“7 Things Fear Has Stolen From You”

“7 Things Fear Has Stolen From You”

by Marc Chernoff

“There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.”

- Ben Johnson

“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid; courage means you don’t let fear stop you. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Don’t ever hesitate to give yourself a chance to be everything you are capable of being. Although fear can feel overwhelming, and defeats more people than any other force in the world, it’s not as powerful as it seems. Fear is only as deep as your mind allows. You are still in control. The key is to acknowledge your fear and directly address it. You must step right up and confront it face to face. This tactic robs fear of its power, instead of fear robbing YOU of…

1. Your true path and purpose. Fear of being different: Don’t be fooled by what others say, especially when they try to tell you what is right for you. Listen and then draw your own conclusions.  What is your intuition telling you? There is not a clear path that everyone should follow. Your greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding in life at all the wrong things. Choose a path that fits YOU. Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it. Challenge yourself to ask with each and every step, and each focus point that consumes your energy: “Does this thing I’m doing right now truly serve me and those I care about in the next few minutes, few months, and few years?” Whatever you settle on, just make sure you don’t gain the whole world by losing your soul and purpose in the process. 

2. Self-respect. Fear of not being good enough: Don’t be too hard on yourself. There are plenty of people willing to do that for you. Do your best and surrender the rest. Tell yourself, “I am doing the best I can with what I have in this moment. That is all I can ever expect of anyone, including me.” Love yourself and be proud of everything you do, even your mistakes, because your mistakes mean you’re trying. If you feel like others are not treating you with love and respect, check your price tag. Perhaps you subconsciously marked yourself down. Because it’s YOU who tells others what you’re worth by showing them what you are willing to accept for your time and attention. So get off the clearance rack. If you don’t value and respect yourself, wholeheartedly, no one else will either.

3. Your ability to make concrete decisions. Fear of commitment: You cannot live your life at the mercy of chance. You cannot stumble along with a map marked only with the places you fear, or the places you know you don’t want to revisit. You cannot remain trapped, endlessly, in a state where you are unable to ask for directions, even though you’re terribly lost, because you don’t know your destination. You have to commit to goals that speak to you. You have to stand up, look at yourself in the mirror, and say, “It isn’t good enough for me to know only what I DON’T want in life. I need to decide what I DO want.” 

4. Priceless opportunities and life experiences. Fear of change and discomfort: As Thich Nhat Hanh so perfectly said, “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” In many cases you stay stuck in your old routines for no other reason than that they are familiar to you. In other words, you’re afraid of change and the unknown. You continually put your dreams and goals off until tomorrow, and you pass on great opportunities simply because they have the potential to lead you out of your comfort zone.

You start using excuses to justify your lack of backbone: “Someday when I have more money,” or “when I’m older,” or the over-abused “I’ll get to it as soon as I have more time.” This is a vicious cycle that leads to a deeply unsatisfying life – a way of thinking that eventually sends you to your grave with immense regret. Regret that you didn’t follow your heart. Regret that you always put everyone else’s needs before your own. Regret that you didn’t do what you could have done when you had the chance.

5. General happiness and peace of mind. Fear of facing inner truths: If you keep looking for happiness outside yourself, you will never find it. Happiness is found from within. What you seek is not somewhere else at some other time; what you seek is here and now, within you. The more you look for it outside yourself, the more it hides from you. Relax, remember the source of your deepest desires, and allow yourself to know their fulfillment. A choice, not circumstances, determines happiness. Each morning when you open your eyes, say to yourself:  “I, not external people or events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. It’s up to me. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow hasn’t come yet. I only have today and I’m going to be happy in it.” 

6. Your willingness to love, truly and purely. Fear of not being loved in return: Although it is nice when gestures of love are returned, true love is one-way traffic. It’s a pure flow of giving and expecting nothing in return. Anything else is a contract. Notice how whenever you allow love to flow you are always clear, calm and strong. It is only when the thought arises, “What have they given me in return?” that there is confusion and resentment. Ego transacts, love transforms. Life is too short for all these meticulous contracts and transactions.

Look out for yourself by focusing your love in a direction that feels right to you, but once you decide to love, remain clear, remain bright, and remain strong. Love without expectation. Don’t let fear get in your way. When the love you give is true, the people worthy of your love will gradually reveal themselves over time.

7. The right company. Fear of being alone: Sadly, no matter how much love you give, some relationships simply aren’t meant to be. You can try your hardest, you can do everything and say everything, but sometimes people just aren’t worth stressing over anymore, and they aren’t worth worrying about. It’s important to know when to distance yourself from someone who only hurts you and brings you down. When you give your love to someone, truly and purely without expectation, and it’s never good enough for them, there’s a good chance you’re giving your love to the wrong person.

The bottom line is that long-term relationships should help you, not hurt you. Spend time with nice people who are smart, driven and like-minded. And remember, good relationships are a sacred bond – a circle of trust. Both parties must be 100% on board. If and when the time comes to let a relationship go, don’t be hostile. Simply thank the relationships that don’t work out for you, because they just made room for the ones that will.

Next steps: Your biggest fears are completely dependent on you for their survival. Every new day is another chance to change your life, and it’s way too short to let fear interfere. Today, focus your conscious mind on things you desire, not things you fear. Doing so can bring your dreams to life.

Your turn… What has fear stolen from you?  What has it stopped you from doing, being, or achieving?  Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with the community.”

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"A Brave New War: The Tribal War Over Israel"

Black Lives Matter and Free Palestine

 movements collude in the global netwar.

"A Brave New War:

The Tribal War Over Israel"

by John Robb

"What curious form of war and protest do we have before us? “War in the 21st Century will be very different from what we have come to expect,”  John Robb forecasted in the preface to his 2007 book, "Brave New War." In a nutshell: "We live in an extremely complex global system – too complex for a single state or group of states to keep under control. Certain people – guerillas – are now intentionally introducing instability into these global systems by attacking both social and economic systems. The manufactured instabilities are almost impossible to control. Additionally, many of the things we have tried in order to stop these negative actors have only made matters worse."

"In a last ditch effort, Hamas constructed the perfect trap for Israel. Why was Israel so willing to walk in? The Israeli government says it’s at war to destroy Hamas. It isn’t. It’s in an online war with a global, networked tribe for its very existence. A war it is losing.

You can see it in this recent poll (one of many that say the same thing) just after the terrorist attack. Question: Israel’s response to the Hamas attack is fully justified (US citizens by age)?

65+ 81%.
50-64 56%.
35-49 44%.
18-34 27%.

This result tells us that Israel is on track to lose US support in a generation or less. However, given the networked tribalism underway, this result tells us that the US won’t just be unsupportive of Israel; it will be antagonistic to it.

Tribalized Moral Warfare: The reason for this sudden shift is the rise of tribalized and networked moral warfare. Until recently, Israel was largely unopposed in its ability to wage moral warfare, both on and offline. It was able, with the support of its diaspora, to control the flow of information and the moral framing of its wars, and any attempt to wage moral warfare in opposition to Israel was shut down by labeling it anti-semitism. This control provided them with support from Western governments and their institutional media. Support (from $ to weapons to military intervention to diplomatic cover) they need to survive. That’s over.

Networked tribalism, similar to what we have seen with anti-racism/fascism/etc., has rapidly emerged to wage moral warfare in opposition to Israel. This tribal moral warfare routes around the traditional media, and in some cases, it coerces media companies into alignment. Moreover, networked tribalism connects people to this conflict through empathy triggers that forge fictive kinship, turning billions of people unrelated to the participants in real life into partisans.

No Peace: Tribal moral warfare isn’t a political contest. Solutions and compromise aren’t possible. Peaceful outcomes are an anathema. In networked tribal warfare, the sides are framed as absolute good vs. absolute evil. Opressor/oppressed. Peaceful citizens/terrorists. As a result, tribal moral warfare dehumanizes the opposition.

Debate immediately devolves. Since networked tribes only come together to oppose an enemy and not about position goals, they won’t acknowledge or even ‘see’ the evil acts of their side. They fall outside of the oppositional pattern they are using to make sense of the conflict. For example: The charges “You are defending terrorists who behead babies” or “You are defending a country that blows up and starves babies” aren’t even heard by the people they are used against. Networked tribes don’t deal in nuance. They are maximalists. The problem for Israel, and those who support it, is that this isn’t a fair fight.

The Tactics of Mistake: On January 11, 2024, South Africa started to make its case that Israel has breached the 1948 Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice (of which Israel is a signatory). The vote on provisional measures to provide protection and aid to Palestinians in Gaza (and potentially the West Bank) took as little as a week. Regardless of the outcome, this is a disaster for Israel. This isn’t all; this war’s length, brutality, and complexity have led to an ever-increasing amount of damage to Israel. Here are a few examples:

The tunnel network and the bombing campaign (rubble) have combined to turn Gaza into an unforgiving battlefield that is a cross between two of the most deadly battlefields of WW2: Iwo Jima (tunnels) and Stalingrad. As a result, hundreds of IDF soldiers have been killed and thousands critically wounded (long-term care), damaging IDF morale and discipline.

Extensive tunneling has made it impossible for Israel to effectively ID Hamas targets, which has led to a very messy bombing campaign, resulting in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. These deaths have fueled the growth of anti-Israel networked tribalism across the world (a generational time bomb for Israel within the US) and prepared the ground for South Africa’s action.

The complexities of this prolonged war have led to an increasing number of self-inflicted incidents that have damaged Israel both internally and externally. For example, in a complete breakdown in discipline, the IDF killed three shirtless Israeli hostages waving a white flag.

The reason things have gone so badly for Israel is that this war was a trap. A trap laid in a last-ditch move (just before the normalization of relations between Israel and much of the Arab world) by a weak adversary with few other options. A perfect trap that Israel was compelled to walk into.

Why Terrorism Works: Terrorism succeeds - in the rare times it does work - when the target state overreacts to the provocation and damages itself by doing so. The trick to knowing when it will work (and when it will be devastating) relies on one insight from Sun Tzu. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

What does knowing your enemy mean? It means that you understand how your enemy makes decisions. - John Robb. So it goes..."

- https://jointhesessions.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Madisonville, Kentucky, USA. Thanks or stopping by!

"My Own View..."

And sometimes, all you can think 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.”

- Christopher Hitchens

And you'd better believe they're never letting us off this rock...

"The Universal And Inevitable Excuse..."

And, of course, the universal and inevitable excuse…

“A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably

excuses himself to himself by saying, “I’m only human, after all.”

- Sydney J. Harris

o

I've always wondered...

Everyone says “Only human…” compared to what?

Free Download: Mark Twain, "Letters From the Earth"

"Mark Twain's 'Letters From the Earth'"

by Wikipedia

“Letters from the Earth” is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters. Initially, his daughter, Clara Clemens, objected to its publication in March 1939, probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion, claiming it presented a "distorted" view of her father. Henry Nash Smith helped change her position in 1960. Clara explained her change of heart in 1962 saying that "Mark Twain belonged to the world" and that public opinion had become more tolerant. She was also influenced to release the papers due to her annoyance with Soviet propaganda charges that her father's ideas were being suppressed in the United States. The papers were edited in 1939 by Bernard DeVoto. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. The title story consists of eleven letters written by the archangel Satan to archangels, Gabriel and Michael, about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man's religions. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man.

Textual references make clear that sections, at least, of “Letters from the Earth” were written shortly before his death in April 1910. (For instance, Letter VII, in discussing the ravages of hookworm, refers to the $1,000,000 gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help eradicate the disease – a gift that was announced on October 28, 1909, less than six months before Twain's death.)"

- http://en.wikipedia.org/

○

Excerpt: "Letters From the Earth"
by Mark Twain

"This is a strange place, an extraordinary place, and interesting. There is nothing resembling it at home. The people are all insane, the other animals are all insane, the earth is insane, Nature itself is insane. Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at is worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. Yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the "noblest work of God." This is the truth I am telling you. And this is not a new idea with him, he has talked it through all the ages, and believed it. Believed it, and found nobody among all his race to laugh at it.

Moreover - if I may put another strain upon you - he thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance. I must put one more strain upon you: he thinks he is going to heaven!"

Freely download "Letters From the Earth", by Mark Twain, here: 

- https://faculty.mtsac.edu/jmcfaul/

"The Only Time We've Got..."

o

"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call

 you could make, who would you call and what would you say? 

And why are you waiting?"

- Stephen Levine

o

“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

To be or not to be.

Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice.

Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume

and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?"

- Chuck Palahniuk

"Falling From Grace"

"Falling From Grace"

by Jeff Thomas

"Years ago, Doug Casey mentioned in a correspondence to me, "Empires fall from grace with alarming speed." Every now and then, you receive a comment that, although it may have been stated casually, has a lasting effect, as it offers uncommon insight. For me, this was one of those and it’s one that I’ve kept handy at my desk since that time, as a reminder.

I’m from a British family, one that left the UK just as the British Empire was about to begin its decline. They expatriated to the "New World" to seek promise for the future. As I’ve spent most of my life centred in a British colony – the Cayman Islands – I’ve had the opportunity to observe many British contract professionals who left the UK seeking advancement, which they almost invariably find in Cayman. Curiously, though, most returned to the UK after a contract or two, in the belief that the UK would bounce back from its decline, and they wanted to be on board when Britain "came back."

This, of course, never happened. The US replaced the UK as the world’s foremost empire, and although the UK has had its ups and downs over the ensuing decades, it hasn’t returned to its former glory. And it never will.

If we observe the empires of the world that have existed over the millennia, we see a consistent history of collapse without renewal. Whether we’re looking at the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Spanish Empire, or any other that’s existed at one time, history is remarkably consistent: The decline and fall of any empire never reverses itself; nor does the empire return, once it’s fallen.

But of what importance is this to us today? Well, today, the US is the world’s undisputed leading empire and most Americans would agree that, whilst it’s going through a bad patch, it will bounce back and might even be better than ever.

Not so, I’m afraid. All empires follow the same cycle. They begin with a population that has a strong work ethic and is self-reliant. Those people organize to form a nation of great strength, based upon high productivity. This leads to expansion, generally based upon world trade. At some point, this gives rise to leaders who seek, not to work in partnership with other nations, but to dominate them, and of course, this is when a great nation becomes an empire. The US began this stage under the flamboyant and aggressive Teddy Roosevelt.

The twentieth century was the American century and the US went from victory to victory, expanding its power. But the decline began in the 1960s, when the US started to pursue unwinnable wars, began the destruction of its currency and began to expand its government into an all-powerful body. Still, this process tends to be protracted and the overall decline often takes decades.

So, how does that square with the quote, "Empires fall from grace with alarming speed"? Well, the preparation for the fall can often be seen for a generation or more, but the actual fall tends to occur quite rapidly.

What happens is very similar to what happens with a schoolyard bully. The bully has a slow rise, based upon his strength and aggressive tendency. After a number of successful fights, he becomes first revered, then feared. He then takes on several toadies who lack his abilities but want some of the spoils, so they do his bidding, acting in a threatening manner to other schoolboys. The bully then becomes hated. No one tells him so, but the other kids secretly dream of his defeat, hopefully in a shameful manner.

Then, at some point, some boy who has a measure of strength and the requisite determination has had enough and takes on the bully. If he defeats him, a curious thing happens. The toadies suddenly realise that the jig is up and they head for the hills, knowing that their source of power is gone. Also, once the defeated bully is down, all the anger, fear and hatred that his schoolmates felt for him come out, and they take great pleasure in his defeat. And this, in a nutshell, is what happens with empires.

A nation that comes to the rescue in times of genuine need (such as the two World Wars) is revered. But once that nation morphs into a bully that uses any excuse to invade countries such as Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria, its allies may continue to bow to it but secretly fear it and wish that it could be taken down a peg. When the empire then starts looking around for other nations to bully, such as Iran and Venezuela, its allies again say nothing but react with fear when they see the John Boltons and Mike Pompeos beating the war drums and making reckless comments.

At present, the US is focusing primarily on economic warfare, but if this fails to get the world to bend to its dominance, the US has repeatedly warned, regarding possible military aggression, that "no option is off the table." The US has reached the classic stage when it has become a reckless bully, and its support structure of allies has begun to de-couple as a result. At the same time that allies begin to pull back and make other plans for their future, those citizens within the empire who tend to be the creators of prosperity also begin to seek greener pastures.

History has seen this happen countless times. The "brain drain" occurs, in which the best and most productive begin to look elsewhere for their future. Just as the most productive Europeans crossed the Pond to colonize the US when it was a new, promising country, their present-day counterparts have begun moving offshore.

The US is presently in a state of suspended animation. It still appears to be a major force, but its buttresses are quietly disappearing. At some point in the near future, it’s likely that the US government will overplay its hand and aggress against a foe that either is stronger or has alliances that, collectively, make it stronger.

The US will be entering into warfare at a time when it’s broke, and this will become apparent suddenly and dramatically. The final decline will occur with alarming speed. When this happens, the majority of Americans will hope in vain for a reverse of events. They’ll be inclined to hope that, if they collectively say, "Whoops, we goofed," the world will be forgiving, returning them to their former glory. But historically, this never occurs. Empires fall with alarming speed, because the support systems that made them possible have decamped and have become reinvigorated elsewhere.

Rather than mourn the loss of empire that’s on the horizon, we’d be better served if we focus instead on those parts of the world that are likely to benefit from this inevitability."

- https://internationalman.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures with Danno, "Strange Prices At Big Lots!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, AM 4/29/24

"Strange Prices At Big Lots!

This Is Crazy! Good & Bad Deals!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Big Lots and are noticing some very strange price increases on different grocery items. We also are checking out some of the .99 cents deals they have going on that are a little confusing!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Bank Bail-Ins Being Set Up; Expect A Major Wall St. Bank To Fail!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/29/24

"Alert! Bank Bail-Ins Being Set Up; 

Expect A Major Wall St. Bank To Fail!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"The Fed's Game Of "Make Believe" Comes To An End"

Dan, I Allegedly, "People Have No Money - Bills Are Not Getting Paid"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 4/29/24

"People Have No Money - 

Bills Are Not Getting Paid"

"Avoid the Credit Card Debt Trap! In today's financial climate, falling into debt is easier than ever We explore alarming trends in consumer spending and the dire state of economic affairs. With banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America writing off billions in bad debt, it's crucial to understand the pitfalls of credit dependency. We are now learning that banks are having massive charge offs from their customers. The average person is not paying their bills right now at a record pace."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Different Kind of Dumb, Part III"

"Different Kind of Dumb, Part III"

Federal policies - ultra low interest rates - exaggerated the tops. 

Now, as if guided by an “invisible hand,” they will exaggerate the bottoms.

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "One of the problems with being the world’s hegemon is that you become like a TikTok idol; you can’t stop looking at the screen and admiring yourself. Your beliefs, you think, are the beliefs every successful society should have. Your institutions are those everyone should mimic. Your rules and regulations should apply to everyone. And if anyone else wants to be successful, they’ll have to do what you did.

But let’s back up. Here’s what we know so far: Bonds topped out in July 2020. Stocks topped out December 2021. These twin peaks marked the beginning of a new Primary Trend. If we are right, we will not see a repeat of these highs, probably not in our lifetimes, and probably not before major new lows are registered. The Primary Trend now is headed down for asset prices, and up for interest rates.

Exaggeration Nation: Federal policies —- ultra low interest rates - exaggerated the tops. Now, as if guided by an “invisible hand,” they will exaggerate the bottoms. That is, the feds will spend too much money, get involved in too many wars, limit trade, reward their cronies... punish their opponents... and enact regulations and policies that will curtail output, thus raising real consumer prices and increasing poverty.

We have no authority for this, the tail end part of our outlook. It is a guess. But it’s what a late, degenerate empire tends to do. And so far, the feds are doing it - what they ought to do, if their real goal were to take the US down a peg and make things worse for most people.

This backasswards view seems to be the best way to understand the recently passed $95 billion “foreign aid” act, which can only be justified in the most abstract terms - security, nobility and so forth, which, we suspect, is nothing more than claptrap to disguise what is primarily a boondoggle for the firepower industry.

But today, let’s look deeper... into the megapolitical mush. We, almost all of us reading this commentary, live in The West. Our views are those of westerners. Our news and opinions come from the western press.

If we listened to Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin, we quickly realized that he had an entirely different perspective. Did he live on another planet? Was he just dumb? Maybe... but it was a different kind of dumb. In the Ukraine-Russia war, for example, we westerners are told that the Russians are the ‘bad guys.’ Almost all of us believe it. But Putin doesn’t believe it. What’s wrong with him? In Gaza, we are expected to believe that the Israelis are the good guys, even if they have ‘gone too far.’ Only a fringe of intellectuals, students, and leftists think otherwise. What’s wrong with them?

Foreign Entanglements: And what about the generations who came before us and now sleep in the earth? They were clear about it…we would be better off avoiding ‘foreign entanglements’; now we’ve got them all over the place. And for 180 years they did their best to control deficits. Even as late as the Reagan administration total accumulated US debt was less than $1 trillion. Were they dumb too, for trying to live within their means?

We also know that our thoughts - shaped as they are by our contacts and circumstances, our influencers and bigmouths - are the correct ones. After all, our models for government, markets, courts, fast food, movies, news media, and ‘defense’ dominate the world. They are successful. They must be ‘right.’ We are the chosen people. We invaded North and South America, Australia, too…and practically exterminated the indigenous peoples. It wasn’t the other way around.

Our western world must be freer, fairer, richer and smarter than any rival. And if anyone wants to be our partner... an ally...or a friend, he’ll do things our way. And it almost goes without saying that a “dictator” in charge of a quirky, marginal economy such as Russia’s, would do things differently... and make a mess out of it. So, too, how could a communist central planner, such as Chairman Xi, possibly ‘run’ a successful economy... especially one with 1.4 billion people in it? And yet, the Chinese and Russian economies are both growing 3-4 times faster than the US. What’s going on? Didn’t we sanction them enough?

And what’s this? Oilprice.com: "China Is Winning The Race for Affordable EVs." "In China alone, EV sales are set to jump to about 10 million this year, accounting for about 45% of all car sales in the country."

Asia Times: "What haunts policymakers is the realization that the US no longer has... [a WWII-style]... industrial edge. Today China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. The US isn’t as far behind China as Japan was behind the US in the 1940s, but it’s no longer the arsenal of democracy.

Today the US has the world’s second largest manufacturing economy and its $2.5 trillion in annual manufacturing output exceeds the entire economies of all but seven countries. But it’s a distant second and its capacity to build enough of the most important tools of war is open to question. Old-fashioned metal bending is among America’s hollowed-out sectors. Measured by output dollar value, the three largest US manufacturing industries are chemicals; computer and electronic products; and food, beverage and tobacco products.

Meanwhile, China is said to be acquiring weapons five to six times faster than the US. In a conflict over Taiwan, would its vast manufacturing infrastructure enable it to outproduce the US the way the US outproduced Japan and Germany in World War II? Bending metal is what you have to do if you’re going to make tanks, planes or bombs. But maybe we can buy them from the Chinese? Tomorrow... tune in for more on a different kind of dumb."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Part II

Part I

Jim Kunstler,"Pep Talk on a Dark Day"

"Pep Talk on a Dark Day"

by Jim Kunstler

“We live in an age of full spectrum deception.” 

- Edward Dowd

"You realize, don’t you, that what’s going on in our country is the collapse not just of an empire, or an economy, but a comprehensive paradigm of human progress. The hallmark of post-war life in Western Civ was supposed to be a return to sanity after the mid-twentieth century fugue of mass psychotic violence. The wish for just and rational order was not entirely pretense. But that was then. Now that we are going medieval on ourselves, the not-so-ironic result will be our literally going medieval, sinking back into a pre-modern existence of darkness, superstition, and penury, grubbing for a mere subsistence in the shadow of scuffling hobgoblins, our achievements lost and forgotten.

What’s most appalling is that our governing apparatus is visibly willing that to happen. When Barack Obama warned America to not underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck things up, was that some kind of joke? After all, it was Mr. Obama and his fellow blobsters - the cabal of Intel spooks, covert Marxist bureaucrats, lawfare ninjas, globalist megalomaniacs, post-liberal think tankers, weapons grifters, degenerate billionaires, and assorted mentally-ill camp followers - who inflicted Joe Biden on the body politic. And then ran him on the country like some demon algorithm designed to wreck the USA as fast as possible.

The source of anguish in all that is the struggle to understand why they would want that to happen. What debauched sense of history would drive anyone to such lunatic desperation? It’s a cliché now to say that the Democratic Party has turned its traditional moral scaffold upside down and inside out. It acts against the kitchen table interests of the working and middle classes. It’s against civil liberties. It demands mental obedience to patently insane policy. It’s avid for war, no matter how cruelly pointless. It’s deliberately stirring up racial hatred. It despises personal privacy. It feeds a rogue bureaucracy that has become a veritable Moloch, an all-devouring malevolent deity. And now, rather suddenly, it aligns itself with a faction that seeks to exterminate the Jews.

And how did the opposition to that epic divergence into bad faith turn so flabby? How did the Republican Party roll over and wheeze so feebly while the FBI ran amok swatting grandmothers in dawn raids, and the US attorney general made justice a whore, and a Republican Congress allowed the Frankenstein agency of Homeland Security to flood the country with its enemies and give them gobs of operational cash? If Mr. Trump was unappetizing to them as a leader, why were they unable to produce an alternative figure of standing and stature at least equally resolute? They look like traitors and cowards.

For the moment, the country lies mired, inert, and demoralized in the face of in those terrible mysteries. But events are still tending and the hidden hand of emergence still operates backstage, preparing surprises for us. You are necessarily aware that the center did not hold. It’s even hard to locate where the center used to be with the action so heavy on the far-out margins. You’re watching drag queens importune young children to shove all the Jews into the sea. And the kids are sitting next to their mommies. What happened to the mommies’ brains that permits them to think this spectacle is okay? How will the mommies ever get their minds right?

In some quarters, a great rage is building. Not a few resent the overthrow of common sense, common law, and common decency. You better believe they will be aiming to do something about it. They will stand up for their dignity, their culture, their history. Virtue isn’t dead; it’s just broke down on a lonely highway waiting to hitch a ride back to where the lights are still on. Don’t forget that this really is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Meanwhile, prepare for action. It’s obvious that the enemies of the people don’t intend to rest. They are going to try to play out this string to the last move because otherwise a lot of them will be going to jail, or might even hang for their wickedness. Once they turned criminal, there was no turning back. They have dishonored themselves and they’re trying to dishonor their country.

It’s true nonetheless that we’re moving into a new disposition of the human project. It’s going to be smaller and leaner, and not nearly as complex as the tottering Rube Goldberg apparatus we’re currently trapped in. We don’t know yet what the shape and texture of that America is going to be. As the sage Yogi Berra observed, our whole future is ahead of us. If you’re not among the insane, have faith. We’ll get there and everything is going to be all right."

- https://kunstler.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/29/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/29/24"

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

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

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

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Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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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."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- 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/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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

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And now... The End Game...

o

"Los Angeles Gov. Nuclear WW3 Preparation! Nationwide Warning For 'Massive Attacks'"

Canadian Prepper, 4/28/24

"Los Angeles Gov. Nuclear WW3 Preparation! 

Nationwide Warning For 'Massive Attacks'"

Comments there:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"NUKEMAP"

"NUKEMAP is a web-based nuclear weapons effects simulator. I created it in 2012 (and did all programming, design, and research on it). Since then it has had many updates to its effects model and capabilities. It has been used by over 20 million people globally, and has been featured in both academic and general-audience publications and television shows for depicting nuclear weapons effects"

- https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Jeremiah Babe, "Avoid Social Media Rat Poison; Home Depot Becomes A Danger Zone"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/28/24

"Avoid Social Media Rat Poison;

 Home Depot Becomes A Danger Zone"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Coming Car Market Crash Will Wipe Out Millions Of Americans And Affect Everyone"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 4/28/24

"The Coming Car Market Crash Will Wipe

 Out Millions Of Americans And Affect Everyone"

"Here goes some news most Americans have been waiting for: The cost of cars and trucks in the United States is finally dropping, and new research shows the downward trend has been quite significant on vehicle prices already. Experts at InvestorPlace.com are warning that the latest developments are, in fact, proof that the auto market crash has begun, especially considering how fast these changes are occurring.

In this environment of higher interest rates, and rising inventory levels, Blue Book values have been consistently declining, with analysts projecting a reversal in the market happening this spring, and alerting that prices are on their way to find a bottom.

We're officially in a buyer's market, they say. Dealer incentives are up 102% year-over-year, according to fresh data. We're now being told that the long-awaited crash is going to give Americans much better changes of finding an affordable vehicle in 2024, and also that the conditions which helped to fuel the auto price bubble and overall inflation for nearly three years are no longer in place, setting in motion the much-needed correction everyone has been expecting for.

Cox Automotive reports that the recent price declines are due to a vastly expanded number of vehicles on dealer lots after years of severe shortages. With more cars and trucks available, the pressures that had sent prices surging are disappearing at last.

At the start of April, American dealers had almost 3 million new cars, trucks, and SUVs on their lots. For comparison, one year ago, that supply was standing at just 1.7 million. This is one of the reasons why many analysts and dealers say 2024 will be the most affordable year of the past five in which to buy a new car or truck."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"

Full screen recommended.

Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Over 400,000 light years across NGC 6872 is an enormous spiral galaxy, at least 4 times the size of our own very large Milky Way. About 200 million light-years distant, toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock, the remarkable galaxy’s stretched out shape is due to its ongoing gravitational interaction, likely leading to an eventual merger, with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970. IC 4970 is seen just below and right of the giant galaxy’s core in this cosmic color portrait from the 8 meter Gemini South telescope in Chile.

The idea to image this titanic galaxy collision comes from a winning contest essay submitted to the Gemini Observatory by the Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club. In addition to inspirational aspects and aesthetics, club members argued that a color image would be more than just a pretty picture. In their winning essay they noted that “If enough color data is obtained in the image it may reveal easily accessible information about the different populations of stars, star formation, relative rate of star formation due to the interaction, and the extent of dust and gas present in these galaxies.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110403.html

"The Whole Problem..."

 

Redacted, "This Is Nuclear Madness And Putin Isn’t Bluffing"

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 4/28/24

"This Is Nuclear Madness And Putin Isn’t Bluffing"

"This weekend Poland took the unbelievable next step in bringing long-range tactical nuclear weapons to Russia’s doorstep. Putin says these nukes would be 'priority targets'. The West is agitating for nuclear war. In today's video we're going over the latest weekend developments between NATO and Russia."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Items Disappearing In Grocery Stores!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, PM 4/28/24

"Items Disappearing In Grocery Stores!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"2024's First Bank Collapse - Is Your Bank Next?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 4/28/24

"2024's First Bank Collapse - Is Your Bank Next?"

"Republic First bank just went out of business. The FDIC walked in five minutes before they closed on Friday and shut them down. I'm discussing the first major bank failure of 2024, its impacts, and what this could mean for your financial security. Plus, I’ll draw parallels to a similar cash crisis unfolding in Cuba, shedding light on global financial trends that could affect us all."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Poet: James Broughton, "Having Come This Far"

"I've been through what my through was to be,

I did what I could and couldn't.

I was never sure how I would get there.

I nourished an ardor for thresholds,

for stepping stones and for ladders,

I discovered detour and ditch.

I swam in the high tides of greed,

I built sandcastles to house my dreams.

I survived the sunburns of love.

No longer do I hunt for targets.

I've climbed all the summits I need to,

and I've eaten my share of lotus.

Now I give praise and thanks

for what could not be avoided,

And for every foolhardy choice.

I cherish my wounds and their cures,

and the sweet enervations of bliss.

My book is an open life.

I wave goodbye to the absolutes,

and send my regards to infinity.

I'd rather be blithe than correct.

Until something transcendent turns up,

I splash in my poetry puddle,

and try to keep God amused."

- James Broughton