"Luminarium"

"Luminarium"

“I have undertaken a labor, a labor out of love for the world, and to comfort noble hearts: those that I hold dear, and the world to which my heart goes out. Not the common world do I mean, of those who (as I have heard) cannot bear grief and desire but to bathe in bliss. (May God then let them dwell in bliss!) Their world and manner of life my tale does not regard: it's life and mine lie apart. Another world do I hold in mind, which bears together in one heart its bitter sweetness and its dear grief, its heart's delight and its pain of longing, dear life and sorrowful death, dear death and sorrowful life. In this world let me have my world, to be damned with it, or to be saved.” - Gottfried Von Strassburg


"A comprehensive anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Restoration and Eighteenth Century. This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.

Luminarium is the labor of love of Anniina Jokinen. The site is not affiliated with any institution nor is it sponsored by anyone other than its maintainer and the contributions of its visitors through revenues from book sales via Amazon.com, poster sales via All Posters, and advertising via Google AdSense.

For all materials, authorities in a given subject are consulted. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English are some of the general reference works consulted for accuracy of dates and details. Many of the materials collected here reside elsewhere. Quality and accuracy are concerns, and all materials are checked regularly. However, "Luminarium" cannot be held responsible for materials residing on other sites. Corrections and suggestions for improvements are encouraged from the visitors.

The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming - there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.

Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page "Medlit" and "Renlit" pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the "Sevenlit" site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for "lantern," because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered "luminaries" of English literature."

- http://www.luminarium.org/

"Internet Sacred Text Archive"

"About Sacred Texts"

"All ancient books which have once been called sacred by man, will have their lasting place in the history of mankind, and those who possess the courage, the perseverance, and the self-denial of the true miner, and of the true scholar, will find even in the darkest and dustiest shafts what they are seeking for, - real nuggets of thought, and precious jewels of faith and hope."

- Max Müller, "Introduction to the Upanishads" Vol. II.

"This site is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language. This site has no particular agenda other than promoting religious tolerance and scholarship. Views expressed at this site are solely those of specific authors, and are not endorsed by sacred-texts. Sacred-texts is not sponsored by any religious group or organzation.

Sacred texts went live on March 9th, 1999. The traffic started to increase when sacred-texts was listed at Yahoo! under 'Society and Religion|Texts'. In its first year of operation sacred-texts had about a quarter million hits. By 2004, it was receiving well over a quarter million hits per day. Today, site traffic often exceeds a million hits a day. Sacred texts is one of the top 20,000 sites on the web based on site traffic, consistently one of the top 10,000 sites in Australia, the US and India, and is one of the top 5 most visited general religion sites (source: Alexa.com).

The texts presented here are either original scans from books and articles clearly in the public domain, material which has been presented elsewhere on the Internet, or material included under fair use conditions in printed anthologies. Many of the texts included here were originally posted in ftp archives or on bulletin boards before the growth of the World Wide Web and have been lost. In some cases, the texts were posted in such a form as to make them unusable by non-technically oriented users. Some of these texts were on the web at some point but have completely disappeared because the site they were posted on has closed. Thus the need for an archive which organizes this material in a persistent location.

From the start, we have had a special focus on remedying the under-representation of traditional cultures on the Internet. The site has one of the largest collections of transcriptions of complete books on Native American, Pacific, African, Asian and other traditional people's religion, spiritual practices, mythology and folklore. While many of these pre-20th century books are flawed due to orientalist or colonialist biases, they are also eye-witness accounts by reliable observers, typically at the moment of contact. These texts are crucial to the study of tribal traditions, and in many cases, the only link with the past. Locked up in academic libraries for decades, sacred-texts has made them freely accessible anywhere in the world. We have scanned hundreds of books which have all been made freely accessible to the world. A comprehensive bibliography of the texts scanned at sacred texts is available here.

We welcome email regarding typographical or factual errors in any file at sacred-texts. Please write us if you spot an error; include the URL and a few lines of context so we can pin down the location. While all due care has been taken in the reproduction of the texts here, none of the texts or translations here are represented to be sanctioned by any particular religious body or institution. We welcome advice as to errors of fact or transcription.

Some of the material here may be copyrighted. It is our hope that the copyright holders may allow these texts to be posted here in the public interest. If you are the copyright holder of record of a text which you believe has been archived at this site in error, please contact us at the email address listed at the bottom of this page. We have made a good-faith effort to determine the provenance of each text and apologize if we have posted a text in error. Note: If you are requesting the removal of a file, you must be the copyright holder of the file, and you must specify the exact URL of the file.”

- http://www.sacred-texts.com/about.htm

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Fabulous, an absolute treasure trove! Enjoy!

Free Download: T.S. Eliot, “Four Quartets”

“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

I highly recommend you explore this website:

- https://www.fadedpage.com/

"It'll Do..."

Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?"

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: "Well, if it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."

- "No Country For Old Men"

Oh, the mess is here alright...and you ain't seen nothin' yet...

Brace for impact.

And if they act like this over a TV, 

what happens when there's no food?

"How It Really Is"

 

"Our National Migration Crisis Is Supercharging The Growth Of Homelessness All Over The United States"

"Our National Migration Crisis Is Supercharging

The Growth Of Homelessness All Over The United States"

by Michael Snyder

"Over the past three years, millions of migrants have come pouring into this country looking for a better life. They were promised that things would be so much better once they got here, but for so many of them that has turned out to be not true at all. There just aren’t enough resources to care for the vast number of migrants that are arriving, and as a result many quickly find themselves homeless. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

Just look at what is happening to the city of Chicago. According to a new report that was just released, the homeless population in the Windy City tripled between January 2023 and January 2024…"The number of Chicagoans living in city shelters or on city streets tripled between January 2023 and January 2024, according to the annual survey used by federal officials to track homelessness, city officials announced Friday."

When your homeless population triples in a single year, you have a major problem on your hands. And please keep in mind that these are just the ones that they can actually find and count. Studies have shown that the real homeless population is often several times greater than official counts reveal.

According to this latest report, the migration crisis is the primary reason why the homeless population in Chicago is exploding…"The point-in-time count estimates the number of people in shelters, transitional housing, encampments and other “unsheltered” locations. The estimate noted the pressures the migrant crisis poses to the city. “Since August 2022, Chicago has welcomed over 40,000 New Arrivals arriving from the southern border, many of whom have needed shelter and services,” it said. “The largest increase in this year’s Shelter Count was due to the continued influx of New Arrivals to Chicago in 2023.”

When 40 people show up, it is easy to take care of them. When 40,000 people show up, that is another matter entirely. A similar thing is happening in San Antonio. One Catholic charity that cares for migrants says that it simply cannot keep up with the “huge increase” in migration that has occurred… A Catholic charity has said it can’t keep up with a “huge increase” of migrants entering San Antonio through the U.S.-Mexico border, who are now finding themselves on the streets.

Over the past several years, San Antonio has been completely transformed. According to official city data, a whopping 619,919 migrants have arrived in the city since January 2021… According to the city’s migrant dashboard, as of June 19, migrant arrivals since January 2021 have totaled 619,919. Those numbers peaked in November and December 2022, at 30,900 and 37,146, respectively."

For many, San Antonio is not the final destination. But there are others that have ended up stuck in the city because they literally have nowhere else to go… “I can tell you we have seen a huge increase of people in the streets, so we have our mobile units go around like south side, west side, places we usually give out food to the homeless people, we’re having now an increase in people coming to the food pantry and our mobile unit who are from Venezuela,” said Fernandez. With no place to sleep and no money for a bus or plane ticket, Fernandez said many of these migrants are out on the streets, adding to the homeless population Catholic Charities already serves.

We should all be greatly saddened by what we are witnessing. So much of this suffering could have been easily avoided if our politicians had made different decisions.

At one shelter in Los Angeles, it is being estimated that migrants now account for about 90 percent of the people that are being served… “We’re mainly serving people that come from other countries like Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua,” said Salvador Mendoza, the shelter’s lead case manager. “I will say yeah, 90%.” The bulk of the shelter’s residents are now asylum seekers who’ve arrived in the U.S. in the past several months, he said. Most are from Venezuela. Some came on buses from Texas; others made it to L.A. themselves, some after being initially bused elsewhere. Many had plans to stay with acquaintances, relatives or other sponsors, but those plans fell through.

“So they come to this cruel reality, you know, of not being able to find a job, not being able to have a roof over their head, not knowing the language, not knowing where to go, what to do, so their only option is just being on the street,” Mendoza said.

Some cities have decided that the solution to the migrant crisis is to simply ship migrants somewhere else. Recently, reports that Denver was shipping large numbers of migrants to Salt Lake City caused a tremendous uproar…"News that the city of Denver was covering the transportation costs of some immigrants to travel from the Colorado capital to Salt Lake City caused an uproar last Friday. Denver, also overwhelmed by an immigrant influx, has also covered the cost of transporting immigrants to Chicago and New York City, which actually received a larger influx than Salt Lake City, according to a report last February by Denverite, a Colorado publication.

Cox called Denver’s practice “completely unacceptable” and said Utah resources “are completely depleted.” Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County officials also said the situation has stressed their ability to contend with the housing and other needs of the immigrants, which led to the alert, published in both Spanish and English."

Denver is absolutely overwhelmed by migrants. But so is Salt Lake City. And so is Chicago. And so is New York City. Transporting them from city to city isn’t going to solve anything. But many local politicians feel like they have to do something because of all the social problems that are erupting.

In the Big Apple, there has been a lot of violence and crime, and that includes one recent incident that involved two police officers…"A mob of migrants are facing gang assault charges after allegedly pummeling two NYPD cops outside a Queens hotel shelter, prosecutors and law enforcement sources said Tuesday. Four men were busted after they attacked two of New York’s Finest shortly before 4:30 a.m. Monday as the cops were checking on three unattended children outside the converted Long Island City hotel that now houses asylum seekers, according to authorities. When they asked about the unsupervised kids the men allegedly pounced on them."

As I have been relentlessly warning my readers, a tremendous amount of social unrest is in our future, and adding millions of extremely desperate migrants to the equation is only going to make things even worse.

We depend upon our politicians in Washington to make common sense decisions, and they have completely and utterly failed us. Now major cities all over the nation are being absolutely overwhelmed by deeply suffering people, and that is a reality that should greatly sadden every single one of us."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

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"Illegal Immigration: It’s a Pyramid Scheme"

Bill Bonner, "The Aging of Empire"

"The Aging of Empire"

Since 1999, too, US government debt has risen by $30 trillion,

while the dollar - compared to gold - has lost nearly 90% of its value.

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Let's go over what we think we know. There are deep patterns in nature. They are not perfectly reproducible or predictable, but they are there. We don’t know exactly when or how we will die, for example, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

The stock and bond markets follow long patterns too. From high to low, low to high, often over many decades... we call it the Primary Trend. In the bond market, for example, bonds hit a high in the late 1940s. The next epochal high did not come until 2020 - almost 80 years later. Stock market highs, meanwhile, came in 1929... again in 1966... and most recently, in 2021.

Of course, we don’t know until later if these latest highs were the ultimate highs. Years go by, and it may still be uncertain. But in the bond market, it seems very unlikely that prices will hit their 2020 highs again in our lifetimes. In the stock market, on the other hand, prices have gone up... even surpassing their 2021 levels. What to make of it?

No Recovery: First, the picture is fuzzed by inflation. Nominal prices (in current dollars) have hit new highs. But the dollar has lost about 20% of its value since 2020. So, in real terms - adjusted to inflation - stock market prices have still not recovered.

There is also something very funny going on in the stock market. While a handful of tech wunderkind are hitting incredible new highs, most stocks are not. The Wall Street Journal: "The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies is down 17% from its November 2021 peak and has made no progress at all this year. In the S&P 500, which includes the biggest companies, the average stock is about where it was at the start of 2022, and more than half of the current constituents are down since then. Worse still, only 198 have managed gains this month, even as the index reached new intraday highs on 11 out of 13 trading days."

Our old friend, Chris Mayer, adds this comment: "It's been a strange year in the market: S&P is up 15% YTD, but that's mostly because of Nvidia and a couple of other tech giants. Most stocks have gone nowhere this year. At Woodlock House [Chris’s investment fund], we're up about 5% YTD. My competitive instincts don't like being so far behind the S&P but I think the S&P will have some problems with these over-valued, over-hyped tech stocks in the next few years. We will stay the course!"

Nvidia has gone up 30,000% over the last ten years. That’s something else we’ve learned... that investors can become ‘irrationally exuberant’ from time to time. Nvidia is now thought to be worth $3.3 trillion. But it is almost impossible that the company could ever earn enough money to justify that price. Yes, the company is growing fast. But its stock price is growing much faster. Either the sales pick up... or the stock price falls. Most likely, it will be the latter.

We’ve also looked at US markets as part of a larger pattern - that of empires. Just as we can never be sure where we are in the patterns of the Primary Trend, there is even more doubt about the empire. We know it will end, but we never know exactly where we are in the cycle.

And that picture, too, gets fuzzed by our own perceptions. People come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. Investors now believe Nvidia’s price - however absurdly high it is - will go higher. So must Americans come to see themselves as citizens of a great empire, destined to rule forever not merely over the 50 states... but over Ukraine and the South China Sea. Both thoughts set them up for big losses.

Led to Decline - Our guess is that the top for the US empire came right around the turn of the century. In gold terms, that was when stocks topped out - at more than forty ounces to the Dow. Now - again, measured in ounces of gold - the best of America’s public companies are worth only about half of what they were then. Since 1999, too, US government debt has risen by $30 trillion, while the dollar - compared to gold - has lost nearly 90% of its value.

If empires must decline, they must find the leaders who can help them do it. In that regard, the 21st century has blessed the US with the jefes it needed. George W. Bush did not have to squander $8 trillion on a silly ‘war against terror.’ Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke did not have to distort the whole economy, after the mortgage finance crisis of ’08, with bailouts for Wall Street and ultra-low interest rates for a decade. Donald Trump did not have to panic when the Covid virus appeared... and he and Joe Biden did not have to blow up the empire’s finances with another $15 trillion in pointless debt. These policy choices were almost preternaturally dumb. But they - like a lit cigarette at a gas pump - were just what the aging empire needed.

And here, with today’s final word, is the New York Post: "Pay up, America: Each of us owes $100K as national debt balloons to $35 trillion." Biden administration officials don’t care. They want to spend more. Already they are spending so much that they’re increasing our debt by a  trillion dollars every 100 days. President Donald Trump was no better: His administration increased our debt by almost $8 trillion. This will not end well. More to come..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Are You Ready for AI and Bad Service?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 6/25/24

"Are You Ready for AI and Bad Service?"

"Artificial intelligence is all around us. We’re supposed to believe that this is going to change everything for the better. Self-service and automation are taking over, and I'm not sure we're ready for it yet. From my frustrating experience with Taco Bell's new AI chatbot to the shocking announcement that 400 Taco Bell locations will no longer have indoor dining, this episode covers it all. Labor costs are driving these changes, but the customer service is suffering big time. Imagine getting your order wrong and not being able to walk inside to fix it! Plus, it's not just Taco Bell - big names like Home Depot and Walmart are also jumping on the AI bandwagon. The implications for customer service are scary."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"WTF Alert! Russia Downs 'US Drone'?! NATO Attacks Russia, Nuclear Radars Attacked Again!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/24/24

"WTF Alert! Russia Downs 'US Drone'?! 

NATO Attacks Russia, Nuclear Radars Attacked Again!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Hacking Group Hits Federal Reserve (Banking Secrets At Risk)"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/24/24

"Hacking Group Hits Federal Reserve 

(Banking Secrets At Risk)"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Shadows In The Wood"; "Footprints On The Sea"

 

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Shadows In The Wood"

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Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Do you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. 

In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula."

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

Chet Raymo, “A Sense Of Place”

“A Sense Of Place”

by Chet Raymo

“It would be hard to find two writers more different than Eudora Welty and Edward Abbey. Welty was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of stories and novels who lived all her life in Jackson, Mississippi, in the house in which she was born, the beloved spinster aunt of American letters. Abbey was a hard-drinking, butt-kicking nature writer and conservationist best known for his books on the American Southwest. Both writers are favorites of mine. Both were great champions of place. I always wondered what it would have been like if they got together. As far as I know, that never happened. But let’s imagine a conversation. I have taken extracts from Welty’s essay “Some Notes on River Country” (1944) and from Abbey’s essay “The Great American Desert (1977) and interleaved them.

“This little chain of lost towns between Vicksburg and Natchez.”

“This desert, all deserts, any deserts.”

“On the shady stream banks hang lady’s eardrops, fruits and flowers dangling pale jade. The passionflower puts its tendrils where it can, its strange flowers of lilac rays with their little white towers shining out, or its fruit, the maypop, hanging.”

“Oily growths like the poison ivy – oh yes, indeed – that flourish in sinister profusion on the dank walls above the quicksand down those corridors of gloom and labyrinthine monotony that men call canyons.”

“All creepers with trumpets and panicles of scarlet and yellow cling to the treetops. There is a vine that grows to great heights, with heart-shaped leaves as big and soft as summer hats.”

“Everything in the desert either stings, stabs, stinks, or sticks. You will find the flora here as venomous, hooked, barbed, thorny, prickly, needled, saw-toothed, hairy, stickered, mean, bitter, sharp, wiry and fierce as the animals.”

“Too pretty for any harsh fate, with its great mossy trees and old camellias.”

“Something about the desert inclines all living things to harshness and acerbity.”

“The clatter of hoofs and the bellow of boats have gone. The Old Natchez Trace has sunk out of use. The river has gone away and left the landings. But life does not forsake any place.”

“In the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix will get you if the sun, snakes, bugs, and arthropods don’t. In the Mojave Desert, it’s Las Vegas. Up north in the Great Basin Desert, your heart will break, seeing the strip mines open up and the power plants rise…”

“The Negro Baptist church, weathered black with a snow-white door, has red hens in the yard. The old galleried stores are boarded up. The missing houses were burned – they were empty, and the little row of Negro inhabitants have carried them off for firewood.”

“…the highway builders, land developers, weapons testers, power producers, clear cutters, oil drillers, dam beavers, subdividers.”

“Eventually you see people, of course. Women have little errands, and the old men play checkers at a table in the front of the one open store. And the people’s faces are good.”

“Californicating.”

“To go there, you start west from Port Gibson. Postmen would arrive here blowing their horns like Gabriel, after riding three hundred wilderness miles from Tennessee.”

“Why go into the desert? Really, why do it? That sun, roaring at you all day long. The fetid, tepid, vapid little water holes full of cannibal beetles, spotted toads, horsehair worms, liver flukes. Why go there?”

“I have felt many times there is a sense of place as powerful as if it were visible and walking and could touch me. A place that ever was lived in is like a fire that never goes out. Sometimes it gives out glory, sometimes its little light must be sought out to be seen.”

“Why the desert, when you could be camping by a stream of pure Rocky Mountain spring water. We have centipedes, millipedes, tarantulas, black widows, brown recluses, Gila monsters, the deadly poisonous coral snakes, and the giant hairy desert scorpions. Plus an immense variety of near-infinite number of ants, midges, gnats, bloodsucking flies, and blood-guzzling mosquitoes.”

“Much beauty has gone, many little things of life. To light up the night there are no mansions, no celebrations. Wild birds fly now at the level where people on boat deck once were strolling and talking.”

“In the American Southwest, only the wilderness is worth saving.”

“There is a sense of place there, to keep life from being extinguished, like a cup of the hands to hold a flame.”

“A friend and I took a walk up beyond Coconino County, Arizona. I found an arrow sign, pointed to the north. Nothing of any unusual interest that I could see – only the familiar sun-blasted sandstone, a few scrubby clumps of blackbush and prickly pear, a few acres of nothing where only a lizard could graze. I studied the scene with care. But there was nothing out there. Nothing at all. Nothing but the desert. Nothing but the silent world.”

“Perhaps it is the sense of place that gives us the belief that passionate things, in some essence, endure.”

“In my case, it was love at first sight. The kind of love that makes a man selfish, possessive, irritable…”

“New life will be built upon these things.”

“…an unrequited and excessive love.”

“It is this.”

“That’s why.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Challenges..."

"When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back."

- Paulo Coelho

Gregory Mannarino, "'Hypernomics' Will End With A Worldwide Great Depression On A Massive Scale"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/24/24

"'Hypernomics' Will End With A Worldwide

 Great Depression On A Massive Scale"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Bothell, Washington, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Fools And Knaves..."

“In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of

fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain

degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.”

- Philip Stanhope

“There are more fools than knaves in the world,

else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.”

- Samuel Butler

"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"

"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"

By Chris Black

"The term “Luddite” originated in the early 19th century and refers to a movement of English textile workers who protested against the increased use of machines in their industry. The term “neo-Luddite” was later applied to those who similarly oppose technology for similar reasons, but in a contemporary context.

Everywhere you go, you see people with their faces in their phones. Constantly, constantly, constantly. At the bus stop. On the train. In the driver’s seats of their moving cars. Their kid makes a bit of noise at the restaurant table? Shove the iPad in their face.

Boomerisms aside, it really can’t be overstated how f**ked up this is, and not because “people don’t interact” anymore. It’s actually much worse than that… Nobody ever allows themselves even a moment of peace inside their own heads. The real insidiousness of the smartphone is that it encourages you to constantly consume content, endlessly, never ever stopping. It’s common for people to spend their entire day with earphones in, listening to podcasts and watching Tiktoks literally constantly.

Our brains did not evolve to be bombarded with constant microbursts of hyper real stimulation this way. Attention spans are getting measurably shorter. Reaction times are getting longer. None of this sh*t is good for your brain.

Everyone always says, “Well, what about TV and the radio?” Inherently limited and fundamentally different because of the fact that they’re pre-programmed and don’t act as “magic mirrors” of you and your personal inputs into them. Your smartphone is designed to learn everything about you so that it can be as addictive as possible and maximize the amount of data it squeezes out of you. Nothing about TV or the radio - or even Web 1.0 internet - ever came anywhere close to this.

Even so, we have known for decades that TV is horrible for your brain on account of many of the same mechanisms that affect attention span and cognitive development. So imagine how much worse the smartphone is. Unfathomably worse. We already know it’s worse, but we won’t know exactly how much worse it is until at least another decade, when the younger Zoomers and Gen Alphas are a few years into adulthood after an upbringing that revolved around Web 2.0.

Millennials were lucky enough not to take the full brunt of the experience. We got our first taste as we came of age instead of growing up being marinated in it. The saddest part is that the only reason any of this even caught on or is the least bit operable is because of the fact that it hijacks the mechanisms that make us feel satisfied and good. We didn’t evolve to handle this level of stimulation, but BOY do we respond to it. It’s so excessive that it’s impossible for some people to resist. So there are no f**king brakes.

You have to cast The Ring into the fire or it totally consumes you. That’s the reality for most people. And that, my friends, is just sick.

Look at your screen usage on your phone and tell me I’m wrong, how you totally don’t need it and can stop whenever you want. You are no better than a crack head, and you won’t realize that until you actually do try to stop for real. It’s unprecedented in human history to think this way. We are truly in uncharted waters here. Just wait until the sensory overload most people are bathing in all day, every day becomes fully automated instead of just partially automated like it is now."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

US Budget Disaster Ahead Will Impoverish Americans"

"US Budget Disaster Ahead Will Impoverish Americans"

by Daniel Lacalle

"The latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) budget and economic outlook estimates show the extent of the challenges of the United States fiscal nightmare. The CBO expects a budget deficit of $1.9 trillion in 2024, a year of alleged robust economic growth and record tax receipts. They expect revenues to reach $4.9 trillion, or 17.2 percent of GDP, in 2024, which will rise to 18.0 percent by 2027 and remain at that level until 2034.

This report’s main finding is alarming. Despite expecting no recession and rising tax revenues from 2024 to 2034, the budget deficit will explode from $1.9 trillion to $2.8 trillion by 2034. Estimates place the adjusted deficit at 6.9 percent of GDP by 2034, nearly twice the average of 3.7 percent over the previous 50 years.

What is the problem when the CBO sees solid growth and rising revenues? Deficits are always a spending problem. By 2034, they expect outlays to soar from $6.8 trillion to $10.3 trillion, or 24.9% of GDP. Interestingly, one of the major reasons for the significant increase in outlays cited by the CBO is the soaring cost of debt. According to the report, debt swells from 2024 to 2034 “as increases in interest costs and mandatory spending outpace decreases in discretionary spending and growth in revenues.” Public debt rises from 99 percent of GDP in 2024 to 122 percent in 2034, or $50.6 trillion, to which we must add the public debt held by other entities, including the Fed. The CBO considers “debt held by the public” to be $28 trillion in 2024, when public debt is already $34 trillion. Thus, United States public debt will increase by $22 trillion in a decade.

The CBO projections prove without a doubt that there is no way in which the United States could balance the budget through revenue measures. There is no set of revenue measures that can collect $2 trillion per year in additional annual receipts. Increases in taxes would inevitably slow down investment and growth and reduce long-term potential receipts. Furthermore, even if the United States government was able to increase revenues, the likelihood of a recession in the next ten years, added to the promises of more “extraordinary” expenses in election years, would make the deficit soar regardless of any revenue improvement.

An economy that generates an annual deficit of 6 percent of GDP to achieve a mere 2 percent annual growth is on a dangerous path, even if that kind of growth is sustained. Inevitably, at the first sign of a recession, the government would spend even more.

Why should Americans be worried about this reckless pace of borrowing? Because it will mean three things for them: higher taxes, weaker growth, and the declining purchasing power of their salary and savings.

If you hail deficit spending, you are embracing impoverishment. If you defend this kind of deficit spending, you are actively supporting stagnation. Deficit spending is not a social policy; it is profoundly anti-social. It means passing the burden of the state on to the next generation, making the unborn poorer before they see the light of day.

The next administration is unlikely to eliminate this irresponsible borrowing path if they continue to increase taxes and entitlement programs. The only way in which this path of monetary and fiscal destruction is eliminated is with pro-growth policies that lift the GDP growth trend, incentivize productivity, and promote business growth. The combination of a sound monetary policy and pro-growth fiscal policies will help the United States maintain its leadership status and the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

The current policy of imprudent monetary policy, disguising the rising size of government with inflationary policies, will only lead to stagnation and the loss of world reserve status. If the next administration wants the best for Americans, it must stop the deficit bleeding and subsequent monetization through central bank policies that make citizens’ lives more expensive and their dreams of prosperity vanish.

The current budget trend leads to stagnation, a bloated government, and unacceptable taxes. If you copy the policies of France, you get the lack of growth, high debt, and elevated unemployment of France. There is no magical revenue measure that will stop the borrowing bleeding in the United States. Monetizing debt will continue to erode the middle class and weaken the economy, as well as perpetuate inflation, the hidden tax.

The United States has tried the European way and failed. It has delivered a debt-bloated GDP with declining consumer confidence and the destruction of the purchasing power of the currency. Now is the time to implement sound money and responsible fiscal policies. Any other policy will fail and accelerate the decline of America."

- https://www.dlacalle.com/

"How It Really Is"

“We'll know our disinformation program is complete 

when everything the American public believes is false.”

- William Casey, former director of the CIA

Bill Bonner, "The Hinge Points of History"

Tuileries garden.

"The Hinge Points of History"

In just a few months, balanced budgets were history...

 trade surpluses turned into trade deficits... 

wage gains came to an end... 

and the foundation of a $100 trillion debt pile was laid.

by Bill Bonner

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding 

America to the point of bankruptcy."

- Osama bin Laden

Poitou, France - "The trap was obvious. But we jumped in anyway. On Sunday, a week ago, we went to a sung Latin mass at the church of St. Roch. Almost every seat was taken, with hundreds of people participating... most of whom knew the appropriate Latin responses. “Turn away from materialism,” said the priest, thundering from a pulpit in the center of the église. “Things... your Facebook... your new dresses and vacations are a distraction. You need to focus on God.” Not a very original theme. But the worshippers seemed happy with it.

After the service, we strolled over to the nearby Tuileries garden. All of a sudden, fifty-five years vanished. A memory... almost more vivid than the present... came upon us. We recalled our first visit to the park more than a half century ago when we were a student, doing our junior year abroad. It was a winter day... in 1969. The sun, barely visible through the thin clouds, seemed to hang in the sky like the ash on a cigarette, waiting for nightfall. The park - much less frequented by tourists then than now - was still open.

Sarah, a friend from school, was with us. Tall and confident, she was fearless. When men stared at her on the subway, she would stare back, until they looked away. She had been kicked out of private schools in the US, so her parents sent her to Paris where she was supposed to be studying art history.

We were walking through the park when she saw the sculpture of an oversized lion. (A statue by Cain, 1873). Tempted, she jumped on its back like Calamity Jane on a wild horse. You weren’t supposed to walk on the grass, let alone leap onto a venerable statue. And when we heard the gendarme’s whistle, she dismounted and we continued our walk.

Sarah was a ‘free spirit’. But so were we all, Americans... young, proud, free, ambitious... and much admired, even in Paris. We were the ‘good guys’ back then. At least, we thought so. Yes, we made mistakes; the Vietnam war, for example. But it would soon be over. And we had learned our lesson; we wouldn’t do that again! Or so we thought.

Our money was good. Our credit record was unblemished. American universities were turning out more scientists and engineers than ever. China was a starving ‘Third World’ country. The Soviet Union was led by geriatric incompetents, following a playbook that was sure to fail. And for the US, it was onward and upward... and we, the Class of ’70, unbent, untempered and untested, would lead the way. But that was before two critical ‘hinge points of history’ creaked... and closed off the future we expected.

First, only two years after our initial visit to Paris, in 1971, Nixon’s new ‘credit dollar’ - a pure paper form of money, with nothing behind it save the ‘full faith and credit of the US government’ - became lawful money. Back then, the faith and the credit of the USA was unquestioned. But though it went mostly unnoticed, the money switcheroo turned the US from a country that earned its way honestly, to one that lived by printing more and more credit dollars.

In just a few months, balanced budgets were history... trade surpluses turned into trade deficits... wage gains came to an end... and the foundation of a $100 trillion debt pile was laid.

The second major hinge point came thirty years later. Once again, we were in Paris... and walking through the Tuileries garden on our way home from the office. That memory came back too... unbidden, like a recurring nightmare... and a feeling of doom. We recalled the employees gathering around a screen to watch the smoke rising from the World Trade Center... and then, unbelievably, the towers collapsed. One of our French staff members came up to us, with a gesture of solidarity and sympathy, and said: “We are all Americans now.” That was probably the last time we enjoyed the world’s sincere respect and approval.

Walking through the Tuileries garden, that September, twenty-three years ago, we had a sense that things would never be the same... that the peace and prosperity of the US-led world had come to an end.

It was not that we feared more terrorist attacks. 9/11 was the most daring and successful terrorist assault in history. It was unlikely to be repeated... and unlikely to threaten the empire of ‘the West.’ What we felt coming, like a bull driven mad by a fly, was the US response. The 9/11 attack was so successful, from the terrorists’ point of view, not just that it brought down the iconic towers of the globalized order - the World Trade Center towers. The real achievement was in provoking US policymakers to strangle themselves.

At that point, 2001, the US government had $6 trillion in debt. Still manageable. The federal budget was still more or less in balance. And our real rival - the Soviet Union - had given up ten years before. Instead of calmly pursuing the perps, at negligible cost... and otherwise sticking with the principles of a fiscally responsible, law-abiding civil society…the Bush administration, now in the grip of the neocons, the firepower industry and Israeli hard-liners, launched a pointless war against nobody in particular (aka terrorists).

US troops were soon on the march - against Iraq - which made no sense; Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, was as much opposed to ‘terrorists’ as the US. And the 9/11 terrorists were almost all Saudis, not a single Iraqi among them. But Saudi Arabia had a secret pact with the US... and was also a major holder of US Treasury bonds. The resulting wars cost the US approximately $8 trillion... and as many as one million deaths. They also set the empire on a downward course, ruining itself with fruitless wars and endless deficits."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Men Don’t Want to Work"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 6/24/24

"Men Don’t Want to Work"

"Today, we're diving into why a staggering number of young men, aged 18-32, are opting out of the workforce. It's not about a lack of jobs but a refusal to face the stress and responsibility of employment. We're talking about the NEET phenomenon - No Education, Employment, or Training - and its alarming rise. The economy is in shambles, and our young men aren't stepping up. From declining social skills to parents coddling their adult children, this issue is snowballing. Who will defend us if the situation goes downhill? How did we get here, and what can be done? I've got the full scoop and some hard-hitting opinions on the economy, inflation, and our national debt."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"War In The Middle East, 6/24/24""

Dialogue Works, 6/24/24

"Richard D. Wolff: Israel is Losing Significantly, 

and It's Only Getting Worse"

"Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). Wolff was also a regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 6/24/24

"U.S. Snubs Israel, Warns Netanyahu Against 

Attacking Hezbollah, 'Iran Will Join War...'"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 6/24/24

"'Exhausted IDF...': Hamas' Direct & Fiery Message To 

Netanyahu After Israel PM's Hostage Deal Remark"

"In the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Suhail al-Hindi reaffirmed the group's commitment to continue fighting until Israel withdraws its forces and agrees to a ceasefire. This stance came in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestion of a potential partial deal involving hostage negotiations but reiterated that Israel's objective remains the destruction of Hamas."

 Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 6/24/24

"Lebanon's Biggest-Ever Threat To Israel;

 'Half Million Missiles Will Destroy...'"

"Lebanon’s Grand Shia Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan warned that Hezbollah would fire half a million missiles at Israel in any future conflict, claiming their arsenal could significantly set Israel back. Hezbollah, already conducting daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions, has been escalating in response to Israeli actions against Palestinians. Previous conflicts in 2000 and 2006 saw Hezbollah successfully resist Israeli advances."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The wages of sin is what, Israel? It's coming...