Monday, December 11, 2023

Jim Kunstler, "What Just Happened?"

"What Just Happened?"
by Jim Kunstler

“All these idiots whose ‘identity’ is literally a ‘protected class’ are not protesting anything. Their whole victim act is sponsored, enabled & signal boosted by every powerful institution. The entire elaborate charade amounts to power petitioning itself.” - Aimee Terese on X

"If you haven’t discerned this yet, the Party of Chaos - Globalism’s “fifth column” in America - lost ground badly in early December even as the country supposedly enters its annual Christmastime coma. You know what a fifth column is? I will explain: it is a subversive enemy force operating inside a nation to sabotage its interests. The Party of Chaos, of course, is the party of “Joe Biden” the fictitious “president” euchered in plain sight to that position via flagrant chicanery in the 2020 Super Tuesday primary and then the free-for-all fraud-o-rama of the general election that year.

This subversive Party of Chaos (with Marxist characteristics), has worked overtime for years to mindf*ck Americans into destroying their own country. Just think of the absurdities you are asked to swallow daily and the punishments meted out for opposing them. It all came to an interesting inflection point lately with the three presidents of exalted universities failing spectacularly to cover their asses in congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.

At issue was why, after years of grandstanding on the oppression of victim groups, and censoring, silencing, cancelling, and crucifying alternate opinions, they gave their students and faculty a pass in recent weeks on yelling for the extermination of Jews. Wow, did that business disorder the whole Woke cosmography! I’ll tell you why:

My people, the Jews, including a major chunk of the intellectual class, assumed leadership in the Woke crusade because the Holocaust of the 1940s established us as the world’s premier oppressed victim group. That badge of honor stuck for decades. Seventy percent of American Jews vote for the Party of Chaos, which used to be the Party of Civil Rights, which used to synonymous with truth and justice. Thus, for decades, we American Jews were able to feel marinated in virtue.

Incidentally, the reason American Jews went all in for the Civil Rights movement was because after the big war and all its horrors they felt a victory for expanded tolerance and acceptance in America - the defeat of “Jim Crow” in particular - could only be a good thing for Jews, who, by the way, had demonstrated that a former “out” group could succeed spectacularly in 20th century America if permitted to try, which suggested that other “out” groups could too, and ought to be allowed to try. For Jews, America turned out to be the promised land, and one can easily see how that rhetoric jibed so well with Martin Luther King and his followers in the 1960s.

But the Civil Rights crusade is history now and American intellectuals, Jews especially, appear to be secretly disillusioned and rather ashamed at the less than satisfactory results, such as intractable black poverty and crime. Successful American Jews have been out of their own ghettos for decades, and they have no desire to live adjacent to any black ghetto if they can help it - though they would never dare admit it. However, they flocked to and flourished in the ghetto of elite academia, where they could make a good living in the commerce of ideas, luxuriate in enhanced social status (especially at Ivy League schools), with the bonus of fabulously easy work requirements (two classes a week and then summers off, what a deal!).

Life on campus has become increasingly uncomfortable in recent years as Wokery ramped up. Lately, the demonization of all white people, including most Jews, became the order of the day to account for and expiate the disappointments of the Civil Rights program. It required considerable cognitive dissonance for American Jews, especially in higher education, to go along with the growing aggressive absurdity of Woke politics. And then their remaining illusions blew up in the fall of this year after Hamas went on its savage rampage and Israel decided to bring down the wrath of Yahweh to remind the world what never again means.

American Jews on campus - in the crucible of victimhood politics - now find themselves called out as “oppressors” and “colonizers” on the seesaw of social justice. No longer an “out” group, they are fingered as a cruel and hate-worthy “in” group of the most privileged sort. Jewish students on campus began to feel like they had targets painted on their foreheads. At some colleges, they were indeed actively harassed and menaced. And after all they’ve done, and all the money they’ve given, to assist all the other victims, have-nots, left-behinds and marginalized in this world! And finally, to see how they were sold out by those three smirking boss-girl elite college presidents at the witness table in Congress, equivocating so strenuously that it seemed to affect the oxygen content in the room. From the river to the sea... woe unto you!

And now, an even bigger question looms: with Wokery unraveling on campus, will it now also unravel the Party of Chaos - and its ability to act as Globalism’s fifth column undermining our country? Personally, I think it is indeed the beginning of the end of all that, especially the disgraced intellectual class of America’s ability to play along for mere social status brownie points. Perhaps we’ll all begin to discern that the next trip to be laid on the people of this land will be the final one, the Big Enchilada, the event that will truly knock the wind out of Western Civ and leave it gasping and wheezing on the floor: blowing up the banking system. When that happens, we’ll all finally know just where things stand, and then maybe we’ll all start to sing together."

Adventures With Danno, "Preparing For Winter 2024 And The World Of Tomorrow!"

Adventures With Danno, 12/11/23
"Preparing For Winter 2024 
And The World Of Tomorrow!"
"We are prepping for winter 2024 and the world of tomorrow. As all of these events are unfolding in front of our very eyes, we have to prepare for the future. From food to household items and clothing, we are stocking up on items that may be essential in case it all hits the fan!"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "2024, You Are About To See Things You Just Will Not Believe!"

Gregory Mannarino, 12/11/23
"2024, You Are About To See 
Things You Just Will Not Believe!"
Comments here:

"What Were Romans Thinking As They Watched Rome Collapse?"

"What Were Romans Thinking As 
They Watched Rome Collapse?"
by Paul Craig Roberts

"I have often wondered what Roman citizens thought as they watched the Roman Empire fall apart culturally, politically, morally, and militarily. Cicero, quaestor, praetor and Counsel of Rome, tried to save the Roman Republic. For his efforts he was chased down and murdered. As Cicero was, perhaps, the most famous Roman, his murder stopped efforts to prevent Rome’s descent into tyranny.

The same thing is happening today to those who attempt to arouse us to our danger. Julian Assange, for example, has been imprisoned contrary to every known US and UK law for a decade without conviction for simply doing his duty as a journalist and reporting the crimes of our rulers, the crimes of the corrupt vermin we continue to return to office and power over us. No one has done anything about it, not even his fellow journalists. When truth is punished, a country dies.

Rome survived for centuries after its essence had departed, because her enemies were weak in comparison. Rome destroyed itself. As many or more Romans died in civil wars fighting one another than died repelling barbarian invasions, Roman military might ended in self-destruction.

The enemies Washington has created for America are not weak. Russia alone, China alone, perhaps even Iran alone, is a match or more for America. The three together constitute a vast over-match of US military capability. Yet Washington continues to increase hostilities with these countries. The mindlessness of my government is unbearable. Such utter stupidity.

Once the moronic Biden regime’s economic sanctions and the US loss of the reserve currency role finish off the US dollar, America is finished. We will be a third world country, and the rest of the world will punish us for the sins of our government. Try to tell this to an American."
o
World War III, cyber attacks, economic meltdowns could change life forever;
 all three scenarios are simmering and ready to explode.

"Economic Market Snapshot 12/11/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 12/11/23"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

"Trauma Nation"

"Trauma Nation"
We now are all suffering from acute trauma, in a trauma nation.
by Todd Hayen

"I would venture to say in a trauma world, but I am not certain of conditions in countries such as India, Indonesia, much of the Middle East or the like. I do think the trauma I am speaking of is present in most of Europe, the UK, North America, Israel, Australia and probably in many other places. Anywhere the vaccine rollout occurred, as well as anywhere that experienced lockdowns, social distancing, school closures, etc. That leaves few places trauma-free.

What is trauma? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. If this is accurate then my only response is “duh” - of course we have all been traumatized. There is no doubt that we have all experienced a deeply distressing and disturbing experience. Many experiences, in fact, over many, many years.

But have we all experienced these traumas? And have all of us experienced the same number of traumatic events, and have we all responded the same way to them? No, of course not. We are all individual human beings, and the traumas are also varied, and each has a unique impact. Let me present this idea in rather broad strokes. First, I will divide us all into two groups that each have roughly similar ideas and beliefs. You know where I am going with this, so without further ado, here they are: Sheep and Shrews. (Click here if you are not familiar with my sheep/shrew terminology.)

I do not think I need to spend time defining these two groups. There are of course outliers in addition to the main group - those who are quasi-sheep, those who are quasi-shrews, and those who really don’t fit into either group. But just for simplicity’s sake let’s say there are only two groups - and you and I belong in one or the other. I will start with these two distinctions in order to say that each of these groups experience the trauma that has come to all of us in different ways.

The Sheep for the most part experience this trauma internally. They don’t really know what is happening. They may say, “oh my, Covid was horrible, the pandemic really affected me.” But they are only describing the fake version of the crises - the ridiculous infection rate, the ubiquitous fear of death, the ventilators, the hospitals, the lockdowns, the fake drugs, the social distancing, the masks. Vaccines coming on the scene were not part of the sheep trauma, they were actually the savior that descended from heaven to save the hoards from sure destruction. Now, for sheep, the trauma is largely over - the external fake one at least. The internal one is really just starting, but they still don’t know it.

Day after day I see psychotherapy clients who are sheep that describe depression, anxiety, listlessness, lethargy, meaninglessness, purposelessness, sadness, feeling lost, confused, on and on. Now, I have to admit, I cannot be sure if this is terribly unusual. That is typically the common complaints that come into my office, even before the Covid debacle. But it does seem to have a different quality to it. There is more of a glassy-eyed-ness to it all. Is this due to the toxins in the vaccine? Is it due to a collapsing economy, a collapsing culture, or a collapse of humanity? Is it due to the radical shift that has come in the previous three years, like ubiquitous masks, working at home, etc. “There’s something happening here...But what it is ain’t exactly clear...” (Remember that song? The next line is: "There’s a man with a gun over there...Telling me I got to beware...” Oh my.)

This is sheep trauma. And sheep trauma will get worse and worse until it works its way to the surface, like a splinter that finally, after much invisible pain, works its way out. But unlike a splinter, when this trauma comes out it isn’t going to be easy to just wipe it away. It will then become conscious, like the Shrew trauma, which is mostly conscious. Is it better for the trauma to be conscious? In some ways it is, but in many ways trauma becoming conscious can be devastating.

So, on to the next group - the Shrews. We’ve got it bad folks. As if I even have to tell you that. And don’t kid yourself, this is bonafide trauma, with a capital “T”, right here in River City. I would add to Oxford’s minimalist definition of trauma, “helplessness.” It is a hallmark of serious trauma - there isn’t much you can do about it as it digs its heels in, deeper and deeper.

Our world is falling apart. Sure, it has always been tenuous. But now, it is literally falling into the ashes. Up is down, down is up, it is truly Superman’s Bizarro World. Everywhere we turn there is trauma, we’ve lost most of our friends - friends we may have had for decades. Gone. And usually gone in an ugly way. We have lost family. Same deal. Gone. We may even live in a house divided. Sheep and shrew, living together. If this is the case, you may even doubt your own sanity at times - possibly a lot of the time.

Cognitive dissonance is always a concern and pops up around every corner. People you used to trust, at least maybe a little bit, are suddenly suspicious, or downright frightening. They say one thing, you know another. Nothing seems to match up. Nearly every source of information you used to rely on is now suspect. This at first may seem like a game. It also can seem, at times, to be a relief. Now you don’t have to trust anything. You no longer have the burden of trying to figure out what to trust and what not to trust - now you don’t trust anything at all if it is in the mainstream. This means things as simple as television and magazine advertising, billboards, the labels on cereal boxes, the headlines in newspapers, the smiling woman at Costco giving out free samples. Everything gets a cocked head response from you, like what your dog does when it hears a strange sound.

I was walking through a local farmer’s market one of these past Saturdays. It was a nice sunny, crisp, fall day. There was a cool breeze, and people seemed to be happy and having a good time. Then I spotted a family of four coming toward me. A mom and dad, and two little girls, about the ages of 5 and 7. All in masks. The whole moment collapsed for me. No longer did I feel like it was a nice day, or that I was strolling along with fellow neighbors, or even fellow human beings. A feeling of threat came over me, and anger began to creep up my spine. I no longer understand these people, I no longer feel safe amongst them. They now actually present a danger to me. I am traumatized.

OK, fine, so what? Well, this gets under your skin day in and day out. We keep thinking we are going to wake up from this nightmare but like Ground Hog Day, it just goes on and on. Nothing is relieved. When you hear of a won court case then in the same moment you hear of a shrew arrest. When you see a nice commercial about happy smiling people and giggling infants, within the same minute you will see beheaded babies in Gaza. Neither one of these images is trustworthy, nothing is trustworthy. The whole world has gone to hell.

That is trauma. What makes it worse is our isolation. Shrews are definitely not the majority group. And even though we hear there are indeed many of us, it doesn’t really seem that way, in reality. Where are all of the shrews? They are around, of course, but we don’t yet have regular, and local, meeting places where we can gather and talk, and argue, and share, and love each other. We need to start creating this for ourselves. We are not only isolated as humans, but we are isolated because we have no connection with anything out there that isn’t pure SHEEP. Everything we see, hear, and read, is SHEEP. The world accommodates sheep, like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers pod world - you can’t tell who or what is ours.

It all revolves around the vaccinated, the sheep, the followers, the blind. We are left behind. We live in a trauma nation."

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Canadian Prepper, "Warning! Nationwide Cyberattack Pending; '666'; Civil War In 2024; Predictive Programming"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/10/23
"Warning! Nationwide Cyberattack Pending; '666';
 Civil War In 2024; Predictive Programming"
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Smithfield Foods Shuts Down 26 Hog Farms In Utah"

Adventures With Danno, PM 12/10/23
"Smithfield Foods Shuts Down 26 Hog Farms In Utah
& Is Laying Off 70+ Emplyees!"
"Breaking News Report as Smithfield Foods decides to shut down 26 hog farms across Utah. 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:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the below panoramic image taken last Friday are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left.
Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common site, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Not lucky at all- the image was timed to capture the rocket. What was lucky was how photogenic- and perhaps surreal- the rest of the sky turned out to be.”

The Poet: Rolf Jacobsen, "When They Sleep"

"When They Sleep"

"All people are children when they sleep.
There's no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
God, teach me the language of sleep."

- Rolf Jacobsen,
"The Roads Have Come to an End Now"

"Memento Mori"

"Memento Mori"
by Ryan Holiday

"Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers."  - Seneca

Born with a chronic illness that loomed large throughout his life, Seneca was constantly thinking about and writing about the final act of life. "Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life," he said. "Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time."

Most interestingly, he quibbled with the idea that death was something that lay ahead of us in the uncertain future. "This is our big mistake," Seneca wrote, "to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death." That was Seneca's great insight - that we are dying every day and no day, once dead, can be revived.

So we should listen to the command that Marcus gave himself. He wrote, "Concentrate every minute like a Roman on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions." The key to this kind of concentration? "Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life."

That's the power of Memento Mori - of meditating on your mortality. It isn't about being morbid or making you scared. It's about giving you power. It's to inspire, to motivate, to clarify, to concentrate like a Roman on the thing in front of you. Because it may well be the last thing you do in your life.

The Stoics were philosophers, but more than that they were doers. They didn't have room for big words or big ideas, just stuff that made you better right here, right now. As Marcus Aurelius said: "Justice, honesty, self-control, courage, don't make room for anything but it - for anything that might lead you astray, tempt you off the road, and leave you unable to devote yourself completely to achieving the goodness that is uniquely yours."

The Daily "Near You?"

Yerington, Nevada, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Free Download: Jiddu Krishnamurti, “The Book of Life”

"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Freely download “The Book of Life”, by Jiddu Krishnamurti, here:

"It Now Costs 3.4 Million Dollars To Live “The American Dream” And The Gap Between The Wealthy And The Rest Of Us Is Bigger Than Ever"

"It Now Costs 3.4 Million Dollars To Live “The American Dream” And 
The Gap Between The Wealthy And The Rest Of Us Is Bigger Than Ever"
by Michael Snyder

"For a long time, it has been clear that the middle class is being systematically destroyed. The cost of living has been rising faster than paychecks have for years, and this has pushed millions of Americans into poverty. As for those that were already impoverished, many of them have been pushed out into the streets. According to the Wall Street Journal, homelessness in the United States is increasing at the fastest rate ever recorded in 2023. Anyone that thinks that we do not have a major problem on our hands simply has not been paying attention. At one time, living “the American Dream” was a goal that the vast majority of Americans could aspire to achieve, but now it is out of reach for most of the country. In fact, a report that was just released concluded that it now takes 3.4 million dollars for the typical U.S. household to live “the American Dream” over the course of a lifetime…

The so-called ‘American Dream’ is the benchmark that many people hope to achieve in their lifetime – getting married, buying a home and a car and raising children. But new analysis has found that achieving these milestones now costs a staggering $3,455,305 – much more than most Americans will make in their lifetime. One of the biggest amounts is for paying off a mortgage on a property. The average homebuyer will fork out $796,998, according to Investopedia – assuming a 10 percent down payment and a 30-year fixed loan at 7.2 percent interest.

Are you going to make 3.4 million dollars during your working years? If not, “the American Dream” is not for you. Sorry. Today, it is only those that are at the very top of the economic food chain that are thriving.

Once upon a time, America had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now the top 1 percent controls more wealth than the entire middle class…"Thirty years ago, America’s celebrated middle class commanded twice as much wealth as the upper 1%. Over the years, the rich have grown steadily richer. The top 1% caught and passed the middle class in collective wealth in late 2020, Fed data show."

The top 1% of American earners now control more wealth than the nation’s entire middle class. This is what happens when power and wealth are highly centralized. The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is now bigger than ever. So good luck trying to live a middle class lifestyle in this environment.

Do you want to buy a couch? Well, the exact same couch that would have cost you $799 in 2019 will now cost you $1,599…"An interior designer has revealed an IKEA couch that used to cost $799 in 2019 is now double the price four years later. Jilian Dee, a small business owner based in Los Angeles, went viral on TikTok after stitching @loljustmark’s video about the Swedish furniture giant’s ‘crazy’ prices. Mark, a construction and home décor expert, pointed out that IKEA’s Finnala sofa and chaise now costs a whopping $1,599, saying he wouldn’t pay more than $700 for it."

And don’t even get me started on the price of food. Beef is already considered to be a “luxury meat”, and it is going to be even more expensive in 2024 because the USDA is projecting that beef production will be way down…"The USDA projects beef production to be down by 180 million pounds over a six-month period by the end of 2023, while the Insider noted that the average size of herds is at 61-year record lows as farmers struggle to feed their animals. “A lot of our neighbors are selling … The cattle values in general are worth more than they’ve ever been worth before. And quite frankly they’re worth more than what we’re having to pay for hay,” Kent told the FT."

And we are being warned that supplies of many other products in our grocery stores will be getting tighter as well…"As we prepare to step into 2024, it’s important to know what changes are to come over the next year - including the changes that might come to the selection of items at grocery stores. In 2023, we faced scarcity of several products, from toilet paper to sriracha. Now, there are a few other items that may be become harder to find over the next 12 months. Factors like environmental challenges, labor shortages, and more could pose a risk to the availability, quality, and affordability of certain spices, dairy products, eggs, seafood, grains, fresh produce, and meat and poultry."

Of course there are some things that you won’t be able to get at all. Members of Congress have been told that drug shortages in the U.S. recently reached a record high, and this is a problem that is not going away any time soon…"Drug shortages in the U.S. have hit a record high and lawmakers warn they could mean life or death for millions of patients. A House committee is investigating what Congress can do to the supply chain to make sure doctors don’t have to keep rationing essential drugs like cancer treatments. Health experts agree the shortages of hundreds of generic drugs need urgent attention. But they’re still trying to build consensus on a remedy."

If you go to the official FDA drug shortage list, you will see that there are 143 entries right now. And some of the drugs that are in short supply are used millions of times each year…"Critical shortages in the US include albuterol, an asthma and allergy medication used to prevent and treat breathing difficulty; amoxicillin, a crucial antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, including pneumonia, which is seeing rising cases in the US; epinephrine - or adrenaline - a drug used to treat life-threatening conditions like severe allergic reaction. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 54 million prescriptions written for amoxicillin in 2019. In 2020, nearly 62 million albuterol prescriptions were handed out."

I am not going to sugarcoat this for you. This is a crisis. In some cases, the lives of American kids are being put in danger because they can’t get the drugs that they desperately need. One teenage lymphoma patient from Indiana was forced to take a type of chemotherapy that had previously led to a life-threatening allergic reaction, because the medication he had tolerated was out of stock. Another Florida-based mother of a nine-year-old girl with aggressive Leukemia was told to expect a 15-month wait for a $10 drug that would save the young girl’s life.

So why is this happening? Well, there are many factors that are contributing to this nightmare, but one of the biggest is the fact that we have become so dependent on China and India…Another factor driving the problem is the US’ reliance on key materials from China and India to make 95 percent of medicines used in emergency care. We should have never allowed this to happen. But we did. And now we will pay a very great price.

If you think that shortages are bad now, just wait until China invades Taiwan. Things will get really crazy at that point. So I would very much encourage you to prepare in advance for the chaotic times that are rapidly approaching, but unfortunately most Americans still believe that everything will work out just fine somehow."
o
Strong language alert!
George Carlin, "The American Dream"

"How It Really Is"

 

Indeed, sometimes I wonder...lol

"Not Much Mental Distance..."

“A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing his ways. He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't afford to admit - no matter how often he's reminded of it - that every day of his life takes him farther and farther down a blind alley. Very few toads in this world are Prince Charmings in disguise. Most are simply toads, and they are going to stay that way. Toads don't make laws or change any basic structures, but one or two rooty insights can work powerful changes in the way they get through life. A toad who believes he got a raw deal before he even knew who was dealing will usually be sympathetic to the mean, vindictive ignorance that colors the Hell's Angels' view of humanity. There is not much mental distance between a feeling of having been screwed and the ethic of total retaliation, or at least the random revenge that comes with outraging the public decency.”
- Hunter S. Thompson

Dan, I Allegedly, "Not So Fast - You Can’t Buy That"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 12/10/23
"Not So Fast - You Can’t Buy That"
"There is legislation that has been proposed to make it so that hedge funds and commercial corporations cannot purchase thousands of homes. This will make it to where these large companies would be fined tens of thousands of dollars per house that they purchase to have them year after year after year."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Walmart Does It Again! This Is Unbelievable!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 12/10/23
"Walmart Does It Again! This Is Unbelievable!"
"Instore shopping is not as popular as it once was with everyone buying online. However, it seems Walmart is all-in with providing an epic holiday shopping experience with new clothing lines, toys, electronics, and Christmas Decor! Get your holiday list ready as Walmart is the #1 store to shop for quality and great value this holiday season!"
Comments here:

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Believe"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Believe"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness"

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness" 
by Washingtons Blog

"Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage;
anger at the way things are, and courage 
to see that they do not remain the way they are."
- Augustine of Hippo

"Several long-time activists have told me recently they are overwhelmed, worried, and think that we may be losing the struggle. One very smart friend asked me if there is any basis for hope.

Hope is an act of will, not a passive mood. Admittedly, things are easier when circumstances bring hope to us, and we can just receive the hopeful and inspiring news. But if we care about winning, we have to be able to decide to have hope even when outer circumstances aren't so positive.

I have children who are counting on me to leave them with a reasonably safe and sane planet. As I've said elsewhere, I care too much about my kids and my freedom to be afraid. I care enough about them that it gets my heart beating, connects me to something bigger than myself, and that gives me courage, even when the chips are down. 

If I allowed myself to lose hope about exposing falsehoods, about protecting our freedom and building a hopeful future, I would be dropping the ball for my kids. I would be condemning them to a potentially very grey world where bigger and worse things may happen, where their liberties and joys are wholly stripped away, where every ounce of vitality is beholden to joyless and useless tasks.

Many of us may be motivated by other things besides kids, and only you can know what that is. But we each must dig down deep, and connect with our most powerful motivations to win the struggle for freedom and truth.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the luxury of giving up hope. When I get depressed, overwhelmed or exhausted by the stunning acts of savagery, treason, and disinformation carried out by the imperialists, or the willful ignorance of far too many Americans, I will myself into finding some reason to have hope. Because the struggle for life and liberty is too important for me to give up." 
Full screen recommended.
Jason Mraz, "I Won't Give Up"

And don't you ever give up...

Jeremiah Babe, "The Purge Is About To Happen; Stagflation Will Be A Disaster"

Jeremiah Babe, 12/9/23
"The Purge Is About To Happen; Stagflation Will Be A Disaster; 
Living In A Fake World Of Wealth"
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"My Task..."

“My task, which I am trying to achieve, is by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel; it is, before all, to make you see. That and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there, according to your deserts, encouragement, consolation, fear, charm, all you demand – and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.”
- Joseph Conrad

Adventures With Danno, "Preparing For A Nightmare Scenario! It's Getting Ugly!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 12/9/23
"Preparing For A Nightmare Scenario!
 It's Getting Ugly!"
"We are preparing for the future as these events happening around the world could easily turn into a nightmare scenario! Conflicts are erupting everywhere, and we need to prepare accordingly!"
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The Daily "Near You?"

Big Rapids, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"On These Faces..."

“The barbarian hopes, and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.“
- Hilaire Belloco

"15 Great Depression Foods We Will All Be Eating Again Soon"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Great Depression Foods 
We Will All Be Eating Again Soon"
By Epic Economist

"The reality of millions drastically changed after the 1929 stock market crash. All of a sudden, affluent Americans lost everything, middle-class families became poor, and poor households fell into misery. For over a decade, our citizens struggled to make ends meet and many of them didn’t have enough to eat.

Parents would skip meals to feed their children as they were forced to survive on next to nothing. Bread lines extended for miles, and food insecurity became an epidemic. Fast forward to today, and we have what experts call the biggest stock market bubble in history just ready to burst. Even though we have learned a lot since the 1930s, our leaders continued to make the same mistakes. And now more than ever, it’s looking like history is about to repeat itself. The question is: when everything collapses will you be prepared?

According to a very detailed article published on Ask A Prepper by Katherine Paterson, for us to be truly ready for the challenges that are coming for us, we will all need to get creative with our meals. To understand how Americans survived the dark times of the Great Depression, we need to understand how to make our resources last. Back then, essentials including meat, eggs, and milk were in extremely short supply, and people often had to make a little go a long way, as explained by Paterson.

We are already seeing the same shortages happening today. And it’s just a matter of time before another financial disaster throws our economy into disarray. With a little bit of preparation, you won’t have to panic when staples start disappearing from store shelves if you know how to adapt. You don’t need many different ingredients, and you definitely don’t need expensive foods to cook delicious dishes.

Culinary is something very important for our culture. It was through such hearty meals that people had the drive to keep fighting to get out of such challenging situations. Food connects us and gives us a sense of purpose and identity. That’s why it is so crucial to make preparations for when the essentials we rely upon aren’t available anymore. The warning signs of an impending financial and economic meltdown are everywhere. And once it happens, vulnerable supply chains can be broken in a snap of fingers.

Our leaders may have made the same wrongful decisions that put us where our grandparents and great-grandparents were almost a century ago. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make more conscious choices this time around. So get ready now while we’re still experiencing the calm before the storm, because when start to spiral out of control, it may be too late. That’s why in today’s video, we listed some very popular meals that previous generations used to eat during that era because those recipes may soon become handy for all of us as well."

"The Massive Banking Crisis We've Been Hearing About Just Started…"

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 12/9/23
"The Massive Banking Crisis We've 
Been Hearing About Just Started…"

"People are withdrawing money from smaller banks due to branch closures and digital banking trends. The recent closure of 64 bank branches in the United States in the last few days demonstrates the panic among them trying to retain deposits. Provident National Bank has closed 203 branches this year and JP Morgan Chase is closing 18 which indicates a widespread trend. There is a possibility of a chain reaction of bank implosions while they are actively trying to hold on to as much cash as possible. Banks are crucial for holding up the economy in the United States. The depositors have essentially become investors and if the bank faces trouble, people will have to face implications. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a safety net but the process of retrieving insured money is difficult. Moreover, China's shadow banking sector is facing investigations about its involvement in troubled investments and its property sector is undergoing ripple effects. Issues in China's property market raise concerns about insolvencies and contagion risk in the global financial network. The global economy, particularly regarding dollar denominated bonds, is impacted by China's property market troubles.

The Federal Reserve is taking emergency actions to support struggling banks. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase have a significant percentage of deposits uninsured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which is raising concerns about losses in the event of a downturn. This lack of insurance coverage will pose additional risks especially in the context of a liquidity crisis. The US needs to address the deficit to avoid a snowballing crisis."
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"How It Really Is"