The Poet: Czeslaw Milosz, “A Song On The End Of The World”

“A Song On The End Of The World”

“On the day the world ends

A bee circles a clover,

A fisherman mends a glimmering net.

Happy porpoises jump in the sea,

By the rainspout young sparrows are playing

And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends

Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,

A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,

Vegetable peddlers shout in the street

And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,

The voice of a violin lasts in the air

And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder

Are disappointed.

And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps

Do not believe it is happening now.

As long as the sun and the moon are above,

As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,

As long as rosy infants are born

No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet

Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,

Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:

There will be no other end of the world,

There will be no other end of the world.”

~  Czeslaw Milosz

The Daily "Near You?"

Hawkins, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Douglas Macgregor, "A Massive Offensive In Ukraine"

Douglas Macgregor - The Bottom Line 12/21/22:

"A Massive Offensive In Ukraine"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLgVel1wYr

o

Related:

Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 12/21/22:

"Putin Meets Lukashenko in Minsk; US to Supply 

Patriot Systems to Ukraine; Will Belarus Join SMO?"

"We are joined by Vadim Gigin, a Belarusian historian, political scientist and publicist. Candidate of Historical Sciences, editor-in-chief of the popular socio-political magazine "Belarusskaya Dumka". He was Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Belarusian State University between 2016 and 2021."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Acceptance..."

"Acceptance is a crucial step forward for those who prefer the idea of living this life over simply existing within it. Accept all that you've said and what you've done, because you cannot change your past. Accept the idea of the unknown, because the future is the unknown waiting patiently to reveal itself. Accept the person you have become thus far in your journey, because you are the only person who will be there with you when you finish it. Do all of this so that you may never find yourself having to accept regret that haunts you at two a.m., leaving you sweaty and broken hearted. All you have is this minute; not this hour, or this day, or this year. Live in this minute so that you won't get stuck simply existing with your guilty past, or with nothing but anxiety for the future."

- Margaret E. Rise

"We Are Watching It COLLAPSE Right Before Our Eyes, No One Is Stopping It"

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 12/21/22:

"We Are Watching It COLLAPSE Right Before Our Eyes, 

No One Is Stopping It"

"Zelensky flies to America to pick up his new $47 billion dollar Christmas gift from Congress. The new $1.7 trillion spending bill comes as the U.S. is facing a massive recession, layoffs, and soaring inflation. Germany announces a huge spike in excess deaths. And the Pentagon thanks one of its biggest propagandists."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"We're so freakin' doomed!"

- The Mogambo Guru

"Banks Are Going Bankrupt"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 12/21/22:

"Banks Are Going Bankrupt"

"We are seeing something that we never thought we would see in the economy. Banks and mortgage companies are going out of business and filing bankruptcy."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Gregory Mannarino, "Expanding War! A Freefall Economy, Hyper-Inflating Global Debt"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/21/22:

"Expanding War! A Freefall Economy, 

Hyper-Inflating Global Debt"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 12/21/22:

"Strange Prices At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing massive price increases! 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:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Heaven And Hell..."

“Many people don’t fear a hell after this life and that’s because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn’t end. The kind of hell that doesn’t burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can’t see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It’s where you feel freedom, where you’re not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing.”

- C. JoyBell C.

o

John Milton, 

"Paradise Lost: Book 1" (1674 version)

o

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

Greg Hunter, US Government in Full Scale Implosion Because of Corruption"

"US Government in Full Scale 

Implosion Because of Corruption"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says the U.S. government is so fraudulent that it will self-destruct much sooner than later. CAF predicts, “If you look at FTX, my question is how much of the money sent to Ukraine got laundered right back for the (2022 midterm) election? So, to me, Ukraine is not a destination point, it is a through put point. At this point, and I hate to say it, but we are in full scale implosion. The corruption is that bad. 

 That’s why I am telling you what we need is sovereignty. The federal government is not going to deliver. The financial coup has reached a point where if you want sovereignty, the only person who can deliver that is your state governor and your legislature. If you’ve got a great state AG, if you have great legislature, if you have a great governor, you better start supporting them. They are the people that can protect your sovereignty. You need governmental sovereignty if you are going to have individual sovereignty, and you better do it now. You have no time to be entertained by Joe Biden, Trump and Hunter Biden.”

The federal government corruption was turbocharged in 2019. CAF says, “While everyone was focusing on the teenage sex life of the Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh, the House, the Senate, the White House, Democrat and Republican, both sides of the aisle got together and approved Statement 56 of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) which said they could keep secret books. That was everybody - together. So, there is no Right vs Left. There is no Trump vs Biden. There is a machine in control of a spending machine that is financed with our taxes, and debt borrowed in our name, that is being sold into our pension funds and retirement accounts. 

That machine, to keep balancing the books, is implementing a depopulation plan. That is the reality that has to be faced and changing the President won’t matter. If you want to make real progress against the machine, you’ve got to talk turkey about where your money is going, who are the local leaders and who are your state legislators who are going to support you when this machine fails you completely. If it doesn’t fail you in 2023, it will fail you in 2024. So, you better be ready.”

CAF says a big trend in 2023 that is already underway is people realizing the CV19 injections were not meant to save you but harm and kill you. CAF say the CV19 injections were a bioweapon meant for depopulation, and everybody in America will know this in 2023. CAF says, “The mainstream media has done a good job painting a different picture, but at some point, you cannot defy reality, and that is coming out. We have already seen it translate into market action. We see life insurance companies trading down 30% and the funeral home business trading up 20%. That is a 50% divergence.”

CAF talks about the importance of physical gold and silver in the not-so-distant future. CAF also talks about using cash, growing clean food, paying down debts, Central Bank Digital Currency, places to live to weather the coming storm, taxes and the strength of binding together for sovereignty against the machine.

In closing, CAF says, “Get out of fear and stay out of fear. You think a snowflake is weak and fragile until enough of them get together, and then they can shut down New York City. If we can face it, God can fix it. Don’t go to fear.” There is much more in the 1-hour and 5-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

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

the Publisher of The Solari Report, Catherine Austin Fitts.

- https://rumble.com/

"The Most Inaccurate (But Funniest) Predictions For 2023, Guaranteed"

"The Most Inaccurate (But Funniest)

 Predictions For 2023, Guaranteed"

by John Wilder

"Here is the annual Wilder Prediction Page, proven so far to be absolutely 0% right. A few years ago I started to put actual predictions about economic and political stuff out quarterly. Real ones. The rationale behind that is, if I put it in writing and then revisited it, I at least owned it. Those were absolutely the least popular posts I did. They were like posts that were drenched in mosquito-carried Ebola AIDS. I got the hint, “Shut up and play your piano, Wilder.” I can see the reason, frankly. That was a post about me and my thinking, and it wasn’t what I do best.

What do I do best online? Writing about life, philosophy, and nonsense. I also can prove that the Right can be funnier than the Left. This is becoming more difficult in 2022, because they keep letting Kamala and Joe say words into a microphone. So, welcome back to the nonsense! In chronological order, here are my predictions for 2023.

January: Russia appoints Charlie Sheen as the head of the Stavka. He immediately gives the entire army a ration of Tiger Blood, declares they are “Winning” and passes out in a pool of vomit. We have no idea whose vomit, exactly, since “you can’t really dust for vomit.” Sheen proves to be the most effective commander for the Russian army since Zhukov.

Six movies are released featuring Nic Cage, and seven people actually see three of them.

February: Kamala Harris is featured in a major policy speech, talking about the massive snowstorm that hit the East Coast in early February. The results were catastrophic, causing Chuck Schumer’s hair to freeze in place on Nancy Pelosi’s thighs. Harris notes that this is “evidence of global warming, where the globe, which is a round thing hanging in space, is warming, which makes things cold because space has COVID.”

The California Legislature votes to allow “consenting adults to have sex with animals in schoolyards as long as the animals have claws or fangs, since that is a sign of consent.” Governor Gavin Newsom signs the bill publicly, though the signing was difficult since both of his hands were wrapped in gauze.

March: Volodymyr Zelensky demands the West send him “seventy bazillion dollars to rebuild the Ukraine on and, like, ten gajillion tanks” and that the heads of state of the EU personally retile the bathrooms in his Florida mansion. “Be careful with the grout!”

Wilder, Wealthy and Wise© welcomes the 500,000,000,000,000th visitor, as it becomes the most popular website in the galaxy, as the hivemind of Melexcor III learns to appreciate dad jokes.

April: The new COVID variant mRNA booster shot for Super-Mega-Death-Cannibal-Famine® COVID is approved by the FDA because “Omigod, why won’t you damn people panic again!” Australia implements “Super Peaceful Completely Voluntary We Mean It Leisure Camps”.

Disney® releases its new children’s film, "Honey, I Turned All Our Children Hyperactive, Bipolar, Transgender, Gay, And Multiracial."  The three families that have hyperactive, bipolar, transgender, gay, and multiracial children attend, and the film’s three-week box office in 2,000 theaters is $90. Disney© blames the audience for being, well, you get the idea. The film loses $350 million at the box office.

May: Elon Musk pulls off a rubber mask and indicates that, underneath, he was really Elon Musk. “I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you pesky kids.”

The Supreme Court rules in the case of Idiots v. Rationality, that, “Uh, really, that’s a dude. He may be wearing a dress, but, per the original understanding of the framers of the Constitution, that’s totally a dude.”

June: Joe Biden announces, for the thirteenth time, that he’s running for president. “I promise to make America great again after the problems of the housing bubble that George W. Bush created. America will once again be great, starting in 2009!”

Argentina declares war on Great Britain over the Falkland Islands. Again. They send their victorious World Cup® team in the initial invasion. Great Britain counter-attacks with what they call “food”. France surrenders.

July: I might go on vacation for a week. Maybe someplace where I don’t need air conditioning.

California governor Gavin Newsom declares “Citizenship Day” where everyone in the whole, wide world becomes a citizen of California. Oklahoma declares war. “No way are we gonna do that.”

August: California becomes part of “Greater Oklahoma.” “If only we had greater legal magazine capacities,” said Gavin Newsom before he was headed to a minimum-security prison with knitting classes in southern Oklahoma.

Biden announces that gasoline is now illegal. “People have been burning that stuff up! Not on my watch. Now the only people that can have gasoline are,” (checks teleprompter) “people who are in disadvantaged communities that are the victims of systematic race horses.”

September: The 2023 NFL® season starts, with a new team name in Cincinnati. The name, “Bengals” has been described as “transphobic” by NFL© Commissioner RuPaul, “They aren’t “Been gals, they’re totally gals!” Their new team name is the Cincinnati LGBT 2S+.

The Beatles reunion is complete as Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney engage in a steel cage death match over who like John Lennon the least. Neither ex-Beatle survive, since Ringo inexplicably chose hand grenades as a close-in melee weapon.

October: Dammit. More crap about the English royal family. Oh, wait, that’s every month. This month Meghan tells how King Charles made her pick cotton on the plantation in south Brighton for 20 hours a day because she didn’t curtsey properly. Markel is beheaded in Piccadilly Square, and Queen Elizabeth II rises from the grave and fights Mecha George Washington on Skull Island. Oh, wait, that was a dream I had. Nevermind.

On Halloween, children are warned not to get double-secret COVID.

November: An article appears in the New York Times™ titled, "The Final Crusade Has Started: Why That’s A Good Thing."  Deus Vult ensues.

I’m probably having some turkey and beer around Thanksgiving. This one isn’t much of a stretch.

December: "Avatar XXII: Why Slavery Is Bad" is released. James Cameron is executed at Times Square in New York City because that his comment, “I’m king of the world” was culturally insensitive and totally colonialist. At least 500 people see "Avatar XXII", with many reviewers noting that the blue fish people’s ethnic cleansing of the humans is “culturally insensitive”.

Wilder, Wealthy and Wise™ becomes the most popular website in history of the universe as time travelers from the year 28,764 discover that it is a humane alternative to their other form of capital punishment: sitting in a comfy chair."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"This Is Not Normal! The Nation Braces For A ‘Bomb Cylcone’ That Will Bring ‘The Coldest Air In Decades’"

"This Is Not Normal! The Nation Braces For A 

‘Bomb Cylcone’ That Will Bring ‘The Coldest Air In Decades’"

by Michael Snyder

"We are only at the very beginning of winter, and we are already being hit by a storm that will bring “the coldest air in decades” to many parts of the country. In fact, there will be some areas where wind chill temperatures drop so low that it will literally be “life-threatening” to be outside. Needless to say, we could really use some of that “global warming” they keep talking about right now, because conditions are going to be bitterly cold all over the U.S. this week. For years, I have been warning that global weather patterns are starting to go completely nuts, and this winter is certainly off to an extremely bizarre beginning. If you live in a place that will get hit really hard this week, please be safe.

According to the Weather Channel, the giant storm that has begun to sweep across the nation is known as “Winter Storm Elliott”, and it could “become a bomb cyclone over the Great Lakes later this week”…

A​ major storm – named Winter Storm Elliott by The Weather Channel – could become a bomb cyclone over the Great Lakes later this week and bring blizzard conditions to parts of the Midwest as well as high winds to the East Coast, snarling travel in the days leading up to the Christmas holiday weekend. T​his developing storm will also usher in bitterly cold air to much of the nation as far south as Texas, the Gulf Coast and Florida.

So exactly what is a “bomb cyclone”? Well, normally a storm is considered to have undergone bombogenesis “if its minimum surface pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours or less”…"A​s a rule of thumb, meteorologists refer to a strengthening low as “bombing out” or undergoing bombogenesis if its minimum surface pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours or less, though that criteria also depends on a storm’s latitude. Meteorologists frequently discuss pressure in terms of millibars, rather than inches of mercury. The reason this all matters beyond just a weather geeky statistic is the lower the pressure in a storm, the more intense it is. And the greater difference in pressure over an area, the stronger the winds."

Of course we have seen “bomb cyclones” before, but this one is truly a monster. If you can believe it, this storm will cover nearly the entire country east of the Rocky Mountains later this week. The #BombCyclone blizzard circulation will take up the entire US east of the Rockies on Friday. Certainly an extraordinary weather event with potentially dangerous impacts, especially with extreme cold.

A reinforcing burst of Arctic air will send temperatures well below zero. Temperatures could dip as low as 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero in some areas of Montana or North Dakota, which would come close to a stretch of extreme cold observed back in 1983 and 1989. Records from the cold outbreaks during those years still set the standard for cold air around Christmastime in much of the northern and eastern U.S.

That is cold! And we are being warned that temperatures in Minnesota could also reach 40 degrees below zero near the end of the week…"Meteorologists in the Twin Cities forecasted wind chills as cold as minus 40 F Thursday through Friday. Even locations as far south as Orlando, Florida, could potentially see below-freezing conditions this week, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva."

Some of the forecasts that I have seen are more than a little bit frightening. For instance, Accuweather is telling us that temperatures in Montana and North Dakota “could dip as low as 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero”…"These extraordinarily low temperatures will also be accompanied by high winds. This will create extreme blizzard conditions in some portions of the country, and in some cases we will see wind chill temperatures that look like they have been pulled out of a Hollywood disaster film. This week tens of millions of Americans are about to experience one of the coldest days of their life. Wind chills as cold as -70F in Wyoming and Montana, negative wind chills as far south Austin, Texas, and even single-digit wind chills in the Florida Panhandle.

In some areas, the snow has already begun. For instance, it was being projected that some parts of Washington state would receive “up to 24 inches of additional snow” on Tuesday.

By the time we get to the weekend, nearly the entire nation will have been hit by this colossal storm. I wish that I could tell you that this is just an anomaly. But it isn’t. Global weather patterns have been going haywire for quite a while, and it just keeps getting worse with each passing year. So if you think that things are bad now, just wait until you see what happens in 2023 and beyond…"

Video and comments here:

- https://twitter.com/

o

Comments here:

- https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/

"A Christmas Musical Interlude"

 

Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"

○

Plácido Domingo, Wiener Sängerknaben, 

"Ave Maria" (Franz Schubert)

The Poet: William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

"The Second Coming"

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

- William Butler Yeats, January 1919

"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," indeed...

MUST VIEW: "Alert! Russia and NATO Will Be At War In Weeks, Zelensky Leaves Country"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 12/20/22"

"Alert! Russia and NATO Will Be At War In Weeks, 

Zelensky Leaves Country"

"A new article suggests that NATO and Russia are a few weeks (if not days) away from a direct altercation, all the pieces are now moving into place, when this happens all hell breaks loose. Zelensky is heading to Washington, for what purpose? Get ready because 2023 is going to be crazy."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 12/20/22:

"Scott Ritter: Putin Warms Of Direct 

Clash With US, NATO Readies Forces"

"Moscow says US policies have the US and Russia on the brink of all out war. Zelensky and his regime are sitting down doing interviews in The Economist magazine and Russia is readying a massive winter offensive with big moves overnight in Donetsk region. Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter joins us to discuss what this means for those on and off the battlefield."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

God help us, folks...

"Insolvent Banks Being Kept Alive By The FED; Well Fargo Stole Your House; Home Building Collapse"

Jeremiah Babe, 12/20/22:

"Insolvent Banks Being Kept Alive By The FED; 

Well Fargo Stole Your House; Home Building Collapse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Greg Hunter, "Nightmare Fall of United States"

"Nightmare Fall of United States"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong said just before the 2022 midterm elections that voter fraud and cheating will set up a very troubling 2023. Armstrong is predicting “a major turning point in January of 2023.” Armstrong explains, “The computer (Socrates program) is showing that January is going to be the major turning point for the entire year of 2023. The currencies are rallying against the dollar, and that should go into early January and then after that, this thing looks like death warmed over. Perhaps it is the insanity of handing Patriot missiles over to Ukraine. I know Ukraine very well, and I am telling you they will use them offensively and not defensively. They will use them to attack Russia. Their whole objective is to expand the war.”

Armstrong says Biden Administration economy killing policies will, “only increase inflation, and this is an endless nightmare. In all honesty, I hope the Republicans move to impeach Biden. I am not even sure Biden is aware of all the things taking place. It is the people behind him that are doing this. They are the ones writing these agendas, and they are a bunch of climate zealots, and they have no idea what they are doing. This is getting to be insane, and I think you are going to see that January is going to be a very, very big turning point, with the Republicans in the House, they will probably start impeachment proceedings and a lot more investigations.”

Armstrong thinks, “The U.S. dollar will be going up. Gold and all other tangible assets will also go up in value” right along with “interest rates and inflation going up” too.

On the political front, Armstrong says keep your eyes on Arizona and the 2022 midterm election lawsuits going on now. Armstrong contends if widespread cheating is proven, “Basically, if it is exposed in one state, then people are going to assume election cheating is all over. It will be like a contagion or like the flu. If it’s in one place, everybody is going to get it. This is simply the way it is. There is no election that is never rigged. The question is if the rigging is good enough to actually change the outcome.”

With the possibility of a wider Ukraine war, world wide social unrest, extreme inflation and election fraud in 2022, how is America going to fare? Armstrong says, “Our computers say nobody will believe the elections. This is what our computers show. We are moving into total political chaos. This is the fall of the United States. Our Republican form of government does not work. It is too susceptible to bribery. I would like the tree to fall in the right direction and we have a real actual democracy. We don’t live in democracies. That’s all propaganda. A democracy would be if we decide to go to war in Russia and Ukraine and not somebody in Biden’s Administration. The people never go for war, it’s always the leaders that go for war.” There is much more in this in-depth 1-hour and 2-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong, cycle expert and author of the new book “The Plot to Seize Russia”:

- https://rumble.com/

"Calm Down Celente, What Are You So Upset About?"

Full screen recommended.

Very strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 12/20/22:

"Calm Down Celente, What Are You So Upset About?"

"The Biden administration is expected to provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles capable of hitting deep inside Russia. What would happen if Ukraine fired these missiles into Moscow?"

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"25 Retailers And Restaurant Chains That Filed For Bankruptcy As All Hell Is Breaking Loose"

Full screen recommended.

"25 Retailers And Restaurant Chains That 

Filed For Bankruptcy As All Hell Is Breaking Loose"

by Epic Economist

"Massive loads of debt, changing consumer habits, supply chain problems, and declining profits all combined to create a lethal cocktail of bankruptcies and store closures that affected many retailers and restaurants across the U.S. in recent years. When governments started to introduce pandemic shutdowns in 2020, hundreds of thousands of companies were already struggling with slower foot traffic, weak cash flow, and gigantic piles of real estate debt. The temporary closures only set off a crisis that was already in motion, and the uncertainty brought on by the new downturn sent many businesses over the edge.

While about 10,000 retail stores closed since November 2019, more than 110,000 restaurants have been lost over that same period. For instance, over 400 Wendy’s locations have been sold in a 2021 bankruptcy deal. Since last year, over 130 Wendy’s restaurants have been closed all over the nation as its parent company struggles to renegotiate its $1 billion debt load. The survival of many underperforming locations is still on the line. With Wendy’s reporting a 10% profit loss in the last quarter, and its shares plummeting 26% since the start of the year, we soon may have to say goodbye to this beloved chain.

Given that Pizza Hut is operated by the same parent company as Wendy’s, NPC International, the famous pizza chin may be doomed to a similar fate. Over the past twelve months, more than 300 Pizza Hut locations have been shuttered. Executives noted during the court filing that the restaurant “had already been losing money before the pandemic, but its advent accelerated the folding”.

As one industry rises another goes down. With the rapid growth of e-commerce and food delivery services, many retail stores and restaurant locations are becoming redundant. Keeping a store open not only requires a reliable customer base but also good financial health to afford rampant real estate costs and rising wages. That's why these days companies are preferring to shut down their brick-and-mortar operations altogether and focus on relaunching their brands on online platforms to reduce costs and optimize profits. That may even save some popular brands that have been with us for decades. But at the same time, this also means that our shopping malls and city streets are likely to get even emptier, and that some of our beloved local stores where we've created wonderful memories may cease to exist before we even notice it. Unfortunately, that's the path the retail and food industry seems to be headed.

In a matter of months, U.S. consumers saw many of their favorite stores close doors and never reopen. Businesses are still coping with one of the most turbulent economic environments since 2008, and the survival of many of them is still on the line. With a new economic recession on the horizon, we're likely to see many more storefronts go dark in 2023. But today, we compiled 25 retail companies and restaurant chains that already filed for bankruptcy over the past couple of years and are now either battling to keep their remaining locations open or finally saying their last goodbyes."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

Musical Interlude: "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“From Sagittarius to Carina, the Milky Way Galaxy shines in this dark night sky above planet Earth’s lush island paradise of Mangaia. Familiar to denizens of the southern hemisphere, the gorgeous skyscape includes the bulging galactic center at the upper left and bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri just right of center. About 10 kilometers wide, volcanic Mangaia is the southernmost of the Cook Islands. Geologists estimate that at 18 million years old it is the oldest island in the Pacific Ocean.

Of course, the Milky Way is somewhat older, with the galaxy’s oldest stars estimated to be over 13 billion years old. (Editor’s note: This image holds the distinction of being selected as winner in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in the Earth and Space category.)“

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110924.html

“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.”

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"In The Time Of Your Life..."

"In the time of your life, live - so that in good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

- William Saroyan

"News From The NATOstan-Imposed Meat Grinder"

"News From The NATOstan-Imposed Meat Grinder"

by Pepe Escobar

"No one ever lost money capitalizing on the unlimited nonsense spewed out by the collective deer-caught-in-the-headlights also known as Western mainstream media – complete with showering Person of the Year awards on a megalomaniac, cocaine-fueled lousy actor impersonating a warlord.

The non-stop trashy parade of Western military analysts is now “assessing” that the first targets of an incoming, joint Russia-Belarus attack on the 404 black hole formerly known as Ukraine will be Lviv, Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and why not throw Kiev in the mix straight out of a second axis. The Russian General Staff is attentively monitoring all the action and may even follow the advice of such “analysts”.

And then there’s outright panic, as the Ministry of Defense announced that the Strategic Missile Forces have loaded two Yars ICBMs into their intended silos. Cue to widespread shrieks of horror of the “Russia Readies Nuclear Missile Capable Of Striking Deep Into US” variety.

Some facts though never change. Number One is NATO as a figment of the collective West’s – extremely impaired – imagination. If push ever came to shove – as Straussian/neo-con armchair warriors hope and pray – Russia can conveniently defeat the whole of NATO as there is hardly anything “there”.

That, of course, would require a massive Russian mobilization. As it stands, Russia may look feeble in a few quarters as they activated at best 100,000 troops against possibly 1 million Ukrainian troops. It’s as if Moscow was not exactly seduced by the idea of “winning” – which may be the case, in a quite twisted way.

Even now, Moscow has not mobilized enough troops to occupy Ukraine – which, in theory, would be imperative to completely “denazify” the Kiev racket. The operative concept though is “in theory”. Moscow in fact is busy demonstrating a completely new theory – irrespective of the fact that a few exalted souls have been peddling that Putin should be replaced by the FSB’s Alexander Bortnikov.

“There will be nothing left of the enemy”: With its array of hypersonic missiles, Russia can knock out all NATO bridges, ports, airports as well as power stations, oil and natural gas storage, Rotterdam oil and natural gas installations, in a matter of a few hours. All energy production equipment across NATOstan would be destroyed. Europe would be shut off from natural resources. A dazed and confused Empire would be unable to move troops, any troops, to Europe.

And still provocations run unabated. The recent attack by Tu-141 Ukrainian drones against Engels-2 airbase was blamed by Moscow on Kiev – which predictably denied all responsibility. Yet what really mattered was Moscow’s strategic messaging to US/NATO, with Putin flirting with the notion that sooner or later the response may be up a serious notch in case US/NATO weaponry supplied to Kiev is used to strike deep into sensitive Russian Federation territory. The current Russian doctrine even allows Moscow to respond with nuclear strikes; after all Engels-2 airbase is home to nuclear-capable bombers, prime strategic assets.

The drones were certainly launched by infiltrated agents inside Russian territory. If they had originated from outside Russia, and interpreted as nuclear missiles, that could have triggered the launch against NATOstan of hundreds of Russian nuclear missiles. Putin himself made it – ominously – quite clear at the Eurasia Economic Council summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, a week ago: “I assure you, after the early warning system receives a signal of a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are in the air. It is impossible to stop them. There will be nothing left of the enemy, because it is impossible to intercept a hundred missiles. This, of course, is a deterrent – a serious deterrent.”

Not, of course, to the stupidity-corroded Straussian-neocon gang who are actually running American foreign “policy”. It’s no wonder reliable Russian intel sources established that the missiles that hit Engels-2 were locally launched, though the Kiev regime desired it to be believed otherwise.

And that turns the whole charade into a Dadaist farce – with a dazed and confused Empire still bound to a maniac in Kiev who still believes that the Ukrainian S-300 that hit Poland came from Russia. Cue to the whole world – and not only Washington – as hostage to a “Person of the Year” maniac with the – virtual – power of provoking a worldwide nuclear war.

Red Napoleon in da house: Meanwhile, on the ground, Russia has gone Deep Operations Strategy, big time. In several spots along the extensive frontline, they attack the points that are most likely to draw out poor Ukrainian reserves hiding in the second line of defense. When reserves come out through barren, muddy lands and terrible roads to the rescue of frontline units, entire battalions are massacred.

Russians never go deep into the third line – where command and control may be located. What’s in play is attrition warfare under Deep Operations Strategy, straight out of the playbook of the legendary “Red Napoleon”, Field Marshall Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

Russia saves soldiers, personnel and equipment. The whole thing works wonders in difficult terrain where vehicles get bogged down in rainy roads. This rinse and repeat tactic, day in day out, for months on end has led to (at least) 400,000 Ukrainian casualties. Call it the epitome of Attritional Warfare.

Historians will relish that the whole scenario resembles the Battle of Agincourt – where wave after wave of French Knights (playing the role of present day Ukrainians, and Polish/NATO mercenaries) kept running uphill against English archers and knights who just stood still and let them come, hitting the second line again and again. The difference, of course, is that Russians are employing attritional warfare tactics day after day for six months now, while Agincourt was just one battle in a single day. By the time this meat grinder is over an entire generation of Ukrainians and Poles will have gone to meet their maker.

The collective West’s myth of a Ukrainian “victory” against the Russian war of attrition does not even qualify as cosmic delusion. It’s a lousy, lethal joke. The only way out would be to sit down at the negotiating table, now, before the hammer (the next Russian offensive) comes down on the anvil (the existing frontline). But NATO, of course, as Stultifying Stoltenberg keeps reminding the world, does not do negotiations. Which, in a sense, may be a blessing, as NATO may end up breaking up in myriad pieces, totally humiliated on the ground despite all its elaborate warmongering plans.

Andrei Martyanov has been peerless tracking the collective West’s complete economic, moral, intellectual – and most of all military – degradation, everything drenched in lies, lousy P.R. twists and “stupefying incompetence across the board.” All this while Russia prepares “for yet another ‘defeat’, like retaking all of Donbass and then… Who knows what then. A quick win for Russia would be a loss because NATO would still exist. No, Russia has to pace this so as it sucks in NATO into the grinder.”

Somewhere in her private pantheon, Pallas Athena, Goddess of Geopolitics, is immensely enjoying the show. Oh, wait; she’s actually reincarnated, and her name is Maria Zakharova."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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Related:

Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor

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Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.

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"How Bad Will It Get?"

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