Monday, November 11, 2024

"Animals"

"Animals"

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they
are so placid and self contain’d;
I stand and look at them long and long,
They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
Not one is dissatisfied - not one is demented with
the mania of owning things;
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that
lived thousands of years ago;
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth."

- Walt Whitman

"How Stress Affects Your Cholesterol Level: Everything You Wanted to Know"

"How Stress Affects Your Cholesterol Level:
Everything You Wanted to Know"
by Karen Reed

"You’ve heard all about how high cholesterol levels are causing ill health. More importantly, you’ve heard about how bad cholesterol is causing ill health. It affects your arteries and blood flow, putting your heart under more pressure to perform properly. Those with high cholesterol levels are more at risk of stroke, heart attacks, and heart disease.

Cholesterol has long been linked to the food we eat. There are certain foods that we’re recommended to stay away from and others that we should get more off to promote good cholesterol levels and help protect the arteries. Did you know that it’s not just food that affects the cholesterol levels? Stress has been linked to high cholesterol. In fact, some studies now show that stress is worse than the food we eat for cholesterol levels and ill health.

The problem is that stress is a silent killer. We don’t realize that our cortisol levels are up and causing these problems until it’s too late in some cases. It’s important to reduce our stress levels to keep our cholesterol levels down. Here’s a look at just how stress causes high cholesterol and what you can do about it.
What Exactly Is Cholesterol? Before you start looking at stress and how it affects to high cholesterol levels, you need to know more about it. What exactly is it and what does it do?

There are two types of cholesterol: good and bad. The bad cholesterol is known as LDL cholesterol, and you shouldn’t have any more than 100mg/dL of this type in your body. Good cholesterol is HDL, and you should have at least 60mg/dL. A good level of total cholesterol, according to physicians, is 200mg/dL and this can be made up of both good and bad. Considering you shouldn’t have more that 100mg/dL of the bad stuff, you want at least 100mg/dL of the good stuff. The more good cholesterol you have, the better it is for you. Good cholesterol can keep the bad stuff at bay and under control.

What exactly is cholesterol? It’s a fatty substance that is only found in animal products. It is naturally produced by your body, but can also be added to food. The body will make more cholesterol due to trans and saturated fats being added through food. Both types of cholesterol will enter the arteries and build up. The good stuff builds up as a lining to the arteries, protecting them from damage. The lining is soft and makes it easier for the blood to flow through the veins.

On the other hand, bad cholesterol blocks the arteries. It creates a friction layer that stops the blood flowing freely. The heart and brain don’t get the blood that they both need and clogs can appear in the arteries. You’re at a higher risk of suffering various health problems, including stroke and heart disease, because of your high bad cholesterol levels.

There are various types of people more at risk for having high cholesterol levels. There are certainly genetic factors involved, but there are also lifestyle factors. One of those is stress levels, especially in those who are overweight, smoke or have other health problems.
Stress and the Unhealthy Lifestyle: One of the reasons found for the stress and high cholesterol link is bad lifestyle habits. Those who are stressed are more likely to follow less healthy habits in other areas of their life. They’re less likely to exercise and more likely to eat bad food. After all, saturated and trans fat foods tend to be the comfort foods – those that people crave to try to boost their endorphin and serotonin levels.

People who are stressed will look for ways to counter their cortisol levels, and that is usually through unhealthy methods. People are more likely to drink or smoke, which puts other strains on their body. The body isn’t able to produce the good cholesterol and is encouraged to create bad cholesterol. This reason is highly common in men. It is men who tend to deal with stress the worst, possibly due to misconceptions that relaxation techniques are for women. They also tend to have higher stressful jobs than women, since many men are in higher positions of power and authority. Men tend to be in more leadership roles, which means more responsibility and decision making. It may not seem fair, but that’s just a common view.

How the Body Reacts to Stress Causes High Cholesterol Levels: Another study found that people who suffer from high levels of stress have higher bad cholesterol due to the high levels of triglycerides. The triglycerides are the components that encourage the boost of bad cholesterol levels, causing major health problems. It doesn’t matter what your diet is like, although the unhealthier diet will put you more at risk.

The study researchers considered the reasons for the higher triglycerides. While the exact reason isn’t known, the theory is that it is due to the stress hormone cortisol. This is common is people who suffer long term stress, and leads to the release of adrenaline in the body.

Adrenaline is the body’s “flight or fight” response and helps to deal with the stress levels. It pushes people into making decisions and keeps them alert and active when they desperately need to be. Many people in trauma incidents report that they don’t know how they kept going. The adrenaline pushed them forward until they were given a chance to relax. That was when their bodies shut down, and they had the chance to allow the trauma to affect them. Adrenaline can certainly have benefits, but it causes the increase in triglycerides. This then triggers the high levels of bad cholesterol, which can later affect the body in other ways.

Stress Can Cause “Stickiness” in the Arteries: Another study has found that the arteries can be “sticky” due to high-stress levels. This may or may not be linked to high cholesterol levels. It could be a problem on its own that makes it look like someone has high cholesterol levels.

Stress makes the muscles spasm. This affects the arteries, which causes problems with the blood flow. The platelets in people with high-stress levels are commonly “sticky.” They cling to the artery walls and create bumps and friction for the blood flow. The blood is more likely to clog, and other health problems arise. The constriction of the arteries certainly doesn’t help things. When the arteries constrict, the area for the blood flow gets smaller, and it causes the blood flow to slow down. Mixed with the stickiness or high cholesterol problems, the blood gets stuck and clogs. It’s harder for the heart and brain to get the blood that they both need.

Stress causes many other health problems and affects the body in more ways that we currently know or understand. It is possible that stress isn’t just a factor for high cholesterol but makes high cholesterol worse for the health.
Reducing Stress to Prolong Life: Many scientists now recommend not focusing on reducing cholesterol as much as reducing stress. Cholesterol gained a bad rep for a long time, including good cholesterol. It’s taken time for the medical world to realize that not all cholesterol is bad and there are other factors that cause many of the same risks. One of those is the high-stress levels. It’s important to keep them to a minimum so the whole body can work effectively and we can prolong out lives.

The tricky thing is finding a way to reduce stress levels. Understandably reducing stress isn’t always easy and people can end up even more stressed because they’re trying to reduce it. Think about how you feel when you’re struggling to sleep because of stress. You get more worked up, which releases more cortisol and more adrenaline into the body. It’s harder to get to sleep, and this cycle continues until you find a way actually to reduce the stress.

Meditation and exercise are often considered the best ways to reduce stress. Yoga is a popular option since it combines the two together in many ways. You get to become one with yourself, focus on your breathing, and tone your body at the same time.

Both meditation and exercise help to release more happy hormones into your body. The right chemicals help to reduce the levels of cortisol in your body. You’ll have less adrenaline keeping you awake and fewer triglycerides causing your bad cholesterol production to increase.

It will be tempting to reach for a glass or two (or even a bottle) of wine to deal with stress. Smoking is tempting, along with binge watching a TV series while you struggle to sleep. You want to look for healthier ways to handle your stress. The negative ways will just cause more problems for your health.
Long Term vs. Short Term Stress and Cholesterol: If you have the odd day where you feel like you’re at the end of your tether, don’t worry about it too much. It’s not the short-term stress that causes the increase in cholesterol levels. The studies show that those who suffer long term stress are the ones who are most likely to see all the negative side effects.

Sure, stress isn’t good for you, but it is also a normal part of living. There are times that adrenaline and cortisol are needed. They can keep you going when you run out of energy or when going through trauma.

Those who suffer long term stress will have prolonged cortisol and adrenaline levels. Those hormones will be much higher than they need to be and in the body for much longer. They cause a range of health problems when around for long periods of time, including high blood pressure, insomnia, and even Type II diabetes. It shouldn’t be surprising that high cholesterol levels are also a problem.

Healthy eating is an important lifestyle choice. Not only will it help to reduce the foods that cause cholesterol production but it can also reduce the cortisol release. Healthy foods protect the body, supply energy, and help to boost the production of happy hormones, which help to reduce the stress hormones.

When you suffer from long term stress, you will want to look for ways to eliminate the reason for stress as much as possible. I know this isn’t always going to be easy. You may enjoy your career, but there will be times that you struggle to cope with all the demand your job throws at you. It’s not like you can just pick and choose. However, if there is a way that you can reduce the stuff you do that causes stress, such as delegation, then you want to do it where you can.

Long term high-stress levels may not cause immediate problems. There are links to issues years down the line because of the stress levels that you have felt at some point in your life. This issue is linked more with long term stress, but some bouts of short-term stress can also be a problem.

Stress Isn’t the Only Culprit: It is important to note that stress isn’t the only reason we suffer from high cholesterol levels. While it’s a silent killer and common, there are many other reasons your cholesterol levels could be high. Diet is certainly a factor, but so are genetics and other lifestyle choices that you make. The place you work or the chemicals that you inhale from where you live can also cause cholesterol levels to increase.

This is something that scientists are still trying to understand. We have come a long way since believing that all cholesterol was bad. Now we know that some cholesterol is good, and we want it to our bodies, but we need to make sure that it is good. While stress isn’t the only culprit, it is one of the main reasons for high cholesterol levels and other health problems. It’s best to keep the stress levels at bay as much as possible.”
o
Relieve stress and anxiety...
Full screen recommended.
Marconi Union, "Weightless"
"Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song 
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent"
o
Think more clearly...
"Cognition Enhancer For Clearer and Faster Thinking - 
Isochronic Tones"
Full screen recommended.
"This session stimulates Beta, SMR and Alpha to train your 
brain for better cognition, such as clearer and faster thinking."

"Isochronic Tones –
How They Work, the Benefits and the Research"
This is a brainwave entrainment audio session using isochronic tones combined with music. The isochronic tones are the repetitive beats you can hear on top of the music throughout the track. If you are new to this type of audio brainwave entrainment, find out how isochronic tones work and how they compare to binaural beats here: 

The Poet: Linda Pastan, “What We Want”

“What We Want”

“What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names-
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.”

- Linda Pastan

"Geopolitics of War, 11/11/24"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/11/24
"Larry Johnson: Kiev Attacking Moscow!"
Comments here:
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Douglas Macgregor & Scott Ritter, 11/11/24
"Iran’s Final Showdown, Israel Crumbles"
o
Alastair Crooke, 11/11/24
"Iran Unimaginable Attack! Israel on Brink!"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

"Women Furious About Trump’s Win Start ‘MATGA’ Movement - Which Glorifies Poisoning Men: ‘They Asked For It.'"

Full screen recommended.
"Women Furious About Trump’s Win Start ‘MATGA’ Movement - 
Which Glorifies Poisoning Men: ‘They Asked For It.'"
by Chris Nesi

"Women online have taken to filming ghoulish murder-fantasy videos in which they romanticize lacing men’s beverages with deadly poison as a justifiable response to fears about abortion rights under a second Donald Trump presidency. Many of the videos have been viewed millions of times on X or TikTok and feature young women fiendishly grinning as they adulterate a cup of tea or other drink with an unknown substance.

Some of the women have dubbed the videos part of a “Make Aqua Tofana Great Again” (“MATGA”) movement, a nod both to President-elect Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), and ancient killer Giulia Tofana, who has been adopted as the disturbed group’s heroine.

Tofana was a 17th-century Italian woman who sold poison to wives who wished to dispatch their abusive husbands - resulting in the deaths of more than 600 men. Tofana’s signature brew was a mishmash of deadly ingredients such as arsenic and belladonna known as “Aqua Tofana,” a concoction that was so effective, she is considered by many today one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. The poison - believed to be flavorless and completely undetectable after death - was typically stored in ordinary cosmetics bottles, ensuring that a husband who was about to get whacked would be none the wiser to his impending fate.

One of the online clips shows a young lady with green hair, a backwards camo hat and a large, spiked septum ring with the text “Aqua Tofana isn’t that hard to make” superimposed over footage of her making the throat-slitting gesture with her thumb.

Many of the videos include a portion of the Eminem song “Venom” in the background featuring the lyrics, “This f–king world better prepare to get laced because they’re gonna taste my venom. Some of the women don’t mention Aqua Tofana specifically but instead show off their “poison rings,” wearable baubles with a hidden compartment supposedly made to hold a lethal dose of a toxin.

“My advice for American women,” reads the text in a video of a woman standing by a body-length mirror. “I know you will understand this. They asked for it,” the text reads before she flips open her poison ring and gives the camera a sinister smile.

In a plea for common sense, a woman posted a TikTok video urging people participating in “MATGA” to think long and hard about what they were doing. “You do know those videos can be used against you, right? It’s giving off premeditated vibes. The internet is FOREVER. Also.. the 1600s were A LOT different than 2024 advancements in detecting POISON,” reads the text positioned over a video of her scrunching her face in disbelief.

Liberal women have been registering their dismay at the outcome of the election through the “MATGA” movement and a number of other ways, meticulously documenting everything online. Some have started shaving their heads, while others are engaging in sex strikes against men or committing to not getting pregnant or giving birth for the duration of Trump’s second term, to protest what they see as potential draconian abortion measures to come under him.

Trump helped pave the way in his first term for the conservative US Supreme Court that in 2022 overturned the Roe v. Wade decision ensuring abortion rights at the federal level. States now have the power to determine their own abortion laws instead. The incoming president has stated repeatedly that he would veto a federal abortion ban. The number of abortions in America also has actually increased since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to the New York Times, even in states that have enacted new restrictions on the procedure."
Full screen recommended.
"Election Meltdowns Going Supernova,
 And More and More Bizarre!"

A Comment: Ya know, you think you've seen it all, couldn't possibly get any weirder or absurd, right? Then these freaks come up with this, and they prove it CAN get weirder, having obviously totally lost whatever little sanity they might have once had... And "ladies", no offense, but seeing these pics and videos of you I highly doubt you'll be needing to join a sex strike any time soon... - CP

Dan, I Allegedly, "You Can’t Fire Me"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 11/11/24
"You Can’t Fire Me"
"Jerome Powell steps forward and says go ahead and make my day. You can’t fire me. Plus, today we're diving into "Doom Spending: The Fed's Hidden Consequence." The Fed's recent decisions have sparked a frenzy of doom spending - a trend where consumers spend recklessly amid economic uncertainty. Are you caught in this cycle? Let's explore the implications of Jerome Powell's moves, the real state of unemployment, and the looming foreclosure crisis. We'll also touch on how small businesses struggle with borrowing in this tight economy."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Frustrating Shopping Trip To Meijer On A Very Rainy Sunday"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 11/11/24
"Frustrating Shopping Trip To 
Meijer On A Very Rainy Sunday"
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 11/11/24
"Russian Typical Supermarket After 
1000 Days of Sanctions"
"What does a typical Russian supermarket look like? Join me on a Tour of Azbuka Vkusa, one of Russia's best supermarkets. How does the store look inside? What products does a Russian typical supermarket sell after 1000 days of sanctions?"
Comments here:

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/11/24"

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/11/24"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"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:
Comprehensive, essential truth.
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: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

Gregory Mannarino, "The Upcoming Total Meltdown Will Be Multiples Worse As Price Action Distortions Worsen"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/11/24
"The Upcoming Total Meltdown Will Be Multiples
 Worse As Price Action Distortions Worsen"
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "A New 'Golden Age' for America?"

"A New 'Golden Age' for America?"
in July 2020, the vigilantes woke up. Inflation and interest 
rates soared. And investors became keenly aware that 
they could lose money in Treasury bonds as well as make it.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - “I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve,” said Donald Trump in his victory speech. “This will truly be the golden age of America. That's what we have to have. This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again." 
- President- elect Donald Trump

"Big man. Big promise. Can he make good on it? Nobody knows the future. Certainly not us! Instead, we bet on the patterns of history - in politics and markets - and hope for the best. Those patterns suggest that The Donald will face long odds.

Fairly soon, the Trump Team will be confronted by a credit crisis. Budget deficits are expected to run about $2 trillion per year over the next four years. Interest on the debt is already running at $1 trillion per year. Plus, the federal government will have to refinance about $4 trillion per year in existing debt, every year.

Elon Musk, genius of universal renown, can do the math. But if he thinks he’s going to cut $2 trillion of deficit spending by eliminating ‘waste’ from federal spending he has a staggering lack of cynicalism. No chance.

Donald Trump has already pledged to spare the essential parts of the Welfare/Warfare program (the Pentagon, Social Security and Medicare) - leaving only about 18% of the budget exposed to the knife. Even if you cut all of it, you’d still have a deficit of nearly $1 trillion.

In addition, Trump proposes to eliminate federal taxes on Social Security recipients, veterans, first responders, people who earn tips, and federal employees’ overtime pay. Together, these should widen the federal budget deficit by about $11.5 trillion in revenue loss over the next 10 years - or about a third of all revenue. This lost revenue Trump plans to replace by taxing imports... with a 20% across the board tax and a 60% tax on imports from China.

We interrupt to point out that a tax on imports is really a tax on consumption. So, consumers would feel the pain right away... and know the cause of it, unlike the Fed’s money-printing inflation, whose effects take years to be felt. This would also discourage people from spending money and encourage them to save... thereby potentially lowering real interest rates, while increasing savings. Over the long run, implemented properly, these changes could help make a stronger economy.

But Mr. Trump and his entourage can’t afford to look into the distant future. They’ve got a four-year term. And any changes they make will be revised, corrupted and perverted by Washington’s slimy swamp critters (working hard to get exceptions, exemptions, and special treatments).

And the last time the US implemented a sweeping tariff program was, not coincidentally, at the beginning of the Great Depression, not at the end of it. Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley should have never been allowed anywhere near Congress. But their tariff proposal became law in 1930. The foreigners responded with tariffs of their own. And soon world trade was reduced by some 67%... and helped make the aforementioned depression so great.

Putting the chaos and unexpected consequences aside, however... the tariffs simply wouldn’t raise enough money. At present levels, they would generate about $9 trillion over the next 10 years - about $2.5 trillion short of the amount lost to the tax cuts. That loss would grow as the flood of imports turned into a trickle. And it would be added to the national debt, along with the already programmed increases that are expected to take the debt to over $50 trillion by 2034.

But the one big difference between today and Trump’s first term is that additional debt now costs additional money. Because the ‘bond vigilantes’ are back in the saddle. In 2016, bond yields had been falling for 36 years. The feds could borrow as much as they wanted... and their interest payments would generally go down, not up. Even as late as 2016-2020, Team Trump spent trillions... borrowed trillions... and ‘printed’ trillions as interest rates continued to fall.

But in July 2020, the vigilantes woke up. Inflation and interest rates soared. And investors became keenly aware that they could lose money in Treasury bonds as well as make it. And now, in anticipation of Mr. Trump’s second act, investors are already demanding more interest to compensate for the inflation they see coming. These higher rates will raise the cost of financing the debt... slow the economy... and goad the administration and the Fed to take action. That is when the Golden Age gets badly tarnished. Stay tuned... "

Jim Kunstler, "Mysteries Revealed"

"Mysteries Revealed"
by Jim Kunstler

"People in the media are aware of how illegitimately they've done 
their jobs that they think they're on the very of being locked up" 
 - Scott Adams

"You must admit, it’s a little spooky how quickly and rigorously Mr. Trump intends to deconstruct those parts of the government at war with the people: clean out “rogue bureaucrats,” firehose the malignant agencies, release and expose their document trails on spying, censorship, lawfare, and abuse-of-power. The consequence would be the return of consequence in our national life. It’s been absent for so long you can hardly imagine its power to get people’s minds right.

There are already reports of frenzy among the culpable DOJ lawyers, and FBI Director Wray is set to resign before Mr. Trump can fire him. Attorney General Merrick Garland has gone radio-silent for his own good since Election Day. Expect many abiding mysteries to get unraveled, such as exactly how many federal agents did work the crowd around the Capitol on J-6, 2021 - which Mr. Wray has pretended to not be able to discuss “due to ongoing investigations.” Expect to learn more about the pipe-bomb caper at the DNC HQ a few blocks away that same day. Prepare to be amazed at how deeply criminal these schemes were. You must wonder if the document-shredding party is already underway, despite calls to preserve all the emails, memos, and texts.

Then there are the poisoned realms of the intel blob located at CIA, DHS, State, DOD, and elsewhere being subject to inquiry and overhaul. Think: John Brennan, James Clapper, Bill Barr, Michael Atkinson, Mayorkas, Judge Boasberg, Mary McCord, Col. Vindman, Senator Warner, Avril Haines, Victoria Nuland, Samantha Power, Gina Haspel, Marie Yovanovitch, Jen Easterly, all their deputies, and many more unknown to the public. Some of these names may yet seem obscure to you. They were all neck-deep in what looks a lot like sedition, treason, real conspiracies, not theories. Even state officials such as New York AG Letitia James, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and Fulton County, GA, DA Fani Willis, would be subject to federal charges under 18USC Section 242: willful deprivation of constitutional rights acting under color of law. That is exactly what the Trump lawfare cases amounted to.

And then, of course, there are the long-running rumors of pedophilia and human trafficking networks among the elite, the Jeffrey Epstein list and the P. Diddy list. If these things exist, and they are released, history would shudder. Think: the Clinton Foundation.

These people are looking ahead 70 days with visions of shoes dropping and hammers falling. If the mysteries are revealed, it’s hard to imagine that criminal proceedings would not be far behind. You can also imagine that the motivation across a broad and powerful elite class runs white-hot to stop Mr. Trump from entering the Oval Office. So, these days ahead will be fraught with threats, schemes, plots, ploys, and deceptions. The paranoia must be out of this world among people who still have the resources and hold the levers-of-power needed to undertake nefarious deeds.

There is chatter about “a coup” being considered among as-yet-unnamed parties in the Pentagon to prevent Mr. Trump from rising back into power. It’s unclear how that would work among our high command of transsexual generals and admirals and their hapless DEI adjutants. The strata of colonels benath them might have different ideas. But it could be the starting gun for actual civil war. We would find out what the Second Amendment is all about. “Joe Biden” likes to say that the citizenry can’t go up against his F-16 war-planes, but he evidently does not understand how much mischief can be made with small arms - rifles, grenades, rockets, drones - despite examples of it all over the world lately. That is hypothetical for now, of course.

In short, these are dangerous times. Mr. Trump would be advised to stay out of airplanes until inauguration day and to be extra-careful who he puts himself around, especially in public. You also must expect more lawfare of the most extreme sort going forward to January, every possible stone unturned to find procedural tricks to prevent certification of the election. Do you think Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, and Andrew Weissmann just laid back and watched football this weekend? They are probably quarterbacking efforts to finagle ballots for the remaining contested seats in Congress, in order to game-out Rep. Jamie Raskin’s well-publicized block-Trump play this coming Jan. 6.

These are the darkest and most explosive parts of Mr. Trump’s admirably deep to-do list for fixing the many things that have stopped working in American life. The simplest picture of our current predicament, and why people voted as they did, is of “things going in the wrong direction,” Well, what direction is that, exactly? The tyranny of giant forces over our little lives and communities. It’s a leviathan government seeking to invade and dominate everything - and to do it with maximum malice when resisted. It has left American men and women mentally disordered, demoralized, stolen their sense of purpose, deprived them of roles in society that provide meaning, alienated them from each other, and from their history. And it has left them, as Robert Kennedy points out, catastrophically unhealthy.

All of which is to say, we have more to clean up and reorganize than just our government. We’re going to get it done, you may be sure, even if the zeitgeist has to drag us kicking and screaming out of the malaise we’re stuck in. All of this points to some very different new arrangements to made in our everyday life, beginning with the realization that the era of getting something-for-nothing is over."

"Veterans Day 2024"

 

Sunday, November 10, 2024

"Happy 249th Birthday United States Marines"

"The Marines Hymn"
Happy 249th birthday Marines!
- CP, Veteran, United States Marine Corps
MOS 0311, Infantry Rifleman
Semper Fi!

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Cycle of Time"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Cycle of Time"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System.
Arching across the top is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous stars and nebulas are also visible in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed in 2015 September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise."

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "One"

"One"

"The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.

How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!

A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination."

~ Mary Oliver