"What The Herd Hates The Most..."

"What the herd hates the most is the one who thinks differently. It is not so much the opinion itself, as the audacity of wanting to think for themselves. Something they do not know how to do." – Schopenhauer

o

Read a book? That'll be the day!

"Nationwide, on average, 79% of U.S. adults are literate in 2024.

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.

54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level."

- https://www.thinkimpact.com/literacy-statistics/

o

"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't 

even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny 

doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."

- Thomas Sowell

o

"Five percent of the people think; 

ten percent of the people think they think; 

and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."

- Thomas Edison

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

"Trapping Wild Pigs"

by Jeff Thomas

"Most of us would like to assume that we’re smarter than pigs, but are we? Let’s have a look. Pigs are pretty intelligent mammals, and forest-dwelling wild pigs are known to be especially wily. However, there’s a traditional method for trapping them. First, find a small clearing in the forest and put some corn on the ground. After you leave, the pigs will find it. They’ll also return the next day to see if there’s more.

Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence.Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side. Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate.

At first, the pigs will run around, trying to escape. But if you toss in more corn, they’ll eventually calm down and go back to eating. You can then smile at the herd of pigs you’ve caught and say to yourself that this is why humans are smarter than pigs. But unfortunately, that’s not always so. In fact, the description above is the essence of trapping humans into collectivism.

Collectivism begins when a government starts offering free stuff to the population. At first, it’s something simple like free education or food stamps for the poor. But soon, political leaders talk increasingly of "entitlements" – a wonderful concept that by its very name suggests that this is something that’s owed to you, and if other politicians don’t support the idea, then they’re denying you your rights.

Once the idea of free stuff has become the norm and, more importantly, when the populace has come to depend upon it as a significant part of their "diet," more free stuff is offered. It matters little whether the new entitlements are welfare, healthcare, free college, or a guaranteed basic wage. What’s important is that the herd come to rely on the entitlements. Then, it’s time to erect the fence.

Naturally, in order to expand the volume of free stuff, greater taxation will be required. And of course, some rights will have to be sacrificed. And just like the pigs, all that’s really necessary to get humans to comply is to make the increase in fencing gradual. People focus more on the corn than the fence. Once they’re substantially dependent, it’s time to shut the gate.

What this looks like in collectivism is that new restrictions come into play that restrict freedoms. You may be told that you cannot expatriate without paying a large penalty. You may be told that your bank deposit may be confiscated in an emergency situation. You may even be told that the government has the right to deny you the freedom to congregate, or even to go to work, for whatever trumped-up reason.

And of course, that’s the point at which the pigs run around, hoping to escape the new restrictions. But more entitlements are offered, and in the end, the entitlements are accepted as being more valuable than the freedom of self-determination.

Even at this point, most people will remain compliant. But there’s a final stage: The corn ration is "temporarily" cut due to fiscal problems. Then it’s cut again… and again. The freedoms are gone for good and the entitlements are then slowly removed. This is how it’s possible to begin with a very prosperous country, such as Argentina, Venezuela or the US, and convert it into an impoverished collectivist state. It’s a gradual process and the pattern plays out the same way time and again. It succeeds because human nature remains the same. Collectivism eventually degrades into uniform poverty for 95% of the population, with a small elite who live like kings.

After World War II, the Western world was flying high. There was tremendous prosperity and opportunity for everyone. The system was not totally free market, but enough so that anyone who wished to work hard and take responsibility for himself had the opportunity to prosper. But very early – in the 1960s – The Great Society became the byword for government-provided largesse for all those who were in need – free stuff for those who were disadvantaged in one way or another.

Most Americans, who were then flush with prosperity, were only too happy to share with those who were less fortunate. Unfortunately, they got suckered into the idea that, rather than give voluntarily on an individual basis, they’d entrust their government to become the distributor of largesse, and to pay for it through taxation. Big mistake. From that point on, all that was necessary was to keep redefining who was disadvantaged and to then provide more free stuff.

Few people were aware that the first sections of fence were being erected. But today, it may be easier to understand that the fence has been completed and the gate is closing. It may still be possible to make a hasty exit, but we shall find very few people dashing for the gate. After all, to expatriate to another country would mean leaving all that free stuff – all that security.

At this point, the idea of foraging in the forest looks doubtful. Those who have forgotten how to rely on themselves will understandably fear making an exit. They’ll not only have to change their dependency habits; they’ll have to think for themselves in future. But make no mistake about it – what we’re witnessing today in what was formerly the Free World is a transition into collectivism. It will be a combination of corporatism and socialism, with the remnants of capitalism. The overall will be collectivism.

The gate is closing, and as stated above, some members of the herd will cause a fuss as they watch the gate closing. There will be some confusion and civil unrest, but in the end, the great majority will settle down once again to their corn. Only a few will have both the insight and temerity necessary to make a dash for the gate as it’s now closing.

This was true in Argentina when the government was still generous with the largesse, and it was true in Venezuela when the entitlements were at their peak. It is now true of the US as the final transition into collectivism begins. Rather than make the dash for the gate, the great majority will instead look down at their feed and say, "This is still the best country in the world," and continue eating the corn."

- https://internationalman.com/

"Be Kind..."

 

"Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.

Kate Lockley: And now you do?

Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.

Kate Lockley: Yikes. It sounds like you've had an epiphany.

Angel: I keep saying that, but nobody's listening."

- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0512846/quotes

"The Silence of the Damned"

"The Silence of the Damned"

Our leading humanitarian and civic institutions, including

major medical institutions, refuse to denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

This exposes their hypocrisy and complicity.

by Chris Hedges

Excerpt: "There is no effective health care system left in Gaza. Infants are dying. Children are having their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Thousands of cancer patients and those in need of dialysis lack treatment. The last cancer hospital in Gaza has ceased functioning. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women have no safe place to give birth. They undergo cesarean sections without anesthesia. Miscarriage rates are up 300 percent since the Israeli assault began. The wounded bleed to death. There is no sanitation or clean water. Hospitals have been bombed and shelled. Nasser Hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza, is “near collapse.” Clinics, along with ambulances – 79 in Gaza and over 212 in the West Bank – have been destroyed. Some 400 doctors, nurses, medics and healthcare workers have been killed — more than the total of all healthcare workers killed in conflicts around the world.

Troops entered al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and demanded doctors and displaced Palestinians leave – as well as round up detainees, including the wounded, sick and medical staff. Disguised as hospital workers and civilians, Israeli soldiers entered Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank and assassinated three Palestinians as they slept.

The cuts to funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - collective punishment for the alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack of 12 of its 13,000 UNRWA workers - will accelerate the horror, turning the attacks, starvation, lack of health care and spread of infectious diseases in Gaza into a tidal wave of death."

Full article here:

- https://www.unz.com/

o

"Israel Savagely Beaten in Fractious Oxford Donnybrook"

"How It Really Is"

"US National Debt Clock"

"To Really Ask..."

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world – few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”

- Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”

"The Antidote"

"The Antidote"

by The ZMan

"A central feature of the democratic society is mendacity. The more democratic the culture, the less honest the participants. The reason for that is simple. The goal in a democratic system, whether it is a marketplace for goods and service or a political system for setting public policy, is to win the crowd. You do not necessarily have to win a majority, but you need enough to lie about having a majority. To do that you must say anything to bring the mob to your side.

This is the reason we know or care about Socrates. Ancient Athens was a democratic society, where rhetoric was the prized skill. The reason for that is status was rewarded to those who could win over their fellow citizens through argument. Inevitably the truth stopped mattering very much, as people tend to believe a good story, especially one that flatters them, over objective reality. Socrates skillfully argued in favor of the truth over rhetoric, so the Athenians voted to kill him.

Lying is a funny thing as everyone lies about something, usually in a moment of weakness or in an effort to be prudent. As a result, normal people think of lying as a thing you do reluctantly. You lie about not having broken something at work, even though in the long run honestly would be your better option. You tell the friend that his new car is great, even though you think it is ridiculous for a middle-aged man to be driving around in a Miata. It hurts to say it, but friendship requires it.

While everyone lies, most people are honest. They think the truth matters, even if the truth is unwelcome. You want the doctor to tell you the truth about your health, not because it will have an impact on your health, but because it is your health, and you have a right to know the truth about it. This sense of entitlement with regards to the truth stems from the fact that all humans possess the tools to conceive of what with think is reality and therefore we are entitled to reality.

It is why most people struggle to accept that there are people who are not honest, so they do not struggle with the lie. In fact, they take pleasure in tricking people, even when the truth would serve their interest. Unlike the honest person, the Democratic Man sees truth telling as a weakness. He speaks the truth only when forced into it and seems to see it as a weakness. For him, the truth is bait to lure in the honest to trick them into something they would otherwise resist.

An example of this is in The Atlantic, a publication that has become the symbol of democratic mendacity. In less democratic times, it was a journal for the intellectual class of the WASP ruling elite. Now it is a vulgar tabloid used to insert falsehoods into the media ecosystem. This post from David Frum is a perfect example. Everything about it is a lie from the very first sentence. From there is a clever monument to the art of lying to trick the intended audience.

“For more than four decades before Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the FBI director was a position above politics” is what someone once described as a lie so colossal that people assume there must be some truth to it because they cannot believe that anyone would lie so infamously. Bill Clinton fired the FBI Director, Bill Sessions, as soon as he came to power. He replaced the capable Sessions with the thoroughly incompetent Janet Reno.

The fact is every position in Washington is political. You cannot be in politics without being political, which means taking a side. David Frum surely knows this, but he likes lying and he has an agenda. One of the funny things about this type is they often start with a kernel of truth around which they wrap their lies. In this case, the kernel of truth is that the FBI helped the media drive off Nixon. The schemers are hoping a similar thing happens (again) once Trump takes office.

This is just one recent example. You can scan the regime media sites and find hundreds of examples on a daily basis. We live in a time when the only reasons to consume mass media are entertainment and to learn what is not true. People like David Frum make being funny on social media much easier. If you see an assertion of fact in the Wall Street Journal, then you know what is not true about that particular subject and can eliminate it from the set of possible truths.

The question, from a sociological and analytical perspective, is whether the system produces the mendacious or whether it simply elevates them. Since Grog sold Trog a bad wheel, lying has been a part of human society. Along with it we have evolved various ways to guard against it, both individually and collectively. Among European people, social rules evolved to sort people between the trusted and the untrustworthy, creating moral societies rather than tribal ones.

Therefore, if liars have always been an issue for human society, it means the proliferation of liars is a product of the current rules. We are becoming a low trust society either because we are conditioning each generation to prize mendacity over the truth or the system rewards the mendacious over the honest, thus flooding the public square with shameless liars. The lack of shame is a critical piece, as moral societies rely on shame to govern behavior.

The counter to this is someone like Tutus Oates. He was an English priest who fabricated a conspiracy to kill Charles II. This was the “Popish Plot” that made him quite famous and wealthy for a time. This was just one of his many lies and schemes that often had no obvious benefit to him. Like Hillary Clinton, he loved lying. Eventually, people caught onto his tricks, but again like Hillary Clinton, he used more tricks to escape the hangman’s noose and continue with his mendacity.

This perfect example of the modern pundit lived in the 17th century when democracy was limited to arguments among nobles after too many drinks. This was the restoration, a time when popular government had a very bad odor. Of course, one could argue that the flickers of democracy under Cromwell fertilized the ground where the seeds of mendacity had lied dormant. Still, in a decidedly undemocratic society a trickster like Oates was able to thrive for a little while.

None of this may seem to matter, but Western people evolved over thousands of generations to exist in high trust societies. Unlike the tribal people of sub-Saharan Africa who organize around the tribe or the people in the Middle East who organize around the clan, Europeans organize around a set of moral codes. The proliferation of liars who have undermined social trust are making Western societies unlivable. The next step is they become ungovernable.

What that means for the reform minded is that for reform to work, Western societies must become hostile to people like David Frum. Either they sink in status to the point where they are nothing more than a warning to others or they find life in a high trust society too terrifying, so they self-deport. In other words, the goal of reform must be elevating candor to the highest quality, as the necessary antidote to the mendacity that has come to dominate the modern West."

- https://thezman.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Truth They're Hiding - Nothing is Doing Well"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 12/5/24

"The Truth They're Hiding - 

Nothing is Doing Well"

"Saxo Bank's shocking 2024 predictions are here - from Trump and Musk "destroying" the dollar to NVIDIA's massive growth potential and China's $50 trillion stimulus plan. But how realistic are these wild forecasts? Join me in the Dominican Republic as I break down these outrageous predictions, including the possibility of bio-printed hearts, OPEC's potential downfall, and AI taxation. We'll examine Saxo Bank's track record, including their previous misses like Apple buying Tesla and the S&P 500's crash predictions."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Fads and Fashions of the Financial World"

"Fads and Fashions of the Financial World"

The Feds are now squandering so much of the nation’s 

output that it has become very difficult for anyone to get ahead. 

That’s why they have gotten zero real wage increases in the last half a century.

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "The most entertaining thing to watch in the next administration will be this: How the nearly immovable, blockish ballast in Trump’s Big Spending brain collides with the almost-unstoppable energy of the expense cutting dynamic duo - Musk/Ramaswamy.

Here’s the latest from Fox: "As reckless spending has become the norm, government has grown out of control and our national debt has skyrocketed to more than $36 trillion, it’s clear that Washington has all but given up on fiscal responsibility and the American Dream. We need dramatic change in Washington to bring America back to the path of fiscal sanity, and President Trump’s decision to name Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy shows there are still patriots devoted to protecting the American Dream by reigning in big government. "

Unfortunately, Donald Trump isn’t one of them. The only reforms that will help the pick-up driving, MAGA cap-wearing crowd - not to mention the entire middle class of Americans - are those that cut back the reach of the federal government. The feds are now squandering so much of the nation’s output that it has become very difficult for a working man (or woman!) to get ahead. That’s why they have gotten zero real wage increases in the last half a century.

David Stockman has already prepared a list of easy spending cuts - some $400 billion of ‘fat’ that wouldn’t be missed - except by the insiders who got it! But to get to the $2 trillion annual target (the amount of expected deficits in the years ahead) Musk and Ramaswamy are going to have to go deeper…down into after the excess ‘muscle’ of the Empire (the Pentagon, the firepower industry, foreign aid... etc.) and the extravagant transfers to the domestic population (Social Security, medical coverage and many other ‘benefits’.)

Cutting the ‘fat’ should be easy. It won’t be. We tried it 50 years (as the young director of the National Taxpayers Union) ago... when its lobbyists and supporters were much less entrenched and powerful. Couldn’t be done. Even during the Reagan Administration, the parasites and swindlers increased their take. Cutting back the Empire... and reducing the ‘transfers’... will be even harder. And Trump pledged to protect both of them.

We suppose Musk and Ramaswamy are aware of this. But the most prominent markers of success in life are money and power. The dynamic duo have plenty of money. What they seek now - Ramaswamy, directly, by entering the presidential race in 2023... Musk by teaming up with Trump - is power. Ultimately, power is status. Just look at the obituaries. They tell us that the deceased was ‘president’ of this... or ‘director’ of that. Maybe even that he served as a state senator. Money is rarely even mentioned.

Besides, money is always suspect. Where did it come from? Luck? Chicanery? Donald Trump himself probably would have gone broke 30 years ago had it not been for the subsidy of the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates. But looking at how Ramaswamy and Musk made their money... may give us more insight into how they mean to get power and what they will do with it.

Ramaswamy is a very smart guy. Harvard. Yale. He had made millions, he says, before he got out of Yale Law School. And then he founded, started up, innovated, sold, financed, and merged a whole series of companies in the pharma field... and built his more than $900 million fortune. Success! But is this an example of real capitalism... providing real products to real people at a profit? Or is it an example of what a hustler can do in the world of mispriced credit and the Wall Street casino?

Ramaswamy’s most promising product was a drug for Alzheimer’s disease called intepirdine. He raised hundreds of millions to market the drug and got himself on the cover of Forbes in 2015. Trouble was, intepirdine didn’t work and was abandoned. The company that produced it went out of business. But though his investors took big losses, Ramaswamy got at least some of his money out before the collapse. He then went on to a further series of peripatetic wheeling and dealing that brought further gains and glory.

We’ve met dozens of young men (rarely women, who seem more sensible) in New York, Paris and London who were inspired by the Ramaswamy model. They are not really interested in the long, hard struggle to serve customers in a competitive business world. They want success - fast. They want to create a ‘startup’... get millions in funding from early-stage investment capital geniuses... sell out to bigger fish in the Wall Street piranha tank, who will then lay-off their shares to slobbering investors looking for the ‘next Nvidia.’

We wondered: for all his brains and energy, and all the money raised and spent, has Ramaswamy’s oeuvre yielded a net gain to the world... or a net loss? Our limited research did not give an answer.

We posed the same question to AI Pilot about Elon Musk. The question was simple enough. Take the resources (money, time, etc) consumed by Mr. Musk’s ventures in space, in the ground, on the roads, in the wonderworld of AI itself... and then match it up against total real profits; is the result negative (meaning, a loss for mankind) or is it positive?

After several attempts to get AI to add it up, we gave up. In dollars and cents, we don’t know what is the net of Musk’s many activities. It is probably negative, simply because so many of his enterprises are still in the ‘start up’ phase. And in the real world, if you could collapse the EV subsidies and tax credits, the government contracts... AI hyper-jive, the luck of being in the room when PayPal was created... and in the game when the Fed was pushing down interest rates... his net contribution is almost certainly far less than zero.

Ramaswamy called him a ‘circus monkey.’ But Musk is an imaginative, colorful, dynamic entrepreneur. He tries so many things, tossing out so many ideas... the world would be less rich without him.

Still, neither of them actually made money in the old-fashioned Mainstreet way - by working in an industry for an entire career, learning it and improving it. Instead, they are creatures of Silicon Valley and Wall Street... the go-go world of start-ups, funding rounds, and promotional tours. Both are celebrity entrepreneurs... relying on the fads and fashions of the financial world... on easy money... and the goodwill of government. Our guess: Musk and Ramaswamy will both be swinging from the trees in the DC swamp... amusing, distracting, but ultimately fruitless."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/p

Adventures With Danno, "Very Shocking Prices At Kroger"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 12/5/24

"Very Shocking Prices At Kroger"

Comments here:

https://www.youtube.com

"Why Is Everyone Making Such A Big Deal About One Shooting When 14 Million Crimes Are Committed In The U.S. Each Year?"

"Why Is Everyone Making Such A Big Deal About One Shooting 

When 14 Million Crimes Are Committed In The U.S. Each Year?"

by Michael Snyder

"Are we supposed to be shocked that someone was just gunned down on the streets of New York City? The truth is that this happens all the time. Violence is out of control in the Big Apple, and of course the exact same thing could be said about most of our other major cities. According to the FBI, more than 14 million crimes were committed in the United States last year. The only reason why everybody is suddenly making a big deal about this is because someone “important” got shot. Our society is dominated by large corporations, and so when the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the healthcare industry gets gunned down it is going to make news…

"The CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division was gunned down Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown in what police called a “brazen, targeted” attack. Brian Thompson, 50, was repeatedly shot by a masked gunman about 6:46 a.m. who had been lying in wait outside the Sixth Avenue hotel, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said." 

It definitely appears that the shooter was waiting for someone very specific. And we are being told that all signs point to “a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack”…“I want to be clear at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference Wednesday following the shooting. “This does not appear to be a random act of violence,” she said, adding that the department is carrying out a full investigation. Thompson, 50, led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. He was on the way to UnitedHealth Group’s investor day set for Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET at the Hilton, the NYPD said. The company canceled that event after the shooting.

So why would someone want to kill the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division? As I write this article, a manhunt for the suspect is still underway, and so authorities have not been able to question him yet. But I have a theory. My theory is that the shooter is probably someone that had a claim denied by UnitedHealth. In recent years, UnitedHealth has earned a reputation for unfairly denying claims…

"UnitedHealthcare was being probed by the Department of Justice for alleged antitrust violations, while its parent company, UnitedHealthcare Group (UHG), has come under fire from angry patients who claim the insurer refused to cover their care. UHG is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate. The company expected to bring in revenues of $450 billion in 2025, with Thompson believed to earn a salary in the region of $10 million a year. In July, more than 150 protesters from the People’s Action Institute campaign group gathered outside UHG’s headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, in what became a fiery demonstration.

In fact, it is being alleged that the company even relies on AI to deny some claims even though there has been a very high error rate…"UnitedHealthcare was also accused of using AI to deny claims for post-acute care services in Medicare Advantage in a lawsuit slated earlier this month, according to Fierce Healthcare. The proposed class action was filed by families of two senior Medicare Advantage members who died after the insurer allegedly used the NaviHealth platform illegally to reject care, as UHG profits ballooned. According to the lawsuit, the technology has a ’90 percent error rate, and the company relies on patient complacency or lack of knowledge about the systems to keep using it.

Denying as many claims as possible has become a core part of the business model for many insurance companies in recent years. When their claims are denied, many Americans do not have the resources to hire a lawyer and challenge those decisions in court. I truly detest what has happened to our healthcare system. Greed reigns supreme, and vast numbers of Americans are not getting the coverage that they paid for month after month.

The NYPD is going to go all out to catch the shooter in this case, and that is because Brian Thompson is a big deal. But what about the countless other victims that never have their cases solved? As I discussed the other day, crime in New York City is spiking dramatically "The Upper West Side has devolved into a Wild West atmosphere where anything goes, terrified crime victims and neighbors begging for more cops told The Post.

Criminals are more emboldened than ever in the ritzy nabe - with robberies soaring over 30% compared to last year - and carjackers so brazen they flashed their guns without concern on consecutive Sundays in broad daylight. “I have never felt so scared in this neighborhood the way I feel now,” one of the carjacking victims told The Post this week.

Sadly, similar conditions prevail in most of our other major cities. In Washington D.C., Amazon has actually altered delivery procedures in two of the most dangerous zip codes because there have been so many “targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages”… “We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Nantel said in a statement. “In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”

Many years ago, I would walk the streets of Washington D.C. with little fear. Needless to say, those days are long gone. Earlier this week, it was being reported that Secret Service agents that were assigned to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen actually shot at suspects that were attempting to break into vehicles along a D.C. street…

A Secret Service special agent protecting U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opened fire early Tuesday on people who were suspected to be trying to break into cars, authorities say. Yellen was not harmed and there’s no indication she or the Secret Service were specifically targeted. A special agent was working “a protective assignment” on Stephenson Place NW in Washington, D.C., at about 1:30 a.m. when the agent “observed a sedan with multiple occupants who were attempting to open car doors along the street,” the Secret Service said in a statement. That assignment was outside Yellen’s home, law enforcement sources told News4.

The only reason that story made news is because the Secret Service and Janet Yellen were involved. When ordinary people have their vehicles stolen, nobody really cares because it is happening constantly. In fact, one recent report found that the number of vehicle thefts in the United States each year is “approaching 1 million”…"A new report by LendingTree says the number of cars stolen yearly in the United States is approaching 1 million. The report added that vehicle thefts jumped nearly 14% nationwide from 2020 to 2022." Of course the level of shoplifting in our country absolutely dwarfs the level of vehicle theft. U.S. retailers collectively lose more than 100 billion dollars a year to “shrink” at this point.

When I say that we are experiencing a “crime wave”, I am not overstating things one bit. In fact, I may actually be understating the severity of the problem. Yes, I feel bad that Brian Thompson got gunned down. Please pray for his family. But what about the millions of other crime victims in this country that nobody seems to care about? They deserve our concern just as much.

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"You Think..."

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”

~ Wendell Berry

Musical Interlude: 2002, "A Divine Encounter"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "A Divine Encounter"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax galaxy cluster.

This sharp color image shows intense star forming regions at the ends of the bar and along the spiral arms, and details of dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole. The position of a bright supernova is indicated in NGC 1365. Cataloged as SN2012fr, the type Ia supernova is the explosion of a white dwarf star.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121124.html

Chet Raymo, “Take My Arm”

“Take My Arm”

by Chet Raymo

“I’m sure I have referenced here before the poems of Grace Schulman, she who inhabits that sweet melancholy place between “the necessity and impossibility of belief.” Between, too, the necessity and impossibility of love.

Belief and love. They have so much in common, yet are as distinct as self and other. How strange that two people can hitch their lives together, on a whim, say, or wild intuition, knowing little if nothing about the other’s hiddenness, about things that even the other does not fully understand and couldn’t articulate even if he did. Blind, deaf, dumb, they leap into the future, hoping to fly, and, for a moment, soaring, like Icarus, sunward. The necessity of wax. The impossibility of wax. We “fall” in love, they say. Schulman: “We slog. We tramp the road of possibility. Give me your arm.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"The Enemy..."

 

The Poet: e. e. cummings, "Humanity I Love You"

"Humanity i love you because when you’re hard 

up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink..."

"Humanity I Love You"

"Humanity i love you

because you would rather black the boots of

success than enquire whose soul dangles from his

watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you

unflinchingly applaud all

songs containing the words country home and

mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because

when you’re hard up you pawn your

intelligence to buy a drink and when

you’re flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shop and

because you are continually committing

nuisances but more

especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you

are perpetually putting the secret of

life in your pants and forgetting

it’s there and sitting down on it

and because you are

forever making poems in the lap

of death 

Humanity, i hate you"

- e. e. cummings

The Daily "Near You?"

Arkansas City, Kansas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Jeremiah Babe, "$1 Biliion To Africa, Nothing For You! New York Hitman On The Loose"

Jeremiah Babe, 12/4/24

"$1 Biliion To Africa, Nothing For You! 

New York Hitman On The Loose; Foot Locker Collapse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Walmart & Sprouts Farmers Markets Now Affected by This Massive Recall"

Adventures With Danno, PM 12/4/24

"Walmart & Sprouts Farmers Markets 

Now Affected by This Massive Recall"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Bill Bonner, "The Power to Smite"

"God At His Computer", Source: "The Far Side", by Gary Larson

"The Power to Smite"

"Real wealth and progress result from the efforts of ‘The People.’ 

Not from laws, edicts, bullying or threats from the feds... 

or from the folks George Wallace called ‘pointy headed intellectuals’."

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "We were cheerfully explaining what would happen in the second Trump administration. But first... Here’s the latest from the Musk/Ramaswamy duo. Business Insider: "The Biden administration said Monday it would help finance two battery factories in Indiana being built by a joint venture involving Jeep owner Stellantis and Samsung."

The announcement provoked a furious reaction from one of the incoming Trump administration's chief cost-cutters. Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped to lead a "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk, called the Stellantis loan "illegitimate" and said it should be rescinded. The former Republican presidential candidate, who has been one of Donald Trump's most vocal supporters, also criticized a $6.6 billion loan to help finance a Rivian EV plant in Georgia announced last week.

A reader might wonder: what are the feds doing... lending money to auto companies? But as the elites become more and more corrupt, they put their fingers in more and more pies. From the taxpayers’ standpoint, these ‘investments’ - along with almost all other federal outlays - are costly losers. And when there are enough of them, economic growth comes to a halt.

Real wealth and progress result from the efforts of ‘The People.’ Not from laws, edicts, bullying or threats from the feds... or from the folks George Wallace called ‘pointy headed intellectuals’ who put them in place. So, a president can only boost an economy, but only by cutting off their hands. Whack off regulations. Smack down agencies and departments. Hack away at payrolls and reduce expenses. There is no other way.

That’s the way to help the 90% of the population that has to do real work for a living. But it’s not necessarily the way to help Trump’s many special pleaders and rich guys. Bloomberg sees the challenge: "Trump’s Impossible Task: Delivering for the Working Class and Billionaires."

When Donald Trump won in November the voters felt they were being dissed... betrayed... and ripped off by their elites. He promised, convincingly, to smite them... and smite them hard. On that score, the president-elect is not likely to disappoint them. The Establishment hates him. He returns the favor. And now headed back to the White House, he can use the powers given to him by Democrats and Republicans to smite just about whomever he wants…and put his own elites in power.

That thought must have been in the back of a lot of minds when the rich and powerful decided whom to get behind before the election. Do they need licenses? Do they need permissions? Do they want contracts, deals, and special arrangements? Do they fear the wrath of an all-powerful government? Do they expect loans... grants... tax breaks? Yes, they do. Hunter Biden just saw what a chief executive can do for you. Others are eager to see the bounty come their way too.

We continued our exposition to our grandson: “Musk and Ramaswamy say they’re going to reduce the payroll and erase years of regulations. And our friend David Stockman, former Budget Director for Ronald Reagan, is making the lists and checking them twice. He’s identified dozens of agencies... and hundreds of billions of dollars of spending... that could be cut with no real loss to the commonwealth.

It’s easy to find ‘fat’ in federal finances…it’s almost all fat. But all of that money goes somewhere. And the people not getting it will resist. Team Trump will be taking on the intelligentsia, the press, the bureaucracy, Wall Street, the foreign policy establishment and the firepower industry. Even with a determined budget cutter at the head of the government, it would be an uphill battle. And probably, at this stage in the Primary Political Trend, impossible to win.

Plus, all that money that the DOGE says it is going to save is part of GDP. Cut it out and GDP would go down by $2 trillion... or about 7%. Over the long run, this would be a good thing, because the money would be better spent and invested by the people who earned it. But in the short run, it would seem like a catastrophic economic collapse.

Then what would happen? Would Trump and the Fed sit back and let the economy sink into depression and then recover on its own? Would they permit a 50% sell-off in the stock market (how would that affect his rich backers)?? A 10% unemployment rate ($2 trillion = 28 million jobs!)? Or, would they cut interest rates, print money, and hand out stimmie checks to get the economy moving again?

Trump wasn’t elected because he quoted Madison, Jefferson, Smith or Bastiat. He’s no Thatcher. No Milei. Not even a Reagan. He is no free market purist and has no commitment to making the government smaller. He only wants it to do what he wants it to do - smite his enemies and reward his friends.

Musk and Ramaswamy are smart guys. They want to be his friends. At first, we misjudged them. We thought they might lack the ‘cynicalism’ essential to understand the world of politics. On second thought, they may be even more cynicalist than we are. Rich people naturally turn to politics. But not to cut it down to size. Instead, they look to politics for aggrandizement.

The Musk/Ramaswamy duo probably realize that they’re not really going to change the direction of the Primary Political Trend. If they push too hard for real cuts it will sink the economy and blow back onto Trump’s other backers. The idea is to give the impression that they are leading a revolution... but not actually change anything. What will happen? They will save a few bucks. But the government will still get bigger. It will go further into debt. And it will depend on high levels of inflation.”

Having summed up the situation to our satisfaction, we were ready to do real work. The wind had picked up. And the temperature was barely above freezing. Leaves rose in whirlwinds. But the sun was still warm. We took our grandson outside... gathered up the chainsaws... and prepared for the first cut. “When you take down trees like this,” we continued our practical pedagogy, looking up the trunk of a 60-foot beech, “you gotta know what you’re doing.” We cut a wedge out of the side... where we hoped it would fall.

“Granddad, aren’t you afraid it will fall on you?” “Nah... I cut the wedge out. Now, I’ll cut into the other side and it will fall over.” “Yeah... but what if it doesn’t?’’ “If it falls on me, just call 9-11.” “Granddad, you’re making me nervous. I don’t want to stand here and see the tree fall on you.” “Keep an eye on it. If you see it moving the wrong way... let me know.”

The big saw went deep into the wood. The tree didn’t move. When we were almost through to the wedge, we withdrew the saw... and stepped back. “It hasn’t moved, Granddad.” We started to cut deeper. “Granddad... it’s going the wrong way.”

We pulled out the saw quickly and moved away. But the young man had been misled by passing clouds; if the tree had actually been falling towards us it would have pinched the blade and made it difficult to pull out the saw. We looked up. The top of the tree was moving very slowly. But it was actually going as intended... it creaked over by inches, like a dying empire, and then it suddenly picked up speed... And crashed to the ground."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Downfall: An Economic Wipeout, It's Deliberate And About To Get Much Worse"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/4/24

"Downfall: An Economic Wipeout, 

It's Deliberate And About To Get Much Worse"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Arrest Warrants Have Been Issued - Are You on the List?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 12/4/24

"The Arrest Warrants Have Been Issued - 

Are You on the List?"

"Today, we're diving into the shocking world of PPP loan fraud and a hidden arrest warrant list that's causing waves. I'll break down the $793 billion in PPP loans, the 11.5 million loans issued, and why the feds are now cracking down hard. Discover how ex-spouses are turning people in, why casino owners are in hot water, and what you need to know if you received a PPP loan. I'll share real stories of arrests and scams, plus tips on protecting yourself if you're contacted by authorities."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Why Has The World Suddenly Gone Completely Nuts?"

"Why Has The World Suddenly Gone Completely Nuts?"

by Michael Snyder

"Chaos is starting to erupt all over the planet. Martial law was just declared in South Korea, civil unrest is raging in the streets of Georgia, and civil war threatens to topple the Assad regime in Syria. It is almost as if someone decided to flip a switch and now vast hordes of people are going completely nuts. Unfortunately, I think that this is just the beginning, because I am convinced that civil unrest will be a major theme in 2025.

On Tuesday, the entire world was shocked by footage of crazed protesters clashing with riot police just outside of the National Assembly in South Korea…"Shocking images showing dozens of riot cops and armed police officers pushing back enraged rioters outside the National Assembly shortly after Yoon’s address was broadcast to the nation. Meanwhile, news cameras captured the moment helicopters descended from the evening skies and landed on top of the parliament building before troops disembarked and began locking down the location.

Other footage and pictures later showed heavily armed soldiers in tactical equipment stalking through the hallways of the National Assembly. Parliamentary aides were seen trying to push the soldiers back by spraying fire extinguishers."

The president of Sorth Korea imposed martial law in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest, but he was forced to end it after just six hours…"Martial law was enacted in South Korea for just six hours, prompting widespread outrage after the President cited ‘threats’ from North Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol issued the order in a television address, vowing eliminate ‘anti-state’ forces as he suspended parliament, banned political gatherings and ordered the end of a long-running doctors’ strike. Just hours after doing so, the National Assembly unanimously voted to lift martial law. President Yeol has since announced the martial law is over, with his cabinet officially ending it."

We have never seen anything quite like this in South Korea. Normally, South Koreans are so calm. Are North Korean operatives responsible for stirring up trouble? Could it be possible that the Chinese are behind the unrest? Hopefully some answers will emerge in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, violent protests continue to rage in the streets of Georgia, and as a result dozens of people have been hospitalized…"More than 40 people in the former Soviet nation of Georgia have been hospitalized following a brutal police crackdown on protesters in a move that was backed by pro-Russia Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

Tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets in the capital city of Tbilisi for a fourth night on Sunday after Kobakhidze’s ruling party, known as the Dream Party, suspended the country’s 15-year push to join the European Union (EU) last week. “Any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law,” Kobakhidze said during a weekend briefing. “Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility.” Just like we have seen in so many other eastern European nations, it appears that someone may be trying to instigate a “color revolution” in order to overthrow the Georgian government.

In the Middle East, a resurgent civil war in Syria has taken center stage. After capturing Aleppo, Sunni radicals are now advancing on the city of Hama…"Rebel and government forces are battling for control of Syria, with the fiercest fighting on Tuesday taking place around the central city of Hama, after years of little movement in the conflict.

Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Tuesday announced the “liberation” of three towns north of the city and said their “forces continue to advance.” Government forces, the group claimed, had suffered “major and successive collapses.” The Syrian state news agency countered that the army was reinforcing defenses north of Hama “in preparation for the start of the counterattack.” Russian forces also announced airstrikes against rebels in Hama and Idlib provinces, killing dozens. Without Russian air support, the Syrian military would have likely already collapsed."

Most Americans don’t realize this, but the U.S. is still very active inside Syria as well. In fact, there are reports that Iranian-backed Shiite forces coming across the border from Iraq were just attacked by A-10 Warthog aircraft…"However, according to claims on social media, these Iran-backed troops have already been struck by the United States. On December 1 and 2, multiple Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) accounts and military bloggers claimed that the USAF had deployed its A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft to attack the militias that entered Syria.

One such claim made by Visegard said: “50+ Iranian-backed Shiite soldiers from the PMU killed in strafing rounds by U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthogs in Syria.” PMU is the abbreviation for Popular Mobilisation Forces, a military formation of the Iraqi Armed Forces composed of several Shia factions."

Hopefully U.S. aircraft and Russian aircraft will not come into direct conflict with one another. The Russians would like to offer the Assad regime more support, but they certainly have their hands full in Ukraine right now. Unfortunately for the Ukrainians, their ill-fated Kursk offensive has made them vulnerable on the eastern front, and the Russians are taking full advantage of that opportunity…"Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have seized at least 10 villages and settlements in roughly as many days, according to a group with ties to the Ukrainian Army that maps the battlefield, as Moscow presses on with slow but steady advances that have heightened pressure on Ukraine’s authorities to start cease-fire talks.

The situation looks particularly precarious for Ukrainian forces in Donetsk, in Ukraine’s east, where Russian forces are closing in on their last two strongholds in the southern part of the region, according to the analysis by the group, DeepState. The fall of the strongholds, Kurakhove and Velyka Novosilka, could pave the way for a Russian takeover of the area, experts say. Russia, which annexed Donetsk in 2022 and controls about two-thirds of the region, is seeking to consolidate power over the whole territory."

For now, North America is much quieter than the rest of the world. But it is just a matter of time before tremendous chaos erupts in our streets as well. The left is targeting Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th as a time for massive protests. And as economic conditions in Europe continue to deteriorate, I expect a lot of unrest in the streets of major European cities in the days ahead. 2024 was certainly a very “interesting” year, but I believe that we are going to go to a whole new level in 2025."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/