"How Could You? A Dog's Story"

"How Could You? A Dog's Story"

by Jim Willis

"When I was a puppy I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was "bad," you'd shake your finger at me and ask "How could you?" - but then you'd relent and roll me over for a bellyrub.

My housetraining took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed, listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be any more perfect. We went for long walks and runs in the park, car rides, stops for ice cream (I only got the cone because "ice cream is bad for dogs," you said), and I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.

Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. I waited for you patiently, comforted you through heartbreaks and disappointments, never chided you about bad decisions, and romped with glee at your homecomings, and when you fell in love.

She, now your wife, is not a "dog person" - still I welcomed her into our home, tried to show her affection, and obeyed her. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement. I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them, too. Only she and you worried that I might hurt them, and I spent most of my time banished to another room, or to a dog crate. Oh, how I wanted to love them, but I became a "prisoner of love."

As they began to grow, I became their friend. They clung to my fur and pulled themselves up on wobbly legs, poked fingers in my eyes, investigated my ears and gave me kisses on my nose. I loved everything about them, especially their touch - because your touch was now so infrequent - and I would have defended them with my life if need be. I would sneak into their beds and listen to their worries and secret dreams. Together we waited for the sound of your car in the driveway. There had been a time, when others asked you if you had a dog, that you produced a photo of me from your wallet and told them stories about me. These past few years, you just answered "yes" and changed the subject. I had gone from being your dog to "just a dog," and you resented every expenditure on my behalf.

Now you have a new career opportunity in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You've made the right decision for your "family," but there was a time when I was your only family.

I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the animal shelter. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said "I know you will find a good home for her." They shrugged and gave you a pained look. They understand the realities facing a middle-aged dog or cat, even one with "papers."

You had to pry your son's fingers loose from my collar as he screamed "No, Daddy! Please don't let them take my dog!" And I worried for him and what lessons you had just taught him about friendship and loyalty, about love and responsibility, and about respect for all life. You gave me a goodbye pat on the head, avoided my eyes, and politely refused to take my collar and leash with you. You had a deadline to meet and now I have one, too.

After you left, the two nice ladies said you probably knew about your upcoming move months ago and made no attempt to find me another good home. They shook their heads and asked "How could you?"

They are as attentive to us here in the shelter as their busy schedules allow. They feed us, of course, but I lost my appetite days ago. At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you - that you had changed your mind - that this was all a bad dream... or I hoped it would at least be someone who cared, anyone who might save me. When I realized I could not compete with the frolicking for attention of happy puppies, oblivious to their own fate, I retreated to a far corner and waited.

I heard her footsteps as she came for me at the end of the day and I padded along the aisle after her to a separate room. A blissfully quiet room. She placed me on the table, rubbed my ears and told me not to worry. My heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come, but there was also a sense of relief. The prisoner of love had run out of days. As is my nature, I was more concerned about her. The burden which she bears weighs heavily on her and I know that, the same way I knew your every mood.

She gently placed a tourniquet around my foreleg as a tear ran down her cheek. I licked her hand in the same way I used to comfort you so many years ago. She expertly slid the hypodermic needle into my vein. As I felt the sting and the cool liquid coursing through my body, I lay down sleepily, looked into her kind eyes and murmured "How could you?"

Perhaps because she understood my dogspeak, she said "I'm so sorry." She hugged me and hurriedly explained it was her job to make sure I went to a better place, where I wouldn't be ignored or abused or abandoned, or have to fend for myself - a place of love and light so very different from this earthly place. With my last bit of energy, I tried to convey to her with a thump of my tail that my "How could you?" was not meant for her. It was you, My Beloved Master, I was thinking of. I will think of you and wait for you forever. May everyone in your life continue to show you so much loyalty."

- http://www.crean.com/jimwillis/

○

"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

- Will Rogers

The Daily "Near You?"

Auburndale, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Never, Ever Forget..."

"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."

- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls "

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/28/24"

"Biden Debate Disaster, War Exploding, Economy Tanking"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"I could not see that Joe Biden scored a single blow on President Trump in the CNN debate on Thursday night. Biden held his own in the debate that preceded the 2020 Election, but in this debate, he showed how much he has declined. He mumbled many of his answers and could not mount a single defense to President Trump telling him “We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been.” Trump beat Biden over the head on the problems the open Southern border has caused America: crime, debt, drugs, inflation or all of the above. Trump said everyone in the military who had a hand in the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 “should have been fired, and you did not fire a single person.” Trump also said we have been “living in Hell for the past three and a half years,” and “If Biden is elected again, we won’t have a country left.” Biden had no comeback for this or any other of Trump’s debate points. 

So, Trump won hands down. Call it a blowout. It was like a football team beating an opponent 100 to 3. Now, everybody knows (including the Democrats) Biden cannot be President. In a way, I feel sorry for Biden, but I feel way sorrier for the “Hell” we are living in here in America under the Biden policies. Remember that Martin Armstrong predicted the Dem party wanted Biden to do terrible in the debate with Trump so they could justify replacing him on the 2024 ticket. They got their wish.

War is exploding and intensifying everywhere. Cluster bombs dropped on Russian in Crimea, and the Hezbollah conflict in Northern Israel will make the Gaza conflict look like a party. Hezbollah has thousands of rockets that can hit any target in Israel. So, will Israel wipe them out first? Iran is now mobilizing for war against Israel. Will you see regular Iranian troops going up against Israel? As far as Russian reprisals for the cluster bomb attack, it looks like Putin is not taking the bait to widen the war and go nuclear just yet. Putin still wants a Ukrainian ceasefire. If Trump was in office, this would have never happened. Trump said this in the CNN debate, and that was yet another point Biden had no comeback for.

The Fed did a so-called “stress test” on 31 of the biggest banks in America. Some reported they passed with flying colors, and others said this stress test showed the big banks are “weaker” than in the past. It sure feels like somebody is lying because the FDIC just said at the beginning of June that 63 banks are on a so-called “watch list” because they have more than a half trillion dollars in sour debt. The FDIC list of problem banks is secret, which does not inspire confidence, and the transparency is like looking through mud. Also, Michael Snyder has just put up a list of 11 signs that the economy is tanking. Third on his list is “When Banks get into trouble, they start closing branches. So far this year, US banks have closed more than 400 branches all over the country.” As I said, somebody is lying about the health of the banks and the health of the US economy. There is more in the 41-minute newscast."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these

 stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 6/28/24:

- https://rumble.com/

"This Is Actually Painful To Watch"

"This Is Actually Painful To Watch"

by SpaceCommando

"Painful? Embarrassing? Pitiful? Look at Jill Biden’s expression where she’s on stage with Biden. Unbelievable. People in the US that have been supporting “Biden” (and keeping him in “office”), especially over the last year or so, have a lot of explaining to do. First off, who is in charge of the executive branch of the US government? And that’s just the start for them...

Shocking ending to the Trump vs Biden debate, what most people didn’t see.

This says it all. pic.twitter.com/ryE6qEIdpt

- Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) June 28, 2024

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

o

"21 Facts That Joe Biden Doesn’t Want You To Know"

"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "Landlords Are On The Edge - Is This The End?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/29/24

"Landlords Are On The Edge - Is This The End?"

"What used to be a great business is now horrible. Landlords are fed up and want to quit. Landlords are feeling the pressure with rising costs and dwindling profits, especially in states like California, Florida, and Texas. It's getting harder to manage properties with skyrocketing insurance rates and the increasing risks of renting out units."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Judge Napolitano, "Douglas Macgregor: United States Finally At War With Russia"

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano, 6/28/24

"Douglas Macgregor: 

United States Finally At War With Russia"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Shipping Prices Will Go Through The Roof As Supply Chains Face Worst Threats Since 2020"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 6/28/24

"Shipping Prices Will Go Through The Roof 

As Supply Chains Face Worst Threats Since 2020"

"Supply chain disruptions. Congested ports. Delivery delays. Soaring shipping prices. All of this seemed like a distant memory from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's happening again, and conditions are far scarier this time around. The head of ocean freight of the Americas at Rhenus Logistics, Stephanie Loomis, who spends her days negotiating with international carriers on behalf of clients moving products and parts around the globe, revealed during an interview with the outlet that she's seeing cargo prices skyrocket due to a series of disturbances at world's busiest shipping routes.

Since the end of 2023, Houthi rebels have been firing on ships entering the Red Sea and heading to the Suez Canal, an essential artery for vessels travelling between Asia, Europe, and the East Coast of the United States. The offensive has escalated in recent months, forcing shipping companies to rethink their routes. They are now opting to take the longer routes around Africa, but that means their journeys are being extended by up to two days.

Additionally, a severe drought in Central America is reducing water levels in the Panama Canal, prompting authorities to restrict the number of ships passing through this key channel for global trade.

On top of all that strain, U.S. dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts are threatening to go on a strike, while longshore workers at German ports have stopped shifts to demand better pay. Meanwhile, rail workers in Canada are poised to walk off their jobs, jeopardizing cargo movement across North America and risking backups at major ports like Vancouver, British Columbia.

The increasing turmoil in shipping is causing carriers to sharply raise rates, and it is increasing the possibility of a waterborne gridlock, which could once again leave big retail chains facing widespread shortages during the peak of the shopping season. This disruption could also worsen inflation, a major economic concern influencing the US presidential election."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended. 

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Be kind to yourself, take a break from the never-ending

 horror show reality has become... Relax, savor this beautiful music... 

o

"I cannot paint

What then I was. The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colors and their forms, were then to me

An appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, not any interest

Unborrowed from the eye.

That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur: other gifts

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense.

For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue."

- William Wordsworth,

"Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

o

“Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that

only loneliness can help you find them again.

Some truths are so painful that only shame can help you live with them.

Some things are so sad that only your soul can do the crying for them.”

- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion - over hundreds of millions of years.

NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The featured picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2002. These galactic mice will probably collide again and again over the next billion years so that, instead of continuing to pull each other apart, they coalesce to form a single galaxy."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211004.html

Ever wonder why there's always these astronomy posts? At the end of the day, 

the end of the journey, as darkness falls, it's good to see the lights of Home...Soon.

The Poet: Rod McKuen, “A Cat Named Sloopy”

 

Full screen recommended.

“A Cat Named Sloopy”

“For awhile

the only earth that Sloopy knew

was in her sandbox.

Two rooms were her domain.

Every night she’d sit in the window

among the avocado plants

waiting for me to come home,

my arms full of canned liver and love.

We’d talk into the night then,

contented,

but missing something.

She the earth she never knew,

me the hills I ran

while growing bent.

Sloopy should have been a cowboy’s cat,

with prairies to run,

not linoleum,

and real-live catnip mice,

no one to depend on but herself.

I never told her,

but in my mind

I was a midnight cowboy even then.

Riding my imaginary horse

down Forty-second street,

going off with strangers

to live an hour-long cowboy’s life.

But always coming home to Sloopy,

who loved me best.

For a dozen summers

we lived against the world.

An island on an island.

She’d comfort me with purring,

I’d fatten her with smiles.

We grew rich on trust,

needing not the beach or butterflies.

I had a friend named Ben

Who painted buildings like Roualt men.

He went away.

My laughter tired Lillian

after a time,

she found a man who only smiled.

But Sloopy stayed and stayed.

Winter,

Nineteen fifty-nine,

Old men walk their dogs.

Some are walked so often

that their feet leave

little pink tracks

in the soft snow.

Women, fur on fur,

elegant and easy,

only slightly pure,

hailing cabs to take them

round the block and back.

Who is not a love seeker

when December comes?

Even children pray to Santa Claus.

I had my own love safe at home,

and yet I stayed out all one night,

the next day too.

They must have thought me crazy

screaming SLOOPY!

SLOOPY!

as the snow came falling

down around me.

I was a madman

to have stayed away

one minute more

than the appointed hour.

I’d like to think a golden cowboy

snatched her from the window sill,

and safely saddlebagged

she rode to Arizona.

She’s stalking lizards

in the cactus now perhaps,

bitter, but free.

I’m bitter too,

and not a free man anymore.

But once upon a time,

In New York’s jungle in a tree,

before I went into the world

in search of other kinds of love,

nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.

Looking back,

perhaps she’s been

the only human thing

that ever gave back love to me.”

- Rod McKuen 

"What Is Hope?"

"What Is Hope?"

"What is hope? It is the pre-sentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress us is not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe.

That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and in a miraculous and unexplained way, life is opening creative events which will light the way to freedom and resurrection. But the two - suffering and hope - must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté and drunkenness.

So let us plant dates even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. That is the secret discipline. It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience, and it is a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope."

- Rubin Alves

"25 Life Lessons from the Anglo-Saxons"

Full screen recommended.

RedFrost Motivation,

"25 Life Lessons from the Anglo-Saxons"

Narrated by Nicky Rebelo

o

"The Exeter Book": This is the largest (and perhaps oldest) known collection of Old English poetry/literature still in existence. Freely download "The Exeter Book" here:

- https://ia800703.us.archive.org/

o

“The Durham Proverbs”: “The proverbs are considered to have been used to document everyday business of the people of Anglo-Saxon England.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Durham_Proverbs

"I'm Rightly Tired Of The Pain..."

“I'm rightly tired of the pain I hear and feel, boss. I'm tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. Not never havin' no buddy to go on with or tell me where we's comin' from or goin' to or why. I'm tired of people bein' ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I'm tired of all the times I've wanted to help and couldn't. I'm tired of bein' in the dark. Mostly it's the pain. There's too much. If I could end it, I would. But I can't.”

- Stephen King, "The Green Mile"

“Gods dream of empires, but devils build them.”

- Jessica Cluess, "House of Dragons"

The Daily "Near You?"

Pretoria, South Africa. Thanks for stopping by!

Gerald Celente, "Inflation To Stay As Wars Ramp Up"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 6/28/24

"Inflation To Stay As Wars Ramp Up"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"4 Types Of People"

Judge Napolitano, "Intel Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Intel Wrap"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/28/24

"Intel Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern:

 Weekly Intel Wrap"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/28/24

"Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Israel/Ukraine Wrap"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

"US National Debt Clock"

Adventures With Danno, "Aldi 'Saver Deals" Everywhere!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 6/28/24

"Aldi 'Saver Deals" Everywhere!"

"In today's vlog, we are at Aldi and are finding all kinds of their Aldi Saver Deals! As grocery prices continue to rise in most of our main supermarkets, Aldi has put together some pretty amazing sales that we should definitely take advantage of! We show you all of the savings, so get your notepad ready!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The New Scam Epidemic: How They're Stealing Millions"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/28/24

"The New Scam Epidemic:

 How They're Stealing Millions"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Emergency Broadcast: CNN Debate Goes Panic Mode, America On Thin Ice"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/28/24

"Emergency Broadcast: CNN Debate Goes 

Panic Mode, America On Thin Ice"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Make 'Em Laugh"

"Make 'Em Laugh"

Trillions of dollars in debt will be marked down, written off, 

or inflated away. This fake wealth will disappear, in other words. 

The voters, already restless, will sharpen the guillotine.

by Bill Bonner

"This is how our republic ends. Not with a debate but with a snivel between 

two candidates vying to demonstrate how utterly unqualified either is to lead us."

- Comment found on the Internet

Poitou, France - "We connect the dots. We look for patterns. Sometimes right. Sometimes wrong. Always in doubt. And always with a jolly demeanor. Which is probably easier to do from abroad than at home. ‘Laugh and know,’ said the Roman philosopher Martial. You don’t always know; but you can always laugh.

Words alone cannot describe last night’s presidential debate farce. That’s why God gave us laughter. We laughed at Trump. We laughed at Biden. The two geezers volleyed their much-rehearsed lies... like blind tennis players, hitting the ball only occasionally and only by accident. And then we laughed at the reporters. At least they realized that there was no substance to the debates, so they focused on Biden’s ‘raspy voice.’

Did either candidate mention the huge, dark cloud hanging over the US economy? America’s monetary experiment was expected to show that governments and central bankers are perfectly capable of running a money system. We don’t need no stinkin’ gold to keep it honest, said Milton Friedman (or words to that effect). Last night, we saw two reasons why he was wrong.

Inherent Value: This is not the first time the experiment has been run. Always and everywhere, the results have been the same - ‘paper’ money always returns to its inherent value…zero. Because the people who run governments and their central banks are merely human, all too human. Inevitably, many of them will be morons. But as we all know, we’re so much smarter today. As Hitler may or may not have remarked to Goebbels, “Okay... invading Russia didn’t work out for Napoleon... but now we have tanks!”

Past experiences with paper money (unbacked by gold) failed. But this time will be different, said Richard Nixon’s financial advisors. Now we have PhDs! And since the dollar was the go-to currency for the entire world, and since the PhDs go to the same universities and study the same misguided economists, their mistakes spread far and wide. Here’s Tom from his July Monthly Strategy Report published on Wednesday: "Today the Japanese yen set new 38-year lows against the US dollar. The last time the yen was this cheap against the dollar was in 1986. Savers in Japan have realized the government is not going to protect the real value of their yen-denominated savings. They’re panicking."

The Big Picture is simple. We’re in the initial stages of an epic government debt crisis. They spent, promised, printed and bailed out more than they can ever repay. The State is the apex creditor. But unlike a hedge fund, a bank or big corporation, no one stands behind the State to bail it out when it gets in trouble.  Now there’s a gigantic default coming. The run on Japan’s currency is just an initial symptom. But there’s more to that pattern. The yen may be down against the dollar. But the dollar is down too. Since 1986, it has lost - based on official inflation figures - 65% of its value. Against gold, the loss is 84%.

Our hypothesis is that after 1971 the fake money and fake interest rates led to flakey, fakey GDP and fictitious asset values. Debt (coaxed by Fed interest rates that were below zero, in real terms, for almost the entire period, 2007 to 2022) grew to the point where much of it can never be repaid. In the US, total debt approaches $100 trillion. Worldwide it is over $300 trillion.

In the next downturn, already underway, trillions of dollars’ worth of this debt will be marked down, written off, or inflated away. This fake wealth will disappear, in other words... and the voters, already restless, will sharpen the guillotine and look for necks. Did either Biden and Trump mention that? We didn’t think so."

Research Note, by Dan Denning: Inflation was a hot topic in last night’s Presidential debate, although neither candidate noted (nor took the blame for) the 22% expansion in money supply over the last four years - a permanent shift higher in the price level. This morning, thanks to a ‘cool’ inflation report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), interest rate cuts may be back on the menu in the second half of 2024.

The BEA said the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditures index (PCE) was up 2.6% on an annualized basis. Core PCE excludes food and energy costs (because they’re volatile). ‘Suprecore’ PCE, which excludes food, energy, and housing costs, was also up 2.6% year-over-year. Both numbers were in line with Wall Street estimates and still above the Fed’s 2% target for inflation.

On the last trading day of the first half of the year, the ‘tame’ inflation numbers have investors pricing in two Fed rate cuts in the next six months. As a reminder, the last ten rate cutting cycles have coincided with a recession and corrections in the S&P 500. The chart below shows the Fed funds rate (in blue) and recessions (the grey vertical lines). Be careful what you wish for."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Joe Biden Catches Cold"

"Joe Biden Catches Cold"

by Jim Kunstler

“Biden’s entire closing statement is the political equivalent 

of the blue screen of death. It’s just one long frozen glitch.” 

- Sean Davis, the Federalist

"Maybe ninety-seconds into last night’s long-awaited debate spectacle, the consensus must have jelled among the woke-and-broken news media mavens that their champion, “Joe Biden,” was not quite killing it out there at the podium. CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash acted like witnesses at a ritual sacrifice. And afterward, the CNN post-mortem panel seemed genuinely shocked that months of playing pretend had skidded to such an ignominious finish.

Which raises a great many questions, starting with: why on earth did the Democratic Party and its media handmaidens persist in pretending month-after-month that “Joe Biden” was a fit candidate for another four-year term? Last night, he didn’t appear capable of even finishing the current term. Why did they usher him so jauntily into the nomination? And what are they going to do about that now? And what were their motives for all that pretending? “Joe Biden” circulates among scores of astute officials every day. Did they all fail to notice his incapacity? Or has the whole thing been a sham and a lie all along? Was this just the culminating hoax by the Party of Hoaxes of a long string of hoaxes against the nation going back to 2015?

To the question of motives, the answer is obvious: the news networks have worked tirelessly (and with stunning dishonor) to hide their collusion with the government in gaslighting the public. More to the point, they’ve concealed the appalling truth that the CIA, DARPA, and their many intel blob subsidiaries conducted a silent coup over the USA and have been running our country’s affairs disastrously behind the “Joe Biden” façade - and that the coup actually started well before Mr. Trump’s 2016 inauguration. You know it, and they know that you know it.

More acutely, now that “Joe Biden” has been revealed as a hoax president, whole legions of public officials appear liable to criminal charges of the most serious degree: sedition, treason, mass murder, fraud, malfeasance, and in the case of the president himself, influence peddling and bribery. They must be desperate to avoid accounting for all that, losing their accrued fortunes to legal fees and going to prison (or worse). For example, outed just this week: news that then-CIA Director in 2020, Gina Haspel, knew about and participated in the infamous operation using 51 former Intel officers to cover up the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop days before the election.

They knew the laptop was real. Their colleagues over at the FBI knew it was real. They all knew it was stuffed with deal memos, legal memoranda, and emails that clearly laid out a long-running bribery operation among Biden family members and their lawyers. They knew it in 2019 when the Democratic Party moved to impeach Mr. Trump for inquiring about the Biden family’s money-grubbing activities in Ukraine - where, by the way, we may have fomented the war with Russia in part to cover up the culpability of all involved, including especially the State Department and their embassy staff in Kiev. The FBI and its bosses in the DOJ also withheld the laptop from Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers during the 2020 impeachment, though it contained massive exculpatory evidence to explain just why he made that fateful phone call to the newly elected Zelensky.

It’s obvious that the ruling blob now has to deep-six “Joe Biden.” The problem is they must induce him to renounce the nomination of his own will. The party’s nominating process is so bizarrely complex that it would very difficult to just shove him out. Another problem is that the party had to peremptorily declare “JB” their legal nominee before the August convention in order to keep him on the ballot in Ohio with its 17 electoral votes (due to some arcane machinery in the state’s election laws).

As per above, the debate fiasco calls into serious question whether “Joe Biden” is competent to even serve out this term. He (or shadowy figures pulling strings behind him) are making profoundly hazardous decisions right now, such as last week’s missile attack that killed and wounded civilians on the beach in Crimea. Are you seeing how easily “Joe Biden” might start World War Three? All of which is to say that pressure will soon rise to use the 25th amendment to relieve him of duty, leaving you-know-who in the oval office. If Joe Biden actually has to resign as president, he also loses the ability to pardon his son, Hunter, and peremptorily his other family members who shared bribery money received from China, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

If he won’t resign, and the party can’t force him off the ticket, the blob could have no choice except to bump him off. I imagine they would get it done humanely, say late at night sometime, in bed, using the same method as for putting down an old dog who has peed on the carpet one too many times. Or, if that can’t be managed and he clings to his position, maybe the party could cobble up some new nominating rules impromptu. And then, who could they slot in from the bench?

The usual suspects are like the cast of a freak show, each one displaying one grotesque deformity after another. Gavin Newsom we understand: the party’s base of batshit-crazy women may all want to bear his child, but that limbic instinct to mate with a six-foot-three haircut-in-search-of-a-brain might not work with any other voter demographic - and Newsom has the failed state of California hanging around his neck. All Mr. Trump would have to do is broadcast the scene from a San Francisco street-cam on “X” (Twitter) 24/7.

Hillary has been stealthily flapping her leathery wings overhead for weeks as this debacle approached. She may still own the actual machinery of the Democratic Party - having purchased it through the Clinton Foundation some years back when the party was broke and needed a bailout. She could just command the nomination by screeching “Caw Caw” from the convention rostrum. Whatever happens, it will look terrible.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan? An inveterate and notorious intel blob tool, Whitmer has allowed herself to be used repeatedly by the FBI to frame and persecute conservatives in her state as well as using her state AG Dana Nessel to go after political enemies there, especially poll workers who cried fraud in the sketchiest Michigan voting districts.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Like Dreamboat Newsom in California, Mr. Pritzker is busily running Illinois (and especially Chicago) into bankruptcy and chaos. Looks aren’t everything, but if Dreamboat gives the vapors to Karens across the land, the Illinois governor will get them shrieking in terror as from the sight of King Kong on Skull Island

Who else is there? Michelle O, of course, who will be instantly branded as a catspaw for her husband seeking a fifth term - as Barack himself has averred in so many words: just hanging out in the background, managing things in his jogging suit. That would be the ultimate Banana Republic set-up for us and I don’t think the voters will go for it. It all boils down to the Party of Chaos being thrust into chaos. Can it even survive “Joe Biden?”

Then there is Mr. Trump himself. He remains the object of widespread rabid loathing, yet more and more Americans are coming to appreciate his opposition to Woke Marxist chaos and intel blobbery-gone-wild in our land. His performance last night featured his usual jumpy locutions and incomplete sentences, but in contrast to the current president, he looked neither senile nor an agent of sinister forces dedicated to bringing our country to its knees. Had Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. been present both of the others would have been badly outclassed verbally and intellectually. If Mr. Trump survives the blob’s efforts to delete him before November, I’m sure Mr. Kennedy will play a prominent role in another Trump administration. He knows exactly where the rot is and how to roust it out."

- https://kunstler.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Nike Sends Economic Warning As Sneaker Sales Slow"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/27/24

"Nike Sends Economic Warning As Sneaker Sales Slow; 

US Vehicles Are Falling Apart, Major Recall"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"15 Things To Buy Right Now To Get Ready For The Next Disaster"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 6/27/24

"15 Things To Buy Right Now 

To Get Ready For The Next Disaster"

"We're all familiar with that apocalyptic movie scene in which hordes of people start rushing to the grocery store and fighting each other over basic supplies because they didn't stock up on essentials, and were caught off guard by an unexpected event. Would you be one of them if that happened today? We don't even have to go back that far in history to find similar situations where Americans emptied grocery shelves in record time, and saw innocent customers becoming aggressive looters as panic and anxiety started to bring the worst out of people.

After the food chain is disrupted, basic staples can face astronomical price increases. It is often in the middle of such a scenario that people also realize their money doesn't have the same value it once had. That can certainly be chaotic, and in many cases, quite frightening. Even though we've been through it just a few years ago, - during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns, - people's memories are short, and many believe we're far from experiencing anything like this again. But they should think twice."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: The Civil Wars, "Kingdom Come"

Full screen recommended.

The Civil Wars, "Kingdom Come"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"This intergalactic skyscape features a peculiar system of galaxies cataloged as Arp 227 some 100 million light-years distant. Swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces, Arp 227 consists of the two galaxies prominent right of center, the curious shell galaxy NGC 474 and its blue, spiral-armed neighbor NGC 470. 

The faint, wide arcs or shells of NGC 474 could have been formed by a gravitational encounter with neighbor NGC 470. Alternately the shells could be caused by a merger with a smaller galaxy producing an effect analogous to ripples across the surface of a pond. The large galaxy on the top lefthand side of the deep image, NGC 467, appears to be surrounded by faint shells too, evidence of another interacting galaxy system. Intriguing background galaxies are scattered around the field that also includes spiky foreground stars. Of course, those stars lie well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. The field of view spans 25 arc minutes or about 1/2 degree on the sky."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200827.html

"Life..."

"Life is painful and messed up. It gets complicated at the worst of times, and sometimes you have no idea where to go or what to do. Lots of times people just let themselves get lost, dropping into a wide open, huge abyss. But that's why we have to keep trying. We have to push through all that hurts us, work past all our memories that are haunting us. Sometimes the things that hurt us are the things that make us strongest. A life without experience, in my opinion, is no life at all. And that's why I tell everyone that, even when it hurts, never stop yourself from living."

- Alysha Speer

"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."

- Scott Turow

"Life's funny, chucklehead. You only get one and you don't want to throw it away. But you can't really live it at all unless you're willing to give it up for the things you love. If you're not at least willing to die for something - something that really matters - in the end you die for nothing."

- Andrew Klavan

The Poet: Theodore Roethke, "In a Dark Time"

"In a Dark Time"

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see,

I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;

I hear my echo in the echoing wood-

A lord of nature weeping to a tree.

I live between the heron and the wren,

Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What’s madness but nobility of soul

At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!

I know the purity of pure despair,

My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.

That place among the rocks- is it a cave,

Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!

A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,

And in broad day the midnight come again!

A man goes far to find out what he is-

Death of the self in a long, tearless night,

All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.

My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,

Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?

A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.

The mind enters itself, and God the mind,

And one is One, free in the tearing wind."

- Theodore Roethke

Kahlil Gibran, "You Are My Brother..."

“You are my brother, but why are you quarreling with me? Why do you invade my country and try to subjugate me for the sake of pleasing those who are seeking glory and authority?

Why do you leave your wife and children and follow Death to the distant land for the sake of those who buy glory with your blood, and high honor with your mother's tears?

Is it an honor for a man to kill his brother man? If you deem it an honor, let it be an act of worship, and erect a temple to Cain who slew his brother Abel.

Is self-preservation the first law of Nature? Why, then, does Greed urge you to self-sacrifice in order only to achieve his aim in hurting your brothers? Beware, my brother, of the leader who says, "Love of existence obliges us to deprive the people of their rights!" I say unto you but this: protecting others' rights is the noblest and most beautiful human act; if my existence requires that I kill others, then death is more honorable to me, and if I cannot find someone to kill me for the protection of my honor, I will not hesitate to take my life by my own hands for the sake of Eternity before Eternity comes.

Selfishness, my brother, is the cause of blind superiority, and superiority creates clanship, and clanship creates authority which leads to discord and subjugation.

The soul believes in the power of knowledge and justice over dark ignorance; it denies the authority that supplies the swords to defend and strengthen ignorance and oppression - that authority which destroyed Babylon and shook the foundation of Jerusalem and left Rome in ruins. It is that which made people call criminals great men; made writers respect their names; made historians relate the stories of their inhumanity in manner of praise.

The only authority I obey is the knowledge of guarding and acquiescing in the Natural Law of Justice.

What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a neighborhood country and slays its people? What does justice think of the authority under which a killer punishes the one who kills, and a thief sentences the one who steals?

You are my brother, and I love you; and Love is justice with its full intensity and dignity. If justice did not support my love for you, regardless of your tribe and community, I would be a deceiver concealing the ugliness of selfishness behind the outer garment of pure love.”

- Kahlil Gibran

- http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poet-s-voice-xv/

"The Donkey and the Meaning of Eternity: Nobel-Winning Spanish Poet Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Love Letter to Life"

"The Donkey and the Meaning of Eternity: Nobel-Winning

 Spanish Poet Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Love Letter to Life"

by Maria Popova

Excerpt: "Beneath our anxious quickenings, beneath our fanged fears, beneath the rusted armors of conviction, tenderness is what we long for - tenderness to salve our bruising contact with reality, to warm us awake from the frozen stupor of near-living. Tenderness is what permeates Platero and I (public library) by the Nobel-winning Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez (December 23, 1881–May 29, 1958) - part love letter to his beloved donkey, part journal of ecstatic delight in nature and humanity, part fairy tale for the lonely.

Living in his birthplace of Moguer - a small town in rural Andalusia - Jiménez began composing this uncommon posy of prose poems in 1907. Although it spans less than a year in his life with Platero, it took him a decade to publish it. At its heart is a simple truth: What and whom we love is a lens to focus our love of life itself.

The tenderness with which Jiménez regards Platero - whom he addresses by name over and over, like an incantation of love - is the tenderness of living with wonder and fragility. He celebrates Platero’s “big gleaming eyes, of a gentle firmness, in which the sun shines”; he reverences him as “friend to the old man and the child, to the stream and the butterfly, to the sun and the dog, to the flower and the moon, patient and pensive, melancholy and lovable, the Marcus Aurelius of the meadows.” He beckons him: “Come with me. I’ll teach you the flowers and the stars.”

And so he does: "Look, Platero, so many roses are falling everywhere: blue, pink, white, colorless roses… You’d think the sky was crumbling into roses… You’d think that from the seven galleries of Paradise roses were being thrown onto the earth… Platero, it seems, while the Angelus is ringing, that this life of ours is losing its everyday strength, and that a different strength from within, loftier, more constant, and purer, is causing everything, as if in fountain jets of grace… Your eyes, which you can’t see, Platero, and which you are mildly raising skyward, are two beautiful roses."

Together, poet and donkey traverse the Andalusian countryside in a state of rapturous harmony with each other and the living world: "Through the low-lying roads of summer, draped with tender honeysuckle, how sweetly we go! I read, or sing, or recite poetry to the sky. Platero nibbles the sparse grass of the shady banks, the dusty blossoms of the mallows, the yellow sorrel. He halts more than he walks. I let him.

[…]

Every so often Platero stops eating and looks at me. Every so often I stop reading and look at Platero."

There are echoes of Whitman in Jiménez’s exultations: "Before us are the fields, already green. Facing the immense, clear sky, of a blazing indigo, my eyes - so far from my ears! - open nobly, welcoming in its calm that indescribable placidity, that harmonious, divine serenity which dwells in the limitlessness of the horizon."

This longing for the infinite accompanies the young man and the old donkey as they cross the hills and valleys on their daily pilgrimages: "The evening extends beyond its normal limits, and the hour, infected with eternity, is infinite, peaceful, unfathomable."

Again and again, Platero’s presence magnifies the poet’s relishing of beauty, deepens his contact with the eternal: "I remain in ecstasy before the twilight. Platero, his black eyes scarlet with sunset, walks gently to a puddle of crimson, pink, and violet waters; he softly immerses his lips into the mirrors, which seem to liquefy as he touches them."

Punctuating these ecstasies are the inevitable spells of melancholy stemming from the fact that the price of being awake to life is being also awake to mortality. Aware that this enchanted life with his beloved Platero is only for the time being, Jiménez reaches into the sorrow of the future to consecrate it with joy: "Platero. I shall bury you at the foot of the large, round pine in the orchard at La Piña, which you like so much. You will remain alongside cheerful, serene life. The little boys will play and the little girls will sew beside you on their little low chairs. You will get to hear the verses that the solitude will inspire in me. You’ll hear the older girls singing when they wash clothes in the orange grove, and the sound of the waterwheel will be a joy and a solace to your eternal peace. And all year long the goldfinches, greenfinches, and vireos, in the perennial freshness of the treetop, will create for you a small musical ceiling between your tranquil slumber and Moguer’s infinite, ever-blue sky."

Full, wonderful article is here:

- https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/