Wednesday, December 27, 2023

The Poet: Rudyard Kipling, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings"

"The Gods of the
Copybook Headings"

"As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while 
we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, 
and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, 
or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market 
Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, 
They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, 
that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
"Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 
"The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, 
there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
"If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, 
and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled 
and began to believe it was true,
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings 
limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!"

-  Rudyard Kipling
o
The "copybook headings" to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims, often drawn from sermons and scripture extolling virtue and wisdom, that were printed at the top of the pages of copybooks, special notebooks used by 19th-century British schoolchildren.

"Internet Sacred Text Archive"

"About Sacred Texts"

"All ancient books which have once been called sacred by man, will have their lasting place in the history of mankind, and those who possess the courage, the perseverance, and the self-denial of the true miner, and of the true scholar, will find even in the darkest and dustiest shafts what they are seeking for, - real nuggets of thought, and precious jewels of faith and hope."
- Max Müller, "Introduction to the Upanishads" Vol. II.

"This site is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.

This site has no particular agenda other than promoting religious tolerance and scholarship. Views expressed at this site are solely those of specific authors, and are not endorsed by sacred-texts. Sacred-texts is not sponsored by any religious group or organzation.

Sacred texts went live on March 9th, 1999. The traffic started to increase when sacred-texts was listed at Yahoo! under 'Society and Religion|Texts'. In its first year of operation sacred-texts had about a quarter million hits. By 2004, it was receiving well over a quarter million hits per day.

Today, site traffic often exceeds a million hits a day. Sacred texts is one of the top 20,000 sites on the web based on site traffic, consistently one of the top 10,000 sites in Australia, the US and India, and is one of the top 5 most visited general religion sites (source: Alexa.com).

The texts presented here are either original scans from books and articles clearly in the public domain, material which has been presented elsewhere on the Internet, or material included under fair use conditions in printed anthologies.

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From the start, we have had a special focus on remedying the under-representation of traditional cultures on the Internet. The site has one of the largest collections of transcriptions of complete books on Native American, Pacific, African, Asian and other traditional people's religion, spiritual practices, mythology and folklore. While many of these pre-20th century books are flawed due to orientalist or colonialist biases, they are also eye-witness accounts by reliable observers, typically at the moment of contact. These texts are crucial to the study of tribal traditions, and in many cases, the only link with the past. Locked up in academic libraries for decades, sacred-texts has made them freely accessible anywhere in the world.

We have scanned hundreds of books which have all been made freely accessible to the world. A comprehensive bibliography of the texts scanned at sacred texts is available here.

We welcome email regarding typographical or factual errors in any file at sacred-texts. Please write us if you spot an error; include the URL and a few lines of context so we can pin down the location.

While all due care has been taken in the reproduction of the texts here, none of the texts or translations here are represented to be sanctioned by any particular religious body or institution. We welcome advice as to errors of fact or transcription.

Some of the material here may be copyrighted. It is our hope that the copyright holders may allow these texts to be posted here in the public interest. If you are the copyright holder of record of a text which you believe has been archived at this site in error, please contact us at the email address listed at the bottom of this page. We have made a good-faith effort to determine the provenance of each text and apologize if we have posted a text in error. Note: If you are requesting the removal of a file, you must be the copyright holder of the file, and you must specify the exact URL of the file.”
Fabulous, an absolute treasure trove! Enjoy!

Albert Camus, "Life Changing Quotes"

Albert Camus, "Life Changing Quotes"
Narrated by Chris Lines

The Daily "Near You?"

Sapulpa, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Know What's Weird?"

"Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change,
but pretty soon... everything's different."
- Calvin, from "Calvin and Hobbes"

"In Three Words..."

 

"Doug Casey On What Really Happened in 2023 and What Comes Next"

"Doug Casey On What Really
Happened in 2023 and What Comes Next"
By International Man

"International Man: As we approach the end of the year, let’s take a step back, look at the Big Picture, and put 2023 into perspective so we can better understand what may come next. Significant financial, economic, political, cultural, and geopolitical developments occurred in 2023. On the cultural front, 2023 may be the year that the tide started to shift against the woke insanity. BlackRock’s Fink dropped ESG. Woke movies continue to bomb at theaters. Bud Light, Target, and Disney continue to feel the pain of deliberately alienating their customer base. What’s your take on the cultural developments in 2023?

Doug Casey: There are always reactions to major trends. These things are worth noting, but considering the virulence of the woke movement, the reaction has been tepid. There’s always a rearguard fighting for things as they are. And that’s wonderful because the Wokesters want to overturn the entire culture much the same way as the Jacobins overturned it in revolutionary France, the Bolsheviks overturned the culture in Russia, the Red Guards in China, or Pol Pot did in Cambodia.

The Wokesters are potentially just as dangerous because their way of thinking is everywhere in the West. They’re similar to the movements I’ve just mentioned in that they’re stridently against free speech, free thought, free markets, tradition, and limited government—nothing new there. But they’ve weaponized gender and race as well. They’re virulent, humorless, and puritanical. They see themselves as the wave of the future, but they’ve only repackaged the notions of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler.

My view is that the Wokesters hate humanity and hate themselves. They’re dishonest, arrogant, and entitled. Look at the current scandal involving the diversity-hire presidents at Harvard, Penn, and MIT. They’re shameful embarrassments. The fact their boards of trustees installed these fools shows how deep the rot goes.

The Woke have ingrained psychological/spiritual aberrations. They don’t just control academia, finance, entertainment, and the media. They also dominate the State’s apparatus. Which means they basically have the law on their side.

Perhaps ESG is being de-emphasized by Blackrock, the new vampire squid, but that’s only because they fear losing money more than they value their beliefs. The more pernicious DEI remains a major cultural trend.

Where will it end? Wokism is more than a passing fad. There’s a good chance it will end with a violent confrontation between people who have culturally conservative views and those who want to destroy Western Civilization and upset the nature of society as we know it.

International Man: 2023 was a year of major geopolitical developments. It became evident to even the mainstream media that the war in the Ukraine was not going well for NATO. There was also the Hamas attack and the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Azerbaijan defeated Armenia to reclaim a long-disputed territory. Saudi Arabia welcomed Syria back into the Arab League, ended the war in Yemen, restored diplomatic relations with Iran, joined the BRICS countries, and expanded its economic ties with China. These are just a few of the most prominent geopolitical events of 2023. What do you make of the geopolitical situation and where things are heading?

Doug Casey: The end of US hegemony over the world in all areas is becoming obvious. The world resents being bullied and controlled by Washington, DC. They realize that the US government is bankrupt and is living entirely on printed money. Its military is bloated and more expensive than the US can afford.

While it’s bloated, it’s also being gutted, unable to recruit new soldiers and sailors. It’s easy to see why that’s the case. They see pointless wars fomented everywhere. The type of people who traditionally join the military are disgusted by the woke memes circulating through the services. White males, who have always been the backbone of the military, are appalled at being actively discriminated against.

US hegemony is ending financially, economically, and militarily. It’s obvious when you see that Biden and Harris, two utterly incompetent, ineffectual fools, are the nominal heads of the government. Not to mention all the degraded and psychologically damaged people in the cabinet. Of course, nobody has any respect for the US anymore. The US hegemony of the last hundred years is on its way out. And as the old order changes, there are going to be upsets. The US will leave a vacuum that will be filled by other forces.

In fact, the US Government is the biggest danger to the world today. It’s not providing order. By sticking its nose into everyone else’s business everywhere, it’s promoting chaos. Its 800+ bases around the world are provocations. The carrier groups that it has wandering around are sitting ducks with today’s technology. The US is the main source of risk in the world, not safety.

US military spending is really just corporate welfare for the five big "defense" corporations, which build weapons suited for fighting the last war or maybe the war before the last war. For instance, a missile frigate or destroyer guarding a carrier might carry 100 vertically-launched anti-aircraft missiles at $2 million each. Each missile might succeed in shooting down a $10,000 drone. But what happens when the enemy launches 200 drones at once? The chances are the US loses a $2 billion destroyer, if not a carrier.

The US government is finding that they’re not only disliked but disrespected by countries and people all over the world. They’re increasingly viewed as a paper tiger. Or the Wizard of Oz. When they lose the fear factor, it’s game over.

International Man: In 2023, the US continued the trend of more political polarization. What were the most consequential events on the US political front, and what do you think comes next?

Doug Casey: Let me reemphasize that the Jacobins who control Washington, DC, have the same psychological makeup as past revolutionaries I’ve mentioned. These people are incapable of changing their minds or reforming. I think they’ll do absolutely anything they can to retain power. Meanwhile, traditional Americans in red states see that Trump is being railroaded with lawfare to derail his campaign. They’re angrier than ever, justifiably. The red people and the blue people really hate each other at this point - and can’t talk to each other.

The country has been completely demoralized as traditional values have been washed away. It’s now very unstable. The coming election, should we actually have one, will be not just a political but a cultural contest. Culture wars are especially dangerous in the midst of a financial collapse and economic collapse.

International Man: The projected annual interest expense on the federal debt hit $1 trillion for the first time in 2023. Americans are still paying for the rampant currency debasement during the Covid hysteria as the price of groceries, insurance, rent, and most other things continued to rise in 2023. It looks like a recession is on the horizon. What are your thoughts on economic developments in 2023 and your outlook for the months ahead?

Doug Casey: As an amateur student of history, it seems to me that the US has been moving away from the founding principles that made it unique for over a hundred years. I’m 77. I’ve watched it happen firsthand for much of that time. The trend has been accelerating. The country is heading towards a massive crisis because it’s lost its philosophical footing. The result is going to be a really serious depression. I call it the Greater Depression.

The spread between the haves who live in multi-million dollar houses and the have-nots who live in tents isn’t new. After all, Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you." What’s new is that the middle class is being impoverished. What’s left of the middle class is deeply in debt—student debt, credit card debt, car loan debt, mortgage debt. And if they’re not lucky enough to have a house with mortgage debt, they’re renting. And rents have gone up so rapidly that if the average guy has an unforeseen $500 expense, he can’t pay it.

That augurs poorly for consumption. It’s said, idiotically, that the American economy rests on consumption. It’s idiotic because it should be said that it rests on production. But I’m not sure the US produces that much anymore. Most of the people who "work" basically sit at desks and shuffle papers. Few actively create real wealth.

On top of that, the country is vastly over-financialized. The bond market has already largely collapsed, but it can get a lot worse as interest rates head back up to the levels that they were in the early 1980s and beyond. Much lower stock prices are in the cards, both because of high interest rates and because people won’t be consuming such massive quantities of corporate produce.

The real estate market rests on a foundation of debt. It can easily go bust as interest rates go up. We’re already seeing this with office buildings across the country. And, of course, these office buildings are financed by banks. Banks are going to see a lot of defaults on loans they’ve made.

Meanwhile, bank capital invested in bonds has eroded because bond prices fall in proportion to the degree rise in interest rates, which have gone from close to zero to 5% or 6%. If banks had to mark their loans and capital investments to the market, most would already be bankrupt.

Can the government paper all these things over by printing yet more money? I suppose. But at some point very soon, the dollar will lose value very rapidly; it will be treated like a hot potato. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

International Man: This year, we saw the price of gold hit a record high, uranium reached $81.25 per pound, and Bitcoin more than doubled as it entered a new bull market. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up around 21% year to date as of writing. What are your thoughts on what happened in the financial markets in 2023 and what could come next?

Doug Casey: Unfortunately, the US central bank, the Fed, has a gigantic amount of influence over the markets. They can employ "quantitative easing," which means printing money—and "quantitative tightening," which means decreasing the money and artificially raising interest rates.

They have many hundreds of Ph.D. economists on staff, but all these people operate on phony Keynesian theories of the way the world works. The consequences of building an economic system on a foundation of paper money and gigantic amounts of debt are potentially catastrophic.

At this point, the economy’s on the razor edge. If they push the print button and hold it down too long, we could go into a runaway inflation. Or, to tamp down inflation, they might raise interest rates and contract the money supply, which might set off a 1929-style credit collapse. We’re caught between Scylla and Charybdis at this point. And I don’t believe it’s a question of a soft landing or a hard landing. It’s a question of how devastating the crash landing will be.

I hope they can wring one more cycle out of all this because I personally prefer good times to bad times, even if they’re artificial good times, because the bad times are going to be very real."

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! I've Never Seen Anything Like This, It's Off The Charts!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/27/23
"Alert! I've Never Seen Anything
 Like This, It's Off The Charts!"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"Red Sea Massacre: Will America's Aircraft Carriers Sink Along With The US Economy?"

Health Ranger Report, 12/27/23
"Red Sea Massacre: Will America's Aircraft Carriers 
Sink Along With The US Economy?"
View video here:

Bill Bonner, "Win-Win...or Lose"

Ed. Note: Members of the Bonner Private Research team are spending time with respective family and friends over the holiday period. But we didn’t want to leave you, our dear reader, empty handed. So please enjoy these complimentary excerpts from Bill’s best-selling book, "Un-Civilizing America: How Win-Win Deals Make Us Better", available on Amazon, here.
"Win-Win...or Lose"
An excerpt from Bill's best-selling book, 
"Un-Civilizing America: How Win-Win Deals Make Us Better"
by Bill Bonner

"The message of Genesis is that in the most vital areas of human life 
there can be no progress, only an unending struggle with our own nature."
- Philosopher John Gray

"We are going to back up to the very beginning, ab ovo, just to make sure we’re all in the same coop. There are only two ways to get what you want: win-win deals or win-lose deals. There is no other way. You either cooperate or you defect. You either give to get...or try to get without giving anything in return. It’s either reciprocal or it’s not. It’s either voluntary or it’s forced.

Of course, there are gray areas. The two parties to a transaction can have very different opinions about what actually went down. Juries are often asked to decide when a woman has succumbed to seduction... or when she has been raped. Likewise, sometimes salesmen are so persuasive that customers later feel like they’ve been robbed. Over hundreds of years, people learned how best to manage these frontier areas. They developed the “common law” as a way of settling disputes and establishing a legal principle to help judges and juries make their decisions. Stare decisis means “to follow precedent.” It is a conservative legal principle, allowing each new generation to build on the decisions of the past.

But while it is “conservative,” it is not trying to stop progress. Instead, common law is cumulative. One decision helps bring forth another one. Judges and juries don’t have to figure it out from scratch. They just have to plug the facts into similar fact patterns. Then, they are expected to follow the precedent decision while continually taking old principles and applying them to new situations, helping people figure out - even in entirely new circumstances - what is acceptable behavior... and what is not.

The frontier between the two is never fixed or permanently settled. One set of facts falls in the “good salesmanship” category. Another is considered “fraud.” One man is shamed as an “aggressive cad.” Another is convicted of “rape.” Following precedent removes some of the uncertainty, clarifies the acceptable limits of win-win deals, and maps out the borderlands between civilization and barbarism. Like market prices, right and wrong are discovered, not decreed, in real time... as the future happens.

Jesus simplified. He described how to do cooperative deals - in business, in personal matters, and in all other aspects of life: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Why does the rule work so well? Why is it so important? Win-win deals are voluntary. They do not need to be enforced or policed. Theft, by contrast, is a win-lose proposition. Even if it weren’t illegal, the civilized vernacular has turned against theft (more on that shortly). Proscribed by the polizei and spurned by his fellow man, the thief must operate in the dark. He must hide his ill-gotten gains; he must protect them, too, from other thieves, who operate on the same uncivilized code as his own. All of these things increase his costs (including lifestyle, psychological, and status costs).

A win-win transaction can be as simple as exchanging currency for a boat; it can be done in a few minutes. No muss, no fuss. The buyer can immediately enjoy his new yacht. But the thief gets no rest. He has to overcome police, alarms, locks, and other Win-Win... or Lose 129 barriers... And not just at the moment of stealing the boat - further downstream (so to speak), he has to avoid detection, reclamation, and punishment. He will find it hard to enjoy his tub at all!

In a modern economy, crime doesn’t pay very well - again, unless it is approved by the feds. Wealth is relatively easier to create than to steal. The risk-return ratio in banking, fishing, baking, or almost any other profession, is probably better than it is for larceny.

The Importance of the Vernacular: An important term to understand in this chapter is “vernacular.” As defined by the dictionary, it means a dialect or language native to a culture or region. Why do Northerners wonder “how everybody is keeping,” for example, but Southerners inquire “how y’all are doing”? Vernacular.

If you hear someone speaking a foreign language, you can go to the grammar books and dictionaries to try to find out what he is saying. There, you’ll find out not what he is actually saying, but what he’s supposed to be saying. In English, for example, a proper response to the statement, “I’m looking for Mr. Jones,” could be: “I am the person of whom you speak.” But people don’t say that. They say: “That’s me.” That response is welcome if you are serving a summons. But it causes grammarians to squirm.

The vernacular evolves... often in response to the formal rules. Many people today are afraid of the word “me.” They recall vaguely that the grammarians disapprove of it. So, they go with “myself,” even though it doesn’t make much sense. “Who was playing the guitar?” “Joe and myself.”

They are also afraid of being politically incorrect. So, instead of saying, “Everyone thinks he should speak correctly,” they say, “Everyone thinks they should speak correctly,” which is both incorrect and idiotic. Still, it seems to have become the new, officially approved grammar. Winston Churchill once mocked people who tried to speak “correctly,” saying: “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”

But let’s not get sidetracked... We’re stalking bigger game here. There are formal structures—ordained by law, legislation, and official proclamation. And there are other things that better describe how we really speak, do business, and get along with each other. This we know as the vernacular.

There is a difference between what is and what is supposed to be in other things, too. Over thousands of years, vernacular, architecture, manners, rules, transportation, law... and even money... have evolved into what we know as civilized life. It is a life in which people can go along and get along, because civilization imposes standards that make the actions of others predictable. Usually, strangers won’t kill you. They won’t rob you. They won’t rape you. Instead, normally, they will say “please” and “thank you,” and will get along tolerably well.

No government declared gold to be money, for example. Instead, it arose naturally as people found it useful. Later, governments declared other things to be “money.” These monies work more or less well than gold, but in a crisis, people tend to go back to the vernacular.

No law requires people to say “please” and “thank you” either. But they generally do... And they generally find it makes casual exchanges more agreeable. Occasionally, as in the fervor of a revolution, these “bourgeois affectations” are dropped in favor of some ideologically correct claptrap. “Vive la Révolution!” was popular for a while. “Heil Hitler,” had a run, too. Both were soon dropped in favor of the vernacular.

As far as we know, no government has tried to stop people from smiling. That, too, is a vernacular way of signaling that you have no harmful intentions toward others. However, in the Soviet Union, an example to which we will return often, the delicate fabric of civilized life was so rumpled and stretched during the 70 years from the Russian Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that, even today, people in Russia are reluctant to smile.

Likewise, there is the formal government... and there are the informal rules, customs, and standards people use to govern themselves. Many of the colonies that gained independence after World War II, for example, took France, Britain, or the U.S. as their templates. Some created systems that, on paper, were almost exact copies of the U.S. or European dioramas. They had bicameral legislatures, independent judiciaries, checks and balances—the whole kit and caboodle. But the new democracies in Africa and Asia didn’t always function like their Western role models.

A French joke illustrates the power of the vernacular: The mayor of an African town in one of France’s former colonies came to pay a visit to the mayor of a French town of more or less the same size. He was astonished at the mayor’s office. It was full of fine furniture, expensive paintings, and rich decorations. How can you afford these things on a mayor’s salary?” he asked. The French mayor beckoned him over to the window. “See that bridge? 10%.” It took a moment for the African mayor to get the message. But his eyes lit up when he did.

Years later, the French mayor visited the African town. In the mayor’s office, he was shocked to find even more luxury than in his own - including Aubusson carpets, delicate Chinese vases, and Old Master paintings. "Now, I have to ask you the same question you asked me,” he began. “How can you afford all these things?” The African mayor pointed out the window. “See that bridge?” he asked the French mayor. “Well...no... I don’t see any bridge,” replied the French mayor. “Right. 100%.”

Now, in the U.S., the Constitution still sits in its glass case. The Supreme Court still sits on its bench. Members of Congress still sit in camera. And bureaucrats and nomenklatura still plop their fat derrières down in their seats of authority.

Officially, nothing has changed. But in the vernacular, nothing is the same. Anyone with any brains knows his congressman is a scoundrel... Everyone knows his Constitution - except the Second Amendment! - is ancient history. Everyone knows his vote is mostly symbolic. And everyone knows that as long as the Dow is going up and unemployment is going down - even just on paper - he doesn’t give a damn.

How did this happen? The answer, we believe, is in the word vernacular. The classic win-win deal is not the law of the land anywhere; it is the vernacular. It was never invented by anyone... No one got the Nobel Prize for coming up with it... And some of the smartest people on the planet don’t believe in it. Still, most people generally follow the rule on an everyday basis. If they want a burger, they give some money to the burger store. If they want money, they offer their time to an employer. If Ford wants to sell its pickup trucks, it does its best to make people want them.

That is the commonly accepted way to get what you want and need in life. If you want a wife, you have to offer her something that makes it worth her while. If you want a loaf of bread, you have to give something of equal value to the baker. Whether it is love, respect, a fortune, or a bag of Frito-Lay corn chips you are after, the best way to get it is to make a win-win deal.

Note also that this vernacular - this set of rules, manners, customs, money, language, and myths that make modern civilization possible - is a collective achievement. An individual can’t be “civilized” on his own. It is as meaningless as a phone system with only one phone. Civilization must be shared. It must be a system of interaction. When you smile, you must smile at someone. And it must be voluntary.

Only crooks, cads, and governments operate on the uncivilized model. They do unto others, and they hope to God others can’t do likewise unto them. Attila was widely esteemed for robbing and murdering hundreds of thousands of strangers. He was probably one of the world’s richest people at the time. He probably would have been named TIME’s “Person of the Year” for 450 ce had the magazine existed at the time.

But morals evolved with productivity. Today, the world’s richest people generally make their money by producing wealth rather than stealing it. Presumably, Attila would be unwelcome in today’s prosperous, polite society. At the very least, he would be exceptional. The vernacular has changed."

"World War III Prelude: Middle East War"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/27/23
"Alert! Iron Dome Destroyed! 15 USA Bases/Nukes 
On Russia Border; Massive Cyberattack; Iran Bombed!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Breaking Points, 12/27/23
"Israel Declares “7 Front War,” 
Assassinates Top Iranian General"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Democracy Now! 12/27/23
"Axis of Resistance": Hamas, Hezbollah, 
Houthis Challenge U.S. & Israeli Power in Middle East"
"We look at how Israel's war on Gaza has inflamed tensions in the Middle East and threatens to pull other countries into the fighting, including the United States. The Pentagon says it has intercepted a number of drones and missiles launched by Yemen's Houthi forces — known as Ansar Allah — in the Red Sea aimed at disrupting international shipping, with the group vowing to continue the attacks on ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The U.S. and Israel have also exchanged fire with groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, and violence continues to increase in the occupied West Bank. The growth of forces openly fighting against Israel and the U.S. is a major development in the Middle East that most Western commentators do not fully understand, says Rami Khouri, a veteran Palestinian American journalist and a senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. This "axis of resistance" is largely motivated by outrage over the treatment of Palestinians, he says. "The U.S. and Israel at some point need to acknowledge that the Palestinian people have rights that are equal to the Israeli people."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 12/27/23
"6 Nations Target Israel, U.S. Is Worried -
 Hezbollah, Houthis All Out War"
Comments here:
o
And now, Israel, you have revealed your true nature as a monstrously genocidal psychopathic sub-species of humanity, killing 22,000 old people, women, and 10,000 children. After your total and inevitable defeat, your fate awaits you, Israel...Nuremberg Trials. - CP

Gregory Mannarino, "2024: This Is Absolutely What You Must Know, Here Is The Set Up Breakdown, Be Ready"

Gregory Mannarino, 12/27/23
"2024: This Is Absolutely What You Must Know,
 Here Is The Set Up Breakdown, Be Ready"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "No More Free Returns"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 12/27/23
"No More Free Returns"
"So much is happening. Pizza Hut is going to fire its delivery drivers in California. We are seeing bank accounts get shattered again for no reason because you forgot to opt in to something. Plus, stores are now charging people to return items."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping Trip To Meijer! Going Over Sales Prices!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno 12/27/23
"Shopping Trip To Meijer! Going Over Sales Prices!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer doing some grocery shopping. We are taking you with us as we check different grocery options and what some of the best sales are this week! It's getting rough out here as families continue to struggle putting food on the table!"
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Tuesday, December 26, 2023

"Egypt And Jordan Will Go To War In Gaza After Houthi Domination Of The Red Sea"

Full screen recommended.
Col. Doug Macgregor, 12/26/23
"Egypt And Jordan Will Go To War In 
Gaza After Houthi Domination Of The Red Sea"
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Scott Ritter, "Hezbollah Ups Offensive Against Israel - Israel Is Not Winning In Gaza"

Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 12/26/23
"Hezbollah Ups Offensive Against Israel - 
Israel Is Not Winning In Gaza"
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Canadian Prepper, "It's Begun: Full Scale World War In 2024"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/26/23
"It's Begun: Full Scale World War In 2024"
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Gregory Mannarino, "US Strikes Targets In Iraq And Crude Oil Surges! Home Prices Out Of Control"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/26/23
"US Strikes Targets In Iraq And Crude Oil Surges! 
Home Prices Out Of Control"
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Adventures With Danno, "Get Ready...It's Over!"

Adventures With Danno, PM 12/26/23
"Get Ready...It's Over!"
"Events that are going to cause more food items to become unaffordable, and continue to see significant food shortages as we head into 2024! These issues are becoming a terrible reality, and we have to prepare accordingly!"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

Full screen recommended.
Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence", Studio version.
Singer: David Draiman
958 million views.

Full screen recommended.
Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence", Live version.
142 million views.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident.
The featured exposure covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight." - https://apod.nasa.gov/

"Each Must Decide For Himself..."

“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
- Mark Twain

"I Have Accepted The Fact..."

"One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless. I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke God's blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side."

 "There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy."
- Henry Miller

Paulo Coelho, "Walking the Path"

"Walking the Path"
by Paulo Coelho

"I reckon that it takes about three minutes to read my text. Well, according to statistics, in that same short period of time 300 people will die and another 620 will be born. It takes me perhaps half an hour to write a text: here I sit, concentrating on my computer, books piled up beside me, ideas in my head, the scenery passing by outside my window. Everything seems perfectly normal all around me; and yet, during these thirty minutes, 3,000 people have died and 6,200 have just seen the light of the world for the first time.

Where are all those thousands of families who have just begun to weep over the loss of some dear one, or else laugh at the arrival of a son, grandson or brother? I stop and reflect for a while: perhaps many of these deaths are reaching the end of a long, painful sickness, and some persons are relieved that the Angel has come for them. Besides these, in all certainty hundreds of children who have just been born will be abandoned in a minute and transferred to the death statistics before I finish this text.

What a thought! A simple statistic that I came upon by chance – and all of a sudden I can feel all those losses and encounters, smiles and tears. How many are leaving this life, alone in their rooms, without anyone realizing what is going on? How many will be born in secret, only to be abandoned at the door of shelters or convents? And then I reflect that I was part of the birth statistics and one day I will be included in the toll of the dead. How good that is to be fully aware that I am going to die. Ever since I took the road to Santiago I have understood that although life goes on and we are eternal, one day this existence will come to an end.

People think very little about death. They spend their lives worried about really absurd things, putting things off and leaving important moments aside. They risk nothing because they believe that is dangerous. They grumble a lot, but act like cowards when it is time to take certain steps. They want everything to change, but they themselves refuse to change. If they thought a little more about death, they would never fail to make that telephone call that they have been putting off. They would be a little more crazy. They would not be afraid of the end of this incarnation – because you cannot be afraid of something that is going to happen anyway.

The Indians say: “Today is as good a day as any other to leave this world”. And a sorcerer once remarked: “May death be always sitting beside you. That way, when you have to do something important, it will give you the strength and courage you need.” I hope, reader, that you have accompanied me this far. It would be silly to let the subject scare you, because sooner or later we are all going to die. And only those who accept this are prepared for life."

"We All Know..."

"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
- Thornton Wilder

The Daily "Near You?"

Oranjestad, Aruba. Thanks for stopping by!

“Al Swearengen's Take On Life"

Strong language alert!
"In life you have to do a lot of things you don't ****ing want to do.
Many times, that's what the **** life is... one vile ****ing task after another.
But don't get aggravated, then the enemy has you by the short hair."
Strong language alert!
"Pain or damage don't end the world, or despair or f***ing beatings.
The world ends when you’re dead. Until then you got more punishment
in store. Stand it like a man, and give some back.”
- “Al Swearengen”, Ian McShane’s character on “Deadwood”

"This Year, Americans Have Become Hungrier, Lonelier And More Desperate"

"This Year, Americans Have Become 
Hungrier, Lonelier And More Desperate"
by Michael Snyder

"The ominous trends that we see all around us are taking us somewhere. Needless to say, 2023 was not a good year for our country. Hunger and homelessness have been absolutely exploding, the suicide rate just continues to go even higher, and there is chaos in the streets on an almost nightly basis. It is in this environment that the election of 2024 will happen. I expect election season to add an additional level of strain to our society, and I don’t think that our society will be able to handle it. We are headed for a nightmare, and at this point everyone should be able to see that.

When conditions deteriorate, it is often those at the bottom of the economic food chain that feel it first. And right now food banks all over the nation are dealing with a tsunami of hunger… "Food bank leaders from all corners of the country tell USA TODAY their neighborhood pantries are serving more people while using less resources, as economic pressures continue to ravage the budgets of low-income Americans and service providers alike. Since pandemic-era boosts to government food aid ended earlier this year in many states, families are turning to food banks to close a gap in need that feels like it has no end in sight.

Susannah Morgan, the president of Oregon Food Bank, says that she is literally witnessing “the worst rate of hunger in my career”…“This is the worst rate of hunger in my career,” said Morgan, who has worked at food banks in Boston, San Francisco and Anchorage, Alaska. “It’s so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

I don’t know what I have to do to convince some people that things really are this bad. I keep sharing fact after fact in my articles, but some people out there are just not convinced. One out of every five children in the U.S. does not have enough food to eat, but the reality of the suffering that is now taking place just isn’t sinking in for many of those that are still living the high life.

Meanwhile, homelessness in the U.S. is increasing at the fastest rate ever recorded…"The United States experienced a dramatic 12 percent increase in homelessness as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday. About 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness during the January snapshot. That’s the highest number since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007 to count the homeless population."

There are many out there that feel that such people need to “get a job” or “work harder”, but the truth is that most Americans are living on the verge of economic disaster because most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

At the same time, Americans continue to get even lonelier. According to USA Today, “Americans are lonely and it’s killing them”, and at this point things are so bad that this crisis is being called “a new epidemic”…"America has a new epidemic. It can’t be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating and even deadly consequences. The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is hoping to generate awareness and offer remedies before it claims more lives. “Most of us probably think of loneliness as just a bad feeling,” he told USA TODAY. “It turns out that loneliness has far greater implications for our health when we struggle with a sense of social disconnection, being lonely or isolated.”

It is especially bad during this time of the year. There are so many people out there that are deeply, deeply hurting because they are so lonely. They are trying their best to face a world that has gone completely mad, but that can be really difficult to do when you don’t have anyone to lean on for support.

Speaking of a world gone mad, retail theft has absolutely skyrocketed in many of our largest cities since 2019…"Crime-ridden New York City has seen the biggest impact with a 64 percent increase in retail theft, followed by Los Angeles with a 61 percent jump and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has seen a 44 percent rise."

Each month, more Americans are descending into poverty and more Americans are turning to crime. And it certainly doesn’t help that vast hordes of illegal immigrants are constantly being added to the mix. Chaos in the streets has become an almost constant state of affairs in this country, and this year in Oakland there was even rioting on Christmas Eve.

Of course our leaders continue to exist in a bubble where none of these problems constitutes a serious crisis. To them, everything must be just fine because they are doing such a wonderful job. When he was recently confronted about the reality of the economic crisis that we are now facing, Joe Biden bluntly told the press to “start reporting it the right way.”  "President Biden criticized news coverage of the U.S. economy as he faces growing backlash from voters over his handling of inflation.

In brief remarks Saturday before boarding the presidential helicopter, Biden expressed confidence in the economy and ripped the reporters for the way it has been portrayed. “All good. Take a look. Start reporting it the right way,” Biden said when asked about his economic outlook for 2024, according to a transcript released Sunday by the White House. He wants the press to continue to spin things in a way that will make him look good as they always have done in the past. But we have reached a stage where all of the charades are finally crumbling.

Conditions are bad now, and they are going to get even worse in 2024. So brace yourself for what is ahead, because we are going to experience so much chaos during the year that is in front of us."
o
Oh, but we have $898 billion for the "Defense" Dept., $200 billion for Ukraine, our national debt is $33.7 trillion while the government borrows and spends $33 billion per day it doesn't have... and 1 in 5 children in the United States of America goes hungry?! WTF! As a society, as a country, we are literally insane...

Dan, I Allegedly, "Laws You Won’t Believe Are Real"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 12/26/23
"Laws You Won’t Believe Are Real"
"The state of New York just announced that you can no longer cook on a charcoal grill as of 2024. This got me thinking what other crazy laws are out there? There are some great articles below that cover everything."
Comments, articles list here:

"On Cooperation and Win-Win"

"On Cooperation and Win-Win"
by Bill Bonner

“A physician cannot heal the sick if he is ignorant of the causes of certain conditions of the body, nor can a statesman help his fellow citizens if he cannot follow how, why or by what process each event had developed.” - Polybius

At one point in his short life, Jesus was invited to take control of government. Political power... the power to force win lose deals on others... was offered to Him.

"Luke 4:5–8: 5 And the Devil taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time . . .

6 And the Devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will give it.

7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

Who offers political power? The Devil himself! Not the voters. Not the aristocracy. Not God. Instead, the Devil says clearly that government is his to do with as he wishes. And if Jesus wants it, all He has to do is worship him who gave it to Him: Satan.

We’ve heard sermons of all sorts... in big cities... and in small country churches . . . high churches, low churches... Catholic, Baptist... and God-knows-what. Almost all the ministers, priests, and preachers we have heard from believe that God is good... and that He expects us to support good works, private and public. Often, they think they hear our political leaders speaking for God Himself. They think they hear Him telling us to back more government aid to unwed mothers, limits on carbon emissions, or more help for Native Americans. “We need to do this... or that...” they say, sounding a bit like an editorial in The Washington Post.

But there is no “we” in the Gospel. No appeal to special interests or to the common good...or to collective justice, shared virtue, patriotism, or social economy. No tribes. No sects. No flags. No creeds. No political parties. Neither Pharisee nor Sadducee. There is only the unique person... the individual, alone... with his God.

Only once, in a little country church in Normandy, France, did a priest take up this insight: “God doesn’t ask you to change the world,” he said. “He asks you to do something much more difficult - to change yourself.”

It is difficult because you are changing your own software...updating programming that has been in place for thousands of years. Of course, it is much easier to ask somebody else to change. Change his religion! Change his behavior! Change his government! Change the way he spends his money...the way he treats his wife... the way he drinks... the way he works! Make his women take off the hijab. Make his men say the Hail Mary.

But wait. What if he doesn’t want to change? He’ll bristle at higher taxes. He’ll whine and complain about new regulations. He’ll want to keep his old gods. He’ll resist your grand projects for a better world. Marching to Moscow in the winter isn’t in his plan. Nor is living in a godforsaken slum simply because the party bosses say so. What to do? What would Attila or Adolph do? Force him to On Cooperation and Win-Win 61 do what you want! You know what’s best for him. You know what’s best for the world. Force him to do it!

Jesus knew it wouldn’t work. He never suggested that the Roman rulers should take care of the poor. He never hinted that it was Pontius Pilate’s responsibility to look after the cripples of Judea or to fix the price of lamb on behalf of Jewish shepherds. In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, a traveler was beaten, stripped of his clothes, and left for dead beside the road. He wasn’t rescued by the army... or by the tax collectors... nor by the social welfare agencies of the time. Even the priest walked by. Instead, it was a Samaritan - a member of a group with whom Jews enjoyed a mutual contempt - who helped him.

This story was told by Jesus in response to a question. When told that one should “love thy neighbor,” a lawyer asked: “But who is my neighbor?” “Who’s ‘we’?” he might have asked.

Jesus explained that it had nothing to do with group affiliation or group responsibility... or the “common good”... or the good government can do with central planning and elite, expert guidance. It didn’t matter what race, creed, religion, or gender box you checked. “Loving thy neighbor” was a radical idea at the time, a major software update. It still is radical. It suggests, to many, that the whole edifice of Christian morality is built on love. Our own guess is that it stands on a more solid foundation - two sturdy pillars: fear and self-interest. But either way, the responsibility is squarely on the individual, not on the group.

This new religion did much more than announce a “moral code” or a “good idea.” It also described the transactions of a modern, growth economy and anticipated the codes of modern civilization. “Do unto others...” turned out to be a capitalist manifesto.

There are only two kinds of deals: cooperative, voluntary deals... or deals made at the point of a gun. In a fixed, non-growth economy, violence is almost the only way to get ahead. The idea was, you can only get more by taking market share from someone else. That was why murder and theft were so common in the ancient world; there were few alternatives available to the ambitious person.

Back then, the idea of the “common good” made sense. Tribal life was, perforce, collective. The “common” good was the good of the tribe. Ethnologist Richard Dawkins describes a human being as a “survival machine” for our genes. But it is more likely that the tribe was the survival machine. The individual was simply a detachable part. The tribe carried a group of genes. Individuals were expendable. The tribe was not.

The “common good” was not universal. That is why the Old Testament is focused on a tribe -the Jews - and its progress. The tribe could benefit, for example, by exterminating a rival tribe. It could benefit by pushing another tribe away from its prime hunting grounds, or by capturing its young women in a raid. Wealth was limited. Generally, it couldn’t be increased. It could only be moved from one tribe to another.

There was little opportunity for an individual to realize any “progress” of his own or pursue happiness in his own way. He could hunt. He could gather. He could fight. He could pass along his genes to a new generation. What he thought probably didn’t matter much. What he wanted probably never came up in conversation. It was probably very rare for tribe members to sit around the campfire and discuss their eating disorders, their political preferences, or their career aspirations. The individual didn’t count for much.

Modern, extended societies sometimes slip back into tribal thinking. “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,” as Hitler famously put it. The idea was simple enough - he would treat the German people as though they were “we,” members of the same tribe with a “common good” that could be had by following their leader.

There was one Reich (government), but there were many different Volk (people) in Germany. But while the “we” of a prehistoric tribe was natural, authentic, and could benefit from the win-lose protocols of a zero-sum world, the “we” of Nazi Germany was fake. Needless to say, not all Germans shared the same enthusiasm for the success of the master race. Eventually, almost all of them - Jews, Gypsies, and Nazi Party members, too - came to detest it, as they suffered from trying to insist on win-lose deals in what had essentially become a win-win world."

"How It Really Is"

 

"Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come, nor care beyond today.”
- Thomas Gray,
“Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/

"Heaven and Hell..."

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