Tuesday, January 17, 2023

"I Had An Experience..."

"I had an experience...I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever...A vision of the universe that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how...rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are not — that none of us — are alone! I wish I could share that. I wish, that everyone, if only for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and hope. But...that continues to be my wish."
- "Ellie Arroway", "Contact" by Carl Sagan.

Chet Raymo,"Why We Need Poets"

"Why We Need Poets"
by Chet Raymo

"The poet Jane Hirshfield referred in a poem to the number of atoms it takes to make a butterfly. Ten to the 24th power, I think she said. I thought I'd check it out. A typical butterfly might weigh about half a gram. The exact ratio of elements I don't know, but mostly hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Let's assume an atomic weight of ten for a typical atom; that is, an atom with ten nuclear particles (Hydrogen=1, carbon= 12, oxygen=16, and so on). A proton or neutron has a weight of about 1.6 X 10-24 grams. About 3 X 1022 atoms in a butterfly.

If I'm remembering Hirshfield's reference correctly (and I may not be), we are off by one or two orders of magnitude. No matter. It's a very big number. You want to make a butterfly? You will need 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. And every one in exactly the right place.

Now consider the miracle of metamorphosis. The caterpillar builds a chrysalis. Wraps itself up in its closet. And there, in the privacy of its self-sufficiency, it rearranges those arrangements of atoms. The caterpillar's six stumpy front feet are turned into the butterfly's slender legs. Four wings develop, as do reproductive organs. Chewing mouthparts become adapted for sucking. A crawling, insatiable, leaf-eater is transformed into a winged, sex-obsessed nectar sipper.

This is why we need poets. It's one thing to count atoms, or draw diagrams of the 22 amino acids, or suss out their sequence on the long chains that are the proteins. Or read out the genome that controls the machinery that turns a creeping leaf-cruncher into a winged angel. But all that biochemistry, as wonderful as it is, leaves the essential mystery intact. The hum. The unceasing hum that is life. The inextinguishable continuity.  Sing, poets. Sing your hosannas."

The Poet: Joaquín Arcadio Pagaza, “Twilight”

“Twilight”

“Slowly the sun descends at fall of night,
And rests on clouds of amber, rose and red;
The mist upon the distant mountains shed
Turns to a rain of gold and silver light.

The evening star shines tremulous and bright
Through wreaths of vapor, and the clouds o'erhead
Are mirrored in the lake, where soft they spread,
And break the blue of heaven's azure height.

Bright grows the whole horizon in the west
Like a devouring fire; a golden hue
Spreads o'er the sky, the trees, the plains that shine.
The bird is singing near its hidden nest
Its latest song, amid the falling dew,
Enraptured by the sunset's charm divine.”

- Joaquín Arcadio Pagaza (1839-1918)

“10 Things You Should Know About Life’s Most Important Questions”

“10 Things You Should Know About 
Life’s Most Important Questions”
by Marc Chernoff

"It’s a harsh fact that every one of us is ignorant in some way. Although we tend to pretend otherwise, it’s impossible to know it all. Ignorance is our biggest collective secret. And it’s one of the scariest and most damaging realities of life, because those of us who are most ignorant – and thus most likely to spread ignorance – are also the ones who often don’t know it.

Here’s a quick test: If you have never changed your mind about one of your learned beliefs, if you have never questioned the fundamentals of your opinions, and if you have no inclination to do so, then you are likely ignorant about something you think you know.

What’s the quickest solution? Get outside and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, behaves, and handles certain aspects of life very differently from you, and just have a simple, honest conversation with them. I promise, some of life’s most important questions will become clearer by doing so. And it will do both of you lots of good. Once you’ve done that, here are some key things to remember:

1. Many of the biggest misunderstandings in life could be avoided if we would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?”

2. An expert is not a person who gives all the right answers; she’s the one who asks the right questions.

3. Very few of us actively seek new knowledge in this world on a daily basis. We get comfortable with what we know, and we stop questioning things. On the contrary, we try to squeeze from the unknown the answers we have already shaped in our own minds – judgments, justifications, validations, forms of consolation without which we might feel incomplete or off-center. To really ask something new is to open the door to the storm.  And the answer just may blow us away.

4. If someone can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about how they answer you.

5. Monsters do exist in the real world, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous in the long run. More dangerous are the common people with good intentions who are instantly ready to believe and act without asking questions.

6. At the end of the day, the questions you ask of yourself determine the type of person you will become.

7. Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life. 

8. When it comes to your relationships: Does he/she treat you with respect at all times? That’s the first question. The second question is: If he/she remains the exact same person ten years from now, would you still want to be in a relationship with him/her? And finally, does he/she inspire to be a better human being? When you find someone that you can answer yes to all three questions, you know you’ve found yourself a relationship worth having.

9. Regardless of how much you know, or how many incredible questions you ask, you can never know it all. To believe that you do, is proof of the contrary. The wilderness around us always holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask. And that’s a beautiful thing.

10. Although life will always be filled with unanswered questions, it’s the courage to seek the answers that counts – this journey is what gives life meaning.  Ultimately, you can spend your life wallowing in frustration and misery, wondering why you were the one who was chosen to deal with your problems, or you can be grateful that you are strong enough and smart enough to grow from them. 

Your turn: Be present and have patience with everything that remains unexplained in your heart and mind. Try to love life’s questions. Like locked doors or like good books written in foreign languages, respect their nature. Don’t expect all the answers to come easy. They cannot be given to you right now because your present understanding isn’t ready yet. It’s a question of experiencing everything first. Right now you need to hold on to the questions – explore, learn, and live your life. Perhaps, as you do, you will gradually find yourself experiencing the answers you always wanted.

So with that said, which of the reminders above hit home the most? Why? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and insights with us."

"Bad Things Do Happen..."

“Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.” 
- Walter Anderson 

The Daily "Near You?"

Napier, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Thanks for stopping by!

"Life, eh?"

"We said together, wistfully, 'Life, eh?' It says everything without having to say anything: that we all experience moments of joyful or painful reflection, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing laughs and tears with others; that we all know and appreciate that however wonderful and precious life is, it can equally be a terribly confusing and mysterious beast. 'Life, eh?"
- Miranda Hart

Judge Napolitano, "Judging Freedom, 1/17/23"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 1/17/23:
"Scott Ritter: Nuclear War; Ukraine"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 1/17/23:
"Col. Doug Macgregor: 
More Tanks & Ukrainians Training In US"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Economy Cratering Faster, Consumer In Distress"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/17/23:
"Economy Cratering Faster, Consumer In Distress"
Comments here:

"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"

"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"
By Stucky

"It was a nice cool sunny morning with some blue birds soaking up the sun, all in a row on the high wire. It took some time to figure out what happened. There were a few low rumbles, they seemed to be coming from north of here. We live on a farm out in the wooded hills of southern Missouri, and north would be up towards St Louis. Soon as the booming sounds started the power went off. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but with all the military stirrings going on in the world these days, you just don’t know what to expect.

I went inside the house, but with the power off there’s no internet, so no way to find out what’s going on. At least until the power comes back on, or until I get the generator started up. More distant thunderous booms that echo now less like thunder and more like tremendous explosions – and I’m starting to get worried. My kids are at work and the grandkids are in school. I swear I‘m seeing sparks and smoke coming from under the hood of my car, but it’s not running. Now the power line where those bluebirds were singing looks like it’s getting really hot and smoke is coming from the bucket transformer on the poles. Wow! The transformer just blew up sending a shower of sparks and molten metal flying all around the pole! I can hear blasts all over the countryside from more pole transformers exploding. All the fences are sparking and smoking. The woods around the power lines and transformers are starting to go up in extremely violent flames. And the cars are now on fire – all of them! Even the old broken-down ones out in people’s pastures. Our emergency generators are smoking – I’ve got to get them away from the houses before they burn up.

Now I’ve got an idea of what’s happening, because I’ve heard of what an EMP event could do to electrical circuits. Electromagnetic Pulse. That’s what happens when a nuclear weapon explodes. The only other thing I can think of that would do this is a coronal mass ejection from a solar flare. It happened back in 1859 and it was named the Carrington Event. Fortunately, the world did not have much electrical infrastructure back then, just telegraphs, and the induced currents caused the wires to catch fire – sort of like what’s happening to the power lines out here right now. I don’t think it’s a solar event either, because the warmongers in Washington have been beating the nuclear drums for a while, and I’ve been afraid the Russians were going to get spooked and do a first strike. I guess this is it.

A big problem for those of us who might survive a while because we live in areas that aren’t targets is that we lose all sources of information. We don’t have any way of knowing what’s happening. Don’t know if it’s a first strike or a retaliatory strike. Does Washington DC even exist anymore, or is it just a huge radioactive smoking crater? Are those beautiful, magnificient buildings of the Kremlin still standing?

How many of our big cities are destroyed? I remember seeing pictures of the devastation that was Nagasaki and Hiroshima when that monster Truman murdered all those Japanese civilians, and thinking that those bombs were tiny compared to what the psychopaths have in their arsenals today – the Russians have bombs that could literally flatten New York City and/or Houston. I cannot, nor can anyone else, begin to fathom the destruction of a 10 or 20 megaton thermonuclear weapon could wreak on a major city.

Lights go off and then nothing. No TV; no internet. No football – the treasury department that writes all the government checks is gone. Fear-crazed citizens make runs on Wal Marts and grocery stores and take everything they can. No one tries to stop them; the store employees are in a panic to get home. Problem is, with no operable vehicles, the only things people can take are what they can carry by hand. Everyone has to walk, even the police are stranded out on the highways. All troopers, city cops, and sheriff deputies are trying desperately to get home to their loved ones. No cops on duty anymore. No traffic moving anymore. Just lots of people running, screaming, hoping they can just get home, and that there still is a home.

Fires are blazing everywhere from the powerlines and transformers exploding. All electrical substations in the country are smoldering and blazing chaos. Forest fires are rampant and out of control all over the nation and there are no operable fire trucks. No firefighting planes or helicopters are available to fight the fires. Houses hundreds of miles away from the many ground zeros are burning both from the unchecked wildfires, and from EMP induced electrical shorts in home wiring. Almost every building in every town is on fire with no way to put them out. And these towns are far away from the targeted places where the bombs actually hit. 

This is truly a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, the like of which has never been witnessed in all of human history. There will never be electricity in this country again. Let that sink in. Freezers will thaw out and food will ruin. Untold thousands of people will perish, starting with those vaporized, then those being burned up in their homes, and there are no fire departments available to help anyone. No hospitals; doctors and nurses are gone, understandably abandoning useless smoldering medical facilities. No industry, no UPS deliveries, no more dog food for the pups. If your house didn’t burn to the ground, at least you may (for a while) have a (dark) shelter from the elements.

Huge blasts of radioactive winds blow hundreds of miles from the explosions, of which there have been many. The first wave was intended to take out the military establishment. No way of knowing, but there’s no reason to believe that anything remains of the Pentagon, DC or Langley, Norfolk, San Diego, Chicago, Houston, or any of the coastal cities where there are refineries. All cities with military infrastructure of any kind will be destroyed. The joke that has been for years a missile defense system has been exposed. The sick joke that a nuclear war could be “winnable” has also been exposed. The numbers of people succumbing to radiation sickness is beyond belief. There will be no schools, no stores, no food, and no government services; no disaster relief will be forthcoming. All banks will have ceased to function, so even if there is any money left, it won’t be worth anything. The bankers never were.

If you take medications to stay alive, you’d best have a good supply, because there won’t be any more. All livestock will either be dead from radiation, burned to a crisp in the fires, or promptly slaughtered by starving survivors, and it doesn’t matter to whom they belonged. Same with property. People will no longer obey private property signs, they will go anywhere they think there might be resources, food, water, at the risk of their lives, which aren’t worth much right now anyway. There will be no law!

Every military ship on and under the ocean, with the likely exception of a few submarines, will be sunk. All of the nuclear-powered ships will go to the bottom with reactors likely damaged, spewing radioactive contamination. Like dozens, maybe hundreds, of Fukushimas. Even the reactors that aren’t damaged will undergo meltdowns with no controls. The bible says that something will kill all of the fishes in the oceans, maybe this is how that happens.

The USSR detonated a bomb of around 50-megaton yield back in 1961. It was called the Tsar Bomba. The weapon had a 100-megaton capacity, but for safety they modified the yield. Awe inspiring is just too mild of a description of what that looked like. Since the bomb was so powerful, they calculated that the plane that dropped it had only a 50 percent chance of surviving – that is even after the plane released the weapon several thousand feet up in the air with a parachute to slow it down while the plane flew away from the scene at full speed. It did almost destroy the plane – they said the blast wave overtook the plane some 45 miles from the explosion and it lost over a kilometer of altitude before the pilot, Andrey Durnovtsev, could regain control and keep it from crashing. That thing made a mushroom cloud 37, yes 37 miles, (60 km) high! An uninhabited village, Severny, 34 miles (55 km) from ground zero was obliterated, and buildings 100 miles away were damaged! The blast would have caused third degree burns 62 miles (100 km) from the explosion. I would expect if they still have these in their arsenal, they would use one on Cheyenne Mountain. It would probably take out Denver and Amarillo, TX and certainly everything in between. Instantly vaporized. What are our “leaders” thinking?

It sounds crazy, but if this happens, I want to be at one of the ground zeros. As bad as being vaporized sounds, it would be infinitely better than surviving into the nightmarish existence that would ensue. There will be marauding gangs of survivors, undoubtedly armed, in various stages of hunger, disease, emaciation, and injury. It will probably be a situation where anyone you encounter will be apt to kill you. For one thing, they won’t know whether you are out to kill them too, or maybe you have something they want/need to survive. A can of tuna or a bowl of beans might cost your life.

The landscape will be nightmarish. Imagine a few days or weeks after the event. There will be burned out stumps on land that was beautiful forest, now riddled with stagnant pools of black muddy radioactive slime, full of human and animal bones, charred flesh, and entrails. Few buildings will exist intact, and many will perish fighting over them. There will be no light at night. Light would attract unwanted guests. No music. No one will have any idea what’s going on. There may be a few survivors in places like subway tunnels, abandoned train cars, or in remote wilderness areas, but such people will have resorted to the basest of behavior, including cannibalism, in short order. Imagine! Human beings who once inhabited a civilized nation and lived decent lives will have to worry about being killed and eaten by other human beings! Zombie apocalypse, just with regular people, not zombies, although with burns and wounds, hair falling out and all out of sorts with radiation poisoning, they probably will look the part.

I have heard people talking like they plan to survive and stay healthy by hunting and foraging. Well, if a nuclear winter follows a nuclear apocalypse, foraging is going to be slim pickings. And the deer won’t last long if they manage to survive the bombs, radiation, and fires, there’ll probably only be a few very unhealthy specimens left, but if a gunshot rings out, I’m pretty sure it will attract whatever starving people hear it, so there might be more to deal with than just dressing a deer.

Bedraggled survivors will wander in shock around former cities in hopes of disaster relief which will never come. Desperate people will offer anything – gold, jewelry, ammunition, their own bodies, for sustenance. Helpless parents will watch in horror as their children starve, hoping against hope that they will awaken from this nightmare, but when this all comes down, it’ll be too late for them.

And we still won’t know what happened. Who decided that a nuclear war would be a good idea? Who “won” the war? Did any of our leaders survive to sign a surrender, and to whom? Or did Russia or China surrender? Will there be hordes of soldiers from some faraway land invading our country after the radiation dies down?

And what of the wealthy folk who built the magnificent bunkers filled with the necessities of life in which to wait out the nuclear winter? Do they actually believe they will emerge into a second garden of Eden complete with succulent fruit trees and minstrels singing their praises? First of all, the bible speaks of a great earthquake, such as has not occurred since people have been on earth, so I think a big part of those individuals will be entombed in those lavish bunkers. So maybe a few do survive, and after some months, maybe a few years tucked away, they stumble blindly onto the surface, a hardly recognizable landscape littered with human skulls, burned out cars and buildings, and destroyed terrain. When they went into the holes, they were wealthy, but after what has transpired, of the few commoners left, no one will be interested in their gold – and those old bank accounts? Well the digital age has completely and utterly vanished, and all those millions or billions they had on their ledgers is now squat. 

Even by this time, there will undoubtedly still be a few scroungy survivors, but instead of the fawning proles these rich folks were used to in the old world, those survivors will undoubtedly have a taste for some well-fed and plump upper crust brisket, so thanks for preserving some. It won’t help their situation any when they discover that some of the survivors actually know they caused, or at least played a part in causing the disaster. The scenario described does not take into account the likelihood that hapless survivors will undoubtedly spend their time searching for air vents to the bunkers in which to pour gasoline or whatever else they can find to upset living conditions in said refuges down below. Any who survive this carnage will be on a mission and will not easily be placated!

Who knows what the final outcome will be. How many millions, or hundreds of millions of people will be counted among the slain? When this calamity happens, it will obviously involve the deaths of millions. This destruction, I believe is prophesied as the destruction of the modern Babylon in Revelation 18, and most people I’ve heard seem to think (as I do) that the place named as Babylon is the United States, and it is utterly destroyed in the space of one hour, by fire! Completely devastated to the point that (verse 22) “the music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again,” and “no worker of any trade will ever be found in you again,” this decadent place will cease to be! According to scripture, it’s not a bad thing that this evil place is destroyed. “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgement she imposed on you.”

Time will tell, but I’m afraid we don’t have much."
Hat tip to Stucky and The Burning Platform for this material.

"How It Really Is"

 

"Ukraine Is Throwing In Troops To Face Certain Death Defending Bakhmut"

George Galloway, 1/17/23:
"Ukraine Is Throwing In Troops To Face 
Certain Death Defending Bakhmut"
"Kyiv installed three defensive lines but the Russians are gradually grinding through them, explains Gonzalo Lira. Soledar, which has fallen, was the penultimate town of the penultimate defense line."
Comments here:
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Related:

"Stocking Up At Meijer! Prepping For The Future! What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 1/17/23:
"Stocking Up At Meijer! 
Prepping For The Future! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer and noticing some strange 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:

"Energy Crisis: Putin and China Could Devastate the West With This One Move"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 1/17/23:
"Energy Crisis: Putin and China Could 
Devastate the West With This One Move"
(Sponsor advertising after 9:30)
"The United States and Europe are being backed into an economic catastrophe while Russia and China are capitalizing on this weakness. New energy cost numbers show how bad things are getting for western countries. With one move, China and Russia could shut off the most important energy supply."
Comments here:

Monday, January 16, 2023

"This is Why Nuclear War Will Likely Happen"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 1/16/23:
"This is Why Nuclear War Will Likely Happen"
Comments here:

"15 Food Items That Will Be Priceless In 2023"

Full screen recommended.
Finance Today, 1/16/23:
"15 Food Items That Will Be Priceless In 2023"

"Many American households worry about grocery prices. We're experiencing price rises significantly higher than the official food inflation rate. While government authorities say we're paying 15% more on groceries, some staple products have risen over 100% this year.

Quartz reports that worldwide oat prices are climbing faster than oil. No surprise store-brand oats went from $1.99 to $3.99. Oatly, one of the world's major oat milk producers, predicts rising pricing due to limited supplies. Pineapples rose 78% since 2020 owing to rising costs of basic inputs such carton boxes for transport, fertilizers, machinery, and manpower shortages at farms. In 24 months, canned pineapples rose 120% from $0.79 to $2.22 due to an aluminum scarcity. Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, which produce 75% of the world's pineapples, have experienced record drought, flooding, and pests. Lower supplies mean higher costs.

As refined flour prices rise, many shops are tripling the price of a quick and easy recipe. Unfortunately, soaring flour prices will continue to affect the pricing of many of customers' favorite foods. Guinevere M wrote on a Facebook group: “The other day I went to buy a pack of ramen that used to be 25 cents. Great for pre-paycheck meals. Finds quarters. I almost fainted when I saw it was 45 cents after not buying any. 45 cents? It covers the whole issue. Prices pole vaulted."

Farmers, food manufacturers, and retailers warn us that many supermarket products will cost higher in 2023. Consumer prices rose longer than expected. Events that affected our food supply networks throughout the year are making the outlook for the next few months even more unsettling.

After two years of price fluctuations, American consumers deserve positive news to start the new year. Many may agree that honesty is better than false hope, and while our leaders continue to ignore the reality of the challenges U.S. families are facing, we have a promise to our audience to constantly present the news no one else appears to be talking about. Today, we highlighted 20 grocery goods that food industry experts predict could see major price spikes in the near future. We feel the best way to prepare for these dramatic price swings is to get ahead of them before they ripple through the system."
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"We Are All In Big Trouble As The Richest 1% Laugh; Americans Struggle To Feed Family; Food Crisis"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 1/16/23:
"We Are All In Big Trouble As The Richest 1% Laugh; 
Americans Struggle To Feed Family; Food Crisis"
"The richest 1% of people amassed almost two-thirds of new wealth created in the last two years. Welcome to biggest wealth transfer in history if you are not prepared to protect your wealth you will lose it. The recession everybody denies existing is going to get much worse..."
Comments here:

"Kroger Shoppers Reporting Mass Shortages Across Grocery Store Locations"

Full screen recommended.
"Kroger Shoppers Reporting Mass Shortages 
Across Grocery Store Locations"
By Epic Economist

"Kroger is by far the largest supermarket chain in the entire country, and millions of Americans rely on its stores for groceries and other necessities on a daily basis. The company operates over 2,800 locations across 35 states, including some brand names like Ralphs, King Soopers, and Dillon’s. But in recent weeks, Kroger shoppers have been complaining about mass shortages at its stores and unprecedented price hikes hitting a series of essential products. Yahoo reports that the shortages are looking a lot like “a repeat of early 2020 when many staples sold out”. The start of 2023 is seeing “a lot of empty shelves at Kroger,” according to numerous sources, some providing video evidence of the worsening supply chain issues.

On top of that, not only the grocer is facing multiple shortages, but prices for the items that are still available are reaching eye-popping levels. In one of the videos posted on social media, one grocery shopper documented staggering changes in inventory and pricing at the supermarket chain. Many bare shelves can be seen, while in several aisles shelves were only stocked with ultra-high priced items, with cheaper alternatives nowhere to be found.

“We are at Kroger, and are noticing price increases on groceries, and a lot of empty shelves!” one vlogger said during its latest visit to the supermarket. “We are here to check out skyrocketing prices and the empty shelves situation! It’s getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!” he added. Another worrying discovery the vlogger made was that most of the store-brand items were missing, and the only things left at the store were overpriced products of lesser-sought-out brands.

At this point, 86% of households noticed dairy price increases in Kroger stores, and 80% cited price gains in deli/meat/fish, according to the 84.51° Real-Time Insights Survey, which polled people who shopped with The Kroger Co. in the past three months. Other categories where Kroger shoppers saw higher prices included produce, cited by 78% of shoppers; drinks (73%), frozen foods (72%), paper products (72%), and household cleaners (66%).

In all of those product categories, Kroger shoppers reported that they’re cutting back - notably in drinks (42%), deli/meat/fish (34%), frozen food (23%), and paper products (21%) - and, the same survey showed that Kroger has seen unit sales decline in all of those segments last month, with decreases ranging from 4% to 8%.

Unfortunately, higher prices and supply shortages aren’t a problem exclusive to Kroger, and many other grocery chains will confront similar issues this winter. Brandon Scholz, president, and CEO of the Wisconsin Grocers Association, said that there is still an overwhelming demand from customers that the supply cannot keep up with.“We’re in a supply shortage situation,” said Scholz, adding, “grocers are not able to get all the food they ordered from their suppliers and that’s why you see empty shelves.”

As we are hit by one crisis after another throughout 2023, retail analyst project that our supply chain problems will continue to intensify in the coming months. So we encourage our viewers to stock up while they still can. Yes, prices are ridiculously high now, but the truth is that they aren’t going to be getting any lower than they are at this moment. And it is safe to say that inventory holes will only grow wider from here on."
Comments here:

"To Serve Man"

"To Serve Man"
By Brian Maher

Annapolis, Maryland - "An invasive species - a globally invasive species - is loose. It is a fierce predator, an apex predator of vast appetites. This fi-fo-fum presently besieges a small burgh high in the Alps of Switzerland. Private jets drop him in and haul him out. Rolex watches encircle his wrists, Armani clothing adorns his back. He rolls around in expensive automobiles pushed by electricity. What is this creature, precisely? Anthropologists label this peculiar homunculus Homo Davos - Davos Man.

Where the Elite Meet: Each year he descends upon the high Swiss resort of Davos. There he lives a grand and gorgeous week in the company of like fellows. These are the kingpins, the chieftains, the great and the good…These are the one-worlders, the wowsers, the central planners, the pettifoggers, the pecksniffs, the humanitarians with guillotines…These are the propaganda-drummers, the think-tankers, the deep staters… And these are the rent-seekers, the crony capitalists, the idiots useful and non-useful.

In Davos they huddle in astounding profusion, like locusts in a Dust Bowl farm. Here they are presently assembled, where they will remain through Jan. 20.

Highly Symbolic: Why do they choose Davos? After all, Davos lacks the dining, drinking and entertainment venues of a Paris, of a London, of a New York. In Switzerland alone, our men inform us the resorts of St. Moritz and Gstaad - to name merely two - boast superior skiing. Yet Davos is the very penthouse of Europe. That is, Davos is the highest city on the continent, a sort of Olympus.

Is it coincidence they select the highest city on the continent? We hazard it is far from coincidence. Its symbolism is vast. As Davos Man is above you… you are beneath him… as the lord is above the serf… as the bigwig is above the little wig. From this high perch he sets the world to rights and takes to bossing it about.

Davos Man is a very vain and self-regarding fellow. "The future is not just happening,” uber-Davos Man Klaus Schwab gloated last year, adding: "The future is built by us, by a powerful community as you here in this room. We have the means to improve the state of the world…" Prior to this year’s congregating he babbled that: "Economic, environmental, social and geopolitical crises are converging and conflating, creating an extremely versatile and uncertain future. The annual meeting at Davos shall try to make sure that leaders do not remain trapped in this crisis mindset."

This type of mummery is heavily on tap in Davos. Mummery such as this, heaved up by IMF grandee Kristalina Georgieva: "2023 will be a difficult year for the world. The silver lining is we can use it to transform economies & accelerate change that’s good for our climate, good for growth. At the IMF, we recognize our responsibility to be a force for good." Your editor does not.

The Fatal Conceit: Thus Davos Man believes he is an unrivaled engineer - an unrivaled engineer of men. Yet here he falls into fatal error…Man’s toolmaking skills have made him the master of his physical surroundings… propelling him even into space beyond. Alas, man’s undeniable engineering skills have instilled in him a massive self-overestimation. He mistakes his ability to engineer his physical world for his ability to engineer his social world. Mr. Hayek labeled it, famously, the “fatal conceit.”

He mistakes the inner human universe for the external clockwork universe. In theory they are one - engineering is engineering. In reality they are two. The hormone-governed, capricious and willful human being has no existence along the engineer’s x and y axes. As well plot a love affair along the x and y axes… or a riot.

A Master Opportunist: He may be a poor social engineer, yet Davos Man is a masterful opportunist. He senses his chance and seizes it. Herr Schwab, from 2018’s convocation: "A new framework for global public-private cooperation has been taking shape. Public-private cooperation is about harnessing the private sector and open markets to drive economic growth for the public good, with environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness always in mind."

The preceding can be reduced to two words: crony capitalism. Davos Man will profit wildly from the government subsidies underwriting this “new framework for global public-private cooperation.” Unfortunately for the rest of us, it sounds much like the old framework. Yet the question remains: How precisely would Davos Man improve the state of the world? Through “global governance."

The Nation-State Is Obsolete: They argue the nation-state cannot scotch the world’s bugaboos - climate change, pandemics, economic inequality and a hundred other transnational evils. The sovereign and independent nation therefore represents something of an appendix. It may have once performed a useful service. Yet no longer. It is obsolete in today’s globalized world. Only global solutions can equal the herculean challenges. And so global institutions must rise above the nation, argues Davos Man… as the United States government must rise above Kansas and Oregon and Texas and Rhode Island.

Davos Man’s objective is to blackjack national governments into embracing enlightened "global" perspectives. These of course often war with national interests, at times vital national interests - hence the blackjacking. Above we mentioned climate change. Climate change is Davos Man’s greatest hobbyhorse. It is his central fixation.

The Globalist Lever to Move the World: Climate change is, after all, a menace truly global. Only a concerted global effort can rout it. And the weaponry required is readily on offer: centralized economic planning, taxation, wealth redistribution… all on a global scale. Imagine it - placing a taxable claim on the very respiration of civilization - carbon dioxide.

Old Archimedes claimed he could move the world with a lever of adequate length: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Carbon dioxide is the globalist’s lever. The alpine city of Davos is his fulcrum. From there he intends to move the world. Is it coincidence - then - that so many panel discussions in Davos center on climate change?

How to Solve “Eco-Anxiety” Peter Prengaman is The Associated Press' global climate and environmental news director. He has claimed these panels “range from combating ‘eco-anxiety’ to helping debt-ridden countries finance a renewable transition.” How they intend to ease eco-anxiety, we do not pretend to know. Yet we would soothe their fears by reminding them of Davos Man’s botched forecasts…

In 1988, the United Nations fretted the Maldives would be under the water by 2018. Yet in 2022 the Maldives jut high above the water. They drive a flourishing tourist trade. Mr. Albert Gore soothsaid in 2009 that the polar ice cap may vanish by 2014. Nine years on, the ice still caps Earth’s poles. It shows little sign of liquefying. In certain locations it is in fact thickening. In 2009 climatologist of climatologists - Prince Charles - shrieked that humanity had but eight years to save Earth. In 2023, six years past the midnight deadline… Earth pegs along yet.

Examples as these multiply and multiply. Only the wayward economic crystal-gazings of the Federal Reserve possibly rival them.

Do as I Say, Not as I Say! Davos Man likes to moan about the flying public. He argues they should limit their air travel to reduce carbon emissions. There is irony here - irony twinned with the common human vice of hypocrisy. Davos Man may sob about aviation emissions all he pleases. He nonetheless rockets around in private jets… expanding his “carbon footprint” to proportions truly obscene.

A certain Matthew Finch is with an outfit labeled the Transport & Environment campaign group. From whom: "The average private jet, and we are not talking Air Force One, emits two tons of CO2 for every hour in flight. It can’t be stressed enough how bad private jets are for the environment. It is the worst way to travel…"

To put it in context, the total carbon footprint of an ordinary citizen - including everywhere they travel and everything they consume - is around eight tons a year. So an executive or politician taking one long-haul private flight will burn more CO2 than several normal people do in a year.

To Serve Man: Davos Man is nonetheless out to save the climate - and the world. Yet we trust Davos Man with our future no more than we trust a dog with our dinner. And so we conclude with the irreplaceable Mencken: “The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.”

Here we are reminded of the old Twilight Zone television series. In one episode an apparently benevolent alien race descends upon Earth. They bear a book with them: "To Serve Man." Only too late do the humans realize it is a cookbook…"
o

"Banks Have No Cash"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 1/16/23:
"Banks Have No Cash"
"It started with the Scandinavian countries that have such little cash in their banks. In 2022 there were no bank robberies in Denmark. Spire credit union has limited cash withdrawals to $2000 per day. What’s next?"
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Douglas Macgregor, "Ukraine Is Collapsing Under The Weight of Russian Offensives"

Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, 1/16/23
"Ukraine Is Collapsing Under The Weight of Russian Offensives"
"Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor: Your home for analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States and the world. Geopolitics. No ego descriptions. No small talk. Straight to the point. Calls with the relevant analysis only."
Comments here:
o
Related:
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 1/16/23:
"Ukraine Outdated Weapons Are Major Setback! 
Russia Will Not Trust Minsk Agreement"
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"The Laughing Heart"

 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy, while this exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint, arcing star streams far into the galaxy's halo.
Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in this remarkable wide-field image, made with a small telescope, including five newly identified faint dwarf galaxies, which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years."

"We Like To Think..."

“We like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. But when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we are not better than animals. We have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we are still routing around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths.”
- “Grey’s Anatomy”

"I Would Rather Have..."

"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."
- Nadezhda Mandelstam

"I Am Done"

"I Am Done"
by OHMama

"I was born at the end of Gen X and the beginning of the Millennial Generation, and grew up in a middle class town. Life was good. Our home was modest but birthdays and Christmas were always generous, we went on yearly vacations, had 2 cars, and there was enough money for me to take dance classes and art lessons and be in Girl Scouts.

My 1940s born Dad raised me to be patriotic and proud, to love the war bird airplanes of his era as much as he does, and to respect our flag and our country as a sacred thing. I grew up thinking that being an American was the greatest gift a person could have. I grew up thinking that our country was as strong, and honest and true as my Dad. I grew up thinking I was free.

As an adult, I have witnessed the world I grew up in fall to ruin. I have watched as our currency and our economy have been shamelessly corrupted beyond redemption. Since we’ve been married, my husband and I TWICE had our meager investment savings gutted by the market that we were told to invest in, now that pensions no longer exist and we working stiffs are on our own. We will be working until we die, because the Social Security we’ve been forced to pay into has also been robbed from under us.

I have watched as our elected officials enter Congress as ordinary folks and leaves as multi millionaires. I have watched my blue collar husband get up at an ungodly hour every day and come home with an aching back that we pray will hold out long enough to get him to old age in one piece. Outside of shoes, socks and underwear, almost everything my family wears was bought used. We’ve been on one vacation in 12 years.

We don’t have cell phones, or cable, or any sort of streaming services, just a landline and internet. We hardly ever eat out. Our house is 1400 square feet, no air conditioning. I cook from scratch and I can and I garden and I raise chickens for eggs and meat and I moonlight selling things on Etsy. Still it is barely enough to pay the bills that go up every year while service quality and the longevity of goods goes down. What I just described is the life you can live on 60K a year without going into debt.

At last calculation, when you consider all of the federal, state and local taxes plus registration and user fees, Medicare and SS payroll taxes, almost a third of what my family earns is stolen by the govt each year. What’s left doesn’t go far, just enough to cover the basics and save a little for when the wolf howls at the door.

I watched as my family’s health insurance was gutted and destroyed. Our private market insurance, which we had to have because my husband’s employer is too small to have a group plan, was made illegal. We were left with the option of either buying an Obamacare plan with unaffordable deductibles and insanely ridiculous out of pocket maxes, or paying the very gov’t that destroyed our healthcare a fine for not buying the gov’t mandated plan that we cannot afford. We now have short term insurance that isn’t really insurance at all, and I live in fear of one of us getting injured or sick with anything I can’t fix from the medicine cabinet.

I have watched as education, which was already sketchy when I was a kid, became an all out joke of wholly unmathematical math, gold stars for all, and self-loathing anti-Americanism. My family has taken an enormous financial hit as I stay home to home school our child. At least she’ll be able to do old-fashioned math well enough to see how much they are screwing her. A silver lining to every cloud, I guess.

I’ve sat by and held my tongue as I was called deplorable and a bitter clinger and told that I didn’t build that. I’ve been called a racist and a xenophobe and a chump and even an “ugly folk.” I’ve been told that I have privilege, and that I have inherent bias because of my skin color, and that my beloved husband and father are part of a horrible patriarchy. Not one goddamn bit of that is true, but if I dare say anything about it, it will be used as evidence of my racism and white fragility.

Raised to be a Republican, I held my nose and voted for Bush, the Texas-talking blue blood from Connecticut who lied us into 2 wars and gave us the unpatriotic Patriot Act. I voted for McCain, the sociopathic neocon songbird “hero” that torpedoed the attempt to kill the Obamacare that’s killing my family financially. I held it again and voted for Romney, the vulture capitalist skunk that masquerades as a Republican while slithering over to the Democrat camp as often as they’ll tolerate his oily, loathsome presence.

And I voted for Trump, who, if he did nothing else, at least gave a resounding Bronx cheer to the richly deserving smug hypocrites of DC. Thank you for that Mr. President, on behalf of all of us nobodies. God bless you for it.

And now I have watched as people who hate me and mine and call for our destruction blatantly and openly stole the election and then gaslighted us and told us that it was honest and fair. I am watching as the GOP does NOTHING about it. They’re probably relieved that upstart Trump is gone so they can get back to their real jobs of lining their pockets and running interference for their corporate masters. I am watching as the media, in a manner that would make Stalin blush, is silencing anyone who dares question the legitimacy of this farce they call democracy. I know, it’s a republic, but I am so tired of explaining that to people I might as well give in and join them in ignorance.

I will not vote again; they’ve made it abundantly clear that my voice doesn’t matter. Whatever irrational, suicidal lunacy the nanny states thinks is best is what I’ll get. What it decided I need is a geriatric pedophile who shouldn’t be charged with anything more rigorous than choosing between tapioca and rice pudding at the old folks home, and a casting couch skank who rails against racism while being a descendant of slave owners.

I’m free to dismember a baby in my womb and kill it because “my body my choice”, but God help me if I won’t cover my face with a germ laden Linus-worthy security blanket or refuse let them inject genetically altering chemicals into my body or my child’s. I can be doxed, fired, shunned and destroyed for daring to venture that there are only 2 genders as proven by DNA, but a disease with a 99+% survival rate for most humans is a deadly pandemic worth murdering an economy over. Because science. Idiocracy is real, and we are living it. Dr. Lexus would be an improvement over Fauci.

I am done. Don’t ask me to pledge to the flag, or salute the troops, or shoot fireworks on the 4th. It’s a sick, twisted, heartbreaking joke, this bloated, unrecognizable corpse of a republic that once was ours.

I am not alone. Not sure how things continue to function when millions of citizens no longer feel any loyalty to or from the society they live in.

I was raised to be a lady, and ladies don’t curse, but f**k these motherf**kers to hell and back for what they’ve done to me, and mine, and my country. All we Joe Blow Americans ever wanted was a little patch of land to raise a family, a job to pay the bills, and at least some illusion of freedom, and even that was too much for these human parasites. They want it all,  mind, body and soul. Damn them. Damn them all."

Judge Napolitano,"Twitter, Google & Ukraine War w/ Scott Horton"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom 1/16/23:
"Twitter, Google & Ukraine War w/ Scott Horton"
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The Daily "Near You?"

Winter Park, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!