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So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Free Download: Robert D. Hare, "Snakes In Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work"
"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.
If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism.
Thus far, both political parties have been remarkably clever and effective in concealing this new reality. In fact, the two parties have formed an innovative kind of cartel - an arrangement I have termed America’s political duopoly. Both parties lie about the fact that they have each sold out to the financial sector and the wealthy. So far both have largely gotten away with the lie, helped in part by the enormous amount of money now spent on deceptive, manipulative political advertising."
Charles Ferguson, "Predator Nation" May 21, 2013
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Freely download "Snakes In Suits:
When Psychopaths Go To Work", by Robert D. Hare, here:
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Freely download "Punishment And Privilege:
The Politics Of Class, Crime, And Corporations In America" here:
"Why Are People So Reluctant..."
"Why are people so reluctant to believe that sociopaths and narcissists can use the power of the pen to prey on people? Because they are well spoken and organized? We would contend that these are the most dangerous of the emotionally warped with a need to acquire, dominate and control, because they are smarter and more calculating than the impulse murderers, burglars, rapists, thieves, and pedophiles.
There is a need for economic law and enforcement as there is a need for the less cerebral, hairy knuckled criminal law and enforcement. The notion that people become naturally good, rational and well-adjusted because they are wearing a suit is ludicrous, especially to anyone who has worked with many of those who move in the upper echelons of money and power.
Some of the scariest people we have ever met were articulate and pathologically driven borderline psychopaths with a need to acquire political and economic power. It is the focus of their illness that makes them powerful. They are not distracted by the diffusion of emotional responses that color most people's actions. They have a need, and the will to satisfy it, no matter what it takes.
There will always be those at the extremes who need to 'take it to the limit,' with a well stocked foreign retreat in case things get ugly. But for most of us, restoring a sense of justice and order and putting the nation back into some kind of working balance will be high on the priority list, if not for ourselves, then for our families."
Jesse, "Predator Class," 26 December 2008
“The Meaning Of Good And Evil In Perilous Times”
“The Meaning Of Good And Evil In Perilous Times”
by Brandon Smith
"Perhaps the most destructive idea ever planted in the minds of the general public is the notion that nothing in this world is permanent – that all things can and must be constantly changed to suit our whims. The concept of impermanence fuels what I call “blank slate propaganda.” The usefulness of the blank slate as a weapon for social control should be explained before we examine the nature of good and evil, because these days it infects everything.
The push for never ending social “evolution” has been called many things over the decades. In the early 1900s in Europe it was called “futurism;” an art and philosophical movement that helped spawn the rise of communism and fascism in politics.The argument that all old ideas and longstanding traditions should be abandoned to make way for new ideas, new technologies, news systems etc., assumes that the supposedly new ways of doing things are superior to the old ways of doing things. Things are rarely this simple, and in most cases the new methods so proudly championed by movements for social change are usually recycled and repackaged old ideas that are notorious for failure.
The blank slate theory is designed to confuse people with self-doubt and to misrepresent the constructs of nature as constructs of society. It most effectively disrupts people’s relationship to their own moral compass by suggesting that moral compass should be completely ignored as artificial. The argument by blank slate proponents is that all boundaries are created by society instead of by inborn conscience, and that these boundaries often hold us back from achieving our goals, bettering ourselves as a species and generally getting what we want out of life.
But the things we want are not always the things we need, and this is something that movement’s for social change often refuse to grasp. If we are all blank slates and if morality and the human soul are myths, why not do whatever the hell we want, whenever we want and live life as if it is one big Roman orgy of feasting, self-medicating and overall addiction to sensation?
The problem with the blank slate concept is that while it purports that all restrictions in the human psyche are taught to us rather than being inborn and that they can be abandoned any time we want, we still can’t seem to avoid the consequences of breaking those restrictions. People lose their sanity, societies crumble and nations fall to ruin over time the more we cast aside our principles in the name of social evolution or short term gain. It is unavoidable.
The only people who seem to benefit from the spread of the blank slate are the people already in political and economic power. For if they can convince the masses to ignore their conscience, they can then convince us to accept almost any other conditions.
To act in a manner consistent with inherent conscience, or to ignore conscience and act destructively, is a choice. It is the core pillar of free will. The choice to act destructively does not erase the reality of inherent conscience; in fact, people often have to be fooled into believing that a destructive and immoral action is a “good thing” before they are convinced to carry it out. Inherent conscience must be bypassed through trickery.
The problem with choosing to stick by one’s principles is that it is easy during times of relative stability, but increasingly difficult during times of struggle. In perilous days, the temptation to use destructive tactics to maintain an expectation of comfort or to merely survive can be high. It is no coincidence that power elites, the same people that tend to promote blank slate propaganda, also tend to deliberately engineer social crisis and chaos. But perhaps this needs a deeper explanation. We must define something most of us already understand intuitively. We must define “evil.”
Like inherent conscience and moral boundaries, blank slate theorists and social change advocates attempt to muddy the waters of what constitutes evil. Some will say there is no such thing — that evil is whatever we deem it to be in any given era depending on our biases. Others will claim that tradition, permanence and anything in society that remains static is evil. The only “good” for them is constant change.
But evil is not as illusory and changing as these people suggest. In fact, most men and women recoil automatically from certain specific behaviors regardless of how they were raised, what environment they come from, what culture they were born into or what era they lived. The people who don’t recoil at these behaviors are the people we have to watch out for because they are missing something integral to the heart and mind that makes the rest of us human.
In psychological terms, the characteristics of high level narcissists and sociopaths match most closely with our historic concept of evil. And, in my view, most great evils done in history are in fact done by people with multiple narcissistic traits. As far as global elitists are concerned, they represent a rather insidious threat, because they are narcissistic sociopaths that have organized into a predatory gang, so all the traits consistent with the behavior of your average serial killer are now magnified a thousandfold by their access to unlimited resources.
How do we identify these people? Well, this is a difficult prospect at times because narcissistic sociopaths commonly hide in plain sight. Some people live with them for years before realizing exactly what they are. They also like to insert themselves into nonprofit organizations that claim to do good for the community as a cover for their more insidious motives.
Some traits and behaviors that are common are a lack of normal emotional response to traumatic events or joyous events, or they will mimic the responses of others to blend in but they come off as “forced” or “fake.” They have no concept of empathy; it does not exist for them.
They seek out centers of power and are drawn to positions of authority. They always seem to be demanding the efforts of others while rarely offering their own help. They make terrible leaders, always attempting to lead from a place of safety while letting their conscripts take the risks. Leading by example is a foreign concept to them.
They will lie repetitively about their accomplishments and their accolades. They will misrepresent their professional achievements in order to gain people’s trust. Ask them to prove through actions that they can do all the things they claim they can do, and they will try to avoid the test or respond indignantly and angrily.
They will gaslight their ideological enemies or people they are trying to control. They will accuse others of being “narcissists” or “sociopaths” or fascists or any moniker that will push the buttons of their target. Whatever evils they are guilty of, they will try to flip and lay at the feet of their enemies.
They always seem to have “minions” to do their dirty work for them and attack those that oppose them. People that have dealt with narcissistic sociopaths in their personal lives sometimes refer to these minions as “flying monkeys,” referencing the flying monkeys enslaved by the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Flying monkeys are essentially useful idiots that the narcissist employs through fraud and sometimes through pay. Whenever the narcissist is under threat of being exposed, they unleash their flying monkeys onto the streets or onto the internet to undermine truth tellers.
They do not believe in moral or personal boundaries which is why they are always trying convince people that such boundaries are a myth. They will cross moral lines, always testing the fences for weaknesses; trying to wear others down until they give up and stop fighting back.
They desperately want to come out of the shadows and into the light of day. They want to be adored as the monsters they are, rather than the fake philanthropists they portray themselves as. In order to do this, every narcissistic sociopath makes it their duty to erase the idea of conscience, whether they are part of the globalist cabal or just another ghoul down the street. Their natural inclination is to corrupt whatever they touch, and if they cannot corrupt a thing, they will attempt to destroy that thing.
Most of all, narcissistic sociopaths want everyone around them to believe that we are just like them. That “deep down” all of us are unprincipled and morally bankrupt and all it takes is a crisis or calamity, just a little chaos to bring out the devil in everyone.
But if this were really the case, then humanity would have died out long ago through endless self-destruction; something keeps bringing us back from the brink in our personal lives and in society as a whole. Conscience keeps defeating evil by refusing to grant evil people the utopia of blank slate chaos they want so badly. And this is what give me confidence that no matter how terrible our days might become there is something on our side that goes beyond the physical world.
Every crisis is a test, a test of each person and a test of our culture. Can we act with reason and courage and principle even in the worst of times, or will we be lured to make our struggle easier through malicious means? Will we do right by those around us, or will we happily trample over them in the name of “survival?”
In the end, the worst men bring the best men to the surface. This is the only “good” they will ever do.”
"The Sociopath Next Door"
"The Sociopath Next Door"
by Martha Stout
"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law, banking or international development, or any of a broad array of other power professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none of the usual moral or legal encumbrances. When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are powerful or eloquent, and simply steamroll over groups who are dependent and voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from having no conscience whatsoever.
You become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe even globally successful. Why not? With your big brain, and no conscience to rein in your schemes, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 6 percent of the population.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 6 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish. Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person. Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender. What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions."
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"She Studied Extreme Psychopaths. Here’s What It Taught Her About Human Nature"
Full screen recommended.
Big Think, 6/27/24
"She Studied Extreme Psychopaths.
Here’s What It Taught Her About Human Nature"
"Are humans naturally selfless? Psychologist Abigail Marsh is using studies on psychopathy and altruism to find out. Abigail Marsh, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Georgetown University, explains how the world is impacted by those with psychopathy, and, additionally, those who practice extreme altruism. Psychopathy, she says, is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting a small percentage of people, who are different from a very early age due to their unique brain development. Conversely, she talks about people who are exceptionally altruistic - those who go out of their way to help others, often at great personal risk. These individuals are humble, believe in the goodness of others, and are highly empathetic. She concludes by explaining that acts of generosity have been increasing on a global scale, and how these trends have proven that it is possible for individuals to change their own natural levels of altruism. Through awareness and action, we can build a more caring and helpful society for ourselves and generations to come."
If you’re curious about your own levels of altruism, Marsh suggests using online tests like the TriPM or HEXACO personality tests:
The TriPM test: - https://psychopathyis.org/screening/tripm/
The HEXACO test: - https://survey.ucalgary.ca/
Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 6/27/24"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/27/24
"The Stock Market Will Crash 80% Or More,
Extreme Distortions"
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Gregory Mannarino, PM 6/27/24
"Why A 'Credit Freeze/Complete Lock-Up'
Of The System May Not Be Too Far Off"
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Bill Bonner, "Blitzkrieg"
A ruined bunker at For Douamont,
near Verdun on the French Maginot Line
"Blitzkrieg"
by Bill Bonner
"Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery."
- Jack Paar
“It’s the creolization of France,” whispered a neighbor. “Creolization” was the type of word we used to admire. Or, at least we admired the French for using words like that. Big, Latinate words... the kind a professor of history might use... make people sound intelligent. And so it was, that when we first came to France, we thought the French were smart. Now, we realize; they are just as dumb as Americans. Maybe dumber.
The nice thing about being overseas is that the parade of dumbness becomes less annoying. Tragedy turns to comedy. Instead of the embarrassment, dread and shame you feel when you read the home media, you can have a good laugh. After all, it’s not your fellow citizens who are idiots; it’s foreigners. And it’s not your country that is on the road to ruin; it’s a foreign country.
Two of the five priests officiating at the Sunday mass were African. And ahead of them, coming down the aisle to the sound of drums beating, was a whole contingent from New Caledonia... now living in a nearby town. They were big people, like Tahitians or Hawaiians, dressed in native outfits... with colorful skirts and headbands. Much of the music for the mass was of a distinctive ‘creole’ style marked by drums and swaying islanders - even the lord’s prayer was sung to a strange, palm-tree rhythm.
Going Native: When the English colonized, they were careful to keep their English culture to themselves. Even in the jungles of Africa, they stopped their safaris to have a proper tea. An Englishman like ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ who ‘went native,’ mixing with the locals and taking up their culture, was viewed with suspicion, pity or contempt.
The French, on the other hand, were eager to share their culture. They saw colonization as a ‘mission civilisatrice.’ They expected the indigenes to put a beret on their heads and begin singing the Marseillaise. But now, the sandal is on the other foot. France and England are being invaded by their former colonial subjects. And the French worry that their civilizing mission failed. The natives did not become French; they just got French passports. And now, France itself is ‘going native.’ Our neighbor explained:
It was only a few years ago that one out of every ten people in France had foreign roots. Mostly from North Africa. Now, it’s one out of every four. French law makes it easy for people from France’s overseas departments and territories to live in France. Many are already citizens.
Immigration has become a hot button in French politics, as it is in the US. Emmanuel Macron represents the French Hillary Clintons and Pete Buttigiegs - ‘centrists,’ well-educated, technocratic, and ‘liberal’ - who claimed to be able to ‘manage’ the issue... and expect grateful immigrants to vote for them. They favor more government, more rules, more spending... and more wars to keep everyone in line.
But the recent EU elections showed how unpopular the know-it-alls have become. Bloomberg: "Even Macron’s Closest Allies Fear His Brand Is Toxic." "The day after Emmanuel Macron stunned France by calling a snap election, an uncomfortable truth emerged at an emergency meeting of top government press officials: they had to manage a deeply unpopular President in what had effectively become a referendum on his leadership. The first round of voting is scheduled for Sunday."
Broadly speaking, the ‘right wing’ taps into anti-immigrant sentiments. The ‘left wing’ appeals to immigrants themselves... and those who don’t like to see Muslim children getting massacred. In France, as in the US, political campaigns are mostly just an exchange of insults. Any comment that can be labeled “racist” or “anti-semite,” is seized and broadcast... with little regard for the actual thought - if there were one - behind it.
An example. Yesterday, the Daily Mail reported: "A far-right election candidate in France is facing prosecution for unveiling an election poster reading: 'Let's give white children a future'. The slogan is accompanied by an image of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy..."
The kid doesn’t look especially ‘French’ to us. He looks more like the product of an earlier invasion - by the Wehrmacht in 1940."
"World War 3 Prelude, 6/27/24"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/27/24
"Dr. Gilbert Doctorow: Russian Retaliation!"
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Canadian Prepper, 6/27/24
"WW 3 Update: US Warns Citizens; Russia Diplomatic Emergency;
Israeli Tanks Approach Lebanon; EMP Nukes"
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Larry C. Johnson, 6/27/24
"Russia is Ready to Respond to NATO with Crushing Force"
Larry C. Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right.
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Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 6/27/24
"U.S. & NATO To Deploy 300,000 Soldiers in Ukraine?
Russia Big & Secret Move!"
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The Middle East
Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 6/27/24
"Russia To Join Lebanon War If Israel Invades?
Moscow's Mega Naval Wargames In Mediterranean"
Russia 'spooks' West with its mega naval war games in the Mediterranean Sea. The crew of the missile cruiser Varyag demonstrated its war preparedness in the region. The Varyag crew completed tasks to detect and destroy small-sized high-speed targets. Fire at simulated targets was carried out using heavy machine guns “Kord” and “Utes.” The destruction by detonation of a floating sea mine was also displayed. The drills come amid fear of Israel and Hezbollah war in Lebanon.
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Oneindia News, 6/27/24
"‘Don’t Even Dare’: Turkish President Erdogan
Warns Israel Against Attacking Lebanon, Extends Support"
"Turkish President Erdogan warns of Israel's potential plans to expand conflict into Lebanon, accusing Western powers of supporting Israel behind the scenes. He criticizes Netanyahu and calls for Muslim countries to show more solidarity with Lebanon. These remarks have sparked tension between Turkey and Israel, with Israeli officials accusing Erdogan of supporting Hezbollah. The ongoing conflict has severely damaged Turkey-Israel relations, with Erdogan positioning Turkey as a strong advocate for Palestinian rights and critic of Israel's actions."
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Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 6/27/24
"'Revenge Coming...':
Houthis Warn As Israel Wipes Out Hamas Chief's Family"
The Ansarullah Political Bureau condoles the death of Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh’s sister and her family members in an IDF airstrike in northern Gaza. Ansarullah points out to the resilience and patience of Haniyeh. The Iran proxies further slammed Israeli arrogance and said that the latest attack shows their confusion and failure due to the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and the resistance.
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Full screen recommended.
Times Now, 6/27/24
"Haniyeh's War Cry After Sister's Death In IDF's
Gaza Airstrike; Hamas Chief Fumes, Dares Israel"
Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh suffered a major setback in Gaza carnage after his sister and family members were reportedly killed on June 25. As per Israeli media, airstrike by IDF in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City killed Haniyeh's relatives. IDF said Hamas terrorists used the targeted building, some of them were involved in the holding of Israeli hostages as well as part of the October 7 attack.
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Insider Tells All - Banks Are About To Fail"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/27/24
"Insider Tells All - Banks Are About To Fail"
"In this video, I reveal insider information from the commercial banking industry that's too critical to ignore. With banks like Flagstar and Zion Bank Corp. drowning in debt, we're on the brink of a massive collapse. Imagine banks having 300-500% more loans than their actual worth - it's a ticking time bomb!"
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Adventures With Danno, "Massive Holiday Sale At Kroger!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/27/24
"Massive Holiday Sale At Kroger!"
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Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Jeremiah Babe, "The Worst Shopping Mall I Have Ever Seen Is Finished, R.I.P."
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 6/26/24
"The Worst Shopping Mall I Have Ever Seen
Is Finished, R.I.P.; Who Is Going To Buy All These Cars?"
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"Inside The Retail Apocalypse! Abandoned Store Crisis!"
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 6/26/24
"Inside The Retail Apocalypse! Abandoned Store Crisis!"
Malls, retail stores, and restaurants all across the country are going out of business in a lead up to this coming recession / depression. The lucky ones that are still in business, are having a hard time right now as inflation is killing people's purchasing power and forcing many to only spend on essentials. How long can this go on for before everyone realizes the jig is up?
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"Dear Child II"
Full screen recommended.
Chris Hedges, 6/25/24
"Dear Child II"
"Written as a letter to a child in Gaza, the film takes the audience on a haunting & realistic journey through Gaza today from a child’s perspective imbued with guilt of a foreign journalist. Stylish, artistic, horrifying, yet hopeful that we can do better. We must."
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Adventures With Danno, "Tainted Food Products Everywhere! Be Ready For The Collapse!"
Adventures With Danno, PM 6/26/24
"Tainted Food Products Everywhere!
Be Ready For The Collapse!"
Tainted food products are popping up everywhere,
and what you need to know about this growing concern!
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Douglas Macgregor, "Nearly A Million Russian Troops Ready"
Full screen recommended.
Douglas Macgregor, 6/26/24
"Nearly A Million Russian Troops Ready"
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"Russia To Directly Attack USA? Putin Aide's Big Hint As Moscow Vows Revenge For Crimea"
Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 6/26/24
"Russia To Directly Attack USA?
Putin Aide's Big Hint As Moscow Vows Revenge For Crimea"
"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow did not rule out a military response to a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimean beachgoers with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia said on Sunday that the United States was responsible for the Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five U.S.-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more."
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Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 6/26/24
"Putin Issues Chilling Warning To U.S. Over Crimea Strikes;
‘Will Not Go Unpunished…’"
"Tensions between Russia and the United States, are escalating following the deadly strikes in Crimea. Russia has blamed the U.S. and issued warnings of retaliation in response to the Crimea strike carried out by Ukrainian forces. This message was conveyed directly to U.S. envoy Lynne Tracy, who was summoned by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Additionally, Russia cautioned the U.S. diplomat about impending consequences for the strikes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol as "barbaric," stressing that the direct involvement of the United States resulting in casualties among Russian civilians will not go unanswered. He added, "Time will tell what these consequences will be."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"What's happening at the center of the Trifid Nebula? Three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear near the bottom, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, cataloged as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulas known.
The star forming nebula lies about 9,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). The region pictured here spans about 10 light years. The featured image is a composite with luminance taken from an image by the 8.2-m ground-based Subaru Telescope, detail provided by the 2.4-m orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, color data provided by Martin Pugh and image assembly and processing provided by Robert Gendler."
Chet Raymo, “Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”
“Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”
by Chet Raymo
“If there is one word that should not be uttered, it is the name of – no, I will not say it. Any name diminishes. In the face of whatever it is that is most mysterious, most holy, we are properly silent. It is appropriate, I think, to praise the creation, to make a joyful noise of thanksgiving for the sensate world. But praising the Creator is another thing altogether. When we make a big racket on His behalf we are more than likely addressing an idol in our own image. What was it that Pico Iyer said? “Silence is the tribute that we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred place, just as we slip off shoes.” The God of the mystics whispers sweet nothings, as lovers do.
In a diary entry for “M.”, near the end of his too-short life, Thomas Merton wrote: “I cannot have enough of the hours of silence when nothing happens. When the clouds go by. When the trees say nothing. When the birds sing. I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.” The natural world was for Merton the primary revelation. He listened. He felt a presence in his heart, an awareness of the ineffable Mystery that permeates creation. It was this that drew him to the mystical tradition of Christianity, especially to the Celtic tradition of creation spirituality. It was this that attracted him to Zen.
There come now and then, perhaps more frequently in late life than previously, those moments of being (as Virginia Woolf called them) when creation grabs us by the shoulders and gives us such a shake that it rattles our teeth, when love for the world simply knocks us flat. At those moments everything we have learned about the world – the invaluable and reliable knowledge of science- seems a pale intimation of what is. In Virginia Woolf’s novel “The Waves”, the elderly Bernard says: “How tired I am of stories, how tired I am of phrases that come down beautifully with all their feet on the ground! Also, how I distrust neat designs of life that are drawn upon half sheets of notepaper. I begin to long for some little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
In moments of soul-stirring epiphany, it is reassuring to feel beneath our feet a floor of reliable knowledge, the safe and sure edifice of empirical learning so painstakingly constructed by the likes of Aristarchus, Galileo, Darwin and Schrodinger. But at the same time we are humbled by our ignorance, and more ready than ever to say “I don’t know,” to enter at last the great silence. Erwin Chargaff, who contributed mightily to our understanding of DNA, wrote: “It is the sense of mystery that, in my opinion, drives the true scientist; the same blind force, blindly seeing, deafly hearing, unconsciously remembering, that drives the larva into the butterfly. If the scientist has not experienced, at least a few times in his life, this cold shudder down his spine, this confrontation with an immense invisible face whose breath moves him to tears, he is not a scientist.”
The whole thrust of the mystical tradition, the whole thrust of science, is toward the great silence- an awareness of our ignorance and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” A lifetime of learning brings one at last to the face of mystery. We live in a universe of more than 2 trillion galaxies. Perhaps the number of galaxies is infinite. And the universe is silent. Achingly, terrifyingly silent. Or, rather, the universe speaks a little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
"Why You Can Do Anything You Want… And Why You Can’t"
"Why You Can Do Anything You Want…
And Why You Can’t"
by Paul Rosenberg
"People frequently tell children “You can do anything you want.” And this causes a lot of confusion, because in the real world, they can’t. And after their first clash with the aforesaid real world, the child is left wondering all sorts of unpleasant things:
Did mom and dad lie to me? Are they just ignorant? Am I defective? Should I find someone to blame?
The worst thing about this, however, is that the child is likely to have their opinion of themselves reduced. And that’s tragic. As I’ve noted many times, we are magical creatures. Humans, alone in the known universe, are able to create willfully… are able to reverse entropy willingly. The child should think of his and her self as magical… because they really are! So, let’s make some sense of this problem.
Why You Can: Humans are radically amazing. Sure, we’ve been long trained to consider each other to be sacks of crap – a belief that’s essential to rulership – but it simply isn’t true. We are stunningly capable beings, and we generally behave pretty well, even under the reign of self-debasement.
Take a look around you. Wherever you live, you’re surrounded by buildings, roads, and cars. All of them exist only because of human virtues. Without human creativity, they could not exist. Without human cooperation, they could not exist. And they are everywhere. We’ve filled the Earth with hospitals and airplanes and food and computers and medicine. And the list could go on almost indefinitely.
More than that, we’ve learned how to cooperate very well. Forget wars; they’re run by competing states and will exist as long as states do. Instead, look at your local soccer league, little league, church choir, and family gathering.
And remember that we’ve been trained to see one flaw in a cooperative group and condemn the whole from it. (And to hypnotically accept any and every flaw of the state.) A few flaws are meaningless compared to modes of cooperation that thrive over decades, centuries, and millennia. Does being less than perfect make us monsters? Does anything less than 100% equal zero?
So, we are wonderful creatures. And how much better might we be if we dared consider that possibility? Here’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton that I’d like you to read: "There runs a strange law through the length of human history – that men are continually tending to undervalue their environment, to undervalue their happiness, to undervalue themselves. The great sin of mankind, the sin typified by the fall of Adam, is the tendency, not towards pride, but towards this weird and horrible humility."
Can we dare imagine that Chesterton was right? And if not, why not? That kind of imagination is what the child needs, and it is that kind of imagination that results in human thriving, as noted by Leon Battista Alberti, the epitome of the Renaissance Man: "A man can do all things if he will."
Yes, that’s a bit overstated, but we have the essential ability to do amazing things, and if we thought and acted like it – thought and acted like Leon Battista Alberti – we’d do a lot more amazing things.
Why You Can’t: There are two reasons you can’t do anything at all. The first is simple: Nature stands in your way. No matter how much we imagine we can do something, if nature doesn’t agree, we can’t do it. We can work with nature to do “impossible” things (building flying machines for example), but we can’t simply violate it.
The second reason is also simple: Other human wills oppose us and stand ready to use violence against us. This second reason is habitually cloaked in confusing and deceptive terminology of course, but the truth is that adversarial wills and their violence oppose us all.
What we lack is what we can call “a life affording scope.” Limitations of our scope – weaponized wills set against us – have been colorfully covered by Reason magazine’s “Brickbats” section for decades, but the problem goes much farther than that. I’ll give you a few thoughts on that, then bring this column to a close:
• Regulation forbids adaptation.
• Obligation supplants compassion.
• Only violent and corrupt human wills deserve restriction.
And one more, the "14 words" we used in a previous article: "We are a beautiful species, living in a beautiful world, ruled by abusive systems." This is why I’ve been drawn to the cryptosphere. Our scope of life within that realm is not obstructed by weaponized wills. It’s a special place."
"The Only Absolute..."
"Never perceive anything as being inevitable or predestined.
The only absolute is uncertainty."
- Lionel Suggs
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"Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science - by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans - teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us."
- Carl Sagan
The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"
"A Brave And Startling Truth"
by Maya Angelou
"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space,
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth.
And when we come to it,
To the day of peacemaking,
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms.
When we come to it,
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass,
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.
When the rapacious storming of the churches,
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.
When the pennants are waving gaily,
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.
When we come to it,
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.
When land mines of death have been removed,
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh,
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse.
When we come to it,
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory,
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets.
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun.
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.
We, this people on this mote of matter,
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence,
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor,
And the body is quieted into awe.
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow,
And the proud back is glad to bend.
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,
Created on this earth, of this earth,
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,
Without crippling fear.
When we come to it,
We must confess that we are the possible,
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.
That is when, and only when,
We come to it."
"What Might have Been..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
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And in secret moments of despair,
Too late, too late...We think what might have been,
should have been, and we let it slip away...
Chris De Burgh,
"Carry Me (Like A Fire In Your Heart)"
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