Jeremiah Babe, 3/9/24
"It's Looking Scary, There's No Going Back To Normal;
When The US Economy Crashes You're On Your Own"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Dan, I Allegedly, "Three More Serious Warnings"
Dan, I Allegedly, 3/9/24
"Three More Serious Warnings"
"We got three more warnings that you cannot ignore.
Two about the economy, and one about security."
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Adiemus, "In Caelum Fero"; "Adiemus"
Full screen recommended.
Adiemus, "In Caelum Fero"
Full screen recommended.
Adiemus, "Adiemus"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”
Chet Raymo, “We Are Such Stuff...”
“We Are Such Stuff...”
by Chet Raymo
“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again.”
"Caliban is talking to Stephano and Trinculo in Shakespeare's “Tempest”, telling them not to be "afeard" of the mysterious place they find themselves, an island seemingly beset with magic, strangeness, ineffable presences. And you and I, and, yes, all of us, find ourselves inexplicably thrown up on this island that is the world, and we too, if we are attentive, hear the strange music, the sounds and sweet airs, that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere
No, I'm not talking about the usual ubiquitous clamor, the roar of internal combustion, the blare of the television, the beeping of mobile phones. I'm not talking about the Limbaughs and the Becks, the televangelists, the blathering politicians, the twitterers and bloggers (including this one). I'm not even talking about the exquisite music of Mozart, the poetry of Wordsworth, the theories of Einstein.
I'm talking about the sounds we hear in utter silence, in moments of repose, in the heart of darkness, when we are a little bit afraid, disoriented, off kilter. A strange music that comes from beyond our knowing, a felt meaning. You've heard it. I've heard it. You'd have to be deaf not to have heard it.
Where we differ is how we describe it. Mostly, we give its source a name. Angels. Fairies. Gods or demons. Yahweh. Allah. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nixies, E.T.s, shades and shadows. Naiads, dryads, Ariel and Puck. A host of invisible creatures who are, in one way or another, images of ourselves. And, in naming, we are a little less afraid.
And some of us are just content to listen, to take delight. Having woken to the inexplicable mystery of the world- the sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not- we let the music lull us back into a sweet slumber, a kind of dreamless dream, a reverie. Does reverie share a deep root with reverence? I don't know.”
- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/
"Something Like Reverence..."
- Scott Russell Sanders
"Deep Impact"
God help us, God help us all...
"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"
"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"
By Chris Black
"The term “Luddite” originated in the early 19th century and refers to a movement of English textile workers who protested against the increased use of machines in their industry. The term “neo-Luddite” was later applied to those who similarly oppose technology for similar reasons, but in a contemporary context.
Everywhere you go, you see people with their faces in their phones. Constantly, constantly, constantly. At the bus stop. On the train. In the driver’s seats of their moving cars. Their kid makes a bit of noise at the restaurant table? Shove the iPad in their face.
Boomerisms aside, it really can’t be overstated how f**ked up this is, and not because “people don’t interact” anymore. It’s actually much worse than that… Nobody ever allows themselves even a moment of peace inside their own heads. The real insidiousness of the smartphone is that it encourages you to constantly consume content, endlessly, never ever stopping. It’s common for people to spend their entire day with earphones in, listening to podcasts and watching Tiktoks literally constantly.
Our brains did not evolve to be bombarded with constant microbursts of hyper real stimulation this way. Attention spans are getting measurably shorter. Reaction times are getting longer. None of this sh*t is good for your brain.
Everyone always says, “Well, what about TV and the radio?” Inherently limited and fundamentally different because of the fact that they’re pre-programmed and don’t act as “magic mirrors” of you and your personal inputs into them. Your smartphone is designed to learn everything about you so that it can be as addictive as possible and maximize the amount of data it squeezes out of you. Nothing about TV or the radio - or even Web 1.0 internet - ever came anywhere close to this.
Even so, we have known for decades that TV is horrible for your brain on account of many of the same mechanisms that affect attention span and cognitive development. So imagine how much worse the smartphone is. Unfathomably worse. We already know it’s worse, but we won’t know exactly how much worse it is until at least another decade, when the younger Zoomers and Gen Alphas are a few years into adulthood after an upbringing that revolved around Web 2.0.
Millennials were lucky enough not to take the full brunt of the experience. We got our first taste as we came of age instead of growing up being marinated in it. The saddest part is that the only reason any of this even caught on or is the least bit operable is because of the fact that it hijacks the mechanisms that make us feel satisfied and good. We didn’t evolve to handle this level of stimulation, but BOY do we respond to it. It’s so excessive that it’s impossible for some people to resist. So there are no f**king brakes.
You have to cast The Ring into the fire or it totally consumes you. That’s the reality for most people. And that, my friends, is just sick.
Look at your screen usage on your phone and tell me I’m wrong, how you totally don’t need it and can stop whenever you want. You are no better than a crack head, and you won’t realize that until you actually do try to stop for real. It’s unprecedented in human history to think this way. We are truly in uncharted waters here. Just wait until the sensory overload most people are bathing in all day, every day becomes fully automated instead of just partially automated like it is now."
The Poet: Theodore Roethke, “The Return”
“The Return”
“Suddenly the window will open
and Mother will call,
it's time to come in.
The wall will part,
I will enter heaven in muddy shoes.
I will come to the table
and answer questions rudely.
I am all right, leave me
alone. Head in hand I
sit and sit. How can I tell them
about that long
and tangled way?
Here in heaven mothers
knit green scarves;
flies buzz.
Father dozes by the stove
after six days' labor.
No - surely I can't tell them
that people are at each
other's throats.”
- Theodore Roethke
"Fools And Knaves..."
“In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of
fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain
degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.”
- Philip Stanhope
“There are more fools than knaves in the world,
else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.”
- Samuel Butler
"15 Great Depression Foods We Will All Be Eating Again Soon"
Full screen recommended.
"15 Great Depression Foods
We Will All Be Eating Again Soon"
By Epic Economist
"The reality of millions drastically changed after the 1929 stock market crash. All of a sudden, affluent Americans lost everything, middle-class families became poor, and poor households fell into misery. For over a decade, our citizens struggled to make ends meet and many of them didn’t have enough to eat.
Parents would skip meals to feed their children as they were forced to survive on next to nothing. Bread lines extended for miles, and food insecurity became an epidemic. Fast forward to today, and we have what experts call the biggest stock market bubble in history just ready to burst. Even though we have learned a lot since the 1930s, our leaders continued to make the same mistakes. And now more than ever, it’s looking like history is about to repeat itself. The question is: when everything collapses will you be prepared?
According to a very detailed article published on Ask A Prepper by Katherine Paterson, for us to be truly ready for the challenges that are coming for us, we will all need to get creative with our meals. To understand how Americans survived the dark times of the Great Depression, we need to understand how to make our resources last. Back then, essentials including meat, eggs, and milk were in extremely short supply, and people often had to make a little go a long way, as explained by Paterson.
We are already seeing the same shortages happening today. And it’s just a matter of time before another financial disaster throws our economy into disarray. With a little bit of preparation, you won’t have to panic when staples start disappearing from store shelves if you know how to adapt. You don’t need many different ingredients, and you definitely don’t need expensive foods to cook delicious dishes.
Culinary is something very important for our culture. It was through such hearty meals that people had the drive to keep fighting to get out of such challenging situations. Food connects us and gives us a sense of purpose and identity. That’s why it is so crucial to make preparations for when the essentials we rely upon aren’t available anymore. The warning signs of an impending financial and economic meltdown are everywhere. And once it happens, vulnerable supply chains can be broken in a snap of fingers.
Our leaders may have made the same wrongful decisions that put us where our grandparents and great-grandparents were almost a century ago. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make more conscious choices this time around. So get ready now while we’re still experiencing the calm before the storm, because when start to spiral out of control, it may be too late. That’s why in today’s video, we listed some very popular meals that previous generations used to eat during that era because those recipes may soon become handy for all of us as well."
"The Life You Have Left..."
“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.
Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”
~ Leo Babauta
"The Only Thing Necessary for Evil to Triumph Is…"
"The Only Thing Necessary for Evil to Triumph Is…"
by Paul Rosenberg
"I’m betting that most of my readers can complete this phrase. The problem is, it isn’t quite true. Edmund Burke, its supposed source, was a good man, but that doesn’t make the saying true. Here’s the complete passage, in the form most of us know: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Yes, there is a time when good men and women must stand up for what’s right, even when it involves risk, but that moment comes only after evil has already been well established and is powerfully on the move.
Fighting evil may be an essential thing, but it isn’t the first problem - it matters only after thousands or millions of mistakes have already been made. And if those first mistakes had not been made, great fights against evil wouldn’t be necessary.
Where Evil Comes From: Let’s begin with a crucial point: Evil is inherently weak. Here’s why that’s true: Evil does not produce. It must take advantage of healthy and effective life (aka productive men and women) if it’s to succeed. Evil, by its nature, is wasteful and destructive: It requires the production of the good in order to do its deeds.
How much territory could Caesar have conquered on his own? How many people could Joe Stalin have killed with no one to take his orders? How many people could Mao have starved to death without obedient middlemen? With duteous followers, however, evil rulers killed some 260 million people in the 20th century.
The truth is that evil survives by tricking the good into doing its will. Without thousands of basically decent people confused enough to obey, evil would fail quickly. The great tragedy of our era is the extent to which evil has been successful in convincing people to service it. Good people having yielded their wills arm evil, accommodate evil, and acquiesce to its actions.
Hannah Arendt summarized it this way: "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. People end up supporting evil because they don’t want to make up their minds at all. They want to avoid criticism and vulnerability, so they hold to the middle of the pack and avoid all risk. These people wouldn’t initiate murders by themselves, but in the name of duty, loyalty and/or the greater good, they cooperate with evil and give it their strength. Each plays a part, but not so large a part that they’ll have to contemplate its effects."
Sins of Obedience: People think of murder, lying, and robbery as sins, but none of those has nearly the death toll of obedience. Basically decent men and women obey agents of evil for very mundane reasons. The process often goes like this:
Confused and intimidated, they look for what’s being punished and what isn’t. They try not to make waves. They learn that they can avoid making waves best if they adopt the perspectives of their overlords. So they run the overlords’ slogans through their minds as a default program.
In the end, these people don’t make up their minds. Rather, they take on the minds of their overlords and do their will. And so, the vast majority of evil done on Earth traces back to minds and wills that have been abandoned to fear.
So…This is what the famous quote should say: 'The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to obey.' We should be painting that saying on our walls."
o
Full screen recommended.
"Why Are People So Obedient?
Compliance and Tyranny"
"How It Really Is"
MORALS? This is 'Murica, fool! "Morals? We ain't got no morals.
We don't need no morals. I don't have to show you any stinking morals!"
Concept gleefully stolen from here:
"It Is Common To Assume..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken
"What In The World Has Happened To Our Society?"
By Michael Snyder
"Things weren’t always this horrible. Once upon a time, America’s shiny new cities were the envy of the entire world. Our citizens dressed sharply, they treated one another with respect, and they worked incredibly hard. But now our country is teeming with extremely slothful degenerates that want everything handed to them on a silver platter. Rampant greed is everywhere that you look, crime is completely out of control, we are facing the worst drug crisis in the entire history of our nation, millions of our fellow citizens are absolutely seething with hatred for one another, and those that attempt to stand up for what is right are considered to be the problem. We should be deeply grieved by what has happened to our society, because it truly is a great tragedy.
Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Matt Walsh published an excerpt from a letter that an infantryman sent to his family during the Civil War…"If you want to see how much the English language has deteriorated in modern times, go read the letters that random infantrymen wrote home to their families during the Civil War. These were young men often without much formal schooling who wrote naturally like poets. One example:"
Can you write like that? I certainly can’t. Those of us in this generation like to think of ourselves as the pinnacle of human history, but the truth is that we can’t even compare to those that have come before us.
Let me give you another example. More than a century ago, the streets of New York City were filled with extremely civilized people that dressed incredibly well when it was time to go out into the public arena…
Full screen recommended.
But now New York City is a crime-ridden, drug-infested hellhole. At this point, drug overdoses account for 80 to 85 percent of all accidental deaths in the Big Apple…
New York Times:
Is this “progress”? I don’t think so.
In Portland, conditions have gotten so bad that more than 2,600 businesses have left the downtown area over the past few years…"Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed. Public data shows that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 downtown businesses have filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their downtown ZIP codes. Several big-name employers, from Unitus Community Credit Union to Umpqua Bank, have been among the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels and homelessness – and the city’s failure to address it."
Apparently officials want even more businesses to leave, because now a bill that would give homeless individuals $1,000 a month “in no-strings-attached cash” is being seriously considered…"Oregon is considering giving its vast homeless and low-income population $1,000 in no-strings-attached cash. The bill was proposed by woke State Senator Wlnsvey Campos – who was among those calling to abolish the police in the summer of 2020 when the city of Portland was besieged by protesters – and Rep. Khanh Pham." If they actually do this, most of that money will go straight to the drug dealers.
Down in San Francisco, drug addicts are fueling a crime spree that is worse than anything that the city has ever experienced. When one woman recently went into the city for a yoga class, she was told that the building “had been broken into six times in two months”…"Yesterday I went to a yoga class in San Francisco for the first time in years. They had the front door locked (had to be buzzed in), a sign on it that said “no cash on premises,” and the woman at the front desk said they had been broken into six times in two months."
Over in Los Angeles, violent crime has become such a problem that extremely expensive “executive protection dogs” have become a very hot commodity…"The elite animals - typically German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Dobermans, cane corsos or a mix of those breeds - are marketed under names such as “personal canine bodyguards” and “executive protection dogs.” Amid a spate of high-profile crimes in upscale parts of Los Angeles, they have become highly sought after among the rich, many of whom worry about being targeted.
Protection dogs, they say, provide an immediate layer of front-line defense, unlike security cameras (which merely show an intruder on the property, and only if the devices happen to be pointed in the right direction) and home alarm systems (which can be bypassed or ignored). Even if police are summoned, they can be slow to respond, if at all. So homeowners who can afford it are being more proactive."
This is the world that we live in now. But most Americans don’t seem to care. We are literally living in an “idiocracy” in which people are dropping dead all around us, but most Americans are so far gone that they can’t even understand what is happening.
Of course it isn’t just the United States that is facing such problems. Up in Canada, crime rates are absolutely exploding thanks to the reckless policies of the Trudeau regime…"The Toronto Police Service data portal shows that Toronto experienced a 17.2 per cent spike in overall major crimes in 2022, including a 9.8 per cent increase in assaults, a 44.2 per cent spike in auto thefts, 6.5 per cent growth in break and enters, a 28.5 per cent jump in robbery, an 11.3 per cent increase in sexual violence, and a 35.8 per cent gain in theft over cases."
And in many areas of South America crime has risen to levels that we have never seen before…"Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean continued to experience high murder rates in 2022, as cocaine production reached new heights, the fragmentation of gangs continued, and the flow of weapons across the region grew more acute.
For Ecuador, the situation was downright catastrophic. Historic amounts of cocaine entering the country fueled violence, with murders skyrocketing as gangs targeted judicial officials and killed police officers at record rates. That cocaine came largely from Colombia, where recently inaugurated President Gustavo Petro has promised to shift away from the war on drugs in favor of efforts to achieve a “Total Peace” with the country’s rebel and criminal groups."
Our entire world is deeply sick. We have turned our backs on what is good, and we continue to run after evil as rapidly as we can. As a result, our society is a complete and total mess. We truly are living during one of the most critical times in all of human history, and we desperately need to change course. Unfortunately, most people seem to think that everything is just fine, and so they see no need for a new direction."
Canadian Prepper, "Prepping For Total Collapse: Massive Secret Fallout Bunkers Built For Elites"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/9/24
"Prepping For Total Collapse:
Massive Secret Fallout Bunkers Built For Elites"
"Dr. Bradley Garrett: He has visited hundreds of the most secretive bunkers around the world and met with some of the most notable figures in the industry. His story is compelling."
Comments here:
"Israel - Palestine War Update 3/9/24"
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 3/9/24
"'Full Support To Hamas': NATO Nation Shocks Ally U.S;
Calls Israel 'Terror State' Amid Gaza War"
"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come out in open support of Gaza militant group Hamas, saying that no one can force his country to call Hamas a terror group. “No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization. Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them,” Erdogan said at an event in Istanbul on March 9. The Turkish President derided Israel, which it calls a “terror state” and its western backers for the war in Gaza that has killed more than 30,500 Palestinians so far."
Comments here:
Turkey has a 2 million man, very well trained and equipped professional military, whom Scott Ritter calls "ferocious fighters", with a large, modern air force and navy, as well as massive resources of tanks, artillery and missiles.
o
Full screen recommended.
Middle East Eye, 3/9/24
"Israeli Rabbi Calls For Killing All Palestinians In Gaza"
“The Torah does not allow you to let every soul live” “The terrorists of today are the children of the past.”Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, head of a Jewish religious school in occupied Yafa, urged his IDF students during a lesson he gave on Friday to kill all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including infants, children, women, and the elderly. When asked about what should be done to infants and the elderly, Mali simply answered: “The same.”
Comments here:
"The Torah"... would you like about 50 quotes from it
revealing what they really think of you? I doubt they'd like that...
and you would not be amused...
o
30,500 defenseless old people, men and women, and 14,000 CHILDREN slaughtered by these psychopathically degenerate blood-thirsty sub-humans, another 8,000 missing and buried under the rubble caused by the 2,000 and 6,000 lb bombs YOU, America, provided and paid for, every goddamned bullet! And these monsters really believe they should kill them all, who they call "human animals", like the rabbi above said. Now YOU tell me who the terrorists are! - CP
"You Have Got To Be Kidding Me"
"You Have Got To Be Kidding Me"
by Michael Snyder
"By the time you are done reading this article, you may be tempted to tear your hair out. A substantial portion of the U.S. population is deeply struggling in our current economic environment, but instead of focusing on helping Americans that are hurting, homeless and hungry, our leaders are going to great lengths to make things better for those that have no legal right to be in this country. Our priorities are way out of whack, and U.S. voters are fed up. Immigration has become the hottest political issue during this campaign season, but many of our politicians still don’t seem to understand why so many of us are so frustrated with what has been going on.
Let me give you some examples of what I am talking about. It is being reported that more than half of all Americans over the age of 65 “are living on incomes of $30,000 or less a year”…"And, for some, the retirement crisis is already here. Just over half of Americans over the age of 65 are living on incomes of $30,000 or less a year, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. The largest share - just under 23% - have incomes between $10,000 and $19,999." Millions of elderly Americans are barely surviving at this point.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been flying hundreds of thousands of migrants that have no legal right to be here directly into the country…"It means that while record numbers of migrants were flowing over the southern border last year, the Biden White House was also directly transporting them into the country. Use of a cell phone app has allowed for the near undetected arrival by air of 320,000 aliens with no legal rights to enter the United States. It comes after a controversy over a 2022 transportation program in which the administration used taxpayers money to move migrants throughout the country on overnight flights."
You have got to be kidding me.
Let me give you another example. Since 2020, the income needed “to comfortably afford a home in the US” has gone up by 80 percent…"According to Zillow, the income needed to comfortably afford a home in the US has leapt 80% since 2020, far exceeding what the BLS reports has been a 23% increase in median household income over the same period. The real estate website found home buyers today need to make more than $106,000 a year, up $47,000 from 2020, a change driven largely by higher prices and borrowing costs. “Housing costs have soared over the past four years as drastic hikes in home prices, mortgage rates and rent growth far outpaced wage gains,” said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow."
But instead of doing something about that, politicians in California actually want to provide interest-free home loans with no down payment required to newly arrived migrants…"Assembly Bill 1840 would change existing law to allow illegal immigrants to be eligible for the California Dream for All Fund, which provides interest-free loans for a down payment on a home for first-time buyers.The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, a Democrat, who last month told GV Wire, a Fresno-based news outlet, that he “wanted to ensure that qualified first-time homebuyers include undocumented applicants.”
You have got to be kidding me.
Don’t stop reading now, because there is more. On Thursday, we learned that the number of layoffs in the U.S. last month was the highest total that we have seen during February since 2009…"The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in February, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates. That is according to a new report published Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 84,638 job cuts in February, a 3% increase from the previous month and a 9% jump from the same time last year. It marked the highest layoff total for the month of February in data going back to 2009."
That is terrible news. But instead of finding jobs for American workers, New York Governor Kathy Hochul wants to “prioritize” hiring newly arrived migrants for state jobs…"New York Governor Kathy Hochul is pushing a plan to prioritize hiring illegal aliens for state jobs by eliminating certain requirements like the civil service exam and high school diploma. The aim is to expedite the process for illegal immigrants to secure state jobs once they have work permits."
You have got to be kidding me.
Last but not least, let’s talk about what is going on in Washington right now. In preparation for the State of the Union address, a “large steel fence” was being put up around the U.S. Capitol…"Ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address – what concerns do the political elites on Capitol Hill have that require security crews to erect a large steel fence around the immediate perimeter of the Capitol Complex? In several posts on X, FOX News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram said the steel, grated 12-foot fence around the Capitol Complex was erected on Wednesday night on the orders of the Secret Service."
Apparently our leaders in Washington have no problem with being protected by walls. Unfortunately, our southern border has been left wide open and it is being estimated that approximately 10 million migrants have come pouring into this nation since Joe Biden entered the White House…"The number of illegal immigrants in the country has roughly doubled under President Biden. The United States had some 10.2 million illegal immigrants in 2020, and another 10 million have entered during Biden’s presidency. If the 20 million illegal immigrants were all in one state, it would be tied with New York for the fourth most populated state." And here’s even worse news. If Biden wins a second term in office and there is no serious reform of U.S. immigration and asylum laws - both of which are very real possibilities - we can expect a continuing increase in the rate of immigrants crossing the border illegally.
You have got to be kidding me.
We already have tens of millions of people that are deeply suffering in this country. To allow millions more to come marching in doesn’t make any sense at all. We can’t even afford to take care of the people that we already have. We are completely broke, and we have been adding another trillion dollars to the national debt about every 100 days. We are literally committing national suicide, but most of our politicians don’t seem alarmed by this at all."
Friday, March 8, 2024
Jeremiah Babe, "80% Using Food Stamps At My Grocery Store"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/8/24
"80% Using Food Stamps At My Grocery Store,
It's Worse Than I Thought; Food Prices Rage"
"The real economy can no longer be hidden with fake data as people see their bank accounts dwindle and food prices exploding while the cost of almost everything keeps going up. Todays job numbers were another joke."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"A gorgeous spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years distant, NGC 1309 lies on the banks of the constellation of the River (Eridanus). NGC 1309 spans about 30,000 light-years, making it about one third the size of our larger Milky Way galaxy. Bluish clusters of young stars and dust lanes are seen to trace out NGC 1309's spiral arms as they wind around an older yellowish star population at its core.
Not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy, observations of NGC 1309's recent supernova and Cepheid variable stars contribute to the calibration of the expansion of the Universe. Still, after you get over this beautiful galaxy's grand design, check out the array of more distant background galaxies also recorded in this sharp, reprocessed, Hubble Space Telescope view.”
Bill Bonner, "The Komodo Dragon of Foggy Bottom"
"The Komodo Dragon of Foggy Bottom"
Goodbye and good riddance to Victoria Nuland
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "So long Toria! And good riddance. We watched part of the State of the Union address last night. Mr. Biden is a professional politician – with more than 50 years of campaigning experience. Last night, he sounded like what he is…a pro who has gotten old.
Even with the teleprompter in front of him, some things he said didn’t make sense. He was describing his success with the American Rescue Plan, for example, but then said that “every American voted against it.” And some things were just typically dishonest. His administration provided the weapons and approved the massacre in Gaza. Now, he and Vice President Harris are attempting to put themselves on the side of the angels, as defenders of Palestinian lives. Biden began his speech, to a cheering, jackass crowd in a Joint Session of Congress, with an opening line: “If I were smart, I’d go home now.” He was right; he’s not smart enough to do it.
Blood and Misery: Today, we write about people who are smarter…more cunning…and more dangerous than Biden himself…the people who actually run the government. Victoria Nuland was in the news this week; she fell off the ‘glass cliff’ at the State Department. She will probably go to work at some other arm of the Deep State. A think tank most likely. One financed by the ‘defense suppliers’ undoubtedly.
Ms. Nuland is the wife of Robert Kagan. The two are a ‘neo-con power couple’…a pair of big-shot meddlers…spilling treasure, blood and misery wherever they go. And doing it in the name of (what else?) democracy. Ms. Nuland was a foreign policy wonk…and later…advisor to the Clintons…the Bush team…Obama and Biden. The only recent president she didn’t advise was Trump, largely because her husband had made such a public display of disgust with The Donald that his wife was persona non grata.
The problem for Mr. Kagan was that Trump was insufficiently bloodthirsty; he threw his support to the more reliable warmonger, Hillary Clinton. Not that it mattered. Republicans, Democrats…teeters and totters…it didn’t make any difference to Kagan or his wife. Ms. Nuland is a pro, too. Whomever the people elected, it was she who was large and in charge. Swamp Critters ruled; and she was the komodo dragon of Foggy Bottom. Besides, the new president wouldn’t know Donetsk from donuts. Ms. Nuland would guide him.
Like Hunter Biden, Toria had a special regard for the Ukraine. Her family was from there. She spoke Russian and had studied Tolstoi, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky in college. Mostly she had a special affinity – like Madeleine Albright, in whose dreadful footsteps she trod – for the firepower industry, which she and her husband saw as the source of their wealth, power, status…and a better world for everyone.
Professional Warmongers: Some people like war. Old Testament relics, God must speak to them directly. He tells them they can get away with murder…in His name. Robert Kagan argued, just before the invasion of Iraq, that fighting was just part of the US character and its tradition. Unlike the French and Germans, whose diplomatic solutions he despised, “Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus,” he wrote.
Every society must have its retards and psychopaths. The real goal of a decent government is to keep them away from power. Instead, in today’s USA, they are invited in. Then, like a gambler in charge of the church treasury, it is just a matter of time until the money disappears.
Ms. Nuland led a privileged life. She went to the very private school, Choate, where the current tuition in $67,000, including room and board, we presume. From there, she entered Brown University and then slipped easily into America’s foreign policy community.
Her career as a shill for the firepower industry probably began in the 1990s, when she worked with Strobe Talbot in the Clinton Administration. Strobe, like Nuland, went to a private school in Connecticut, then to Yale and became a ‘Russia expert.’ (Coincidentally, he was at Oxford – along with Robert Reich, Bill Clinton and our old friend, Jim Davidson…from whom we gained many useful insights). In 1999, voters asked for a change…something new; they picked George W. Bush over Clinton VP Al Gore. Bush promised a more ‘modest’ foreign policy. But what voters got was more of Ms. Nuland.
There are only two key issues in government – how it raises and spends its money…and against whom it goes to war. Everything else is a footnote. But on the two important issues, American voters have almost no say. Foreign policy is determined by the Foreign Policy Establishment, working hand in glove with the rest of the firepower industry’s shills and toadies – the press, the universities, Congress, and the bureaucracy.
Toria’s Agenda: Ms. Nuland had been on the job with the Bush team for only a few months when the 9/11 twin towers got blown up. What luck! This afforded a great opportunity for the warmongers to strut their stuff. The firepower industry had weapons galore. And as Madame Albright had said, what good were they if we couldn’t use them?
But use them on whom? The 9/11 attackers were all dead. Their alleged accomplices were being rounded up…for torture sessions. Where was a worthy enemy? Ms. Nuland was on the case. She, her husband, and her brother-in-law helped steer the Bush team into America’s first and biggest-debacle of the 21st century, its attack on Iraq.
Everybody now knows that the whole war was based on a lie…and was a complete disaster. So, you’d think that a mistake like that – $2.5 trillion down the drain…1 million dead – would set your career back. In Ancient Greece, those who proposed wars…that turned out badly…were executed. Unsuccessful Roman commanders, with a sense of dignity, “fell upon their swords.’ More recently, failed Japanese generals committed suicide in a gruesome ritual…taking our their own intestines until they bled to death.
But in America’s Deep State a failed leader can expect a promotion. Soon, Ms. Nuland was advising Barack Obama. Obama didn’t want to get the US embroiled in a war with Russia. But that was exactly what was on Toria’s agenda. She had a hand in the Maidan revolution – replacing the Ukraine’s elected leader with hacks who were friendlier to the US. She then blocked efforts at diplomacy, putting Vladimir Putin in a corner. The result was war.
But now, after an ill-advised summer offensive promoted by the US “we” are losing that war too. And the deeper Deep State of the Foreign Policy Establishment is tossing Nuland off the cliff. Most likely, they want to get her out of the way so they can settle with Russia…and move on to their next debacle. Whatever the actual cause of her departure, it is a relief to get her off the federal payroll. Stoning would be better. But we take what we can get."
"For Nothing Is Fixed..."
"For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."
- James Baldwin
"We are fast moving into something, we are fast flung into something like asteroids cast into space by the death of a planet, we the people of earth are cast into space like burning asteroids and if we wish not to disintegrate into nothingness we must begin to now hold onto only the things that matter while letting go of all that doesn't. For when all of our dust and ice deteriorates into the cosmos we will be left only with ourselves and nothing else. So if you want to be there in the end, today is the day to start holding onto your children, holding onto your loved ones; onto those who share your soul. Harbor and anchor into your heart justice, truth, courage, bravery, belief, a firm vision, a steadfast and sound mind. Be the person of meaningful and valuable thoughts. Don't look to the left, don't look to the right; we simply don't have the time. Never be afraid of fear."
- C. JoyBell C
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