Jim Kunstler, "In Blob We Trust"

"In Blob We Trust"

by Jim Kunstler

“In terms of the Moscow terror attack, the fact that those who carried out the attack were captured is now causing a huge headache for those who were ultimately responsible.” 

- The Sirius Report on “X”

"You’ve got to ask yourself: really, who seems to hanker more for a red-hot World War Three, “Joe Biden” or Vlad Putin? Since “Joe Biden” is only a figment of American politics, first you’d have to ask: a figment of what? Answer: A figment of our greater intel blob, led, of course, by the Central Intelligence Agency. Which is to say, the blob is our government now; there is no government except the blob. We are the United Blob of America! In Blob We Trust should be printed on our money.

That being the case, blob policy rules. And since deception is one of the blob’s chief duties, we mere sniveling citizens should expect to be deceived at every turn about everything. So, when the blob’s news cut-out, The New York Times, serves up a comprehensive history of the gang known as ISIS-K Monday morning after the Moscow Crocus Concert Hall Massacre, you might suspect that some deception is afoot.

ISIS-K immediately took credit for the Crocus Massacre. K stands for Khorasan, a set of provinces in eastern Iran, leaking over into Afghanistan and Pakistan. ISIS-K supposedly evolved out of the original ISIS that sought to establish an Islamic caliphate out of Iraq and Syria. After Mr. Trump broke it up in 2019, the gang regrouped in K-land, deeper in central Asia. Curiously, this ISIS-K has carried out attacks against Iran, where it lives. Go figure... Its progenitor, the plain old ISIS-no-K was responsible for the horrific Bataclan Theater massacre in Paris, 2015 and the suicide bombing of the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena, UK, 2017. They’re sort of the Concert-Massacres-R-Us of terror orgs — you really couldn’t find a better patsy for the Crocus op.

Is it as simple as that? Not if you consider Scott Ritter’s theory that the first ISIS was a creation of the CIA, with the mission of ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, considered by the blob to be an uber-bad dude, largely for enlisting Russia’s help in ending Syria’s civil war. And if you can actually figure out what Syria’s civil war was about, other than a US blob op to gain control of Syria and its oil, you could win a McArthur Genius Prize. But you might also ask: did the United Blob of America hire ISIS-K to slaughter 137 Russian civilians Saturday night? And also: did it do so directly or indirectly, through cut-outs?

One blob weakness is that it can’t resist the impulse to telegraph its plans ahead of some dastardly act. Both “Joe Biden” and State Department war-hawk Victoria Nuland verbally signaled the op to blow-up the Nord Stream gas pipelines well before the act. Before “retiring” (or getting cashiered) from State this month, Ms. Nuland warned Russia to expect “some nasty surprises” in the days ahead. Was she fired for opening her big mouth? Now, a photograph has surfaced of one of the captured Crocus perps, Shamsidin Fariduni, posing in the Crocus concert hall date-stamped March 7. A set-up? A deep fake?

In any case, On March 8 the United Blob State Department issued a warning to Russia’s foreign ministry that something wicked was coming their way, and likewise warned our diplomatic personnel to steer clear of concert halls and other public venues. Was the Crocus op already well in motion? And was the blob trying to cover for Ms. Nuland’s big mouth by warning about something that was too late to stop?

Whatever else you think about the Russians, they are not dumb bunnies. You can be sure they are carefully putting together the puzzle pieces, having already been careful to take the suspects alive. They were, incidentally, all in one car driving toward the Ukraine border when apprehended by Russian police. That is being considered “a clue” as to who their handlers are. But then, who is Ukraine’s handler? (Cue: thinking music.)

Shooter Shamsidin Fariduni

At least one of them - Fariduni - confessed that his gang received all their instructions over a Telegram social media channel. The gang, by the way, were all natives of Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic. Its population is 98 percent Muslim, around 97 percent of them Sunni and 3 percent Shia. Neighboring Iran is militantly Shia, for what it’s worth. The four Crocus perps were living as immigrant workers in Russia. How hard would it be to track who was the proprietor of the alleged Telegram messaging site that offered payment and sent orders to the perps? I’m guessing that would not be so difficult.

The United Blob sent lavish condolences to President Putin on Sunday. We’re so sorry....boo-hoo...The directorate of the CIA was awash in crocodile tears, I’m sure. Russia was already busy answering Ukraine’s attempted Belgorod incursion of the previous week by turning off the lights in Kharkov. Meanwhile, Polish, French, and German regular army troops have moved directly by rail and air inside Ukraine to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. The mental defectives running Poland, France, and Germany seem avid for NATO to jump with both feet into ground action in Ukraine, that is, go directly to war with Russia. It’s hard to imagine an act with a potentially worse outcome for NATO, for Europe, and, by extension, for Western Civ. Despite all their posturing, Euroland’s armies could not be less prepared to go up against Russia on the Ukraine battlefield, and are therefore begging for an epic ass-kicking. They’ve already sacrificed their industrial economies at the United Blob’s bidding, so why not just get Europe’s ticket punched for an express trip back to the 11th century?

How about “Joe Biden,” front-man for the United Blob of America? What’s in it for “him?” We might surmise that the “Joe Biden” re-election campaign seeks a big, fat, juicy major distraction from its so-far pathetic effort to keep a near-mummy in the White House. Well, how about that World War they’ve been itchin’ for? Plus, they probably calculate, it’d be great for business! Besides, considering the poll numbers, this might just be the blob’s last stand, since they know as soon as Mr. Trump gets back in the White House (if the blob can’t manage to kill him first) the words “You’re fired!” will echo so thunderously between Foggy Bottom and Judiciary Square that every last critter in the DC Swamp will light out for the territories to avoid the prosecutions sure to follow."

- https://kunstler.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 3/25/24

"Moscow Attack: Putin's Aide Reveals Why Russia 

Leader Doesn't Believe USA Blaming ISIS, Not Ukraine"

The terror attack at a concert hall in Moscow is snowballing into another flashpoint between Russia and the West. While USA and its allies are supporting ISIS' claim that it perpetrated the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed skepticism publicly. Now, a senior Russian official has explained Moscow's position. 

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/25/24"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/25/24

"Blackrock Warns Of Debt Market Meltdown

 As Central Banks Set Up Their Next Move"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Proud To Be An American"

"Proud To Be An American"

US institutions have been captured and corrupted by the special interests who 

run them. This is not something bizarre or unusual; it happens…when you let it.

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "The case we are making is that major US institutions have been captured and corrupted by the special interests who run them. This is not something bizarre or unusual; it happens…when you let it. This was the warning famously given by President Eisenhower when he left office: beware the ‘military-industrial complex.’ After WWII, the military industrial complex flexed its muscles and used its money to gain control of Congress. War is always popular, when you’re on the winning side. So, it was easy to stir up fear and get bigger budgets.

And now, America’s military-industrial complex has been compromised. Too much money…and too much power…has left it too fat, too rich…too self-absorbed…too bureaucratic and backward-facing…And probably incapable of winning a real war. But the military is not the only one.

 

Tails, You Lose: On Friday, we looked at the Fed-Wall Street complex -- how it gained control over the nation’s money….and how it uses interest rates and money printing to enrich itself. In effect, it makes hay when the sun shines. Then, when the clouds roll over…it puts the inevitable losses onto the public. Heads, I win. Tails, you lose.

The whole scam came into focus last week as the Fed let it be known that it will continue to promote inflation. Rather than squeeze it out by holding rates at reasonable levels (the real rate on the Fed’s key loans is only about 1%), it announced that it would make credit cheaper.

Associated Press was on the story: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials signaled Wednesday that they still expect to cut their key interest rate three times in 2024, fueling a rally on Wall Street, despite signs that inflation remained elevated at the start of the year.

The only plausible reason for cutting rates anytime soon – with inflation still on the loose, stocks near record highs and the Fed’s key rate barely positive - is that it benefits the people who control the Fed and the financial system; that is, the big banks and investment firms on Wall Street. In the case of the banks, the higher rates of the last three years have left them with more than $600 billion (according to Moody’s) in losses on their core Treasury bond holdings.

As for Wall Street, it is not only among the largest holders of stocks and bonds…it is also their leading purveyor. The Street makes its money by selling financial assets, not by buying them. Owning stocks is not normally very attractive to the common people. They have no way of knowing which business is a good one…and which is not. They have neither the time nor the expertise to study balance sheets and amortization schedules. In more honest times, they put their money into a bank…earned a respectable interest on it…and let the BSDs in the financial industry take their chances in the stock market.

Fake Dollar, Easy Money: Then, along came the fake dollar (no gold in it)…and along came the Greenspan Put (he promised investors they wouldn’t lose money)…and Bernanke’s big Wall Street bailout of 2009-2022…and the average guy came to believe he could make money by just “being in the market,” say, with a low-cost ETF. And then the patsy saw the fabulous success of the stock market, generally – from 950 to 38,000 in 24 years… and the incredible success of the latest tech stocks, with Nvidia going from $4 to $940 in just 10 years. Naturally, he wanted in.

And, of course, as long as the Fed was actively promoting the stock market, stocks rose. Even so, the increase was always more than it appeared. In terms of gold, it takes about 19 ounces of gold to buy the leading 30 Dow stocks today..and it took 18 ounces to buy them (the 30 Dow stocks of the period) in 1929. All investors really earned were the dividends…and often, the top stocks don’t pay dividends.

Still, with the Fed pumping up financial assets, everyday was payday on Wall Street…and the rich got much richer. David Stockman: "Since 1989, for example, the net worth of the top 0.1% has soared from $1.8 trillion to just under $20 trillion. That’s a gain of $138 million per household. By contrast, the aggregate net worth of the bottom 50% or 66 million households has risen from $0.7 trillion to $3.6 trillion. That’s a gain of just $44,000 per household. Accordingly, the top 0.1% gained 3,100X more net worth each than the bottom half of America’s households.

And then, just to show deep in the lobbyists’ pockets they have members of Congress, on Friday the House passed – sight unseen – at 3am!...another lollapalooza of spending -- $1.2 trillion for this and that. The Senate rubber stamped it the next day. More than 1,000 pages of boondoggle and payoffs, nobody bothered to read it. Politico: "Senate sends $1.2T funding package to Biden, thwarting partial shutdown. A colossal $1.2 trillion spending package is finally off to President Joe Biden’s desk, with Congress concluding a tumultuous government funding cycle and skirting a shutdown after midnight."

There you have it. The stupid party and the evil party working together like dealers and addicts. More money for weapons. More money for Wall Street. Bigger deficits. More debt. Higher stock prices. MarketWatch: "U.S. stocks shot up nearly 30% in 5 months." Makes us proud."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/25/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/25/24"

○

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

○

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

○

Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

○

Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

○

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

o

"'Won't Spare Anyone': Russia's New Chilling Threat; Putin Aide Says 'Just Wait...'; Moscow Attack"

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, 3/24/24

"'Won't Spare Anyone': Russia's New Chilling Threat; 

Putin Aide Says 'Just Wait...'; Moscow Attack"

"Russia has once again issued a chilling threat to those involved in Friday's horrifying attack on Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people. President Vladimir Putin's close aide and deputy chair of Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that they won't spare anyone involved in the attack. While the Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the militant strike on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Russia has been seeking to tie the attackers to Ukraine"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! NATO 'Highest Threat Level'; Nuclear Doctrines; F-16's Start WWW III; Biggest Attack Next 24 Hours"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 3/24/24

"Alert! NATO 'Highest Threat Level'; Nuclear Doctrines; 

F-16's Start WWW III; Biggest Attack Next 24 Hours"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Greg Hunter, "CV19 Vaxed and Unvaxed Need Treatment Now"

"CV19 Vaxed and Unvaxed Need Treatment Now"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Dr. Betsy Eads warned about extreme disease and death coming because of the CV19 bioweapon/vax since the beginning of Covid from infection to injection. She warned about AIDS, infertility, turbo cancers, heart disease, blood clots and many other problems caused by the CV19 bioweapon injection. Dr. Eads was right every single time. Now, Dr. Eads is saying everyone needs treatment whether you are CV19 vaxed or unvaxed. Dr. Eads explains, “We are getting transmission from the vaxed to the unvaxed. We are getting chemtrails. They are putting the mRNA in our food. People have to understand, people need to detox and protect yourself whether you are vaxed or not. I contend everybody should be taking some Ivermectin.”

What about the so-called “Long Covid” that people are experiencing in the last few years? Dr. Eads says, “My definition of ‘Long Covid’ is vax injury and/or transmission from the spike protein, injured. I think that term has evolved, and Dr. Kory is also including that definition with his vaccine injured patients. He is treating not only vaccine injured patients but patients that have been injured by transmission from the CV19 vaxed. We know transmission (from the CV19 vaxed) is a real thing.”

A little more than a year ago on USAWatchdog.com, Dr. Eads predicted “At Least 1 Billion Dead or Disabled from CV19 Bioweapon.” We have already eclipsed that number, and there is no end in sight with new and skyrocketing death and injury numbers. Dr. Eads says, “Ed Dowd’s numbers, actuary numbers and looking at UK numbers finds 2.2 billion people permanently injured or killed by the CV19 vax. If you look at the Deagel Report, we may see some huge population losses by 2025. The Deagel predictions show the US falling from 330 million to 89 million people. In the UK, Deagel predicts population will fall from 67 million to 15 million people as a direct result of the Covid 19 bioweapons.”

When does the death and disability peak? Dr. Eads says, “On a previous interview here, I said we would get our peak in five years. We are seeing huge numbers in the DMED data. That’s the military data, and it is more accurate than VAERS data. 97% of our military was CV19 vaxed. In that data, which is very accurate, cancers have increased across the board 1,000%. We do have some treatments to handle the spike protein from the CV19 shots but we don’t have any treatment to shut down the mRNA that produces the spike protein. So, these numbers may go up exponentially until we have treatments.”

One way to lessen the disabilities and deaths from the CV19 vax is to use Ivermectin. Dr. Eads says it is one of the best and safest treatments out there now to treat CV19 for the vaxed or unvaxed being shed on by the vaxed. The FDA just settled a lawsuit from Dr. Pierre Kory and other doctors. Dr. Eads says, “Breaking news that has just come out is the FDA loses the war on Ivermectin. The FDA has to retract anything that was negative about Ivermectin.” So, it looks like Ivermectin will be getting easier to get a prescription with the FDA doing an about face on Ivermectin, which is arguably the safest and most effective drug ever invented. There is much more cutting edge, frontline medical information in the nearly 44-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks to 25-year veteran Dr. Elizabeth Eads, DO, exposing the lies that Big Pharma, CDC, FDA and NIH are telling the public. Dr. Eads continues to highlight the real unreported effects of the CV19 bioweapons.

- https://rumble.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Major Alert: Prepare For Everything Now"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/24/24

"Major Alert: Prepare For Everything Now; 

No More Chic-Fil-A For Me; Buying More Emergency Food"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

Liquid Mind, "Shadows of White"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140828.html

Free Download: T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

“Little Gidding” (Excerpt)

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time. 

When the last of earth left to discover 

Is that which was the beginning; 

At the source of the longest river 

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree.

Not known, because not looked for 

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always - 

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in-folded 

Into the crowned knot of fire 

And the fire and the rose are one.”

- T.S. Eliot

The "Little Gidding" is the last of T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets," 

which you may freely download here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com/

o

Welcome to Fadedpage.com!

Faded Page is an archive of eBooks that are provided completely free to everyone. The books are produced by volunteers all over the world, and we believe they are amongst the highest quality eBooks anywhere. Every one has been scanned, run through OCR software, proofed, formatted and assembled extremely carefully, using hundreds of volunteer hours. These books are public domain in Canada (because we follow the Canadian copyright laws), but if you are in another country, you should satisfy yourself that you are not breaking the copyright laws of your own country by downloading them. You are free to do whatever you like with these books, but we hope that mainly...you will enjoy reading them.

- https://www.fadedpage.com/index.php

"The Immortal Hymn of Mankind"

"The Immortal Hymn of Mankind"

by Paul Rosenberg

"If you could go back in time a thousand years, you’d find people who were eerily similar to your present companions. The same is true for people who will live a thousand years from now. Some of them will be nearly identical to the people you now love, and you would care deeply about those people, the same as you do their present-day counterparts.

Please understand this: The men, women and children we would love in the future can advance only in the same way we have, by the benefaction of their predecessors.

Can you imagine how long it took for ignorant men and women to learn metallurgy? Or crop rotation? Or a hundred other things we can barely imagine being without? Our lives are advanced only because they created new ways of living and passed them down to us. Hundreds of generations of people just like us lived through dark times, fighting toward whatever bits of light they could find, opposed by others nearly the entire way, to bring us where we are now.

Someday our generation will also be gone, and we will have played – whether we’ve understood it or not – the crucial role of transmitting civilization to following generations. What do we want them to be like? How do we want them to live?

Numberless men and women have struggled toward the future and spent all they had to bring us here. We owe them something. It may be that they no longer care, but their gifts to us will cease to exist unless we pass them along. We make them matter, and they deserve to matter.

We stand now at the threshold of the stars, but we’ve been immobilized by self-serving structures designed to control every human and reap from their every action. We must get past them if we are to continue forward. Foolishness and fear bid us to forget the future, to chase status instead of goodness, consumption rather than production, and stasis rather than expansion. A thousand self-serving voices call us aside, grasping at our minds and emotions. We must turn away from them all.

We owe this to the people of the past.
We owe it to the people of the future.
We owe it to ourselves.
What happens next is up to you. It’s not up to leaders or bosses. It’s up to you.

The consequences of your failures are inescapable, and the consequences of your good deeds are inescapable. Whether or not you acknowledge them, our descendants will live or die by them. What you are and what you do matter a very great deal. Engage your will. Act. Awake."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"The Hyphen..."

"Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit."

- A.W. and J.C. Hare, "Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers," 1827

"Noli Timere: The Important Thing Is to Not Be Afraid”

"Noli Timere:

The Important Thing Is to Not Be Afraid”

by Ryan Holiday

"While Seamus Heaney, the world-famous Irish poet and Nobel Prize Winner, was being rushed to the operating room he sent a single text message to his wife with just two words: "Noli Timere." This Latin phrase when translated to English means "Be not afraid." Heaney passed away not long after.

There was no virtue more important to the Stoics than courage, particularly in times of stress or crisis. In scary times, it’s easy to be scared. Events can escalate at any moment. There is uncertainty. You could lose your job. Then your house and your car. Something could even happen with your kids. Of course we’re going to feel something when things are shaky like that. How could we not?

Even the Stoics, who were supposedly masters of their emotions, admitted that we are going to have natural reactions to the things that are out of our control. You’re going to feel cold if someone dumps a bucket of water on you. Your heart is going to race if something jumps out from behind a corner. These are things the Stoics openly discussed.

They had a word for these immediate, pre-cognitive impressions of things: phantasiai. No amount of training or wisdom, Seneca said, can prevent us from having these reactions. What mattered to them, and what is urgently needed today in a world of unlimited breaking news about pandemics or collapsing stock markets or military conflicts, was what you did after that reaction. What mattered is what came next.

There is a wonderful quote from Faulkner about this very idea. “Be scared,” he wrote. “You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid.” A scare is a temporary rush of a feeling. Being afraid is an ongoing process. Fear is a state of being. The alertness that comes from being startled might even help you. It wakes you up. It puts your body in motion. It’s what saves prey from the tiger or the tiger from the hunter. But fear and worry and anxiety? Being afraid? That’s not fight or flight. That’s paralysis. That only makes things worse.

Especially right now. Especially in a world that requires solutions to the many problems we face. They’re certainly not going to solve themselves. And inaction (or the wrong action) may make them worse, it might put you in even more danger. An inability to learn, adapt, to embrace change will too.

There is a Hebrew prayer which dates back to the early 1800s: כל העולם כולו גשר צר מאוד והעיקר לא לפחד כלל. “The world is a narrow bridge, and the important thing is not to be afraid.” The wisdom of that expression has sustained the Jewish people through incredible adversity and terrible tragedies. It was even turned into a popular song that was broadcast to troops and citizens alike during the Yom Kippur War. It’s a reminder: Yes, things are dicey, and it’s easy to be scared if you look down instead of forward. Fear will not help.

What does help? Training. Courage. Discipline. Commitment. Calm. But mainly, that courage thing – which the Stoics held up as the most essential virtue. One of my favorite explanations of this idea comes from the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. “It’s not like astronauts are braver than other people,” he says. “We’re just, you know, meticulously prepared…” Think about someone like John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, whose heart rate never went above a 100 beats per minute the entire mission. That’s what preparation does for you.

Astronauts face all sorts of difficult, high stakes situations in space – where the margin for error is tiny. In fact, on Chris’ first spacewalk his left eye went blind. Then his other eye teared up and went blind too. In complete darkness, he had to find his way back if he wanted to survive. He would later say that the key in such situations is to remind oneself that “there are six things that I could do right now, all of which will help make things better. And it’s worth remembering, too, there’s no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse also.” That’s the difference between scared and afraid. One prevents you from making things better, it may make them worse.

After the stock market crash in October 1929, America faced a horrendous economic crisis that lasted ten years. Banks failed. Investors were wiped out. Unemployment was some 20 percent. Herbert Hoover, who’d only been in office barely six months when the market collapsed, tried and failed repeatedly for the next 3.5 years to stem the tide. FDR, who succeeded him, would have never denied that things were dangerous and that this was scary. Of course it was. He was scared. How could he not be? Yet what he counseled the people in his now-legendary first inaugural address in 1933 was that fear was a choice, it was the real enemy to be fought. Because it would only make the situation worse. It would destroy the remaining banks. It would turn people against each other. It would prevent the implementation of cooperative solutions.

And today, whether the biggest problem you face is the coronavirus pandemic or the similarly dire economic implications – or maybe it’s both those things plus a faltering marriage or a cancer diagnosis or a lawsuit – you have to know what the real plague to avoid is.

This life we’re living – this world we inhabit – is a scary place. If you peer over the side of a narrow bridge, you can lose the heart to continue. You freeze up. You sit down. You don’t make good decisions. You don’t see or think clearly.

The important thing is that we are not afraid. That we don’t overthink things. That we don’t get distracted with the worst-case scenario on top of the worst-case scenario on top of the collision of two other worst-case scenarios. Because that doesn’t help us with what’s right in front of us right now. It doesn’t help us put one foot in front of the other, whether it’s on a spacewalk or a tough business call. It doesn’t help us slow our heart rate down whether we’re re-entering the earth’s atmosphere or watching a plummeting stock portfolio. It doesn’t help us remember that we’ve trained for this, that there is a playbook for how to proceed.

Remember, Marcus Aurelius himself faced a deadly, dangerous pandemic. His people were panicked. His doctors were baffled. His staff and his advisors were conflicted. His economy plunged. The plague spanned fifteen years of his reign with a mortality rate of between 2-3%. Marcus would have been scared – how could he not have been? But he didn’t let that rattle him. He didn’t freeze. He didn’t relinquish his ability to lead. He got to work.

“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole,” he wrote to himself, as it was happening. “Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?’ You’ll be embarrassed to answer.” The crisis could have crippled him. But instead he stood up. He not only endured it, but he was a hero. He saved lives. He prevented panic from turning the battle into a rout.

Which is what we must do today and always, whatever we’re facing. We can’t give into fear. We have to repeat to ourselves over and over again: It’s OK to be scared, just don’t be afraid. We repeat: The world is a narrow bridge and I will not be afraid.

We have to focus on the six things, as Chris Hadfield might say, that we can do to make it better. And we can’t forget that there are plenty of things we can do to make things worse. Foremost among them, giving into fear and making mistakes. Rather, we have to keep going. Now is the time for everyone to show courage, like the thousands of generations who have come before us. Because time marches in only one direction – forward.”

- https://ryanholiday.net/

"Confused..."

"Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation."

- Edward R. Murrow

"Love Anyway"

"Love Anyway"

by Maria Popova

"You know that the price of life is death, that the price of love is loss, and still you watch the golden afternoon light fall on a face you love, knowing that the light will soon fade, knowing that the loving face too will one day fade to indifference or bone, and you love anyway - because life is transient but possible, because love alone bridges the impossible and the eternal.

I think about this and a passage from Louise Erdrich’s 2005 novel "The Painted Drum" (public library) flits across the sky of my mind: "Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could."

This, of course, is what life evolved to be - an aria of affirmation rising like luminous steam from the cold dark silence of an indifferent cosmos that will one day swallow all of it. Every living thing is its singer and its steward - something the poetic paleontologist Loren Eiseley captures with uncommon poignancy in his 1957 essay “The Judgment of the Birds,” found in his altogether magnificent posthumous collection "The Star Thrower" (public library).

Eiseley recounts resting beneath a tree after a day of trekking through fern and pine needles collecting fossils, dozing off in the warm sunlight, then being suddenly awakened by a great commotion to see “an enormous raven with a red and squirming nestling in his beak” perching on a crooked branch above. He writes: "Into the glade fluttered small birds of half a dozen varieties drawn by the anguished outcries of the tiny parents. No one dared to attack the raven. But they cried there in some instinctive common misery, the bereaved and the unbereaved. The glade filled with their soft rustling and their cries. They fluttered as though to point their wings at the murderer. There was a dim intangible ethic he had violated, that they knew. He was a bird of death. And he, the murderer, the black bird at the heart of life, sat on there, glistening in the common light, formidable, unmoving, unperturbed, untouchable. The sighing died. 

It was then I saw the judgment. It was the judgment of life against death. I will never see it again so forcefully presented. I will never hear it again in notes so tragically prolonged. For in the midst of protest, they forgot the violence. There, in that clearing, the crystal note of a song sparrow lifted hesitantly in the hush. And finally, after painful fluttering, another took the song, and then another, the song passing from one bird to another, doubtfully at first, as though some evil thing were being slowly forgotten. Till suddenly they took heart and sang from many throats joyously together as birds are known to sing. They sang because life is sweet and sunlight beautiful. They sang under the brooding shadow of the raven. In simple truth they had forgotten the raven, for they were the singers of life, and not of death."

Couple with Hannah Arendt on love and how to live with the fundamental fear of loss, then revisit Loren Eiseley on the warblers and the wonder of being."

- https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/

The Daily "Near You?"

Washington, DC, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"We WERE There..."

"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."

- Orson Scott Card

 

"Now the voices and the sound of movement were gone, and the stream could be heard running quietly under its banks. The air was full of the scent of water and of flowers. She walked, quiet, while the house began to reverberate: a band had started up. She walked beside the river while the music thudded, feeling herself as a heavy, impervious, insensitive lump that, like a planet doomed always to be dark on one side, had vision in front only, a myopic searchlight blind except for the tiny three-dimensional path open immediately before her eyes in which the outline of a tree, a rose, emerged then submerged in dark. She thought, with the dove's voices of her solitude. Where? But where. How? Who? No, but where, where… Then silence and the birth of a repetition. Where? Here. Here? Here, where else, you fool, you poor fool, where else has it been, ever…?"

- Doris Lessing

"17 Basic Skills You'll Have To Learn After The Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 3/24/24

"17 Basic Skills You'll Have To Learn After The Collapse"

"American Patriots, the world is quickly barreling toward a major collapse unlike anything we have ever seen before. While the modern world has brought with it a wide range of conveniences that have made life easier, it has also made us dependent on systems and technologies that may not be able to withstand a major disaster. Today, Patriots need to be aware that we could very likely find ourselves facing an event that threatens our way of life. Whether it's the impending crash of the economy, the looming threat of an attack on American soil that could very well happen at any time, or a catastrophic natural disaster, being prepared is essential. Patriots, this is crucial to surviving after the collapse! Learn these skills, and prep for what's right around the corner."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"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

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

Full screen Recommended.

Scott Ritter, 3/24/24

"Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Nuclear Threat 

Plunges the World into Chaos!"

"In this groundbreaking interview, Scott Ritter, a renowned military expert, analyzes the tense situation between Russia and Ukraine, emphasizing the severe consequences of a conflict that could escalate into nuclear war. Ritter provides deep insights into military strategy, political movements, and the global impact of this conflict. Join us to listen and gain a better understanding of the potential risks and solutions to avoid a global catastrophe."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 3/24/24

"Dire Truth: The Ukraine Conflict's

 Perilous Turn & NATO's Critical Missteps"

"In this critical analysis, Scott Ritter, a seasoned military strategist, uncovers the alarming realities of the Ukraine conflict and the consequential errors of NATO's strategy. He presents a stark portrayal of Russian military prowess, the futility of Ukrainian resistance efforts, and the potential for escalating global tension. Ritter's expert insights shed light on the sophisticated use of drone warfare by Russia and the lagging Western military doctrines. This video is an essential watch for those who want to grasp the severity and potential global fallout of the ongoing turmoil. Prepare to confront the uncomfortable truths and strategic blunders that could shape our world's geopolitical future."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: This Is Going To End Very, Very Badly"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/24/24

"Markets, A Look Ahead: 

This Is Going To End Very, Very Badly"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping For 'Great Value' Food Items At Walmart!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 3/24/24

"Shopping For 'Great Value' Food Items At Walmart!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are searching for different "Great Value" products that not only are a good price but good quality as well. We go over which products our viewers have mentioned and the ones that I have tried myself."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Scott Ritter, "What Is The Nato Plan After Inciting Terrorist Attack In Moscow?"

Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 3/24/24

"What Is The Nato Plan After Inciting 

Terrorist Attack In Moscow?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Proof Everyone Is Going Broke!"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 3/23/24

"Proof Everyone Is Going Broke!"

"At this point, we are being lied to every single day about how well the economy is doing, and you don't have to look very far for proof that simultaneously everyone is going broke. In fact, we can sum it all up just from looking at one FRED chart on the economy that proves this."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Rich Have Lost It"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly PM 3/23/24

"The Rich Have Lost It"

"The CEO of Bentley tells us that sales are down for one reason. Rich people don’t wanna flaunt their wealth anymore and embarrass us peasants. Do you believe this?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Emergency Broadcast: The Collapse Of The West Will Be Chaos"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 3/23/24

"Emergency Broadcast: 

The Collapse Of The West Will Be Chaos"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "The Titanic Is Sinking, It's Time To Panic"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/23/24

"The Titanic Is Sinking, It's Time To Panic; 

States Are Confiscating People's Homes"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Russia Turned On War Mode After Moscow Terrorist Attack, Ukraine is Done, NATO is Done"

Full screen recommended.

Larry Johnson, 3/23/24

"Russia Turned On War Mode After Moscow Terrorist Attack,

 Ukraine is Done, NATO is Done"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, at the top of the image, atop a long stem of glowing hydrogen gas. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244.

These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros)."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210214.html