“5 Painfully Obvious Truths We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”

“5 Painfully Obvious Truths

We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”

by Angel Chernoff

“This is going to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

We are going to get through this, I promise,

and we’re going to get through it together. “

- Dr. Jon LaPook

“You know how you can read or hear something dozens of times in dozens of different ways before it finally sinks in? The little truths listed below fall firmly into that category – timeless life lessons that many of us likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, yet for whatever reason we tend to forget in the heat of the moment. This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all, especially as we collectively cope with the evolving reality of economic and life circumstances.

1. Life is short, and nothing is guaranteed. We know deep down that life is short, and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are infinitely surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind, and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is, and so you find yourself off balance for a moment, before your mind shifts back to the present moment and how the world really is.

LIVE your life TODAY! Don’t ignore death – or the imminent dangers now becoming obvious – but don’t be afraid of life either. Be afraid of a life you never lived because you were too afraid to take positive action today. Death is not the greatest loss in life, neither is illness. The greatest loss is what dies inside you while you’re still alive and well. Even in these difficult times, be bold, be courageous, be a scared to death, and then take the next step anyway. Just change the way you do it.

Invest your heart and soul into whatever you have right in front of you. Bring passion into otherwise ordinary moments. You don’t have to be surrounded by lots of people. You don’t have to be going anyplace new. You can distance yourself and still passionately engage in each moment.

2. Everything will change again soon. Embrace change and realize in many ways it’s necessary. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end most forms of change are worthwhile because they force us to grow. So keep yourself in check right now.

What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.

Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event. And these events are always happening – as they are right now.

So just remember, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. Accept it. Breathe. Be where you are. You’re where you need to be right now. There’s a time and place for everything, and every hard step is necessary. Just keep doing your best, and don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into your life. When it’s meant to be, it will be.

3. Changing your response is what puts you back in control. Have patience with everything that remains unresolved in your head and heart. And realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard to stay true to your intuition and values. This is your life, and it is governed by your choices. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your daily choices preach louder than your lips. May your inner sense of satisfaction be your noise in the end.

And if your present life only teaches you one thing, let it be that taking a passionate leap is always worth it. Even if you have no idea where you’re going to land – even when there are so many unknowns – be brave enough to stand up and listen to your heart. Remember that the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself – to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything! (Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the “Passion and Growth” chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.“)

4. Life’s storms can be a great source of strength. Hard times are like strong storms that blow against you. And it’s not just that these storms hold you back from places you might otherwise go. They also tear away from you all but the essential parts of your ego that cannot be torn, so that afterward you see yourself as you really are, and not merely as you might like to be.

Ultimately, you realize you are here to endure these storms, to sacrifice your time and risk your heart. You are here to be bruised by life. And when it happens that you are hurt, or betrayed, or rejected, let yourself sit quietly with your eyes closed and remember all the good times you had, and all the sweetness you tasted, and everything you learned. Tell yourself how amazing it was to live, and then open your eyes and live some more.

Because to never struggle would be to never grow. You must let go of who you were so you can become who you are. Again, it is within the depths of the strongest and darkest storms that you discover within you an inextinguishable light, and it is this light that illuminates the path forward.

5. You don’t need all the answers right now. Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going, and train yourself to love and appreciate this sensation of freedom. Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly. And as you soar around you still may not know where you’re traveling to. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the opening of your wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.

Truth be told, some of the greatest outcomes that transpire in your life will be the ones you never even knew you wanted. As long as you keep your mind open to new perspectives and yourself moving forward, there really are no wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to travel. And you never can be certain what’s around the corner. It could be everything, or it could be nothing. You keep gliding steadily forward, and then one day you realize you’ve come a long way from where you started.

All details aside, someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good outcomes will likely transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the hard times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself… “How in the world did I get through all of that?”

- https://www.marcandangel.com/

The Poet: Maya Angelou, "When You Know Better, Do Better"

Full screen recommended.

Maya Angelou,

 "When You Know Better, Do Better"

"Time: It’s The Only Thing You Have"

"Time: It’s The Only Thing You Have"

by John Wilder

"Time. Of things that have long fascinated me, time is at the top of the list. Even when I was a little kid, time fascinated me. The idea that time, of all of the physical parameters of the world there was the one that we couldn’t control. Humanity has mastered the power of the atom, at least partially. We haven’t tamed fusion, but we can create it, and have several fewer islands in the Pacific because of it.

Humanity has dammed the largest of rivers, giving us power. We have used technology to shrink the world. The first recorded circumnavigation of the world took 1082 days. Magellan didn’t quite make the whole trip, but he still gets the credit on a technicality. Now? The International Space Station does an orbit in 90 minutes or so at 17,150 miles per hour, which is nearly as fast as Haitians are entering Texas.

Humanity has conquered the riddle of steel – we’ve made steel buildings that reach upwards into the sky to please Crom. We have conquered climate – people live at the South Pole in perfect comfort, as well as managing to live in Houston without melting into puddles of sweat.

We can see at night. We can talk, nearly instantly, with people a continent away. My phone buzzes every time there is motion outside my front door – it’s like having a superpower of sensing where and when there is activity at a distance. Another superpower is being able to access obscure facts anywhere on the planet that can reach a cell signal.

But time remains fixed. It flows only one way. And it is the most subjective of our senses. Even Pugsley notices it: “This summer was so short!” He’s in high school. That’s when the transition from the endless summers of childhood begin to transform into the fleeting, never-ending carousel of years that is adulthood. I’ve long felt that I understood why this was. Let me give it a shot.

For a newborn, the second day it’s outside and breathing is 50% of its entire life. For a six-year-old, half of their life is three years – much more. It’s not a big percentage, but it’s much smaller than 50%. For a sixteen-year-old, half their life is eight years. If you’re forty – half your life is twenty years. 1/8 versus 1/20? It’s amazingly different. We don’t perceive life as a line. We’re living inside of it – we compare our lives to the only thing we have . . . our lives. Each day you live is smaller than the last.

But that’s not everything. As we age, novelty decreases. When we’re young, experiences and knowledge are coming at us so quickly that we are presented with novel (new and unique) information daily. New words. New thoughts. New ideas. That’s why babies keep falling for that stupid “got your nose” thing. They don’t realize that I can reattach it. Over time, though, novelty decreases, as does the percentage of your life that each day represents. Ever drive a new route somewhere? When I do it, I have to focus my attention. It seems like it takes longer because I’m having to deal with novelty.

I’ve had my “new” laptop nearly seven years. I had my old laptop for longer than that, yet my “new” laptop still seems like it’s temporary.

There are only so many routes I can drive to work, so much novelty that I can find in a daily drive. Even a commute of an hour begins to fade into a brief moment in time if it’s the same commute, day after day.

Work is similar. Over time, we gain experience. Experience shows us how to fix problems (and sometimes how not to fix them). But that experience of taking a solution and modifying it to fix the next problem isn’t as hard as fixing the first problem.

The fact that each day is a smaller portion of my life, combined with the fact that as I get older, the possibility that I see something new dims. I’ve solved a bunch of problems in my life. Finding a new one is... difficult. Life goes faster, day by day for me. Every endless summer day of youth is in my rearview mirror.

And yet... Each day is still 24 hours. I can still use each day and live it with all of the gusto of a 10-year-old fishing for trout after building a tree fort, playing with his dog, and building a model of a Phantom F-4 to dogfight with the MiG 21-PF already hanging from the ceiling. Even though those 24 hours seem shorter now than at any time in my life, they are relentless in their exact sameness. I get to choose how I spend those moments in my life. I get to choose what I want to produce, and how hard I work to make it happen.

Humanity may never have the ability to crack time – it appears that even today, outside of sands falling from an hourglass, we can only describe time as a fundamental entity, something we measure against. Does the flow of time vary? Certainly. But only if we’re moving at large fractions of the speed of light or are caught in a huge gravity well, but let’s leave your mother out of this.

I have come to the conclusion that I will likely never understand what, exactly, time is, outside of this: Time is all we have – it is what makes up life. We measure our lives in it, because no man can buy an extra hour of life. We have the hours we have. The only difference is what we do with that time.

I mentioned in a previous post that (during the week) I often get by on scant hours of sleep. That’s because I have more things that I want to do in my life than I can fit in a day that’s less than 20 or 22 hours some days. I choose to try to do more, to try to make use of this time, because each moment is a gift.

Maybe I can settle for that definition of time: a gift. Each moment is a gift. Don’t beg for more, or live in fear of losing them. Just make each moment count. Perhaps that’s the secret and precious nature of time. It is the one thing we should never waste, and never wish away."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Hans Zimmer, "Time"

"It Strikes Me..."

“It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can’t get out of, but I think this is very usual in life. There are people, particularly dumb people, who are in terrible trouble and never get out of it, because they’re not intelligent enough. It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry - or laugh.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

Musical Interlude: Elton John, "Your Starter For"; "Funeral For A Friend"

Shake off all the bad news...

Elton John, "Your Starter For"

o

Elton John, 

"Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"

"How It Really Is"

This degenerate abomination is not 

the country I swore allegiance to long ago...

- CP, Veteran, US Marine Corps, MOS 0311

Dan, I Allegedly, "Crisis Looms - Are You Prepared?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 1/12/24

"Crisis Looms - Are You Prepared?"

"Tesla just announced that they are going to give a raise unilaterally across the country. That should be good news. The stock price fell on this news. Experts say that it’s going to take away for the margins for what they sell. Plus, there’s a lot of other news to cover today."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up:

Bigger War, Bigger Fraud and Bigger CV19 Death Toll"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"This is the year of bigger, and in this case, bigger is NOT better. There is a bigger war brewing in the Middle East – much bigger. Some say this is the beginning of WWIII. There is no end in sight for the conflicts all over the region. You have a hot war in Gaza. Hezbollah is ready to ramp it up in Lebanon on Israel’s Northern border, and the US and UK both opened up big attacks on the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen. Meanwhile, Iran was busy taking an oil tanker by force near the Strait of Hormuz. You have conflict on the biggest choke points for oil tankers and shipping at the Red Sea and the Persin Gulf. Is there a big economy-killing oil spike coming? If this keeps going, and it will, the answer is yes.

It’s hard to believe the fraud being conducted to keep Donald Trump from running for his old job in 2024 could get any bigger, but it has. The Georgia DA, Fani Willis, prosecuting the Trump Rico case is in hot water for sending her boyfriend to the White House just before the Trump indictment for RICO charges. Marjorie Taylor Green is seeking criminal referrals for all involved. Even if Willis could get a conviction on her case, there are many avenues for it all to fall apart on appeal. Colluding with the Biden White House to jail a political opponent is a huge “get out of jail free” card. Somebody other than Trump may go to jail for what President 45 calls election interference. It’s hard to disagree when you have fraud in your face that is this big.

Bigger numbers of those who “died suddenly” and so-called “medical emergencies” because of the CV19 bioweapon vax are soaring, according to NYU Professor Mark Crispin Miller (MCM). Of course, the deaths and disabilities are caused by the CV19 bioweapon vax, but the Lying Legacy Media is trying to cover up and gaslight the public into thinking it’s not really a problem. But it is a problem, a huge problem, and it is getting worse. With more than 700 million CV19 injections that have “intentionally toxic” ingredients, it is only going to get worse and become a much bigger death toll and disability. This is why MCM is asking for all the help you can give him to help document this historic tragedy and murder program. (You can donate to MCM’s “Died Suddenly Project” by clicking here.) He wants to get the truth out that the demonic population-reducing globalists want to keep hidden. There is much more in the 57-minute newscast.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about

 these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 1/12/24:

- https://rumble.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! The Fuse Is Lit, The War Has Started, Get Ready!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 1/12/24

"Alert! The Fuse Is Lit, The War Has Started, Get Ready!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"Gaza War Expands As US, UK Warplanes 

Bomb Houthi Strongholds In Yemen"

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 1/12/24

"Houthis' 'Mega Revenge' Next? 

Yahya Saree Declares 'U.S., UK Will Now Bear..."

"Yemen's Ansar Allah Rebel Movement, also known as Houthis, has issued a terrifying warning. Houthis declared that the U.S. and UK will bear the responsibility for its retaliation. The group has taken a pledge to carry out revenge strikes after U.S.-led attacks. 73 strikes by the U.S. and UK forces hit five regions of Yemen under Houthi control. This report has the video statement of Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Comments: Some factual Middle East contextual observations: Game over!

•  Gaza: 23,385 innocent men, women, old people and 12,000 children have been killed by the IDF dropping over 6,000 2,000 lb. bombs supplied by the United States. The entire 2 billion Muslim world is absolutely and rightfully enraged.

• Turkey has a 2 million man totally modern and equipped professional military, whom Scott Ritter describes as "ferocious fighters" which includes a powerful air force and navy, and huge missile stockpiles. They could very rapidly eliminate the IDF.

• Syria can and will retake the occupied Golan Heights. The IDF has neither the troops or the resources to stop this.

• Hezzbollah has 150,000 very well trained and equipped professional soldiers, battle hardened by 10 years of involvement in the Syrian civil war. Doug Macgregor states they have 140,000 missiles which can reach anywhere in Israel.

• Hamas in Gaza has fought the IDF to a standstill and withdraw while only using a fraction of their reported 30,000 fighters.

• The entry of Iran into a wider regional war is a distinct probability, adding it's huge military and  10's of thousands of missiles stockpiles to the mix.

• The Yemeni Houthis, whom Ritter describes as the honey badgers of the Middle East, absolutely fearless and ferocious, have closed the Red Sea to all shipping causing enormous financial losses not only to Israel but the global economy. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates dare not attempt to intervene under threat of Houthis completely destroying their petroleum facilities.

• The Egyptian government, while reluctant, may be forced into the conflict by the political pressure of their absolutely enraged population which is demanding action.

• Israel's only ally is the United States, which is totally impotent to assist them, lacking the troops and ability to intervene. The US Navy fleet are useless sitting ducks, targets for precise missile strikes, and will very rapidly be destroyed, including the aircraft carriers.

Your thoughts and comments?

Jim Kunstler, "Poison Spiders at the Center of the Web"

"Poison Spiders at the Center of the Web"

by Jim Kunstler

“The same people accusing Trump voters of subverting democracy are the ones who cheated in every election since the 1960s, lied to get us into half a dozen stupid wars, created Covid in a lab, and then covered that up. You are free to tell them to STFU.” - Peachy Keenan

"You know why the judge let provocateur Ray Epps off the hook for his antics before and during the so-called J-6 “insurrection,” don’t you? Well, yes, it was partly because he was acting at the direction of blob officials, most likely the FBI, but possibly the CIA, Defense Intelligence, or some black-box fed outfit no one ever of (but somehow gets half a billion in funding every year). Ol’ Ray, pleaded to one year’s probation (no jail time), 100 hours of community service (checking books out at his local library?), and a $500 fine. Say, what? A speeding ticket on the Rockville Pike would probably cost you more.

You remember those videos of Ray on the DC street the day before the riot, importuning the crowd, a commanding presence with his military bearing and red hat, six inches taller than most of the other men around him, yelling, “Tomorrow we need to go into the Capitol, into the Capitol!” At which moment the crowd groaned “no-o-o-o... !” and then commenced chanting, “fed... fed... fed...!” They had his number. His use of the word need was especially beguiling, as in, who actually “needed” that to happen?

I’ll tell you one reason Ray didn’t get, like, twenty years, nor two years of pre-trial detention in the reeking, roach-infested DC lockup, or massive fines, like other J-6 defendants: Because he told his handlers in no uncertain terms that he would blow their cover and vivisect them publicly on the whole fed J-6 operation if they so much as made him show up in person for any proceeding — and, of course, he “attended” his sentencing by phone, in a Zoom meeting from a remote location.

Okay, I’ll tell you the actual reason that Ray Epps got the VIP powder puff treatment: It was to give half of America a poke in the eye with a sharp stick... the old double-barreled middle finger... a thunderous f*ck you, with the subtext: we can do anything we want to you and you can’t do anything about it... and we can rub your faces in it, too, ho ho... and then empty a bed pan over your head in case you’re not feeling sufficiently impotent and humiliated. And the purpose of all that is their hope to foment some act of genuine violent resistance against the blob to justify further lawless persecution of the blob’s enemies. They’re really hoping to set off a civil war to justify martial law in order to ensure a free and fair election.

The judge in the Ray Epps case is... wait for it... the fabulous judicial utility infielder, James Boasberg, now Chief Judge of the DC Federal District Court, a big cheese. Yes, the same rascal who sat on the FISA Court during the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” shenanigans, when they fed all manner of fake documents to that court to enable the FBI to conduct warrantless surveillance on Donald Trump’s campaign, and then afterwards on his presidency.

It was Judge Boasberg who let FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith off the hook with probation when he was charged with doctoring an email to conceal the fact that FBI target Carter Page had been an active CIA informer in Russia over the years, not just some schlub swanning around the fringe of the Trump Campaign. Getting a FISA warrant on Carter Page was tremendously advantageous to the FBI, because it enabled them to use the “three-hop rule,” meaning they could also surveil anyone else in the Trump retinue who Mr. Page had communicated with by phone or email.

The disposition of Ray Epps’s case also means there will be no further official inquiries into his behavior that fateful day 1/6/21. The principle of double jeopardy means he can’t be tried for the same thing twice. There will be no further inquiries into what he did that day and on J-6 itself when he appeared at the barricades on the Capitol grounds, apparently goading protesters to bust through them. It’s a dead letter. Chalk up a “W” for the blob.

But now, chalk up an “L” for the blob: Fani Wills, the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney, has been caught funneling more than half a million dollars to her love bunny, attorney Nathan Wade, after appointing him “special counsel” in the gigantic RICO case against Donald Trump and eighteen other defendants. Poor optics, as they say, and maybe a good deal more than that — such as prosecutorial misconduct. The fact that the lovestruck pair took Caribbean cruises together with that money may only be a minor part of the story. More will come out when Fani Willis answers the summons she has been served to give a deposition at the request of Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers in the Wades’ ongoing divorce proceeding.

More to the point, both Fani Willis and Nathan Wade (in her service) spent time consulting with lawyers at the White House before they filed charges against Mr. Trump. Mr. Wade was there on May 23 and November 19, 2022 talking to Joe Biden’s White House counsel for sixteen hours. Ms. Willis is shown by White House visitor logs to have been present for five hours a few months later, on February 18, 2023, a week after recommending charges to a Fulton County grand jury. The log states that she spent those five hours with veep Kamala Harris.

I doubt that is who she came to visit. My guess is that Ms. Willis spent those hours being coached by Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco, possibly joined by Mary McCord, a former head of the DOJ’s National Security division during the “Crossfire Hurricane” years, then “outside counsel” to the first House impeachment committee, then counsel to the House J-6 committee. It was Ms. McCord, in Trump Impeachment # 1, who arranged for then DOJ Inspector General Michael Atkinson to change the whistleblower rules, allowing for hearsay evidence, which gave a green light to NSA mole Eric Ciaramella to report on the infamous Ukraine phone call that he had not personally witnessed (but was fed a story on by Col. Alexander Vindman.) Nice work there. In other words, these two gals, Lisa Monaco and Mary McCord, are the poison spiders in the DOJ web of veteran seditionists.

This week there is also chatter as to whether Special Counsel Jack Smith might ever actually bring an official federal “insurrection” charge against Mr. Trump to facilitate his “branding” so as to get him kicked off the ballot around the country. I doubt that’ll work out for Mr. Smith, too. If such a matter ever went to trial Mr. Trump would enjoy the right to “discovery” of all sorts of evidence that the DOJ and the FBI would never allow to see the light of day. So, Jack’s stuck with his lame cases now on the docket which, believe me, will be going nowhere.

- https://kunstler.com/

A Blues Musical Interlude: John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

Musical Interlude: Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus.

Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright blue O-type star above picture center. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across.”

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

"In A Nation Ruled By Swine..."

“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile - and the rest of us are f**ked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.”

- Hunter S. Thompson, “The Great Shark Hunt”

Gerald Celente, "Israel War Ramping Up, Oil Crisis Coming!"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 1/11/24

"Israel War Ramping Up, Oil Crisis Coming!"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/w

Jeremiah Babe, "There Is No Avoiding The Greatest Economic And Housing Crash In History"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/11/24

"There Is No Avoiding The Greatest Economic 

And Housing Crash In History"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Metamora, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "There Is Time Left"

"There Is Time Left"

 "Well, there is time left 

fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away

from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put ones foot into the door of the grass, which is

the mystery, which is death as well as life,

and not be afraid!

To set ones foot in the door of death,

and be overcome with amazement!"

~ Mary Oliver

"You Think..."

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”

~ Wendell Berry

Free Download: Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."

- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Freely download "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Ernest Hemingway, here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com

"Slowly. Then Rapidly"

"Slowly. Then Rapidly"

by Brian Maher

"In 1981 - 205 years after the nation’s birth - its debt first scaled $1 trillion. That is, the business was the work of 205 years. Today the work of 205 years reduces not to centuries… not to decades… not to years… but to months.

Consider: The nation’s debt attained an existingly delirious $33 trillion in September 2023. In January 2024 - a mere four months following the calamity - the national debt gallops to $34 trillion. Four months! No - under four months. The $33 trillion embarrassment was not attained until mid-September. The $34 trillion enormity was attained the opening week of January. Impossible. But there it is.

Five Years Ahead of Schedule: In January 2020 the Congressional Budget Office divined the nation’s debt would scale $34 trillion in 2029. A five-year misunderestimation! Yet that divination preceded the fantastic fiscal deluges attending the pandemic. In 2024 the torrents have scarcely relented. Mr. Eric Boehm of Reason magazine: "The debt has grown faster due to the unprecedented levels of fiscal stimulus unleashed during the pandemic and because baseline federal spending has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the federal government spent $6.1 trillion, up from $4.4 trillion in fiscal year 2019 (the last one before the pandemic). Federal revenue has climbed in recent years as well - $4.4 trillion last year, up from $3.5 trillion in 2019 - but those increases haven’t been large enough to keep up with the surge in new spending."

Has the pandemic not ended? Have not its savage lockdowns likewise ended? Both have ended, yes. Why - then - cannot the government of the United States revert to pre-pandemic spending? That 2019 spending was already lunatic. Why must the government of the United States sustain pandemic levels of fiscal lunacy in the post-pandemic period? In neither law nor equity can we discern an explanation. That is, in neither law nor equity can we discern a compelling explanation.

The business nonetheless proceeds - without let, without hindrance. Mr. Michael Peterson of the Peterson Foundation: "Looking ahead, debt will continue to skyrocket as the Treasury expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion more by the end of March." Slowly. Then rapidly.

Entering the Exponential Phase: The business begins to assume an exponential aspect. That is, it begins to increase at an increasing gait. Two hundred and five years to attain a $1 trillion debt, 10 years to attain a $3 trillion in debt, 10 additional years to attain a $6 trillion debt, 10 years after that to attain a $15 trillion debt, 10 additional years to attain a $27 trillion debt, three years to attain a $33 trillion debt, under four months to attain a $34 trillion debt.

Here is progress - of a very peculiar sort. How long until the nation’s debt surpasses $35 trillion? Three months - or less? How about $36 trillion after that? Then $40 trillion? Then $50 trillion? A $50 trillion economy can withstand a $36 trillion debt burden. It can likely withstand a $40 trillion burden. If the gods are kind… it may even withstand a $50 trillion debt burden.

But the United States economy is not a $50 trillion economy. It is - perhaps - a $27 trillion economy. Is economic expansion maintaining pace with this mushrooming debt? Alas… it is not.

Galloping Debt, Crawling Growth: Set to one side the rebound year of 2021. Not since 2005 has the gross domestic product exceeded 3% annual expansion. Meantime, the Congressional Budget Office projects average 1.8% annual growth through 2033. That is: Debt gallops, growth crawls.

Thus, as we have argued before: The Keynesian “multiplier” - the miracle of water into wine - has taken up division. It remains a multiplier only within the economics departments of ivied institutions and castles very high in the sky. As we have likewise noted before: "Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have indicated that annual economic growth slips 2% per year when the debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 60%. At 90%, growth is “roughly cut in half.” An outfit labeled the Committee for Economic Development argues a “responsible” ratio for a nation the size of the United States is 70%. What is America’s current debt-to-GDP ratio? Some 124%.

Democracy Dies in Debt: A certain Maya MacGuineas, presides over the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (do not laugh!). From whom: "Though our level of debt is dangerous for both our economy and for national security, America just cannot stop borrowing. This is a moment of consequence and continuing to refuse to pay our own bills will not lead us to where we need to be as a nation." Where do we need to be as a nation? We do not know. Perhaps the gutter?

The United States government - the taxpayers of the United States, that is - presently shovel out $2 billion each day to service existing debt. How much more must they shovel out as the nation’s debt takes its exponential leaps? We do not know. Yet the figure will be plenty handsome. Reports Mr. Bezos and his Washington Post: "Interest costs are already the fastest-growing part of the budget. Net interest costs - a nonnegotiable expense - nearly doubled as a share of federal outlays between 2020 and 2023, going from $345 billion, or 5%, to $660 billion, or 10%. (Defense, by comparison, cost $815 billion, or 13% of spending in 2023.)"

Perhaps democracy dies not in darkness as Mr. Bezos claims - but in debt. What will be left for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national offense and the rest of it? How will the United States afford its bread and its circuses? At the going rate… only with fantastic and herculean exertions. Uh-oh...

Meantime, some 30% of United States government debt is poised to mature this year. Much of this debt was taken on in a regime of drastically lower interest rates. Upon maturation it must be refinanced at today’s elevated rates. Consider for example the 3-month Treasury bill. The thing yielded nearly nothing in 2021. It presently yields over 5%. Meantime, the 10-year Treasury note yielded 0.50% in the hell-sent summer of 2020. It presently yields 4%.

For years and years the boy has yelled wolf. At $1 trillion of debt, at $2 trillion of debt, at every other trillion - now at $34 trillion. But the wolf has yet to appear. It has merely cast phantom shadows. We do not know when the snarling wolf will ultimately appear upon the stoop. Yet as noted above, the exponential function begins to apply. With it, the cascading effect - the spiraling effect. Slowly. Then rapidly…"

- https://dailyreckoning.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Prescription Medicine Shortages"

Adventures With Danno, PM 1/11/24

"Prescription Medicine Shortages & 

What You Need To Know! This Is Unbelievable!"

Prescription medications that are in a serious shortage right now, and what you need to know moving forward. This is unbelievable as this issue continues to just get worse.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Canadian Prepper, "Warning: 3 Major Red Flags; NATO Moves On Black Sea; Ukraine Nuclear Option; Lebanon About To Blow"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 1/11/24

"Warning: 3 Major Red Flags; NATO Moves On Black Sea; 

Ukraine Nuclear Option; Lebanon About To Blow"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "We're Not Going To Pay You"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 1/11/24

"We're Not Going To Pay You"

"What would you do if you lost your pension or your 

Social Security? Imagine saving for retirement and you lose it all."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Deals At Kroger This Week! Stock Up On These Items"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 1/11/24

"Deals At Kroger This Week! Stock Up On These Items"

"Taking you shopping with me to show all the 

different kinds of ways you can save money this week at Kroger!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

"Nine Meals from Anarchy"

by Jeff Thomas

"In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky. The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed. If there were a shortage of, say, shoes, we could make do for months or even years. A shortage of gasoline would be worse, but we could survive it, through mass transport or even walking, if necessary.

But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbor with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbor and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.”

There’s no need to speculate on this concern yet. There’s nothing so alarming on the evening news yet to suggest that such a problem might be imminent. So, let’s have a closer look at the actual food distribution industry, compare it to the present direction of the economy, and see whether there might be reason for concern.

The food industry typically operates on very small margins – often below 2%. Traditionally, wholesalers and retailers have relied on a two-week turnaround of supply and anywhere up to a 30-day payment plan. But an increasing tightening of the economic system for the last eight years has resulted in a turnaround time of just three days for both supply and payment for many in the industry. This a system that’s still fully operative, but with no further wiggle room, should it take a significant further hit.

If there were a month where significant inflation took place (The Feds lie say 9.1%; really now at least 17%), all profits would be lost for the month for both suppliers and retailers, but goods could still be replaced and sold for a higher price next month. But, if there were three or more consecutive months of inflation, the industry would be unable to bridge the gap, even if better conditions were expected to develop in future months. A failure to pay in full for several months would mean smaller orders by those who could not pay. That would mean fewer goods on the shelves. The longer the inflationary trend continued, the more quickly prices would rise to hopefully offset the inflation. And ever-fewer items on the shelves.

From Germany in 1922, to Argentina in 2000, and to Venezuela in 2016, this has been the pattern whenever inflation has become systemic, rather than sporadic. Each month, some stores close, beginning with those that are the most poorly capitalized.

In good economic times, this would mean more business for those stores that were still solvent, but in an inflationary situation, they would be in no position to take on more unprofitable business. The result is that the volume of food on offer at retailers would decrease at a pace with the severity of the inflation.

However, the demand for food would not decrease by a single loaf of bread. Store closings would be felt most immediately in inner cities, when one closing would send customers to the next neighborhood seeking food. The real danger would come when that store also closes and both neighborhoods descended on a third store in yet another neighborhood. That’s when one loaf of bread for every three potential purchasers would become worth killing over. Virtually no one would long tolerate seeing his children go without food because others had “invaded” his local supermarket.

In addition to retailers, the entire industry would be impacted and, as retailers disappeared, so would suppliers, and so on, up the food chain. This would not occur in an orderly fashion, or in one specific area. The problem would be a national one. Closures would be all over the map, seemingly at random, affecting all areas. Food riots would take place, first in the inner cities then spread to other communities. Buyers, fearful of shortages, would clean out the shelves.

Importantly, it’s the very unpredictability of food delivery that increases fear, creating panic and violence. And, again, none of the above is speculation; it’s a historical pattern – a reaction based upon human nature whenever systemic inflation occurs.

Then… unfortunately… the cavalry arrives. At that point, it would be very likely that the central government would step in and issue controls to the food industry that served political needs rather than business needs, greatly exacerbating the problem. Suppliers would be ordered to deliver to those neighborhoods where the riots are the worst, even if those retailers are unable to pay. This would increase the number of closings of suppliers.

Along the way, truckers would begin to refuse to enter troubled neighborhoods, and the military might well be brought in to force deliveries to take place. (If truckers could afford $4.54 a gallon diesel fuel.)

So, what would it take for the above to occur? Well, historically, it has always begun with excessive debt. We know that the debt level is now the highest it has ever been in world history. (US debt as of January 9, 2024 $34,024,775,058,581.46. World debt as of December 2023: $307 trillion.) In addition, the stock and bond markets are in bubbles of historic proportions. They will most certainly pop.

With a crash in the markets, deflation always follows as people try to unload assets to cover for their losses. The Federal Reserve (and other central banks) has stated that it will unquestionably print as much money as it takes to counter deflation. Unfortunately, inflation has a far greater effect on the price of commodities than assets. Therefore, the prices of commodities will rise dramatically, further squeezing the purchasing power of the consumer, thereby decreasing the likelihood that he will buy assets, even if they’re bargain priced. Therefore, asset holders will drop their prices repeatedly as they become more desperate. The Fed then prints more to counter the deeper deflation and we enter a period when deflation and inflation are increasing concurrently.

Historically, when this point has been reached, no government has ever done the right thing. They have, instead, done the very opposite – keep printing. A by-product of this conundrum is reflected in the photo above. Food still exists, but retailers shut down because they cannot pay for goods. Suppliers shut down because they’re not receiving payments from retailers. Producers cut production because sales are plummeting.

In every country that has passed through such a period, the government has eventually gotten out of the way and the free market has prevailed, re-energizing the industry and creating a return to normal. The question is not whether civilization will come to an end. (It will not.) The question is the liveability of a society that is experiencing a food crisis, as even the best of people are likely to panic and become a potential threat to anyone who is known to store a case of soup in his cellar.

Fear of starvation is fundamentally different from other fears of shortages. Even good people panic. In such times, it’s advantageous to be living in a rural setting, as far from the centre of panic as possible. It’s also advantageous to store food in advance that will last for several months, if necessary. However, even these measures are no guarantee, as, today, modern highways and efficient cars make it easy for anyone to travel quickly to where the goods are. The ideal is to be prepared to sit out the crisis in a country that will be less likely to be impacted by dramatic inflation – where the likelihood of a food crisis is low and basic safety is more assured."

- https://internationalman.com/

The Poet: Langston Hughes, “Life Is Fine”

“Life Is Fine”

“I went down to the river,

I set down on the bank.

I tried to think but couldn’t,

So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!

I came up twice and cried!

If that water hadn’t a-been so cold

I might’ve sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator

Sixteen floors above the ground.

I thought about my baby

And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!

I stood there and I cried!

If it hadn’t a-been so high

I might’ve jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I’m still here livin’,

I guess I will live on.

I could’ve died for love -

But for livin’ I was born.

Though you may hear me holler,

And you may see me cry -

I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,

If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”

- Langston Hughes

"What Keeps You Going..."

The Band, "Shape I'm In"

Jeremiah Babe, "Everyone Will Feel The Pain, Get Prepared"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/10/24

"Everyone Will Feel The Pain, Get Prepared"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibration"

Full screen recommended.

Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibration"

"Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey. 528Hz positive energy healing music with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. These frequencies have a specific healing effect on your subconscious mind." Be kind to yourself, savor this extraordinarily beautiful video. Headphones recommended, not required.

"A Look to the Heavens..."

"Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. 

Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other ghostly apparitions, vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen at the right of the starry field of view. Inside the nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation. With the eerie hue of dust reflecting bluish light from hot young stars of NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula stands out against the dark just left of center. In the broad telescopic frame, these fertile interstellar dust fields stretch almost seven full moons across the sky."

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

The Universe

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.

It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.

It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.

It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.

And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."

- The Universe

○

“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents. And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”

“Tallyho,”

The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”

- www.tut.com

"When One Cannot Be Sure..."

"When one cannot be sure that there are many days left, each single day becomes as important as a year, and one does not waste an hour in wishing that that hour were longer, but simply fills it, like a smaller cup, as high as it will go without spilling over."

- Natalie Kusz

"That One Chance..."

“You get that one chance; and damn it, you’ve got to take it! If there’s one lesson I know I will take with me for eternity, its that there are those things that might happen only once, those chances that come walking down the street, strolling out of a café; if you don’t let go and take them, they really could get away! We can get so washed out with a mindset of entitlement – the universe will do everything for us to ensure our happiness – that we forget why we came here! We came here to grab, to take, to give, to have! Not to wait! Nobody came here to wait! So, what makes anyone think that destiny will keep on knocking over and over again? It could, but what if it doesn’t? You go and you take the chance that you get; even if it makes you look stupid, insane, or whorish! Because it just might not come back again. You could wait a lifetime to see if it will… but I don’t think you should.”

- C. JoyBell C.

The Daily "Near You?"

East Dubuque, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!