"Is America Doomed?"

"Is America Doomed?"

by Michael Snyder

"Throughout human history, great civilizations have risen and fell, and many believe that the U.S. will be no exception. At this point, we have already drifted so far from our core values that our founders would not even be able to recognize the Republic that they once established if they were alive today. Of course most Americans realize that something has gone horribly wrong, but most of them also believe that sending the right people to Washington is the answer. But is that really the solution to what ails us?

According to a brand new Rasmussen poll that was just released, 40 percent of likely U.S. voters believe that Joe Biden must win the next presidential election “or the United States is doomed”…Per the poll, 40% of likely US voters agree with the statement, “Joe Biden must be re-elected president next year, or the United States is doomed,” which includes 25% who strongly agree. 53% are in disagreement, which includes 43% who strongly disagree.

That is nuts. Nearly half the country literally believes that our nation is “doomed” if Joe Biden does not win in 2024. The same poll also found that 45 percent of likely U.S. voters believe that Donald Trump must win the next presidential election “or the United States is doomed”…

45% agree with the statement, “Donald Trump must be re-elected president next year or the United States is doomed,” which includes 26% who strongly agree. 53% disagree, which includes 44% who strongly disagree.

45% agree with the statement, “Donald Trump must be re-elected president next year or the United States is doomed,” which includes 26% who strongly agree. 53% disagree, which includes 44% who strongly disagree.

I am assuming that there is no overlap between those two groups. If that is true, that means that 85 percent of likely U.S. voters believe that our nation is “doomed” if the candidate that they are supporting does not win the next presidential election. I have never seen numbers like this before.

The stakes in 2024 are incredibly high, and the side that loses is going to be absolutely devastated. Over the next year there will be endless campaigning as the upcoming election approaches, but meanwhile our society is being ripped to shreds right in front of our eyes.

In Chicago, predators literally roam the streets in their vehicles in the middle of the day looking for someone to attack. When a suitable target is identified, brutal violence often ensues. In the old days, thieves would at least wait until the cover of night to go out and do their thing. But now there is very little fear of the police.

There are more than 1,000 identifiable gangs in the city of Chicago today, and mafia-style killings have become quite common…"Three suspects shot and killed a man whom they also reportedly hit with a car at a gas station in Chicago in a brazen daytime shooting. A small memorial was left by family members for 31-year-old Anton Benoit after he was shot and killed in a gang-style shooting at a Shell gas station in Chatham, a neighborhood in Chicago. Chatham is located on the south side and has a population of approximately 32,000."

I don’t want to just pick on Chicago, and so let’s talk about major cities on the west coast for a bit. This week, a video posted by a San Francisco woman named Hanna Ayla went viral, because it accurately conveyed emotions that so many other San Francisco residents are feeling right now…“I was just getting groceries and I live in San Francisco, and I never really feel fully safe. If you live in San Francisco, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. And I just got groceries, I’m walking out of the store, and this guy is walking past me and says, ‘Move you stupid b****,’ and he spits in my face!” she said. “Spits all over my face,” she repeats.

“And I say, ‘Excuse me, did you just spit in my face?’ And he says, ‘Move or I’ll rape you.’ There’s also people everywhere and everyone’s just walking by because they’re like, I can’t handle something else in San Francisco, it’s always something else!” Ayla continued. “I don’t even know why I’m posting this,” she concluded. “If you live in San Francisco, do you feel this way all the time? I don’t feel safe. Ever. I literally never feel safe. It’s better when it’s daytime, but nighttime? No. Not leaving my house.”

I don’t think that anyone that lives in San Francisco truly feels safe at this point. Crime is completely out of control, but many would argue that conditions in Oakland are even worse.

In fact, a 48-year-old woman that has lived there her entire life says that she is being forced to move because she has become “too scared” to go outside of her own home…"A lifelong Oakland resident has made the heartbreaking decision to move out of the city after soaring crime rates left her ‘too scared’ to go outside. Kristin Cook, 48, spoke for many in Oakland as she sobbed: ‘I can’t take it anymore. I got to the point I was too scared to leave my house.’ "The fact that I am being pushed out because I emotionally can’t take it anymore is horrible,’ she added. Burglary rates in the city are 41 percent up on last year and robberies have increased more than 20 percent, according to police data. Rape offenses are also up 12 percent.

Our cities have degenerated into crime-ridden hellholes, and our country does not have a future if we stay on this path. But instead of working to fix our cities, Joe Biden continues to send giant mountains of money overseas.

For example, it is being reported that Biden has actually given more than two billion dollars to the Taliban during the past two years…"A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) notes that the Biden administration has given $2.35 billion to Afghanistan over the past two years, despite the fact that it is now ruled by the Taliban again following the disastrous U.S. withdrawal in 2021. The Washington Free Beacon shared details of the findings Tuesday, noting that the funds could be propping up the Taliban’s terrorist government."

Of course two billion dollars is just a drop in the bucket compared to what Biden has given to Ukraine. Meanwhile, our own country is in absolutely horrible shape. I write a lot about our rapidly growing economic problems, but the moral decay that is eating away at the foundations of our culture is an even bigger crisis. We can see this moral decay in major cities from coast to coast, and we can also see it in rural areas. Here is just one example…

A woman in Texas has been placed under arrest after dozens of dead horses and dogs were discovered at a ranch reportedly under her control. Animal cruelty had been suspected at a ranch in Westminster, Texas, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas, for some time. Dating back to 2019, police had received reports of alleged animal cruelty at the property at least 15 times. Recently, police had received yet another report regarding animal maltreatment. Landscapers who had been doing work at the ranch called authorities to claim that they had seen the decaying remains of several animals."

Reading that probably made you very angry. And it should. If the police had taken previous reports of animal cruelty seriously, a lot of those deaths could have been prevented. But it isn’t just a few crazed nuts like that woman that are our problem.

The truth is that our entire society is deeply sick. It is being reported that Pornhub is visited 115 million times a day, and many of those visitors are young adults and children…"Pornhub, the YouTube of pornography, gets more global users than Amazon or Netflix. In 2019, the last year Pornhub released its data, the site was visited 42 billion times, or 115 million times each day." To put those numbers in perspective, there are only 331 million people living in the United States. And please keep in mind that we are just talking about one website. There are thousands of other websites that are also preying on our young people.

I get extremely passionate about these issues, because the future of our country is literally hanging in the balance. For decades, extreme leftists have been rapidly advancing their agenda, and that has brought us to where we are today. Just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine is exploding all around us, and if we don’t find a way to turn things around America really is doomed."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"Doomsday Planes Up; Moscow 3 Attacks In 24 Hours; Africa War Begins; Poland 10,000 Troops"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 8/10/23

"Doomsday Planes Up; Moscow 3 Attacks In 24 Hours; 

Africa War Begins; Poland 10,000 Troops"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

International Man, "Doug Casey on the Information War"

"Doug Casey on the Information War"

by International Man

"International Man: Controlling information has always been crucial in military conflicts. How has information warfare evolved over time?

Doug Casey: Information has always been, and still is, the single most important factor in any conflict. Information, or intelligence in the military vernacular, allows tiny forces to conquer huge forces or to avoid destruction by larger forces. It’s the key to guerrilla warfare, knowing where the enemy is and what he’s thinking. Intelligence allows you to strike when and where the enemy is weakest. It can be a 10-1 force multiplier.

This is why spies and traitors are so important. Spies, who typically gain trust and then betray their victims, are usually morally despicable as individuals; they, justifiably, can expect no mercy if discovered. But they’re critical to successful warfare; a good spy, or a traitor, can be worth many thousands of soldiers.

This is why governments gather huge amounts of data on both potential enemies and their own citizens. Government and its various praetorian agencies - the CIA, FBI, NSA, Military Intelligence, and many others - are naturally paranoid, especially of domestic threats (including each other) which they can’t readily identify.

Though both are important, I would rather have good information than good material when it comes to war. But intelligence agencies have become so large, aggressive, and secretive since World War 2 that they’ve become extremely dangerous and counterproductive. They’re now semi-independent powers unto themselves. When it comes to actionable intelligence useful to defend their country, they’ve become Byzantine bureaucracies—very expensive but practically worthless.

International Man: Information warfare has played a prominent role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. For example, the "Ghost of Kiev" was initially trumpeted as a heroic ace fighter jet pilot to boost morale. However, it was later revealed to be made up. What is your take on how the information war is playing out in this conflict?

Doug Casey: It’s been said that truth is the first casualty in warfare. And that’s certainly true in this conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. It’s clear that the Russians would like to end the war. As they announced early on, they don’t even consider it a war. They consider it a "special military operation." It was intended to solve a particular problem - Kiev’s attack against the breakaway Donbass provinces, wherein it killed about 20,000 ethnic Russians. Lies on the part of the US, NATO, and the Ukraine are what’s kept this war going - lies to the effect that the Ukraine was winning and that the Russians and Putin are the devil incarnate.

The CIA is supposed to supply the intelligence needed to prosecute this proxy war, but it’s proving to be just as worthless here as it has been in just about every conflict since its creation. They failed to predict the rise of Castro in 1959, and their Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 was a disaster. Their intelligence in the Vietnam War was abysmal. They had zero idea a revolution was growing in Iran in 1978. Or that the Soviets were about to invade Afghanistan in 1979. They always believed that the Soviet economy was competitive with that of the US and had no idea it would collapse in 1990. They didn’t have a clue about the Twin Towers attack in 2001.

It’s as if the CIA is an evil twin of the Keystone Cops. They squander who knows how many billions per year from their giant campus in McLean, VA, but a lot of it goes to self-promotion in Hollywood movies, black sites, bribes, slush funds, and foreign corruption.

I don’t doubt that the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, and the rest of them have voluminous files on absolutely everyone of importance in the US Government - information that can be used to pressure individuals to do anything. These agencies amount to a genuine shadow government.

The example of the Ghost of Kiev that you mentioned is actually comical. Anybody capable of rational thought could tell that it was made up out of whole cloth. But the average American, hooting and panting while he sported his Ukraine lapel pin, blanked it from his memory within days of its being revealed as a Babylon Bee-esque fantasy.

Just a brief word on the Ukraine: Kiev appears to have lost something like 400,000 dead soldiers, an equal number of serious wounded, and almost all its armor and aircraft. The Russians will win decisively. That should be a non-problem for the US - except for a well-deserved loss of prestige and power. Considering that actual Jacobins control Washington, the average American shouldn’t worry - as long as they don’t touch off World War 3.

International Man: Information warfare isn’t exclusively directed against foreign enemies. Governments can engage in information warfare against their own citizens. Many would argue that we saw numerous examples during the recent Covid hysteria. What is your take on governments using information warfare against their own citizens?

Doug Casey: The term propaganda was originated by the Catholic church, adopted by Lenin as agitprop, and perfected as psyops by US covert services with Madison Avenue techniques. Its essence is manipulation through deception and half-truths.

Propaganda is extremely important to authoritarian governments, especially during wars. That’s because war itself is, first and foremost, a matter of psychology. And propaganda controls mass psychology. If you can demoralize an enemy through psyops, the war is 90% won. Economics and logistics are of secondary importance. Tanks, planes, and bullets are just tools.

Sun Tzu believed that the most successful kind of war is the war that you don’t fight. Fighting should be only an afterthought, a formality. That can be accomplished through the effective use of information and propaganda.

The big problem facing the world today is that governments—especially the US government—have become far more powerful than ever before relative to their own societies. It’s almost at the point where they realize that they can’t fight each other, because war has become way, way too destructive and deadly. The global nomenklatura who meet in places like Davos are, I suspect, much more loyal to each other than they are to their respective countries. The real war is now against the plebs in their own countries. Their own plebs, not a foreign enemy, are the greatest danger to the elite. Therefore, the elite will use the apparatus of the State to keep the plebs confused, disorganized, and docile. A belief in democracy helps keep them that way.

It’s quite clever the way "democracy" has been transformed into what amounts to a new deity or a secular religion. Democracy, a relatively gentle form of mob rule, is essentially just a method of electing rulers. It, not freedom, is worshiped around the world. The plebs are propagandized into believing their votes count and that they elect their rulers. But their rulers, who orchestrate the degraded charade, not only aren’t the best and the brightest (as they’ve convinced the plebs) but the worst and slickest.

You can forget about so-called democracies being shining cities on a hill. They’re all kakistocracies at this point - which is to say government of the worst. They use propaganda and psychological warfare to keep themselves in power.

International Man: Social media and search engine algorithms have an enormous influence on how people view events. Is this a new arena for information warfare? How does one discover the truth amid all this deception and manipulation?

Doug Casey: In today’s new era of information psyops, you really don’t need jackbooted police with riot shields to keep the plebs under control. Psychological warfare can "cancel" people, and social media can be used to shame them into silence and submission. Elements of the population can be turned against each other so that the government itself doesn’t have to become directly involved. They use "fact-checkers" to censor and invalidate information. And "influencers" to manipulate beliefs.

So how does one discover the truth with all this deception and manipulation? George Carlin was right. His prime directive was: Don’t believe anything the government says. But you can go beyond that at this point. Because of the rise of social media, photoshop, artificial intelligence, and woke corporate action, you shouldn’t believe almost anything. Not believe anything? In a way, this is a good thing. Why? Because not accepting anything at face value might force some people to become critical thinkers.

Most people are not critical thinkers. They believe everything they hear if it comes from an authoritative-sounding source. They’re proof that Einstein was right when he said that, after hydrogen, stupidity was the most common thing in the universe.

Unfortunately, one thing that you can’t believe anymore is that we, the US, are always the good guys. It’s a pity because there was once a time when the US was still more or less aligned with its founding virtues. Those principles made it different from and better than any other nation in the world.

At this point, however, it’s become very much like the Athenian empire. Ancient Athens started out as the classical shining city on the hill, the source of all the philosophy, and the epicenter of literature in the ancient world. It once epitomized righteousness and gave democracy a good name. However, it gradually transformed itself into an evil, destructive, and aggressive empire. In the Peloponnesian War, which destroyed them, the Athenians turned out to be the aggressors against the Spartans.

I fear that the same thing is happening with the US. It’s transformed itself, much the way Athens did, into an aggressive empire. Maybe even more so because it’s bankrupt and, therefore, desperate. The US is unlikely to reform any time soon. Not just because genuine Jacobins have now captured the apparatus of the State but because universities are no longer devoted to thoughtful education and critical thinking. They’re now nothing but indoctrination centers for statism, collectivism, and Neo-Marxism.

In any event, it’s become harder and harder in today’s world to discover the truth. There are a lot of forces trying to hide the truth in order to keep themselves in power. They have money, power, and they’re entrenched. It’s a real problem.

International Man: What do you think happens next in the information war? Where is this broader trend headed?

Doug Casey: It’s in the interest of the powers-that-be to keep the plebs onside. They don’t want the average guy to be too unhappy and angry. It’s important for the plebs to think that the government is their friend, protector and should be trusted. Although that facade is starting to crack, that’s why the internet is a big problem for these people. It can spread dissension. My guess is that they’re going to find a way to restrict the internet, probably by making users register. Then they can be controlled more closely and punished for "bad think." It’s already a fact, if you express the wrong attitudes or thoughts at work or in school.

Where is this trend headed? Well, as far as I’m concerned, both the COVID hysteria and brain-dead support for the Ukraine regime are just overtures to the main event, namely climate change. They are all psyops based on lies, misinformation, and disinformation. The idea is to keep people’s thoughts in line, as if they were at a political rally or cheering mindlessly at a sports event.

The future will be controlled with things like social credit scores. They’ve been implemented in China and will certainly be implemented here in the West. Your standing as an upright citizen will be dinged if you are known to say the wrong things, have the wrong beliefs, or do things considered anti-social in the opinion of the people in control.

Another example is the growing implementation of 15-minute cities. It’s part of the overall trend to turn citizens back into serfs. In medieval times, all cities, all villages, were 15-minute cities. People had to ask permission from their lord to travel more than 15 minutes from their hut. It’s disguised as a way of fighting global warming. These trends are very negative from the point of view of personal freedom and classical Western values. I’m sorry to say that everything is continuing to accelerate in the wrong direction. The amount of money the US government spends on foreign aid, wars, the so-called intelligence community, and other aspects of foreign policy is enormous and ever-growing. It’s an established trend in motion that is accelerating, and now approaching a breaking point. It could cause the most significant disaster since the 1930s."

- https://internationalman.com/

"Jeremiah Babe, 8/10/23"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/10/23

"Should You Buy A House Today? Epic Credit Crisis 

Has Begun, Reduce Financial Risk Immediately"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Burger King Is Being Crushed By The Retail Apocalypse As Stores Continue To Disappear"

Full screen recommended.

"Burger King Is Being Crushed By The Retail Apocalypse 

As Stores Continue To Disappear"

by Epic Economist

"Burger King may be one of the most famous fast food chains in the world, but not even its global popularity and vast store count have protected it from facing some alarming financial issues in the past few years. In the United States, more Burger King restaurants continue to disappear, with closings in July hitting the highest level since January when 124 locations were shuttered in only 26 days. While its main competitors reveal expansion plans and report profit growth, the financial situation of the royal burger chain can only be described as a train wreck. The company is failing to attract new customers, catch up with its rivals, and dig itself out of the hole it has fallen into during the pandemic. At this point, everyone in the industry is asking where did Burger King go wrong. Luckily for us, newly reported data show exactly why the fast food giant is facing one of the worst losing streaks since its foundation in 1954.

As other fast-food chains started to get back to pre-pandemic levels, Burger King’s sales and traffic fell steeply, and its financial results continued to disappoint. Over the past two years, sales at Wendy's jumped 18% while McDonald's saw sales grow by 25%. In contrast, at Burger King, sales went up by a meager 8%. During a second-quarter earnings call, Josh Kobza, CEO of the chain's parent company Restaurant Brands International, said that one of the reasons why Burger King is still struggling comes down to new guest visits. Kobza revealed that foot traffic in the first two quarters of 2023 was negative, and most of the earnings growth experienced by the company was fueled by higher menu prices, not by new customers.

Meanwhile, retail experts point to its ongoing woes with the health and profitability of its franchisees as the biggest issue facing Burger King. In a single year, the four biggest fast-food operators in America, including TOMS King Holdings and Meridian Restaurant Unlimited, whose portfolio was mainly composed of Burger King stores, have filed for bankruptcy citing declines in foot traffic and revenue, as well as ‘systemic’ profitability issues.

After shuttering 53 locations in June, 133 restaurants closed doors for good in July, the highest number in seven months. So far, the burger chain has permanently halted operations in 450 locations, 50 more than its initial target. The vast majority of restaurants have been forced to increase prices to compensate for higher inflation, But Burger King has taken price increases to a whole other level. In a survey conducted by MoneyGeek of 145 chains in 50 cities, the price for a burger, fries, and a soft drink rose 9% on average in the past year. From 2022 to 2023, the price for a meal at the chain rose 21%, from $6.76 to $8.18.

A few months ago, its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, made a strategic hire that laid bare exactly how nervous executives and shareholders were about its economic prospects. Patrick Doyle was formerly the CEO of Domino's and he is commended by the chain’s drastic turnaround. Doyle announced plans to “put the heat back into the brand” with a $400 million initiative called "Reclaim the Flame." Burger King is going to spend $150 million in advertising and digital investments and $250 million in a "Royal Reset" involving new restaurant technology, equipment, and infrastructure. In other words, executives are admitting that the chain is in desperate need of restructuring on every front, from its products to its brick-and-mortar locations. Hopefully, this initiative shows satisfactory results soon, because up until this point in 2023, Burger King is just getting burned."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Smithfield Foods Shuts Down 35 Hog Farms In Missouri and Is Laying Off 92 Employees!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 8/10/23

"Smithfield Foods Shuts Down 35 Hog Farms

 In Missouri and Is Laying Off 92 Employees!"

"Breaking News Report as Smithfield Foods decides to shut down 35 hog farms across Northern Missouri. We discuss how this can be devastating as we continue to see companies lay off employees in massive amounts all across the United States!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

Musical Interlude: Neil H, "Spellbound"

Neil H, "Spellbound"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see on the sky. Each of these fuzzy blobs is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. The cluster is seen through a foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Near the cluster center, roughly 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's dominant galaxy NGC 1275, seen above as a large galaxy on the image left. A prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission, NGC 1275 accretes matter as gas and galaxies fall into it. The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies, also cataloged as Abell 426, is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster spanning over 15 degrees and containing over 1,000 galaxies. At the distance of NGC 1275, this view covers about 15 million light-years.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110712.html

"25 Life Lessons from the Anglo-Saxons"

Full screen recommended.

RedFrost Motivation,

"25 Life Lessons from the Anglo-Saxons"

Narrated by Nicky Rebelo

o

"The Exeter Book": This is the largest (and perhaps oldest) known collection of Old English poetry/literature still in existence. Freely download "The Exeter Book" here:

- https://ia800703.us.archive.org/

o

“The Durham Proverbs”: “The proverbs are considered to have been used to document everyday business of the people of Anglo-Saxon England.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Durham_Proverbs

Chet Raymo, “Living In The Little World”

“Living In The Little World”

by Chet Raymo

"My wisdom is simple," begins Gustav Adolph Ekdahl, at the final celebratory family gathering of Ingmar Bergman's crowning epic “Fanny and Alexander.” I saw the movie in the early 1980s when it had its U.S. theater release. Now I have just watched the five-hour-long original version made for Swedish television. Whew!

But back to that speech by the gaily philandering Gustav, now the patriarch of the Ekdahl clan and uncle to Fanny and Alexander. The family has gathered for the double christening of Fanny and Alexander's new half-sister and Gustav's child by his mistress Maj. A dark chapter of family history has come to an end, involving a clash between two world views, one- the Ekdahl's- focussed on the pleasures of the here and now, and the other- that of Lutheran Bishop Edvard Vergerus, Fanny and Alexander's stepfather- a stern and joyless anticipation of the hereafter.

It is not the habit of Ekdahls to concern themselves with matters of grand consequence, Gustav tells the assembled guests. "We must live in the little world. We will be content with that and cultivate it and make the best of it."

The little world. I love that phrase. This world, here, now. This world of family and friends and newborn infants and trees and flowers and rainstorms and- oh yes, cognac and stolen kisses and tumbles in the hay. The Ekdahl's are a theatrical family; we will leave it to the actors and actresses to give us our supernatural shivers, says Gustav. "So it shall be," he says. "Let us be kind, and generous, affectionate and good. It is necessary and not at all shameful to take pleasure in the little world."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Perryville, Arkansas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 8/10/23"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 8/10/23

"Inflation Bullsh*t, US Ramping Up War In Ukraine"

"In today's Trends in the News, Gerald Celente, goes over the bullshit inflation numbers, Biden's $24 billion to Ukraine and the conflicts ramping up in Sudan and Niger. The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Lives They Lead..."

 

"Ukraine/Russia War Update 8/10/23"

Col. Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls 8/10/23

"Total Destruction Once They Come

 Into Contact With Russian Forces"

"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world. Interview with Stephen Gardner."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 8/10/23

"Russian 'Rocket Rain' Wipes Out Over 1,000 

Ukrainian Troops; Chechens Join Battle For Orekhovsky"

"Russia has delivered massive defeats to Ukraine in the Orekhovsky region. More than 1,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in back-to-back Russian strikes. Moscow's forces have launched a missile storm in the Orekhovsky region. Vladimir Putin's trusted Chechen fighters have joined the Russian Army in the region. The region has become a hotspot in the last few days amid Kyiv's counterattacks."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 8/10/23

"U.S. Admits Disaster for Ukraine's Failed 'Counter Offensive'"

"Western media is waking up to the fact that Ukraine’s counter offensive that started on June 4th was not a counter offensive at all but a total failure… and sent tens of thousands of Ukrainian men to their deaths. Put another way, NATO just sent tens of thousands of Ukrainian men to their deaths."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Don't look away. That's my hand. That's your hand. 400,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers, 30,000 dead Russians. That's what you and I and all of us bought with the $150 billion we supported this horror with. Wear it proudly...

"Who Will Say 'No More' To The Current Madness?"

"Who Will Say 'No More' To The Current Madness?"

by Victor Davis Hanson

"Britain slept in the 1930s as an inevitable war with Hitler loomed. A lonely Winston Churchill had only a few courageous partners to oppose the appeasement and incompetence of his conservative colleague Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. One of the most stalwart truth-tellers was a now little remembered politico and public servant Leo Amery, a polymath and conservative member of Parliament. Yet in two iconic moments of outrage against the Chamberlain government’s temporizing, Amery galvanized Britain and helped end the government’s disastrous policies.

In the hours after Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, there was real doubt whether Chamberlain would honor its treaty and declare war on Germany. A Labour Party member, surrogate Arthur Greenwood, got up in the House of Commons to announce that he would be speaking for Labour on behalf of his ill party leader Clement Attlee. Immediately Amery interrupted, shouting out, “Speak for England, Arthur!” He was met with overwhelming applause and soon public acclamation.

After all, Amery was a political voice in the wilderness warning that neither his own party nor opposition Labour was speaking or acting for the real interest of the British people. Amery, a shocked Greenwood, and others had finally had enough of the partisan nonsense, and demanded the nation unite against Nazi Germany. Britain hours later declared war on Germany, the first major power to do so.

On a second iconic occasion on May 7, 1940, Amery voiced even stronger views - again, widely held by the public, but rarely voiced by the timid political class. The inept Chamberlain government had just lost a winnable Norway campaign to Germany. Amery responded with a blistering attack on the incompetence of the conservative Chamberlain administration by quoting Oliver Cromwell’s hallmark 1653 order to the Long Parliament:

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”

Three days later after Amery’s speech and the invasion of France, an ill Chamberlain and most of his advisors resigned. Churchill became Prime Minister. The rest is history.

We need a voice like Amery’s. Like Britain from 1939 to 1940, America is in existential danger.

The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border - and immigration law with it.

Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.

China spies inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function Covid virus that killed a million Americans.

President Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years. In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.

Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions.

Following Biden’s humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.

The Pentagon’s woke agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.

Our enemies - Russia, China, Iran, North Korea - are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.

The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race - not the law - more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement.

The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable. They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.

To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.

The public assumes that President Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator.

Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth:

• Balance the budget.

• Return to legal only immigration.

• Restore a well-funded, but unwoke Pentagon.

• Insist on racial unity.

• Curb the overweening administrative state.

• Enforce the rule of law.

• Produce more gas and oil.

• Reestablish civic education.

• Insist universities protect free speech and due process - and stop proselytizing.

In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us. Somewhere out there an American Leo Amery is growing infuriated over what is being done to America. And if he finally stands up like Amery to call out our bankrupt political class, the American people will echo his famous order to this disastrous government: “Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”

- https://www.zerohedge.com/ 

o

"September 1, 1939"

"Defenseless

under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out

wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame."

- W.H. Auden

○

"On September 1, 1939, the German army under Adolf Hitler launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II (though by 1939 Japan and China were already at war). The battle for Poland only lasted about a month before a Nazi victory. But the invasion plunged the world into a war that would continue for almost six years and claim the lives of tens of millions of people."

- https://www.vox.com/

"How It Really Should Have Been"

 

"Argentine-Style Bulls"

"Argentine-Style Bulls"

Cronyism, corruption and crackpottery... 

from Washington DC to the Pampas...

by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

“This model of crooked politicians, crony businessmen, union leaders turning their backs on workers left us with this mess. In that context, we went from having a rich society to a poor one, where the only ones who prospered were from the damned political class.”

~ Javier Milei, candidate for president, Argentina

Cherbourg, France…on our way back to Ireland for a baptism..."Guess what stock market is up 42% this year? The S&P Merval in Argentina, of course. The inflation rate is over 100%. But these stock prices are quoted in dollars. In other words, you would have made a lot more money in Argentine stocks than in US stocks. Why? Investors put their money into stocks to avoid losing it to inflation. The result was a stock market boom.

Everything Passes, Everything Breaks: Whatever else may happen, our guess is there will be an Argentine-style bull market in chaos and confusion in the years ahead. Things will go up that should go down…politicians who make things worse will claim to be creating a ‘new era of prosperity.’ Prices will rise…or fall…for no apparent reason.

What can you count on in such a topsy-turvy world? “Tout passe, tout casse,” they say in French, to explain the way of the world. It is also our unofficial motto here at Bonner Private Research. Or, as Nietzsche put it, ”Amor fati.” We have faith – that everything that is born will die…that every upswing will be followed by a downturn…and that no song…no empire…no bull market will last forever.

Over time, everything degrades and fades away. We saw yesterday how the Industrial Revolution slacked off after 1970. We saw how the dollar was corrupted into a currency that the political class could use to make themselves rich. We’ve all seen how American politics has degenerated into a comic opera…where fat ladies sing every day and nobody cares.

Over time, freedom gives way to politics. A dynamic, entrepreneurial economy is taken over by central planners and hacks. And small government yields to Big Government, with its millions of rules regulation, lawyers…prisons…fines… missiles…sanctions…2% target inflation…malinvestment and claptrap. How much these things slowed down the economy is incalculable, but the US Chamber of Commerce puts the cost of government regulation alone at $1.9 trillion annually. Winslow Wheeler puts the cost of empire at another $1.5 trillion.

Remarkable Naïveté Joseph Stiglitz does not share our cheerful fatalism. In 2018 he wrote a remarkably naïve article…cited yesterday…in the ‘Scientific American’ magazine, no less. There was nothing the least bit scientific about it. Instead, Stiglitz ignored the fading industrial revolution completely. As for the fraudulent dollar, he didn’t mention it. And instead of wishing to wipe the slate clean of stifling rules and regulations, he wanted more of them.

Whenever you see a Nobel laureate saying that ‘we need to do this’ and ‘we need to do that’ you can be sure that what follows is drivel. Stiglitz did not disappoint us: "We need more progressive taxation and high-quality federally funded public education, including affordable access to universities for all, no ruinous loans required. We need modern competition laws to deal with the problems posed by 21st-century market power and stronger enforcement of the laws we do have. We need labor laws that protect workers and their rights to unionize. We need corporate governance laws that curb exorbitant salaries bestowed on chief executives, and we need stronger financial regulations that will prevent banks from engaging in the exploitative practices that have become their hallmark. We need better enforcement of anti-discrimination laws: it is unconscionable that women and minorities get paid a mere fraction of what their white male counterparts receive. We also need more sensible inheritance laws that will reduce the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage.

…We need to guarantee access to health care. We need to strengthen and reform retirement programs, which have put an increasing burden of risk management on workers (who are expected to manage their portfolios to guard simultaneously against the risks of inflation and market collapse) and opened them up to exploitation by our financial sector (which sells them products designed to maximize bank fees rather than retirement security). ..we have to have urban housing policies that ensure affordable housing for all."

Good gracious, is there anything we don’t need to do? In short, he said, we need more control…more laws…more regulations…more handcuffs…more penalties…more prison cells…and more loops for the holes to go in – more of what got us into this mess in the first place.

Hot Air and Bad Ideas: But wait…you would think a Nobel prize winner might dig a little deeper. How, exactly, does that work? Our political system created the problems. How is it going to solve them? Who’s going to write these new laws? Who’s going to enforce these new rules and regulations? What Solomons will govern this brave new world? What angels will police it? Amid all Stiglitz’s gassy do-goodism is a small breeze of reality: "A vicious spiral has formed: economic inequality translates into political inequality, which leads to rules that favor the wealthy, which in turn reinforces economic inequality."

He’s right about that. Our system is rigged up. Stiglitz: "It is not the laws of nature that have led to this dire situation: it is the laws of humankind. Markets do not exist in a vacuum: they are shaped by rules and regulations, which can be designed to favor one group over another."

But if the old rules favored the wealthy…why wouldn’t the new rules also favor the people whose lobbyists write them? And wouldn’t members of congress, still eager for some emolument, vote on them? 'The People’ have no lobbyists. They have no way of knowing what regulations are coming down the pike…or to whom they will deliver their hidden goodies. The voters are like wax, ready to be molded into whatever shape the insiders want. Why should we expect anything different?

Stiglitz doesn’t address the subject. But that was in 2018. Stiglitz did not say so directly, but with a wink and a nod, readers knew what he meant. With so much inequality afoot, he warned that a demagogue might be able to stir up popular resentment and endanger our democracy. It does not bother him that ‘our democracy’ did nothing to prevent the problems he complains about. And then, in 2020, in the middle of the raging covid stream, our democracy changed horses. But the water continued to flow as before.

In Russia, Putin opponent Alexei Navalny faces another 19 years in prison on what look like trumped up charges. In Pakistan, Imran Khan, the country’s democratically elected president, faces 3 years in jail after the CIA conspired to remove him from office. In Niger, President Bazoum is said to be under house arrest and running out of food. And now, America’s leading demagogue is facing prison time too, after a new administration, more to Stiglitz’s liking, took control and the Justice Department went to work on the opposition. Cronyism, corruption, crackpottery…at least, there are some things you can still count on."

Joel’s Note: If Argentina is the ghost of America’s future, the republic may wish to remain among the living a while longer. When we left Buenos Aires a few months ago, official inflation had already topped 100%. A couple of days ago, according to Bloomberg, it was seen passing the 115% annual rate, the highest since 1991. Recent polls cited by newswire Reuters forecast 150% before the year is out…

What does that mean, practically speaking? As with all things in Argentina, there’s the “official” way of doing things… and the “actual,” “real world” way they get done (to the extent they actually get done, that is). De jure vs de facto, as the lawyers would say. Abiding by Gresham’s Law – roughly stated as “bad money drives out good” – Argentina operates on both an official exchange rate… and an actual one. Known as the “blue rate,” this parallel exchange represents the real world value of the peso vs. the USD, euros, gold, bitcoin, etc. It’s what desperate porteños pay to escape the fast shrinking cage that is their national medium of exchange/store of value.

Back in May, as your editor at large were flying north for the summer, the exchange rate was ~500 pesos to the US dollar. Yesterday, that rate eclipsed 600:1. A friend and amateur economist (everyone in Argentina is an amateur economist, not by choice, but by necessity) notes that, had the parallel rate only kept pace with official inflation, the rate would be closer to 700:1 by now.

Argentina’s general elections, set for October, promise to be a referendum on the economy. The situation is getting so bad, even young people are beginning to turn away from the usual “tax and spend” policies of the ruling Peronistas. Presidential candidate, Javier Milei (quoted above), has promised if elected to burn the central bank to the ground. Sounds like a decent start…"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "We Have To Get By With Less"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 8/10/23

"We Have To Get By With Less"

"We are seeing entire industries that have sales off 50%. We are hearing now that hospitals will be closing at a record pace. People need to get by with less."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! Here We Go Again! Get Ready!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 8/10/23

"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! 

Here We Go Again! Get Ready!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing massive price increases on groceries. It's happening again as we have talked about on the channel here. More price increases on groceries as many families continue to struggle to put food on the table. Get ready as there seems to be no end in sight. Stock Up on the sales, and get prepared."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"We Got Big Trouble, Don't Ignore The Warning Signs; The FED Will Crush the Economy and Housing"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/9/23

"We Got Big Trouble, Don't Ignore The Warning Signs; 

The FED Will Crush the Economy and Housing"

Comments here"

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Red Alert! Mushroom Cloud By Moscow At Nuclear Bomber Facility; Drone Attack On 'Nuclear Fuel'"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 8/9/23

"Red Alert! Mushroom Cloud By Moscow At Nuclear 

Bomber Facility; Drone Attack On 'Nuclear Fuel'"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Aldi Store Closings Double As Biggest Grocery Stores In America Face Mass Shutdowns"

Full screen recommended.

"Aldi Store Closings Double As Biggest Grocery 

Stores In America Face Mass Shutdowns"

by Epic Economist

"Some of the biggest grocery chains in America are in the process of closing thousands of stores right now, and discounter Aldi is one of them. Even though Aldi is considered one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country, the industry giant hasn’t been able to increase profitability in some struggling locations. And as it watches its competitors reducing their brick-and-mortar footprint in preparation for more economic turbulence, the company has decided to follow the same move. According to a new analysis, the number of store shutdowns announced by the discount chain rose by 50% year-over-year. That means a lot of shoppers are losing access to affordable grocery prices at a time food inflation is still soaring. But Aldi closures are just a symptom of something much worse that is rapidly spreading across the entire sector.

In June and July, there was a flood of reports of sudden Aldi store shutdowns across the country. According to Retail Data Insights, Aldi store closures doubled in the past year. Researchers found that between January and June 2022, and January and June 2023, the number of shutdowns conducted by the chain increased by 52%, resulting in a total of 178 closures across 17 states.

That is a major indicator that the food retailer is reassessing its brick-and-mortar portfolio to get ready for more volatility in the final stretch of 2023, and into 2024. However, it’s important to note that these closures are not indications of the retailer’s total collapse, but a sign that conditions are souring even for the biggest grocery chains in America.

At the moment, another problem is also upsetting Aldi customers. They have been finding bare shelves and empty freezers in several stores. Supplies of bread, produce, meat, dairy, and other staples are running out because of "technical supply chain issues," according to the grocery chain. The Aldi Reviewer reports that the chain is facing multiple product shortages that may vary according to the area. Some of the most commonly cited stockouts are sour cream, ricotta cheese, saltine crackers, spaghetti noodles, canned cat food, blossom tampons, string cheese, frozen chicken, sausage, bakery items, hash browns, fresh garlic, apple juice, frozen pancakes, and various types of fresh meat.

In the coming months, more people may struggle to get the food they need, especially as affordable grocery stores continue to close. Food is a bare necessity, and there will always be a demand for it. That’s why during economic downturns, grocery is typically the only sector that stays strong. But this time around, things are vastly different. Major chains are reporting mass store closings, and facing challenges to improve performance and profitability to continue supporting their business. Ultimately, Aldi’s decision to permanently shutter some locations is a matter of survival in this highly competitive industry. And if even the biggest players are in survival mode, that means everyone else is in deep trouble."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended. 

○

"I cannot paint

What then I was. The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colors and their forms, were then to me

An appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, not any interest

Unborrowed from the eye.

That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur: other gifts

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense.

For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue."

- William Wordsworth,

"Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

○

“Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that

only loneliness can help you find them again.

Some truths are so painful that only shame can help you live with them.

Some things are so sad that only your soul can do the crying for them.”

- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"

Musical Interlude: Elton John, "Your Starter For"

Elton John, "Your Starter For"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion - over hundreds of millions of years.

NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The featured picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2002. These galactic mice will probably collide again and again over the next billion years so that, instead of continuing to pull each other apart, they coalesce to form a single galaxy."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211004.html

'If You Will Not Fight..."

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” 

– Sir Winston Churchill

"I'm Always Tempted To Ask..."

"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks... Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life... I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.”

- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' 

I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"

- Sydney J. Harris

"Crabs in a Bucket"

"Crabs in a Bucket"

by Sarah Robinson

"When I was a little girl, I lived very close (an hour and fifteen minutes) to the Florida panhandle beaches. Which meant we spent a TON of time there. Early evening was one of my favorite times to walk the beach with my mom and my older brothers. We were all clean and fed and slightly sun weary but still desperate to be outside. So, we would grab flashlights, dip nets and a bucket and search the ocean’s edge for crabs. We would catch a bucket full in an evening and drag them back home where my mom or my grandmother would cook them up into something delicious. (Yes, I was traumatized by the crabs being put into boiling water, but that story is for another day.)

The problem was that as we made that long walk home carrying crabs, there were always one or two who figured out how to climb up to the edge of the bucket in an attempt to escape. Every now and then we would have to tap the edge of the bucket to knock them back down. Because I was too little to carry the bucket very far, I got the job of watching for potential escapees. And I noticed something... well… odd. More often than not, as a crab would begin to inch its way higher to the edge of the bucket, the other crabs would latch on to him and pull him back down. I watched this scenario play out again and again, year after year.

Fast forward to this morning. As I was drinking my coffee and perusing my twitter stream, and up pops this gem from @paulocoelho (He wrote "The Alchemist", one of my all time favorite books): “Only mediocrity is safe. Get ready to be attacked, and be the best.” Maybe it was the early hour. Maybe it was my post-event mushy brain. I don’t know. But the minute I read Paulo’s tweet, I thought of those crabs in a bucket. So I sent him this tweet: “I’m thinking of crabs in a bucket. They always try to pull down the one who’s figured out how to escape.”

Paulo liked my analogy so much that he retweeted it and I’ve spent my morning connecting with people all over the world who liked it, too. It resonated deeply for a lot of people. I did a quick Google search and discovered that “Crab Mentality” is actually an official phrase that roughly means “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” And it is talked about. A lot.

There will always be people who will subtly or not so subtly try to keep us from escaping. Why? Because our escape threatens their mediocre existence. Pulling us down, sabotaging our efforts, picking apart our brilliant ideas – all of that keeps them feeling safe. And living undisturbed mediocre lives.

So what if we added a new piece to the crab mentality picture? Imagine a crab, or a group of crabs on the other side of the bucket building a ladder to aid your escape. They managed to crawl out of the bucket in spite of all the energetic attempts to pull them backwards. Because they’ve tasted freedom and they know your struggle, they are putting energy into aiding and abetting your escape.

I believe that for those of us determined to get out of the bucket, such a group exists. It may take some time to find them, but they are there, ready to throw a safety rope over the edge and pull us out. Start listening for them. Start looking for them. They are there. Reach just a little further and they’ll meet you at the edge of the bucket."

- http://www.escaping-mediocrity.com/

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Lyons, Oregon, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Rod McKuen, “A Cat Named Sloopy”

 

“A Cat Named Sloopy”

“For awhile

the only earth that Sloopy knew

was in her sandbox.

Two rooms were her domain.

Every night she’d sit in the window

among the avocado plants

waiting for me to come home,

my arms full of canned liver and love.

We’d talk into the night then,

contented,

but missing something.

She the earth she never knew,

me the hills I ran

while growing bent.

Sloopy should have been a cowboy’s cat,

with prairies to run,

not linoleum,

and real-live catnip mice,

no one to depend on but herself.

I never told her,

but in my mind

I was a midnight cowboy even then.

Riding my imaginary horse

down Forty-second street,

going off with strangers

to live an hour-long cowboy’s life.

But always coming home to Sloopy,

who loved me best.

For a dozen summers

we lived against the world.

An island on an island.

She’d comfort me with purring,

I’d fatten her with smiles.

We grew rich on trust,

needing not the beach or butterflies.

I had a friend named Ben

Who painted buildings like Roualt men.

He went away.

My laughter tired Lillian

after a time,

she found a man who only smiled.

But Sloopy stayed and stayed.

Winter,

Nineteen fifty-nine,

Old men walk their dogs.

Some are walked so often

that their feet leave

little pink tracks

in the soft snow.

Women, fur on fur,

elegant and easy,

only slightly pure,

hailing cabs to take them

round the block and back.

Who is not a love seeker

when December comes?

Even children pray to Santa Claus.

I had my own love safe at home,

and yet I stayed out all one night,

the next day too.

They must have thought me crazy

screaming SLOOPY!

SLOOPY!

as the snow came falling

down around me.

I was a madman

to have stayed away

one minute more

than the appointed hour.

I’d like to think a golden cowboy

snatched her from the window sill,

and safely saddlebagged

she rode to Arizona.

She’s stalking lizards

in the cactus now perhaps,

bitter, but free.

I’m bitter too,

and not a free man anymore.

But once upon a time,

In New York’s jungle in a tree,

before I went into the world

in search of other kinds of love,

nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.

Looking back,

perhaps she’s been

the only human thing

that ever gave back love to me.”

- Rod McKuen 

"What Is Hope?"

"What Is Hope?"

"What is hope? It is the pre-sentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress us is not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe.

That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and in a miraculous and unexplained way, life is opening creative events which will light the way to freedom and resurrection. But the two - suffering and hope - must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté and drunkenness.

So let us plant dates even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. That is the secret discipline. It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience, and it is a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope."

- Rubin Alves