy. This is especially so when it justifies spending other people’s money to buy votes. Keynesian economics, and in particular, counter-cyclical stimulus, does just that.

U.S. politicians have attempted to borrow and spend the nation to prosperity for the last 80 years. Over the past decade, the Federal Reserve has aggressively printed money to fund Washington’s epic borrowing binge. Fed Chair Jay Powell confirmed that the Fed will pursue policies of dollar destruction to, somehow, print new jobs.

The world as it was once known – where a dollar was as good as gold – has come and gone. Today, in life after the end of that world, we are witnessing the illusion of wealth, erected by four generations of borrowing and spending, crumble before our eyes. Moreover, contrary to Keynes, in the long run we are not all dead. In fact, in the long run we are all very much alive. And we are all living with the compounding consequences of shortsighted economic policies.”

"This Is The Most Hardcore Weather Map We’ve Ever Seen"

DIY Meteorologist: 
"This Is The Most Hardcore Weather Map We’ve Ever Seen"

The Daily "Near You?"

Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Warning! Recession Ahead and a Plane Crash"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 7/23/22:
"Warning! Recession Ahead and a Plane Crash"
"You can ignore the news all you want. If you buy anything you feel inflation. If are in business you can see that there are major problems with the economy right now. We are in a recession. Plus, I cover the Huntington Beach plane crash."
Comments here:

"Massive Price Increases Everywhere! This Is Frustrating!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 7/23/22:
"Massive Price Increases Everywhere! This Is Frustrating!"
"In today's vlog we are noticing massive price increases all over the country! We are here to discuss skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
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Jim Kunstler, "Epic Collapse Is Upon Us"

"Epic Collapse Is Upon Us"
by Jim Kunstler

Editor’s note: The old world order appears to be unraveling before our eyes, greatly accelerated by the war in Ukraine. Where it all ends up remains to be seen. But today, James Howard Kunstler shows you why he believes an “epic crackup is upon us.”

"What’s wrong with the world? Let me count the ways… The Western gambit against Ukraine is a bust, a foolish miscalculation that was obvious from the start. All it accomplished was to reveal the pitiful dependence of our European allies on Russian oil and gas, leaving their economies good and truly scuppered without them. The Russians will likely end up with control of the Black Sea and probably the Ukraine breadbasket as well. So now Europe will starve and freeze.

Did they really want to commit suicide like that? Do the populations of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the rest just aim to roll into oblivion? Probably not. Rather, we are entering the season of upended governments. Europe is suddenly a magnificent mess with governments falling like duckpins, industry shuttered from lack of fuel and citizens rising up against insane World Economic Forum (WEF) diktats to drastically reduce livestock and shut down farming - in effect declaring food production an unacceptable environmental hazard.

Cutting Your Own Throat: This, of course, after the governments of Euroland cut their own throats by self-sanctioning themselves out of Russian oil and natgas. It’s especially bizarre in Germany, the largest economy of the region, which had just this year conclusively realized and admitted that its “green energy” policy was a complete bust, forcing them to shut down major wind turbine installations and resort to producing electricity with coal. Nice job, greenies. Your idiotic policies are forcing economies to turn to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Of course, the governments of Merkel, and then Olaf Scholz, have revealed themselves as the sheerest hypocritical idiots.

The globalist stooges implanted everywhere will probably be overthrown. I can envision a scenario where NATO and the Euro Union will dissolve in impotent ignominy, and the various countries involved will have to renegotiate their destinies, forgoing U.S. advice and coercion. They might even become adversaries of the USA, not allies. Did you forget we fought two wars against Germany not so long ago? And all those countries have been fighting each other since the Bronze Age, too.

History’s a Prankster: It may seem unbelievable, but history never stops reminding us what a prankster it is. A strange and terrible inversion has occurred in this Fourth Turning. Somehow, Mr. Putin’s Russia will be left to represent what remains of international rule-of-law while the Western democracies sink deeper into a morass of deranged despotism. Anyway, they are too busy conducting war against their own people to even pretend to assist their Ukrainian proxies. We can’t forget that “Joe Biden” crammed nearly $60 billion into the Ukraine money-laundering machine since February, which will just spew hallucinated capital back out into increasingly disordered financial markets.

Look: The indexes are up worldwide this morning. Why? Because global business is so good? I don’t think so. Meanwhile, there are reports of huge amounts of Western-supplied weapons turning up on the black market. Apparently, some Ukrainians are even selling these weapons to the Russians!

“An Epic Crackup Is Upon Us”: An epic crackup is upon us. Every place in the world is primed for meltdown, and a few lands in the periphery are already sinking. Sri Lanka is broke and out of gas after being set up as a WEF low-carbon ecostate experiment.

Panama is in revolt over extreme government corruption, food scarcity and the aftereffects of an especially severe two-year-long COVID lockdown that the rest of the world hardly heard about - perhaps because China has operational control over the vital Panama Canal and the CCP has operational control over the World Health Organization, which set up Panama as a lockdown lab project.

In the U.S., moving toward autumn, what we have to look forward to is the blatant desperation of the claque behind “Joe Biden.” Their propaganda machine will probably go all out on climate change and renewed COVID hysteria.

There are always heat waves in midsummer. CNN acts shocked that it’s over 100 degrees in Texas. Really? Never seen that before?

Meanwhile, behind the news about emerging Omicron subvariants, the vaccine injuries and deaths mount and the CDC pretends not to notice. They are just lying as usual. You’re used to it. You pretend it’s to be expected. You’ve forgotten that it wasn’t always so. Soon, it will matter.

Help Is on the Way - A Few Years From Now: Meanwhile, the November midterm elections are only a few months away. Democrats are panicking they’re going to get smoked at the polls. Well, here’s a prediction: A new pandemic is declared in early October, complete with lockdowns, while Google partners with Facebook to roll out a new vote-by-phone app. They’ll say it’s all necessary “to save our democracy.” By some miracle, then, the Democrats add 30 more seats to their house majority and five in the Senate. Then we enter the new frontier of the Green New Deal and Build Back Better. In other words, the USA heads towards complete collapse.

Speaking of “Joe Biden,” whose idea was it to send the wind-up doll president to Saudi Arabia? I can just imagine what went on in the chamber in private with “JB” and MBS (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman), virtual autocrat of the oil-soaked desert land. And wasn’t that fist pump just priceless? What concessions did “Joe Biden” win from the Saudis? Saudi Arabia graciously agreed to bump up its oil production somewhere in the 2025–2027 time frame - a real triumph for U.S. diplomacy. Nice. Doesn’t really do much for us in the short term, does it?

People, Get Ready: And now the ground is even shifting under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as China’s extravagant matrix of city-building, mortgage debt and banking fraud rattles its financial system. What a surprise!

Potent as it has been in bribing politicians around the world, infiltrating governments and cultural institutions in every land and getting the news media to do their bidding, the CCP is apparently losing its grip on the Chinese people, who are sick of being locked down, tracked and swindled. The tanks are out. This is not the same movie as Tiananmen Square, 1989. This is the CCP bankruptcy, an epic event that will thunder through “the global south,” sending Africa into famine and chaos and South America into yet another rotation of elites.

Pretty soon, it’s going to be every country for itself in this main event of the fourth turning (aka the long emergency). Global unity is a mirage, along with all the preposterous narratives of a world government. And in every country for itself, it’s going to be every community, every family, every person for itself until, emergently and painfully, everyday life can be reorganized from the ground up. People, get ready."

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/22/22"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/22/22"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"The Democrats are trying to push a new bill, and openly push the idea of gun confiscation. This bill was originally pushed more than a year ago as an “assault weapons ban.” It’s now being revived, but why now? Even after three reaffirming decisions by the Supreme Court on the 2nd Amendment, the Democrats are not only pushing more gun control, but confiscation of firearms. What is going on for them to be pushing this losing hand at this time. It sounds like they are desperate to stay in control even if the entire financial system comes crashing down as many are predicting.

Rand Paul tried to reaffirm the power of Congress, and only Congress has the right to declare war. That was shot down in the Senate before it even got off the ground this week. So, can NATO declare war for America? Apparently, it can, and that is certainly the direction our feckless leaders are taking us in when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. Heaven help us all if it goes nuclear.

It’s another week, and there are more “unexpected deaths” of young people for no apparent reason. Maybe it’s the bioweapon they have passed off as a vaccine. It clearly does not work well as a vaccine because, just this week, cheated-in President Joe Biden announced he had Covid. He also announced he had cancer, but the White house quickly walked that back.

The economy is in turmoil and going down everywhere.In China, tanks are stopping bank runs. In Italy, former head of the ECB and now former president Mario Draghi has resigned because the economy is foundering under globalist mismanagement. In America, BlackRock hedge fund lost a record $1.7 trillion in the first six months of 2022. Housing is tanking, office space is less than half full as unemployment spikes. Everywhere you look you have third world economic woes because of insolvency. Financial writer Bill Holter says, “The whole world is now a banana republic.”

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 7/22/22:

"How It Really Is"

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."
- Benjamin Franklin