Sunday, August 4, 2024

"We Reap The Harvest Of Lies"

"We Reap The Harvest Of Lies"
By David Bell

"We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category, but the pillar industry of this country." 
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"Public life has become disorienting. Most people, by and large, previously expected to hear the truth, or some semblance of it, in daily life. We would generally expect this from each other, but also from public media and authorities such as governments or international agencies set up ostensibly for our benefit. Society cannot function in a coherent and stable way without it, as so much in our lives requires us to place trust in others.

To navigate the complexity of existence, we generally look for guidance to certain trusted sources, freeing up time to sift through the more questionable ones. Some claim they always knew everything was fake, but they are wrong, as it wasn’t (and still isn’t). There were always liars, campaigns to mislead, and propaganda to drive us to love or to hate, but there was a core within society that had certain accepted norms and standards that should theoretically be followed. A sort of anchor. Truth is indestructible but the anchor cable connecting us to it, ensuring its influence, has been cut. Society is being set adrift.

This really broke in the past four or five years. We were already in trouble, but now public discourse is broken. Perhaps it broke when governments elected to represent the people openly employed behavioral psychology to lie to their constituencies on a scale we had not previously seen. They combined to make their peoples do things they rationally would not; accept bans of family funerals, cover faces in public, or accept police brutality and the isolation and abandonment of the elderly. The media, health professionals, politicians, and celebrities all participated in this lie and its intent. Virtually all our major institutions. And these lies are continuing, and expanding, and have become the norm.

We are now reaping the harvest of untruth. The media can openly deny what they said or printed just months earlier about a new candidate for presidency or the efficacy of a mandated vaccine. A whole political party can change its narrative almost overnight about the fundamental characteristics of its leader. People paid as “fact-checkers” twist reality to invent new facts and hide the truth, unflustered by the transparency of their deceit. Giant software companies curate information, filtering out truths that run contrary to the pronouncements of conflicted international organizations. Power has displaced integrity.

Internationally, we are pummeled by agencies such as the UN, World Bank, G20, and World Health Organization to give up our basic rights and hand their new masters our wealth on claims of threats that can unequivocally be shown to be false. Paid-off former leaders, grasping legitimacy through the legacy of greater minds, reinforce mass falsehoods for the benefit of their friends. Once aberrations that a free media might highlight, fallacies have become norms in which the same media is openly complicit.

The frightening part is not the lies, which are a normal aspect of humanity, but the broad disinterest in truth. Lies can stand for a time in the presence of a people and institutions that value truth, but they will eventually fail as they are exposed. When truth loses its value, when it is no longer even a vague guide for politics or journalism, then recovery may not occur. We are in an incredibly dangerous time, because lies are not just tolerated but are now the default approach, at the national and international level, and the fourth estate that was to shed light on them has embraced the darkness.

History has witnessed this before, but on a lesser scale. In Germany, a way of running society built entirely on acceptance of lies led to the wholesale massacre of millions, from individuals whose disabilities were considered a burden on the majority, to people of specific sexual orientation, to entire ethnic groups. It was ordinary people like us who served to facilitate, and implement, this slaughter. A barrage of lies disoriented them, allowing them to be separated from their conscience or appreciation of goodness. As Hannah Arendt noted; "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."

And further: "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."

But this passivity of the ‘people’ is not necessarily inevitable, or applicable to society as a whole. We are all capable of implementing tyranny, but this does not remove our capacity to insist on equality (or, to use its analogy in this context, freedom).

The regime of lies from which Arendt fled was halted through an invasion of foreign armies. In the Soviet Union, Stalin’s regime faltered with his death. But we are now in a place where the all-devouring dictator is a coalition of fascist interests broad enough to be resilient to the death of any of its members. It has no physical borders to be invaded.

Although feudalism has long been the greed-driven default of society, we are now in uncharted territory, facing a devouring confluence of interests on a global scale with no obvious counter. They anoint national leaders from New Zealand to North America to the States of Africa and the EU and control what we then hear and read of them. No white knight or armed coalition is going to ride to our rescue as we cower in a bunker or simply keep our heads down, keep our thoughts to ourselves, eat what we are fed, and fit in.

It is only we who can actually make a stand. Otherwise, we – humanity – simply lose. But taking a stand is in the capability of all of us. We could first recognize where we are. We could then make hard decisions and risk being outcasts by supporting people we ourselves assess as telling the truth, and absolutely refuse support to those who are not. We will make ourselves really unpopular by doing so, as unpopular as those who protected neighbors rather than report them, or refused to raise the arm or the little red book. They were vilified, derided, and assigned to those the media termed vermin.

We could make a stand in workplaces, in conversations with friends and family, and it may be the last conversations they will accept. And we can do it through the way we vote, which may mean breaking with all we had once claimed to be indisputable. All that we thought we stood for, and that our chosen media had confirmed for us. And we will have no personal reward at the end – this does not collect likes and followers. As Arendt also said, "Forgiveness is the only way to reverse the irreversible flow of history." But forgiveness will also make us unpopular, even hated, by many who thought we were allies.

Or, we can buy into the fallacies, blank our minds, accept that the past never happened, and lie into the pillow of deceit the media are providing us. We can accept the assessment of liars and follow their lead over that of our own eyes and ears. ‘Truth’ can become subject to convenience and to what our friends and colleagues would prefer. We can all participate in the farce, embrace the comfort of blank self-deceit, and pretend to live life as we always have. One day, we will find how deep the hole is we have dug for ourselves and our children.

In politics, in public health, in international relations, and in history, the best times were always when truth was valued above all, however imperfectly applied. What the media, governments, and the empty husks that now direct them are offering is something quite different. Let us hope enough are repulsed by it to take the risks that are necessary. Don’t stay safe. Get to a place that is quite the opposite. Light overcomes darkness but it also makes it very hard to hide. A very dark future can be avoided, but not by keeping it hidden."

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Middle East: War And Geopolitics"

Dialogue Works, 8/4/24
"Israel Has Crossed Red Line & Unthinkable Defeat 
Looms Against Iran and Hezbollah!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Douglas Macgregor, 8/4/24
"Israel Faces Doom! 
Hezbollah-Iran Launches Devastating Revenge"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Larry Johnson, 8/4/24
"Iran-Hezbollah Smash IDF, Push Israel Into Destruction"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Black Swan Event Imminent? Prepare Now!"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 8/4/24
"Black Swan Event Imminent? Prepare Now!"
"I'm diving into the possibility of a looming Black Swan event that could shake our broken economy to its core. From skyrocketing unemployment rates to surging inflation, we're seeing warning signs everywhere. People are saving money like never before, and even in places like Las Vegas, folks are opting for bus passes over cabs. The cracks are showing, and it's time we face the reality."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: It's Getting Closer And Can't Be Stopped"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/4/24
"Markets, A Look Ahead: 
It's Getting Closer And Can't Be Stopped"
Comments here:

"Hanging by a Thread"

"Hanging by a Thread"
by Todd Hayen

"It is quite amazing how close people are to serious mental illness. What is serious mental illness? Suicidal depression, psychosis, anxiety that requires hospitalization, and frankly anything that keeps a person from living a functional life, a life with its share of sadness, trauma and suffering, but also with moments of happiness, fulfillment, love and laughter.

That’s serious mental illness. What about “not so serious” mental illness? Well, we’ve got a lot more of that than one could even imagine. And then twice that many hanging by the thread, just about ready to drop into depression, anxiety, personality disorders of a dizzying variety, sadness, emotional dysfunction, relational wackiness, on and on. It is a pandemic, and yes, a real one that isn’t a hoax.

In my opinion, nearly every human alive suffers from some sort of emotional/mental anomaly. Maybe not everyone but a lot (and if you find one who doesn’t - maybe some young couple dressed in loincloths riding horses on the beach of some idyllic island somewhere in the South Pacific - let me know about them, I would love to meet them).

I see a lot of people in my practice, and I can unequivocally say that they all have issues. Well, that stands to reason, of course. That’s like a dentist saying everyone who comes into his or her office has some issue with his or her teeth. But I also hear about my client’s friends and family, I also interface with people in the grocery store, on the streets, and in my own friend circle, and all of these people have emotional issues, or are hanging by a thread - me included, of course (although my thread broke long ago and I have been swimming in psychological muck for most, if not all, of my life).

Isn’t this the normal “human condition?” Well, I used to think so, but not anymore. There is, of course, a “normal” human condition concerning mental and emotional regulation. Everyone gets depressed and sad once in a while, everyone gets anxious and has emotional flare-ups. We can describe a “normal” mental state which includes a lot of ups and downs. What I am describing is more than that, it is what comes across as abnormal, intense, devoid of much reason, out of regulation, and bordering on crazy. We are all, for the most part, whacked.

Ok, ok, not all of us are whacked. I know I am; you might not be. You may fall into this narrow band of a “normally wiggy” person psychologically, and if you do, congratulations. I am not convinced, however, that there are very many of you who can completely escape the screwed-up environment we all live in (yes, some may be more adept at processing this shite show than others). I would venture to say that you more than likely have been bitten, in some way, by the agenda if you live on this particular planet. Even if only through being around people who are truly crazy - that’s enough to make you fit into this category.

But I am not really commenting on fringe stuff here. I am commenting on those of us who are very close to being certifiably “off” - close to an actual diagnosis. Whether it be run-of-the-mill depression or anxiety, or more exotic personality disorders such as Borderline, Narcissistic, Histrionic, or even any one of the array of psychotic maladies such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar with Psychosis, or Paranoia.

Let’s look at some numbers. Almost 3 million people have been diagnosed with depression in 2020 in the USA, 66 million with anxiety over the past year. In the same year almost 5 million were diagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder, about 5 million with Narcissist Personality Disorder, and almost 2 million with Schizophrenia.

About 10 million will suffer from some form of psychosis in their lifetime, almost 10 million have been diagnosed with BiPolar disorder over the past year, 15 million adults suffer from ADHD, and nearly 35 million children were diagnosed with this particular malady over the same year.

And these statistics only apply to people who have complained enough about their mental condition to their doctor, psychiatrist, or certified psychologist, to be actually diagnosed and put on the docket as having these mental disorders. No telling how many are suffering from mental illness and have not shared their condition with someone who is qualified to render an official diagnosis (psychotherapists, in Canada, are not allowed to diagnose).

Yep, it’s a big problem. And then there is the medication. It is estimated that approximately 76 million people in the US, of all ages, have been prescribed, and are consuming, some form of psychiatric drug (I would venture to say it is more than this). That’s a lot of folks, folks.

Do I put a lot of weight on official diagnoses and labelling? Not really. But regardless of what you think of diagnosis standards and criteria, people are suffering from something - even if you refrain from putting a name to it. This is easy to see without doing much digging. People seem to have lost a lot of their mental capacity to think, to think critically, and to function within the expected “norms” of society (whatever that is). People, in general, seem to have a very difficult time making any sort of rational decisions about everyday challenges in everyday life.

That’s a big statement, I know. And maybe this has always been true, but my gut tells me this is all due to the social pathology the agenda has brought upon us. And no, it isn’t all due to an intentional agenda to pulverize us into flesh-eating zombies, but by golly most of it is.

If you think about how far away humans are from living a natural life, it isn’t much of a stretch to believe we are all suffering from some sort of mental and emotional dysfunction. Although this has been slowly going on since humans stopped living in caves, we have been relatively skilled at staving off the pandemic of mental illness we now seem to be suffering.

Sure, humans have always been a bit kooky. But wouldn’t you say today it appears to be much worse than it was 100 years ago? 200 hundred years ago? The disintegration of moral values, character development, a misunderstanding of “right and wrong,” the dissolution of family, community, spirituality, gender, and even the sanctity of the human body has all had its toll on healthy emotional and mental processing. When we no longer can process properly, we lose psychic homeostasis, and disease sets in."
o
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
o
"The worst part is wondering how you'll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long, where you'll find the strength for all that stupid running around, those projects that come to nothing, those attempts to escape from crushing necessity, which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable, that every night will find you down and out, crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows. And maybe it's treacherous old age coming on, threatening the worst. Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself."
- Louis-Ferdinand Celineo
o
"Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether
 it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it." 
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! We're Being Lied To About Nuclear War, Russia And China Know The Truth"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 8/3/24
"Alert! We're Being Lied To About Nuclear War, 
Russia And China Know The Truth"
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, "Billionaires Selling Stocks Preparing For Major Crash"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/3/24
"Billionaires Selling Stocks Preparing For Major Crash; 
Wall St. Freaking Out As Economy Implodes"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 8/3/24
"Banks Are Pausing Withdrawals! 
This Is Just The Beginning"
"Recently, certain banks have temporarily halted withdrawals, raising concerns among customers and financial analysts. Imagine needing cash urgently and finding out you can't access your money from the bank. That's what happened to many people recently when JP Morgan Chase stopped teller services due to a mysterious issue affecting their systems. This issue is not isolated to one bank or region; it's a worldwide problem with serious implications for the global financial system.

The Immediate Issue: System Outages: One of the primary causes of these withdrawal suspensions has been system outages. Banks, including major players like JP Morgan Chase, have faced technical glitches, making their teller services inoperative. Customers trying to withdraw cash have received apologies and reassurances that the issue is temporary, but the inconvenience has been significant."
Comments here:

"We All Know..."

“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars… everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”
- Thornton Wilder
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
- Robert Fulghum
“For Those Who Have Died”
“Eleh Ezkerah” (“These We Remember”)

“Tis a fearful thing
To love
What death can touch.
To love, to hope, to dream,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
Love,
But a holy thing,
To love what death can touch.
For your life has lived in me;
Your laugh once lifted me;
Your word was a gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
Tis a human thing, love,
A holy thing,
To love
What death can touch.”
- Chaim Stern
Graphic: “Into The Silent Land”,
by Henry Pegram, 1905
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.”
- Paulo Coelho
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
- Dr. Seuss
And we shall meet again…
Full screen recommended.
Moody Blues, “The Day We Meet Again”

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 6745 actually shows the results of two galaxies that have been colliding for only hundreds of millions of years. Just off the above digitally sharpened photograph to the lower right is the smaller galaxy, moving away. The larger galaxy, pictured above, used to be a spiral galaxy but now is damaged and appears peculiar. Gravity has distorted the shapes of the galaxies.
Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies directly collided, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. In fact, a knot of gas pulled off the larger galaxy on the lower right has now begun to form stars. NGC 6745 spans about 80 thousand light-years across and is located about 200 million light-years away."

“You Deserve to Be Hanged for Treason”

“You Deserve to Be Hanged for Treason”
by Brian Maher

Annapolis, Maryland - “You are sick… You deserve to be hanged for treason.” This, reader I.W. has informed us. He elaborated his case no further, alas. His charges therefore lack the legal warrant for an official hanging. Upon this slender hope we hang… if you will indulge the expression. Yet the question dangles: Why would I.W. have us hanged? What have we done to rate a hanging?

I.W.’s laments attend our recent articles on the Ukrainian unpleasantness - articles in which we called United States involvement into severe question. Put simply: We argued against United States involvement in the Ukrainian war. That is because we fear it opens the roadway for direct United States conflict with Russia itself. Thus we are a Putin “apologist.” Thus we sanction, bless and enable the man’s multiple evils in Ukraine. Thus we are an agent of Satan and against every human decency. Thus we must hang for treason - by the neck - until dead.

Tread Carefully: Yet we might remind I.W. that nations can stumble into war… as easily as men can stumble into love. War’s dogs are willful and excitable hounds. They are forever plotting to break the leashes. The June 1914 assassination of an Austrian archduke did not by itself fire the guns of August. War was not an inevitability. But blunders were made… and miscalculations. That is, human beings were at their normal tricks. Two months later the guns were roaring. They roared for the next four years.

We would avoid a nuclear-age sequel - a sequel with a far less lengthy conclusion. We fear that the distance from initial clash with Russia… to nuclear clash with Russia… may be nearer than most imagine…That the howitzers of June that led to the tanks of February could lead to the aircraft of April and the troops of September and the atoms of October. How many homicides escalated from a simple shove? The graveyards and the jails crowd with examples.

What Would Adams Think? America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” said Adams (John Quincy) in 1821. More from whom: "She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings…

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be…She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit...America's glory is not dominion, but liberty… She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice."

Adams Says No to the Early Neoconservatives: In the early 1820s the nation of Greece was at war with the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for Greek independence - similar to America’s own war for independence from the British Empire. The Greek government formally solicited aid and assistance from the United States. Many Americans, including prominent politicos, were hot to jam their snouts into the thing. They believed the Greek cause was in essence the United States’ cause. And so they were for the Greek proposal. They were out to aid Greece materially - even to dispatch a squadron of the United States Navy to those distant, contested waters.

Yet Secretary of State Adams did not think “quite so lightly of a war with Turkey.” Thus he put out a very stern rebuke against the Greek request: "While cheering with their best wishes the cause of the Greeks, the United States are forbidden by the duties of the situation from taking part in the war, to which their relation is that of neutrality… Their established policy and the obligations of the laws of nations preclude them from becoming voluntary auxiliaries to a cause which would involve them in war."

Incidentally, Mr. Adams references the United States in the plural form - “the United States are…” That is because the United States was not yet an “it.” It remained a “them.”

What Would Adams Say About War With Russia? Would Secretary of State John Quincy Adams counsel war with Russia in 2024? Or would the fellow not think “quite so lightly of a war” with Russia? We do not presume to speak for the dead. And so we shall not presume to speak for Mr. Adams. Yet we can draw certain… inferences… based on his written declarations. And we believe he would be against war with Russia - for the very reasons he cited in 1821.

Must the United States of 2024… the “it”... cling to the doctrines of the “them” United States of 1821? No, it is under no such bonds. The world of 2024 is vastly different from the world of 1821. And the contemporary United States is free to chart its own course, to blaze its own path, to do as it pleases. It need not - must not - be devoted slavishly to the old ways. Even old Tommy Jefferson argued that the nation’s Constitution should be written anew every 19 years. And who are we to dispute old Tommy Jefferson? No one whomsoever.

What if Adams Was Right? Yet we must consider this possibility: The Adams admonitions of 1821 maintain their value in the year 2024. They may transmit a vast and enduring wisdom worth a good hard listen. Yet the living so rarely listen to the dead. The living believe they inhabit unrivaled times. That they confront unrivaled circumstances - and challenges. “This time is different” is their eternal refrain.

These unrivaled times, circumstances and challenges lead some to conclude that Russia constitutes a unique menace to global tranquility. And that the world’s civilized nations must scotch it before the menace grows… like a cancerous growth. They further believe that war with a nuclear-armed Russia is a tolerable risk in pursuit of this greater good. And some even believe that a man should hang for treason if he is against it…"

The Poet: Czeslaw Milosz, "Hope"

"Hope"

"Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh,
That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,
That all things you have ever seen here
Are like a garden looked at from a gate.
You cannot enter. But you're sure it's there.
Could we but look more clearly and wisely
We might discover somewhere in the garden
A strange new flower and an unnamed star.

Some people say we should not trust our eyes,
That there is nothing, just a seeming,
These are the ones who have no hope.
They think that the moment we turn away,
The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,
As if snatched up by the hands of thieves."

- Czeslaw Milosz,
"Hope", from "The World"

"And It Was Pointless..."

“And it was pointless… to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hardly have put them to worse. There was no recovering them now. You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell… for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is to go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”
- Charles Frazier

The Daily "Near You?"

Orland Park, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

“A Corrupt Tree Bringeth Forth Evil Fruit”

“A Corrupt Tree Bringeth Forth Evil Fruit”
By Brian Maher

“Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,” says Matthew - “but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

"Today we are in transit. We lift our siege of Jekyll Island, Georgia… and take to the aerial ways. Our destination is the Maryland city of Annapolis, by way of the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Yet before we take wing, we lower our ax upon the root of America’s corrupt money tree… and expose its evil fruit - the fiat dollar.

If you are a regular Daily Reckoning reader you are likely aware of the corruption. Yet as we have argued before: A man must occasionally recall himself to obvious truths. That is because the nose upon his face is obvious. It is so obvious he scarcely notices the nasal protuberance. It would serve him well to remember at times. We believe this is one such time.

The Dual Life of a Dollar: Is there a $20 bill nesting within your wallet? Please haul it up… This $20 bill represents an asset to you its holder. It is a meager asset in these inflationary days - yet it is an asset. It represents a legal claim upon all goods and services available within these United States. Yet this $20 bill of yours lives a coy existence, a dual existence. One aspect is seen. The other is unseen. That is because your $20 asset is at once a $20 liability.

You are aware of the asset, of the purchasing power you command. It is musculature in monetary form. But are you aware of its liability? You likely are not aware of its liability. Consider: All money in present circulation - all bills, coins, all checking and savings deposits, A through Z - was borrowed into existence. That is, all money in existence represents a debt… taken sometime… somewhere… by someone. That debt may not be your debt. Yet it is another man’s debt. This is the inner secret of the schizophrenic $20 bill you presently ponder.

Poor Andrew Jackson: Imagine poor Andy Jackson raging in his bleak Tennessee grave. Imagine how he spins and spins and spins. For this is the man who shuttered the Second Bank of the United States in 1836 - and retired the national debt for the first and only occasion in history.

Yet Old Hickory and his hawkish visage front the debt-fabricated $20 bill. That is, the poor fellow has been dragooned posthumously into the very banking system he proceeded against with such fantastic heat. It is almost as if the monetary authorities mock his memory - purposefully and intentionally. It is almost as if he has been paraded as a trophy of war, a helpless and lifeless captive. “As if” does not constitute proof of an actual doing. We harbor our suspicions nonetheless. But let it go.

Let us now ponder the staggering realities of today’s debt-based money…

$96 Trillion Into Thin Air: Recall, all money under today’s monetary “system” constitutes an expression of debt. The asset merely represents the positive face of the liability, the reverse face. We must therefore conclude, as we have concluded before: If all dollar-based debt were retired - all $96 trillion, public and private - each dollar would vanish into the nonexistence whence it came. It goes flushing into the void. Can you imagine it? Attempt the try.

Now lift your jaw from the floor. Now rediscover your footing. Now recover your wits. Here we do not speculate. We read directly from the book…

The Fed’s Open Confession: Mr. Marriner Eccles bossed the Federal Reserve in May 1941. At that time he sat down in front of the House Committee on Banking and Currency. A bewildered congressman - Patman, by name - asked this Eccles how the Federal Reserve had acquired the funds to purchase $2 billion of Treasury bonds in 1933. Our minions have fished up this exchange from the Congressional Record:

ECCLES: We created it.
PATMAN: Out of what?
ECCLES: Out of the right to issue credit money.
PATMAN: And there is nothing behind it, is there, except our government’s credit?
ECCLES: That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.

“The Tragic Absurdity of Our Hopeless Situation Is Almost Incredible” Did Mr. Eccles botch the facts? He did not. Here is the credit manager of the Federal Reserve’s Atlanta outpost, Mr. Robert Hemphill: "If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless situation is almost incredible - but there it is."

There it is indeed.

“All Money Would Disappear” Mr. G. Edward Griffin is the author of "The Creature From Jekyll Island." As we have noted these past two days: That creature is of course the Federal Reserve. And we have visited the site of its conception - its bastard conception. Here Griffin gets in back of Messieurs Eccles and Hemphill:

"It is difficult for Americans to come to grips with the fact that their total money supply is backed by nothing but debt, and it is even more mind-boggling to visualize that if everyone paid back all that was borrowed, there would be no money left in existence. That’s right, there would be not one penny in circulation - all coins and all paper currency would be returned to bank vaults - and there would be not one dollar in anyone’s checking account. In short, all money would disappear…

Every dollar that exists today, either in the form of currency, checkbook money or even credit card money - in other words, our entire money supply - exists only because it was borrowed by someone; perhaps not you, but someone. Let us now strike at the root of today’s corrupt money tree…

Don’t Forget About the Interest: A bank loans a man $10,000. He must repay the $10,000 at a future date - with a bit of interest into the bargain. Assume the $10,000 comes tethered to a 5% rate of interest. Assume further the bankman thunders at his door five years hence, calling in his loan. The debtor must hand the fellow $12,762.74 That is, the principal plus the $2,762.74 in accumulated interest. Where will this sap secure the $2,762.74 to service the interest? The larger question: Must the Federal Reserve issue increasing quantities of money to service all outstanding debt - $96 trillion in the case of the United States? Mr. Griffin:

One of the most perplexing questions associated with this process is “Where does the money come from to pay the interest?” If you borrow $10,000 from a bank at 9%, you owe $10,900. But the bank only manufactures $10,000 for the loan. It would seem, therefore, that there is no way that you - and all others with similar loans - can possibly pay off your indebtedness.

The amount of money put into circulation just isn’t enough to cover the total debt, including interest. This has led some to the conclusion that it is necessary for you to borrow the $900 for the interest, and that, in turn, leads to still more interest. The assumption is that the more we borrow, the more we have to borrow, and that debt based on fiat money is a never-ending spiral leading inexorably to more and more debt.

This is a partial truth. It is true that there is not enough money created to include the interest, but it is a fallacy that the only way to pay it back is to borrow still more. A partial truth? What is the entire truth, sir?

The Exchange Value of Labor: “The assumption fails to take into account the exchange value of labor.” Please elaborate: Let us assume that you pay back your $10,000 loan at the rate of approximately $900 per month and that about $80 of that represents interest. You realize you are hard-pressed to make your payments so you decide to take on a part-time job…

The decision then is made to have the bank’s floors waxed once a week. You respond to the ad in the paper and are hired at $80 per month to do the job. The result is that you earn the money to pay the interest on your loan, and - this is the point - the money you receive is the same money which you previously had paid. As long as you perform labor for the bank each month, the same dollars go into the bank as interest, then out the revolving door as your wages and then back into the bank as loan repayment. Just so. You serve the interest by serving your master.

Yet what if you decline to wax the bank’s floors? What if you fail to serve your master? It is not necessary that you work directly for the bank. No matter where you earn the money, its origin was a bank and its ultimate destination is a bank. The loop through which it travels can be large or small, but the fact remains all interest is paid eventually by human effort.

Modern Serfdom: What - then - are we to conclude from the foregoing? The significance of that fact is even more startling than the assumption that not enough money is created to pay back the interest. It is that the total of this human effort ultimately is for the benefit of those who create fiat money. It is a form of modern serfdom in which the great mass of society works as indentured servants to a ruling class of financial nobility.

This conclusion appalls us. Yet we hazard Mr. Griffin draws a reasonable sketch. And so we hazard this question: Shall we strike the chains of bondage from our wrists? That is, should we all repay each dollar we owe - all $96 trillion? Should we call in all money from circulation?

The question is theoretical, of course. As we have maintained before: We can no more afford to break the chains of debt than we can afford to break our necks. We are locked in. These chains will snap only when they can no longer endure the relentless weight pressing upon them. Not because we choose to snap them. That is, the chain-snapping will be imposed upon us. On that bright and glorious day, however distant, we shall finally be free… Free… without one penny to our name…"

"When We Can No Longer Tell the Truth "

"When We Can No Longer Tell the Truth"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"When we can no longer tell the truth because the truth will bring the whole rotten, fragile status quo down in a heap of broken promises and lies, we've reached the perfection of dysfunction. You know the one essential guideline to leadership in a doomed dysfunctional system: when it gets serious, you have to lie. In other words, the status quo's secular goddess is TINA - there is no alternative to lying, because the truth will bring the whole corrupt structure tumbling down.

This core dynamic of dysfunction is scale-invariant, meaning that hiding the truth is the core dynamic in dysfunctional relationships, households, communities, enterprises, cities, corporations, states, alliances, nations and empires: when the truth cannot be told because it threatens the power structure of the status quo, that status quo is doomed.

Lies, half-truths and cover-ups are all manifestations of fatal weakness. What lies, half-truths and cover-ups communicate is: we can no longer fix our real problems, and rather than let this truth out, we must mask it behind lies and phony reassurances.

Truth is power, lies are weakness. All we get now are lies, statistics designed to mislead and phony reassurances that the status quo is stable and permanent. The truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems. Lies, gamed statistics and false reassurances are fatal because they doom any sincere efforts to fix what's broken before the system reaches the point of no return.

We are already past the point of no return. The expediency of lies has already doomed us.

Honest accounts of hugely successful corporations that implode share one key trait: in every case, managers were pressured to hide the truth from top management, which then hid the truth from investors and clients. is the key dynamic in failed oligarchies as well: if telling the truth gets you sent to Siberia (or worse), then nobody with any instinct for self-preservation will tell the truth. If obscuring the truth saves one's job, then that's what people do. That this dooms the organization is secondary to immediate self-preservation.

A distorted sense of loyalty to the family, community, company, institution, agency or nation furthers lying as the  solution to unsavory problems. Daddy a drunk? Hide the bottle. Church a hotbed of adultery and thieving? Maintain the facade of holiness at all costs. Company products are failing? Put some lipstick on the pig. The statistical truth doesn't support the party's happy story? Distort the stats until they do what's needed. The agency failed to fulfill its prime directive? Blame the managerial failure on a scapegoat.

Pathological liars and cheats rely on self-preservation and misplaced loyalty to mask their own failure and corruption. A hint here, a comment there, and voila, a culture of lying is created and incentivized.

Obscuring the truth is the ultimate short-term expediency. Now that it's serious, we have to lie. We'll start telling the truth later, we say, after everything's stabilized, we hope. But lying insures nothing can ever be truly stabilized, so there will never be a point at which the system is strong enough and stable enough to survive the truth.

We are now an empire of lies. The status quo,politically, socially and economically, depends on lies, half-truths, scapegoats and cover-ups for its very survival. Any truth that escapes the prison of lies endangers the entire rotten edifice.

In an empire of lies, leaders say what people want to hear. This wins the support of the masses, who would rather hear false reassurances that require no sacrifices, no difficult trade-offs, no hard choices, no discipline. The empire of lies is doomed. Lies are weakness, and they prohibit any real solutions. Truth is power, but we can no longer tolerate the truth because it frightens us. Our weakness is systemic and fatal."

Read Online: Kahlil Gibran, “The Garden of the Prophet”

“The Garden of the Prophet” 
by Kahlil Gibran

“Oftentimes we call Life bitter names, but only when we ourselves are bitter and dark. And we deem her empty and unprofitable, but only when the soul goes wandering in desolate places, and the heart is drunken with over-mindfulness of self.

Life is deep and high and distant; and though only your vast vision can reach even her feet, yet she is near; and though only the breath of your breath reaches her heart, the shadow of your shadow crosses her face, and the echo of your faintest cry becomes a spring and an autumn in her breast.

And Life is veiled and hidden, even as your greater self is hidden and veiled. Yet when Life speaks, all the winds become words; and when she speaks again, the smiles upon your lips and the tears in your eyes turn also into words. When she sings, the deaf hear and are held; and when she comes walking, the sightless behold her and are amazed and follow her in wonder and astonishment.” 
Read “The Garden of The Prophet” online here:

"Making Your Best Guess"

"Making Your Best Guess"
by Arthur Silber

"We are not gods, and we are not omniscient. We cannot foretell the future with certainty. Most often, cultural and political changes are terribly complex. It can be notoriously difficult to predict exactly where a trend will take us, and we can be mistaken. We do the best we can: if we wish to address certain issues seriously, we study history, and we read everything that might shed light on our concerns. We consult what the best thinkers of our time and of earlier times have said and written. We challenge everyone's assumptions, including most especially our own. That last is often very difficult. If we care enough, we do our best to disprove our own case. In that way, we find out how strong our case is, and where its weaknesses may lie.

Barring extraordinary circumstances, we cannot be certain that a particular development represents a critical turning point at the time it occurs. If we dare to say, "This is the moment the battle was lost," only future events will prove whether we were correct. We do the best we can, based on our understanding of how similar events have unfolded in the past, and in light of our understanding of the underlying principles in play. We can be wrong."

"How It Really Is"

Yeah...