"Homelessness In The U.S. Is Up 48 Percent Since 2015, And Americans Are Being Laid Off In Droves…"

"Homelessness In The U.S. Is Up 48 Percent Since 2015, 

And Americans Are Being Laid Off In Droves…"

by Michael Snyder

"How can anyone out there possibly believe that the U.S. economy is doing well? As you will see below, the number of homeless Americans has risen to the highest level ever recorded, and large companies all over the country are laying off workers in droves. As I have discussed previously, the number of Americans that were laid off in 2023 jumped 98 percent compared to the year before, and now during the first month of 2024 it feels like we are being hit by a tsunami of layoffs. It literally seems like someone has turned a fire hose on, but the Biden administration continues to insist that unemployment is “low” and that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive.

Honestly, I don’t understand how the Biden administration can say that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive when the number of Americans that are homeless has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded. According to a brand new report that was just released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the number of homeless Americas has increased 48 percent since 2015…"According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said."

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs. We can see evidence of this all around us. Tent cities are popping up like mushrooms in our major cities and countless Americans are living in their vehicles and RVs.

One of the primary reasons why homelessness has been surging so dramatically is because rental costs have soared to unprecedented heights…"Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as “cost-burdened.” Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels.

People earning between $45,000 and $74,999 per year took the biggest hit from rising rents - on average, 41% of their paycheck went toward rent and utilities, the Joint Center for Housing Studies said. Tenants should generally allocate no more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development."

But Joe Biden insists that inflation is “low”. You believe him, don’t you? Sadly, more Americans will soon be hitting the streets because we are witnessing an insane wave of layoffs all over the nation. Right now, it is being reported that Salesforce has decided to conduct another round of layoffs…"Salesforce is cutting about 700 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported. The job cuts, which amount to about 1% of its global workforce, follow a series of workforce reductions last year. In 2023, Marc Benioff’s company laid off about 10% of its total workforce as it grappled with a swarm of activist investors who wanted margins increased faster than planned."

And we have just learned that REI will be giving the axe to 357 workers…"REI is laying off 357 workers, mostly in the outdoor retailer’s headquarters and distribution centers. In a letter to employees, CEO Eric Artz noted that “outdoor specialty retail has experienced four quarters of decline – and that trend has been worsening.” While REI was able to outperform this for much of last year, he said, this trend caught up to the company in the fourth quarter, and difficult conditions are expected in 2024."

"Difficult conditions are expected in 2024?" Oh really…Who could have seen that one coming?

After their deal with Amazon fell through, iRobot announced that 31 percent of its staff would be hitting the bricks…"Amazon and iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba vacuum, mutually called off their estimated $1.7 billion acquisition deal Monday, citing numerous regulatory hurdles. Immediately after the deal was publicly squashed, iRobot announced it would lay off 31% of its staff and that founder Colin Angle would step down from his role as CEO, citing a focus on profitability, stability and growth. Glen Weinstein will serve as interim CEO. Shares of iRobot (IRBT) were down around 9% in noon trading following the news. Amazon (AMZN), which was up about 0.5% in noon trading, will pay iRobot a previously agreed-upon $94 million cancellation fee.

Google, Microsoft, Levi’s, TikTok, Riot Games, eBay, Wayfair and Macy’s are some of the other big names that have also announced layoffs so far in 2024. But no industry is being hit harder than the mainstream media…"Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business Insider (whose parent company Axel Springer also owns POLITICO) jettisoned 8 percent of its staff while workers at Condé Nast, Forbes, the New York Daily News and elsewhere walked out to protest forthcoming cuts at their shops."

Perhaps if they had not made a habit of blatantly lying to us over and over again during the past several years they would not have lost all of their remaining credibility and they would not have had to lay off so many workers.

But even though so much is going wrong with the economy right now, many of the “experts” continue to tell us that happier times are just around the corner. For example, Ed Yardeni insists that we will soon relive the Roaring Twenties…"Ed Yardeni, a veteran market strategist, thinks the US economy might be about to relive the “Roaring ’20s.” The Yardeni Research president said during Friday’s episode of Bloomberg’s “Merryn Talks Money” podcast that he’s expecting a combination of loose post-pandemic monetary policy and rapid technological change to drive growth higher over the next decade.

Wouldn’t it be great if he was actually right? Of course the truth is that he is just being delusional. Things are bad now, and things are going to get really bad during the second half of 2024 and beyond. If you still have a good job and a warm home to come back to at night, you should be very thankful. Because more Americans are losing their jobs and losing their homes with each passing day, and the level of economic suffering that we are witnessing is already off the charts."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"

"A Brave And Startling Truth"

by Maya Angelou

"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet

Traveling through casual space,

Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,

To a destination where all signs tell us

It is possible and imperative that we learn

A brave and startling truth.

And when we come to it,

To the day of peacemaking,

When we release our fingers

From fists of hostility

And allow the pure air to cool our palms.

When we come to it,

When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,

And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.

When battlefields and coliseum

No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters

Up with the bruised and bloody grass,

To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.

When the rapacious storming of the churches,

The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.

When the pennants are waving gaily,

When the banners of the world tremble

Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.

When we come to it,

When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,

And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.

When land mines of death have been removed,

And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.

When religious ritual is not perfumed

By the incense of burning flesh,

And childhood dreams are not kicked awake

By nightmares of abuse.

When we come to it,

Then we will confess that not the Pyramids

With their stones set in mysterious perfection

Nor the Gardens of Babylon

Hanging as eternal beauty

In our collective memory,

Not the Grand Canyon

Kindled into delicious color

By Western sunsets.

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe

Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji

Stretching to the Rising Sun.

Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,

Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores

These are not the only wonders of the world.

When we come to it,

We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,

Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger

Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.

We, this people on this mote of matter,

In whose mouths abide cankerous words

Which challenge our very existence,

Yet out of those same mouths

Come songs of such exquisite sweetness

That the heart falters in its labor,

And the body is quieted into awe.

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,

Whose hands can strike with such abandon

That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.

Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness

That the haughty neck is happy to bow,

And the proud back is glad to bend.

Out of such chaos, of such contradiction

We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.

When we come to it,

We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,

Created on this earth, of this earth,

Have the power to fashion for this earth

A climate where every man and every woman

Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,

Without crippling fear.

When we come to it,

We must confess that we are the possible,

We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.

That is when, and only when,

We come to it."

"Most People..."

"Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and don't give a damn, as long as they don't get caught. But evil is a completely different creature. Evil is bad that believes it's good." 

- Karen Marie Moning

Gregory Mannarino, "Situation Critical: Economic Meltdown And Global War"

Gregory Mannarino, 1/30/24

"Situation Critical: 

Economic Meltdown And Global War"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Yet Now..."

“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”

- Arthur C. Clarke, “Glide Path”

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping Deals At Meijer!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 1/30/24

"Shopping Deals At Meijer! Take Advantage Of These Offers!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and are showing the best sales of the week. Grab your notepad as you will want to take advantage of some of these great deals before the prices go back up!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell , 1/30/24

"I Went to a Russian Potato Convention:

 PotatoHorti 2024"

"I decided to visit a Russian Potato Convention in Moscow, Russia. PotatoHorti 2024 is the key industry fair in Russia for agricultural professionals from all over Russia."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "They Want to Sue the Fed"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 1/30/24

"They Want to Sue the Fed"

"Banks are getting so worried about having to hold extra cash that they want to sue the Fed. This is going to create many problems in the common couple of months."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Human Nature: "A Brief Disagreement"

Full screen recommended.

Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"

"A visual journey into mankind's favorite pastime throughout the ages."

"War"

"War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties. While some war studies scholars consider war a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic, or ecological circumstances.

The earliest evidence of prehistoric warfare is a Mesolithic cemetery in Jebel Sahaba, which has been determined to be about 13,400 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, specifically traumatic bone lesions.

Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. Estimates for total deaths due to war vary wildly. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991, estimates range from 145 million to 2 billion. In one estimate, primitive warfare prior to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400 million victims based on the assumption that it accounted for the 15.1% of all deaths. For comparison, an estimated 1,680,000,000 people died from infectious diseases in the 20th century."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”

“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”

by Simon Black

"The morning of June 28, 1914 began like any other normal day. It was a Sunday, so a lot of people went to church. Others prepared large meals for family gatherings, played with their children, or thumbed through the Sunday papers.

At that point, tensions had been high in Europe for several years; the continent was bitterly divided by a series of complex diplomatic and military alliances, and small wars had recently broken out. Italy and the Ottoman Empire went to war in 1912 in a limited, 13-month conflict. And the First Balkan War was waged in early 1913. Overall, though, the continent clung to a delicate peace. And hardly anyone expected that most of the next three decades would be filled with chaos, poverty, and destruction. And then it happened.

That Sunday afternoon, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated during an official visit to Sarajevo. And the world changed forever. Five weeks later the entire continent was at war with itself. But even still, most of the ‘experts’ thought it would be a simple, speedy conflict. Germany’s emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, famously told his troops who were being shipped off to the front line in August 1914, “You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees...” It took four years and an estimated 68 million casualties to bring the war to a close. But that was only the prelude.

Following (and even during) World War I, a series of bloody revolutionary movements took hold in Europe, including in Russia, Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ireland. Then came the Spanish flu, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. Later, Germany sunk into one of the worst episodes of hyperinflation in human history.

Communism began rapidly spreading across the world almost as quickly as the Spanish flu, often through violent fanatics who engaged in murder and arson in order to intimidate their opponents; this became known as the ‘Red Scare’ in the United States.

Of course there were some good years during the 1920s when people generally felt prosperous and happy; but it all came crashing down at the end of the decade when a severe economic depression strangled the entire world. It lasted for more than ten years, during which time the world was once again brought to an even more destructive war that didn’t end until atomic weapons obliterated the civilian populations of two Japanese cities.

Again – go back to June 1914. Who would have thought that the next 30+ years would play out so destructively? Even for the people who did predict that Europe would go to war in 1914, most leaders thought it would be over quickly. And almost no one expected it would spawn decades of chaos.

Today we’re obviously living in different times and under different circumstances. But we may be standing at a similar precipice as in 1914, staring at enormous trends that could shape our lives for years to come. Covid only scratched the surface.

We now know without a doubt, for example, how governments will respond the next time they feel there’s a threat to public health. They’ll say, “We’re listening to the scientists.” Really? The same scientists who told people they couldn’t go to work, school, or church, but it was perfectly fine for peaceful protesters to pack together like sardines without wearing masks because they’re apparently protected from the virus by their own righteousness? The same scientists who wanted to lock everyone down to prevent Covid, but are happy to accept skyrocketing rates of cancer, depression, suicide, heart disease, and domestic abuse as a result of those very lockdowns and so-called "vaccines'?

The public health consequences from this pandemic and "vaccine" will reverberate for years to come. And that doesn’t even begin to take the economic consequences into consideration. Western governments have taken on trillions of dollars in new debt and central banks have printed trillions more. Even with all that stimulus, however, there are still hundreds of millions of people worldwide who lost their jobs, and countless businesses that have closed. Future generations who haven’t even been born yet will spend their entire working lives paying interest on the debts that are being accumulated today. The long-term consequences of all this are incalculable.

And then there are the social trends – the rise of neo-Marxism that’s sweeping the world so fast. It’s the Red Scare of the 21st century. They despise talented, successful people. They believe it’s greedy for you to keep a healthy portion of what you earn, but it’s not greedy for them to take it from you and spend it on themselves.

Many of the people in this movement, of course, are violent fanatics who routinely engage in arson, assault, and vandalism. Same for the social justice warriors who are just as quick to violence and intimidation; plus they’ve already commandeered the decision-making of some of the largest, most powerful companies in the world. You can’t even watch a football game or a TV commercial anymore without some commentary on oppression and victimization. And any intellectual dissent is met with intimidation or censorship.

In fact the largest consumer technology companies in the world have become our censors. We’re not allowed to share scientific information that doesn’t conform to the Chinese-controlled World Health Organization’s guidance. And news articles that don’t match their ideology are blocked.

Let’s not kid ourselves – these trends are not going away any time soon. It’s great to be optimistic, hope for the best, and enjoy the good years as they come. But it makes sense to at least be prepared for the possibility that we could be at the very beginning of a period of enormous instability that may last a very long time."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The Guns of August" 

"In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize–winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players."

Freely download  "The Guns of August" here:

- https://d-pdf.com/book/the-guns-of-august-by-barbara-w-tuchman-pdf-download

o

"The Quick Guide to World War 1"

o

“It is history that teaches us to hope. It is well that war is 

so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.”

- Robert E. Lee

o

"Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).] An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed 'approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war' to 'approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...&c.'" The lower figure is more plausible but could still be on the high side considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD (wars and other man-made disasters with at least 300,000 and up to 66 million victims) claimed about 455 million human lives in total."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

○

There is some horrible, monstrously bloodthirsty defect in Human DNA. We're totally incapable of learning anything from history, nothing at all, and our fondness, no, our absolute love of war, has only improved the weapons to an extinction level...We can't stop, compelled against all logic,  just have to do it, no matter the cost... God help us, God help us all...

"World War III Prelude, 1/30/24"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 1/30/24

"Col. Karen Kwaitkowski: 

Are We Close to World War III?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 1/30/24

"Scott Ritter: Russia and the Middle East"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 1/30/24

"Alert! Major War Before Election!

Military Drafts In Every Country; Schengen Active"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, AM 1/30.24

''Israel Get Out': Hamas Chief Roars As IDF Bleeds Gaza; 

Reveals Stand On Paris Proposal"

"Hamas confirmed receiving a proposal for the Gaza ceasefire circulated at a meeting in Paris. Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh said the group is in the process of examining the proposal and delivering its response. The Hamas leader added that he will visit Cairo for a discussion over the Paris proposal."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Scott Ritter Joins On The Truth About Russia and The US-Israel War In Middle East!"

Danny Haiphong, 1/29/24

"Scott Ritter Joins On The Truth About Russia

 and The US-Israel War In Middle East!"

"Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter returns and we dive into the developments emerging in the Middle East including rumors of an Israel-led war on Lebanon and US forces taking casualties as CENTCOM installations come under attack."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Stillpoint"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Stillpoint"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Namibia has some of the darkest nights visible from any continent. It is therefore home to some of the more spectacular skyscapes, a few of which have been captured in the below time-lapse video. We recommend watching this video at FULL SCREEN (1080p), with audio on. The night sky of Namibia is one of the best in the world, about the same quality of the deserts of Chile and Australia.

Full screen recommended. 

Visible at the movie start are unusual quiver trees perched before a deep starfield highlighted by the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. This bright band of stars and gas appears to pivot around the celestial south pole as our Earth rotates. The remains of camel thorn trees are then seen against a sky that includes a fuzzy patch on the far right that is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. A bright sunlight-reflecting satellite passes quickly overhead. Quiver trees appear again, now showing their unusual trunks, while the Small Magellanic Cloud becomes clearly visible in the background. Artificial lights illuminate a mist that surround camel thorn trees in Deadvlei. In the final sequence, natural Namibian stone arches are captured against the advancing shadows of the setting moon. This video incorporates over 16,000 images shot over two years, and won top honors among the 2012 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130204.html

"Butterflies..."

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever."

- Carl Sagan

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass Formation Psychosis," Part 1

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass Formation Psychosis, Part 1"

By Jim Quinn

Excerpt: “Four things need to exist or need to be in place if you want a large-scale mass phenomenon to emerge. The first thing is that there needs to be a lot of socially isolated people, people who experience a lack of social bonds. The second one is that there needs to be a lot of people who experience a lack of sense-making in life. And the third and the fourth conditions are that there needs to be a lot of free-floating anxiety and a lot of free-floating psychological discontent. So: meaning, anxiety, and discontent that is not connected to a specific representation. So, it needs to be in the mind without the people being able to connect it to something. If you have these four things - lack of social bonds, lack of sense-making, free-floating anxiety, and free-floating psychological discontent -then society is highly at risk for the emergence of mass phenomenon.”

- Mattias Desmet, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism"

“Try to unlearn the obsessive fear of death (and the anxious quest for death avoidance) that pervades linear thinking in nearly every modern society. The ancients knew that, without periodic decay and death, nature cannot complete its full round of biological and social change. Without plant death, weeds would strangle the forest. Without human death, memories would never die, and unbroken habits and customs would strangle civilization. Social institutions require no less. Just as floods replenish soil and fires rejuvenate forests, a Fourth Turning clears out society’s exhausted elements and creates an opportunity.

- Strauss & Howe, "The Fourth Turning"

I recently finished reading Mattias Desmet’s fascinating and illuminating book "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", where he examines the mass formation psychosis which swept over the world during the time frame of early 2020 until present day. He explores some of the root causes of this psychological phenomena, comparing it to previous episodes in history, and delving into whether it occurred naturally or was purposely generated in order to implement a Great Reset agenda.

This type of spectacle has happened throughout human history, even documented by Charles Mackay in his 1841 book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds." It is clear to me aspects of mass formation psychosis played a part in the previous two Fourth Turnings, as both sides in the U.S. Civil War displayed characteristics of those being hypnotized by a narrative, and the German people falling under the spell of Hitler and his rhetorical skills."

View full, highly recommended, article here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass Formation Psychosis", Part 2

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass

 Formation Psychosis", Part 2 (Excerpt)

By Jim Quinn

Excerpt: "In Part 1 of this article, I laid out the mass formation psychosis theory postulated by Mattias Desmet in his book "The Psychology of Totalitarianism" and how totalitarian minded politicians and bureaucrats manipulated the masses by creating the covid crisis. Now I will focus on how this will impact the Fourth Turning we are currently trying to survive.

Decades of social indoctrination and degraded ability to think critically has left most people hopelessly unable to resist the vitriolic opinions of those under the spell of coronavirus mass formation. Even though they didn’t necessarily believe the covid narrative, especially when it became clear only the very old (especially when tyrant governors inserted infected patients into nursing homes) and the very obese actually died with covid, these people still went along. Even the CDC admitted only 6% of deaths were attributable to covid alone.

Based upon research like the Milgram Experiment, we know average people will obey authority without question, even when they know their actions are causing pain. The conformity research done by Solomon Asch explains why a huge percentage of the global population just conformed to what appeared to be a majority opinion. Asch’s experiment had 8 test subjects, but 7 of them worked for Asch. They asked them which line was the same length as Exhibit 1. The 7 Asch employees answered C. Only 25% of the case subjects consistently answered A. They were cowed into giving a patently absurd answer due to peer pressure and lack of faith in their own judgement.

When you have 30% of the population as true believers of the covidian religion, with their savior Fauci, prophets Walensky, Birx, Gottlieb, Biden, the pope, a slew of Big Pharma paid priests for hire, Hollywood elites, low IQ athletes, and a highly compensated mass media campaign of fear and loathing, the 40% in the middle really had no chance to not be pulled into the vortex of pandemia. From the outset they were inundated with data like Neal Ferguson’s Imperial College model of death. Putting up a scary chart, even though it was based on absurd assumptions, is considered fact by the lazy, non-thinking masses.

Shutting down the world was based on this worthless fraudulent model. Add some fake videos of dead people piling up in the streets in China, with media talking heads declaring hospitals being overrun (even though nurses had time to do coordinated dance routines on Tik Tok), and graphics on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox showing cases rising (based on a faulty PCR test set too high), and Fauci knowingly lying about the effectiveness of masks and the ineffectiveness of ivermectin and hydroxychloquine, and you’ve got panic."

Full, highly recommended article is here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

“Just Sit Down And Think?”

“Just Sit Down And Think?”

by Oliver Burkeman

“’All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone,’ wrote the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. It's a line repeated so frequently, in the era of smartphones and social media, that it's easy to forget how striking it is that he wrote it in the 1600s. Back then, a sentence such as "Yo is a messaging app that enables iPhone and Android users to say 'Yo' to their friends" might have got you burned as a witch.

Yet even in 17th-century France, apparently, people hated being alone with their thoughts so intensely, they'd do almost anything else: play boules, start the Franco-Spanish war, and so on. Still, I'd wager even Pascal would have been disturbed by a study published in Science, showing that people detest being made to spend six to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think – even to the extent of being willing to give themselves mild electric shocks instead. It's natural to conclude that there's something wrong with such people. Which means, all else being equal, that something's probably wrong with you, too.

Modern humans spend virtually no time on "inward-directed thought", and not solely because we're too busy: in one US survey, 95% of adults said they'd found time for a leisure activity in the previous 24 hours, but 83% said they'd spent zero time just thinking. The new study, led by Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia, first asked students to entertain themselves with nothing but their thoughts in an "unadorned room". Most said they found it hard to concentrate; half found it unpleasant or neutral at best. In further experiments, older people, and those who rarely used smartphones, got similar results. Meanwhile, those given the chance to do something outward-directed, such as reading, enjoyed it far more. And when 42 people got to choose between sitting doing nothing and giving themselves electric shocks, two-thirds of men and a quarter of women chose the latter.

Are we mad? In his book "Back To Sanity," the Leeds Metropolitan University psychologist Steve Taylor answers: yes. The condition he diagnoses, "humania", isn't recognized as a disorder, but only because we're all victims, he argues, and it's part of the definition of a mental illness that most people don't have it. The "urge to immerse our attention in external things is so instinctive that we're scarcely aware of it", he writes. We often speak of emails, tweets and texts as if they're annoyances that we'd eliminate if we could. Yet the truth, of course, is that half the time we're desperate to be distracted, and gladly embrace the interruption.

Taylor's explanation for this puzzle borrows from Buddhism (among other places). We mistake ourselves for individual, isolated beings, trapped within our heads. No wonder we don't dwell on what's inside: that would underline the loneliness of existence, so obviously watching TV is more fun. To sit comfortably with your thoughts first requires seeing that there's a sense in which they're not real. A less new agey way of putting it is simply that you don't need to believe your thoughts. Whereupon they become fun to watch, and the need for distraction subsides. To quote the title of a book by Sylvia Boorstein, a meditation teacher: don't just do something, sit there.”

- http://www.theguardian.com/

"None Of You Seem To Understand..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”

- Erich Fromm

The Daily "Near You?"

Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Knowing..."

“Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”

- Sue Monk Kidd

"Are We On The Verge Of An Apocalyptic War With Iran?"

"Are We On The Verge Of An Apocalyptic War With Iran?"

by Michael Snyder

"U.S. lawmakers are calling for military strikes inside Iran in the aftermath of a horrific terror attack that left three U.S. service members dead and dozens wounded. So if the U.S. does hit targets inside Iranian territory, how will the Iranians respond? It is theoretically possible that they could back down, but I doubt it. All of the airstrikes that we have conducted so far against Iranian-backed terror groups in Iraq and Syria have not caused them to back down. And the airstrikes that we have hit the Houthis in Yemen with have not caused them to back down either. The truth is that the U.S. is already at war in the Middle East, and it appears that it could soon take an apocalyptic turn.

U.S. forces in the Middle East have been attacked time after time over the past couple of months, but Sunday’s attack was the first one that actually killed members of the U.S. military…"Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens may be wounded after an unmanned aerial drone attack on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and U.S. officials said on Sunday. Biden blamed Iran-backed groups for the attack, the first deadly strike against U.S. forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and sent shock waves throughout the Middle East."

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened. Overall, U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 150 times since October 17th…"Iranian-backed militias have mounted more that 150 attacks since Oct. 17 on bases occupied by U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, according to the Pentagon. The majority of the attacks have been with rockets and one-way attack drones, most of which have been intercepted." When someone attacks your forces more than 150 times, you are at war with them. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just being delusional.

In response to Sunday’s attack, Joe Biden told the world that “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing”…“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement. “Have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said.

Needless to say, this was not strong enough for many Republican hawks in Congress. Here are just a few of their quotes that have been compiled by Axios…

-Mitch McConnell: Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for “serious, crippling costs” to Iran, “not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.”

-Lindsey Graham: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said in a statement the attacks the U.S. has carried out on Iranian proxies outside Iran “will not deter Iranian aggression,” calling to “strike targets of significance inside Iran.”

-Tom Cotton: “The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief.”

-John Cornyn: Sen. John Cornyn, in a post on the social media site X, said: “Target Tehran,” later specifying that he wants the U.S. to strike Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. and its Quds Force branch.

Okay, so let’s imagine that Biden does what they want. Would the Iranians respond by launching missiles at U.S. targets in the region? And how would we respond if the Iranians made such a move? When it comes to geopolitics, one must always be thinking several moves ahead.

Meanwhile, one of Israel’s most prominent politicians is warning that Iran has become a “legitimate target” for Israeli missiles…"Iran is now a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile strikes, one of the country’s most senior ministers has told the Telegraph, raising the prospect of an all-out war with Tehran. In a wide-ranging interview, Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister, also said Palestinians from the West Bank would never be allowed to work in the country again and would be replaced by more than a quarter of a million imported foreign workers. He also complained that the war in Gaza had not been fought aggressively enough."

Those that are urging military strikes against targets inside Iran are assuming that the Iranians only possess conventional weapons. But what if this isn’t true? In fact, for a long time there have been many that have tried to warn us that this isn’t true. The Iranians are not showing us all their cards, and they have been preparing for this showdown for decades.

Interestingly, the Iranians just launched three new satellites into space…"Iran says it has successfully launched three indigenous satellites into orbit using the Simorgh carrier rocket, marking the first time the country has simultaneously sent three satellites into space.

The satellites launched early on Sunday include Mahda, weighing 32 kg, and two nano-satellites, Keyhan 2 and Hatef 1, of less than 10 kg, sent to a minimum orbit of 450 kilometers (279 miles) and a maximum of 1,100 km (683.5 mi), state media reported, citing the public relations wing of the Defense Ministry. The Simorgh satellite carrier that carried the three satellites to space has been developed by Iran’s Defense Ministry, the ministry statement noted. It is believed that these satellites have been sent into orbit for the purpose of guiding ballistic missiles. We are so close to the unthinkable. Once missiles start flying all over the region, the Middle East will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, the Chinese continue to probe Taiwan’s defenses…"Taiwan’s defense ministry announced on Saturday that over 30 Chinese warplanes were headed toward its country, in addition to navy ships. Thirty-three aircraft were sent by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday, officials said. The aircraft included SU-30 fighters." An apocalyptic conflict in the Middle East would give China the perfect opportunity to try to “reunite” with Taiwan by force. So let’s keep a close eye on the Chinese. And let us not forget about the Russians. Over the weekend, they took even more territory from the Ukrainians.

This is a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and those that are familiar with my work will not be surprised to hear that I believe that things will greatly escalate later this year. We should hope for peace, but we should also prepare for war. Because war is definitely coming, and it will shake billions out of their current state of complacency."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/