"Life Is Difficult..."

“Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.”

- M. Scott Peck

"The Free and the Brave"

"The Free and the Brave"

by Todd Hayen

"Whatever happened to that (the free and the brave)? Whatever happened to the attitude that had Patrick Henry at the Virginia convention in 1775 say “give me liberty, or give me death”?

Whatever happened to the patriotic fervor and the uncanny commitment to face suffering and death that resulted in over two million young men volunteering for service in World War I, and five times that number volunteering to serve in World War II?

Whatever happened to the ability to conquer fear and ride on the excitement for adventure and potential for immeasurable success that drove hundreds of thousands of men and women into the wild, and dangerous, frontiers of the American West?

Whatever happened to the spirit that filled the souls of those that faced stark adversity, danger to life and limb, that lead over 50,000 hapless men and women (mostly men) into the jungles of Central America to build the Panama Canal? - ultimately killing over 5,000 of them as a result of accidents, all manner of diseases including malaria and dysentery?

What happened?

Yeah, this is about us, guys (me included!) Sure, women can be brave - any biological sexual orientation can activate the warrior archetype - but more commonly it is the gendered male that falls into this archetypal constellation. Bravery - a compulsion to protect those he loves, have a critical and logical assessment of a difficult situation, and the force and power, at the very least a potential force and power, ready to inflict whatever necessary to protect partner and family, community and nation. We, us men, have seemed to have lost much of that. Have we become a bunch of puss-balls?

Dr Mark McDonald, a prominent medical doctor with a speciality in psychiatry, doesn’t mince words when he says while describing the psychological state of men and women during this crises: "We essentially have men with no balls, and then we have histrionics, women who have no emotional containment, because there are no men to contain them anymore.”

Sexist? Maybe some will think so, but McDonald is not putting all the blame on one sex, or exclusively on the masculine or feminine archetypes, the responsibility here is rather well balanced.

What does this mean? Very basically it means we have created a culture that has done a pretty good job of emasculating men - the radical feminist movement, as well as a general lack of situations where men can express their “man-ness” in a healthy way, has been a big part of the problem.

“Toxic Masculinity” is a phrase and concept that has taken the world by storm, and contributes quite a bit to the confusion that men are experiencing while trying to ascertain what a “real man” is in today’s “anti male” culture. “Oh boo hoo” some of you may be saying. “Men, through their powerful patriarchal history of abusing women and treating them as inferior partners in relationships deserve a little pull back!” There certainly is truth to that, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You can’t carve out an essential part of being a “man” without some collateral damage, all the way around.

So what does being a “real man” have to do with bravery? A lot, actually. Facing adversity and danger, primarily in order to protect the physically weaker, is a very important attribute of the masculine archetype of warrior, or even king if you want to get more detailed about it. Historically and traditionally the man has been the protector, the physical, and sometimes intellectual (intelligence that is present in logic reasoning and critical thinking) found in masculine archetypes (again, archetypes both men and women have access to).

These attributes are primarily directed toward protection and outwardly projected as strength and resolve. This often stabilizes the more emotional feminine archetypal factors that again, typically, are activated by the female, or woman, in a relationship.

As a psychotherapist, and an archetypal psychologist at that, I see these archetypal powers and influences playing out in my clients every day. Most of the problems I find in a couple’s therapy stems from an imbalance, or a dysfunction, in these energies of masculine and feminine. Again, the “man” in a couple can be activating both masculine and feminine archetypes, as well as the “woman.” The problem comes in if the archetypes activated are inappropriate, out of balance, and create a result that is unexpected, undesired, or not beneficial. Most of these influences run in the unconscious, so very seldom are they consciously manipulated.

It wasn’t until I met Dr McDonald that I connected some very important dots. McDonald recently wrote and released a book titled "United States of Fear." The subtitle of the book, “How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis” is the primary focus.

McDonald holds nothing back when he addresses what he believes to be a fundamental cause of this mass psychosis. He believes that women (feminine archetypes driving the woman’s behavior) need a strong, and masculine man, to contain her emotionality (due to the unfettered expression of her feminine archetypes.) McDonald, in an interview given on Jerm Warfare, said:

"Do you think men with masks on make women feel safe? It only shows they have no balls. I’ve spoken with female police officers who see men in camouflage, tattooed, driving around in trucks with gun racks - wearing masks. They tell me, ‘this does not make me feel safe. This makes me afraid. If they are this scared of a virus, how will they react to a real threat - what’s going to happen when the bear comes out of the woods? What’s going to happen when a rapist tries to attack me? What’s going to happen when my children are going to be kidnapped by the man in the park, what are they going to do? With their mask on are they going to say, “Please stop. Please. Please.” They’re not going to put their lives on the line. They won’t even put their mouth on the line.’”

Harsh words, my brothers. Harsh words, but I think quite on the money. Is this the only thing that is driving the collapse we are seeing in those that cannot stand up to this current tyranny, and say “Enough is enough, step back!” No, of course not, but, in my opinion, it is a large part of the problem.

Our culture, at least in the West, has been set up for this to happen. We have become more and more dependent on government taking care of us, thus losing our own personal drive to develop character and strength. We depend on government and authority to think for us, and tell us what is best for us to, in a word, parent us. We comply, we stay children, and we ultimately suffer.

The brave hold onto what makes them free and are willing to fight for it. Freedom is a God given right, not one bestowed upon us by any other authority. The healthy masculine archetypes of warrior and king have at their side the symbolic sword representing their power over adversity and danger.

There is a time for the warrior to pull the sword from its scabbard just a few inches to allow the sun to glint off of its polished surface, flashing in the eyes of a potential enemy, letting them know who they are dealing with. And then there is the time to pull the sword completely free from its confines and slash what is seriously threatening the warrior and those he loves. Now is the time to fight."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

o

"Permanent Adolescence:

The Epidemic That Will Destroy America"

Dan, I Allegedly, "Don’t Ever Do This - Huge Financial Mistakes"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 9/9/24

"Don’t Ever Do This - Huge Financial Mistakes"

"I'm spilling the beans on auto pawn scams you MUST avoid. Ever considered a car title loan? Think again! With sky-high interest rates and relentless lenders ready to swoop in when you're one day late, these loans can wreak havoc on your finances. Don't fall for this trap - it's a cycle of desperation and chaos you don't want to be part of. Beyond auto pawn, I'll unravel the truth about solar leases and excessive car lease miles - two more traps that could leave you in financial ruins."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"When people pile up debts they will find difficult and perhaps even impossible to repay, they are saying several things at once. They are obviously saying that they want more than they can immediately afford. They are saying, less obviously, that their present wants are so important that, to satisfy them, it is worth some future difficulty. But in making that bargain they are implying that when the future difficulty arrives, they'll figure it out. They don't always do that."

- Michael Lewis, "Boomerang"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Shortly..."

"Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think 

for themselves. They'll only be able to parrot the information

 they've been given on the previous night's news." 

- Zbigniew Brzezinski 

Just a guess, but it appears "shortly" has arrived...

"To Humbly Submit"

"To Humbly Submit"

by Jeff Thomas

"Submission to the state is a time-honored tradition, a concept supported by governing bodies since time immemorial. In days of yore, men submitted to whichever member of the tribe was the mightiest in battle. By doing so, they stood a better chance of succeeding in battle, thereby diminishing the likelihood of their own death or enslavement.

Later on, as tribes became more tied to the land and communities sprang up, the idea of a strong leader still made sense. Not only might he do the best job of leading the protection of the town or village, he might also travel outside the community to attack other communities, bringing back spoils for all to benefit from. (Not too civilized, maybe, but still, the reasoning behind submission to the leader made sense.)

Later, settlements grew larger and, increasingly, many villages and towns would find themselves joined together collectively, under a national banner, with a single army to protect them. And, again, the leader would most likely be a fierce and formidable warrior. But a significant change was taking place. Whilst the warrior leader was away (sometimes for years), invading other communities, it was necessary to have leadership at home – administrative leadership. Predictably, this leadership also sought the loyalty and submission of the people.

There was a new wrinkle at this juncture as the administrative leadership did not have to prove itself repeatedly in battle to gain submission. It was expected merely due to the fact that the leaders held power over the people. The expectation of loyalty and submission to a government simply because it is the government is an unnatural and invalid one. Today, most leaders are primarily political rather than military, and even those who wear a military uniform almost never take part in actual battle, let alone lead the charge. For this reason, the original reason for loyalty and submission should be outmoded.

Why, then, does it persist? Well, in fact, it generally persists as long as there is prosperity and a people are prepared to tolerate dominance. However, should prosperity diminish dramatically, obeisance tends to diminish accordingly. At some point, the leaders conclude that they may be losing the submission of the people and need to reinforce it. This is done by one of two methods and, on occasion, both at the same time.

The first is force. An increased police state can create a greater assurance of submission through fear of those in uniform.

The second is inspiration. A condition of warfare often succeeds as a method of inspiring people to give up some of their rights and fall in behind a leader. Although, in the modern world, we never see a national leader actually suiting up for battle, the mere fact that he’s in charge of the fight from a safe distance often works to inspire people to be more submissive to an administrative government.

Following the English Revolution of 1688, we Britons found that our political leaders made the decision for us as to what our relationship should be to our new leaders at the time. They declared to the new joint monarchs, William and Mary, "We do most humbly and faithfully submit ourselves, our heirs and posterities, forever."

Quite a mouthful. It certainly left no doubt as to the intent of Parliament – that the people of England were never again to question their rulers and, further, that regardless of any possible changes in policies, laws, and edicts by future kings, the people swore submission... permanently.

This did not sit well with all Englishmen – not surprisingly since they hadn’t been asked whether they wished to make such a declaration of submission. In 1774, an Englishman named Thomas Paine (on the advice of his American friend Benjamin Franklin) immigrated to the Pennsylvania colony and began writing pamphlets that dealt directly with the concept of "unquestioned loyalty and submission", a concept with which he heartedly disagreed. Perhaps he stated it best in his book, "The Rights of Man," first published in 1791: "Submission is wholly a vassalage term, repugnant to the dignity of freedom."

Mister Paine’s pamphleteering in the late eighteenth century did not actually create the consciousness that brought on the American Revolution, but his phrasings did provide focus for the colonists in stating their grievances against King and Parliament.

Although Mister Paine’s pamphlets served as guidebooks to liberty and his input contributed to the framing of the US Constitution, he’s not remembered today as one of the seven founders of the United States. But one of those who is recognized today as a founder, Thomas Jefferson, took a very similar view to that of Thomas Paine: "When the Government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."

Both men believed that it was (and is) essential to assure that any government be reminded continually that it exists to represent the people who pay for its existence. They each echoed a view taken 2,100 years earlier by Aristotle, who commented, "Government should govern for the good of the people, not for the good of those in power."

Although these words were not quoted in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, Aristotle’s principles were well-known to all of the Founding Fathers and were frequently the basis of clauses written in each of the US’s founding documents.

Another quote from Jefferson suggests that it’s entirely predictable that any government is likely to continually work toward increasing its own power over a people. That being the case, from time to time, any government needs to be slapped down and reminded that its task is to serve the people, not to subjugate them: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government."

Here’s a final thought to consider: The concept of government is that the people grant to a small group of individuals the ability to establish and maintain controls over them. The inherent flaw in such a concept is that any government will invariably and continually expand upon its controls, resulting in the ever-diminishing freedom of those who granted them the power.

In reviewing all of the above, it should be clear that it’s the nature of all governments to seek to increase their power over those that they are sworn to represent. It should also be understood that they will not give up this power willingly. At some point, they become successful enough in establishing submission that the populace must either toss out the people in the government, toss out the governmental system, or take exit from the system. The last of these may be chosen in order to more peacefully regain liberty.

Each of these possible choices requires dramatic change, although the last of these entails less upheaval or danger to the individual. The alternative to making such a choice, and the one that the great majority of people in any culture, in any era, choose, is to humbly accept submission. Only a very small minority will actually take positive action to attain freedom over tyranny."

- https://internationalman.com/

Freely download "The Rights Of Man", by Thomas Paine, here:

- https://archive.org/details/PaineRightsOfMan

"United Against Existence"

"United Against Existence"

by Robert Gore

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, "Lord of the Rings"

"Middle Earth had its Mount Doom, into which the One Ring of Power could be tossed, ridding that evil from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional setting. Real Earth is not so fortunate, but in all other aspects the lessons drawn from his classic apply. It only comes up short in one respect. Tolkien never delved into the psychology of Sauron, Saruman, and the lessor denizens of Middle Earth who lusted after the One Ring’s power, other than to depict the inevitable corruption of the soul their lust produced.

There are two conclusions uncorrupted souls have difficulty accepting, although both experience and logic point uncompromisingly towards them. The first is that those in power and those who lust for it want power for power’s sake, ultimately to destroy and kill. The second is that they want to destroy and kill because they want to destroy existence and kill themselves. We owe the first conclusion to Orwell, the second to Rand. (For a fuller explanation see “The Last Gasp,” Robert Gore, SLL, March 24, 2020.)

This article assumes both conclusions are well-founded and that the second in particular is the key to understanding where the world is now and where it’s going. They offer a realistic assessment of the chances for nuclear Armageddon.

It is no coincidence that the twentieth century witnessed history’s most totalitarian regimes and its bloodiest wars and genocides. By all indications the twenty-first century will extend the connected trends. Power goes hand-in-hand with destruction and death. Governments are based on their capacity to inflict violence; what else can they produce? Rejecting lofty rhetoric and revolutionary rationales, Orwell wrote that: "Power is not a means; it is an end." The twentieth century demonstrated that power is a means to inflict incalculable destruction and death. Know them by their fruits - those are the true ends of those who seek and hold power.

The travesty offers a refresher course we don’t really need: from world leaders down to petty politicians and functionaries, they want to kill us. Those who aren’t killed are to be frightened into compliance with their ghastly and tyrannical edicts, herded like cattle into some other slaughterhouse.

The gelatinous souls who move whatever direction the bowl tilts usually don’t recognize what’s happening until the moment of their execution. Beforehand, a few of the more intellectually adept will argue that the powerful will be limited by their instinct for self-preservation - if they kill too many they’ll end up killing themselves. Perhaps that thought offers comfort, however scant.

But what if the powerful are like those mass shooters whose terror ends only when they turn their guns on themselves? What if mass murder is the means to their desired end: suicide? Someone who kills himself but no one else is to be pitied. Someone who kills innocents before taking his own life perpetrates paramount evil.

"...Now he knew that he had wanted Galt’s destruction at the price of his own destruction to follow, he knew that he had never wanted to survive, he knew that it was Galt’s greatness he had wanted to torture and destroy - he was seeing it as greatness by his own admission, greatness by the only standard that existed, whether anyone chose to admit it or not: the greatness of a man who was master of reality in a manner no other had equaled. In the moment when he, James Taggart, had found himself facing the ultimatum: to accept reality or die, it was death his emotions had chosen, death rather than surrender to that realm of which Galt was so radiant a son. In the person of Galt - he knew - he had sought the destruction of all existence."

- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged," 1957

Rand pinpointed the core motivation of those who seek power, whose lives are defined by those they subjugate. Regardless of their differing aims, professed justifications, and ideological platforms, the powerful are united against existence. Spoken or unspoken, acknowledged or unacknowledged, they are united by the ultimate evil: to slaughter innocents before their own lives are inevitably extinguished. That puts the prospect of global nuclear war in a whole new light.

How would it play out? Credit Putin and Xi with more intelligence than the cast of cretins running the American empire. It’s a low bar. But are they any less power-driven, any less evil? Russia’s oligarchy and China’s totalitarian dictatorship are, like the U.S. government, organized crime. Angels don’t get to the top of such syndicates, and these two non-angels have set themselves up as rulers for life. Putin’s and Xi’s intelligence are matched by their ruthlessness, which may surpass that of their Western counterparts.

Say the brain trust that masterminded the Nordstream sabotage decides that a low-yield, false-flag nuclear or dirty bomb detonation in Ukraine would accomplish important objectives. They could blame it on Russia, shoring up empire support for the Ukrainians sagging war effort. It would be the perfect excuse to cancel the elections the Democrats are set to lose and perhaps institute martial law. Russia might respond in kind, and the brain trust’s giddy hopes for global nuclear war would be realized. Obvious insanity for most of us, a feature not a bug for the suicidally inclined.

Once the bomb detonated, Putin and Xi would know the U.S. was behind it. They may even know beforehand. Russia has accused Ukraine of planning to detonate a dirty bomb, and the Chinese government has reportedly told Chinese citizens in Ukraine to leave the country. The comfortably numb assumption U.S. defense policy rests upon is that their responses will be proportional to the provocation out of respect for the planet-destroying potential of the U.S. nuclear triad.

What if they’re not? What if Russia and China respond with everything they’ve got, hypersonic missiles - to which the empire has no defense - taking out major cities, infrastructure, industry, and communications and computer networks? And what if the empire’s nuclear response capability has been surreptitiously crippled or eliminated by Russian and Chinese hacking and sabotage? They’re pretty good at that sort of thing.

Here is an urgent plea to anyone within the empire’s power structure who can short-circuit the false flag: check your assumptions. That false flag might not lead to the desired global holocaust, but rather to a Russia and Chinese victory! In either instance you’ll probably be dead, but you can’t take the chance that the Russians and Chinese might win. That would be simply intolerable. Stop the false flag!

A Putin and Xi victory would leave the U.S. as a nuclear wasteland and those two as the world’s rulers - not unipolarity or multipolarity but bipolarity. Of course there’s only one Ring; sharing absolute power sounds like a contradiction in terms. Regardless, a radioactive U.S. and its miserable survivors would be at the very bottom of the pecking order in a world run by one or two totalitarian dictators.

However, the radioactivity from any nuclear attack capable of decimating the U.S. wouldn’t stay confined to the U.S. Russian and Chinese hacking and sabotage may not prevent every U.S. bomb from landing in those countries. Theirs would be the Pyrrhic victory to end all Pyrrhic victories if fallout extinguished everyone. Assuming the powerful - American, European, Russian, Chinese and globalist - are indeed murderously suicidal, united against existence, that outcome is not just a nontrivial possibility; it’s more likely than not.

In which case only God can save humanity. Let us hope in his justice, compassion, and wisdom he gives our species, woefully deficient in all three, one more chance."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"You’ve Been Robbed"

"You’ve Been Robbed"

by Paul Rosenberg

"You work long, hard days, but you never have enough to be secure. Your husband or wife probably works too, and yet you still never get ahead. Now think about this: Your great-grandparents worked hard, and they did get ahead. You work just as hard, but you don’t make the same progress.

Was great-grandpa really that much better than you? Not likely. So, how was it that he could get ahead on one income, but you can’t? Take a good look at this graph:

The top line shows how many years of living expenses your great-grandfather would have accumulated as a hard-working young man. The bottom line shows what you can save. After working for five years, great-gramps had seven years of living expenses in the bank. Doing the same things, you’d have less than two.

The graph was generated as follows: $725 per year is the income in about 1903, based upon discussions with hard-working men who lived through the time. A figure of $325 per year for living expenses is taken from a New York Times article, dated September 29, 1907. Assets were presumed to appreciate at 10% per year. For 2008 {the year the graph was generated} the annual income was $45,000 and monthly expenses were $2,000. This young man pays 30% income taxes and investment return is calculated at a reduced rate of 8.5% because of taxes upon interest. The young man of 1905 is investing $400/year after living expenses of $325. His modern descendant is investing $7500/year after living expenses of $24,000.

When great-gramps worked hard, he kept the money. There was no income tax and no sales tax. (The government survived anyway.) There was no Social Security tax either, and the streets weren’t full of starving old people. Families were able to take care of their own. In your great-grandparents’ day, it was very common for mechanics, carpenters, and shop-owners to make private business loans. Now you shuffle into banks with piles of the most personal documents and beg for loans. (As the banks create your loan money with a keystroke.)

You’ve Not Only Been Robbed, You’ve Been Demoralized: Why did this happen? Because Westerners accepted a lie: that they were bad people. Think this through: Your money is taken from you before it can accumulate (“payroll deductions”), leaving you with barely enough to live a reasonable life. You have nothing left to help those who suffer unjustly – not because you don’t work, but because your surplus is skimmed away to Capital City. Then, those same politicians have the audacity to call you a bad person for not wanting to help the poor. They make it almost impossible for you to give, then insult you for it.

Your great-grandparents were proud to help their friends and neighbors. They felt good about themselves and were proud to make the world a better place. Being robbed of this heritage is the worst crime of all.

So…? This is the point where people ask, “What do we do about this?” And the answer is simple: Stop playing their game! The system is rigged and the abusers make the rules. More or less everything big is in on the game. People have been trying to reform this thing for a long time, and have accomplished next to nothing. The only sensible choice is to withdraw from the game and to start building something better."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

Paul, I totally agree with your analysis and opinions here, and absolutely agree when you say, "The only sensible choice is to withdraw from the game and to start building something better," as the only rational, logical solution, but... How? Where? Not quite so simple after all... - CP

Bill Bonner, "Barbarians on the Potomac"

"Barbarians on the Potomac"

"A nation can only afford so much debt. When the limits are passed... something’s

 gotta give. Either stocks crash and debt goes unpaid... or the money itself gives way."

by Bill Bonner

"At a minimum, rate cuts will... entice individuals and businesses to borrow money and spend it on things that would otherwise be too expensive. Individuals may see a dip in mortgage rates and take on a mega home loan. Businesses with little growth prospects may borrow money to buy back their own shares."

- MN Gordon

Poitou, France - "Last week, we took up a question that has been buzzing around like a mosquito for years. What’s wrong with stocks at thirty times earnings? This led to a whole swarm of questions: what’s wrong with a national debt that is more than GDP? Why can’t Nvidia be worth more than $3 trillion? And why shouldn’t the Fed cut rates to make it easier to borrow money?

In the weekend news came this update, Fortune: "U.S. debt is so massive, interest costs alone are now $3 billion a day. With U.S. debt now at $35.3 trillion, the cost of paying the interest on all that borrowing has soared recently and now averages out to $3 billion a day, according to Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk. And that includes Saturdays and Sundays, he pointed out in a note on Tuesday. The daily interest expense has doubled since 2020 and is up from $2 trillion about two years ago. That's when the Federal Reserve began its campaign of aggressive rate hikes to rein in inflation."

On Friday, we revealed the secret: Say’s Law, which tells us that real money (purchasing power) comes from output... not from the feds’ printing presses. The feds can print and borrow as much money as they want. They can distort prices and cause the economy to shake, rattle and roll. But they can’t control the value of the money they print... or prevent the system from adjusting to the real, underlying financial truth.

Say’s Law is usually abbreviated as ‘supply creates demand.’ You make a nice loaf of bread. You sell it for a dollar. Now you have a dollar’s worth of ‘money.’ Before making the bread, you have nothing. And if it only cost you ninety cents - in labor and materials - to make the bread... you made a 10% profit. This extra, value-added, represents not only the wealth you added for yourself, but additional wealth for the whole world. Where previously it had ninety cents worth of raw ingredients (including your labor), now it has a loaf of bread worth $1.

The whole system - an elegant jungle of surprises and ‘moral’ lessons - is replete with predators and their prey, cooperation and competition, checks and balances. In the aggregate, for example, employees are also customers. So, the more corporations pay them, the more purchasing power they give consumers. Sales and gross profits increase. But when they pay too much in wages, net profits go down.

Debt is limited too. First, borrowers can only borrow the money savers have earned... and saved. Second, as borrowers bid for more of the available savings, the price of credit (the interest rate) goes up, making it less attractive to borrow. Third, as interest rates go up, so does the reward for saving money. But as more money is saved, less is spent, reducing sales and profits. Then, as sales go down, companies feel less desire to expand... and less desire to borrow money, so interest rates go down too.

The Feds come barging in: It is into the marvelous, intricately balanced... finely tooled... and infinitely complex system that the feds come barging... like Vikings into a nunnery. These bulls break every piece of china in the shop. Interest rates are pushed down into the cellars. Stock prices are tossed up into the rafters. And the productive industries - the looms, the gardens and ovens - are ruined. The poor gals don’t know what to think. Kneel for prayers... or run to the hills?

The feds ‘print’ extra money. No need to increase workers’ wages. No reason to increase the supply of goods or services. Forget Say’s Law; now it’s not supply that creates demand... or real output that provides purchasing power. Now, there’s fake money pretending to be real. The extra money chases a stable supply of things to buy - and prices rise.

Still, there are limits. A person can take all the supplements he wants... visit the doctor twice a week... take 1,000 steps a day; he’ll still die. So too, stocks are only worth so much. And a nation can only afford so much debt. When the limits are passed... something’s gotta give. Either stocks crash and debt goes unpaid... or the money itself gives way.

You already know our bet. As Ben Bernanke put it: "The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost." And lo! The barbarians are already paddling up the Potomac. Despite new stock market highs... and $400,000+ average house prices... the Fed is preparing to cut rates and boost prices even higher."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 9/9/24"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/9/24

"9 Days: Are You Prepared For 

What Will Happen In 9 Days From Today?"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnl6hh1phg

o

Greggory Mannarino, PM 9/9/24

"Hyperinflation Beginning In 2025 

Has Now Become A Very Real Possibility"

 - https://traderschoice.net

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 9/9/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 9/9/24"

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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

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

○

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

o

Jeremiah Babe, "Cash Is King: Pawn Shops Go On Buying Spree; Social Security Crisis Out Of Control"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/8/24

"Cash Is King: Pawn Shops Go On Buying Spree; 

Social Security Crisis Out Of Control"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Another Answer Came"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Another Answer Came"

"In "Savitri" by Sri Aurobindo, Savitri discovers that her love, Satyavan has only one year left to live. She must decide whether or not she will stay with him in the emerald forest or search for a new love. But another answer came, and she outwitted death itself." 

o

"Savitri"

- http://savitrithepoem.com/

"A Look to the Heavens"

"How do clusters of galaxies form and evolve? To help find out, astronomers continue to study the second closest cluster of galaxies to Earth: the Fornax cluster, named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found. Although almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, Fornax is only about 10 percent further that the better known and more populated Virgo cluster of galaxies.

Fornax has a well-defined central region that contains many galaxies, but is still evolving. It has other galaxy groupings that appear distinct and have yet to merge. Seen here, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The picturesque barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 visible on the lower right is also a prominent Fornax cluster member."

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

The Poet: J.R.R. Tolkien, "I Sit And Think"

"I Sit And Think"

 "I sit beside the fire and think

Of all that I have seen,

Of meadow flowers and butterflies

In summers that have been.

Of yellow leaves and gossamer

In autumns that there were,

With morning mist and silver sun

And wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think

Of how the world will be

When winter comes without a spring

That I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things

That I have never seen,

In every wood, in every spring,

There is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think

Of people long ago,

And people that will see a world

That I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think

Of times there were before,

I listen for returning feet

And voices at the door."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Travelling with Russell, "Russian Typical Brand New Supermarket in 2024"

Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell, 9/8/24

"Russian Typical Brand New Supermarket in 2024"

"What does a Russian typical supermarket look like inside? Magnit Supermarket is Russia's second largest supermarket chain with more than 30,000 locations, making this a very typical Russian supermarket."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Bird's Voice For Which The Sun Rises"

"A Bird's Voice For Which The Sun Rises"

by Mattias Desmet

"Dear friends,

This morning I opened my eyes early, and while I lay in bed waiting for my body to get me moving, I had an experience so moving in its simplicity and every-day-ness that I cannot resist sharing it with you.

Between darkness and light, my awakening thoughts spun together quickly, like a solidifying candy floss. But just before they pulled me completely from the fullness of the dream world into the barrenness and illusion of waking life, something happened: I heard outside, somewhere in the trees and bushes near the open window, a cautious and hesitant 'psiiee-wiet'.

That sound, utterly banal in a musical and melodic sense, had something singular about it. As certain as a rock standing with its feet in the earth, I could say this morning: this sound was a beginning. This little bird - a small bird, as I imagined it - was the first to sing today. After a few moments, it was followed, in rapid succession and surprisingly fast increasing in multitude and volume, by other bird voices. It was as if the first bird had broken a dam behind which a mounting urge to make sound had accumulated, now overflowing into the shared space. I knew for sure: there was a beginning to this abundance, and today, I was privileged to witness that beginning.

My being was briefly absorbed by that feathered phenomenon. This little creature, just like Rosa Parks, performed an act this morning. The question suddenly struck me, both pertinent and justified: what was that little bird thinking and feeling when it, in all its vulnerability, decided to be the first to make its sound this morning? Had it been waiting impatiently for another bird to break the silence? Did it think, "Why isn’t anyone starting? Someone has to do it - I'll do it"? And why did all the birds immediately join in as soon as that one bird broke the silence? Do birds, too, have a kind of fear of speaking? Do they, too, live somewhere in fear of expressing their truth?

Suddenly, it seemed truly miraculous to me, so moving that it brought tears to my eyes. That fragile sound, full of strength in its hesitation and fragility: every morning there is a bird that has the courage to break the shell of the nocturnal silence with its little beak and open space for other voices as well. It is through and for that bird that the sun continues its upward journey today, and it is through that small voice that the music of life sounds today.

Every day there are a thousand days, every day there is a thousandfold beginning. How beautiful it is to be a beginning at least once every day, to be that voice that breaks the silence, that voice that tames hollow echoes and hesitation; how beautiful it is to be that voice at least once each day through which and for which the sun spreads its light and life resounds in harmony.

With that, I will begin my day - and I dedicate it to that little bird."

- https://words.mattiasdesmet.org/

"What Is the Dawn Chorus?"

"Last Three Wishes of Alexander The Great"

"Last Three Wishes of Alexander The Great"

by Shiv Tandon

"When Alexander The Great, after conquering kingdoms returning to his country, he fell ill that led him to his deathbed. He gathered his generals and told them, “I will depart from this world soon, I have three wishes, please carry them out without fail.” The king asked his generals to abide by these last wishes:

1) The Greek king of Macedon said, “My physicians alone must only carry my coffin.”

2) “I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be filled with the wealth that I collected,” the king said.

3) “My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept hanging out of my coffin,” Alexander said.

The generals agreed to abide by their king’s last wishes and asked him the reason for doing so. Alexander said: “I want the world know the three lessons I have just learnt.” The king interpreted his wishes and continued;

“I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor on this earth can really cure anybody. They are helpless in front of death.”

Describing his second wish, the king said: “I spent all my life earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people know that wealth is nothing but dust.”

Thirdly, "I wish people to know that I came empty handed into this world and I will go empty-handed.”

- https://www.quora.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Robstown, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"A Final Resort..."

"In the last few years, the very idea of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is dredged up only as a final resort when the alternative options of deception, threat and bribery have all been exhausted."

- Michael Musto

"The lies then and now are mind boggling. The people who continue to lap up the lies

 are beyond reach. The poison unleashed into the population will be with us a long time."

– Edward Dowd

"It''ll Do..."

Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?"

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: "Well, if it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."

- "No Country For Old Men"

Oh, the mess is here alright...and you ain't seen nothin' yet...

Brace for impact.