Saturday, February 24, 2024

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster. 
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

The Poet: David Wagoner, "Getting There"

"Getting There"

"You take a final step and, look, suddenly
You're there. You've arrived.
At the one place all your drudgery was aimed for:
This common ground
Where you stretch out, pressing your cheek to sandstone.

What did you want to be? 
You'll remember soon.
You feel like tinder under a burning glass,
A luminous point of change.

The sky is pulsing against the cracked horizon,
Holding it firm till the arrival of stars
In time with your heartbeats.
Like wind etching rock, you've made a lasting impression
On the self you were,
By having come all this way through all this welter
Under your own power,
Though your traces on a map would make an unpromising
Meandering lifeline.

What have you learned so far? You'll find out later,
Telling it haltingly like a dream,
That lost traveler's dream under the last hill
Where through the night you'll take your time out of mind
To unburden yourself
Of elements along elementary paths
By the break of morning.

You've earned this worn-down, hard, incredible sight
Called Here and Now.
Now, what you make of it means everything,
Means starting over:
The life in your hands is neither here nor there
But getting there,
So you're standing again and breathing, beginning another
Journey without regret
Forever, being your own unpeaceable kingdom,
The end of endings."

~ David Wagoner

"The Prophet: On Good and Evil "

"The Prophet: On Good and Evil"

 "Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,
and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
 Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep
while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift,
see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways,
and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea,
carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and
bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little,
 Wherefore are you slow and halting?
For the truly good ask not the naked,
 Where is your garment?
nor the houseless, What has befallen your house?"

- Kahlil Gibran
Freely download a PDF version of  "The Prophet" here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Lancaster, South Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Life Changing Poems for Hard Times"

Full screen recommended.
RedFrost Motivation, 
"Life Changing Poems for Hard Times"
Read by Shane Morris
Poems:
 "Defeat" by Khalil Gibran
 "A Psalm of Life" by H. W. Longfellow
"If" by Rudyard Kipling
 "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley
 "Desiderata" by Max Ermann

"A Dreamer..."

"And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you’re a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its continual burning. In the midst of the foulest decay and putrid savagery, this spark speaks to you of beauty, of human warmth and kindness, of goodness, of greatness, of heroism, of martyrdom, and it speaks to you of love.”
- Eldridge Cleaver

"Looking for a Reason to Believe: The Benefit of the Doubt Is Cracking"

"Looking for a Reason to Believe: 
The Benefit of the Doubt Is Cracking"
by Paul Rosenberg

"Those of us who pursue positive change are very often frustrated. We see the necessity of change all too clearly, and we can explain how it should come about, but it never seems to happen. The truth, however, is that change does come; it just comes more slowly than we’d like, and in ways that differ from those we imagined.

One real change I like to point out is the passing of blind trust in politicians. In the 1950s and ‘60s, most people spoke of politicians with respect and even with reverence. Now it’s almost standard for people to agree that they’re liars and thieves. That’s a very significant change, even if it did take several decades to unfold. So, a significant change has occurred in our time, and over a very broad base. Still, most people are hanging on, and often desperately, to old ways that should really be abandoned.

The Automatic Benefit of the Doubt: It’s a bit troubling to see how blindly, and for how long, people give the benefit of the doubt to hierarchy and its operators. They can know that a system is abusing them, and they can complain about it at length, but still they grasp at reasons to keep believing in it.

Here’s what I mean: During the bad spots of the Middle Ages, people would be abused by the clergy but say, “If only His Holiness knew!” During the reign of the USSR, people in the Gulag would often say, “If only Stalin knew!” In our time, people hold Political Party A or Political Party B as grave evils, while pretending that the combination of A + B is good and noble.

Still, such blind biases do eventually break. Stalin, after all, is gone, along with his USSR. The Protestant reformation broke the domination of the Church. And the delusions of our time will die as well.

“Still, I look to Find a Reason to Believe”: If there were such a competition, I’d nominate Rod Stewart’s song, "Reason To Believe," as the Anthem of the Age. Regardless of how badly they are abused, people have a very hard time letting go of their hierarchies; they’ve taken emotional refuge in them, after all. Even when sharp pain forces them to examine the hierarchy that constantly tells them, “Obey or we’ll hurt you,” the impulse to maintain belief erupts. Here’s how the song expresses it:

"If I listened long enough to you,
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true.
Knowing that you lied,
straight-faced while I cried.
Still I look to find a reason to believe."

Humans have a real problem with that last line: looking for reasons to believe. It flies in the face of both logic and honesty, but people not only do it, but vigorously defend it. As for specific reasons to believe, they’re endless. Seldom are humans quicker and cleverer than when justifying their previous actions.

Why This Is a Good Sign: When people are desperately grasping for reasons to believe, it’s because the benefit of the doubt is cracking beneath them. Otherwise, why would they fight so wildly? The circumstances of our modern world are propelling people toward this break. Every time a ruling system tells gigantic lies, censors the public square, surveils their own people and frightens the masses for their own benefit, belief in their system cracks a little.

More and more people are conceding that it’s not just “one bad actor” here or there, but that Joe Stalin really is evil, that the clergy really is corrupt, and that hierarchies are abusive by nature. The whirlwind of distractions and slogans arrayed against moral clarity are losing their effectiveness. Little by little, humanity’s blind devotion to authority is cracking. Someday, it will break."
o
Rod Stewart, "Reason To Believe"

"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "College is a Waste of Money"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 2/24/24
"College is a Waste of Money"
"Here’s an amazing statistic. In a world where colleges become more expensive than ever, we find out the over half of the college grads out there are not using their degrees that they got. They are unemployed."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "My Second Trip To Kroger This Week! 'Non-Food' Item Sales"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 2/24/24
"My Second Trip To Kroger This Week!
 'Non-Food' Item Sales"
"In today's vlog, I take you shopping with me at Kroger to find the best deals. We go over different prices on paper products, medicines, oral hygiene, baby products, and many other non food items. The unfortunate thing is that all of these items seem to have gone up in price."
Comments here:

"There Are No Solutions"

"There Are No Solutions"
by Brian Maher

“There are no solutions,” intones economist Thomas Sowell - “there are only trade-offs.” Preserving Earth is a trade-off to shame all trade-offs…For the cost of preserving Earth may consign its American inhabitants to a poorhouse.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, so-called: "Last April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new rule for stricter vehicle emissions standards starting in model year (MY) 2027… At the time of passage, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy and climate spending and tax breaks would cost about $400 billion through fiscal year (FY) 2031…

Since then, the combination of higher inflation, greater demand for credits and looser-than-expected regulations significantly boosted the cost of those credits. Last June, we estimated the cost of the IRA energy provisions had grown by two-thirds, to $660 billion through 2031. Assuming the new vehicle emissions rule proposed by the EPA is finalized, we now estimate the cost of the provisions will more than double to $870 billion…"

A $470 billion doubling - $870 billion in all! We begin to suspect the Inflation “Reduction” Act is nothing other than a sad, sad jest upon the American people. Meantime, the Dis-United Nations informs us of the following: "Climate initiatives will touch the American taxpayer for $2,026 each year through 2030."

How do you like it? Yet Earth should take heart… for the Federal Reserve is with it. Were you aware the Federal Reserve has labeled climate a menace to financial stability? A risk - ostensibly - greater than even itself? Well, friends, it has.

The method by which the monetary authority can break an Earthly fever… remains somewhat dark to us. Yet we let it go for now. We too are heart and soul for Earth’s endurance. Yet we are not half so convinced of humanity’s capacity to hold Earth in siege.

The central bugaboo of the climactic drama is the carbon dioxide molecule. It is a “greenhouse gas.” It imprisons heat within the atmospheric penitentiary. Humankind’s carbon dioxide gushings have increased notably across decades. Yet are they capable of inducing a fever?

We once instructed our minions to ransack the scientific literature. From them we learned that: Carbon dioxide represents a vanishing 0.04% portion of Earth’s atmosphere. Consider Earth’s atmosphere a 100-story building. How high does the human CO2 contribution stack? The human contribution stacks to the linoleum layer upon the ground floor. That is, the human contribution cannot be measured in stories. The human contribution cannot be measured in feet, in inches, in centimeters. The human contribution must be measured in millimeters - against 100 stories of height.

This trifle is scorching Earth? The authenticated documentation, please - chapter, verse and line. And will you please include the footnotes?

Our minions further inform us that Earth has endured carbon dioxide quantities 25 times or greater than today’s. Yet the carbon dioxide fever never took. What is more, the carbon dioxide theory may not only prove incorrect - but 180 degrees incorrect.

A certain Ian Clark professes earth and environmental sciences at Canada’s University of Ottawa. From whom: "Solar input… creates ice ages and interglacial periods — which we’re in now. And CO2 tracks that. So we’ll see enormous temperature changes, going from ice ages to interglacials, and CO2 gets very low during ice ages and very high during interglacials. And that gives the appearance that CO2 is driving the climate, but it’s actually following. It lags by about 800 years. That is, carbon dioxide is the product of heat. It is not the initiator of heat. And it arrives on station eight centuries after heat’s onset."

Have we confused the wagon cart for the horse that hauls it? Evidently we have. Yet the American taxpayer is cowhided and dragooned under the theory that the wagon cart hauls the horse. Thus he is cowhided and dragooned under a likely fiction. He is the victim of humbug. “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

A fellow can endure a trade-off that spares him a greater evil. In the case under consideration, the evil of climate calamity. Yet what if the evil is phantom? What if the evil lacks all existence? Then the trade-off to tackle the phantom evil… the non-existent evil… becomes itself the evil…"

"The Average U.S. Household Is Spending $1,019 More A Month Just To Buy The Same Goods And Services It Did 3 Years Ago"

"The Average U.S. Household Is Spending $1,019 More
 A Month Just To Buy The Same Goods And Services It Did 3 Years Ago"
by Michael Snyder

'It seems odd to talk about 2021 as “the good old days”, but the truth is that the cost of living was far lower just three short years ago. Earlier today, I did an interview with Sam Rohrer of Stand In The Gap Today in which we discussed how food prices have gotten wildly out of control. One example that I brought up was the fact that a Big Mac “value meal” can cost up to 18 dollars in some parts of the country. There is no way that I would shell out 18 bucks for a burger, some fries and a drink at McDonald’s. But this is the economic environment that we live in today.

Has your income gone up by more than a thousand dollars a month over the past three years? If not, you are falling behind.

According to economist Mark Zandi, the average U.S. household is now shelling out an additional $1,019 a month just to purchase the exact same goods and services that it did three years ago…"The typical U.S. household needed to pay $213 more a month in January to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation, according to new calculations from Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. Americans are paying on average $605 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,019 more compared with three years ago, before the inflation crisis began."

In the old days, I actually enjoyed going to the grocery store. But now it has become such a painful experience. I am sure that many of you can identify with that statement.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published an article that explained that George H.W. Bush was in the White House the last time Americans were spending such a high proportion of their incomes on food…"The last time Americans spent this much of their money on food, George H.W. Bush was in office, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was in theaters and C+C Music Factory was rocking the Billboard charts."

Do you remember what life was like in 1991? It was a good year for me, but it was so long ago…"According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans were spending 11.4 percent of their disposable incomes on food in 1991, and in 2022 that figure was sitting at 11.3 percent…

In 1991, U.S. consumers spent 11.4% of their disposable personal income on food, according to data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. At the time, households were still dealing with steep food-price increases following an inflationary period during the 1970s. More than three decades later, food spending has reattained that level, USDA data shows. In 2022, consumers spent 11.3% of their disposable income on food, according to the most recent USDA data available."

I can already tell what a lot of you will be thinking when you read that. 2022 was two years ago. Food prices have continued to soar since that time, and so how high would that number be today? Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Americans are now spending 15 percent of their disposable incomes on food. But if you think that is bad, just wait until it gets into the 30 or 40 percent range eventually. Because that is where things are heading.

Of course grocery prices are already at absurd levels. On a very popular Internet forum, one user recently complained that his grocery bill for the week has now hit $250…"$100 used to be the total, when we really stocked up or picked some extras. Prices started climbing and we trimmed the extras, it hit $120-130. At $150 we started bitching. A month ago it hit $180. Hell it may have only been two weeks since we hit $180. Today it was $250 and we didn’t even get everything."

Actually, if you can get out of the grocery store for just $250, you are doing really well. For many others, a grocery cart full of food can run a lot higher than that. And major companies are openly warning us that more price hikes are on the way

"Oreo maker Mondelez said in January it would continue raising prices on some of its products this year, largely because of cocoa prices, which earlier in February surged past a 46-year record. Hershey said this month it expects more expensive cocoa to cut into the company’s profit this year. Kraft Heinz said inflation is moderating but that its costs are still higher, driven in part by pricier tomatoes and sugar."

Let’s talk about the price of cocoa for a moment. Global supplies of cocoa have gotten very, very tight, and we are being warned that the price of cocoa “could reach as high as $10,000 per ton”…"The commodities analysts said some forecasts suggest the cost of cocoa in New York could reach as high as $10,000 per ton. What’s imminent is the West African cocoa shortage will be felt across supermarkets worldwide." If you love chocolate, you should try to hoard as much as you can while prices are still relatively low. I am quite serious about this. Because chocolate prices are going to accelerate quite rapidly from this point forward.

Sadly, car insurance rates are going up even faster than food prices are…"If you think your food bill is high, take a look at your car insurance. The average cost of full coverage car insurance increased by 26% to $2,543 in 2024, up $529 from a year earlier, Medora Lee reports. That’s six times faster than overall inflation and more than any food item at the grocery store, including eggs, over the past three years."

I honestly don’t understand how most people can afford to pay such exorbitant rates. Just making it from month to month has become such a struggle for tens of millions of Americans.

Needless to say, things are particularly rough for young people that are just starting out in life. A video in which one young woman complains about how oppressive the cost of living is has already been viewed more than 18 million times…“Why is it that I have to work 40 hours a week just so I can have a place to live?” A young woman’s TikTok video, in which she makes a now familiar complaint about young people having to spend most of their time working for just a sliver of free time which they then have barely enough money to enjoy, is now going viral.

“40 hours a week makes me $2,000 a month and my rent is $1,660,” the woman continued in a video that has amassed 18 million views on Twitter. “So I work 40 hours a week so I can have a 2 bedroom apartment and an extra $300 a month that doesn’t cover my phone or my internet or food.” She doesn’t have the time, energy, or cash to enjoy her life outside of work. 

She feels trapped, and I can totally get that. But what she doesn’t understand is that what she is going through right now is the direct result of literally decades of incredibly bad decisions. Of course many of our politicians want to strangle our economy even more. For example, Barbara Lee actually wants to increase the minimum wage to 50 dollars an hour…"Despite liberal media cheerleading and Biden’s assurances of a strong economy, Americans feel much different. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), a U.S. Senate candidate, complained in a recent debate about the “affordability crisis” in her state. She referred to a survey that showed “$127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough.” While she is right about the “affordability crisis” facing Americans, her solution is ludicrous. Lee proposes a minimum wage of $50 per hour."

Such a minimum wage would create massive unemployment as companies would lay off non-essential workers. It would also lead to higher prices for consumers and an even higher inflation rate, which has been a persistent problem during the Biden administration. Why don’t we just raise it to 100 dollars an hour? Then everyone would be swimming in money, right? Unfortunately, that is not the way the real world works.

More money is not the answer, and more debt is definitely not the answer. What we need is a productive economy that makes stuff of real value. Getting people to consume as much as possible will not lead to anywhere good. But getting people to produce at a high level will lead to lasting wealth.

The historic debt bubble that we have been enjoying has created an illusion of short-term prosperity, but now it has almost reached an end. Everyone knows that a crash is coming, and that crash is going to create a tremendous amount of chaos throughout our society.

It appears that Jeff Bezos understands that things are about to change, because he has been selling off tens of millions of Amazon shares…"Jeff Bezos has been busy this month selling a massive amount of Amazon stock. The Amazon founder and executive chairman’s sales have occurred in three separate sales and involved nearly 36 million shares to date, filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed. The shares in the e-commerce giant were collectively worth $6.15 billion after Bezos sold them at a range of prices across six different days."

Why would he do that if he thought that bright days are ahead for the U.S. economy? It would not make any sense at all. Of course the truth is that very challenging economic times are in our immediate future. I understand that things are not good for many of you right now, but it won’t be too long before economic conditions become much more harsh than they are at this moment."

Familiar?

Friday, February 23, 2024

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

John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

And we all get knocked down...

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Wings II, Return To Freedom"

2002, "Wings II, Return To Freedom"
Over 1 hour of soothing, relaxing music for studying, meditation, 
yoga, and sleep. These are peaceful, soothing, instrumental compositions.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"In silhouette against a crowded star field along the tail of the arachnalogical constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower.
In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across this gorgeous telescopic portrait. Known as a cometary globule, the swept-back cloud, is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB association of very hot stars in NGC 6231, off the upper edge of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas. Hot stars embedded in the dust can be seen as bluish reflection nebulae. This dark tower, NGC 6231, and associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away."

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness"

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness" 
by Washingtons Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And don't you ever give up..

Jeremiah Babe, "We Are In Massive Trouble America"

Jeremiah Babe, 2/23/24
"We Are In Massive Trouble America
Homeowners Can't Afford Their House Payment, Foreclosures Rising"
Comments here:

"Bank Collapse Imminent: 90% Facing Risk Of Failure"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 2/23/24
"Bank Collapse Imminent: 90% Facing Risk Of Failure"
"In this video, you will see the impact bank failures have on the housing market and the broader economy. These Bank failures shocked the US Citizen's occurrence, often causing ripples throughout the economy. Besides the economy, the housing market, in particular, is vulnerable to the effects of bank failures. The collapse of banks like Citizens Bank in Sac City, Silicon Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (N.A.), Columbus, Ohio, and more had a significant impact on the housing market."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"I See No Reason..."

"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."
- Michael Crichton, "The Lost World"

"Unfortunately..."

“They say if you don't know your history, you're 
doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, most Americans 
can't even figure out what's going on in the present.”
- Thor Benson

“All this had happened before, perhaps a million times, and because of this was doomed. There was no ordinary future any more, only this ecstatic tormented terrified present. The future had passed through the present like a sword. We were already, even eye to eye and lip to lip, deep in the horrors to come.”
- Iris Murdoch, "The Black Prince"

And they don't care or want to know...

Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern: Ukraine/Israel Intel Wrap"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 2/23/24
"INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern: 
Ukraine/Israel Intel Wrap"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Your Mail's Not Safe Anymore"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 2/23/24
"Your Mail's Not Safe Anymore"
"People need to prepare themselves for a run on mail theft. This is getting more extreme by the week. From male carriers getting robbed to people actually going into the post office and stealing crates of mail. It’s out of control."
Comments here:

"To Understand The Globalists We Must Understand Their Psychopathic Religion"

"To Understand The Globalists We Must 
Understand Their Psychopathic Religion"
by Brandon Smith

"In the late 1800s and early 1900s the western world experienced a sudden burst of open occultism among the ultra-rich elites. The rise of “Theosophy” was underway, becoming a kind of fashion trend that would ultimately set the stage for what would later be called “new age” spiritualism. The primary driver of the theosophical movement was a small group of obscure academics led in part by a woman named H.P. Blavatsky. The group was obsessed with esoteric belief, Gnosticism and even Satanism.

Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875, claiming that she had a psychic connection to beings called “the Mahatmas” or “the masters.” These creatures, she asserted, helped her write the foundational books of Theosophy, including ‘The Secret Doctrine.’

I bring up Theosophy and Blavatsky because the movement she helped launch was primarily an elitist one – The spread of occultism in the early 1900s specifically targeted the upper classes and this resulted in many political leaders and financial leaders being involved in obscure organizations with secretive mandates. Such groups have existed in the past, from the Rosicrucians and Freemasons to the alchemists of the Middle Ages who hid their occult beliefs in coded texts. However, never before had they been so public in their efforts.

To their credit, the early theosophists were mostly apolitical (at least outwardly) and they argued against political intrusion into people’s lives. I suspect, however, that this was because at the time western governments revolved around Christian and conservative values. As politicians became more separate from Christianity, the theosophist interest in controlling government grew and the movement became increasingly socialist in practice.

Invariably, these spiritual systems revolved around pagan deities of the past, many Babylonian or Ancient Egyptian in origin. That said, there are also numerous mentions in Theosophy of one figure in particular – Lucifer, also referred to as “the Light Bearer, the angel of light, Prometheus (symbolically), the dragon, the morning star and Satan.” Modern luciferians will consistently deny the the name “Lucifer” has anything to do with the biblical figure of Satan, but this is a lie. Blavatsky herself treats the two figures as synonymous in ‘The Secret Doctrine.’ As she admits in her book: “And now it stands proven that Satan, or the Red Fiery Dragon, the ‘Lord of Phosphorus,’ and Lucifer, or ‘Light-Bearer,’ is in us: it is our Mind…” Blavatsky, quoting hermetic texts in the Secret Doctrine, also repeats the mantra: “It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god…”

Luciferians and occultists will also argue that the Christian Bible only mentions the name “Lucifer” once, and that the two figures are not associated. This is once again a lie by omission. The Bible does in fact mention “light bearer,” the “angel of light” and “the dragon” in reference to Satan on multiple occasions, and all of these names are used by elites to describe the figure they call Lucifer. As mentioned in Corinthians 11:14 – “And it is no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light…”

In other words, when any elitist group mentions terms such as “light bearer” or Lucifer, they are indeed referring to Satan. It’s not just a matter of archetypal discussion, this is in fact a part of their religion. But in our modern times some people might say “who cares?” It’s all mythical hoodoo and fantasy, right?

I would respond with a question: Do you think the deeply held religious beliefs of the people with financial and political power matter in how they make decisions? Wouldn’t their beliefs help explain why they do the things they do? If you want to know why the globalists are engaged in a very real war on the minds of the masses, you cannot overlook their religious motivations. What seems like fantasy to some is VERY real to the globalists.

For example, many know that the United Nations building in New York has an occult library. But few people know that it was built by a group called the Lucifer Publishing Company (later changed to Lucis Trust). Lucis Trust cites the writings of HP Blavatsky constantly as the inspiration for their organization. The UN continues to associate with Lucis Trust to this day. The very heart of globalism revolves around luciferian ideals.

It doesn’t matter what you or I think about these things. It doesn’t matter if you see such concepts as metaphorical, or symbolic or imaginary. THEY believe, and so we must explore what these beliefs mean.

Before the 1800s, occultists engaged in luciferianism would have been burned at the stake if discovered. I’m beginning to think that maybe this was the right way to handle such people all along. But to understand why, we have to look at the progression of the religion and why it inevitably leads to moral relativism and social self-destruction.

For the theosophists, Lucifer/Satan is a kind of heroic figure. When they argue that Lucifer is “not Satan,” what they mean is that their version of Satan is different from the version ascribed by Christianity. In other words, imagine a group of people took a famously malicious figure such as Joseph Stalin and then devised an entirely different history for him in which he is a misunderstood philanthropist instead of a genocidal maniac. That’s essentially what luciferianism is.

In the Theosophical magazine titled ‘Lucifer’ published in the 1880s, Blavatsky and her group spend multiple pages trying to separate the term Lucifer from the Devil, while also defending the mythology of the devil and painting him as a character slandered by Christian culture.

In their version of the Genesis story, for example, the serpent was the “good guy” bringing the fruit of knowledge to Adam and Eve. Eve is venerated as a root figure in theosophy and in feminism (a movement the theosophists helped to create), because without Eve the serpent would have never been able to get Adam to consume the fruit.

The fruit as a representation of gnosis (knowledge) is the key to luciferianism and the globalist cult. As many atheists I’ve encountered in the past have argued, isn’t knowledge a good thing? And if God is punishing humanity for consuming knowledge, does that not make him a villain? This argument ignores the underlying theme – Knowledge by itself is not good or evil, but evil thrives when people start to worship knowledge to the detriment of everything else. The application of knowledge without wisdom and moral discipline is dangerous.

As Dr. Ian Malcolm brilliantly asserts in the film Jurassic Park: “Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

Luciferians openly admit that the goal of their ideology is to pursue knowledge until human beings become gods. This infatuation with godhood is what leads to great evil; it is a delusion that poisons the mind and encourages morally relative behavior, not to mention a pervasive thirst for power. Ponder the technological aspect for a moment. Consider the numerous globalist programs to expand artificial intelligence and bring about what they call “transhumanism.” This is a kind of knowledge worship that has terrifying implications for the future.

The integration of technology into the surveillance state to rule over society is bad enough, but what happens when human beings begin integrating technology into their very biology. Will this eventually erase any semblance of what we call “the soul?” After all, machines do not feel, nor do they self reflect on their actions. What happens when humans distort themselves to become more like machines? Will transhumanism become a movement that suffocates all love and empathy, removing moral compass and turning us into a demonic hive-mind devoid of individual thought?

Globalists assert that there is no such thing as the soul, no such thing as individual identity and no such thing as moral compass. Form their perspective there is no danger of adopting technology as a path to godhood because nothing would be lost; and here we see the true nature of luciferianism at work. A perfect representation of this cancer is World Economic Forum spokesperson Yavul Harari – a man who says the quiet part out loud and promotes the darker tenets of luciferianism regularly.
To grasp what luciferianism is, think of it as the anti-god; a war on nature, or a war on the natural state of humanity disguised as “enlightenment.” This is why globalists try to institute the extreme opposite view of every natural disposition. The notion of human beings as a blank slate that Yuval Harari clings to is one such false narrative. It is a philosophy that has been debunked by endless psychological studies as well as anthropological studies.

From Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell to Steven Pinker and beyond, all scientific evidence suggests that human beings have inherent psychological qualities and characteristics from birth. Some of these are unique to the person, some are universal archetypes and ideas that the majority of people share (such as conscience and moral compass). If we didn’t have these built-in qualities, humanity would have become extinct thousands of years ago. We still don’t know where exactly they come from, we only know that without them we are no longer human.

There is, however, a certain percentage of people (1% or less) that actually do not have these inborn character traits. They are generally known as psychopaths and sociopaths, and their behavior is very similar to that of the globalists. I have long held the theory that the globalist cabal is in fact a cult of higher functioning psychopaths.

Their lack of empathy and conscience, their thirst for godhood and omnipotence, their drive to attain all encompassing surveillance of the population, to know everything about us at all time, to have total control over the environment and society, the narcissistic self image of a supreme ruler who is worshiped by the masses, and the delusion that they will be able to read minds and predict the future. These are psychopathic fantasies, and they are willing to chase these fantasies by any means necessary.

But even psychopaths sometimes need a fundamentalist framework in order to maintain organization and inspire devotion within a group. It makes perfect sense that they would choose luciferianism as their religion. Their “do what thou wilt” philosophy of hedonism takes the idea of freedom and removes all responsibility – It is a degenerate view of liberty, rather than a principled view. Freedom, they think, is only for people like them; the people willing to desecrate everything in their path and upend the natural order.

As psychopaths, they are devoid of natural inborn contents and are more robotic than human. So, it’s no surprise that people like Harai argue there is no soul, no freedom (for you) and that machines are capable of the same creativity as humans. An empty person with no soul or creativity is going to assume that all other people are empty. An immoral person will also be compelled to prove that everyone else is just as immoral as he is. Or, he will be compelled to prove that he is superior to everyone else because he has embraced his immorality.

Do the elites actually believe in a real “devil” with hooves and horns and a pitchfork? I don’t know. What matters, though, is the philosophical drive of their cultism. Their goal is to convince a majority of the populace that there is no good, and there is no evil. Everything is empty. Everything is relative to the demands of the moment, and the demands of society. Of course, they want to control society, so then everything would really be relative to THEIR demands.

If you want to see something truly demonic, imagine a world in which all inherent truth is abandoned for the sake of subjective perception. A world that caters to the preferences of psychopaths with no ethical imperative. A world where the ends always justify the means. This is the luciferian way, and the globalist way. And no matter how much they deny it, the reality of their beliefs is visible in the fruits of their labors. Wherever they go, destruction, chaos and death follow."

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures With Danno, "Saving Money At Aldi And Finding Some New Items!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 2/23/24
"Saving Money At Aldi And Finding Some New Items!"
"In today's vlog, I take you shopping with me to Aldi to show everything I am saving money on and talk about some of the new items that are coming back in at Aldi. Aldi Saver Deals are everywhere right now, and we need to all take advantage of these savings while they last."
Comments here:

Jim Kunstler, "The Dark and the Light"

"The Dark and the Light"
by Jim Kunstler

“‘The rule of law is under threat!’ the Regime shrieks, 
as it throws its political foes into the gulag."
 - Benjamin Weingarten

"The florid carbuncle of Woke-Maoist lawfare weeps its vile effluvium across the social landscape, poisoning whatever it touches, and nothing in the armory of reason, principle, or good faith avails to heal it. Sickness rages through the body politic. You have lost faith in all the doctors, and they have lost faith in themselves. The fever intensifies. The crisis is upon us. Which way will fate turn us? Toward death or recovery?

The poison killing our country is pervasive untruth. Every institution we have relied on to run the public interest has become a factory churning out lies, evasions, and misdirection - not unlike the way mRNA “vaccines” turned the cells in your bodies into tiny generators of spike proteins destroying your organs. Likewise, half the population, apparently, thinks this is a good thing, that we need more lawfare - the perversion of law by attorney perverts - and that we need ever more lies, evasions, and misdirection (just as the degenerates who run Harvard declare their student body needs more mRNA boosters to remain in school).

Since the doctors have all failed - miserably and dishonorably - America needs an exorcism. The poisons in our system are actual persons carrying out their programmed assignments, just as the spike proteins in the bodies of millions act as individual agents of destruction in your body. What possible invocation can drive out the likes of Mayorkas, Christopher Wray, Avril Haynes, William Burns, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Jack Smith, Jake Sullivan, Marc Zuckerberg, Mandy Cohen, Rachel Maddow, Daniel Sachs Goldman, Jamie Raskin, Mitch McConnell, Charles “Chuck” Schumer, “Joe Biden” (the remnant of a person, after all), and a thousand others in high places behaving in a way indistinguishable from demons?

What explains their devotion to untruth? What motivates them? Can it possibly be the mere perqs and comforts of their positions? Are they answering a call? And who is issuing that call? Or are they just trapped by their many years of lying continually, fearful of getting cast into prison? Are you asking yourselves: what will satisfy these maniacs? Anything short of the ruin of our country? What will their coveted power be worth in a ruined country?

Mr. Trump volunteered to play role of exorcist in this grand psychodrama. Whatever else you make of him, he has shown a lot of fortitude. Eight years ago, when he came on the scene, he appeared to not know that his opponents were actually demons seeking to wreck the country; rather just low persons sunk in the most common venial corruption, and others mere zealots steeped in futile utopian fantasies of perfecting the flawed human condition. He learned eventually the that the situation was more dire than he ever imagined. His opponents came after him hard from the get-go and keep coming at him. Russia is the knout they use in the attempt to flay him alive.

“Russia Russia Russia” has been one long, elaborate lie. They’re going at it again, pretending that Mr. Trump seeks Russian help interfering in the fall election, despite the plain fact that all previous invocations of “Russia Russia Russia” were revealed to be untrue, and maliciously so - and that all the actual election interference originated with the gang shouting “Russia Russia Russia.” It looks like more than half the country is refusing to fall for it this time. Thus, the resort to lawfare, the five cases (so far) designed to bankrupt Mr. Trump and gain a felony conviction for objecting to the election shenanigans of 2020.

The lawfare claque around “Joe Biden” - Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, Marc Elias, Norm Eisen - tutored the likes of Letitia James, Fani Willis, and Alvin Bragg to bring these cases in jurisdictions ruled by the votaries of Abraxas, the gnostic demon-God that drives the Party of Chaos. New York Attorney General Letitia James won the first round with an utterly truthless case, decided despotically by Judge Engoron without a trial, that, for now, has created awful tactical problems for Mr. Trump. He may adroitly overcome the $355-million judgment to bring his appeal, and at some point up the ladder of review, Ms. James will be subject to the disgrace and punishment she deserves. Ms. Willis already has been wrung through her tribulation and revealed herself to be an experienced and dedicated liar unfit to bring the case that was gifted to her by the lawfare orcs. Mr. Bragg’s idiotic case based on a tortured chimera of state and federal law, will be served up soon with a pre-determined outcome.

What all these cases have in common is that they were concocted as if no such thing as consequence exists. The first consequence for the stupid office-holders duped into bringing these cases is that they will be dishonored and broken by their bad choices. The second consequence is that they will deepen the suppressed racial animosity in our country - as designed heinously to do by the white leftist elitists manipulating these black state and county attorneys - and possibly drive us into tragic race war to complete the destruction of our country they’ve wished and worked for.

The special counsel Jack Smith federal cases, on the other hand, look like a complete bust. The one in the DC federal district court under Judge Chutkan is unraveling on its obvious lack of merit, its misapplication of the statutes cited, and Mr. Smith’s illegitimate appointment under the rules governing special counsels. The so-called Mar-a-Lago document case in Florida appears to have been a smokescreen for the FBI’s attempt to repossess documentary evidence of its own criminal role in the 2015-to-2019 RussiaGate caper. I predict Judge Aileen Cannon will end up dismissing the whole thing as, in effect, a DOJ-sponsored hoax on the court.

This battle has a long way to go. It is clearly a battle of good against manifest evil. The evil side has done its thing - waged war on the American people - by working overtime to systematically derange your minds. Next, they will seek to go after whatever money you still have, whatever things of value you possess, and whatever remaining liberties you enjoy. Pay attention as events unspool."

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Expanding War! Food Inflation Rising; Fake Data"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/23/24
"Alert! Expanding War! 
Food Inflation Rising; Fake Data"
Comments here: