"I Am Done"

"I Am Done"

by OHMama

"I was born at the end of Gen X and the beginning of the Millennial Generation, and grew up in a middle class town. Life was good. Our home was modest but birthdays and Christmas were always generous, we went on yearly vacations, had 2 cars, and there was enough money for me to take dance classes and art lessons and be in Girl Scouts.

My 1940s born Dad raised me to be patriotic and proud, to love the war bird airplanes of his era as much as he does, and to respect our flag and our country as a sacred thing. I grew up thinking that being an American was the greatest gift a person could have. I grew up thinking that our country was as strong, and honest and true as my Dad. I grew up thinking I was free.

As an adult, I have witnessed the world I grew up in fall to ruin. I have watched as our currency and our economy have been shamelessly corrupted beyond redemption. Since we’ve been married, my husband and I TWICE had our meager investment savings gutted by the market that we were told to invest in, now that pensions no longer exist and we working stiffs are on our own. We will be working until we die, because the Social Security we’ve been forced to pay into has also been robbed from under us.

I have watched as our elected officials enter Congress as ordinary folks and leaves as multi millionaires. I have watched my blue collar husband get up at an ungodly hour every day and come home with an aching back that we pray will hold out long enough to get him to old age in one piece. Outside of shoes, socks and underwear, almost everything my family wears was bought used. We’ve been on one vacation in 12 years.

We don’t have cell phones, or cable, or any sort of streaming services, just a landline and internet. We hardly ever eat out. Our house is 1400 square feet, no air conditioning. I cook from scratch and I can and I garden and I raise chickens for eggs and meat and I moonlight selling things on Etsy. Still it is barely enough to pay the bills that go up every year while service quality and the longevity of goods goes down. What I just described is the life you can live on 60K a year without going into debt.

At last calculation, when you consider all of the federal, state and local taxes plus registration and user fees, Medicare and SS payroll taxes, almost a third of what my family earns is stolen by the govt each year. What’s left doesn’t go far, just enough to cover the basics and save a little for when the wolf howls at the door.

I watched as my family’s health insurance was gutted and destroyed. Our private market insurance, which we had to have because my husband’s employer is too small to have a group plan, was made illegal. We were left with the option of either buying an Obamacare plan with unaffordable deductibles and insanely ridiculous out of pocket maxes, or paying the very gov’t that destroyed our healthcare a fine for not buying the gov’t mandated plan that we cannot afford. We now have short term insurance that isn’t really insurance at all, and I live in fear of one of us getting injured or sick with anything I can’t fix from the medicine cabinet.

I have watched as education, which was already sketchy when I was a kid, became an all out joke of wholly unmathematical math, gold stars for all, and self-loathing anti-Americanism. My family has taken an enormous financial hit as I stay home to home school our child. At least she’ll be able to do old-fashioned math well enough to see how much they are screwing her. A silver lining to every cloud, I guess.

I’ve sat by and held my tongue as I was called deplorable and a bitter clinger and told that I didn’t build that. I’ve been called a racist and a xenophobe and a chump and even an “ugly folk.” I’ve been told that I have privilege, and that I have inherent bias because of my skin color, and that my beloved husband and father are part of a horrible patriarchy. Not one goddamn bit of that is true, but if I dare say anything about it, it will be used as evidence of my racism and white fragility.

Raised to be a Republican, I held my nose and voted for Bush, the Texas-talking blue blood from Connecticut who lied us into 2 wars and gave us the unpatriotic Patriot Act. I voted for McCain, the sociopathic neocon songbird “hero” that torpedoed the attempt to kill the Obamacare that’s killing my family financially. I held it again and voted for Romney, the vulture capitalist skunk that masquerades as a Republican while slithering over to the Democrat camp as often as they’ll tolerate his oily, loathsome presence.

And I voted for Trump, who, if he did nothing else, at least gave a resounding Bronx cheer to the richly deserving smug hypocrites of DC. Thank you for that Mr. President, on behalf of all of us nobodies. God bless you for it.

And now I have watched as people who hate me and mine and call for our destruction blatantly and openly stole the election and then gaslighted us and told us that it was honest and fair. I am watching as the GOP does NOTHING about it. They were probably relieved that upstart Trump was gone so they could get back to their real jobs of lining their pockets and running interference for their corporate masters. I am watching as the media, in a manner that would make Stalin blush, is silencing anyone who dares question the legitimacy of this farce they call democracy. I know, it’s a republic, but I am so tired of explaining that to people I might as well give in and join them in ignorance.

I will not vote again; they’ve made it abundantly clear that my voice doesn’t matter. Whatever irrational, suicidal lunacy the nanny states thinks is best is what I’ll get. What it decided I need is a geriatric pedophile who shouldn’t be charged with anything more rigorous than choosing between tapioca and rice pudding at the old folks home, and a casting couch skank who rails against racism while being a descendant of slave owners.

I’m free to dismember a baby in my womb and kill it because “my body my choice”, but God help me if I won’t cover my face with a germ laden Linus-worthy security blanket or refuse let them inject genetically altering chemicals into my body or my child’s. I can be doxed, fired, shunned and destroyed for daring to venture that there are only 2 genders as proven by DNA, but a disease with a 99+% survival rate for most humans is a deadly pandemic worth murdering an economy over. Because science. Idiocracy is real, and we are living it. Dr. Lexus would be an improvement over Fauci.

I am done. Don’t ask me to pledge to the flag, or salute the troops, or shoot fireworks on the 4th. It’s a sick, twisted, heartbreaking joke, this bloated, unrecognizable corpse of a republic that once was ours.

I am not alone. Not sure how things continue to function when millions of citizens no longer feel any loyalty to or from the society they live in.

I was raised to be a lady, and ladies don’t curse, but f**k these motherf**kers to hell and back for what they’ve done to me, and mine, and my country. All we Joe Blow Americans ever wanted was a little patch of land to raise a family, a job to pay the bills, and at least some illusion of freedom, and even that was too much for these human parasites. They want it all,  mind, body and soul. Damn them. Damn them all."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Larry C. Johnson: Israel's Imminent Destruction in All-Out War with Hezbollah and Iran!"

Dialogue Works, 8/2/24

"Larry C. Johnson: Israel's Imminent Destruction

 in All-Out War with Hezbollah and Iran!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 8/2/24

"INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Indispensable Nation Meme"

"The Indispensable Nation Meme"

by David Stockman

"The Indispensable Nation meme originates not in the universal condition of mankind and the nation-states into which it has been partitioned. Instead, it stems from an erroneous take on the one-time, flukish and historically aberrant circumstances of the 20th century that gave rise to giant totalitarian states in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, and the resulting mass murder and oppressions which resulted there from. What we mean is that Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany were not coded into the DNA of humanity; they were not an incipient horror always waiting to happen the moment more righteous nations let down their guard.

To the contrary, they were effectively born and bred in April 1917 when the US entered what was then called the Great War. And though it did so for absolutely no reason of homeland security or any principle consistent with the legitimate foreign policy of the American Republic, its entry tilted the outcome to the social chaos and Carthaginian peace from which Stalin and Hitler sprung.

So you can put the blame for the monumental evil of 20th century totalitarianism squarely on Thomas Woodrow Wilson. This megalomaniacal madman, who was the very worst President in American history, took America into war for the worst possible reason: Namely, a vainglorious desire to have a big seat at the post-war peace table in order to remake the world as God had inspired him to redeem it.

The truth, however, was that the European war posed not an iota of threat to the safety and security of the citizens of Lincoln NE, or Worcester MA or Sacramento CA. In that respect, Wilson’s putative defense of "freedom of the seas" and the rights of neutrals was an empty shibboleth; his call to make the world safe for democracy, a risible pipe dream.

Indeed, the shattered world extant after the bloodiest war in human history was a world about which Wilson was blatantly ignorant. And remaking it was a task for which he was temperamentally unsuited - even as his infamous 14 points were a chimera so abstractly devoid of substance as to constitute mental play dough.

The monumentally ugly reason for America’s entry into the Great War, in fact, was revealed - if inadvertently - by his alter-ego and sycophant, Colonel House. As the latter put it: Intervention in Europe’s war positioned Wilson to play, "The noblest part that has ever come to the son of man".

America thus plunged into Europe’s carnage, and forevermore shed its century-long Republican tradition of anti-militarism and non-intervention in the quarrels of the Old World. From Wilson’s historically erroneous turn - there arose at length the Indispensable Nation folly, which we shall catalog in depth below.

For now, suffice it to say that there was absolutely nothing noble that came of Wilson’s intervention. It led to a peace of vengeful victors, triumphant nationalists and avaricious imperialists - when the war would have otherwise ended in a bedraggled peace of mutually exhausted bankrupts and discredited war parties on both sides.

By so altering the course of history, Wilson’s war bankrupted Europe and midwifed 20th century totalitarianism in Russia and Germany. These developments, in turn, eventually led to the Great Depression, the Welfare State and Keynesian economics, World War II, the holocaust, the Cold War, the permanent Warfare State and its military-industrial-surveillance complex. They also spawned Nixon’s 1971 destruction of sound money, Reagan’s failure to tame Big Government and Greenspan’s destructive cult of monetary central planning.

So, too, flowed the Bush dynasty’s wars of intervention and occupation, and from them a fatal blow to the failed states in the lands of Islam foolishly created by the imperialist map-makers at Versailles. The legacy: the waves of blow-back and terrorism which has afflicted the world during the last several decades.

In this context, the rise of the murderous Nazi and Stalinist totalitarian regimes during the 1930s and the resulting conflagration of World War II is held to be, correctly, the defining event of the 20th century. But that truism only begs the real question. To wit, were these nightmarish scourges always latent just below the surface of global civilization - waiting to erupt whenever good people and nations fell asleep at the switch, as per the standard critique of the British pacifism and US isolationism that flourished during the late 1930s?

Or were they the equivalent of the 1000 year flood? That is, a development so unlikely, aberrant and unrepeatable as to merely define a horrid but one-off chapter of history, not the ordinary and probable unfolding of affairs among the nations.

We contend that the answer depends upon whether your start with April 2, 1917, when America discarded its historic republican policy of non-intervention and joined the bloody fray on the old continent’s Western Front, or December 7, 1941, when Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor allegedly awoke America from its isolationist slumber and called it to global leadership of the so-called American Century.

Needless to say, the Deep State’s ideology of the Indispensable Nation and its projects of Empire are rooted in the Pearl Harbor narrative. That is, the claim that global affairs go to hell in a handbasket when virtuous nations let down their guard or acquiesce to even modest acts of regional aggression. Thus, allow even a local dispute over revanchist claims on a small territory like the Sudetenland, it is claimed, and the next thing you know the whole planet will be aflame in war.

The now faded varieties of republican non-intervention, by contrast, hold that to be self-serving nonsense. The German speaking population of the Sudetenland overwhelmingly wished to rejoin the Fatherland not owing to Hitler’s agitation, but because they had been stuck in the artificial state of Czechoslovakia at the conference of WWI victors in Versailles. In turn, it had been Woodrow Wilson’s perfidious declaration of War on Germany that changed the enabled the Allies to win the stalemated war in the trenches of northern France, thereby paving the way for the once in a 1ooo years aberration of Hitler and Stalin which ultimately ensued.

Not surprisingly, the official historical narratives of the Empire glorify America’s rising to duty in World War II and after, but merely describe the events of 1917-1919 as some sort of preliminary coming of age. As a consequence, the rich, history-defining essence of what happened during those eventful years during the 20th century’s second decade has been lost in the fog of battles, the miserable casualty statistics of war, the tales of prolonged diplomatic wrangling at Versailles and the blame-game for the failed Senate ratification of Wilson’s League of Nations thereafter.

In this connection, the defeat of the League of Nations is treated as a colossal error in the mainstream narrative. It is held to constitute a crucial default by the Indispensable Nation that hurried the rise of the totalitarian nightmares, and only compounded America’s task of righting the world in the 1940s and after."

- https://internationalman.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Bill Bonner, "Intentional Inflation and Perpetual War"

"Intentional Inflation and Perpetual War"

Large scale democracy is a scam. People never know what

 is going on... and, in effect, leave the governing to the elites - 

who can’t seem to resist ripping them off.

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "What was it that made ‘The West’ triumphant? Rivers (making commerce easy). A fighting spirit (ready to go to war with others). Diversity (plenty of different peoples to go to war with.) The longbow? The long rifle? Artillery? Energy? The Industrial Revolution? The rule of law? Democracy?

All of these ‘reasons’ - and more - have been proposed. And who knows? Maybe it was a confluence of factors. But for whatever reasons, Europeans conquered Africa, the Americas, India, Australia and much of the rest of the world... not the other way around. But of course, the long sweep of history has its own patterns. We do not design them or control them. We just play our roles. We think what we need to think and do what we need to do. And like a big, lazy ol’ river... the currents of time just keep rollin’ along. However robust the empire of The West may have been in its early days, in its modern form it has some obvious infirmities.

The Business of Empire: While the early European imperialists - especially the Spanish conquistadors - made it pay, the US never really got the hang of the empire business. It conquered, but got nothing much from it. It brought back no treasure... nor, after 1807, even any slaves to sell on the open market.

America’s ‘empire budget’ was always almost 100% debit and no credit. Most empire schemes are ways to steal wealth from victim nations for the benefit of the victors. But America’s model was different, more swindle than outright theft. With no net gain coming from the enterprise itself, it was just a way to take wealth from America’s middle classes and redistribute it to the military/industrial/surveillance/thinktank/WallStreet/university elites. The rich got richer, thanks... at least in part... to the empire.

Rather than raise taxes, however, the feds borrowed. And as the costs rose, so did the debt. This week, it passed the $35 trillion mark. Like a ball and chain, the heavy weight of debt now reduces America’s freedom of movement. It can cut its interest rates to fight recession... but it cannot raise them to fight inflation.

And it gets worse. Currently, US debt grows at about 7% of GDP, or more than 3 times faster than GDP itself. It’s not hard to see where this leads. Marketwise: "‘America is going bankrupt’ Elon Musk issues a warning as interest on US debt was equal to 76% of income tax collected in June - and is expected to exceed $1.14 trillion this year Add the cost of interest to the ‘empire budget’ itself and the toll for 2024 is over $3 trillion — or more than 10% of the nation’s entire GDP.

Ultimately, the scale of the debt will force a policy of intentional inflation, in which the feds try to reduce the value of the debt by lowering the value of the currency in which it is calibrated - the dollar. At the current conditions, they will need inflation at about 7% per year just to keep even.

The other thing that doomed the Western Empire was its political system. Democracy is all well and good, but not when it is fake. And it is only real when ordinary citizens know what is going on and have some control over it. That is, effectively, what Aristotle said 2,300 years ago. When you get ‘beyond the herald’s cry,’ he said - that is, beyond the size of a small city - democracy turns into some form or tyranny.

Members of a family may vote, for example, on where to go for their vacation. They will have their own preferences... and some idea of what they might have to give up to finance it. But almost nobody - including members of Congress themselves - knows what is actually hidden in the laws they pass. Nor do they have any idea of the real costs. Instead, they imagine (correctly) that the obligation will be shoved along somewhere into the future... onto the shoulders of some unknown people... who don’t vote now and will never actually understand why their prices are rising.

Sooner or later, ‘The People’ realize that the elites despise them... and are taking advantage of them. They turn to anti-Establishment politicians... ’populists’ and tyrants. They want a ‘strongman’ who promises to save them from the know-it-alls.

European governments try to placate the mobs by delivering education, medical care, and pension benefits; they operate almost like vast compulsory social insurance programs. The US, meanwhile, the leader of The West, tries to rally its people behind a program of perpetual war. Around every corner and behind every tree, Americans see their great empire being challenged by evil spirits. They must meet the challenge with ever more sanctions, bombs, guns... Homeland Security, the NSA, FBI, CIA, Seals, snipers... a $2 trillion F-35 fighter plane, and most important, more money.

Of course, they don’t have any money, so the extra spending must be done on credit... and added to the national debt... speeding up the rate of decline. Stay tuned."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Warning! The Most Destructive Banking Crisis Ever Is Not Far Off"

Gregory Mannarino, 8/2/24

"Warning! The Most Destructive Banking

Crisis Ever Is Not Far Off"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

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

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

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

Jim Kunstler, "Into the Weird!"

"Into the Weird!"

“What we are witnessing is nothing less than the failure

 of the greatest propaganda apparatus in history.”

 - Mattias Desmet

by Jim Kunstler

"Have you noticed yet? - the weird thing about Veep Kamala Harris is how weirdly brisk her transfiguration was from a sit-com character to Wonder Woman, overnight in the reality-optional news media. In a party burdened with complex ideology, she was known only for tautology: “The significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time,” she repeated solemnly on a tour of a Louisiana library in 2022. “So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time.” Yes, ma’am. You nailed that ol’ coonskin to the wall, all righty!

Suddenly her time has come! Everything is Kamala Kamala Kamala. Lights! Camera! Action! But, as you have already been informed, time does not stand still. If it did, then everything would happen at once, which would be a great inconvenience to all. In what seems like a magically extended moment since someone told “Joe Biden” to go dangle, Kamala acquired a lance and halo and rode forth to save our democracy.

Yet, it’s a long way to the grand meet-up of Democratic Party delegates in Chicago, August 19, and that journey is cluttered up with long moments like the one we’re in now, moments when delegates are liable to stew, and maybe even think about more moments to come when the magic of the current moment has passed - because that, after all, is the significance of the passage of time! Here today, gone tomorrow! Hope and change! Go through enough passages of time and things can happen, or even un-happen, such as, perhaps, the rise and fall of the Veep as the champion of this figment known as our democracy. It’s kind of like what they used to say sixty years ago in Vietnam about having to destroy the village in order to save it. Only this time around, it’s democracy in America.

At the convention in Chicago, apropos of whoever selected Kamala Harris, someone might blurt out: “Say, who elected you boss of this outfit?” The answer, of course: nobody. Delegates may share their gnawing doubts in the hallways and state caucus breakout rooms. Metaphysical conundrums will arise. All that sub rosa chatter might even coalesce into...a movement! In the name of democracy, someone screeches, a public roll-call vote must be taken! Say, what? We thought that was settled two weeks ago when the virtual roll call happened. Nuh-uh, nah, no way, more delegates chime in. Here is your teachable moment: the virtual is not an adequate substitute for the authentic.

Meanwhile, riots in the streets outside the convention center. Antifa! Black Lives Matter! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! The police, successfully defunded, stand aside and let youth go apeshit. Inside the hall, pandemonium! And so, the momentous roll-call is induced to happen right there on the convention floor with all those colorful hats bobbing amongst the standards of the fifty states - plus a bunch of territories - swaying to rhythm of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinkin’ About Tomorrow)”.

Things grow complicated. There is the matter of the superdelegates, bought and paid for ages ago by...the Clinton Foundation! The passage of time goes from elongated to compressed. As good ol’ V. Lenin used to say: There are years when nothing happens and moments when decades happen - or something like that. Also, somebody recalls, it takes a village to what ? Why, to nominate a candidate.

And thus, ever so democratically, does Hillary seize the moment and the convention, and swoop to the podium on her great leathery wings crying “caw caw caw abortion!” The news media will go into super-overdrive shaping the narrative about the Democratic Party rank-and-file marshaling democracy to save democracy. The story will make the marginalized weep and the lame leap for joy. She-Whose-Turn-It-Is will not be denied! The pussy-hats come out again. The patriarchy runs for its life...

At least that’s the dream. In the passage of time from August through September and October, something else happens. Reality creeps back onto the scene after a long sojourn in the nether regions of human vicissitude. The economy goes to shit, the markets tank, and war breaks out. A new consensus congeals through what’s left of the nation: thank you Democrats for wrecking America. Now, go dangle! Mr. Trump, having survived three more attempts on his life, gets elected and inaugurated. A great sorting of the mentally ill and the just plain criminal happens. Weirdly, we move forward into the weird. Wait for it. (Things take time.) That is the significance of the passage of time, after all."

- https://kunstler.com/

Gerald Celente, "Markets Down; Wars Ramping; Harris Rising"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 8/1/24

"Markets Down; Wars Ramping; Harris Rising"

"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."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Amazon Warning; US Economy Is Now Collapsing, You're On Your Own, Good Luck!"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/1/24

"Amazon Warning; US Economy Is Now Collapsing, 

You're On Your Own, Good Luck!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

Full screen recommended.

Official release.

Disturbed "The Sound Of Silence"

Singer: David Draiman

1,020,631,496  views.

○

Full screen recommended.

Conan O'Brian Show live performance.

Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"

148 million views.

Folks, there's "something" here, what it is I can't say, but if there are 

words for it I don't know them, and can only stand in speechless awe...

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.

In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090130.html

"We Are Mortals All..."

"We are mortals all, human and nonhuman, bound in one fellowship of love and travail. No one escapes the fate of death. But we can, with caring, make our good-byes less tormented. If we broaden the circle of our compassion, life can be less cruel."

- Gary Kowalski

Chet Raymo, “At Home In An Infinite Universe”

“At Home In An Infinite Universe”

by Chet Raymo

“They are questions that bedeviled thinkers for thousands of years: Is the universe infinite or finite, eternal or of a finite age? It is certainly hard to imagine a universe that extends without limit in every direction, or a universe without a beginning or end. It is equally difficult to imagine a finite universe; what is beyond the edge? Or a beginning or end in time; how can something come from nothing? How can what is cease to be?

The problems are so intractable philosophically that their resolution has generally been left to the theologians, which from a philosophical (or scientific) perspective offers no solution at all. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for proposing a philosophical resolution (an infinite universe) that offended theology.

An escape from befuddlement is provided by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which- for example- can describe a finite universe without a boundary, as the "two-dimensional" surface of a sphere is finite and without an edge. Unfortunately, multi-dimensional curved space-time is so counterintuitive that it is difficult to get one's head around it without mastery of the mathematics. Given a choice between the ancient myths of your local preacher and the obtuse mathematics of the physics professor, it's not hard to guess what most folks will opt for.

Meanwhile, I'm reading a meditation on infinity by physics professor Anthony Aguirre, in a collection of essays called "Future Science." He discusses contemporary cosmological theories based on general relativity, and in particular the rehabilitation of the idea of an infinite and eternal universe, or, more precisely, that our universe might be just one of an infinity of infinite universes. He writes in conclusion: “What seems clear, however, is that infinity can no longer be safely ignored; beautifully constructed, empirically supported, self-consistent theories have brought infinity from idle curiosity to central player in contemporary cosmology. And if correct, the worldview these theories represent constitutes a perspective shift unlike any other: in comparison to the universe, we would be not just small but strictly zero. Well, I can't imagine many folks racing to embrace that conclusion.

Oh, but wait. Aguirre adds one final sentence: "Yet here we are, contemplating - if not quite understanding - it all.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: Arthur O’Shaughnessy, "Music and Moonlight"

"Music and Moonlight"

"We are the music makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone seabreakers,

And sitting by desolate streams;

World-losers and world-forsakers,

On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

Of the world forever, it seems…

We, in the ages lying

In the buried past of the earth,

Built Ninevah with our sighing,

And Babel itself in our mirth;

And o’erthrew them with prophesying

To the old of the new world’s worth;

For each age is a dream that is dying,

Or one that is coming to birth."

- Arthur O’Shaughnessy

o

 Harry Bidgood and His Broadcasters, "Music and Moonlight" (1928)

Kahlil Gibran, “The Farewell”

“The Farewell”

“Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you.

It was but yesterday we met in a dream.

You have sung to me in my aloneness,

and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky.

But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over,

and it is no longer dawn.

The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day,

and we must part.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,

we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

And if our hands should meet in another dream

we shall build another tower in the sky.”

- Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”

○

Freely download "The Prophet", by Kahlil Gibran, here:

- http://www.brainybetty.com/

"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"

Full screen recommended.

"Maya Angelou's Life Advice"

"Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim."

The Daily "Near You?"

Fairmont, Minnesota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What If..."

"What if when you die they ask, "How was Heaven?"

~ Author Unknown

A truly terrifying thought..

"The Last Time Always Happens Now"

"The Last Time Always Happens Now"

by David Cain

"William Irvine, an author and philosophy professor I’m a big fan of, often tries to point people towards a little-discussed fact of human life: "You always know when you’re doing something for the first time, and you almost never know when you’re doing something for the last time."

There was, or will be, a last time for everything you do, from climbing a tree to changing a diaper, and living with a practiced awareness of that fact can make even the most routine day feel like it’s bursting with blessings. Of all the lasting takeaways from my periodic dives into Stoicism, this is the one that has enhanced my life the most. I’ve touched on it before in my Stoicism experiment log and in a Patreon post, and I intend to write about it many more times in the future (but who can say?)

To explain why someone might want to start thinking seriously about last times, Bill Irvine asks us to imagine a rare but relatable event: going to your favorite restaurant one last time, knowing it’s about to close up for good.

Predictably, dining on this last-ever night makes for a much richer experience than almost all the other times you’ve eaten at that restaurant, but it’s not because the food, decor, or service is any different than usual. It’s better because you know it’s the last time, so you’re apt to savor everything you can about it, right down to the worn menus and tacky napkin rings. You’re unlikely to let any mistakes or imperfections bother you, and in fact you might find them endearing.

It becomes clearer than ever, in other words, how great it was while it lasted, and how little the petty stuff mattered. On that last dinner, you can set aside minor issues with ease, and appreciate even the most mundane details. Anything else would seem foolish, because you’re here now, and this is it. It might even occur to you that there’s no reason you couldn’t have enjoyed it this much every time you dined here – except that all the other times, you knew there would be more times, so you didn’t have to be so intentional about appreciating it.

That’s an exceptionally rare situation though. Almost always, we do things for the last time without knowing it’s the last time. There was a last time – on an actual calendar date – when you drew a picture with crayons purely for your own pleasure. A last time you excitedly popped a Blockbuster rental into your VCR. A last time you played fetch with a certain dog. Whenever the last time happened, it was “now” at the time.

You’ve certainly heard the heart-wrenching insight that there’s always a last time a parent picks up their child. By a certain age the child is too big, which means there’s always an ordinary day when the parent picks up and puts down their child as they have a thousand times before, with no awareness that it was the last time they would do it.

Ultimately there will be as many last times as there were first times. There will be last time you do laundry. A last time you eat pie. A last time you visit a favorite neighborhood, city, or country. For every single friend you’ve ever had, there will be a last time you talk, or maybe there already has been.

For ninety-nine percent of these last times, you will have no idea that that’s what it is. It will seem like another of the many middle times, with a lot more to come. If you knew it was the last-ever time you spoke to a certain person or did a certain activity, you’d probably make a point of appreciating it, like a planned last visit to Salvatore’s Pizzeria. You wouldn’t spend it thinking about something else, or let minor annoyances spoil it.

Many last times are still a long way in the future, of course. The trouble is you don’t know which ones. The solution, Irvine suggests, is to frequently imagine that this is the last time, even when it’s probably not. A few times a day, whatever you’re doing, you assume you’re doing that thing for the last time. There will be a last time you sip coffee, like you’re doing now. What if this sip was it? There will be a last time you walk into the office and say hi to Sally. If this was it, you might be a little more genuine, a little more present.

The point isn’t to make life into a series of desperate goodbyes. You can go ahead and do the thing more or less normally. You might find, though, that when you frame it as a potential last time, you pay more attention to it, and you appreciate it for what it is in a way you normally don’t. It turns out that ordinary days are full of experiences you expect will keep happening forever, and of course none of them will.

It doesn’t matter if the activity is something you particularly love doing. Walking into a 7-11 or weeding the garden is just as worthy of last-time practice as hugging a loved one. Even stapling the corner of some pages together can generate a sense of appreciation, if you saw it as your final act of stapling in a life that’s contained a surprising amount of stapling.

Irvine uses mowing the lawn as an example, a task he doesn’t love doing. If you imagine that this is the last time you’ll mow the lawn, rather than consider it a good riddance, you might realize that there will be a time when you’ve mown your last lawn, and that there were a lot of great things about living in your lawn-mowing, bungalow-maintaining heyday. A few seconds later, it dawns on you that you still are.

You can get very specific with the experiences you do this with. The last time you roll cookie dough between your palms. The last time you get rained on. The last time you sidestep down a crowded cinema aisle. The last time your jeans smell like campfire smoke. The last time your daughter says “swannich” instead of “sandwich.” Virtually everything is a worthy candidate for this reflection.

It always brings perspective to your life as it is now, and it never gets old. It’s an immensely rewarding exercise, but it not a laborious one. It takes only two or three seconds - allowing yourself “a flickering thought,” as Irvine put it - to notice what you’re doing right now, and consider the possibility that this is indeed the last escalator ride at Fairfield Mall, the last time you put on a Beatles record, the last time you encounter a squirrel, or the last time you parallel park in front of Aunt Rita’s building."

- https://www.raptitude.com/

o

 

Rolling Stones, "The Last Time"

"It May Be Necessary..."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must 

not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to

 encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, 

what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."

- Maya Angelou

"How It Really Is"

Dan, I Allegedly, "I Think We Are Under Attack"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 8/1/24

"I Think We Are Under Attack"

"In this video, I break down recent cyber attacks on major entities like Microsoft, Health Equity, and Financial Business & Consumer Solutions. These hacks are a wake-up call – your personal data, financial info, and even your health records are at risk. It's time to prepare and protect yourself. What if this is a rogue nation coming after us?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Wars And Rumors Of War, The Middle East: "'A Perilous Moment'"

Full screen recommended.

Democracy Now! 8/1/24

"'Perilous Moment' Iran Vows Revenge 

as Israel Expands Assassination Operations"

“This is one of the most perilous moments in the [Middle East] region in years,” says Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group Iran Project, after Israel’s assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday in Tehran. Iranian retaliation against Israel appears imminent. “All bets are off,” warns Vaez, adding that Israel’s latest maneuver will put Americans “in harm’s way,” as Iran will no longer hold back fellow Axis of Resistance members, especially Islamic militias in Iraq and Syria, from launching attacks on U.S. military bases in the region. “It is disastrous for a superpower who cannot control, basically, a client state that is destabilizing the region,” Vaez explains. We also hear from Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu, who responds to Israel’s announcement that its July strike on al-Mawasi, an alleged safe zone in Gaza, killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif along with nearly a hundred civilians. Buttu argues it is Israel’s international impunity over the course of its campaign against Palestine that has led to this dangerous moment of escalation. “This is a monster that’s been unleashed,” she says. “This is going to spread, and this is exactly what Netanyahu wants.”

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Lawrence Wilkerson, 8/1/24

"Iran Announced To Close Airspace! 

Bloody Revenge Is Coming! Israel In Panic!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Douglas MacGregor, 8/1/24

"Iran Ready To Destroy Everything of Israel Army',

 Hezbollah Is Crushing IDF"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Scott Ritter, 8/1/24

"Iran 'Devastating Attack, Hezbollah Approach;

 Israeli Defenses Lay in Ruins"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Delete 'A'"

"Delete 'A'"

US democracy is not what it is cracked up to be. Democrats are

 fake liberals. Republicans are fake conservatives. Both parties 

are dominated by insiders looking out, primarily, for themselves.

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "We open fire with this barrage from the Wall Street Journal: "Five years ago, Washington sanctioned Huawei, cutting off the Chinese company’s access to advanced U.S. technologies because it feared the telecommunications giant would spy on Americans and their allies. Many in the industry thought it would ring the death knell for one of China’s most vital tech players.

[Instead]... Huawei has expanded into new businesses, boosted its profitability and found fresh ways to curb its dependence on U.S. suppliers. It has held on to its leading position in the global telecom-equipment market, despite American efforts to squeeze Huawei out of its allies’ networks. And it’s making a big comeback in high-end smartphones, using sophisticated new chips developed in-house to take buyers from Apple. Huawei struggled at first - but now it’s come roaring back. [It’s]... part of a broader campaign to eliminate U.S. technology in China, dubbed “Delete A,” for Delete America."

Yesterday, we looked at how the BRICS and the Eurasian Heartland were organizing to ‘Delete A’ from their financial and political lives. We might have thought that our political and economic systems were invulnerable... and our military was unbeatable. But we have seen that US democracy is not what it is cracked up to be. Democrats are fake liberals. Republicans are fake conservatives. Both parties are dominated by insiders looking out, primarily, for themselves.

And there is not so much difference between the way monarchies or oligarchies choose their leaders than the way Americans do. Kamala Harris got her start in politics (allegedly) by sleeping with California power broker Willie Brown. In the Democratic primary in 2016, she had almost no support from the public.

Now, after four years in the Vice President’s role, where she distinguished herself not one bit, there she is... with about a 50/50 chance of becoming our next president! Ultimately, in America as in every other country, power rests with elites - who control Washington, the press, universities, the military, and Wall Street.

Wasted Wealth: We’ve seen too that the key to real economic performance is not the president, policy goals, or PhDs. ‘The People’ - when they are free to produce and trade - create real wealth, not the suits…or the pantsuits. But there are a lot of different ways to divert energy and waste wealth. Mao had the Chinese building backyard steel mills. The Soviets’ detailed planning - controlling every job, every price, and every industry - was such an abject failure that their own elites abandoned it.

At one time or another, every nation seems determined to destroy its economy with crackpot policies. And now, the US is at it - with fake money, fake interest rates, inflation, sanctions, a War on Terror, the Inflation Recovery Act, Payroll Protection Plan... dozens of other initiatives…and $35 trillion of national debt.

The US economy is supposed to be a ‘free market’ system, but as many as half of all transactions are largely determined by the government. Monetary policies, military policies, fiscal policies... regulations as well as direct budget items... subsidies as well as penalties... carrots as well as sticks - all influence economic decisions.

Even the US military is not nearly as effective as people think. Corrupted by money, politics, and technology... its real goal is not to be lean, mean and ‘combat ready,’ but to rest unmolested in the plush seats of the empire. Responsible Statecraft drops this bomb: "Federal regulations limit profit margins for weapon system contracts, but weapon system costs are not limited. Hence, with the DoD focused on trying to limit profit margins, the one sure way to grow overall profits is to charge more for the weapon systems. Earning a 10% profit margin on a $10 billion weapons system contract will generate as much profit as earning a 20% margin on a $5 billion contract for the same weapon system."

And then, in today’s news, is this follow-up from The National Interest: "The F-35 Fighter Will Cost In Total Around $2 Trillion ." "The F-35 program’s complexity stems from its three variants (A, B, and C), each designed to meet the specific needs of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, replacing multiple older aircraft. The F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced jet in the skies today. However, its journey to the skies hasn’t been easy. Indeed, the F-35 program had to overcome several challenges and setbacks to be where it is today. To a certain extent, these challenges continue to this day.

Yes, the US may spend vastly more money on its military than any other country... but the high-tech weaponry ends up being twice as expensive and half as effective as it should be…making it easier for the challengers to hit the ‘Delete A’ key…More to come..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Prepare For The Greatest Fall Of All Time As Bond Yields Crater!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/1/24

"Prepare For The Greatest Fall Of

 All Time As Bond Yields Crater!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Kroger Grocery Deals!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 8/1/24

"Kroger Grocery Deals! 

B.O.G.O. Items & Digital Coupon Savings!"

In today's vlog, I take you shopping with me to Kroger to show all of the great deals going on. From buy one, get one free items to some amazing digital coupons. We go over many different ways to save money on groceries. Get your notepad ready as you do not want to miss this.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Red Alert! Pentagon - Full Scale War In 72 Hours; NATO F-16s Now Active In Ukraine"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 7/31/24

"Red Alert! Pentagon - Full Scale War In 72 Hours;

 NATO F-16s Now Active In Ukraine"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "U.S. Presidents: Criminal History Of Murderous Thugs"

Gerald Celente, 7/31/24

"U.S. Presidents: 

Criminal History Of Murderous Thugs"

"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."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "I Got Bad News, An Economic Disaster Is Coming; This Is The Worst Economy In History"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/31/24

"I Got Bad News, An Economic Disaster Is Coming; 

This Is The Worst Economy In History"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Related:

Full screen recommended.

The Atlantis Report, 7/31/24

"U.S. Banks Report Unprecedented 23% Surge 

in Delinquencies As Losses Increase"

"The U.S. banking sector is currently facing challenges as it deals with a significant surge in delinquency rates, leading to mounting losses. Recent reports have revealed a shocking 23% increase in delinquencies, causing concern for both banks and borrowers nationwide. This sharp rise in borrowers falling behind on their payments has increased bank losses, impacting their profitability and stability."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Sissel, "Enforma Liguista"; "Titanic Overture"

Full screen recommended.

Sissel, "Enforma Liguista"

o

Full screen recommended.

Sissel, "Titanic Overture"

o

Sissel Kyrkjebo, the international singing sensation from Norway, is widely regarded as one of the finest and most talented sopranos in the world. Her crystal clear voice has made Sissel a national institution in Norway. Sissel has sung all over the world, selling over ten million solo albums. She contributed the haunting vocal tracks for the soundtrack to Titanic. She has been doing great duets with singers like Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel, Jose Carreras, Russell Watson, Mario Frangoulis, Josh Groban, Neil Sedaka and Charles Aznavour. A very remarkable voice you will only hear once in your lifetime.

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.

The galaxy’s protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872′s spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

"The Life You Have Left..."

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.

Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”

~ Leo Babauta

○

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

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

To be or not to be.

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

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

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

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

- Chuck Palahniuk

○

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

who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"

- Stephen Levine

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Darkness Falls"

"Darkness Falls"

"Darkness falls upon Humanity

and faces become terrible things

that wanted more than there was.

All our days are marked with

unexpected affronts - 

some disastrous, others less so,

but the process is

wearing and continuous.

Attrition rules.

Most give way,

leaving empty spaces

where people should be.

And now,

as we ready to self-destruct,

there is very little left to kill,

which makes the tragedy

less and more,

much, much more."

- Charles Bukowski