"Monsters will always exist. There's one inside each of us.
But an angel lives there, too. There is no more important
agenda than figuring out how to slay one and nurture the other. "
- Jacqueline Novogratz
So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Free Download: Alan Paton, "Cry, the Beloved Country"
“We do not know, we do not know. We shall live from day to day, and put more locks on the doors, and get a fine fierce dog when the fine fierce bitch next door has pups, and hold on to our handbags more tenaciously; and the beauty of the trees by night, and the raptures of lovers under the stars, these things we shall forego. We shall forego the coming home drunken through the midnight streets, and the evening walk over the star-lit veld. We shall be careful, and knock this off our lives, and knock that off our lives, and hedge ourselves about with safety and precaution. And our lives will shrink, but they shall be the lives of superior beings; and we shall live with fear, but at least it will not be a fear of the unknown. And the conscience shall be thrust down; the light of life shall not be extinguished, but be put under a bushel, to be preserved for a generation that will live by it again, in some day not yet come; and how it will come, and when it will come, we shall not think about at all.”
Freely download "Cry, the Beloved Country", by Alan Paton, here:
"I Fear for Our Nation"
"I Fear for Our Nation"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"I fear for our nation, and I am not alone. The echoes of the past are becoming louder, and I recall the decades between 1961 and 1981 with trepidation, for that era was marked by crisis, tumult, discord, civil violence, war, a near miss of nuclear war, extreme polarization and assassinations.
Many Americans sense the country never really recovered from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, or from the assassinations of presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. five years later in 1968. An attempt on the life of President Gerald Ford was narrowly thwarted in 1975, and an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan very nearly succeeded in 1981.
A terrible madness swept the land, as dozens of bombings and the bizarre kidnaping of media heiress Patty Hearst by a domestic terror cell pockmarked the 1970s, a decade marked by a failed presidency, revelations of domestic spying by federal security agencies and runaway inflation.
It was a very long night before morning dawned in America again. From the longer view, the twenty years of tumult can be understood as the political and social reaction to what changed in America in the previous twenty years of 1941 to 1960: America had been roused from isolationism to fight a world war, forced to protect allies in Europe and Asia from the threat posed by an expansionist totalitarian Soviet Union, and a century-old reckoning with the racial divide that made a mockery of our nation's principle that "all men are created equal" and should be treated equally before the law. The promises made by the founding documents of the nation had yet to be fulfilled.
The very success of our protection of war-devastated allies created an economic crisis of our own, as the old, less efficient industrial plant of America was outpaced by the new industries that arose in Germany and Japan with modern technologies, industries aided by America's open door to exports and the strong dollar.
The 1970s was a decade of economic adjustment with high costs to both capital and labor as the Energy Crisis and the need to tackle industrial pollution drove a multi-trillion dollar (in today's dollars) rebuilding of American industry, a process punctuated by recessions that caused great misery for those laid off and struggling with high inflation.
These sacrifices and conflicts eventually paid dividends. Inequality eased, high interest rates crushed the inflationary spiral and the investments in higher efficiencies and new technologies started paying off.
My fear is that we've entered another 20 years of tumult, chaotic conflict, infectious madness and discord, but without the resilience we possessed in the 1960s and 1970s, the resilience generated by low debt, strong domestic industries and supply chains, low levels of regulation, low-cost healthcare and education and much higher levels of civic virtue, community, national purpose, moral legitimacy and self-reliance than are visible today.
Whether we admit it or not, we are riven by rising inequality in wealth and opportunity, high debt loads and little consensus on how to get through the night in one piece and emerge better from facing the challenges head on. I fear the siren-song appeal of denial and magical thinking, as if a rocket to Mars or a new phone app or another AI chatbot will fix what's broken in America.
I fear our buffers have been thinned, and our ability to make sacrifices for the future has been lost. Our moral foundations are in such tatters that getting rich by whatever means are within reach is now the "solution" to the coming storm, as if greed bled dry of ethics isn't a proximate cause of the coming storm.
My hope is that we gain the wisdom to see there are no easy solutions, no one-size-fits-all fixes, that solutions will be localized, partial, contingent on continual adaptation to changing conditions, and that this continual experimentation and evolution requires an acceptance of continual failures and a keen sense of humility about our limits.
I hope we gain the wisdom that we need each other, not as enemies but as colleagues, not always in agreement but respectful nonetheless."
Monday, July 15, 2024
Jeremiah Babe, "Maximum Red Alert: America Just Got A Reality Check"
Jeremiah Babe, 7/15/24
"Maximum Red Alert:
America Just Got A Reality Check"
Comments here:
o
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Light-years across, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula appears in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, obscuring clouds are part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200 light-years distant.
Click image for larger size.
It is also listed as Barnard 150 (B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Packs of low mass stars are forming within, but their collapsing cores are only visible at long infrared wavelengths. Still, the colorful stars of Cepheus add to this pretty, galactic skyscape."
"Figuring Forward in an Uncertain Universe"
"Figuring Forward in an Uncertain Universe"
by Maria Popova
"We make things and seed them into the world, never fully knowing - often never knowing at all - whom they will reach and how they will blossom in other hearts, how their meaning will unfold in contexts we never imagined. (W.S. Merwin captured this poignantly in the final lines of his gorgeous poem “Berryman.”)
Today I offer something a little apart from the usual, or sidelong rather, amid these unusual times: A couple of days ago, I received a moving note from a woman who had read "Figuring" and found herself revisiting the final page - it was helping her, she said, live through the terror and confusion of these uncertain times. I figured I’d share that page - which comes after 544 others (here are the first), tracing centuries of human loves and losses, trials and triumphs, that gave us some of the crowning achievements of our civilization - in case it helps anyone else.
Click image for larger size.
Meanwhile, someplace in the world, somebody is making love and another a poem. Elsewhere in the universe, a star manyfold the mass of our third-rate sun is living out its final moments in a wild spin before collapsing into a black hole, its exhale bending spacetime itself into a well of nothingness that can swallow every atom that ever touched us and every datum we ever produced, every poem and statue and symphony we’ve ever known - an entropic spectacle insentient to questions of blame and mercy, devoid of why.
In four billion years, our own star will follow its fate, collapsing into a white dwarf. We exist only by chance, after all. The Voyager will still be sailing into the interstellar shorelessness on the wings of the “heavenly breezes” Kepler had once imagined, carrying Beethoven on a golden disc crafted by a symphonic civilization that long ago made love and war and mathematics on a distant blue dot.
But until that day comes, nothing once created ever fully leaves us. Seeds are planted and come abloom generations, centuries, civilizations later, migrating across coteries and countries and continents. Meanwhile, people live and people die - in peace as war rages on, in poverty and disrepute as latent fame awaits, with much that never meets its more, in shipwrecked love.
I will die.
You will die.
The atoms that huddled for a cosmic blink around the shadow of a self will return to the seas that made us. What will survive of us are shoreless seeds and stardust."
"1930s - Street Scenes New York"
Full screen recommended.
NASS, "1930s - Street Scenes New York"
"I colorized, restored and created a sound design for this video of New York in the 1930s. We start on Manhattan's West Side, at 12th Avenue and 42nd Street, at the ferry terminal of the West Shore Railroad, the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, and the Weehawken Ferry. After we have a Crowd Scene street where we can see the beautiful fashion in the 30s."
Comments here:
Once upon a time. Fascinating...
"At A Time Like This..."
"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. "
- Frederick Douglass
"Scott Ritter: Israel is Being Destroyed and IDF Humiliation in Lebanon Will Finish It"
Danny Haiphong, 7/15/24
"Scott Ritter: Israel is Being Destroyed
and IDF Humiliation in Lebanon Will Finish It"
Comments here:
"Bamboozeled..."
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. " - Carl Sagan
Always fully and truthfully informed by their government
and mass media, deeply concerned Americans
react as expected to disastrous economic and social news...
and mass media, deeply concerned Americans
react as expected to disastrous economic and social news...
"Because..."
"There is much asked and only so much I think I can or should answer, and so, in this post I would like to give a few thoughts on what seemed to be the overwhelming question: "WHY?" And here is the best answer I can give: Because. Because sometimes, life is damned unfair. Because sometimes, we lose people we love and it hurts deeply. Because sometimes there aren't really answers to our questions except for what we discover, the meaning we assign them over time. Because acceptance is yet another of life's "here's a side of hurt" lessons and it is never truly acceptance unless it has cost us something to arrive there. Why, you ask? Because, I answer. Inadequate yet true."
- Libba Bray
"The Writing on the Wall"
"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"
"I... don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him?"
"To shrug."
- Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged"
"The Writing on the Wall"
by Jeff Thomas
"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
Ayn Rand; "Atlas Shrugged," 1957
"Pretty strong words… the last four, in particular. Ayn Rand knew whereof she spoke. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905, she became politically conscious while still a child and did not favor the existing concept of constitutional monarchy. So, it would not have been surprising if, when the Russian revolution broke out when she was twelve, she bought into the proselytizing of Vladimir Lenin, as so many did at that time.
Instead, she quickly surmised that the Bolsheviks’ claim to improve life for the average man was, in reality, a plan to diminish the quality of life for all of the people. In doing so, the Bolsheviks confiscated her father’s business and displaced her family. At one point they were nearly starving, but in 1925, she received permission to emigrate to the US. (She later attempted to get her parents and sisters out, but it proved to be too late.)
A Lesson Hard-Learned: In establishing her now well-known beliefs in governmental systems, Ayn Rand had the benefit of having observed the entire progression from a relatively benign monarchical system to totalitarianism. As a result, she not only learned that political leaders can be deceitful in their claims for social improvement, she also learned, first hand, that those leaders (and/or hopeful leaders) who promise that they are going to change the system in such a way that everyone will "have all they need," are the most deceitful of all.
In my opinion, the greatest possible threat from the fanciful claims by politicians lies in the willingness of the populace to actually believe such claims. Sadly, it does seem as though the majority of people in any country tend to be extraordinarily gullible in this regard.
The very idea that some method can be found that would make it possible to equalize all people is patently ludicrous. There will always be differences in intellect, talent, and ambition from one individual to the next. The idea that any government should somehow enforce the more gifted or more motivated to continually give up the fruits of their efforts, whilst giving those fruits to others who are less gifted and less motivated is, by definition, unworkable.
The Obvious Choice: Such an idea, whether we consider it laudable or not, cannot ultimately succeed. The most that can be expected is that the idea could successfully be enforced, which would result, eventually, in the gifted and motivated ceasing to make the necessary effort to excel. And, of course, in socialist countries, this is what, over time, we see take place. There is a direct relationship between the degree of "redistribution" by the government and the decline in effort by the gifted or motivated.
Still, there will always exist those who are less gifted or less motivated who will want to believe that political leaders can somehow make this impossible concept a reality. And of course, these people can fully be expected to vote for, or otherwise support, those who make such empty promises.
Therefore, the realization that should be taken away from this discussion is that, over time, it is perfectly predictable that a given government might ultimately go in a direction of self-destruction, as it will be likely to pander to the majority, who seek such largesse at the expense of others.
What then, of the minority? What of those who are in that group of more gifted or more motivated people - the ones that do, historically, tend to push a society forward with their abilities and efforts? They have a choice. They can "go with the flow," should the country in question go into social and political decline; they can accept it and try to muddle through, as did Ayn Rand’s parents after the revolution. Or they can vote with their feet, as did Rand herself.
The results of these choices are plain: Zinovy and Anna Rosenbaum disappeared into Soviet obscurity, whilst daughter Ayn escaped to become a novelist in a freer and more inspiring country: the US. This scenario repeated itself in Germany and Austria in the 1930s, when such notables as Albert Einstein, Friedrich Hayek, and Ludwig Von Mises made their exits to the US, England, and Switzerland, respectively.
The Writing Is on the Wall: And so it has gone, throughout history. When the writing is on the wall that "the society is doomed," most people invariably stick it out where they are, hoping either that "things will get better," or at least, that "it won’t get too much worse."
In George Orwell’s 1945 book, "Animal Farm," the pigs convinced the other animals to revolt against the farmer, whom the pigs claimed was oppressing them. When the revolution succeeded, the animals proudly painted the words, "All animals are equal" on the barn. Later, under cover of darkness, the pigs changed the wording to, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." This was literally the writing on the wall - the signal that the moment had arrived when the animals should have either overthrown the pigs or, if that was not possible, hopped the fence and skedaddled.
In real life, making this decision is quite a bit more difficult. However, it can be said that Ayn Rand made the task simpler for us. In the quote above, she offers the "writing on the wall." It only remains to us to decide whether the point she describes has been reached. We can assume that, if we are presently living in a country that matches her description, and it remains possible at present to make an exit, as she did in 1926, we would be well advised to do so. Certainly, her parents mistakenly waited longer, and young Ayn was the only one who escaped the Soviet Union.
We cannot control the obsessive behaviour of tyrants. They will forever be amongst us, and the majority of people do tend to "go along" in the end, either through ignorance or in the false belief that they will somehow benefit from such tyranny. Our one choice, therefore, is the one that was faced by Ayn Rand and her parents. They chose differently and their fates could not have diverged more as a result."
o
"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law - men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims - then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed." An excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.
Full text of “Francisco’s Money Speech” is here:
Freely download "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Is Buying a Home Still Worth It?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/15/24
"Is Buying a Home Still Worth It?"
It is amazing that people are going to buy a home.
Is it still worth it? Should you just rent?
Comments here:
Bill Bonner, "The Resistance"
"The Resistance"
Nations, clubs, tribes - almost all forms of human associations - need their
unifying myths. None are absolutely true. But some are more un-true than others.
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "Victors write history. And they give themselves leading roles in it. Then, with only their own lies for reference, they turn into numbskulls.
Immediately after WWII, US officers interviewed captured German soldiers as well as the civilian population. They were amazed to find almost none said they were Nazis. Within weeks after their surrender, the Nazis had vanished from German history. Most people said they were always against them... and only put on uniforms, or otherwise supported the war effort, because they had to.
Likewise, in France, after a short period of score settling and collaborator-shaming, visitors discovered that almost everyone had been a member of the French resistance - apparently, the whole population had been bravely fighting the German usurpers. And so it was that yesterday, France’s national holiday, the flags unfurled and the ‘anciens combattants’ assembled in our little village to honor the local heroes of the resistance, 1940-1945.
Source: Bill Bonner
The old soldiers - there couldn’t have been more than a dozen of them - were appropriately bedecked with campaign ribbons. There were veterans of the Indo-China wars (in which the French fought to avoid Vietnamese independence)... and there were veterans of the Algerian war (in which France tried to keep the Algerians on the leash). The last WWII veteran from the village must have already bit the dust; none were present.
Still on hand, however, was a doughty WWII-era Jeep. There was no marching band to head up the procession; instead, the Jeep led the way, with a speaker mounted on the back. As another reminder of America’s lost industrial might, two GMC trucks, also of WWII vintage, joined the promenade.
Source: Bill Bonner
At precisely 11:15, someone turned on the music and the parade began. Flags waving, the mayors, prefects, gendarmes, and local big-wigs... all set out down the little lane towards the center of town, trailed by a solemn crowd of gawkers and patriots. Arriving at the town square, the officials lined up according to rank... the goodest and greatest in the front... the lesser grades behind them... and the hoi polloi, including your editor, on the fringes.
There must be some law that requires public officials to speak at events such as these but forbids them from saying anything meaningful. We heard from politicians, military leaders, and local busybodies. All had the same message; that if it had not been for the courage and determination of the “maquis” (resistance fighters with their headquarters hidden in the woods, whom the Germans saw as ‘terrorists’) France would not be the free country it is today... and we’d be listening to speeches in German, drinking beer rather than wine, and paying our bills on time.
But WWII, like WWI, was won by manpower and firepower. The resistance fighters had very little of either. As for becoming more like the Germans, the French lost the Franco-Prussian War in 1870; after the surrender, no attempt was made to change the language, drinking preferences, or credit scores. France boomed, quickly paying its war debts – in gold.
But nations, clubs, tribes - almost all forms of human associations - need their unifying myths. None are absolutely true. But some are more un-true than others. Surveys show both Americans and Brits, by large majorities, believe that it was their own soldiers who defeated Hitler. But it is not even close to the truth. The Soviet Union pulled off a remarkable ‘double envelopment’ at Stalingrad and wiped out 800,000 German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops. After that, German forces were fighting a losing battle... with an incompetent fantasist as their commander-in-chief.
Back in France, a majority of the population supported the Vichy government and its peaceful settlement with the Germans. Many people hoped the Germans would win the war against the Soviets, whom they regarded as a worse menace. And among the ‘maquis,’ confusion, violence, and claptrap ran wild. In the countryside around here, the WWII era was a dark episode... and all the cats were gray.
“It really was not much like they pretend it was,” says an 87-year-old friend. “The best organized of the resistance groups were the communists. They didn’t take their orders from de Gaulle in London, but from Stalin in Moscow. And they hated anyone they regarded as ‘bourgeois.’ There were also groups of thieves... and some far-right militia. So, when armed men came to your house, you didn’t know who they were or what they would do. Sometimes they would just steal your car... saying they were commandeering it for the resistance. But sometimes it was much worse.
They rounded up a group of people from [the neighboring town] and executed them. For a long time, we didn’t know what had happened to them, but then their bodies were found in the river. Nobody seemed to know who had done it, or why. And my neighbors up the road... they would never talk about it, but the maquis came and apparently did unspeakable things. The daughter, who was a teenager at the time, was never quite right after that.” Stay tuned..."
Gregory Mannarino, "Trump's Now Lock On The Presidency Presents Massive Opportunity"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/15/24
"Trump's Now Lock On The Presidency Presents
Massive Opportunity. Complete Outline"
Comments here:
"Economic Market Snapshot 7/15/24"
"Economic Market Snapshot 7/15/24"
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it.
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
o
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Comprehensive, essential truth.
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
o
"Larry C. Johnson & former FBI HRT Sniper Chris Whitcomb on the Failed Assassination of Donald Trump"
Dialogue Works 7/14/24
"Larry C. Johnson & former FBI HRT Sniper Chris Whitcomb
on the Failed Assassination of Donald Trump"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/15/24
"Judge/Johnson/McGovern:
Assassination Attempt of Donald Trump"
Comments here:
Jim Kunstler, "Shocks to the System"
"Shocks to the System"
by Jim Kunstler
“Trump is brushing off assassin’s bullets like dirt off his shoulder, racking up a mile long rap sheet of the fakest & gayest felonies known to man, chased through civil court by crazy-eyed harridans deranged by how horny he makes them. Joe Biden has jello for supper at 4pm.”
- Aimee Terese on “X”
"Dear Hitler,' “Joe Biden” wrote his personal note of condolence Saturday night. 'So sorry to hear that you were inconvenienced by loud noises in PA, where I grew up in the black church. Chris Wray tells me that fine people may be behind it. Will keep you in the loop. Get well soon!"
Here’s some more consolation: The New York Times reports this morning that the FBI is looking into the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life as “possible domestic terrorism.” One must ask: are they trying to shed new light on this event, or just blowing more smoke up America’s ass - because that has been the FBI’s specialty for at least the past eight years. We’ll know if they take the definitive step of labeling the act a “hate crime.”
The weakness of narrative-tweaking is beginning to show. The amazing part is that only the elite thinking class of Americans fell for it, exactly the demographic that hangs on every word in The New York Times. The Deplorables out there in Flyoverland delivering Froot Loops to the Piggly-Wiggly and driving fork-lifts around the Amazon warehouse apparently never bought the narrative bullshit generated by the Media-Blob Industrial Complex. You’d hate to suppose that thinking is overrated. Or is it just a certain kind of thinking?
Try as you might to locate some malign, overweening, scheming cabal behind all the trips laid on our country, the truth is probably much simpler: set out on a journey defined by one lie, and then tell a lie to cover the first lie, and then another, and pretty soon you’re lying all over the place about everything until reality gets obliterated. This is exactly what started in 2016 when Hillary Clinton sought to cover up her email and private server scandal with the Russia collusion hoax.
Have you forgotten how entrenched the FBI, CIA, and other agencies dug themselves in on that? It began as dumb-ass insinuation that Donald Trump was a Russian agent, but the FBI turned itself into fantasy factory when they ran with story. They manufactured one sub-plot after another, most of it comically absurd, like the entrapment of General Flynn for having a conversation with the Russian ambassador — as if foreign countries send ambassadors here for some other purpose than communicating with our government officials. Tell me, you Harvard grads who devour The New York Times every morning with your turmeric and wheat-grass detox smoothies: should an incoming White House National Security Advisor not speak with envoys from other lands?
So, following the election of 2016, scores of government officials from Barack Obama and Joe Biden on down set out to wreck Mr. Trump’s turn in office, and ran one hoax after another to disable and dislodge him, and each hoax was a battery of lies begetting more lies. The style of thinking behind all that is called unprincipled. Many of these lies entailed crimes, some of them gigantic frauds perpetrated on the citizenry such as the ballot-stuffing operation that jammed “Joe Biden” into office - and which you were not permitted to speak of on penalty of cancellation and prosecution.
By 2020, “Joe Biden” had racked up enough bribes from foreign lands that he was susceptible to blackmail and thus to manipulation. That his mind was failing through his entire term only made that easier. Both “Joe Biden” and the Neocon gang at State and the CIA were implicated in a web of crimes in Ukraine, and war there was one way to cover all of it up, so they made sure that war happened. The lies and hoaxes continued to multiply, accompanied by huge, destructive pranks - the George Floyd riots, the drag queens in the kiddie classrooms, the wide-open border, the FBI-instigated J-6 riot - and the Democratic Party was embroidered in that whole tapestry of degenerate politics along with the Deep State blob.
In short, the Democratic Party appears to be guilty of programmatic treason against the people of the United States. They know that a reckoning awaits if Mr. Trump manages to return to office. They’ve known it for years. But two recent Supreme Court decisions really amped up their fears: 1) Trump v. the United States establishes presidential immunity from prosecution for acts involving his core constitutional duties; and 2) Loper Bright v. Raimondo establishes that the federal bureaucracy can no longer rule over citizens unchecked by the courts. Both of these would make it much easier for a President Trump to disassemble the Deep State. And of course, that may lead to the investigation and prosecution of Deep State personae who abused their positions - possibly even prison. . . a discomfiting prospect.
The Democratic Party’s cover got blown on June 27th when Joe Biden had to go live in a debate and displayed his mental incompetency for all to see. That shock to the system forced a scramble to replace “JB” pretty late in the election cycle, since now just enough voters may be indisposed to re-electing an obvious human wreck. But the switcheroo effort seems to have lost traction. And the party may have muffed its blackmail leverage over “Joe Biden.” After all, his briberies are all well-cataloged by the House Oversight Committee, including the vast bank records of the many shell companies set up to receive the bribe money.
Is it possible, though, that “Joe Biden” holds blackmail material over his party confederates? After all, he’s still president. He has access to things you’d never dream of and, demented as he is, he has plenty of help close at hand from Hunter, Dr. Jill, and the Lawfare posse for sorting it out. He probably knows a thing or two about his old pard Barack Obama, too, that would make some folks uncomfortable. So, looks like “JB” is fixing to hang in there as his party’s nominee, and whoever doesn’t like it can go suck an egg.
After the stunning events of Saturday evening, it also looks like candidate “Joe Biden” would go down in flames against Donald Trump on November 5, stuffed drop-boxes and all. Not a few Democratic Party bigshots have already made noises about leaving the country if that happens, possibly to nations lacking extradition treaties with the USA. Many others must be gobbling Xanax like Tic Tacs now that Donald Trump has survived the ultimate affront to his existence. You know the old nugget of wisdom: if you come at the king, you better not miss. Ooops."
o
Omar, "The Wire"
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Canadian Prepper, "WARNING: Cancel Your Plans. 100 Days of Chaos Ahead. What Happens Next..."
Canadian Prepper, 7/14/24
"WARNING: Cancel Your Plans.
100 Days of Chaos Ahead. What Happens Next..."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms.
It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole."
"We've All Heard..."
“The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can’t pretend we haven’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still, sometimes, we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug, until we can’t anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant: That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst, most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of never trying.”
- “Meredith”, “Grey’s Anatomy”
"15 Signs American Families Are Flat Broke"
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Epic Economist, 7/14/24
"15 Signs American Families Are Flat Broke"
"As darkness shadows the American dream, more and more families are grappling with the harsh reality of financial distress. In 2024, an unprecedented number of Americans consider themselves "broke," reflecting a widespread economic struggle. From the relentless surge in inflation to the crippling burden of debt, the signs of instability are everywhere. Now, optimism has vanished, giving way to a pervasive sense of despair that is forcing many households to make heartbreaking sacrifices just to stay afloat.
As the cost of living continues to rise far faster than people's paychecks, new data reveals that a staggering number of U.S. workers are coping with profound hardship. Today, we compiled the most important stats you need to know about this growing crisis that weakening Americans’ personal finances. Before moving on, please support our work with a thumbs up on this video, and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to stay current with the latest news. Without further ado, let's dive into today's discussion."
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"That's Why..."
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Steppenwolf, "Monster"
"This great song from Steppenwolf never gained the popularity it should have - probably because it's so long. I just had fun playing along with it and decided to make this video. I hope it will reach a few people so they can see what a great message John Kay had back then - and that it's (unfortunately) very - if not more so - relevant today. I included some of the fantastic artwork from David Dees." Listen to the words...As absolutely true, even more so, in 2024 as it was when released in 1970.
"We're so freakin' doomed!" - The Mogambo Guru
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