Saturday, March 16, 2024

Dan, I Allegedly, "Home Prices are About to Fall"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 3/16/24
"Home Prices are About to Fall"
"The national Association of realtors just settled their lawsuit for $400 million plus. You were going to see big changes come to the real estate market between now and July 1, 2024. You no longer have to list a buyers commission and this will bring prices down dramatically. Get ready."
Comments here:
o
"The END of America’s Real Estate Industry, 
10 Million Careers"
o
ThisisJohnWilliams, 3/16/24
"401Ks and Retirement Plans Liquidated Overnight, 
Panic Mode Begins!"
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Aldi!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/16/24
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Aldi and are noticing a massive amount of products that have gone up in price. Although we continue to see very high prices, I do manage to find some good Aldi Saver Deals and try out some new Aldi products, and give my review on them."
Comments here:

Friday, March 15, 2024

"Nearly 107 Million Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 3/15/24
"Nearly 107 Million Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now"
"American Patriots, finding a job is harder than ever. A lot of people are confused about the economy of the United States right now. What state is it in, exactly? There are many large employers and Fortune 500 companies where mass layoffs are taking place, and many job seekers are struggling to find employment. Despite this, the Biden administration and the mainstream media paint a picture that everything is rosy and the unemployment rate is low. How can there be such a disconnect? This is the stark reality of American society and the middle class. Prepare yourselves and your families if at all possible, because it's sink or swim, and the American people must be prepared for anything that comes our way and anything that could happen in the near future."
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, "Tyson Foods Firing Americans, They Don't Deserve Your Money"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/15/24
"Tyson Foods Firing Americans, They Don't Deserve Your Money;
Real Estate Agents Suffer Massive Blow"
"Real estate agents across America just suffered 
a massive blow that will change the industry forever."
Comments here:
o

Gregory Mannarino, "US Factory Activity Is In A Death Spiral, The Economy Is Collapsing Faster"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/15/24
"US Factory Activity Is In A Death Spiral, 
The Economy Is Collapsing Faster"
Comments here:

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! World War III Prelude: Emergency Address By Putin"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/15/24
Alert! Emergency Address By Putin, Election Chaos!
 Invasion, Border Evacuation, Nuclear Simulation"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "People Can't Afford to Pay Their Rent"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 3/15/24
"People Can't Afford to Pay Their Rent"
"The city of Sedona, Arizona just passed a law where people can sleep in their cars. So many people work at the hotels in the resorts cannot afford to pay rent. This is insanity."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

"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."

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
o
“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

"Man's Nature..."

"Man has one name, and many more than two natures. 
But the essential two are these:
that he shall strive to impose order on chaos, 
and that he shall strive to take advantage of chaos…
A third element of man's nature is this: 
that he shall not understand what he is doing."
- John Brunner

"27 Thoughts For Friday"

"27 Thoughts For Friday"
by John Wilder

“I thought so. You remember our business 
partner Marsellus Wallace, don’t you Brett?” 
– "Pulp Fiction"

"I’ve trotted out lists of thoughts from time to time. The lists change based on (hopefully) me getting more wisdom over time. Anyway, here’s this year’s list:

1. Be on time. Seriously, it’s simple. People notice, and people care. It’s a basic principle of respect for someone not to waste their time waiting for me.

2. Never be a little late to work or a little early to leave. Especially on a regular basis. Being late an hour once every quarter is much better than being late a minute each day for sixty work days. An hour looks like something happened. A minute looks like I don’t care.

3. Little changes at the start make big difference in the result. I’ve seen many people start their careers and become experts at the subject of their first assignment. Many of them made a lot of money by knowing a whole lot about a little.

4. Choosing not to decide is a choice. I love reminding people that “doing nothing” is always an option. But it is a choice. And it has just as many consequences as “doing something”.

5. For me, opportunities always showed up when I needed them, even if I didn’t understand it at the time. Thankfully in my case the opportunities weren’t subtle.

6. After college, in a high achieving profession, it becomes rarer and rarer to be the smartest guy in the room, and someone in the room is often an expert at something in which I’m a novice. True humility allows a good leader to understand the capabilities they need, and not have to be “right” all the time.

7. The biggest fights are over the smallest things. It seems that no one ever snaps over the house being on fire on the day the insurance payment was late – it’s that the trash wasn’t taken out on time and we have to hang on to it for another week.

8. People understand $10,000 more than they understand $10,000,000. The difference between $10,000 and $11,000 means more to most people than the difference between $10 million and $10 billion. Most people can’t understand more than seven magnitudes of anything.

9. Outcome is less important than process. When working on life, I try to not care about what the outcome will be. I go in, make the best choices I can, and do the best work that I can. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t, I try to adjust to be better next time.

10. Outcome is still important. Dead is dead, so sometimes the outcome is final.

11. The last outcome is always final. How many refunds?

12. No refunds.

13. Nothing breeds success like success, and nothing breeds failure like failure. I’ve been on streaks where I literally could not lose. I’ve been on streaks where I couldn’t win.

14. Corollary to 13: I’m never as bad or as good as my failures or successes. The streaks where I couldn’t win set me up with the habits I needed to win.

15. Beating myself up is a loser’s game.

16. Most people don’t think about me very much and will have a hard time remembering my name after five years. As much as I like to think I’m the center of my story (and I am) I’m only a minor player in the stories of most other people.

17. Corollary to 16: Except where I’m their personal villain. Then I live on forever and will definitely have someone who will want to be at my funeral, if nothing more than to make sure I’m dead.

18. Protect the relationships with the people that genuinely do care about me in a positive way so maybe the sad people at my funeral will outnumber the happy ones.

19. Listen to people, really listen. They tell me amazing things if I just listen. One time I was interviewing a guy and he mentioned committing a felony at a previous job. Yeah, I kept a straight face. No, he didn’t get the job.

20. If someone says I’m wrong, I need to have the humility to embrace that and see if they’re right. Especially when my first impulse is to try to defend myself. Even if I’m not wrong, I at least understand why they thought I was wrong.

21. When I’m wrong, admit it and apologize. It’s amazing how admitting error makes other think I’m more trustworthy. And apologies? Why not apologize, have some sort of problem with that?

22. Being good at several things is enough for success, if they’re the right several things. Being an expert at useless things might be fun, but mostly nothin’ times nothin’ is, hmmm, carry the nothin’ . . . nothin’.

23. If I spend my life waiting for the next thing, I’ll spend my entire life waiting and not living. The journey is the point, and rushing through it just gets me to my grave faster.

24. Past behaviors are almost always the key to predicting future behaviors. Leopards, spots, etc. When I listen to a person’s story, I realize that often they’re also telling me their future.

25. Success is based on the last thing I did, not the next. People pay to keep me around because they think I might be able to do it again.

26. Could I have done better? Could I have done worse? Yes. I did how I did. Success is based on how I change what I’m going to do to be better.

27. Power and money are not the same thing. Just ask the rich guys after Robespierre or Lenin took over.

Okay, that’s 3³ thoughts for Friday. See you on Monday!"

"How It Really Is"

“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either. It happens to be my view, but it doesn't challenge any of the findings of Darwin or Huxley or Einstein or Hawking.” - Christopher Hitchens

"Netanyahu Overthrow - US Troops May Occupy Gaza To Save Biden"

"Netanyahu Overthrow -
US Troops May Occupy Gaza To Save Biden"
by Mike Adams

"We have huge, exclusive news today: A plan is under way to unload up to 100,000 US troops into Gaza (that's why the emergency shore pier is being constructed) so that US troops will occupy Gaza and serve as "human shields" to stop Israel's bombings. This is in case the new CIA plan to assassinate or remove Netanyahu fails. Sen. Chuck Schumer called for Netanyahu's removal earlier today, and the deep state is gunning for him.

If Netanyahu can't be stopped, the DoD is going to flood Gaza with US troops and then dare Netanyahu to bomb them. If he does, it will put the U.S. and Israel at war. This is all an effort to save Biden's election chances, because of the Muslim vote in America (which is increasingly powerful and very motivated)."
Video here:
o
Scott Ritter, 3/15/24
"Hezbollah Scores A Knockout Blow To Israel"
Comments here:

"Israel is Evil personified. Israel is Evil embodied."
- Scott Ritter

Jim Kunstler, "Consequences Minus Truth"

"Consequences Minus Truth"
by Jim Kunstler

“People crave trust in others, 
because God is found there.” 
- Dom de Bailleul

"The rewards of civilization have come to seem rather trashy in these bleak days of late empire; so, why even bother pretending to be civilized? This appears to be the ethos driving our politics and culture now. But driving us where? Why, to a spectacular sort of crack-up, and at warp speed, compared to the more leisurely breakdown of past societies that arrived at a similar inflection point where Murphy’s Law replaced the rule of law.

The US Military Academy at West point decided to “upgrade” its mission statement this week by deleting the phrase Duty, Honor, Country that summarized its essential moral orientation. They replaced it with an oblique reference to “Army Values,” without spelling out what these values are, exactly, which could range from “embrace the suck” to “charlie foxtrot” to “FUBAR” - all neatly applicable to our country’s current state of perplexity and dread.

Are you feeling more confident that the US military can competently defend our country? Probably more like the opposite, because the manipulation of language is being used deliberately to turn our country inside-out and upside-down. At this point we probably could not successfully pacify a Caribbean island if we had to, and you’ve got to wonder what might happen if we have to contend with countless hostile subversive cadres who have slipped across the border with the estimated nine-million others ushered in by the government’s welcome wagon.

Momentous events await. This Monday, the Supreme Court will entertain oral arguments on the case Missouri, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al. The integrity of the First Amendment hinges on the decision. Do we have freedom of speech as set forth in the Constitution? Or is it conditional on how government officials feel about some set of circumstances? At issue specifically is the government’s conduct in coercing social media companies to censor opinion in order to suppress so-called “vaccine hesitancy” and to manipulate public debate in the 2020 election. Government lawyers have argued that they were merely “communicating” with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others about “public health disinformation and election conspiracies.”

You can reasonably suppose that this was our government’s effort to disable the truth, especially as it conflicted with its own policy and activities - from supporting BLM riots to enabling election fraud to mandating dubious vaccines. Former employees of the FBI and the CIA were directly implanted in social media companies to oversee the carrying-out of censorship orders from their old headquarters. The former general counsel (top lawyer) for the FBI, James Baker, slid unnoticed into the general counsel seat at Twitter until Elon Musk bought the company late in 2022 and flushed him out. The so-called Twitter Files uncovered by indy reporters Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and others, produced reams of emails from FBI officials nagging Twitter execs to de-platform people and bury their dissent. You can be sure these were threats, not mere suggestions.

One of the plaintiffs joined to Missouri v. Biden is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and professor at the Harvard Medical School, who opposed Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He was one of the authors of the open letter called "The Great Barrington Declaration" (October, 2020) that articulated informed medical dissent for a bamboozled public. He was fired from his job at Harvard just this past week for continuing his refusal to take the vaccine. Harvard remains among a handful of institutions that still require it, despite massive evidence that it is ineffective and hazardous. Like West Point, maybe Harvard should ditch its motto, Veritas, Latin for “truth.”

A society hostile to truth can’t possibly remain civilized, because it will also be hostile to reality. That appears to be the disposition of the people running things in the USA these days. The problem, of course, is that this is not a reality-optional world, despite the wishes of many Americans (and other peoples of Western Civ) who wish it would be.

Next up for us will be “Joe Biden’s” attempt to complete the bankruptcy of our country with $7.3-trillion proposed budget, 20 percent over the previous years spending, based on a $5-billion tax increase. Good luck making that work. New York City alone is faced with paying $387 a day for food and shelter for each of an estimated 64,800 illegal immigrants, which amounts to $9.15-billion a year. The money doesn’t exist, of course. New York can thank “Joe Biden’s” executive agencies for sticking them with this unbearable burden. It will be the end of New York City. There will be no money left for public services or cultural institutions. That’s the reality and that’s the truth.

A financial crack-up is probably the only thing short of all-out war that will get the public’s attention at this point. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it happened next week. Historians of the future, stir-frying crickets and fiddleheads over their campfires will marvel at America’s terminal act of gluttony: managing to eat itself alive."

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Walmart!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/15/24
"Massive Price Increases At Walmart!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are noticing some massive price increases on groceries. It's getting rough out here as we continue to see different food items get unaffordable in places where you would least expect it!"
Comments here:

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/15/24"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/15/24"
Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"The news you are about to read you can find nowhere else than USAWatchdog.com. You have heard me talk about the “real” approval rating of Joe Biden. It’s been stuck at 9% for months. I have two very good sources for this number: One is Martin Armstrong with his “Socratees” program. The other is a confidential source I know personally that I have to protect; otherwise, he could get fired from a very big tech company. The new news is from my confidential source, and he says that Biden’s real approval number is about 8%. It’s gets worse. My confidential source says on a deep data dive on Biden, he cannot win a single demographic. Let that sink in. JOE BIDEN CANNOT WIN A SINGLE DEMOGRAPHIC. This has never happened in presidential polls. When I asked what this means, my deep data mining source summed it up by saying “Biden is unelectable.”

The so-called lawfare (like warfare) cases against Donald Trump are falling apart. The Jack Smith “documents” case is going to get dismissed. The Trump RICO case in Georgia is also going down in flames, and prosecutor Fani Willis is going to get dismissed. The Alvin Bragg/Stormy Daniels case is going to get postponed, and it, too, will likely be dismissed. This is a disaster on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling 9-0 that Trump cannot be kept off any state ballot by desperate Democrats. Are they going to give up or are they going to do something even more desperate and create a global war? We will see.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is now saying the inflation she called “transitory” in 2021 is anything but transitory. Looks like the Fed is going to be fighting inflation, and you do not do that by cutting interest rates. So, the Fed is NOT going to cut interest rates as you have been told by the Lying Legacy Media over and over again. Credit card delinquencies are on the rise, and this, no doubt, is also a sign goods are getting more expensive for “We the People.” You can put off your credit card payment, but you cannot put off eating—for long. There is much more in the 48-minute Wrap-Up."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble for these stories and 
more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 3/15./4.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

"World War III Prelude, 3/14/24"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/14/24
"Alert! France Issues Nuclear Warning! 
3 Army Corps Prepare On Russias Border; More Nukes To Belarus"
Comments here:

"Dollar Tree And Family Dollar Closing 1,000 Stores! Be Ready For The Collapse!"

Adventures with Danno, PM 3/14/24
"Dollar Tree And Family Dollar Closing 1,000 Stores! 
Be Ready For The Collapse!"
"Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are closing approximately 1000 stores. What this means for consumers and what you need to know about the beginning of the end of budget stores."
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell , 3/15/24
"Russian Typical Supermarket Tour: Perekrestok"
"What does a Russian typical supermarket look like in 2024? Did the Western brands leave Russia? How does it look inside a Russian supermarket in Podolsk, a regional area of Moscow? Join me for a tour of Perekrestok."
Comments here:

"The Party Is Over, America! Get Ready For A Financial Apocalypse Worse Than 1929!"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/14/24
"The Party Is Over, America!
 Get Ready For A Financial Apocalypse Worse Than 1929!"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Just Let Them Steal Your Car"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 3/14/24
"Just Let Them Steal Your Car"
"Crime is skyrocketing around the world. In Toronto a police officer told a community action group just to let the bad guys steal your car. This is insane."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Even Now"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Even Now"

Musical Interlude: Richard Harris, "MacArthur Park"

Richard Harris, "MacArthur Park"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars.
Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past."

"I Know..."

“I know that my plainness of speech makes them hate me, 
and what is their hatred but proof that I am speaking the truth?”
– Socrates, in "Plato’s Apology", before he ingested hemlock.

Free Download: George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

"Animal Farm"
by George Orwell

Biographical note: "George Orwell, 1903-1950, was the pen name used by British author and journalist Eric Arthur Blair. During most of his professional life time Orwell was best known for his journalism, both in the British press and in books such as "Homage to Catalonia," describing his activities during the Spanish Civil War, and "Down and Out in Paris and London," describing a period of poverty in these cities. Orwell is best remembered today for two of his novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Description: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely- and this is vividly and eloquently proved in Orwell's short novel. "Animal Farm" is a simple fable of great symbolic value, and as Orwell himself explained: "it is the history of a revolution that went wrong." The novel can be seen as the historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism, or as a mere fairy-tale; in any case it tells a good story that aims to prove that human nature and diversity prevent people from being equal and happy, or at least equally happy.

"Animal Farm" tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals rebel, drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on an equal basis. What the animals seem to have aimed at was a utopian sort of communism, where each would work according to his capacity, respecting the needs of others. The venture failed, and "Animal Farm" ended up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were the brightest, and most idle of the animals.

Orwell's mastery lies in his presentation of the horrors of totalitarian regimes, and his analysis of communism put to practice, through satire and simple story-telling. The structure of the novel is skillfully organized, and the careful reader may, for example, detect the causes of the unworkability of communism even from the first chapter. This is deduced from Orwell's description of the various animals as they enter the barn and take their seats to listen to the revolutionary preaching of Old Major, father of communism in Animal Farm. Each animal has different features and attitude; the pigs, for example, "settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform", which is a hint on their future role, whereas Clover, the affectionate horse" made a sort of wall" with her foreleg to protect some ducklings.

So, it appears that the revolution was doomed from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto "no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers." "When the animals drive out Mr. Jones, they create their "Seven Commandments" which ensure equality and prosperity for all the animals. The pigs, however, being the natural leaders, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda establish the rule of an elite of pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, the most revered and sinister pig.

"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarian regimes, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything. Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white." Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." He managed to convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of "Jones returning" to silence the animals. In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that "Napoleon is always right".

Orwell's criticism of the role of the Church is also very effective. In Animal Farm, the Church is represented by Moses, a tame raven, who talks of "Sugarcandy Mountain", a happy country in the sky "where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labors". It is interesting to observe that when Old Major was first preaching revolutionary communism, Moses was sleeping in the barn, which satirizes the Church being caught asleep by communism. It is also important to note that the pig-dictators allowed and indirectly encouraged Moses; it seems that it suited the pigs to have the animals dreaming of a better life after death so that they wouldn't attempt to have a better life while still alive...

In "Animal Farm," Orwell describes how power turned the pigs from simple "comrades" to ruthless dictators who managed to walk on two legs, and carry whips. The story may be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime, or as a warning against political power games of an absolute nature and totalitarianism in general. For this reason, the story ends with a hair-raising warning to all humankind: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Freely download George Orwell’s “Animal Farm" here:

"Unequal Pigs"

"Unequal Pigs"
And the long-suffering citizens, 
from South America to Europe, rising up against them...
by Joel Bowman

“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.”
(The more things change, the more they stay the same.)
~ Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-1890)

The End of the World - "It’s a rainy ol’ day in Argentina’s capital city. The parks and plazas are empty. The sky overhead broods in somber, slate gray. In corner cafés, the local porteños huddle over their cortados and paperbacks, blissfully unaware that “nobody reads books anymore.”

Meanwhile, peering out from our damp outpost down here at the fin del mundo, we notice great change afoot. In Americas North and South, across the European continent, in Australia, New Zealand and all over the western world, there appears to be quite an awakening underway. Fed up with self-serving politicos, the rotten ilk to which Argentina’s president refers to as the ‘political caste,’ honest, hard working people are finally pushing back against their would-be overlords. As one dear reader put it recently: “Our snout-to-farmer ratio is simply too high!”

Of course, porcine actors are loath to surrender their wealth and power. And why would they? To their way of thinking, such as it is, they stole it fair and square! Never mind all that “We the people” nonsense. In the vacuous noggins of the world improver class, power is the only currency that counts. That they should employ violence to achieve their stated aims should come as no surprise to peaceful, private citizens. As their hero, Chairman Mao, famously observed: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

So do the globalists... World Economic Forum parasitoids... do-gooders and petty meddlers... war profiteers and their lackeys in the media... Big Tech censors and Big Pharma paymasters... justify their horrendous actions. At the core of their philosophy, each and every one of them believes, as did the pigs in Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm: “All animals are created equal... but some animals are more equal than others.”

Ordinarily, most decent people are content to steer clear of the rancid swamp that is politics. They prefer dry socks to muddy puddles... cooperation to coercion... peace and prosperity to warmongering and bloodshed. But pushed to the brink, honest folks will defend kith and kin. They’ll stand by their property. They’ll fight.

Global Revolution: In Europe, it took the so-called ‘Green Lobby,’ a secular cult of environmental catastrophizers hell bent of ‘saving the planet’ by de-industrializing the continent and sending its good citizens back to the Dark Ages, before farmers from Germany to France, Holland to Belgium, Greece to Czech Republic, Italy to Poland and more, finally said (in their various mother tongues) “enough is enough!”

And yet, to get the story from the crumbling pillars of the disgraced Fourth Estate, salt of the earth farmers are not downtrodden citizens raging against the political machine...but Russia’s useful idiots and good for nothing sh!t-sprayers:

Brussels: "Farmers protest leaves streets in chaos." – cried the BBC. "Europe’s farmer protests have been fertile ground for Russian propaganda." - moaned Politico. And our personal favorite, from the bedwetter brigade over at the Associated Press... “Protesting farmers spray Brussels police with liquid manure near EU’s base in a new display of power”

Over in El Salvador, meanwhile, it took the country reaching the highest murder rate in the world before the people declared “¡Basta ya, no mas!” Now the good folk of that beleaguered Central American country have exercised their democratic right and elected (with ~85% of the vote!) their own leader. Of course, the mainstream presstitues were at the ready with all the lazy slurs and hoary epithets their chia seed brains could muster: "Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's would-be dictator, re-elected president ."- from WSWS. "Authoritarian drift in El Salvador." - fretted El Pais. "Nayib Bukele has all the right enemies, including Ilhan Omar." - declared the #brave Washington Examiner.

Here in Argentina, it took 75-years of creeping Marxism, oozing out of the nation’s polluted academies and into her political institutions, for the long-suffering people to elect a leader who promised to take a chainsaw to the putrefying administrative state. “¡Afuera!”

A Timeless Battle: We’ve been following what we’re calling, with modest understatement, “The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time.” And we’re delighted to see the message spreading...to witness a rising challenge to “The Message”... to hear and to read, on the streets and online, a growing chorus of upright individuals revolting against their self-described “elites”...Slowly but surely, and despite the best efforts of the aforementioned Propaganda Ministry, the wheel is turning...

But as always, there’s more to the story here... much more. What we’re witnessing around the world, from Tierra del Fuego to Toronto, San Salvador to Stockholm, Athens to Antwerp, is symptomatic of a far more profound phenomenon...At its heart lies the age-old tension between liberty and tyranny, violence and voluntarism, collectivist claims and individual rights.

The balance between these competing concepts is, of course, as old as mankind itself. Down through the ages, from the ancient pre-Socratics to the medieval scholastics to the bulging craniums of the Age of Enlightenment, leading thinkers of the day sought to weigh each side, to examine the merits of force versus the benefit of self-determination, to measure “essential liberty” against “the purchase of temporary safety,” as Benjamin Franklin once had it.

The battleground of Man vs. State is thus not a new one...though the political sands are beginning to shift once again in the western world. Until recently, the huddled masses have looked to revolution for their emancipation, an action which, by definition, only begins the cycle anew. But might those who wish to see liberty in their lifetimes discover a new arrow in their quiver, one that could shift the paradigm entirely?"

"Is It Any Wonder..."

"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking" - if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five- or maybe five hundred!"
- Dale Carnegie

Bill Bonner, "A Good Place to Die"

"A Good Place to Die"
Motoring Ireland's rugged, windswept County Clare...
by Bill Bonner

"Ireland is a good place to die."
~ Elizabeth Bowen

Youghal, Ireland - This is perhaps not the best season to visit County Clare in Ireland. The wind blows. The rain comes in torrents. It is foggy in the morning. And at midday. And the evening too. At least, that was our experience when we explored the Burren yesterday.

We were ‘motoring’ through County Clare, taking in the sights…reading up on the O’Briens…and trying to keep dry. “Motoring” used to be much more common. Visitors drove on small roads, slowly, stopping at local restaurants and bars along the way. Nowadays, the highways have made motoring obsolete. People drive to get somewhere as fast as possible. And many of the cheerful little pubs and eateries have closed down. But in this part of Ireland, motoring is about all you can do.

To put our trip in further context, Elizabeth is a curious and intrepid traveler. Informed that there is a standing stone or a fallen church somewhere in yon cow pasture, she pulls on her boots and sets off…no matter the weather. And so it was that we discovered one of the most appealing graveyards in Ireland, down the hill and across a field from the castle, known as Dysert O’Dea.
The Burren: The castle itself was closed; it is not the tourist season. But in the distance…over hill and dale…through the fog…we glimpsed the unroofed church. So, down a gravel path we went…then over a stone wall…through a very squishy cattle field…and finally, over another stone wall, with slippery stepping stones jutting out from the sides, to the abandoned complex.

The graveyard was bordered on all sides by the stone wall. It was small enough so trees around the edges must provide shade in the summer. Some of the grave stones were ancient and unreadable. Some, with celtic crosses, leaned in one direction or another. Fresher bodies must have been planted there in the last 30 years. “How lovely…it almost makes us want to die,” we mumbled to ourselves, hoping not to be taken seriously.

The headstones – McNally, McNulty, McNeill – all the Micks and Paddies were there…hundreds of years’ worth of them…lying peacefully and gracefully in the little stone-walled graveyard.

The church nearby was in ruins. So was a round tower next to it. Round towers were among the earliest Christian edifices…perhaps intended to save the monks and their treasures from Viking raiders. This one was part of a monastery dating to the 12th century, largely destroyed by Cromwell’s army in the 17th century.

We had been driving along frightfully narrow roads through the Burren. When we saw a car approaching from the opposite direction, we looked for a place to pull over. The roads are rarely wide enough for two cars to pass normally. Pulling over inevitably put us into the mud. Fortunately, our old Nissan Patrol has 4-wheel-drive.

The Burren lies on the West coast of Ireland not too far from Shannon airport. It is a land of surprises…and curiosities. It looks completely desolate, in many parts. And yet…for example, you drive for miles without encountering a sign of civilization and arrive at a ‘perfumery.’ Yes, stuck in the middle of what seems like a vast and unrelenting wilderness is a small business fabricating essences…and a very welcome tea room.

The Burren is a land of lakes and loughs, mountains, meadows, and swamps. Much of it is little more than barren rock. And yet, there are cattle or sheep grazing almost everywhere. And the river valleys have some of the most fertile soil in the country. The fields seem too hilly, too stony, too small to be very productive, but the farms appear to be prosperous.
Among the sites we visited was a dolmen at Poulnabrone (the pit of sorrow). Its exact purpose is unknown, and might have varied over the centuries, but it was surely the final resting place of several people, whose bones have been unearthed, from 4,000 – 5,000 years ago. We looked at it through the narrow openings of our hooded rain jackets…warmed by woolen sweaters underneath…wondering why ancient people would have chosen such a desolate spot.
Hunters and Farmers: “It was not always so desolate,” explained a helpful guide. “There used to be trees covering much of the land. We believe the first settlers cut them down…for firewood…or grazing land. And then, the soil here was always very thin. It washed away or blew away over the centuries. That’s why it is so barren today.”

Our guide was a young woman from Pittsburgh. Fresh faced…with a pleasant manner, she began by asking us if we were sure we wanted to go on the tour. The wind had picked up. The rain was not so much coming down…as in a hurry to get somewhere to the South…and ready to knock over anyone who got in its way.

Hearing that we were nevertheless game for the tour, she put on her parka and led us forth. She led us to a round fort called Caherconnell. Thick walls of stone were piled up (no mortar was used) about 10 feet high and 6 feet thick around a collection of interior low stone walls, all that was left of what once were houses, barns and workshops. “This is one of the houses inside the enclosure,” she explained, making a sweeping gesture across the grass. “As many as 20 to 30 people lived in this area (about the size of a modern bedroom).”

She had participated in archeological digs on the site over the last three years. They discovered that the place was built on a much earlier site in about the 10th century. That makes it fairly recent. People have lived in Ireland for about 10,000 years – first as hunters, chasing herds of reindeer…later, as farmers, with small fields of grain and small herds of cattle or sheep.
Timeless Battles: Irish legend (perhaps true!) tells us that the original residents of Ireland were known as the Firbolg and the Tuatha De Danann. Then, according to the ‘16th century scholar’ O’Flaherty, the island was invaded by the ‘Milesians,’ Celtic peoples from Northern Spain.

Ireland has a long history, filled with many pits of sorrow. “It is amazing how much war people are ready to put up with,” Elizabeth began a reflection. “Each invasion set off hundreds of years of warfare. The English invasion lasted off and on from the 12th century to the 18th century…accompanied by mass slaughters on both sides. And even when the country was supposedly at peace, the local warlords, and chiefs went at it…murdering each other. It’s amazing any of us survived.”

In Caherconnell, also, they discovered older graves – from about the 6th century – of a woman and two children – whom they believe got a Christian burial. Another surprise was the discovery of objects that came from far away. A bead of amber, for example, probably came from the Baltic. Pins looked as though they were made in France. Even many centuries ago, and even at what have been the western-most edge of European civilization, trade continued.

A major attraction in County Clare is south of the Burren, Bunratty Castle. It was built near the Shannon estuary by the De Clare family in the 13th century. They were a Norman family, who were attacked periodically by the O’Brien clan. The castle was destroyed…and then rebuilt. But in 1318 Richard De Clare was killed in battle. His wife, hearing of his death, burned the castle…and the whole town around it. She left for England; the family never returned. But the fighting continued. A new castle was built and armies sent from England to subdue the MacCarthys and MacNamaras. One war after another. Siege. Battle. Butchery. Destruction. The Confederate Wars…Cromwell…Williamites…a rising and a beating down.

And there it is…still there. Castle Bunratty. The castle was a ruin until it was purchased by an Anglo-Irish couple in 1956 who decided to restore it. Today, it is a marvelous place to explore a medieval castle, but also to see local houses and workshops as they would have been hundreds of years ago. We stayed at another castle – Dromoland – converted into a fine hotel/resort. Even with the rain coming down outside, the castle is warm and comfortable."

"How It Really Is""

Gregory Mannarino, "Disaster - The US Economy Is Coming Apart Faster!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/14/24
"Disaster - The US Economy Is Coming Apart Faster! 
JPM Warning; War Expands"
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Adam Taggart, Thoughtful Money, 3/14/24
"David Stockman: 
We've Hit A Fiscal & Monetary Dead End"
"To better understand the current economic environment we find ourselves in, it helps to better understand how we ended up here. And few have as detailed an understanding as today's guest, who has been a true insider in both Washington DC and Wall Street for his extremely long & accomplished career. We're fortunate today to speak with former Congressman, economic policymaker & financier, David Stockman.

He warns that after decades of profligacy, over increasing our debt 100x since 1970 while only growing our GDP by 25x, we've arrived at a fiscal & monetary "dead end" What does he see ahead? Higher inflation. Recession. Hard times for Main Street. A 50%+ correction for Wall Street. And he expects the pain to last for years because he thinks the Federal Reserve can't ride to the rescue in the same way it has in the past."
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"Scott Ritter, Geopolitics 3/14/24"

Full screen recommended.
Gacha Gaming, 3/14/24
"Scott Ritter Spits In Netanyahu's Face 
After Israel Strikes A UN Food Center In Gaza"
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Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 3/14/24
 "Israel Will Lose & Face Major Defeat in 
Middle East Because US Scare of Hezbollah-Iran"
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Adventures with Danno, "Outrageous Price Increases At Kroger!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 3/14/24
"Outrageous Price Increases At Kroger!
This Is Ridiculous! - What's Next?!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing some outrageous price increases on groceries! It's getting rough out here as prices continue to rise with no end in sight."
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Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 3/14/24
"Russian Typical (German Style) Supermarket: Da!"
"Join me on a tour of DA! Supermarket, which is Russian owned and has more than 220 stores in Russia. Owned in Russia by the O'key Group."
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Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Canadian Prepper, "Record 11 Russian Nuclear Subs Off East Coast; 300K NATO Troops On Alert"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/13/24
"Record 11 Russian Nuclear Subs Off East Coast; 
300K NATO Troops On Alert"
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Adventures With Danno, "Tyson Foods Closing Pork Plant In Iowa Leaving 1200 People Without A Job!

Adventures With Danno, 3/13/24
"Tyson Foods Closing Pork Plant In Iowa Leaving
1200 People Without A Job! What Now? What's Next?"
"Tyson Foods is closing another plant. This time in Perry, Iowa. This will leave over 1200 people without jobs, which could be devastating for this small town."
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