Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, August 10, 2024
"A Kind Of Stubborn, Unrecognized Courage..."
"For many great deeds are accomplished in times of squalid struggle. There is a kind of stubborn, unrecognized courage which in the lowest depths tenaciously resists the pressures of necessity and ill-doing; there are noble and obscure triumphs observed by no one, unacclaimed by any fanfare. Hardship, loneliness, and penury are a battlefield which has its own heroes, sometimes greater than those lauded in history. Strong and rare characters are thus created; poverty nearly always a foster-mother, may become a true mother, distress may be the nursemaid of pride, and misfortune the milk that nourishes great spirits."
- Victor Hugo
"All Earthly Empires Die"
"All Earthly Empires Die"
by Bill Bonner
"'Amor fati' was Nietzsche’s famous expression. It is a Latin phrase with connections to the Stoic writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Literally translated, it means “love of fate.” It is a white shoe yearning for mud. It is a turkey looking forward to Thanksgiving. Or an investor stoically preparing for a bear market.
We use the term to describe the grace and courage you need to meet a complex, unknowable, and uncontrollable future. You don’t know whether the Earth is warming or cooling… whether it is good or bad… or whether you can do anything about it. You don’t know who’s doing “equal work.” You don’t know what equality is… how to measure it… or what to do about it. You don’t know who the bad guy is. It may even be you. It recognizes that we are all God’s fools, living in a world of ignorance, headed towards we don’t know where. Using our brains, we can make progress in our physical, material world. Technical thinking yields pyramids and Eiffel Towers.
Ignorance Everywhere: But there is another part of life, which has a mind of its own. It does not bend readily to our desires or yield to our intelligence. It is the part of life whose purposes are unknown. The first and most important Commandment, according to Jesus, was not to fight it, but to love it.
But ignorance can be a charm. You just have to take it seriously. And appreciate it. Recognizing your own ignorance will inform your newfound modesty. You will be aware of it. And fiercely proud. Nobody will be humbler than you are! And since you are so chummy with ignorance, you will see it everywhere – in every headline, every public announcement, every speech on the floor of the Senate… and every crackpot comment from every dummy voter in the empire.
In private affairs, you reduce uncertainty by getting as close to the subject as possible. That is, you avoid secondhand “news” and try to find out for yourself. The more you know about a company, for example, the more confident you can be about investing in it. That’s why the insiders always have the inside track, an advantage that is increased by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s phony “level playing field” propaganda. In public affairs – policy discussions, economics, politics – as you get closer, you become less cocksure. That is, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
In an interesting university study, people were asked to pick out Ukraine on a map… and whether they approved of military intervention in that country. Curiously, the further off they were on the geography (the average guess was 1,800 miles off), the more they favored forceful intervention. In public affairs, ignorance and confidence vary inversely.
Moral Certainty: When we first moved to Baltimore in the 1980s, we noticed this phenomenon in another context. Baltimore was a disaster. Crime, drugs, poverty, venereal disease, broken homes, unwed mothers, corruption – name a social problem; Baltimore had it. And while its leaders had been noticeably unable to solve any of these problems right in their own back yard, the city’s politically correct politicians were loud and clear on one issue: apartheid had to end… in South Africa. Had they ever visited South Africa? Could they find it on a map? Probably not. But they were sure they knew how to make it a better place.
“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority,” wrote Baltimore’s own H.L. Mencken. “The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’”
“I am not too sure,” would eliminate many of the world’s myth-driven, self-inflicted ills – pointless wars, dumb arguments, pogroms, persecutions, and lynchings. And reckless spending of other people’s money.
Imagine a wise Hitler entertaining the idea of building Auschwitz as a “final solution” to the “Jewish problem.” “Hmmm… I’m not too sure that would solve it… In fact, I’m not too sure there is a problem!”
Imagine Simon de Montfort readying to attack the town of Albi to exterminate the “heretics.” When told that half the people in the town were good Catholics, de Montfort replied: “Kill them all. God will recognize His own.” Suppose he had thought twice… “Hmmm… Maybe this is not such a good idea… Maybe killing people is not what Christianity is all about… Maybe the heretics aren’t so bad… Maybe I’ll take the afternoon off.”
Unwarranted Confidence: The barroom blowhard… so sure he is right about everything… is generally the dumbest guy in the place. And the most dangerous. He’s the one who will stir up a mob… and get himself elected president. The whole system of modern public policy is built on false knowledge and unwarranted confidence. The elite claims to know what is best for you. That is how every politician can claim his proposals would “benefit the American people.” But the only program that would benefit the American people would be to let them decide for themselves what would benefit them. Give them back their money. Stop bossing them around. End the wars. Stop the empire. But who would suggest such a thing?
A book that appeared in 2018, "Psychology of a Superpower: Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy", by political scientist Christopher Fettweis, argued that power really does corrupt, and that when a nation or an empire gets too much power, its elite develops new opinions.
Rather than seeing itself as one of many nations that must get along with each other, its elites begin to see that they have a special role to play. They become the one, “indispensable” nation, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it. They are the world’s only hope in combatting evil, which they do, as then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo elaborated, with “the righteous knowledge that our cause is just, special, and built upon America’s core principles.”
Thus endowed with a special mission and special powers, and subject to the special rules of the only nation with a trillion-dollar-per-year military/empire budget, the elite develop, in Fettweis’s judgment, a fatal combination of unrestrained hubris, unrealistic paranoia, and unrepentant ignorance. They see danger everywhere, without undertaking any serious study (they assume knowledge comes automatically with raw power). And they think they have not only the right, but the means, to do something about it, even if the danger is largely fantasy.
Damned to Hell: But people always come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. “All earthly empires die,” wrote St. Augustine in 413, a few years before the Vandals destroyed his city and finally brought down the Roman Empire in the West.
The elite contribute, by taking up the myths that help it die. Certainty and ignorance vary proportionally, both on the individual and on a national level. The surer a nation is of its myths… its exceptionalism… its manifest destiny… its policies… and its position at the right hand of God… the more it is damned to Hell."
"We're All Sinking..."
"We're all sinking in the same boat here. We're all bored and desperate and waiting for something to happen. Waiting for life to get better. Waiting for things to change. Waiting for that one person to finally notice us. We're all waiting. But we also need to realize that we all have the power to make those changes for ourselves."
- Susane Colasanti
"Rumors Of War: The Middle East"
Dialogue Works, 8/10/24
"Scott Ritter: Why Israel Could Be Humiliated
and Defeated by Iran or Hezbollah!"
Comments here:
o
Danny Haiphong, 8/10/24
"Israel in Total Panic as Iran's Punishment
for IDF will be Devastating"
"Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran and advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiations team discusses the devastating move Iran is preparing against Israel and how the Israeli regime is playing with fire that is cascading into total defeat.
"Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Times Of India, 8/10/24
"Putin Dispatches Russian Military To Iran
Amid Israel Tensions & Anticipated Attack"
"Russian troops are reportedly undergoing missile training in Iran as tensions escalate. With European intelligence sources confirming the close ties between Tehran and Moscow, this development hints at a significant shift in the geopolitical landscape. Iran is reportedly set to deliver hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the Ukraine war, according to Reuters."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Col. Douglas MacGregor, 8/9/24
"Israel's Nightmare Coming!"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, Is the Economy That Bad? No Emergency Rate Cut"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 8/10/24
"Is the Economy That Bad? No Emergency Rate Cut"
Is the economy truly in such dire straits that we need a drastic move from The Fed? Or is it just a desperate plea from realtors trying to sell homes in a shaky market? Let’s discuss why an emergency rate cut might not be on the horizon, despite what some are saying.
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Strange Prices At Walmart!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 8/10/24
"Strange Prices At Walmart!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!
Comments here:
"WTF Alert: Russia's 7 Day Warning; Pentagon Loses It's FKN Mind; Israel Prepares To Nuke Iran"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 8/9/24
"WTF Alert: Russia's 7 Day Warning;
Pentagon Loses It's FKN Mind; Israel Prepares To Nuke Iran"
Comments here:
"Sometimes..."
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"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.
That ultimately is the question...
Adrian Lester as Hamlet: "To be or not to be..."
William Shakespeare, "Hamlet", Act III, Scene I
"If Something Cannot Go On Forever, It Will Stop"
"If Something Cannot Go On Forever, It Will Stop"
So let's try to figure out what "stop" might mean in the real world.
by Bill Quick
Excerpt: "Herb Stein created his famous “law” as a useful analytical tool for approaching potentially harmful long-running economic trends, primarily to make the point that government intervention might not be necessary since, if a particular trend is not supported by existing realities, it will eventually collapse on its own. In a way, it is an economics version of the Oliver Wendell Holmes’ tale of the "One Hoss Shay."
"The parson was working his Sunday's text,-
Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed
At what the - Moses - was coming next.
All at once the horse stood still,
Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill.
First a shiver, and then a thrill,
Then something decidedly like a spill, -
And the parson was sitting upon a rock,
At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house-clock, -
Just the hour of the Earthquake-shock!
What do you think the parson found,
When he got up and stared around?
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
As if it had been to the mill and ground!
You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,
How it went to pieces all at once, -
All at once, and nothing first, -
Just as bubbles do when they burst.
End of the wonderful one-hoss shay."
Logic is logic. That's all I say. This “shay” had been built throughout with the finest materials available, and each part lasted just as long as the others…until they all turned to dust at the same moment, leaving the man who depended upon the shay flat-assed on the ground, wondering what had happened.
Keep all this in mind while we consider a seemingly unrelated subject. I am an aficionado of cyclical theories of history, many of which are discussed in this excellent piece by Alexander Macris, "The Wisdom of Naram-Sim." Let’s concentrate on just one of them for the moment, because it is currently serving as my own map through todays confusing and perilous times:
A more recent cyclical theory of history is Strauss-Howe generational theory. According to Strauss and Howe, historical events occur in 80-year cycles, each marked by four turnings of a generation (20 years). Strauss-Howe theory has given rise to the oft-discussed concept of the Fourth Turning. Strauss-Howe theory is based on the idea that each generation of human beings predictably differs from the prior generation based on the conditions of its upbringing. Put bluntly, a new crisis occurs when the generation that remembered the last crisis dies off and a new generation that has known only good times take the wheel of the ship of state.
The concept is often summarized using the famous quote by author G. Michael Hopf in his book "Those Who Remain:"
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.”
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
Friday, August 9, 2024
"Unknown Knowns: Part II"
"Unknown Knowns: Part II"
Harris as the "anyone but Trump" ticket and the willful ignorance of millions...
by Joel Bowman
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up,
till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
~ William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," (1790)
Ormond Beach, Florida - "Deeper and deeper, into the unknown... How do we know what we know? Philosophers throughout the ages have wondered aloud... psychologists have pondered in the dark... cranks and loons, poets and geniuses have filled entire library shelves, contemplating the “doors of perception.” Today, we come at it from a different angle. We are interested not in how we know what we (think we) know... but in how our supposed knowns become unknowns. We refer, of course, to the well-known and oft-practiced art of willful ignorance.
Until just a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris was the least popular Vice President in living memory. Today, if you believe the polls, she is neck-a-neck with her opponent, on the verge of becoming the very first Indian-African-Jamaican-Irish-American female president in the history of the republic. Quite a turnaround, you will surely agree. What happened? What did voters know about Mrs. Harris three weeks ago that they do not know – or do not want to know – today?
Reader Abuse: We have already seen, in Part I of this little inquiry, how the media has shaped the narrative over the past eight years. In unseating the deep state’s presumptive Madam President, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Donald Trump invoked the ire of many a swampen creature. For this, he endured a public excoriation the likes of which would make an ancient Roman senator blush.
Day in, day out... week after week... year upon year... formerly respectable mastheads across the country assaulted their readers’ senses with a barrage of hit pieces, accusing the president of every imaginable crime against humanity, and some unimaginable ones, besides. He was a white supremecist... a clear and present danger to American democracy... Hitler reincarnated. And his supporters, tens of millions of Americans, were all unreconstructed racists, fascists and extremists, looking to bring the nation to its knees (and not in that virtue signaling, self flagellating, kneel-during-the-national-anthem-at-a-football-game kind of way).
Declared President Joe Biden on live television: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Indeed, by the time Biden told his staff it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye” (an obvious, if ill-chosen metaphor), few could have been surprised when a would-be assassin took those words literally and did just that a few days later. And yet, to so much as mention the assassination attempt in polite company today, just a few weeks later, is to be seen projecting a kind of sympathy for the devil. It simply won’t do.
Anyone Harris: Of course, The Donald is not without his follies and foibles, many of which we have remarked on in these very Notes. But the Führer, he is not. And yet, if this is what you’ve heard every day, if that is the message running on every news channel and headlining every newspaper, if you’ve been told ceaselessly that your country is on the line, your way of life is under attack... and from a band of card-carrying fascists, no less... wouldn’t you want someone... anyone... to stand up and stop such a force for evil?
Today, that anyone is Kamala Harris. Yes, yes... you haven’t lost your marbles. This is the very same Kamala Harris who, three weeks and five minutes ago, even democrat party apparatchiks and their flunkies in the mainstream press couldn’t stomach. Here are a handful of comments... not from hostile, “ultra MAGA” conservatives... but from the simpering White Guys for Harris clutch:
"She’s a pretty big drag. I think she’s arguably Biden’s single worst political decision." ~ Johan Goldberg, "The Dispatch"
"Kamala Harris’s approval rating is now at 28%, which is an historic low for any modern vice president." ~ Jimmy Kimmel, "The Late Show"
"We’re hearing it from mainstream media, one outlet after another, one leak after another, Kamala Harris is the worst vice president ever, the worst politician ever." ~ Joe Scarborough, "Morning Joe"
Of course, now that Mrs. Harris is the presumptive nominee, it’s all sunshine and rainbow flags. Along with recasting Biden as the second coming of George Washington (Nancy Pelosi even suggested his likeness be carved into Mt. Rushmore. Seriously.) Kamala Harris has now been remanufactured as the most “energetic politician since Barack Obama.”
“It was mesmerizing... You could just sense the power in the hall. It was the power of joy. The power of laughter. The power of hope for the future.” "Morning Joe," MSNBC
“We haven’t seen this kind of energy since 2008, when Barack Obama was a candidate.” "The Source," CNN
“The excitement was at a level that, frankly, we haven’t seen since President Obama was running for reelection.” "The Morning," CNN
“It goes back to Obama levels of excitement,” "The Morning," CNN
[Sidenote: Is it just us, or do these bobbleheads all seem to get the same talking cards?]
Oh, and here’s our personal favorite, from the man who assured us one month ago that “Joe Biden is not quitting. He’s not built to quit.” Pro waffler Chris Matthews, also on CNN: “[Harris] was John Wayne last night. She was a leader. And she was clear that she was the boss.”
Bidenomics, The Border and BLM: You see, dear reader, it matters not whether Mrs. Harris is qualified for the job... that she is the poster person for Diversity Equity and Inclusion... that she managed to secure exactly the same number of delegate votes during her last run for president as did your editor...
All that matters is that she does not have a toothbrush mustache and a goose in her step; that she is not Adolf Hitler Donald J. Trump. As such, voters are willing to overlook an extraordinary record of failure, incompetence and bewilderment.
This is a candidate, lest we rush to unknow, who told America “The border is secure. We have a secure border”... even as illegal immigration surged to record numbers under her watchless eye...
That “Bidenomics is working”... even as inflation was rocketing to the highest level in more than a generation...
That “it is outdated and is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety”... even as cities across America were burning during the BLM race riots of 2020 and the “Defund the Police” movement was gaining traction.
As for her so-called “progressive” track record, wish-thinking democrats have gone to herculean efforts to unknow the fact that Mrs. Harris defended the death penalty as attorney general of California, opposed a statewide ballot measure to legalize marijuana, jailing over 1,500 people for marijuana offenses (before laughing about having inhaled herself) and criminalized parents under draconian truancy laws, which disproportionately impacted the “brown and black” communities she claims to champion but whom she hopes to never have to actually visit.
Still, through the fog of media propaganda and the cacophony of their cheerleading, the message rings out: Anyone but Trump. When it comes to democratic elections, it is not necessarily Capital-T Truth that matters as much as what people think they “know” (or even “unknown”) it to be. Where do we go from here? Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."
o
Freely download "The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell:, by William Blake, here:
Freely download "The Doors Of Perception", by Aldous Huxley, here:
"Fall Like A Thunderbolt"
"Fall Like A Thunderbolt"
by William Schryver
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night,
and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
- Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
"81 years ago what was arguably the single greatest battle of the Second World War took place in roughly the same area where battles are occurring again today. Across a broad front in eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia, stretching from Bryansk in the north to Izyum in the south, German and Soviet forces faced each other in the summer of 1943, with a substantial bulge in the lines in the area around Kursk. It was this bulge that was targeted by German commanders for envelopment and destruction.
The campaign commenced in the first week of July with a massive German counter-offensive, and continued for several weeks. Several hundred thousand soldiers and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles took part, with massive maneuvers and counter-maneuvers over a broad landscape of forests, fields, and rolling hills.
Much has been and could be written about the conduct of this battle, but this essay will focus on an aspect of the campaign that was unprecedented: it was the first battle in which the Soviet concepts of maskirovka were aggressively incorporated into every stage of the planning and execution of their operations.
Maskirovka is a Russian word meaning literally “masking” or “disguise”, but in the context of Russian military doctrine, it incorporates a wide spectrum of undertakings designed to deceive the enemy regarding strengths, weaknesses, disposition of forces, and the intentions of those forces. In its simplest expression, it echoes the famous dictum from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
In the summer of 1943, the Soviet army was the stronger force in comparison to the Wehrmacht. For this reason, Stalin was aggressively pressing his generals to go on the offensive. But Soviet commanders, cognizant of German preparations for a large counter-offensive, argued against this strategy. On April 8, 1943, overall commander Georgy Zhukov wrote to Stalin: “I consider it inexpedient for our troops to launch a preemptive offensive in the near future. It would be better for us to wear down the enemy on our defenses, knock out his tanks, bring in fresh reserves, and finish off his main grouping with a general offensive.” - Glantz, David M., "Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War," p. 148
The top Soviet commanders rushed to Moscow to plead their case to Stalin in an April 12th meeting. General Shtemenko, 1st Deputy of the Operations Department, later wrote: “Ultimately it was decided to concentrate our main forces in the Kursk area, to bleed the enemy forces here in a defensive operation, and then switch to the offensive and achieve their complete destruction.” - Ibid, p. 148
The trick was going to be to assemble and conceal the forces for the envisioned counter-attack within the front-wide defensive preparations – to give the Germans the impression that they had been considerably weakened, and were therefore assuming a purely defensive posture until their offensive potential could be reconstituted. Bear in mind, up until this point in the war, the Soviets had never undertaken a summer offensive, and therefore their apparent move to the defensive in the summer of 1943 was entirely consistent with prior practice.
Their employment of maskirovka would be of utmost importance in their preparations. “… staffs prepared detailed maskirovka plans which included the concealment of preparations, creation of false troop concentrations, simulation of false radio nets and communications centers, construction of false air facilities and false aircraft, and the dissemination of false rumors along the front and in the enemy rear area. These plans emphasized secret movement of reserves, hidden preparations for counter-attacks and counter-strokes, and concealed locations of command posts and communications sites.”
To deceive extensive German air reconnaissance army commanders established 15 false airfields, complete with mock-up aircraft, runways, control towers, and aircraft shelters, and installed numerous mock-up tanks to simulate armored assembly areas. German aircraft responded by bombing these false airfields nine times.” - Ibid, p. 152
Lieutentant General I.S. Konev described the situation: “The enemy thought that we were preparing only for defensive battle. Possessing a huge number of tanks and guns of a new type, the Germans hoped that it was impossible to stop them. Thus, as the enemy prepared, we prepared. The main thing was not to conceal the fact of our preparations, but rather the force and means, the concept of battle, the time of our counter-offensive, and the nature of our defense. Very likely it was the only unprecedented occasion in military history, when the strong side, having the capabilities for offensive action, went over to the defense.” - Ibid, p. 154
German tanks and troops advance near Kursk, 1943
In addition to the masking of force preparations and concentrations, once the battle had commenced, the Soviets employed substantial offensive movements in other areas of the front to draw off German forces from the primary target of the major Soviet counter-offensive. And what was the “key strategic sector”? Well, somewhat ironically, the great armored battle that unfolded in the vicinity of Kursk developed as a diversion from the primary Soviet objective: to defeat and conquer the primary locus of German power in and around Kharkov.
“Surprise was essential for Soviet forces to achieve victory around Belgorod and Kharkov, and surprise had to be a product of maskirovka. The Soviets applied maskirovka in all of its varied forms to deceive the Germans regarding the timing, strength, form, and location of the major Soviet counter-stroke.” - Ibid, p. 174
Soviet tanks and troops at Kursk – 1943
Well, a full description of the elaborate maskirovka employed in the Battle of Kursk is beyond the scope of this article. I simply wanted to introduce and elaborate on some of its fundamental aspects in order to suggest possible parallels between what was done then and what is happening now in Ukraine.
There has been ecstatic jubilation among Ukraine-supporters, and anguished hand-wringing among Russia-supporters, that somehow Russian forces were “surprised” and “humiliated” by the recent Ukrainian counter-offensive near Kursk. Let me therefore be perfectly clear: the notion that the Russian high command did not see this coming is, in my confident estimation, utterly absurd.
They observed its preparations over the course of many weeks. They knew much of the NATO-provided equipment shipped into Ukraine since the spring was not being used yet in battle, and had instead been diverted and hoarded to provide the backbone of firepower for an eventual counter-stroke. They also knew that substantial numbers of the remaining cadre of Ukrainian professional soldiers had been pulled from the front lines to form the core of this attack, and that they were being supplemented by a significant infusion of “foreign volunteers”.
They knew that thousands of new Ukrainian conscripts had been sent to Poland and Britain for rapid training according to NATO standards. They knew NATO commanders had effectively assumed operational command of this force, and were calling the shots as to when and where it would be deployed. And they certainly knew that, because this force was not present in the Kursk region for the limited counter-attack that took place there earlier in August.
Indeed, as the true nature of the events of the past few weeks comes into clearer focus, it is now possible to see that the Russians acted deliberately to provide the NATO commanders of this reconstituted Ukrainian force with some low-hanging fruit to blood their untested army, and provide it with a victory that would not only bolster its battlefield confidence, but more importantly serve essential political purposes at a time when western public support was flagging to a very discernible degree.
More importantly, from the Russian perspective, providing NATO commanders a temptation they could not resist would draw this fresh army into the open field of battle where it could then be isolated and ultimately destroyed.
Therefore the Russians commenced, several weeks ago, to withdraw all but a token force from the area containing the towns of Balakliya, Kupyansk, and Izyum – thereby presenting an irresistible opportunity for the commanders of this NATO-trained, NATO-equipped, and NATO-led force to demonstrate, as they imagine it, the superiority of western combined-arms warfare. The subsequent attack achieved seemingly extraordinary success against the relative handful of Donbass militia and Rosgvardia troops left to defend Kursk. The Ukrainians and their “foreign volunteer” shock troops advanced mostly unopposed and occupied a fairly significant piece of real estate extending all the way to the Oskil River.
Relatively little soldier against soldier fighting has occurred. In fact, Ukrainian reports euphorically trumpeted the fact that the Ukrainian advance could not even keep up with the speed of the Russian retreat! The “glorious victory” of this quasi-NATO army has – at least for the time being – launched the western media narrative into an unprecedented spasm of triumphalism.
Delusional reports abandoned tanks, casualties, and captured Russian soldiers are circulating widely, willingly believed by those whose biases find them pleasing. Western think-tank monkeys and retired-generals-for-hire move from one mainstream news studio to the next spouting fantastical nonsense about next liberating the Donbass, then Crimea, followed by deposing Putin and hauling him before a tribunal at The Hague.
And if that were not enough, many have even begun to openly discuss the long-desired western pipe dream of dismantling Russia altogether; cutting it up into a dozen or more smaller republics that will then obediently fall in line with the rest of the “rules-based world order”. It’s all quite breathtaking to behold.
Few seem to be aware that the triumphant army that marched forth into the power vacuum the Russians created for them have been continually savaged by long-range artillery fire and airstrikes, which have already inflicted many casualties upon the relatively exposed force.
Few seem to appreciate that the pace of the initially rapid advance has now effectively ground to a halt, caught between the Oskil River to the east and the Seversky-Donets to the south, and it has proven unable to achieve appreciable success against the concentrations of Russian forces it is now encountering on the other sides of those rivers. And no one seems to be asking the most pertinent question: What will the Russians do next?
There seems to be a pervasive assumption that this apparent battlefield “victory” has been so humiliatingly complete that the Russians have been ruined; psychologically broken; that they are no longer capable of operations; that they are now a beaten, trembling mob of frightened “orcs” nervously awaiting the next train back to wherever it was they came from.
Those cheering as the victory parade rolls down the streets of Kiev, London, and Washington appear to have forgotten that Russia’s “special military operation” up to this point has employed a minor fraction of its military capability, and that the Russian objective, from the beginning, has not been to conquer territory, per se, but to comprehensively destroy Ukrainian military capabilities.
I think the Ukraine supporters might be engaging in an orgy of premature exultation. I am persuaded the events of the past few weeks have been largely orchestrated pursuant to Russia’s ultimate objectives. I am convinced the Russians remain masters of the art of maskirovka, and that the masters of empire in Brussels, London, and Washington – as they always have – continue to underestimate Russian strategic acumen, operational capabilities, and clever resourcefulness.
Even as NATO commanders in Kiev clink champagne flutes filled to the brim with looted Dom Perignon, and congratulate each other on a brilliantly conceived and expertly executed plan, I strongly suspect the other shoe is about to drop – and when it does, I expect it to fall like a thunderbolt on their unjustifiably inflated heads."
"Prepare To Lose Your Job, The Layoff Tsunami Is Coming; Thousands Lose Their Jobs This Week"
Jeremiah Babe, 8/9/24
"Prepare To Lose Your Job, The Layoff Tsunami Is Coming;
Thousands Lose Their Jobs This Week"
Comments here:
o
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, at the top of the image, atop a long stem of glowing hydrogen gas. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244.
These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros)."
"It's Just... Life"
“Bad things don’t happen to people because they deserve for them to happen. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s just… life. And no matter who we are, we have to take the hand we’re dealt, crappy though it may be, and try our very best to move forward anyway, to love anyway, to have hope anyway… to have faith that there’s a purpose to the journey we’re on.”
- Mia Sheridan
o
Full screen recommended.
RedFrost Motivation,
Chief Tecumseh, "So Live Your Life"
Read by Shane Morris
"In The End..."
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end,
of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."
- John Ruskin
"The End of 'Luxurious Languor'”
"The End of 'Luxurious Languor'”
by Brian Maher
“'Luxurious languor'…We hazard the epoch of luxurious languor - 18th-century philosopher David Hume’s delicious expression - is closing. It acquired its existence through the post-2008 imposition of artificially reduced interest rates. Rates at or near zero reigned for an entire decade and longer. Credit was essentially… costless.
The United States economy got accustomed to it - even dependent on it. Projects that would prove juiceless at higher rates of interest may yield juice at zero rates of interest. And so they were undertaken at zero rates of interest. This unnatural epoch fattened a particular group of the languorously luxuriant…
Nothing Changes but the Date: In 1752 the abovesaid Hume authored an essay, “Of Public Credit” by title. From which: "In this unnatural state of society, the only persons, who possess any revenue beyond the immediate effects of their industry, are the stock-holders, who draw almost all the rent of the land and houses, besides the produce of all the customs and excises.
These are men, who have no connexions with the state, who can enjoy their revenue in any part of the globe in which they chuse to reside, who will naturally bury themselves in the capital or in great cities, and who will sink into the lethargy of a stupid and pampered luxury… Adieu to all ideas of nobility, gentry and family."
Switch 1752 for 2012 or 2024. Are they not the same? Yet the reign of zero rates is ended. The reign of luxurious languor will likely end with it. Not today perhaps. Perhaps not even tomorrow or the tomorrow after that. Yet end it will.
This week yields on the bellwether 10-year Treasury note scaled 3.946, as the daily and tides recede routinely from their heights. Yet in the natural cycle the tide reacquires its height. As with nature, so with markets. We believe yields will once again attain the 5% tidal mark. They will likely exceed it. And the sand structures erected in low tide - under luxurious languor - will go washing away under high tide. We shall label this phase “non-luxurious rigor.”
Time and Tide Claim All Ultimately: These structures remain largely intact. Yet the tides run to lagging cycles. And expiring debt - acquired at the low tide of zero rates - must be refinanced under higher tide. At this point sandy foundations begin to give way… and luxury is not nearly so langourous. It is perilous. It is non-luxurious rigor.
Mr. Dan Amoss is Jim Rickards’ senior market analyst. He is an authentic market crackerjack with a skull ear to ear and chin to crown with knowledge. From whom: "Corporate debt is about $40 trillion. The longer yields stay at 5% or higher, the more corporations will have to refinance at that rate. It’s going to have a depressing effect on the economy. There’s a huge difference between an economy that has a zero cost of capital, and one that has a 5% cost of capital. It changes everything."
It puts a period to the languorously luxurious epoch. That is what it does. The business reduces ultimately to fundamental mathematics - and its iron laws.
There’s a Limit: Take a 200-pound man. Place 100 pounds upon his back. If he is a somewhat stout and hearty fellow, this burden he can withstand. It is merely half his weight. Now place 200 pounds upon his back - his own bodyweight. He may quake some. He may perspire some. Yet if he is a man of normal construction, if his muscles have not atrophied under languorously luxuriant living, he can absorb the load. He can even stagger ahead some. Not much perhaps - yet some.
Now load an additional 50 pounds upon his back. You have exceeded his capacity. The additional 25% of his weight proves too much. He can retain the vertical, the burden will not buckle him or bring him heaping down. Yet he is unable to advance. He can merely stand where he is.
Now you understand the economy of the United States. Ample evidence indicates that an economy can withstand a 90% debt-to GDP ratio. Once that ratio exceeds 90% the economy proceeds to strain and stagger. The United States debt-to-GDP ratio runs presently to 125%, roughly. It is the normal 200-pound man with 250 pounds upon its back. It can stand, it is true. Yet it cannot walk. It is overloaded.
“More Is Not More”: Mr. Matthew Piepenburg is a money man at Matterhorn Asset Management. Here he cites the abovesaid Hume: "The folks at the big banks… who never bothered to study economics (or frankly basic history) forgot to tell voters and investors that beneath the last [14-plus] years of “luxury” and “recovery” lies a market secret (and economic virus) of which Hume warned in 1752…
Specifically, Hume said this of debt: “More is not more.” That is, more debt does not create long-term growth; in fact, it mathematically destroys it. To confirm this market secret, one only needs to look at the history of what happens when government debt exceeds 50% of its income, or GDP. Once that ratio hits 50% of GDP, this is bad. And when that ratio hits 90%, the economy loses one-third of its growth rate.
No exceptions exist, says this Piepenburg fellow. That is because the dilemma reduces to mathematical equation. It is science: "This is not just true some of the time. It’s true all of the time, because economics, when understood, is not an art; it’s a science. Debt, when overextended, always kills growth. As of today, U.S. government debt to GDP, at [124%], is well past the point of no return."
We fear he is correct. Again, the mathematics is the mathematics and the science is the science. We refer not to “the science” of Dr. Fauci - but to the demonstrable science - to the authentic science. And the science says a 124% debt-to-GDP ratio is economically lethal.
Nixon Started It: When did the United States begin to flout the mathematical laws? When did its debt addiction and ultimate descent into languorous luxury commence? In 1971 says Mr. Piepenburg: "[It all] went downhill when Nixon famously declared, “I guess we’re all Keynesians now,” meaning we all ignored the market secret and became enamored by (addicted to) debt."
Why? Because debt is fun. It buys a lot of shopping sprees and “luxurious languor,” from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. But Hume’s market secret reminds us that any nation that doesn’t produce and earn as much as it spends is heading mathematically for a real moment of “uh-oh.”
Let us then conclude with Mr. Hume himself: "Either the nation must destroy public credit, or public credit will destroy the nation. It is impossible that they can both subsist… The entire economic and financial apparatus is constructed upon public credit. The nation will not destroy it - not voluntarily that is. Thus option one goes emptying into the hellbox. Only one option remains. And that is option two…"
The Poet: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
- Dylan Thomas
"Is There An Answer?"
"Is there an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people? The response would be to forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it has happened."
- Harold S. Kushner
"Ray McGovern on Scott Ritter - Israel's Collapse: The Moral and Military Crisis"
Dialogue Works, 8/9/24
"Ray McGovern on Scott Ritter -
Israel's Collapse: The Moral and Military Crisis"
Comments here:
o
Related:
Danny Haiphong, 8/9/24
"Prof. Mohammad Marandi on Scott Ritter FBI Raid:
America's War on Iran & Russia Destroys the U.S."
Friend of the show and US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter had his home raided August 7th by the FBI under alleged violations of the FARA Act. Prof. Mohammad Marandi joined the show to discuss his take on this chilling event and how it relates to similar attacks on journalism as a result of America's march to war on Iran and Russia.
Comments here:
o
Dialogue Works, 8/9/24
"Larry C. Johnson on Scott Ritter;
Israel's Stunning Fall; Ukraine's Suicidal Moves"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
OpenmindedThinker Show 8/9/24
"Key Arab Allies Abandon Israel
As Iran Plans to Strike Tel Aviv"
Comments here:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)