Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Musical Interlude: 2002, “Where The Stars And Moon Play”

Full screen recommended.
2002, “Where The Stars And Moon Play”
“Pamela and Randy Copus are the duo known as 2002. Randy Copus plays piano, electric cello, guitar, bass and keyboards. Pamela Copus plays flutes, harp, keyboards and a wind instrument called a WX5. Both musicians also provide all of the vocals on their albums, recording their voices many, many times and layering them to create a "virtual choir" with a celestial, angelic quality.”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled into space appear from our vantage point as if we are looking down a helix. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce.
The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius) and spans about 2.5 light-years. The above picture was taken three colors on infrared light by the 4.1-meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots of unknown origin.”

Chet Raymo, “As Time Goes By”

As Time Goes By
by Chet Raymo

“Is time something that is defined by the ticking of a cosmic clock, God’s wristwatch say? Time doesn’t exist except for the current tick. The past is irretrievably gone. The future does not yet exist. Consciousness is awareness of a moment. Or is time a dimension like space? We move through time as we move through space. The past is still there; we’re just not there anymore. The future exists; we’ll get there. We experience time as we experience space, say, by looking out the window of a moving train. Or is time…

Physicists and philosophers have been debating these questions since the pre-Socratics. Plato. Newton. Einstein. Most recently, Lee Smolin. Without resolution. What makes the question so difficult, it seems to me, is that time is inextricably tied up with consciousness. We won’t understand time until we understand consciousness, and vice versa. So far, consciousness is a mystery, in spite of books with titles like “Consciousness Explained”. Will consciousness be explained? Can consciousness be explained? If so, will it require a conceptual breakthrough of revolutionary proportions? Or is the Darwinian/material paradigm enough? Are we in for an insight, or for a surprise?

As I sit here at my desk under the hill, looking out at a vast panorama of earth, sea and sky, filled, it would seem, infinitely full of detail, so full that my awareness can only skim the surface, I have that uneasy sense that it’s going to be damnably difficult to extract consciousness, as a thing, from the universe in its totality. I think of that word “entanglement,” from quantum theory, and I wonder to what extent consciousness is entangled, perhaps even with past and future.

Who knows? Perhaps consciousness, or what I think of as my consciousness, is just a slice of cosmic consciousness, in the same way that the present is a slice of cosmic time. As a good Ockhamist, I am loathe to needlessly multiply hypotheses. But time will tell. Or consciousness will tell. Or something.”
"Casablanca", "As Time Goes By", 
Original Song by Sam (Dooley Wilson)

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "What I Have Learned So Far"

"What I Have Learned So Far"

"Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of - indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone."

~ Mary Oliver

"Not Such An Easy Business..."

“Over the years you get to see what a struggle life is for most people, how tough it is, how easy it is to be judgmental and criticize and stand outside of situations and impart your wisdom and judgment. But over the decades I've got more tolerant of people's flaws and mistakes. Everybody makes a lot of them. When you're younger you feel: "Hey, this person is evil" or "This person is a jerk" or stupid or "What's wrong with them?" Then you go through life and you think: "Well, it's not so easy." There's a lot of mystery and suffering and complication. Everybody's out there trying to do the best they can. And it's not such an easy business.”
- Woody Allen

"A Companion..."

"Someone once told me that time is a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, that reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we live it. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

"The Daily "Near You?"

Erwinna, Pennsylvania, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Jeremiah Babe, "This Is Really Bad, People Need Help Now"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 10/23/24
"This Is Really Bad, People Need Help Now"
Comments here:

"Humanity Today..."

"Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life."
- Edward O. Wilson

Gregory Mannarino, "Out Of Time? This Is Going From Bad To Worse Rapidly"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 10/23/24
"Out Of Time? 
This Is Going From Bad To Worse Rapidly"
Comments here:

"Israel Getting Crushed: Iran, Hezbollah & Yemen Decimate IDF, Netanyahu in Panic"

Danny Haiphong, 10/23/24
"Israel Getting Crushed: 
Iran, Hezbollah & Yemen Decimate IDF, Netanyahu in Panic"
"Rapper and journalist Lowkey and Beirut-based journalist Laith Marouf discuss Israel's upcoming planned attack on Iran and how Benjamin Netanyahu's backpedaling not only cannot be trusted but also reveals a much more serious fact about the ongoing war in the Middle East: Israel is losing and its end is near. This video breaks down why, and the answer will shock you."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/23/24
"John Mearsheimer Reveals:
 Iran & Hezbollah's Devastating Attack To IDF Is Coming!"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

Judge Napolitano, "Max Blumenthal: The Zionist View of Human Life"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/23/24
"Max Blumenthal: The Zionist View of Human Life"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "Here Comes the Bad News"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 10/23/24
"Here Comes the Bad News"
"Brace yourselves for "The Hidden Cost of Natural Disasters Revealed" where I dive into the shocking realities behind insurance and disaster recovery. With hurricanes like Debbie wreaking havoc, insurance companies like Citizens are denying claims left and right! It's outrageous! You'll hear jaw-dropping tales of denied payments and lawsuits, including insights from Dr. Marvin in Florida. Plus, unexpected closures like Sherry's Restaurant in Oregon and food recalls at Coca-Cola and Treehouse Waffles show how these disasters ripple through our economy. From skyrocketing food prices to insane customer service stories, I've got it all covered."
Comments here:

"Doug Casey on Rising Prices and Falling Values - Inflation and Social Decay"

"Doug Casey on Rising Prices and Falling Values -
 Inflation and Social Decay"
by International Man

"International Man: Whether it’s at the grocery store, the mall, restaurants, or airports -anywhere you turn - people are finding inferior goods and services at higher prices. Living standards have taken a big step backward recently and are trending even worse. What is really going on?

Doug Casey: There’s an inclination on the part of people to blame the producers of products - the butcher, the baker, and the gasoline maker - but that’s actually very silly, insofar as these people create real wealth.

They’re fighting the effects of government inflation, which doesn’t create anything but fiat currency and fiat credit, which is what actually takes the prices higher. In fact, inflation of the currency, which is to say an increase in the amount of purchasing media above the increase in real wealth. It’s what inflation is all about; it’s the State subtly stealing capital and wealth from individuals.

The big problem with the depreciation of the dollar is that producers are blamed as being the problem. They’re the solution to the problem in that they create real wealth. The real enemy here is the State and its central bank, the Fed.

International Man: How does inflation erode ethical standards, leading people to cut corners, lie, cheat, or even steal as they try to maintain their living standards?

Doug Casey: The prime directive of life is to survive, and entities, whether they be governments, corporations, or individuals. They will basically do whatever they have to do to survive. Unfortunately, inflation is all about theft, subtle and hard to diagnose as it is, but theft breeds more theft.

Leaders of any organization, whether it be governments or corporations, set the moral tone. The average person may not understand much about economics, which is the study of how men produce and consume in order to survive, but they have an intuitive, even if not a technical, understanding of it. Inflation, the theft of people’s wealth, eventually leads to revolution and overturning of society itself.

International Man: How does inflation contribute to a more litigious society, with people increasingly looking to take money from others through the legal system?

Doug Casey: Once again, the average person doesn’t understand economics very well, but he does understand that some people in modern society are getting rich without producing anything. And, they’re benefiting from the subtle fiat currency creation.

In any event, they diagnosed that there’s a theft going on. In a society based less and less on production and more and more on the theft of pre-existing wealth, it’s natural enough that it becomes a Hobbesian war of all against all where counter-theft takes place through the legal system as opposed to actual physical violence.

It’s very much like Al Capone said. “One thug can rob a gas station of $100, and if he’s caught, he’ll go to jail for years. But a lawyer with a pen can rob a country of a million and never get caught.” That’s what’s going on.

The system has become entirely corrupt, and the government, which is supposed to protect the individual man, is actually the main culprit in stealing money from him. The fact that the US has over a million practicing lawyers is a symptom of corruption where people are using the legal system to steal.

International Man: What are some historical examples of inflation leading to significant social and cultural degradation, and what lessons can we learn from them?

Doug Casey: The destruction of the currency usually leads to a social upset because people who’ve produced in their lives and saved the difference do so with the national currency. But if the national currency is destroyed, everything they’ve worked for throughout their lives is also destroyed.

Inflation upsets the entire basis of civilized society. It was a major reason why Chiang Kai-shek’s regime collapsed in China after World War II and a major reason why the Communists, whatever else they’ve done to their society in China, have been reasonably competent managers of their own currency.

The Weimar Republic in Germany after World War I completely destroyed the mark, and the social upset that it caused led to rioting in the streets between the Nazis and the Communists, and of course, the Nazis won. Some countries suffer from perennial inflation, which results in a constant attempt to take over the government.

People find that when real wealth becomes hard to produce, there’s an inclination to go into politics to gain wealth and power as opposed to producing things. It’s why countries with unstable currencies become unstable socially, economically, and politically as well.

International Man: You have frequently discussed how to protect yourself from inflation’s financial and economic effects with gold and other hard assets. However, aside from the financial effects, how do people protect themselves from inflation’s negative social, cultural, and political effects we’ve discussed today?

Doug Casey: The most important thing that you can do is gain skills, lots of skills, both in breadth and in depth so that no matter how things are sorted out, you’ll always be in a position to produce things that people want. I’d like to share Robert Heinlein’s quote about what somebody should be able to do.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

I suggest that there’s a practical path to doing that, to qualifying yourself to thrive no matter which way the economy evolves. And for 90% of the people, it’s not sitting at a college desk for four years listening to a woke professor drone on about politically correct topics. I suggest you subscribe to Matt Smith’s son Maxim’s blog, where he describes, on an ongoing basis, exactly what he’s doing to educate himself instead of going to college.

For many years, I’ve considered college to be a complete misallocation, even worse, a waste of four of the best years of your life and a lot of money to have your head filled with incorrect ideas, which are hard to wash away. So, the answer to the question is to prepare yourself intellectually, psychologically, and skill-wise.

It’ll put you in a position to produce more than you consume. And what we usually talk about in this newsletter is what you do with the wealth that you save so it’s not inflated away by your government. The truth is, we’re on the cusp of an economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming."

Bill Bonner, "Holding vs. Hoarding"

"Holding vs. Hoarding"
The feds have no choice. They not only have to borrow, they have
 to ‘print.’ They have to inflate the money supply. And they can only
 do so as long as people take their fake money as if it were real.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "In the never-ending press babble is news that Kamala Harris is warming up to crypto. Benzinga: "Kamala Harris is taking a different approach to cryptocurrency than President Joe Biden and she's making moves. Harris isn't just talking about being more crypto-friendly. As reported by Joseph Zeballos-Roig from Semafor, she's already sending her aides out to build relationships with crypto investors and Democrats in Congress who support digital assets."

It is the home stretch for the election. (Want to know which way to vote? Look for our Special Election Issue coming soon!) Ms. Harris will take votes wherever she can find them. She is in favor of new ‘innovations,’ she says. But neither she nor Donald Trump can permit a new innovation to undermine the inflation grift. Crimes need victims. And if the elites are going to keep the show on the road, they need to steal money from consumers, savers and lenders to pay for it.

They face $2 trillion deficits. They have to finance them somehow. Since 1980 US debt has been growing about eight times faster than GDP. Raising middle class taxes is political suicide. So is cutting benefits. The politicians must borrow to keep the show on the road.

But households only save 5% of their incomes. Take US GDP as the ‘income’ for the nation... and you have about $1.4 trillion of available savings. Even if the feds borrowed every penny of it, it still wouldn’t be enough to plug the gap. In the fiscal year just ended, for example, the deficit was $1.8 trillion.

There’s also the ‘crowding out’ problem. As the feds borrow more and more, they push up interest rates... and leave the real economy with less credit to draw upon for new factories and new homes. The economy shrinks, causing tax receipts to fall and deficits to grow larger. The feds have no choice. They not only have to borrow... they have to ‘print.’ They have to inflate the money supply. And they can only do so as long as people take their fake money as if it were real.

Tin-pot dictators... as well as great empires... resort to inflation from time to time. It robs the masses... and destroys the economy... but it keeps the cash flowing to the elites - for a while. Typically, ‘sh*t hole’ countries with an inflation problem impose capital controls, making it impossible to have overseas accounts or exchange your local money for dollars or gold. Argentines were forced to become math whizzes as they juggled white money, blue money and black money - each with different rates of exchange that were adjusted hourly. ATMs ran out of cash. And traveling overseas was almost impossible as the government limited how much money they could take with them.

In order to make inflation work for them, the feds have to make sure it doesn’t work for you. But what will they do if Americans turn to crypto? Bitcoin was widely used in Argentina as the inflation rate rose over 200% last year. But not to buy beer and cigarettes. It was largely an intermediate form of money. People got paid in BTC, for example, and then forwarded their electronic data to a moneychanger who gave them paper dollars or pesos to spend.

But BTC is limited. And its price rises as it becomes more popular. People who switch to BTC early might find that they not only avoided losses to inflation... they actually got rich. This would have strange repercussions.

People don’t like to use an appreciating asset for living expenses. They would rather spend a depreciating asset - paper money. Then too, in BTC terms, consumer prices would be falling rapidly... creating an incentive for crypto hodlers to hodl (hold on for dear life) even more. In other words, if the consumer economy switched from using fake dollars to real BTC, the incentives would turn around. Instead of spending, people would save... and instead of growing, the economy would shrink - at least at first. A BTC-based economy would probably trigger a depression, in other words.

This is really too far out for us to think about very clearly... so let’s go back to our moorings. If BTC ever becomes a ubiquitous alternative... allowing people to escape dollar inflation... expect the feds to make it illegal, tax it, or regulate it so much that it poses no threat to them. Fed researchers and strategists are already laying plans for it. And what about gold? On April 20, 1933, the Roosevelt Administration banned citizens from holding gold. Should we prepare for an encore? More to come..."

Adventures With Danno, "Target Shopping: Price Drops On Thousands Of Items"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 10/23/24
"Target Shopping: 
Price Drops On Thousands Of Items"
Comments here:
o
Adventures With Danno, 10/23/24
"Where Do We Begin: McDonalds, A Not So Happy Meal"
Comments here:

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Thousands Of Korean Troops In Europe! Iran Plans Strike On Israel's Nuclear Plant; BRICS"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/22/24
"Alert! Thousands Of Korean Troops In Europe!
 Iran Plans Strike On Israel's Nuclear Plant; BRICS"
Comments here:

"Banks And Credit Card Companies Will Now Stop Lending, Customers Are Shocked"

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 10/22/24
"Banks And Credit Card Companies Will Now
 Stop Lending, Customers Are Shocked"
"A lawsuit against major credit card companies, like Visa and Mastercard, has sent shockwaves through the financial industry. Interchange fees, which are transaction charges merchants must pay every time a customer uses a credit or debit card, have been a contentious issue in the retail industry. Retailers have argued that these fees are excessively high, unfair, and ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices for goods and services. The lawsuit aimed at resolving a long-standing dispute over swipe fees charged to retailers has far-reaching consequences for consumers and businesses."
Comments here:

Gerald Celente, "Numbskulls Race To The White House... Don't Forget To Vote"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 10/22/24
"Numbskulls Race To The White House...
 Don't Forget To Vote"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

Jeremiah Babe, "We Went To Marshall, N.C., It Looks Decimated - A City Turned To Rubble"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 10/22/24
"We Went To Marshall, N.C., It Looks Decimated - 
A City Turned To Rubble"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "River Of Stars"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "River Of Stars"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue vdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still life with dark, obscuring clouds recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are interstellar dust clouds, blocking the light from background stars in the case of Barnard's dark nebulae. For vdB 31, the dust preferentially reflects the bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae.
Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded by flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that distance this cosmic canvas would span about four light-years.”

"When The World Goes Mad..."

"When the world goes mad, one must accept madness as sanity;
 since sanity is, in the last analysis, nothing but the
 madness on which the whole world happens to agree."
   - George Bernard Shaw

The Poet: W. H. Auden, “The More Loving One”

“The More Loving One”

“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.”

- W. H. Auden

"A Message From the Hopi Elders"

"A Message From the Hopi Elders"

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.
Here are the things that must be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river,
keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personal. Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for!"

- Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi Nation

The Daily "Near You?"

Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand. Thanks for stopping by!

“The Loss Of Dignity”

“The Loss Of Dignity”
by The Zman

“If you step back and think about it, the normal man can probably list a dozen things he cannot say in public that he grew up hearing on television, usually as jokes. Then the jokes were no longer welcome in polite company and soon they were deemed “not funny” by the sorts of people who worry about such things. The same was true of simple observations about the world. Somehow noticing the obvious became impolite, then it became taboo and finally prohibited.

The reverse is true as well. Middle-aged men can probably think of a dozen things that were unimaginable or unheard of, which are now fully normal. Of course, normal is one of those things that is now prohibited. It implies that something can be abnormal or weird and that itself is forbidden. The proliferation of novel identities and activities that demand to be treated with dignity and respect is a function of the old restraints having been eliminated. When everything is possible you get everything.

The strange thing about all of this is there is seemingly no point to it. The proliferation of new taboos was not in response to some harm being done. In most cases, the taboos are about observable reality. The people turning up in the public square with novel identities or activities demanding respect did not exist very long ago. If they did, not one was curious enough to look into it. The public was happy to ignore people into unusual activities, as long as they kept it to themselves.

Of course, none of what we generally call political correctness is intended to be uplifting or inspirational. The commissars of public morality like to pretend it is inspiring, but that’s just a way to entertain themselves. These new identity groups are not demanding the rest of us seek some higher plane of existence or challenge our limitations. In fact, it is always in the opposite directions. It’s a demand to lower standards and give up on our quaint notions of self-respect and human dignity.

In the "Demon In Democracy", Polish academic Ryszard Legutko observed that liberal democracy had abandoned the concept of dignity. This is the obligation to behave in a certain way, as determined by your position in society. Dignity was earned by acting in accordance with the high standards of the community. In turn, this behavior was rewarded with greater privilege and responsibility. Failure to live up to one’s duties would result in the loss of dignity, along with the status it conferred.

Instead, modern liberal democracy awards dignity by default. We are supposed to respect all choices and all behaviors as being equal. There are no standards against which to measure human behavior, other than the standard of absolute, unconditional acceptance. As a result, the most inventively degenerate and base activities spring from the culture, almost like a test of the community’s tolerance. Instead of looking up to the heavens for inspiration, liberal democracies look down in the gutter.

Dignity comes from maintaining one’s obligations to his position in the social order, but that requires a fidelity to a social order. It also requires a connection to the rest of the people in the society. In a world of deracinated individuals focused solely on getting as much as they can in order to maximize pleasure, a sense of commitment to the community is not possible. Democracy assumes we are all equal, therefore we have no duty to one another as duty requires a hierarchical relationship.

In the absence of a vertical set of reciprocal relationships, we get this weird lattice work of horizontal relationships, elevating the profane and vulgar, while pulling down the noble and honorable. The public culture is about minimizing and degrading those who participate in the public culture. In turn, the public culture attracts only those who cannot be shamed or embarrassed. The great joy of public culture is to see those who aspire to more get torn down as the crowd roars at their demise.

The puzzle is why this is a feature of liberal democracy. Ryszard Legutko places the blame on Protestantism. Their emphasis on original sin and man’s natural limitations minimized man’s role in the world. This focus on man’s wretchedness was useful in channeling our urge to labor and create into useful activities, thus generating great prosperity, but it left us with a minimalist view of human accomplishment. We are not worthy to aspire to anything more than the base and degraded.

It is certainly true that the restraints of Christianity limited the sorts of behavior that are common today, but he may be putting the cart before the horse. The emergence of Protestantism in northern Europe was as much a result of the people and their nature as anything else. Put more simply, the Protestant work ethic existed before there was such a thing as a Protestant. The desire to work and delay gratification evolved over many generations out of environmental necessity.

Still, culture is an important part of man’s environment and environmental factors shape our evolution. It is not unreasonable to say that the evolution of Protestant ethics magnified and structured naturally occurring instincts among the people. With the collapse of Christianity as a social force in the West, the natural defense to degeneracy and vulgarity has collapsed with it. As a result, great plenty is the fuel for a small cohort of deviants to overrun the culture of liberal democracies.

Even so, there does seem to be something else. Liberal democracy has not produced great art or great architecture. The Greeks and Romans left us great things that still inspire the imagination of the man who happens to gaze upon them. The castles and cathedrals of the medieval period still awe us. The great flourishing of liberal democracy in the 20th century gave us Brutalism and dribbles of pain on canvas. The new century promises us primitives exposing themselves on the internet.

There is something about the liberal democratic order that seeks to strip us of our dignity and self-respect. Look at what happened in the former Eastern Bloc countries after communism. Exposed to the narcotic of liberalism they immediately acquired the same cultural patterns. Fertility collapsed. Religion collapsed. Marriage and family formation collapsed. These suddenly free societies got the Western disease as soon as they were exposed to western liberal democracy.

The reaction we see today is not due to these societies being behind the times, but due to seeing the ugly face of liberal democracy. It is much like the reaction to the proliferation of recreational drugs in the 1970’s. At first, it seemed harmless, but then people realized the horror of unrestrained self-indulgence. That’s what we see in the former Eastern Bloc. Their leaders still retain some of the old sense of things and are trying to save their people from the dungeon of modernity.

That still leaves us with the unanswered question. What is it about liberal democracy that seems to lead to this loss of dignity? It is possible that such a fabulously efficient system for producing wealth is a tool mankind is not yet equipped to handle without killing ourselves. Maybe we are just not built for anything but scarcity. Want gives us purpose and without it, we lose our reason to exist. Either way, without dignity, we cannot defend ourselves and the results are inevitable.”

"Helpless People"

"Helpless People"

“Almost all Americans have had an intense school experience which occupied their entire youth, an experience during which they were drilled thoroughly in the culture and economy of the well-schooled greater society, in which individuals have been rendered helpless to do much of anything except watch television or punch buttons on a keypad.

Before you begin to blame the childish for being that way and join the chorus of those defending the general imprisonment of adults and the schooling by force of children because there isn’t any other way to handle the mob, you want to at least consider the possibility that we’ve been trained in childishness and helplessness for a reason. And that reason is that helpless people are easy to manage.

Helpless people can be counted upon to act as their own jailers because they are so inadequate to complex reality they are afraid of new experience. They’re like animals whose spirits have been broken. Helpless people take orders well, they don’t have minds of their own, they are predictable, they won’t surprise corporations or governments with resistance to the newest product craze, the newest genetic patent - or by armed revolution. Helpless people can be counted on to despise independent citizens and hence they act as a fifth column in opposition to social change in the direction of personal sovereignty.”

"A Parade Of Fools..."

"Humanity is a parade of fools,
and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton."
- Dean Koontz

"We All Do What We Can..."

“All sins, of course, deserve to be treated with mercy: we all do what we can, and life is too hard and too cruel for us to condemn anyone for failing in this area. Does anyone know what he himself would do if faced with the worst and how much truth could he bear under such circumstances?”
- Andre Comte-Sponville
Joe South, “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”

"How It Really Is"

 

"From High Inflation to Hyperinflation: How Close Are We?"

Yeah, the FED has a sense of humor after all...
those are the actual colors on the money.
Too bad the jokes on us, as always.

"From High Inflation to Hyperinflation:
 How Close Are We?"
by Nick Giambruno

"The Federal Reserve is now entering a monetary easing and rate cutting cycle in an environment of elevated inflation. The last time this happened was during the 1970s, a decade that saw inflation spiral out of control.

The 1970s: An Optimistic Scenario: In the early 1970s, under Chairman Arthur Burns, the Fed faced rising inflation and concerns about economic growth and unemployment. Despite elevated inflation, the Fed cut interest rates multiple times until 1972 to stimulate economic growth. Inflation soared to over 12% in the months that followed. In response to the rising inflation, the Fed raised rates aggressively in 1974, pushing the federal funds rate from around 5.75% to 13%.

However, as the economy entered a deeper recession, the Fed began cutting rates again in 1975 despite inflation remaining elevated at around 9%. By the end of the decade, inflation had reached double digits again at over 11% in 1979 and peaked at 13.5% in 1980. The raging inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s is a stark illustration of the danger of cutting interest rates in an environment of elevated inflation… such as the one we are in today.

However, as bad as the 1970s inflation was, I believe it’s an optimistic scenario. That’s because the out-of-control inflation then was only tamed when Paul Volcker hiked rates above 17%… an option that is not available to the Fed today because of the skyrocketing federal interest expense. In fact, the Fed could only raise rates to about 5.25% - less than a third of what Volcker had to do - before capitulating recently. In other words, the higher the debt load, the less room the Fed has to raise rates because of the interest expense.

As the debt pile and accompanying interest expense grow exponentially, I am skeptical of their ability to hike rates to even 5.25% again; forget about higher than that. Imagine what could have happened in the 1970s and early 1980s if Volcker could have raised rates to only 5.25% instead of over 17%. This is the environment the US now finds itself in.

Rate Cuts Amid Elevated Inflation: Other Examples: If the 1970s in the US is the optimistic scenario, Brazil and Argentina in the 1980s offer other possibilities. Both countries were cutting interest rates amid elevated inflation at the time, resulting in eventual hyperinflation. The same thing happened in Zimbabwe in the 2000s when the central bank cut interest rates amid elevated inflation, culminating in hyperinflation. In the 2010s, the Venezuelan government kept interest rates artificially low despite skyrocketing inflation. The result was hyperinflation.

These examples highlight the dangers of cutting interest rates or maintaining low rates in an environment of elevated inflation. In each case, the central banks’ actions, often influenced by political pressures, exacerbated inflation and led to severe economic crises. While those examples are insightful, the US is not in the same class as Argentina, Brazil, or Zimbabwe. It’s the most powerful country in the history of the world, leader of the current world order, and issuer of the world’s premier reserve currency. So, it will take a lot more to push the US into hyperinflation.

I’m not saying that hyperinflation in the US is inevitable or imminent, though it remains a growing possibility. That is especially true as World War 3 plays out and a multipolar world order potentially emerges that could change everything. In the meantime, I believe ever-increasing currency debasement potentially worse than what the US experienced in the 1970s - though not necessarily imminent hyperinflation - is an unstoppable trend you can bet on."

"The Other End of the World"

"Declaration of Independence" by John Trumbull, painted 1818

"The Other End of the World"
Jefferson's break-up note and a 
quarter-millennia trip back through time...
by Jeff Thomas

“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector?
 The taxidermist takes only your skin.”
~ Mark Twain

"When Thomas Jefferson sat down to compose that most eloquent break-up letter to King George III, known more commonly as The Declaration of Independence, he opted against the pithy “It’s not us; it’s you.” And a good thing, too.

Swarms of Officers: Nothing if not thorough, the aggrieved party enumerated a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations” such as are (or at least ought to be) well-known to any first year civics student. Along with having “plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people,” the jilted monarch stood accused of a comprehensive list of obstructions, deprivations and impositions such as would make even the most errant philanderer blush.

As it turned out, the freedom-loving men and women living in the “thirteen united states of America” were none-too-keen on their king having “kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”

Nor were they thrilled at his cutting off their trade with other nations around the world... depriving them of the right to trial by jury... or imposing taxes without consent. And that’s to say nothing of the king’s having “erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

In short, the king’s subjects had had enough. So when, leaving little room for niggling ambiguity, Mr. Jefferson declared..."That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do."

...he did a service not only for his newly realized compatriots – whom we might call “freed citizens” – but for their progeny, too... as well as for lovers of liberty on foreign shores. A pivotal moment in history, the Declaration was not merely the birth of one nation, but a signal to individuals living under tyranny in all nations, both then and since.
No Means No!

To frame it in a way that our younger, socially-enlightened readers might understand: America’s "Declaration of Independence" was a bit like the #MeToo movement, only for citizens and subjects suffering abusive power differentials under touchy tyrants, casting couch authoritarians and other such prehensile swindlers calling themselves “governments” the world over. The American Declaration gave others the courage to say to their own would-be overlords, “No means no!”

It is no mere coincidence, for example, that "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" was published in France only thirteen years after America’s very public sovereign divorce, during the height of the French Revolution. (Jefferson himself even helped with the wording, which was drafted first by the Marquis de Lafayette and finished, mostly, by Abbé Sieyès.)

That document gave the world the idea that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” (Article I); that such rights, “natural and imprescriptible,” are “liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression” (Article II); and that “liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others” (Article IV). It also asserted the principle of popular sovereignty, in contrast to the divine right of kings.

All of which brings us back to our subject at hand... man’s natural rights, his complicated and ever-evolving relationship to the state, and the precedents set by those brave souls who went before him.

Consider for a moment the lines in the sand Messrs. Jefferson et al. drew under “taxation without consent,” the “right to property” and “sending hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” Prior to their independence, American colonists paid between 1-1.5% in mostly indirect taxes, far below the 5-7% the crown levied upon their British cousins and a frightfully long way below the ~25% average Americans pay today. According to historian Alice Hansen Jones, at the end of the colonial era, Americans also enjoyed the highest annual income in the western world: £13.85.

Fast Forward a Quarter-Millennia...Today, America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employs nearly one-hundred thousand officers to gouge hardworking citizens a percentage of their income that would have been unimaginable in Jefferson’s own time. And yet, even after sending forth an army of tax collectors to harass its people, at a non-trivial expense north of $16 billion annually, the appetite of the Leviathan is such that the pilfered lucre falls well short of satiation.

According to figures released by the US Treasury Department last Friday, the Biden-Harris administration rang up the single highest non-Covid budget deficit in history last year, with a shortfall topping $1.833 trillion. That was up 8%, or $138 billion, on last year’s number. Had it not been for the Supreme Court overturning President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme (~$330 billion), that figure would comfortably have sailed beyond the $2 trillion mark.

Per Treasury figures, the deficit came despite record tax receipts of $4.9 trillion, a number well short of the $6.75 trillion the government squandered on the various schemes, scams and boondoggles it calls “work.”

More concerning still, a critical driver of the deficit growth was skyrocketing interest on the national debt, which at $1.16 trillion for the year surpassed the trillion dollar mark for the first time in history. The national debt itself now stands at $35.7 trillion, an increase of $2.3 trillion from the end of fiscal 2023. Servicing the debt now costs more than the nation’s entire military defense budget.

Runaway debts... eye-watering deficits... an army of officers sent forth to eat out the substance of a nation… the growth and growth of an insatiable blobocracy... One is almost tempted to ask, What would Jefferson do?"

Gregory Mannarino, "Everything Is About To Change, We Are Being Destroyed From Within"

Gregory Mannarino, 10/22/24
"Everything Is About To Change, 
We Are Being Destroyed From Within"
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"Scott Ritter: Israel on the Brink: IDF Morale Collapsing Amid Escalating Chaos!"

Dialogue Works, 10/22/24
"Scott Ritter: Israel on the Brink: 
IDF Morale Collapsing Amid Escalating Chaos!"
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Dialogue Works, 10/22/24
"Col. Larry Wilkerson: Israel Falling Apart:
 Is Iran & Hezbollah About to End It All?"
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Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel, and it's coming...
Robert Palmer, 
"You're Gonna Get What's Coming"

Dan, I Allegedly, "40% of Restaurants Can't Pay Rent - The Ugly Reality"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/22/24
"40% of Restaurants Can't Pay Rent - 
The Ugly Reality"
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